“Don’t you ever go home?” a woman asked me after hearing about our nomadic lifestyle.
After thinking over night about her question I decided I am home.
Most people name a particular house, street, city, or at least as state when defining a home. My home is much bigger and has much more to offer.
My home stretches over three thousand miles. We have lived in states that boarder both oceans, two of the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. We have visited all fifty states. RVing allows us to spend more time in each state to see more of each state and to converse with the people we meet.
My home is filled with people from many backgrounds, cultures, and languages. The diversity of peoples in my home helps to make my country stronger. While some countries have a narrowly defined ethnic and cultural background for their people, the multicultural heritage of my home helps my fellow citizens appreciate our strengths and to correct our weaknesses. Consider an accident observed by three people standing on three corners. Each sees parts of the incident that might be obscured to others. One might see how it could have been avoided. So too with multiple cultural vantage points.
This year I have learned to say thank you in Dakota Sioux, Pojoaquen, and Navajo. The Dakota Sioux emphasize relations within their family groups so that to say “thank you” one needs to know one’s relationship with the recipient. The Navajo greet one another saying their name and including both parents’ and their grandparents’ clans. The Pojoaquen visitor center explains their history in relationship to pottery they make.
My home has artists with great imaginations and numerous styles beyond the catalogue of any one museum. I have stood in front of a paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, by Jackson Pollock, and by local artists who use naturally colored sand that evoke feeling. I have pondered sculptures by Renoir and by a Michigan welder. I have stared at designs hammered into stone by artists 800 years ago.
My home includes deserts, woodlands, mountains, plains, lakes, lava fields, and sand dunes. Each place offers unique views and animals. I enjoy watching the leaves in northern forests change from dark green through yellows to bright red. I look forward to seeing the desert burst into colorful flowers for a few days following late winter rains. I have skied down snowy mountains and kayaked among trees of a slow river.
My home has a innumerable options for food to try. We have eaten Walleye from Lake Superior, fresh corn on the cob in Indiana, strawberry short cake at a farm stand in Florida, pecans purchased at a farmers market in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and apples from New York and Washington. Yes, farm fresh or direct from the fish seller is noticeably better than anything from a supermarket.
My home is unique in that its military does not pledge allegiance to a leader or to a land but to piece of paper that strives to: “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity“. This piece of paper acknowledges in these words that even after 247 years the American Experiment is still a work in progress.
My home has places to go, people to meet, and things to do. My house on wheels allows me to fully experience all that my home has to offer.