Gone4Good
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2005
- Messages
- 5,381
If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be living in an RV and traveling the continent full-time by early next spring.
The decision to do this is a recent one; only a few weeks old, but it actually has been several years in the making. The original idea (at least for me) came from this very forum about three years back when brewer12345 posted a link to this site. I forwarded the url to my wife who liked the idea but thought it was something we’d do later in life. We both thought we would spend years traveling internationally first, and only then come back to the States, get a dog, and roam around the Americas like John Steinbeck in Travels with Charley. So we back burnered the idea and never really seriously talked about it again.
We did talk frequently about extended travel and a life on the road. But our long-term international travel ambitions always faced one insurmountable obstacle – our two cats. We would never abandon them to a shelter, or even to friends or family. We’re responsible for them as long as they are with us, and we hope they are with us for a long time. But the little fur-balls do complicate our vagabond plans.
The answer was always so simple. A couple of weeks ago my wife asked me why we couldn’t take the cats along with us in an RV. And just like that, the decision was made.
So now we’re hot and heavy into planning for this endeavor. And what I’m most surprised by is how complicated it is to walk away from our life. In the daydream we just buy an RV and go. In the real world we need storage for our stuff, a tenant for our condo, a property management firm to manage said tenant, a state to claim as a domicile, new drivers licenses to match the domicile, health insurance, all the other insurance, a tow vehicle, mail forwarding service, etc. etc. etc.
It’s all a bit overwhelming, but its great fun at the same time.
Seeing how this forum is at least partly responsible for this irresponsible decision, I thought I'd share our plans, and say thanks to everyone here for the help you've provided over the years.
Cheers.
The decision to do this is a recent one; only a few weeks old, but it actually has been several years in the making. The original idea (at least for me) came from this very forum about three years back when brewer12345 posted a link to this site. I forwarded the url to my wife who liked the idea but thought it was something we’d do later in life. We both thought we would spend years traveling internationally first, and only then come back to the States, get a dog, and roam around the Americas like John Steinbeck in Travels with Charley. So we back burnered the idea and never really seriously talked about it again.
We did talk frequently about extended travel and a life on the road. But our long-term international travel ambitions always faced one insurmountable obstacle – our two cats. We would never abandon them to a shelter, or even to friends or family. We’re responsible for them as long as they are with us, and we hope they are with us for a long time. But the little fur-balls do complicate our vagabond plans.
The answer was always so simple. A couple of weeks ago my wife asked me why we couldn’t take the cats along with us in an RV. And just like that, the decision was made.
So now we’re hot and heavy into planning for this endeavor. And what I’m most surprised by is how complicated it is to walk away from our life. In the daydream we just buy an RV and go. In the real world we need storage for our stuff, a tenant for our condo, a property management firm to manage said tenant, a state to claim as a domicile, new drivers licenses to match the domicile, health insurance, all the other insurance, a tow vehicle, mail forwarding service, etc. etc. etc.
It’s all a bit overwhelming, but its great fun at the same time.
Seeing how this forum is at least partly responsible for this irresponsible decision, I thought I'd share our plans, and say thanks to everyone here for the help you've provided over the years.
Cheers.