Adventure - Living In Beauty

Posted November 30, 2017 – Narrated by Carmen

Due to the video below, there is no podcast.

“It’s always best to start at the beginning. And all you do is follow the yellow brick road.”

– Glinda, The Good Witch – The Wizard of Oz

Pico and I play “Oz” at my sister’s charming house in the woods of Tennessee

Once upon a time this summer while camping at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a production crew from Wunder man – a prominent digital marketing agency – sent an email requesting permission to join us on the road and make a mini-documentary about LIB.

On the first read, we doubted the authenticity of the offer and, as we were off-grid and without a cell signal, we put the correspondence aside until we had WiFi at Boots Bar and Grill in Medora, North Dakota.

Intrigued, we researched the agency’s legitimacy.

Wow! This was for real. We just sat there, stunned.

Wunderman’s client, Best Buy, was interested in how technology facilitates our passion for full-time travel. Of course, we had a few questions, such as why our story, and how did they find us …? And how did they know we are Best Buy customers…?

These questions and more, Wunderman said, would be dealt with in due time but for the moment they were in a whirlwind of activity and needed our answer. Yes or No?

Naturally, we had doubts about the wisdom of putting ourselves out there, but apparently, LIB had already opened that door. And, a “No” answer would roundly deny our LIB mission to embrace the spirit of adventure. So we took the leap…

“The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.” – The Wizard of Oz

… and answered, “Yes.”

Yes! to being swept into a wave of youthful creative energy and carried up into the clouds by an itinerant band of passionate storytellers for a couple of glorious early-autumn days in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Yes, indeed!

We met the crew at the highly rated Harvest Hosts destination, Bluestone Vineyard, and the gracious owners of this spectacular property and tasting room opened their gates and casks to us …

“Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by boat or train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain…” – Dorothy

… and then, we went over the rainbow!

Here is the mini-documentary

Special thanks to the team of kindly wizards at Wunderman, Best Buy, and Drive Thru, Inc.

“But it wasn’t a dream. It was a place, and you … and you … and you … and you were there!” – Dorothy

Here are a few ‘behind-the-scenes’ photos from our 3-day film-making adventure.

“Frightened? Child, you’re talking to a man who’s laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe… I was petrified.” – Wizard of Oz

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” – Wizard of Oz

“I’ve got a way to get us in there, and you’re gonna lead us.” – Scarecrow to Dorothy

“It really was no miracle. What happened was just this…” – Dorothy

“It’s funny, but I feel as if I’d known you all the time, but I couldn’t have, could I?” – Dorothy

“My! People come and go so quickly here!” – Dorothy

“The dreams that you dare to dream really do come true” – Dorothy

“Now which way do we go?” – Dorothy to the Scarecrow

“If we walk far enough, we shall sometime come to someplace.” – Dorothy

“We must be over the rainbow!” – Dorothy

“My goodness, what a fuss you’re making!” – Dorothy to the Lion

“Shucks, folks, I’m speechless” – The Lion

And, now, as we gently come back down to earth, we’d like to thank our beautiful hot air balloon, Sirus, and her pilot, Mark Miller, and the crew at Star Ballooning for the smooth and expert flight – Honestly, I could have iced a cake through that landing!