It was pretty surreal driving home from the dealer with our baby hitched to us for the first time!
If you ever feel that you are “supposed” to be doing something, I highly recommend following that path to see where it leads!!! It’s been my experience that the journey itself is worth it…regardless of whether or not you ever “get” to where you thought you were headed!!!
Chad and I have just barely begun with our most recent “leap of faith” – acting on the “feeling” that we should travel full-time in an RV…and work remotely! It’s only been 5 weeks since our desire to “hit the road” appeared, and I can tell you already that the journey has been SO incredibly worth it….regardless of where this series of events is ultimately headed!
Several friends and family members have reached out to us because they were concerned that something was wrong. Quite ironic, actually, because life has never felt so right as far as we’re concerned. But I suppose that’s what following your heart does for ya, huh? 😉 (In their defense… from their perspective this whole idea just “sprung up overnight.” It also seemed that way to us at first, actually, but in hindsight we can see a whole series of events in our lives that, although we didn’t understand the meaning of them at the time, have actually been leading us to right here for quite some time. That will have to be a whole future blog post of its own!) For now, here’s a bit to catch everyone up to speed on our situation…
First sunset “on the road” (on our way home from the RV dealer!)
About 5 weeks ago, I announced on our Facebook page that Chad and I were selling our home and our stuff and hitting the road full-time in an RV. The reasons why are too many to mention here, but I hope to blog about them all very soon. Shortly thereafter, I posted that we were not selling our house, after all, and were planning to just travel a lot, basically.
So for the past few weeks, we’ve been pursuing that plan and shopping around for a camper that would serve that “part-time” purpose. I plan to blog about that in more detail eventually, but for now suffice it to say that “Plan B” just wasn’t coming together. Ultimately, we realized it wasn’t working out because it’s not what we truly felt we were being led to do. Intuition is so incredibly persistent, huh?! You can try to deny it, but the heart wants what the heart wants! So…..we’re back to “Plan A” (well, sort of) and things feel “right” again.
With our original “Plan A,” we were just days away from putting our house on the market when we realized that there was going to be a lot of work to do and a lot of time (potentially) to wait before we’d be able to hit the road…because we weren’t going to purchase an RV until after we sold our house…and that can take a while. Again, I’ll be blogging here soon about all of this and all of the reasons that we got started on this path, etc. (so register for email updates here if you’d like)….but for now…here’s where things stand…
Hitched up for the first time (at Apache Camper Center)
We purchased our very first RV – a fifth wheel that is big enough (??) for us to live in full-time but also affordable enough for us to feel comfortable purchasing it before selling our home. We picked up the RV a couple days ago and found out we have a ton to learn…but it’s waaaaay exciting!!! We’ve gotten a few of our first RV “accomplishments” under our belt now, so we’re on our way to gaining some kind of comfort level with all of this, I suppose (ahhhh…I hope!)…
- We (…err…Chad) drove the 25 minutes through town from the dealer to our house without harming anyone or anything (that we know of…). Not bad for the first time towing such a monstrosity, eh?!
- We (…err…Chad) backed it into the driveway without knocking over the garage!
- We (…err…Chad) unhitched it without it rolling away…and even got it all leveled nicely!
- Hey! Don’t think I haven’t done my part, though…someone had to shop for bath mats and throw pillows (and RV floral does not make coordination easy)!
- We even survived our first “tragedy”…yes, even before leaving our own driveway. LOL! Apparently if it’s really cold and snowy, you should not pull your slides in on your RV (“slides” are extra parts of the camper that slide out to make your rooms larger by the way). When it’s cold and snowing outside, ice can form on top of the slide roof. When the slide is in, the slide roof (and its accompanying ice) will be inside your RV, as well…which means water will be on your floor as soon as the ice melts. Luckily this occurred to us before we had the slide all the way in, and we aborted and stuck the slide back out. Hopefully we didn’t damage anything by trying to drag that thin layer of ice inside, though? Oops!
Home sweet home (?)
