Hi guys!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
It's a lazy Sunday here at the house and...bwahahahaHA!
Who am I kidding?
*ahem*
I've the day off from work today and it began with everyone running behind as good old Daylight Saving Time begins and we Spring forward, thus losing an hour (of precious reading time...or sleep!) of our day. Cie la vie. It had to happen some time but it threw the house into chaos and it hasn't stopped since. Oh well. Might as well make the best of it and get some things accomplished, including some good old time on the blog. Hence, today's post...
Now, as you sit back and enjoy the remainder of your weekend, I'd like to introduce you to not only a new title but the author duo behind it because while I mainly stay within the realm of Fiction, I dabble in reality from time to time and TADA! That time has arrived once again with a true story/experience in the form of a humorous Memoir all about life after, well....life. I'm not talking about the afterlife or anything, more like what happens when the life you've built up to seems to have turned the final chapter and there are still blank pages to fill. The term commonly used is "empty nesters" and the couple behind today's feature want to share what they've gleaned from the experience. So first, the book....
One Couple's Adventure from Empty Nest to No Nest at All
by
David and Veronica James
9781629147352
Skyhorse Publishing
Almost every couple faces a "now what?" moment as their last kid moves out of the house. There's a big empty nest looming over this new and uncertain stage in their lives.
David and Veronica James chose to look at this next phase of life as a beginning instead of an ending. Rather than staying put and facing the constant reminders of empty bedrooms and backseats, a plan began to develop to sell the nest and hit the highway. But could a homebody helicopter mom learn to let go of her heartstrings and house keys all at once?
Filled with a sense of adventure and humor, GOING GYPSY is the story of a life after raising kids that is a celebration of new experiences. Pulling the rip cord on the daily grind, David and Veronica throw caution to the wind, quit their jobs, sell their house, put on their vagabond shoes, and go gypsy in a beat-up old RV found on eBay.
On a journey of over ten thousand miles along the back roads of America (and a hysterical, error-infused side trip into Italy), they conquer old fears, see new sights, reestablish bonds with family and friends, and transform their relationships with their three grown children from parent-child to adult-to-adult. Most importantly, they rediscover in themselves the fun-loving youngsters who fell in love three decades prior.
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....now the Q&A!
Please join me in welcoming author's David and Veronica James!
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Authors of GOING GYPSY: One Couple’s Adventure from
Empty Nest to No Nest at All
Most people
become empty nesters when their kids leave home, but you left home too. How did
that come about?
David: We were living in the
Virgin Islands and were a bit separated from all of our family and friends in
the US. Once our youngest went off to college in the states, like his sisters
before him, there was nothing keeping us in the Caribbean. So we decided to
sell the house and take what we called a “victory lap,” celebrating a job well
done—getting our kids raised and successfully out on their own.
Veronica: One of the reasons I had to
resort to drastic measures was that I worked at the kids’ school. I was the
quintessential “helicopter mom,” hovering over everything my kids did. The idea
of going back to the school without the kids there was heartbreaking. So we whittled
our belongings down to sixteen boxes and took off in a beat-up old RV we bought
on eBay.
What was the
process like from when you decided to take off to when you started your
adventure?
David: That’s what Going Gypsy is all about. We cover the year
when our son left for college and we hit the road. We did not have this big
plan in our heads at the start to live a gypsy lifestyle. It organically grew
as we went along. Initially, we got the motor home as a way to take some time
to visit with family and friends and see the country without going broke. Once
we were out on the road a while, we realized how much we liked it and wanted to
figure out how we could keep going. It’s been over six years now.
Veronica: A big thing that jolted us
into thinking about a new approach to our lives was when we Googled “empty
nest” and a big ad for an Alzheimer’s patch popped up. We thought, “holy
cr-moley!” We have a good third of our lives left and that’s too long a time to
be sitting around doing nothing. We see our book as a kick in the butt to get folks
going and hopefully think outside the box.
How did you
dispense with a lifetime’s worth of belongings?
Veronica: The stress of a big move is
huge no matter what the circumstances. We gave away or sold a lot of stuff, keeping
only the things we knew we couldn’t live without (like photo albums and family
heirlooms). Those we managed to fit into sixteen boxes that we put in storage.
Now I find I’m more organized the less I have with me. If I have too many
things and too much space to spread out in, I get really scattered and
disorganized.
How did you
adjust to having “no nest at all?”
David: We replaced our nest with
one on wheels. The RV became our new home. It’s remarkable how homey it became
and how quickly. It’s obviously very condensed, and we do travel light, but when
you think about what you really need, we have the basics—a bed, a bathroom, a
kitchen, and a table to sit at to eat and write.
Veronica: And the view out the window
is different every day, which is fantastic!
How did your
kids react to you leaving home?
Veronica: Our son was horrified at
first. I remember him saying, “you’re going to live in your car?!” But I think
they’re happy for us. My guess is that they are also happy that Mom has things
to do besides constantly bugging them about who they are dating or when they
might make us grandparents.
David: I imagine what they’re
thinking is a mixture of relief and what
the heck are they doing? But a big plus in this process has been developing
a new relationship with our children as adults. We wanted to make an
adult-to-adult connection and not be helicopter parents any longer.
Don’t you miss
seeing your kids regularly?
David: We see the kids more than
we would have if we’d stayed in St. Croix because we can route ourselves
through wherever they are on our way from one adventure to the next.
Veronica: Our daughters live in
Manhattan so they are easy to see often. Our son is in Alaska but he is a pilot
and has the flying privileges that come with that, so it is usually easier for him
to meet up with us.
How do you
handle holidays?
