The Blue Chair.

See that chair? The blue one, right in the middle of the picture? It's new to me. I had to buy a chair at Canadian Tire in Terrace because my favourite black chair (from previous pictures) finally bit the dust (literally!) in Haida Gwaii. I've had the black chair for about 15 years and I loved it. It was big and comfy and had cup holders and a book pocket and performed all it's chair duties with steady confidence. Anyways, it died.
Clearly I needed to replace my chair because at this point, I still had 7.5 weeks on the road and I needed to sit on something. I stopped at the first town that had more than a gas station and started looking and sitting in chairs. There were probably about a dozen different chairs to test out. There were the basic folding camp chairs all the way up to deluxe loungers.  I tried them all. Fortunately, they were in the back of the store, so I didn't have a crowd watching me while I had 10 chairs lined up (I knocked 2 out of the running right away) and sat in each one with a book and my water. (If you're going to buy a chair, couch, etc. I encourage you to try it out in exactly the way you intend to use it. Shoes off, book in one hand, snacks perched close by and a drink within reach.) While I was sitting in the blue chair I had a "moment". At no point in the process of chair trials did it cross my mind how much the chairs cost. (Now in fairness, I was in Canadian Tire and not some super fancy chair place. And I knew that the most expensive chair was still under $100.) That little thought led me down a trail of gratefulness thoughts. The whole (original) purpose of this trip was my freedom trip. It's the two months I have worked towards for many years - the destination changed but the intent was the same. So I sat in the blue chair and did some reminiscing. We have come a LONG ways in the past 15 years. I could write forever about how the  kids are grown up and doing their things and I'm working and doing my thing, blah, blah, blah. But, the moment for me that made me smile and sigh with contentment was when I sat in the very comfy blue chair and decided that was the chair for me without needing to know how much it cost.
Sometimes looking back at where you've been helps to get perspective on where you are at the moment. For me, the blue chair will be a reminder that we are doing great.