I love writing Talk Tuesday twice a month now. It is giving me time to write other content that you might like. Have you seen the Gardening segments that have joined the blog and now Flashback Friday? In case you don’t know, Talk Tuesday  is where you get to ask me whatever you want and I answer you. Did you miss the prior weeks, take a gander as there is some good stories in there: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7  | Week 8 | Week 9  | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | Week 23 | Week 24 | Week 25 | Week 26 | Week 27 | Week 28.

 Happy Site Migration Day!

I have not had the best experiences with web hosting the last few years. First I was with GoDaddy and my main sites kept crashing during the Holidays, where I have the most traffic and make money for my travels. I then moved to Pressable last January and had nothing but problems. Web hosting shouldn’t be so damn difficult.

I’m on the 1 site plan now and testing it out for 60 days. Excited!

I have known about WPEngine for awhile but had never made the plunge. One site is $29/month and 10 sites is $99/month. That is an investment compared to paying GoDaddy $15/month or less. But it is SO worth it. This website is my sole source of income, I have to invest in it so it can return that back to me. If you have ever thought of switching over to a stellar web host, take a look at WPEngine.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I honestly don’t know. I used to plan my life and had this huge Life Plan I was working towards. When that all fell apart in Phoenix, I stopped planning and started winging it. Winging it has brought a lot of amazing things to my life the last two years! I know though that I would like to have a home again, two in fact. I would love to have a home in Alaska and one in San Francisco and live between the two. That is the dream.

Turnagain Arm just outside Girdwood, Alaska

I don’t ever want to go back to a life without travel being a part of it. I want a home base though where I have an office overlooking the water or the mountains where I can write and work. I long for that. I want that more than anything at the moment. In 5 years, I would like to have two nonfiction books about my travels published, one fiction book, and a few ebooks sprinkled throughout.

I also want to have love.

In 5 years, I want to be in love, happy, and in a relationship that is fulfilling and uplifting for both of us. I want someone that wants to hike mountains, have crazy adventures, and who wants to cook together and live a passionate life. I can see that life. We shall see if I get to live that life. That man has been playing elusive so far.

If money wasn’t an issue, what is one place you would travel to and why?

I would travel around the world if money wasn’t an issue. I would want to stay a week or two in each place to really soak up the local culture. You would find me in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Thailand, Australia, Africa, and over to South America. I would definitely be on the beach in the Caribbean for a bit too! I want to see all the places I used to read about as a child. I have learned that what is in our textbooks is truly lacking when you actually visit a place. Alaska is a prime example of this!

To choose just one place right now? Ireland.

Secret Europe: 50 Truly Unforgettable Experiences to Inspire Your Next Trip – $0

If you could make one decision again what would it be?

I try not to live in the World of Regret, but there really are a lot of things I would do over again in my life. I would have started my writing career earlier for sure. I also would have done college completely differently. I would also have tried to have a family earlier and not fallen for the old line – you still have time.

What did you do to get where you are that helped you make the correct choice to take this journey and end up in Alaska?

I started listening to my soul. I have *always* wanted to travel around the United States on an epic road trip. I was always told that was nuts and that I shouldn’t do it. When I really started to pay attention to that little voice inside is when I started to be happier than I have ever been.

I also let go. I let go of people’s expectations of me. I let go of always having to be right. *That was a tough one.* I let go of the notion that I needed a man by my side to go out and experience all that the world had  to offer. I just let go.

 

I didn’t expect to end up in Alaska. This state is not one that I ever wanted to visit. Plus, you often only hear of older people coming here to check it off their Bucket List. I had NO idea how young everyone in Alaska truly is or how incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring the land is here. It is like nothing you have ever seen.

The other thing I did was change my mindset about what mattered most. Was it accumulating wealth and possessions or was it having experiences where the memories would last me a lifetime? I still am working on the balance of this one, but material possessions are not high on my value list.

When I first left Phoenix almost 2 years ago, I had just gone through four of the worst years of my life. I was dead inside. I was broken. I was a bitch to be around. Somewhere on the road when my physical body broke down, my mental game broke down even more. I had to find the lowest point in my life and start to rebuild myself one piece at a time. I cried a lot on that journey around the US. I felt alone, unloveable and a failure at life. I felt misunderstood, like an outsider wherever I went, but also in my closest relationships with friends and family. I needed to go through that to heal.

I still have my low days but I also am now acutely aware that most people only dream of having the courage to live the way I do. We accept this from our youth or when we retire, but it is often looked at as weird to be a solo female traveler at 40. This journey let me find my strength and tenacity again. I found the woman I had always wanted to be.

I always wanted to go somewhere and feel it in my bones that it was Home. Instead of one place, I’ve felt that for many places. Alaska right now is the highest on that Home list followed very closing by San Francisco – not the city, but out by the ocean or up in the vineyards. What I really finally realized is that home is where ever I am at the moment, it is in my heart, not an address.