2 Adults 2 Kids » fulltime rver

Hollywood, Small Towns, and Me (KJ)

KJ — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:00:32 +0000

I am just going to put this out there. I have seen so many scary movies that take place in small towns, that I’m a little scared to visit them. Maybe it’s just that positive movies about small towns just don’t become blockbusters. While films like “Jeepers Creepers”, “A Time to Kill”, “Strangers”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and a few others were big blockbusters and have made me think of small towns as places where serial killers live and the towns are full of racists citizens and law enforcement.

Hollywood has made me afraid to visit new places. I’m tired of it and something has got to change.

Now that I think about it, it’s not just small towns, I am generally afraid of the unknown. I think I have Yahoo News and Hollywood to thank for that. And yes, I realize this is not a good quality to have if one is about to embark on a life of traveling, but how will our multicultural family be received? Am I being ridiculous?

I expect for our family to learn some hard lessons on this trip. But I thought the lessons would be about learning to tell the difference between needs and wants, how to conserve, and how to respect others’ from different cultures.

I don’t know if I’m prepared to explain racism, abuse of authority, or other topics like that.

Help me out on this, am I totally out of line here? What do you think about small town America? For our readers who consider themselves to be from small town America, what do you think about big cities? Do you think Hollywood makes you afraid of places like NYC?

Our Blog Mentioned on Yahoo (KJ)

KJ — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:30:42 +0000

Tom, one of our readers, gave me the heads up about a Yahoo story that mentioned us. It’s so weird to think had I not seen the link, I would have never known that the article was there and that hundreds of their readers would be discussing/debating my choices. The story, titled “Whose American Dream Is It Anyway?” generated a firestorm of comments. Before I go into what I thought about the article, I have to share with you two of the most recent comments at the time I pulled the article up:

“Try again, socialist.” And “Shame on you yahoo for giving this communist a place to voice her ignorant opinions.”

When I first clicked on the article I immediately skimmed it for the section that mentioned us. I found it right at the end of a section called “Time, Not Stuff”. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not a bad place to be. I whine and complain about purging, but that little phrase perfectly summarizes what CM & I are trying to do here. “Time, Not Stuff”. Maybe I ought to make that our blog’s new tagline.

Overall, I think the article is a good read. It’s about the American dream changing and the reasons for that change. The author makes some good points, but she also makes some points that need to be backed up better, in my opinion at least.

I don’t want this blog to be political, but I have to say that I was so sad to see how polarized the comments were. People either really hated the piece or they really loved it. I didn’t read any comments that were in between, like me. (Granted, there were hundreds of them, and I couldn’t read them all.)

I hope that by showing our children different people, places, and cultures they will have open minds on the tough issues. I hope they will be able to defend their views, while at the same time be able to acknowledge the strengths of opposing views. There’s got to be a middle ground.

If you’re interested, you can check out the article here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/generationdebt/88236;_ylt=Apuwrt1IZHJFZlGZHOk_m5e7YWsA

Reader Question #1 – Show Me The Money (KJ)

KJ — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:26:09 +0000

Question: I am curious to know how you will finance the RV trip if you are skint. Do you plan to work along the way? If not how will you manage financially?

Answer: I have been at the same job for 10 years and I have built up 3 months of paid vacation. I plan on taking all of it. I also have the option of flexible scheduling at my job until December. So as far as finances we should be pretty well covered.

CM and I joked that after December we might have to rename the blog 1 Adult 2 Kids. In all seriousness, we are doing everything we can to make this work while still keeping my job. I move a lot and I regularly travel. Having the RV will allow my whole family to go where I go.

I have been contemplating what will happen when I go back to a 9-5 schedule. We’ve decided that we’ll find nice RV or state parks and camp there during the week and as soon as I get off on Friday, we’ll hit the road and not be back until Sunday night.

We are committed to maximizing our family time. Gone are the days where I skip vacations and work late. I will never hoard vacation time again. I’m going to be with my family at every opportunity.

I hope that answers your question, if you have anymore, ask away!