David: Our oldest daughter took
over the hostess role fairly quickly, as soon as we didn’t have the house any
longer. She’s not one to miss out on the holiday treats and I guess she knew
that it’s nearly impossible to shove a turkey into a motor home oven!
Veronica: She has done a remarkable
job. New York City is an amazing place to spend the holidays. It’s very
festive. So everyone is happy.
Was making
this leap more exciting or scary?
David: I am a musician so I always
traveled a lot and I love it. It was natural for me to explore. For Veronica it
was more of a drastic change.
Veronica: The hardest part was the
initial decision to make the leap. I was a homebody—I didn’t think I’d be able
to do it. But I’m proactive, and a planner, so it was good for me to be able to
throw myself into the planning phase. I did have to do quite a bit of fear
conquering. I guess I just transferred the fear—now I’m more scared to stop
moving than I was to start in the first place!
How many places
have you visited?
David: We started in the RV by exploring
the US, and then branched out to Mexico and Canada, following the weather like
geese. As time went on, we broadened our horizons and added some traveling by
air and sea. Now I think we’ve been to over 40 countries on five continents. Later
this year we’re heading to Africa, making six out of seven, then our final
continent will be Antarctica. We’ll get there!
Veronica: David has also been to all
50 states but I’ve only been to 48, so I need to cover my last two—Alaska and
Hawaii. We’re very competitive so I can’t stand him being ahead of me.
What have been
the highlights so far?
Veronica: There are so many amazing
high points. But I think the Galapagos Islands were up there at the top. I love
animals; I’m like a little kid around them. The islands have so many unique
species, and they are completely unafraid of humans, so if you love animals put
the Galapagos at the top of your bucket list.
David: I answer this question
different each time it’s asked because I have so many favorites. Walking along
the top of the Great Wall of China was a real highlight. But I could easily
name dozens more.
What have been
the low points?
Veronica: Yikes. Well, I locked
myself inside a hotel room in Italy
once. But a big one came when we had a blowout over our traveling styles. We
had discussed the empty nest and all that it entailed, but forgot discuss to
how we liked to travel. It ended up coming to a head in one of the most
beautiful places in the world, Yellowstone National Park, in the middle of a
herd of buffalo.
David: I have a go-go-go mindset.
I always want to be moving forward. Veronica likes to really get a feel for a
place and connect to it. In the end, I learned to adapt more to her style
because it is a better way to see the world.
Veronica: I call him a
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am traveler.
Have you
inspired others to travel?
Veronica: I hope so. My favorite part
of this journey so far has been hearing from folks who chose places because we said
how much we loved them. But there are so many wonderful things people in our
life phase can do if they aren’t interested in travel, you don’t have to be as
crazy as we are to start going gypsy. Do that thing that inspires you,
something that you’ve always wanted to explore. Write that book, volunteer in
your community, go back to school. And don’t forget to reconnect with your
partner, do new things together, and find that pre-kid couple who fell in love
all those years ago. We are not self-help writers. We haven’t written a how-to
guide. We just aspire to be the same kind of kick in the butt for our readers
that we found when we first saw that ad for the Alzheimer’s patch.
David: We try to seek out the
unexpected, and discover overlooked gems in our travels. Sometimes they are found
in famous, bucket-list type destinations; often they are hiding well off the
beaten path. Either way we enjoy relaying stories from out of the ordinary. Hopefully
that inspires some people to venture down the road less traveled too.
How have you
pushed yourselves?
Veronica: I made a decision to fear-conquer
my butt off. As a mom I developed so many fears and it turned into a vicious
cycle. I purposefully inserted myself into situations to overcome these fears.
Just to name a few, I’ve paraglided off of the seacliffs in Lima, Peru, shot
the rapids in Montana, and ziplined over a 300-foot waterfall in Newfoundland—I
even went to roller derby camp; it took three days in bed to recover from that
little escapade!
David: Veronica was all gung-ho about
jumping out of an airplane in Australia. I see no need to abandon a functioning
aircraft unless it is on fire. But once she threw down the gauntlet I accepted
the challenge. Halfway up our attitudes had done a complete 180—she was looking
pretty puny, scared to death, and I was excited at the prospect of freefalling
from ten thousand feet.
Have you eaten
any strange foods?
David: Tons. We write about that a
lot on our blog. I’m not sure if they were the strangest, but the worst by far
was silkworms in China. For one thing, the smell made it nearly impossible to
eat them. Oh, and the fact that they are bugs.
Veronica: A little clarification
here, I ate silkworms, David spit his
out. I won that one.
David: Let me just go on the
record here: while I admit to spitting out the vile worm, I did eat a bug in
Mexico, a cricket to be exact, and it was about a million times better than the
silkworms.
Veronica: Yes, he did finally lose
his bug virginity.
What’s next
for the Gypsy Nesters?
Veronica: The more we travel the more
we want to see; we’ve turned into very greedy travelers! We’d love to get to
New Zealand. And we haven’t been to Scotland—we both have roots there—so we feel
a huge pull to visit. I could name several dozen more… but you really don’t
want me to pull out the whole list, do you?
David: When we started out we had
a saying: the plan is no plans. We like to leave life open to reveal itself to
us so we usually don’t know where we will be too far in advance. We have a
river cruise coming up through Holland and Belgium, and we are going to Africa
this summer, but beyond that we will see where the wind takes us. In the
meantime, we are working on a second book that will cover our adventures after that
first year of taking our initial leap into the life of Going Gypsy.
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Special thanks to Meg at
Tandem Literary for the chance to bring this special post to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the authors, or the publisher, feel free to click the links provided in the post above. This title released just last month via Skyhorse Publishing, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.
Until next time...happy reading!
