Danny and I have spent the evening sorting through our possessions, making piles to keep and give/sell. I know I am supposed to feel liberated. I know that this is for a purpose, but I'm actually quite melancholy tonight. I'm not really a pack rat, so I feel like the stuff that I have I have for a reason.... albeit sometimes sentimental reasons. I almost feel like when my grandfather died and I helped my mom clean out his garage...stuff I've I've been given for birthdays or from music festivals...that bring back memories and faces of friends.
I know that this is all for a greater purpose, but tonight the reality is really setting in.
Friday, March 22, 2013
How We Got Started. Part 1: Learning
I know that many people are yearning for an alternative lifestyle, but don't really know how to go about rearranging a lifetime of habits and personal effects. If you are feeling a bit jealous or even inspired because of our up coming adventure, then, please, let me tell you that you can do it too. With a little hard work and ingenuity, it is totally possible. Over the next few posts, I am going to help break down what and how we went about making our dreams a reality.
Downsizing your life can be a very daunting task. Living life like a gypsy can be a romantic dream, but down right scary when you actually start thinking of how to survive on the road.
Danny and I did a lot of research before we started spending money.
Here are some of the best sites we came across:
"RV-Dreamers" (http://www.rv-dreams.com/) was one of the first sites that gave us some really useful information. They share a plethora of information for "Full Timers" including a 3 month budget laid out by income level including: "Thrifty", "Moderate" and "Money Is No Object". Looking at these budgets helped a lot. We are obviously in the "Thrifty" category, but it was nice to know that we could actually pull this off on our budget. Through this site we also found out about "Workamping" (http://www.workamper.com/?gclid=CL3Y2fjikLYCFetAMgodxDEAAw) and a few other work while traveling web sites. Nice to know that we can eventually find a job when the savings runs out!!
When we bought the trailer the first thing that came to mind was remodeling....new floors, storage space and general customization is pretty standard for older trailers getting a second chance at the road. While searching the web, I came across the site "Goin' RV Boondocking" (http://www.rv-boondocking-the-good-life.com/boondockingtips.html). Brian (the "host") is a bloody genus. Really, I'm designating him the "Jesus Christ of RVing". His posts are so funny and bring a lot of common sense to the table. He shares brilliant, super easy and inexpensive ideas on how we could spruce up our new home. And so so much more. From this site I learned about serious boondocking. Boondocking is a type of RV camping where you have no hook ups to electricity, water or sewer. You have to be totally self sufficient This may seem petty easy considering that you have your home attached to your vehicle...How hard can it be, right? Well, apparently it can be an art.
Enter "The Adventures of Tioga and George" (http://vagabonders-supreme.net/). George is a "Full time Boondocking Vagabond" and takes it to the extreme. He never pays for camping, EVER! He also has some great advice ranging from how to deal with cops at 2AM when you're trying to "city camp" to exact GPS coordinates of camps he has used successfully.
Both Brian and George use a "Club" service to help them stay connected when between camps. RV Club services range widely depending on the "Club". Danny and I will probably end up with Good Sam Club because they provide things like road side assistance, fuel discounts, and dumping stations. As well as a monthly magazine and a mail service. All of which will be ridiculousness handy to have (well, probably not the magazine).
What I really love about this whole endeavor is learning that there is community there is out there with information and support about RVing full time or just generally living on the move. There is even groups who meet through their RV Club to do like minded adventures or knitting circles...whatever floats your boat.
-A
Downsizing your life can be a very daunting task. Living life like a gypsy can be a romantic dream, but down right scary when you actually start thinking of how to survive on the road.Danny and I did a lot of research before we started spending money.
Here are some of the best sites we came across:
"RV-Dreamers" (http://www.rv-dreams.com/) was one of the first sites that gave us some really useful information. They share a plethora of information for "Full Timers" including a 3 month budget laid out by income level including: "Thrifty", "Moderate" and "Money Is No Object". Looking at these budgets helped a lot. We are obviously in the "Thrifty" category, but it was nice to know that we could actually pull this off on our budget. Through this site we also found out about "Workamping" (http://www.workamper.com/?gclid=CL3Y2fjikLYCFetAMgodxDEAAw) and a few other work while traveling web sites. Nice to know that we can eventually find a job when the savings runs out!!
 |
| Remodeled Airstream |
When we bought the trailer the first thing that came to mind was remodeling....new floors, storage space and general customization is pretty standard for older trailers getting a second chance at the road. While searching the web, I came across the site "Goin' RV Boondocking" (http://www.rv-boondocking-the-good-life.com/boondockingtips.html). Brian (the "host") is a bloody genus. Really, I'm designating him the "Jesus Christ of RVing". His posts are so funny and bring a lot of common sense to the table. He shares brilliant, super easy and inexpensive ideas on how we could spruce up our new home. And so so much more. From this site I learned about serious boondocking. Boondocking is a type of RV camping where you have no hook ups to electricity, water or sewer. You have to be totally self sufficient This may seem petty easy considering that you have your home attached to your vehicle...How hard can it be, right? Well, apparently it can be an art.
 |
| Boondocking |
Both Brian and George use a "Club" service to help them stay connected when between camps. RV Club services range widely depending on the "Club". Danny and I will probably end up with Good Sam Club because they provide things like road side assistance, fuel discounts, and dumping stations. As well as a monthly magazine and a mail service. All of which will be ridiculousness handy to have (well, probably not the magazine).
