I don't remember exactly how or when I was introduced to Shawn Smucker's blog, but I do remember getting excited when he started telling about a big adventure they were preparing for. He and his wife, Maile, and their four kids were setting out in a big blue bus that would be their home for the next four months. He shared many of the exciting tidbits of their preparation and departure on the blog as well as updates along the journey.
My fascination was amplified by the fact that we were trying to get free to head out on our very own adventure. Interestingly enough, it turned out that we did actually get to pull up stakes, vacate our own house and begin our journey during the same time frame as their trip. I was teased and prodded and encouraged and entertained and sometimes comforted by the experiences they were having. My husband and I learned a lot for our own adventure. When the brakes went out on the big bus as they were coming down the mountain, you'd better believe I was on the edge of my seat!
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A few months later, their book was released - How to Use a Runaway Truck Ramp - and Other Tales from Our 10,000-mile Adventure. I had to have my own copy because these guys seemed like family by then. Again the timing was cool because I was able to take the book with me when we went overseas for the winter. How fun to read the chronicles of their adventure while in the midst of our own.
Both Shawn and Maile wrote from their individual perspectives and they included lots of great adventure quotes - all of which gave the book a rich and fascinating texture.
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"Dreams, if they're any good, are always a little bit crazy."
- Ray Charles
"...if the level of 'crazy' determines the worth of a dream, we would soon discover that ours was pure gold."
- Maile Smucker
"Because no matter how exciting an adventure may sound during its conception, as soon as preparation begins in earnest, you realize why people are so in love with the idea of adventures and yet so rarely embark upon them."
- Shawn Smucker
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"I started to lose it.
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"What on earth have I gotten myself into? I believe I signed up for the adventure with children cuddling in the corners of their bunks reading books while I sat contentedly on the couch tapping my computer's keyboard in a writer's euphoria. I want a refund.
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"There is something about 'doing what you always dreamed of' that candy-coats everything. Talk about rose-colored glasses... but then your youngest son elbows you in the face during a tantrum, knocking those lenses clean off your face, putting you face-to-face with reality: nothing, not even your dream coming true, is perfect.
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"I hate McDonald's... But I love McDonald's indoor play land... For two sweet hours, my kids ran their little hearts out, climbing those bright blue and red tubes like a hoard of spider monkeys. And I sat cozy at a corner table tapping the keyboard in a writer's euphoria... at last."
- Maile Smucker
"You know... That's the thing about adventures. The stuff that happens isn't always easy. It's not always fun. But it's always worth telling."
- Maile
"...how could I have missed that? She was right, of course. Adventures are only adventures when it's possible for things to go horribly wrong."
- Shawn
"Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere."
- Isabelle Eberhardt
"Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons."
- Donald Miller
"Comfort is a funny thing. We aim for it. We strive for it. We work hard to attain it. So much of what we do in life is centered around becoming comfortable... But comfort brings new problems... In the end, comfort makes us rigid and inflexible in our thinking."
- Shawn
"There is that moment in time when you know everything is about to go horribly wrong...."
- Shawn
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"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent in the ideas of living."
- Miriam Beard
"Thankfully, there are other means with which to measure a life. Ones less arbitrary than the numbers on a bank statement."
- Shawn
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"Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story."
- J.R.R. Tolkien
"So, carry on our story. Take an adventure."
- Shawn & Maile Smucker
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I highly recommend this book. I am much more adventurous for having followed them along their journey. I am very excited to announce that the Kindle version is free today and tomorrow!
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