Years ago, my (then boyfriend) and I had a fascinating chat with the man who drove us from Cairns to the Mossman Gorge in far north Queensland. He had recently returned to Australia with his family after spending the previous 5 years in Papua New Guinea. They expected to spend 5 years at this current Aussie adventure before moving on to the next. He called it The Five Year Plan.

I’m sharing this anecdote now to provide context for the sometimes months-long gaps between blog posts here.

Anythingcanhappenday was initially conceived as a way to share tales from the road when, in 2015, I spent 10 months touring the country in a smallish motorhome. (It was great. Feel free to read from the beginning.)

Five years later, my husband and I had just about completed the gut renovation of our new, not-quite-tiny house. It never once occurred to me to write about it.

Months of gritty (literally), hands-on, self-funded work is what we do between adventures. Our house projects are journeys in their own right, but they’re anything but interesting. Instead, they are social and financial black holes into which we willingly throw ourselves. Self-imposed austerity reallocates entertainment dollars to unsexy indulgences like drywall and R-15 insulation. “Living rough” in an active construction zone makes hospitality impossible. Our new fridge is sharing space with the makeshift bed. We’re often dirty, tired, and/or stressed.

“Today we finally pulled up the filthy purple carpet and found another layer of filthy, worn flooring beneath it,” is not inspiring stuff. Our days are boring and repetitive. It has taken me years to write this post—mostly because I keep hoping to summon the joy of discovery that drives my travel stories. Joy is definitely part of the experience, but at the end of the day I’m just too beat to put it into words.

We started a new project in August of 2023. I hope that it will become our home base for a new set of adventures.

Eat: Local spots like The Speckled Goat and Yellow Dog Cafe kept us sustained through the early days of demolition with made-from-scratch goodies that we would have cooked for ourselves—if we had a fully functioning kitchen.

Play: From birdwatching at Arcadia Marsh to paddling the lovely Platte River—the many outdoor recreation options within an hour of our door should take at least 5 years to explore.