What are you guys thinking?

Where do I begin? For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to go to the temple. When I was a teenager the prophet of the church was Gordon B. Hinckley. He had a fire for temple work, and made a goal to have 100 temples built in the world by the year 2000. Ever since that goal of President Hinckley's, I remember having the goal of wanting to visit each and every temple that was or would ever be built. When I met Ashley, I had probably been to around 15 to 20 temples. I told her of my goal, but that I was willing to start over when we got married. Whenever we travel we have always tried to make time to visit the temple if they have one where we are or close to where we are going. 

With the rate that the church is building temples, so that the members of the church can all be close to a temple, the goal started to seem insurmountable, but it's never been a goal that I thought I would accomplish quickly. It has been a great excuse to travel, which has always been a love of mine and Ashley. We were able to visit a few temples in Europe when me and Ashley did a study abroad in Spain, we visited the Madrid temple, the incomplete Rome temple, and the London England temple. We tried to make it to the Paris France and Bern Switzerland temples, but it wasn't in the cards and will hopefully be in the next trip to Europe. The following year Ashley got put on the Dean's research committee at UVU and was able to present her research at a conference in Shanghai China. Since her trip and expenses were paid for, it was a no brainer for us to pay my way over to China. While in China we were able to make it to the Hong Kong temple. With a little better planning on my part we probably could have made it to the Taipei Taiwan temple, but that will be next time we head over there. 

You're probably wondering what has gotten into us. Why in the prime of our lives, would we sell all our stuff, quit our day jobs, and choose to live in an RV with three cats? Well a couple of years ago my work sent me on a road trip to recover a large amount of inventory that was sitting in storage units across the United States. I told Ashley that they were sending me in a 15 passenger van with a dual axle, 16 foot trailer and that we would be passing around 15 temples on our way. So in 3 weeks we were able to visit all the California temples, except Sacramento, we went to the Tijuana Mexico open house. Went to all the Arizona temples, except Snowflake and Gila Valley, went to the Juarez Mexico temple, all of the temples in Texas, Albuquerque New Mexico, and to cap it off a temple in Utah that we had never been to and would have a hard time making it to in Monticello. Well this gave us the itch. It was so easy to make the temple a part of the journey, and we believe that because we made the temple a priority, everything else worked out much better than previously planned. It was a huge blessing. 

Around this same time Ashley had decided to start writing a biography for her paternal grandmother Marie. When Marie was a teenager she joined the church in Sintaluta Canada. She decided to move to Utah to attend BYU. She said that once she got to the states she had made up her mind that she would never move back to Canada, and she stayed true to her word. Well this got Ashley thinking that she needed to go to Canada to meet a side of the family that she had never met and get their side of the Marie story. I'll let Ashley tell about that experience, but on that trip we also were able to go to the Brigham City Utah temple, the Cardston Alberta Canada temple, the Calgary Alberta temple, the Regina Saskatchewan temple, and the Billings Montana temple. Little by little we were marking temples off our list. We missed a couple because of scheduling conflicts or strange building schedules, but we knew we had reasons to go back and it gave us one more reason to revisit some of these stops. Not to mention we met probably the nicest people in the world when we went to Canada. Canadians are genuinely the nicest people I have ever met. 

One more thing has always given us a hunger to see all the temples in the world, not just the US. Our friend Grant McCarty has been working on the tile remodeling in temples throughout the United States and the South Pacific. He has shared so many neat experiences with us that it has just added fuel to the fire about our testimony of the temple. I was able to go to Tahiti this last year and help him remodel the temple there. And since my trip was paid for, just like Ashley's was to China, it was a no brainer to pay for her to come out to Tahiti so we could go to that temple once it reopened. 

So back to our decision to sell all our stuff and move into an RV. Well this would never have happened without Ashley. She says that this was our decision, but I'm more of an idea guy and Ashley makes things happen. One night she said, what's the easiest way for us to accomplish this goal of going to all the temples? We could save and take trips now and then. Fly out to places, rent a car, get a hotel... but what if we sold all of our stuff and bought and RV and just drove to all the temples? It would be way more fun because we could see the country, and it would be way cheaper because we would have to pay for flights, hotels or rental cars. With both of our jobs we have a ton of flexibility and, Rodd, if your work doesn't want you to work for them while we do this, we can find you something to do on the road remotely. I agreed that that sounded like an awesome idea, but in the back of my head, I wondered if we could really do it. We have a mortgage, we have stable jobs. Why would anyone give that up? Well the answer is simple for me, life is about what you make of it. I wasn't happy going to work each day, because I was able to do my job from my phone. When my work needed me to travel, sometimes it was same day, but almost always it was, hey you're going to Texas tomorrow, or you're doing this. So for me, it made sense that I would still be able to do my job while on the road. I would continue doing what I was doing and when they needed me in another state they could fly me to wherever they needed me, or we could probably drive to wherever I was needed at the time. So in my head I was almost certain that I would retain my job. Well not everything works out as planned. My job told me that if I didn't live in Utah, then they weren't interested in having me work for them. As nervous as I was to tell them that I was moving, when they told me that my steady income was only good as long as I lived in Utah, I thought I would be a lot more nervous. When they said you have a job when you get back, I knew that it was time for me to move on and focus on what made me happy. What makes me happier than going to the temple and traveling to see the world? Nothing. So this is about doing what makes us happy. 

Ashley is blessed to be the best at what she does and has a business that she can run from the road. I'm blessed to be able to speak Spanish fluently and to have an online job doing Spanish and English transcription. I'm also bringing my satellite equipment with me to hopefully make some money helping people with their satellite systems on the road, and I brought my window washing equipment so I can wash windows as well. Luckily I have a wife who makes the finances work for us and we have saved our pennies for years and are able to make this happen. 

Basically we are on this journey to be happy, and to remember that life is about experiences, more than it's about things, and jobs, and accumulating stuff. We are so glad that you've decided to come along with us, and see what meaning these miles really have in store for us. We are beyond grateful for this opportunity, and know that it's a huge blessing, and opportunity will bring growth, and perspective with it. It's definitely not going to be easy, but we are up for the challenge.

Here's to more and more meaningful miles in our lives.