Upstate New York, New Hampshire and Vermont

 Hello all!

It has been a while since I last updated this blog, so I thought I'd condense updates into one.  

We made it to Upstate New York a few weeks ago and settled in at Laura's parents, Rick and Lisa.  From sleeping on a squished down mattress for over two months, we were ready to enjoy some solid sleep and recover from the discomforts of traveling for a few weeks.

When we arrived, I felt an urge to start looking for houses that had property (3-5 acres) and a modestly sized home (2-2,500 sqft).  There are a bunch of properties like this out there and at a much less cost per square foot compared to Boise.  We started taking trips to the surrounding towns like, Oswego, Syracuse, Hamilton, Cazenovia and Utica, to see what these properties actually looked and felt like.  Many were too small and the pictures on realtor.com were doctored up and didn't look like the actual house.

We decided to just relax and stop the serious hunt for now and just recover from the trip.  Taking some time to chill was much needed.  Rick and Lisa are great!  They've had some solid time bonding with Henry.  He has fallen for them as much as they have for him.  Laura and I have visited her close friends around town.  I feel as if they are my friends too, which is nice.  Everyone is so genuine.

I've been helping Rick and Lisa with house projects.  I've torn out bushes and cut trees.  Cleaned up debris from tree trimmings and helped begin disassembling their deck.  They are putting a new Trex deck top with new rails here soon and I've been working to help them with some of the labor work.  It's nice to have a project or two to work on, being I love projects!

Upstate is quite beautiful.  Lush green landscapes and rolling hills for miles.  Lakes seem to be everywhere and the food is so very good.  Our goal is to find a farm-like home that has space to grow into another AirBnB.  If we can emulate what we accomplished in Boise, we could have a nice way to make money in a different way.  That is the goal.  Multiple ways of making money.  Diversify.

We are now in Vermont after a great stay with my friend from chiropractic school, Dr. Andy Slater and his wife Maggie and two sons.  Andy and I have had an ongoing friendship since 2008 and it's like we just pick up where we left off.  He started DC school with me and after about a year learned it wasn't for him.  He pursued medicine and ended up out east in Osteopathic Medical School.  He is now a neurologist in New Hampshire.  We both about quit DC school at the same time but I stayed because to get into DO school, it would've added a couple more years onto my timeline and I was not patient back then.  I chose to stay and he ventured off.  I am happy for him to see him go through the long 8 year journey to become a neurologist.

We all go through things in life like this.  Make hard decisions and follow unique paths.  In practice you meet every kind of person and learn about their path in life.  That is the largest thing I miss about daily practice.  I miss my staff at the clinic and being involved with face to face conversations.  We all still communicate with periodic phone calls and texts.  Everything is buzzing right along for both Trailhead and Myofly.  Having time to sit back and study the business and its inner workings has helped me move the two businesses into a new realm.  A lot goes untouched when you are scrambling to do a hundred things a day and multi-tasking is not a strength.  Fortunately, the staff I found fills in the gaps that I have in my abilities.  I can now be an advocate of growth and development while they operate the daily workings of the businesses.  

I continue to do payroll, review all daily notes and exams and work on our websites SEO to get us high on the Google listings.  I have been working on Facebook marketing and Instagram a bit.  There are so many people in Boise that are new and interested in what we provide, but they don't know we exist.  They will!

Vermont is quite beautiful.  The lake near us is called Lake Champlain.  It is stunning!  We are nestled in a campsite near the lake called North Beach Campground.  It's pretty nice.  Today is a bit rainy but in a little bit it's supposed to let up so we can venture out and have nice day.

Traveling is exhausting.  I didn't realize how much effort it takes until we got on the road last Wednesday. Getting things organized, cleaned and prepared is a huge undertaking.  I enjoy it but it does wear you out.  Today we are a little tired and will likely just chill.  Perhaps go look at the downtown area and go on a leisurely walk.

Future plans are to continue traveling a little bit.  Kara, Laura's sister, has a trip planned for August to South Carolina.  That is about a 12 hour journey so in our world, it will take us a week to get there.  We cannot travel more than 3 hours on the road a day because 3 hours takes us about 5 or 6 with stopping for Henry and having lunch.  If we give ourselves a week to get somewhere, it's less intense for us to accomplish.  We will likely hit the eastern seaboard for the August trip and go through Maine, Rhode Island and a few States we haven't visited.  

All for now and have a great week!

Nate