A Journal Pick from Terrapin's Trip

In December 2009 we celebrated the five year anniversary of our family departing Oregon on Terrapin, our sailboat, to Mexico and Hawaii. I am (finally) making a concentrated effort to recapture the magic of our daily life adventures back then and put them together in written form. It is a monumental task and I am often distracted by the life I am living today. But one of the most effective ways for me to get back into the zone of writing and organizing is by revisiting the journal I kept and glancing teary-eyed, sometimes laughing, at the photos I have safely saved on cd's. I was asked recently to pick one story from our trip, and tell it to a group of people. I chose carefully, captured the moments with the best details and description I could muster and realized how much joy it brought others to 'experience' just a blink of time of our adventure. So, I've decided to once in a while, share something from my journal here at "Straight from Hill". My entries will be random as I post them , not chronolgical, however this entry does describe the day we left and my early expectations.

December 10, 2004
Final preparations before leaving. Toting the kids to friends' houses for final goodbyes. Then to the bank. While at the bank, the bank is robbed. I hear the teller on the phone with 911 explaining what happened. A gentleman went up to the merchant counter and handed her a white bag. He then asked her to fill the bag with money and she did. Then he left. I witnessed the manager in a panic, trying to decide what to do. I shook my head and thought of the poor bank manager I had met with earlier in the day who I was returning to see that evening at 5 p.m. when all this happened. He was a nice dark-skinned fellow with a great, positive attitude. When I saw him earlier, he said, yes, he would be there until they closed, “All, day, “ he moaned with a cheery grin. When I saw him later, he was panicked, couldn’t look me in the eye and obviously, very distracted. I left and went out to get in the car and the kids were excited because while I was gone they had witnessed a three vehicle accident. I wondered if the two had been related. Wild. What a way to leave Oregon!

December 11, 2004
We boarded the Amtrak train in Salem, Oregon. 3:30 p.m. It was drizzly and mild out, 50 degrees plus. The ride to the station was quiet, except for Phoebe humming her kazoo and Hunter blowing a nose flute. It was a positive goodbye with Mom. She was happy to see us embark and her last words were: “ Do everything I would never do.” She also smiled and while watching Rod out the window said, “he’s so excited, he can hardly contain it.” We both were sporting large brimmed wicker hats that made us stand out in the crowd.

On the train, the kids were excited, but plugged into headphones and kept busy. When we got to an area where there was snow, Phoebe noticed right away, and told Hunter to look out the window. He did and said he wanted to go taste it. But then Phoebe reminded him that we’re headed where there is no snow. And they both sat down grinning. The train lurches on. It’s late, midnight or so. I hear people sleeping—snoring, talking, people arranging their figures to fit the seats+ footstool that doubles as a bed for most. When the kids went to sleep, Rod and I tried to fall asleep as well. Laying there I thought about what the kids and Rod must be dreaming about. Shortly after, I found out that Rod wasn’t dreaming at all, he was thinking about projects on the boat. We both couldn’t sleep, our excitement had overcome us, so we kept each other company under our light in the dark train car.

I am thinking about what goals I have for this trip. I can’t stop setting goals, but this time my goal is one that requires me to stop doing that. I really want to relax. Get into the moment of life, not stress about little things. I realize it will take weeks before I actually stop thinking about everything that needs to be done. But I hope to get there. I want to enjoy life at a different level for a while, looking at things from a positive, joyful place rather than from a negative ‘gotta get outta here’ perspective. I want a truly ‘Zen’ experience, and I realize I will have to work for that. It will take lots of time and mind control, but it’s well worth the try. I think yoga will help. Deep breathing, and a lot of laughter.

I also want us as a family to look at the way we live and make some changes. Things like, being reliant on gadgets, always having any kind of food instantly available and only eating when the pangs of hunger actually hit. That’s something we all need to learn. And again, it’s taking control of myself, being a good example for my kids, and living that way happily and with fulfillment and a positive outlook.

I’m curious what everyone else’s goals are for the trip, I’ll have to ask. Surprisingly there is a lot less anxiety about taking off than I thought. I expected to be nervous about sailing. I’m not. I expected to be stressed about sickness, bad seas, scary encounters, losing the kids, but for now, I remain at ease. Thinking I’ve left an awful lot of stress back there in Oregon. And for certain it will all be back there when we return. And hopefully, my outlook when we go back is much more positive. So, here I sit, on a monotonous train ride with hours ahead and nowhere to go. It’s a beautiful thing.