Life is All About Trial and Error...And it's all about perspective.

I have to say trial and error is, for me, the best way to learn anything. When I started Kung Fu class I sucked. I fell every time I tried a high kick, I missed every take-down, and I couldn’t land a joint lock to save my life…literally. One night after class I was sitting in my car thinking about quitting to save myself the embarrassment of constant failure, when my instructor, Brian, knocked on the window and I opened the door while trying to not look depressed.

“Dude, you have great perseverance. Kung Fu is hard and the only way to know a technique is to find every way that it doesn’t work.” he said. “When you succeed the first time at a technique you only understand how you did it that time, in that situation. If you find every way that it doesn’t work, you are left with only the good.”

That night is when I changed my perspective on failure.

I no longer fail at anything. I successfully find ways that a technique does not work. When my RV wouldn’t start after parking at a gas station in Wyoming, I checked the batteries, they worked. I checked the wires leading to the ignition, they seemed funny and something looked loose, so I attached it to an open spot on the ignition and it almost instantly melted. I honestly thought about giving up…. We’d already replaced the radiator and the sending unit for the temp gauge. But then I thought about how I had eliminated a possible problem.  It wasn’t that loose wire… you know, because of the fire and all.

I called my dad and we walked through the entire ignition situation over the phone, tracing wires and even replacing and MacGyvering a few connections until we got it working. Ashley and I drove off the next morning, not having failed to leave the gas station in under 24 hours but having learned how to rewire the ignition system of a 1986 Winnie.

Every time you lose and fail remember that you learned. If you give up you don’t learn.

Brian encouraged me to take Tai Chi, hip hop dance, and even take up parkour to improve my Kung Fu, and it all helped. I also met some of my great friends because of these side projects. If I had given up that night in my car I wouldn’t have met some of the greatest people in my life. People who see not roadblocks but parkour obstacles to be vaulted over and mastered. 

I want you to remember that you become a master of life only after finding every way that your life doesn't work for you, because all that’s left is the good life.

If you are moving to becoming the you that you want to be, you are a blackbelt at life.

-Ric

Final day on the road to Oregon

We rolled into Weed, CA around 8:00 at night and proceeded to Friendly RV Park for the night.

A man met us out front and explained that they only take cash or check. We, being good 21st century folks, had neither. I had to drive the Kia over to the Pilot gas station hit up the ATM for $30 (that the ATM charged $2 and my bank charged another $3). We paid the guy and prepared for the night. The heater in the RV kicks out a lot of heat but is also roughly as loud as a small jet aircraft at takeoff so we couldn’t use it, luckily we had about 1 million blankets to keep us warm.

In the morning, as we were doing the feedings, the couple from the camper next to us came over to say hello. They were an older couple and had both grown up on farms up in Canada. After talking to them for a while we found out he fought in WWII for the Canadian Army and was 88 years old! They like to drive all over and they visit family on their trips. We decided we want to be just like them when we’re 88.

Silly Rocky was not super thrilled to be in the small space.  

Adrian and little baby Pauly seemed just fine in their stall.

After saying our goodbyes to them we hit the road again. This time the RV was squeaking quite loudly for a few minutes causing Ashley a little bit of a panic. “Is it going to explode?” she asked over the walkie talkies we had in each car. “Maybe… but I bet not. It is cold so it should stop once it warms up.” I tried to reassure her. After about 10 minutes of RV squeaking, cats meowing, and Ashley panicking the noise quieted down as the RV motor warmed up.  

After a few uneventful hours on the road we entered into Oregon and then all the way up to Eugene! We exited the highway and navigated some back roads to avoid city driving, and made it to our new place well before nightfall (easily an hour before hehe).  It’s a nice little place with plenty of room for the animals to stretch their legs finally, including our 4 day old lamb, who had spent the majority of her little life in the back of a trailer.

The family enjoying some luscious Oregon grass and stretching their legs! 

Overall, the travel went pretty well for how quickly we had to hit the road and go.  It was a great way for us to do a trial run for the big move to WV later this summer!

-Ric

The first couple days on the road...

Hitting the road on day one involved making the journey all the way to Casa De Fruta… about 100 miles north. I admit it wasn’t a far away goal but it was a way to get some road behind us. I called them to ask if they had a spot open for the night, that was pull through, and that could accommodate a horse trailer with 3 sheep in it… also could we camp there with 3 sheep?

The girl on the phone had to go ask her manager but returned to say it was fine.

Casa De Fruta started as a roadside fruit stand but has become a roadside attraction with an RV park, a model train you can ride on, a restaurant, a carousel, a truck stop, 32 peacocks, and a candy shoppe.

At a previous visit to Casa de Fruta. Just hanging with peacocks.

We arrived after dark and got set up for the evening, clearing off the bed we were using for storage so we had a place to sleep and basically shoveling a path through the RV;  just doing the bare minimum to sleep.

When we awoke we were itching to get on the road again… right after coffee and breakfast. I drove the car down to the coffee shop and get some coffees and pastries, and candy, because why not? We gulped our coffees and downed our pastries (I would be more specific but I honestly don’t remember what they were) and started the RV back up. 

The extremely loud squeaking noise coming from the engine compartment lasted until we exited the park before it began to subside. “What the hell was that noise?” came Ashley’s voice over the Walkie Talkie.

“A loud squeaking noise,” was my super helpful response. 

“Is it broken?” she asked.

“No, just a squeaking belt.” I said, hoping I wasn’t lying. As soon as I said it her voice come over again: “The windshield wipers just came on and won’t turn off!” She was yelling into the headset at this point. “Pull over and I’ll look,” I said.

Once we pulled over I looked under the dash to discover that I didn’t know anything about what under a dash is supposed to look like… I found the wires connecting the windshield wipers via a Google search and disconnected them. “Avoid driving through any rain,” I said, “And you’ll be fine.”

The only excitement for the rest of day two was the constantly escaping cats. Thankfully, Ashley had them in the RV with her so I didn’t have to deal with it. Obi (my cat) was the ringleader of the prison breaks. If I remember correctly they escaped 12 times that day. We eventually moved the cats into one of the hard carriers to better contain them.

Mom...we are literally dying.  I promise.  Let us out.

We made it pretty far that day, deciding to stop just before we got to Oregon in a little town called Weed, CA. We found this little RV park that once again welcomed our little menagerie, and welcomed a nice restful night.

Day 3 soon...

- Ric