I haven’t posted a blog for myself since October, I’ve been helping Youk brush up on his writing skills and neglecting mine over the past few months.

However, as we start a new year, it presents an opportunity to reflect, but more importantly a time to look forward.

First, I’d like to reflect a little bit on 2021.

It started off in our new hometown of Melbourne, Florida at my Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy’s house.  It was a quiet celebration that had us sitting around the fire at the house.  Many of the neighbors made up for our quaint little celebration as the fireworks nearby started as the sun went down and didn’t stop until well after midnight.

Nine days into the year, we started our trek further south on our way to Key West.  We stopped on the way down to see friends and family along the way.  For the next several weeks, we zig zagged up and down and across the state of Florida.  Making sure to connect and spend time with more friends and family.

In early March, we made an unexpected trip to Pennsylvania due to a dear friend of ours passing away.  We Spent the next few months there.  We were able to celebrate Easter with our family and headed back to Florida on the Monday after Mother’s Day.

We again took our time and stopped to see new friends, surprise an old friend and meet another new friend for the first time in person.

We got back to Melbourne on May 17 and stayed in Florida long enough to celebrate milestone birthdays with three of my cousins before leaving to head back to Pennsylvania on June 12.  We took the long way to Pennsylvania, via the Florida panhandle to Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama before getting to my sister-in-law’s house in Pennsylvania the Saturday before Father’s Day.

While in Pennsylvania, we stayed with family, reconnected with old friends again and scattered in a few stays in an amusement park and some other campgrounds.

After leaving Pennsylvania to head west, we stayed in a minor league baseball stadium parking lot, a bunch of different Cracker Barrels, some farms, museums, wineries, a friend’s yard, a cousin’s cul-de-sac, and of course many different campgrounds.

All in all, 2021 took us through 30 different states, connected us with many family members, countless friends, both old and new, had us participate in several wonderful volunteer projects, hiked on hundreds of trails, including the most difficult of hikes for me when I summited Picacho Peak in Arizona.

Many people I know talk about how 2020 and 2021 have been two of the worst years of their lives.  I on the other hand, feel as though 2020 and 2021 have been two of the most incredible and rewarding years of my life.  I have been able to spend almost every minute of the past two years with the two creatures that make me happiest, Sandy and Youkilis.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  The experiences and memories that we’ve made during that timeframe cannot be purchased with any sum of money.

The greatest component of reflecting back on 2021 is that I have no regrets and I am eternally grateful.

Moving forward into 2022.

I am not a big fan of new year’s resolutions, but I think that setting some goals is always a good thing.

The obvious is the goal of getting three more books published in 2022.  The first two, Four Paws on Six Wheels, The Adventures of Youkilis, the Golden Retriever and Journey of My Mother’s Son, Many Random Thoughts from the Road are slated for a late spring publication.

Four Paws on Six Wheels, The Adventures of Youkilis, the Golden Retriever will be a children’s book which will be written by Youk, with my help.  Much like his blogs regarding our adventures.  If it’s successful, which I anticipate that it will be just from the feedback received from his blogs, it will be the first of series of books.

Journey of My Mother’s Son, Many Random Thoughts from the Road will also be the first of a series of books.  It will be exactly what the title says, many random thoughts from the road.  There will also be some random thoughts before the road. As well as a little bit of the story about my journey with my mother as a young boy and how she influenced what I am doing today.  This physical journey in an RV has allowed me to dig deep into my own spiritual journey and relationship with God.  Some of the random thoughts in that collection will be deep spiritual thoughts, others will be lighter observations of life.

The second book of that series will be titled, Journey of My Mother’s Son, Many Little People.  It will be a collection of short stories of some of the amazing people that we’ve been blessed to have met on this journey.  Some of which, I have no idea what their names were, yet they made an indelible impression on my life during what many times was a short interaction.  That book is slated for publication in the fall of 2022.

The third book of that series will be titled, Journey of My Mother’s Son, Many Little Places.  It will be a collection of short stories of some of the incredible places that we have been able to experience throughout this journey. That book is slated for publication in the spring of 2023.

The fourth and final book of that series will be titled, Journey of My Mother’s Son, Many Little Pictures.  It will be a visual, coffee table type of book showcasing some of many photos that we have taken on this journey.  It will be a way to bring someone along with us to experience some of the beauty that we have been able to see for ourselves.  I anticipate that there will be many pictures of sunrises and sunsets among other components of God’s beautiful creations.  That book is slated for publication in the fall of 2023.

A more immediate goal is focusing on getting a blog out much more often than what I have done recently.  I have Youk in a routine of publishing a blog every Monday.  He has been very good at that and makes sure to channel his thoughts through me on a weekly basis.  My own personal goal is to get myself into a routine of publishing a blog every Thursday.  I remember last January when we went see Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West.  The tour guide told us that Hemingway approached his writing like many of us approach our jobs.  He would wake up early every morning and go into his office and write from 6 AM to 12 Noon.  When I first heard that I was amazed.  As a writer, I know that there are times that you just can’t sit down and knock out 1,500 or 2,000 words no matter how hard you try.  I can only imagine that many days Hemingway may have sat there and stared at a blank page in a typewriter for hours on end.  However, his diligence to committing to even attempt to write every day like that is likely what made him one of the greatest writers of our time.

I have been very good at making sure that I have enough guests lined up for my podcasts that I release a new episode every week, sometimes even two per week.  However, for whatever reason, I haven’t been as diligent with my writing.  Looking forward to 2022, that is what I need to work on.

I am writing it here and publishing it as a way to hold myself accountable.  It goes back to when I was writing my first book and I would never tell anyone that I was writing it out of fear that I may never complete it.  Then I met Jeff Potter.  He had just published his first book.  We had gotten together because I wanted advice on how the process worked.  When I told him that I was reluctant to let people know that I was writing my book, he quickly told me to change my mentality on that.  He told me to start telling everyone that I knew that I was writing a book.  When I asked him why, he simply said, “It will keep you accountable, the more people that know, the more people will ask you about the progress.”

It worked.  I told a lot of people that I was writing a book.  Every time that I would see them, they would ask me how it was going.  Now, I had to finish it.

So, here I go, throwing it out there that I am looking to publish a blog weekly on every Thursday.

Moving forward in 2022 and beyond, I am looking at holding myself accountable and make a commitment to my craft as a writer.  Regardless of how much I may have to drive in any given week, regardless of whatever else is going on, I need to be committed to making sure that I get a blog written every week just like Youk has.