Middle Brick Road

Oregon Ducks mascot at Cal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Making an official announcement here on my blog is a little tricky. I feel like it is important that my closest friends and family all find out what is going on before I share it with the world. After all, it only seems fair.

That being said, I have worked out my post baccalaureate plans, finally. This upcoming fall I will be attending graduate school at the University of Oregon to gain a graduate certificate in the Oregon Leadership in Sustainability.

Where will it take me? You wonder. Me, not so much.

I have lots of ideas and lots of options.

I know that there are 3 pretty solid choices which involve either pursuing my masters and PhD or going to law school. While law school sounds fun, I just don’t feel like that is something I am ready to commit to quite yet. Especially since I would like to have a better idea of what kind of law degree I may or may not need after working in my field for a while, so I will likely focus on my other options, save up the money I earn and if I do end up in law school – I want to pay for it out of my pocket. Besides, you all know you’re just dying to call me Dr. K *Hehe*

The journey through school will be a long one. I have 5 years before I will get a PhD, hopefully the economy is better by then. Or even better, that my field is booming, my blog is booming and I get to travel the country or world doing freelance consultant work. Anyways, instead of boring you with my scholastic journey now (I’m sure I will have lots of posts about my experiences as they happen) I think I want to daydream with you on where I plan on ending up professionally at the end of this. Freelancing is one thing for sure, and sharing my work here on my blog should really help that process along.

You have to know where you plan on going, for your journey to have any meaning.

For a while now I have had a really good idea of where I see myself in 5 years. Which if you ask me, knowing where you see yourself in 5 years is the first step. I know where I will begin my impact on the world and that I will do my best to make a difference. My plan is to make that difference within the community and through protecting and embracing:

• Food Security
• Active Living
• Sustainability
• A Resource Based Economy
• Walk-ability
• Front-Yard and Community Gardens
• Community Building

These are all things I can work towards in a career in sustainability, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. I know there is so much more I can do. To be honest I am a bit torn between Landscape Architecture and Community and Regional Planning, now getting to the school, that is a whole other story. We will be leaving from Virginia and travelling to Oregon . . . it will be me, the husband, our two dogs and kitteh cat – all in one van.

Our Great Journey, Began with Downsizing

We sold pretty much everything. And kept the things we really wanted to keep. It was tough to decide what was and was not important. Some things were kept for their pure sentimental value, or for the fact that it would cost more to replace it than to take it with us.

My books are one of the things that I was really adamant about keeping. We managed to stuff them strategically under the seats in the van, there are a few left over, but we should be able to easily find more small spaces to squeeze each book once we do our final pack of the van later this week.

Most of the things we kept were gifts from the wedding, sentimental in nature or too expensive to replace. We thought really hard about getting a truck for the move, buying a trailer and even shipping our stuff and flying to Oregon. But between the cost of gas and everything else, it just made more sense to sell our stuff and replace the things we really need when we get there.

As much as we wanted to do it, going the southern route and seeing friends and family along the way, just will not be possible. *sad face*

That being said, I have come up with our northern route. It is just over 2,900 miles and should take us 3 to 4 days.
To give us, the pups and hopefully the kitteh a break I have found dog friendly stops all along the way about every 6 – 8 hours. They all look like great places to get some rest and stretch our legs. I even found a place or two where the dogs can take a dip in the water and cool off . . . but we will see about that, I am not so sure how I feel about wet puppy dogs in the back of our van. Wet dog smell is just icky.

The Map of Our Journey (Click for details)

If we are passing by you, let me know

The trip will begin late on Monday September 3rd and we will be leaving pretty close to midnight. We plan on spending our last weekend down at the lake with our family and some friends. We should make it to a dog park in Lexington Kentucky to take a break around breakfast and I have our lunch and overnight stops worked out too!

In Missouri there is a place right off the highway where we can pop up our tent and camp for free! From there we plan on making it to Utah the next day and stopping at one of the other three camp areas I found, it will all just depend on how tired we get from the driving or how ready we are to be in Oregon. Either way, I have planned stops for us every few hours and Motel 6 which allows pets is inexpensive and has places all along the way.

We should make it to Eugene by Friday September 7th and all of my school stuffs will be underway! I have already found a work-study and Steven is very close to finding a job. Unfortunately securing our apartment means he needs to have the job thing secured first or we have to shell out a little extra dough for the deposit. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but I will be sure to keep everyone updated as we go along. More details on that to come soon!

Thanks for stopping by the Middle Brick Road, I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Kacey and I am really big on health and all things natural – freedom – politics and bringing change by abandoning the boxes we too often put ourselves in.

If you’re new here, please take a look around, follow along and like me on Facebook, so you never miss a beat. =)) Until next time . . .