Now, we’re busy preparing our RV. It needs new tires and we have some supplies (and courage…gulp!) to gather, etc. Then, thanks to some wonderful friends who will be moving into our home to stay with our dog while we’re gone, we’ll be hitting the road very soon for a while to verify that we love the lifestyle as much as we feel that we will. If it’s a 100% “go,” then we’ll return to Nebraska and sell the house (and most of our belongings) as originally planned.
Our current property…for sale soon??
Yes, full-time RVing will mean no longer owning our gorgeous 1-acre, country-in-the-city property that we fell madly in love with and purchased just two years ago. And, no, we have not “lost our minds”! But thanks for checking! (hee, hee!). Funny how your intuition can make decisions that are objectively pretty major not really feel all that drastic at all. Seriously, in this moment it simply feels to us like… “It’s been wonderful living here in this amazing place that we still can’t believe we ever found…Actually, it feels like we’ve always lived here (because this place was so perfect for us when we found it)…Okay, well enough of that…let’s see what’s next…”
If you were along for the ride when we found this property two years ago, and you’ve witnessed our excitement and overflowing gratitude over the blessing of living here, then you may find our current endeavor a bit shocking, I suppose. But rest assured…that level of excitement that you witnessed regarding our current life situation…Well, that’s exactly how we feel about our new endeavor now!! In fact, owning this amazing property actually contributed in its own way to our desire to own no property at all…and to not live in Nebraska.
Stay tuned for natural recipes and “how-to” videos from our mobile kitchen!
It’s a long story (which I’ll surely blog about later), but the short of it is that living on this property and enjoying all of the nature, trees, peace and quiet, open space and wildlife made Chad and I realize just how much we enjoy (rather, how much we need) that as part of our daily lives. Snuggling on our deck and gazing at the stars on cool fall evenings, laying under our huge shade trees on summer afternoons, and chatting over breakfast on the deck on warm spring mornings made us realize just how much we do not enjoy cold Nebraska winters for one thing! Problem is, if there’s somewhere we’d rather live, we have no idea where that would be…and, of course, warmer places have their downsides, too. So why not just go live…everywhere, right!? 😉
Okay, so cold winters are definitely not the sole driving force behind our desire to hit the road – far from it, actually. But for now….I’ve got an RV to go pack! More to come soon, so stay tuned…
Completely Nourished 
I am very excited to follow your journey! My husband and I have talked about doing this – the fantasy version – but have never looked at the realities of how to make it happen. Thanks for allowing us to experience this life vicariously!!
Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, Michelle! But ….PLEASE don’t live vicariously through us….get out there and make steps toward the life YOU want!!! 🙂 We have NO clue what we’re doing….so, if we can do it…anyone can! 🙂
Nothing but love from here! just because some of us spent years gearing up for life on the road doesn’t meanit’s the only way to go. You guys have serious balls! Kudos for just going for it!!!
Love seeing your journey! We are on a similar, tho very different, life changing adventure and you are inspiring me to trudge ahead!! Our adventure is homeschooling our two children (one already in public school). It’s a major shift for all of us and our loved ones think we are a bit off for considering it! And i have to figure out how to keep my health coach business alive in the process! I look forward to hearing more about your adventure. Such strength and beauty in what you are doing by trusting your intuition.
Good for you, Krystal! Always follow your heart and ignore those who think you’re nuts. LOL! When you act with good intentions, things tend to work out for the best. With love for your children and their best interests at heart, I’m sure you’ll find a way to balance it all. Plus, sometimes the busier we are, the more productive we are because we are forced to make excellent use of our time 😉 Blessings to you on your journey!! 🙂
Welcome to the road.. looking forward to hopefully crossing paths. You’re coming into an amazing community of creative, active and adventurous fellow nomadic souls!
Thanks so much, Cherie! I’d love to meet up sometime once we’re on the road – I LOVE following your blog…you have GREAT info!
