It's not all unicorns and rainbows but when it is, it's a unicorn on steroids jumping over a 28-hue rainbow. (Lindsay)

Now that we've spent a few weeks living full-time in our little camper and actually doing the things we said we were going to do on this trip, we've been making an effort to note whether it all feels right.  You know how it goes.  You have some crazy idea ("I'm going to climb Mount Everest!") which keeps you going for a few weeks while you read about other crazy people who have accomplished the same feat but then as the training and expenses pile up, you lose your mojo and quit.  Well, we didn't want that to happen but we also wanted to be realistic about which parts of our "only in our head" dream really make us happy.

It's one of my pet peeves that people go on a trip or have some experience and pretend like it was all sunshine and gumdrops because it sets an expectation for the next person to have the same euphoria and when it's inevitably lacking, you feel like a failure.  Everyone said living in West Africa would change my life and it did.  But it also brought on the worst breakdowns I've ever had after watching a mother hold her dying baby in her arms waiting at the pharmacy for some medication that would never save him.  (This moment passed when I stayed overnight with a friend's family and the wife, who I shared the bed with and ten years my junior, stayed up the entire night fanning me so I could sleep in the heat.)  Travel does that - it shakes you to your core if you really look around and then, just like that, it gives you something to smile about; something to be immensely grateful for.

I am on this road trip to find "the sweet spot".  Psychologists say this is the feeling we all get when we've reached our own unique balance between boredom and anxiety.  I've found it quite a few times on this journey and much more often than I was able to before but not really at the times I thought I would.  I found it last Friday after six and a half hours of hiking when I had taken a shower, eaten dinner and was folding my laundry.  I have no idea what it was - the peace you feel after a day in the woods, the chance to bathe, the security of the mundane - whatever it was, it was blissful.  I did NOT find it the next night while on an isolated and stunningly beautiful beach watching the sunset with the boy.

I found it here.

 But not here.

It's well known by now that Facebook and social media, while bringing us together in new ways, has also isolated us further from deep relationships.  It also paints such a rosy f'ing picture of everyone's life that the majority of people, when polled, say they feel inadequate compared to the lives of their friends when viewed through their FB profile.  Well, we all know how that goes.  Unless you're one of those "let it all out on FB" people, you tend to post the funny, the memorable and the proudest moments of your life.  Of 100 pictures I take in a given day, 50ish make the cut and 15 of the best end up on FB.  I don't post "I almost took Jim's head off today after the 50th time he stepped on the heel of my flip-flop" or "I had a minor breakdown in Acadia because I was sick of walking my dog on a leash".  No, instead we post about the positive.

Which brings me back to my point.  While there are some things I do not like about this trip - not showering after a particularly muggy day without an option to dive in a lake, driving on ugly roads, having to do some amount of research every day to try figure out our next moves (I know, waaaah Lindsay, you're on a roadtrip and we feel bad for you) - there are so many unexpected gems that it takes your breath away.  Because Jim put himself out there in the grocery store and asked the locals where to go we ended up on an amazing beach on the Eastern coast of Nova Scotia.  Even better, because we asked the local police officer if we could boondock there, we had the place to ourselves - for free.  Totally unexpected.

Keira also appreciates the amazing beach

And it amazes me how much expectations play a part in our happiness.  I had zero ideas about Halifax.  Literally none.  If anything I expected it to be kinda seedy.  But we wove our way through beautiful neighborhoods and found a small park with trails and spent the night next to it.  Before going to bed, we walked a few miles into the beautiful downtown and enjoyed a beer at a local pub.  I woke up the next morning, jumped out of the camper and took Keira for a run.  Just because we were there and it was beautiful.

So thank you for following our journey.  I just ask you follow it with a grain of salt.  Because inevitably on the same day I post "life is amazing and spontaneous" you can bet I also had a rage baby earlier in the day because my running pants really were starting to smell.