It was late 2021 and now we couldn’t decide.  We had decided to take an installment of our retirement to see far-flung places.  But couldn’t decide HOW to see them.  Let’s make a plan.  Cool.  We’re good at that.  What do we know?

  • We can’t afford to just jet around and stay in hotels
  • We can both drive, so a van life is really do-able.  But that limits us to this hemisphere
  • We can’t sail (well, Bob can a little, but…).  But even if we could, oceans seem scary!

So we decided that 2022 would be our Year of Discernment (we like to give stuff fancy titles).  We decided that we would use our vacation time to explore both options.  We’d rent a converted sprinter van for a week and also take a week-long sailing class.  By the end of the year, we would have processed those experiences and be able to make a plan for 2023.  Cool.

We signed up for our sailing class.  It was to be in the San Juan Islands in March (yes, March, but it was all they had available).  Kim, myself, an instructor, and two complete strangers sharing the 300 square feet of a 41 foot sailboat for a week when it might rain and be 40 degrees.  What could go wrong?

We read the course books.  We practiced knots.  We took practice tests.  We looked at charts of the San Juans.  We were ready!

It was cold!  Thank God I brought some of those little chemical hand warmers!  However, it was also dry and sunny.  Our instructor was awesome and our fellow students were great.  In the end, we had a great time.  We learned a lot of stuff and got comfortable with the basics of sailing and boat-handling.  And we passed the tests (full disclosure:  Kim scored higher than I did).  All in all, a positive experience.  Thanks San Juan Sailing School! We both enjoyed sailing, didn’t seem to get seasick, and didn’t mind cramped quarters.  Excellent.  Discernment Step One completed, we headed home to plan our next adventure.

A couple of weeks later, I was trolling around looking at sprinter van and off-road RV rentals.  Now, if I’m completely honest, I wanted to do the sailing thing, but we had a PLAN.  And I like plans.  And I didn’t want to pressure Kim, who had been waaaay more reluctant about the sailing thing.  So we’re moving on the Step Two:  THE VAN.  I’ve got all these van and RV rentals bookmarked and I had been looking at potential travel routes and hikes we could do.  I sit down to show it all to Kim and she looks at me.

Me:  What?

Kim:  What’s that?

Me:  Info for our RV trip!

Kim:  I want to buy a boat.

Me:

Still Me:

Still Me:

Then Me:  Okay then!

Discernment:  Check.