The beginning of the no-expectation vacation

Wednesday,September 15, 2010 marked the beginning of the no-expectation vacation...The technical dictionary meaning for this is: the point of time at which something begins in which the act or state of looking forward or anticipating. The Katie meaning is: The start of a vacation in which I DO NOT expect. As you come to read later in this post, can I or we really do this? Have no expectations? You may wonder what the history of this vacation is? Well I am going to tell ya. Every year in September and March I plan a vacation that normally takes me out of the Country to go explore places all over the world that are supposed to be beautiful and marvelous or at least that is what I expect. Well this past May, I organized a White Water Rafting trip to my native West Virginia. I had realized on this trip that  there were many places in the US that I had always wanted to visit and had not yet done. Fast forward to June and I was flying a trip with one of my good girl friends Renee. We had been talking a great deal lately about life, what we want out of life, and how we strive everyday to get there. It occurred to me as I was sitting on the back jump seat that I was going to do a solo road trip. Not only did I want to do a solo road trip, but I needed to do a solo road trip. This I knew had more meaning than a vacation, this was more of a life lesson.So that day, that trip, in the back of a Boeing 737 aircraft came the beginning of the no expectation vacation.  After I finally decided this is what I was going to do for my 29th Birthday present to myself, I realized there were some goals that I felt I needed to accomplish. I am calling them goals instead of expectations because, a goal as stated on dictionary.com is: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.  So, I feel I am going to "aim" for my goals, but I may or may not necessarily achieve all of them. And I do believe how one handles the outcome, is really the most valuable part. I have felt that up to this point in life that I had so many expectations, disappointments, heartaches and such, that it was finally time to start taking a different approach to things. Maybe a solo road trip was the place to start. A little time with me, myself, and god. So there you are, in a nutshell the reason why and how I came to the point on my 29th Birthday to give myself the gift of the no expectation vacation! Once people heard about my solo no expectation vacation the first question was #1 Are you crazy? and #2 Are you taking a gun? I can honestly answer no and no. Although I thought really hard about both questions! :o)

Here are some of the things that I have decided about the trip: "GOALS" Per Se

•  of places that I would like go: West Virginia to see the family, Dayton to visit my sister, Bismark, ND, Mount Rushmore, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Wyoming to visit a college friend,  Colorado, Idaho, and Pacific Coast Highway. After the first week of visiting the family there will be no planning, hence if I get to a city and love it, I can stay there my whole trip thus making it the no expectation vacation.
• no GPS, just a good ole atlas
• no hotels only friends houses, my jeep grand Cherokee, and my tent
• although I have been camping a great deal in my life, how about camping by myself. Setting up the tent, starting a fire, and most importantly fighting off the grizzly bears!
• and most importantly limited funds....money makes everything easier!
• my camera, document my trip thru the lens

The start of the no expectation vacation began on Wednesday morning at 5:30am. Aiming to get on the road by 700am. My best girlfriend Renee had stayed at my house to help me with all my last minute preparations.. I had came to realize for this to be a no expectation vacation, I was sure packing a great deal...Then I remembered, "no expectations" and I can pack as little or as much as I want. Once we loaded everything into my jeep, we now had to put the bike rack on the back of my jeep. This is my first encounter with my new bike rack. I thought it was going to be fairly simple, but I was mistaken! After 35 minutes of me and Renee trying to get the darn thing on, I finally got a phone call from a friend saying that he wanted to make sure that I hadn't left town cause he wanted to give me some Cd's for my trip (refer to blog #1) little did he know he was going to help me put on my bike rack at 715am which is now the time. So much for being on the road at 700am! Lesson one of the no expectation vacation! No stressing out just cause the goal of being on the road has come and gone! Finally though bike on, test drive down Linwood Ave in East Point GA, to make sure the bike is not going to coming flying off the back of my jeep during Atlanta rush hour traffic..and wow now I am at the gas station filling up up the jeep, and thinking s*** what have I gotten myself into? BTW Tracy, thanks for the Cd's and the bike rack! The bike stayed on the whole trip, no twenty car pile ups on the account of the White Beach Cruiser! First prayer answered on what I am sure are many more to come!

So what have I gotten myself into?? Just take a look below to see the company that I had picked up off I-85 for my road trip to West Virginia.  Yep you are looking at the right pictures. I took chickens all the way from GA to West Virginia to my sister who has an organic farm called Little Patch on the Lane in Teays Valley, WV. This all came about when my sister heard that I was coming to WV. She had been looking for a certain breed of hens, and there just happened to be some in GA, off of I-85 which would be relatively close to where I would be passing thru. When my sister first asked me of this favor, I said sure, thinking there was no way she was going to get this worked out with the lady named "Rita" in GA. Boy was I wrong! Not only did she get it worked out, but now instead of one chicken/hen I was going to have three! I could only laugh at this point

 and agree to follow thru with the original plan. "Yes Aimee, I will drive a chicken up from GA to you." I still chuckle no pun intended when I told my sister I would drive a chicken to her. I came to embrace it as a wonderful start to the no-expectation

 vacation. What a story, and most importantly, what a GOOD/GREAT/AWESOME sister that I am!!! Come to find out the chickens travel quite well, better than most of my friends! I learned a great deal about chickens too. Like when they started pecking each other, I called my sister asking if I should expect a chicken fight in my jeep? She said it was normal. And it seemed that they worked it out.  If you look at the picture to the right, I now understand where the phrase "Don't be such a chicken" came from. This little fella would get brave enough to stick it's head out, but just as soon as I would turn around he or she (still not real sure about that) would duck down so fast....like a chicken! LOL It was actually quite entertaining and became a very fun game for me, thru most of North Carolina and Virginia. So this is how my no expectation vacation begin, you will have to tune in to see how it continues! Peace and Love ~KT~