I will be following along on your adventure. My husband and I have done a bit like you.. We had Plan A – Hit the Road ASAP – then a Plan B – Prepare – then Plan C – forget it – Now a Plan D – We will be on the road by January 1, 2014 – Our launch date.. so I love seeing some folks just getting on the road and capturing the adventure in their blog… Safe Travels, Have Fun, Blog! 🙂
Awesome, Tina! Keep me posted on YOUR plans, too, as they evolve!! 🙂
Best of luck to you! It definitely sounds like an adventure! 🙂 I hope it proves to be all you dreamed of and more!
Thanks so much, Julie! Me, too!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
I hope all is going well with this! 🙂 I noticed you started a new blog or page for it (saw it briefly on Facebook), so I will be sure to follow that! 🙂
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I’m having a Luck O’ The Blogger link-up where you get a chance to share your friends by either linking up there url or sharing a post about them or the like, and each day I highlight some blogger buddies of mine, and today I shared you as one of those buddies. 🙂 You have always been such an encouragement to me and I count you as a friend! I hope you will get the chance to stop by later and join in the fun, but even if you can’t, I just wanted you to know that I feel blessed to have you in my life! 🙂
Have a great Sunday!
My husband and I are following a similar path. We bought our rig last fall and are in the process of selling our house. We plan to live in our rig for the next few months while continuing to work our current jobs in Indianapolis. We hope to get on the road in June and head west. I have to admit the sorting, selling, storing, and purging of belongings has been a challenge, but mostly it has been liberating!
Awesome, Jeanne!!! Yes, the sorting/purging/etc. is liberating indeed!!! Blessings to you on your journey!! If you’ll be blogging anywhere, let me know so I can follow you!!! 🙂
Good luck on your new journey. We just started our full time life 6 months ago. We are down in Tucson now and doing lots of hiking.
check out our blog: http://metamorphosisroad.blogspot.com Hans and Lisa
Thanks, I checked out your blog and will be following! I LOVE all of your beautiful pics, too! Looks like I’ll find some good “leads” on places to check out by following YOU!
Rock on you two… follow wherever the spirit (or mind or whatever you call it) leads you.. Lynda and I are hitting the road soon. We already live in our Koko (short for Kokopelli) and have for 6 months… when we finally wrap up our business here in San Diego, we will get on the road. drop dead date of spring of 2015, but hoping for sooner. LOTS to do… Have a BLAST~!
Man, I WISH we could live in our rig right here for a bit, but it’s soooooooo cold in Nebraska, and I do enjoy running water! LOL! Thanks for your well wishes! I bet you’ll get outta there sooner!!! 🙂
Great blog!
Kate bodmann linked us on her post on FB so i thought i’d see what your story was! How exciting! I spent the past 6months getting rid of everything we owned. We packed up our stuff in the back of a pickup and moved out of omaha, ne to follow a dream. its a longer story but you can catch up on the blog i have. http://www.simplethewildside.blogpress.com
i look forward to seeing your story unfold! And If you’re ever in the Pacific NW i hope you know that you’ll have a place to park. Just get a hold of us 🙂
Thanks so much for reaching out! I hope you’re loving it out there! Looks gorgeous!! We’d LOVE to come that way and meet you guys (and park) sometime!!! Thanks so much! I’ve been sitting here clicking through every one of your posts, and I LOVE your blog. Will be staying tuned for SURE!!! Clicked all the way through and landed on your very first blog post only to discover one of my favorite quotes sitting there! 🙂 Love it!!!
I’m following your other blog now too 🙂 and of course liked your FB page.
We ARE loving it up here! Omaha is great but there is just something far more magnificent out here and we just feel like we ‘belong’.
That quote is very appropriate and fitting isn’t it!
I do not know the logistics yet about our park we will be staying at or how things will work there but i informed my husband last night we may be getting visitors and warned him our house will always be open. We should be moved into the park in a month!
Also, I need to update this post, but we’ll actually be blogging about the RV part of our life on a separate blog site here – http://dreamersinmotion.wordpress.com/ (and on Facebook here – https://www.facebook.com/#!/DreamersInMotion) 🙂