I’ve written a bit about our travels, such as they’ve been, but never explained how we decided to throw our old lives in the shredder and hit the road.

Exactly a year ago to the week (as I write this in late May 2020), Matt & I took the Class C motorhome to Nelson Dewey State Park on the Mississippi River, extending the Memorial Day weekend into a nine-day trip since Matt had limited vacation time.

Despite the fact that it was either raining or utterly swarming with gnats, we really enjoyed our time together, exploring the area and just relaxing. We began to think about how a trip out west to see a few national parks might happen – how long it would take, if we could do it in the Class C, if I’d have to continue to drive separately as I’d been doing since we got that RV. We realized we’d need two weeks minimum, and Matt had just learned that vacation time was suspended for the balance of the year because Windows 7 was sunsetting at the end of the year (I’ll spare you further technical details).

We also had time to further consider an unrelated (so we thought!) issue we’d begun to grapple with – the family home I’d inherited. I love that house – it’s been in the family over 50 years – but it also was way too big for the two of us (I guess we could have gotten thirty more dogs) and more work than either of us cared to put in. In addition, with laundry facilities (and a workshop, bar, fireplace, wine room) in the basement and bedrooms on the second floor, I knew my days as laundresse extraordinaire were numbered.

We started to look at other homes – a farmette in Dousman had a place to store the Class C, a place to store the Nissan GT-R, enough acreage that I could fulfill my dreams of having a few goats and bees…*record scratch* We were just getting ourselves into the same boat, different harbor – and farther away from all the social things we’d come to love.

A week or so later, as I was getting a massage, another thought struck me – why buy a house at all? I’d been following Heath & Alyssa’s blog for years (I honestly don’t recall why or how I’d found it) so I was a little familiar with RV life. Why not try it? After my massage was done, I told the therapist and she just lit up – she was incredibly excited about the idea (hi, Leah! I miss you!) so I knew it couldn’t be entirely out of the realm of reason.

I wasn’t sure what sort of response to expect from Matt, but he paused, thought, and said, “Yeah…maybe we could do that…” which was a strong endorsement from Mr. “Entirely Averse to Change.” By the end of that weekend, we were committed (yeah, yeah, or should have been). We contacted a realtor, rented a storage unit, and began the great purge. Oh, and bought a 5th wheel and pickup truck, so that by early October, we were ready to begin a whole new life.