Originally written on October 31, 2015
November 12
th will mark three years on the road for my
intrepid traveling mate and myself. Last year I posted a review of
what I had learned after two years on the road.
This year I am in a more philosophical mood. Year 3 was very
different from the first two. November 12, 2012 began a leap of faith
or folly, depending on your viewpoint, after we sold the house and
rid ourselves of most of our possessions. Greg's last day of
full-time, career-oriented employment was a few days before. Since
then we've been running on savings, passion, wanderlust and the deep
conviction that we need to live the rest of our lives on our own
terms.
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| The Newbies heading out |
I turned 63 this year, and Greg will reach 60 this month. We are
aware that we are existing in a Catch-22 world. Not old enough for
all the benefits, financial and otherwise, of retirement, but still
young enough to be left to our own devices to stretch what we have
left. The plan, of course, was two years of a sabbatical of sorts. Those two years flew by as we traveled over 70,000 miles and
explored coast-to-coast the US and Canada, all the way to
Newfoundland/Labrador, and Alaska.
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| The Desert Southwest |
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| The Northeast corner - Newfoundland |
The freedom was intoxicating. We were born to be nomads, but
reality bites, as they say, and at the end of two years we had blown
through a chunk of savings, were about to become grandparents, and
still had three elderly parents with varying needs for our attention.
So, the third year of our freedom reflected those realities.
Neither of us was ready to give it up, go back to jobs and a
housebound life, and we still aren't. This past year has required us
to adjust our expectations and lifestyle. We spent Christmas in
Florida with Greg's Dad after signing up with a mail forwarding
service, and changing our residency to Florida. Then we took a last
long journey out to the Southwest. After a rally in Quartzsite, and
some desert boondocking and exploring in Arizona, we raced back to
Florida to buy a towed car. Then to Maryland in early February to
await the birth of our grand-daughter. The RV stayed behind in a
storage lot, and we rented a place to ride out the cold, snowy, icy
winter until our beautiful grand-daughter arrived.
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| On the Beach in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington |
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| Cape Blanco, Oregon |
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| Cheticamp, Nova Scotia |
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| El Malpais Lava Beds |
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| One of our favorite towns - Leading Tickles, Newfoundland |
During the 21 days in February we waited before we could be useful
to the new family, we worked on our plans for the rest of the year.
It was time to begin work camping, like so many others who are on the
road full-time. Whether to try to provide all their income, or
supplement what they have, or just to settle for a while and do
something useful, staying on the road long term requires a strategy.
No more impulsive exploring for us. It was time to knuckle down and
figure out how to make this work.
Our biggest expenses are our fixed expenses, health, life, car,
and RV insurance. Then come our costs for staying connected, the
phones, and wifi. Our single biggest expense is our health insurance.
At almost $1,100 a month for a $13,000 deductible that gives us
literally nothing in terms of exams or prescriptions. If anything
drives us off the road, it will be affording that! We have always had
the capacity to live frugally, but can't do anything to change this
expense. We have an agreed upon amount of savings we feel we need to
conserve if we have to settle down again, and we won't spend below
that.
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| Exploring the canyons of Mojave Desert Preserve |
So, in February we phone interviewed with various places
interested in hiring us for the summer. We secured positions starting
May 15
th in New Hampshire, expecting to work until the end
of October. After that we hoped to get hired by Amazon for their
seasonal Camperforce and work until Christmas. 7+ months of
employment appeared to cover all our fixed expenses for a year, and
we could be frugal with the rest; food, fuel, camping fees, and the
small miscellaneous expenses of life.
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| Seminole Canyon in Texas |
Back to Florida to pick up the RV, attach a hitch and start to
work our way up to New Hampshire. Our first work camping experience
turned out to be not what we expected. We left Labor Day since there
was little money to be made after that, and we were too far from
family. Spending more time in the Mid-Atlantic region allowed us more
time with family and friends, but didn't help the coffers. We managed
to get hired by Amazon for their Jeffersonville, IN warehouse, but
don't start until November 11
th. Six weeks at the only
fairly decent paying job in workcampingdom helps. It is going to be
physically demanding, but hopefully I can handle it.
So, now we are lining up jobs for next year. Kissimmee Prairie
Preserve State Park in Florida where we stayed briefly the last three
winters is taking us on for January, February, and March as
volunteers. No pay, 20 hours a week of work, but warmth and beauty
and a place to relax for the winter. Summer is the earning season for
work campers and we have put out feelers to jobs in the Mid-Atlantic
to stay close to family. With parents 95, 90, and 87, and a soon to
be toddler grand-daughter we need to be closer. No Western forays for
a while.
I guess a lot of people (sane people!) would get off the road at
this point. Yet, there are a LOT of full-timers out there making it
all work for them. Last night I came across a blog that I had
bookmarked a few years ago and never looked at again. The last post
was by the wife. She and her husband had full-timed for 2 ½ years,
and he had just died unexpectedly. Her well written, but anguished
post on his blog told in detail the unexpected disease that quickly
took his life. She expressed no regrets, but admitted the
difficulties of not being near family when it happened, and the
problem of driving their large fifth-wheel trailer to a place of
safety so she could be at the hospital with him.
At first reading I put myself in her place and thought about the
difficulties she faced that were compounded by her rolling home and
lifestyle. That could happen to anyone on the road, and does. But,
life happens everywhere, whether you are in a rolling or stationary
home. Fear is not a good reason to stop traveling. “Life's too
short” is such an overused cliche, but, honestly, it is! It is too
short to wait to live out dreams that have been pushed under until
the “right timing” happens.
Greg and I have chosen to live life on our own terms. You ask why
we would want to live with the uncertainty of our days when it would
be “easier” to get off the road and go back to a “normal”
life? Because every day we are in charge of our own destiny, in
charge of our lives. We answer to no one but each other. I get to
have new experiences with my best friend and the one person who gets
my wanderlust, because he has it, too. Creating this crazy life
together has given us the strongest marriage we have had in our 34
years of married life.
Someday, due to age, health, or lack of finances we'll have to get
off the road. In the meantime we are relishing the freedom to choose
each day's course. Sure, we are hiring ourselves out to pay the
bills, but we are working when and where we want, and not tied to one
place indefinitely. Our life is one of new experiences instead of
possessions, and our small RV allows us to lightly touch the planet.
Update- November 12, 2015 Today is officially our third
anniversary of full-timing. We are in our first week of working at
Amazon and meeting new friends and having an interesting experience.
After applying for a new health plan through a broker who is a
full-time Rver, too, we discovered that we are able to qualify for a
subsidy and drastically reduce our health insurance cost. As long as
we are earning over $16,000 a year as a couple we qualify for the
subsidy. Since we plan on continuing to work camp that shouldn't be a
problem. Things are looking up for our long term life on the road.
