You Can't Cook a Dead Crab and Eat It

Imagine spending 85 days living in a 10-foot popup tent camper while driving 8,000 miles around the American West in search of a place to call home. We didn't imagine it. We lived it. This is our story. Debbie and I spent most of our adult lives chasing career opportunities in journalism, allowing the job to determine where we lived. Our adventure took us from Wisconsin to Iowa to California to Colorado to Texas and finally to Tennessee. That formula worked fine and dandy for the 14 years Debbie and I were married without children. Then we started a family. Our commitment to our two daughters came down to this: One of us would always stay at home to raise the girls. Sure it was a financial challenge, but from an early stage we learned of the priceless benefits. Our career carousel eventually landed us in Tennessee. There's a lot of nice things that can be said about the South, but having grown up in the Midwest and living years in the West, well, we just didn't fit in there. I moved around a pinch too much as a youngster and always at the wrong time. With my daughter Sierra just finishing third grade, I knew it was time to get her to a place to plant roots before middle school and high school. A place we would stay until both daughters were away to college. This is the story of that journey, in the summer of 2005. An unforgettable time when we taught our daughters an important lesson: When your life isn't going the way you envisioned, take control and make your life what you want it to be.