Living Life On Our Own Terms

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.

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.

The Desert Southwest

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.

On the Beach in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington

Cape Blanco, Oregon

Cheticamp, Nova Scotia

El Malpais Lava Beds

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.

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.

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.