…continued from previous post.

In my quest to find some sort of peace with my place in life, I began to seek out adventure.  I have been an off and on runner for quite a few years now, and while I had been running, I decided to try new trails, and make adventures out of my weekends.  I drove up to Michigan to run 17 miles, and basked in the glory of getting out of my own town, and out of my own head.  The more time I spent pursuing something that I had considered out of my reach, the more I found enjoyment in what I was doing.

I guess I may have gone a bit too far, because it was during this period that a friend showed me an auction site used by government agencies to sell public property.  I signed up for an account, and with my very first bid won something a bit bigger than I expected to win.

I won a 2002 Thomas school bus.

The bus was in Washington D.C.

I had 7 days to pick it up.

So I flew to Washington D.C. and endeavored to drove the bus back to Ohio.  It was probably one of the more crazy things I think I have ever done, and it was certainly way out of my comfort zone.  I had never driven a vehicle that big before, and I had bought it on the internet, with no chance to inspect it or even determine if it would start when I got there.  I took a HUGE risk and I really had no way to know how it would turn out.

The night before I flew out, I met a girl at a Wal-Mart to show her a cool quarry I had taken a picture of on a previous adventure, and we ended up getting coffee afterwords.   We talked for several hours, and then I had to take another huge risk and tell her where I was going the next day.  This was also something that was totally outside of my comfort zone.  It really turned out that October 2016 was a fateful October.

To make the long story short, I spent the next four days getting the bus back to Ohio.  It was an adventure I hope I never forget, driving through the fall leaves in the mountains of Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  When I finally made it home, I was exhausted but excited.

I had bought the bus in hopes of turning it into an RV.  A mobile home.  Somewhere to call my own.  I had no peace in the apartment, and I was seeking something new and fulfilling.  I was seeking a home.

Home is a word we throw around a lot, but I really do believe that ‘home’ is essential to peace.  Having a place to call home can be the difference between hopeful and hopeless.  Many who live in a house don’t truly have a home, and many who have no house, can have a happy home.  Home is a place that you feel safe, a place that you find love, a place that is filled with peace.

Maybe your home doesn’t look like this, or at least it doesn’t right now, but I encourage you to identify those things in your life that are preventing you from being at peace, and work to change them.  I knew that I wasn’t at peace where I was, and I started trying things I had never tried before to change where I was.  I chose to seek a new way where my old way was not working.  Sometimes finding peace means making a scary and drastic change.

To be concluded…

If you missed the daily vlogs, I’ve compiled them all here AND fixed whatever sync issue I had with the audio.  Enjoy!