A Penny Saved…
I’ve been reading a book called the Slight Edge. The focus of the book revolves around a parable told at the beginning of the book involving 2 sons and their dying father.
On his deathbed he gives his sons two options:
Receive 1 million dollars today or
Receive a penny a day doubled every day for 30 days
Which would you take? At first sight, I would take the million bucks and run. However, it turns out a penny doubled every day would give you more than 10 million dollars after a month!
This parable reminds me of our journey RVing. When we bought our first RV, we knew next to nothing about RVing. I didn’t know how a refrigerator could run on electric or propane. I didn’t have a clue how to book a site in a National Park and believe it or not, I even forgot how to unhook a travel trailer from the truck towing it.
After we purchased our Earthbound RV and towed it to our first campground I walked (actually limped, I was on crutches) from the cab of the truck to the trailer hitch and spent a good 15 minutes trying to release the trailer hitch from the truck.
I raised the trailer with the jack, but the thing would not release from the truck! I jerked it forward a bit with the truck. I jumped on the trailer hitch. I jumped around like a monkey. I tried everything imaginable to release the trailer from the truck.
A friendly RVer walked over and in two seconds showed me my problem. I had not released the lock on the trailer hitch keeping the hitch from being released from the truck. He calmly released the lever and boom…problem solved.
We’ve taken tiny steps every day since that moment over two years ago in our RV journey. And although it seems like the more we learn the less we know a few things have stood out…
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Share your journey for those starting up theirs.
Slow down.
Don’t wait until you are 100% sure. Get to 95% and make the leap.
No matter where you are on your journey, you have to start somewhere. Just today, we were at a dump station surrounded by rental RVs. The person 2 RVs ahead of us was finishing up as we pulled in line. But I could already see the problem.
They had filled their water tank with the waste water rinse spigot instead of the fresh water spigot 10 feet to the right. After they finished up and started to loop around they noticed their mistake. So…they got back in line behind 3 RVs to wait another 30+ minutes for their turn in line so they could dump the bad water and fill up at the right spigot.
A penny at a time. That’s how a lot of RVing works. I’m still learning about solar, 12 volts vs 120 volts, and timing where we book our next stay. Mistakes Learning opportunities will happen throughout the journey. But, more than that, memories will be made. That’s the journey.
Sure, it feels good when you pull up to that breathtaking view 2/3 across the country, but that is just part of the journey. The bigger part is one step. One phone call. One turn. One penny at a time.