What I really love about this whole endeavor is learning that there is community there is out there with information and support about RVing full time or just generally living on the move. There is even groups who meet through their RV Club to do like minded adventures or knitting circles...whatever floats your boat.-A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
WOW! Things Move Fast in this world.
Danny reporting in here. Things are still a blur from St. Patrick's day. What happened in the last 48 hours?
So as you know by now we have a truck. I have been hesitant to post pictures so as not to jinx it, but it is back from the shop and running fine now. We cleaned it up this evening, both inside and out. The thing looks twice as good now as when we first looked at it. What a monster!
On top of all this last night Amelia pointed out there was a camper she has been looking on at craigslist. It has been on there for a while, and the price had gone down significantly. We had not been able to look at it since it was located four hours away, but last night Amelia convinced her mother to go look at it. Considering that her mom has bought and lived in two campers before, we trusted her judgement on the matter.
So when she said if it was her in this situation we should go for it, considering that it was almost a thousand dollars below our budget, we trusted our instincts and bought the thing sight unseen! Granted we did get to see pictures of it online, but we are putting a lot of faith and heart into this decision. When the morning sun comes around I will take some pictures of the newly cleaned up Pretty Pretty Truck Truck, and in less than a week we set sail to pick up this camper. Tomorrow is insurance, title, and tag day for the truck. Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us!
So as you know by now we have a truck. I have been hesitant to post pictures so as not to jinx it, but it is back from the shop and running fine now. We cleaned it up this evening, both inside and out. The thing looks twice as good now as when we first looked at it. What a monster!
On top of all this last night Amelia pointed out there was a camper she has been looking on at craigslist. It has been on there for a while, and the price had gone down significantly. We had not been able to look at it since it was located four hours away, but last night Amelia convinced her mother to go look at it. Considering that her mom has bought and lived in two campers before, we trusted her judgement on the matter.
So when she said if it was her in this situation we should go for it, considering that it was almost a thousand dollars below our budget, we trusted our instincts and bought the thing sight unseen! Granted we did get to see pictures of it online, but we are putting a lot of faith and heart into this decision. When the morning sun comes around I will take some pictures of the newly cleaned up Pretty Pretty Truck Truck, and in less than a week we set sail to pick up this camper. Tomorrow is insurance, title, and tag day for the truck. Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Black Beauty. Yeah, she came with a name.
Danny and I are working on a crazy tight budget. Because of this, we have been stressed to find a truck that can pull a trailer reliably with the creature comforts (using that word loosely) we feel are necessary. We were scouring Craigslist hourly for trucks from Alabama to Tampa with only a few promising leads.
I was scrolling through the posts during a lull at work and my co-worker asked me, "What's up"? I tell her of my quest for the perfect truck. She then tells me that she actually has a truck that she doesn't use anymore and maybe I should look at it.
Her name is Black Beauty, a GMC Yukon Denali. We knew instantly that she would be perfect for us. The pollen settled on her shiny black coat, the Dave Mathews Band sticker on the back window, we knew. She needs a little love to be ready to ride out, but we couldn't have asked for a bigger blessing. I know that my co-worker is happy that BB (as I call her) will have a great adventure.
I was scrolling through the posts during a lull at work and my co-worker asked me, "What's up"? I tell her of my quest for the perfect truck. She then tells me that she actually has a truck that she doesn't use anymore and maybe I should look at it.
Her name is Black Beauty, a GMC Yukon Denali. We knew instantly that she would be perfect for us. The pollen settled on her shiny black coat, the Dave Mathews Band sticker on the back window, we knew. She needs a little love to be ready to ride out, but we couldn't have asked for a bigger blessing. I know that my co-worker is happy that BB (as I call her) will have a great adventure.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Hi, I'm Amelia!
Danny says to start at the beginning, so here I go.
I was born in the Pacific Northwest and grew up on a tiny island in the Pudget Sound. At an early age my parents helped cultivate a sense of adventure for the sake of adventure. Our family adventures would be as extensive as walking to the other end of Fox Island to taking long hiking trips up Mt. Saint Helen and extended camping trips to the Olympia National Forrest (the only rain forest in the northern hemisphere, btw). We would go on long drives to just see where it would lead us, and more often than not we would find amazing and beautiful places. We found Washaway Beach, an area where the Pacific Ocean literally erodes miles of the coast line every winter taking farmland and houses, because the road simply ended on one of these drives. It became a regular summer camping spot.
My parents also had some more extreme ideas about travelling. For instance one summer they insisted that we needed to learn Portuguese, because we would be moving to Portugal. I even did a report on Portugal for school that year. It never happened though.
A few years after talk of immigration to Portugal died down, my parents started talking about moving to Florida. At first, I thought, "Eh, this won't happen either". But they were serious, and in October of 1998 we moved to Florida.
Naturally, my parents didn't just fly the family to their new sunny home. Where's the fun in that? Instead, my parents bought a late model Chevy Suburban and a 19 foot travel trailer. We took just over a month to drive down the Pacific Coast, across the Southwest, down into the South and finally to Flagler Beach on the East coast of Florida.
The trip was epic with lots of little side adventures. Hiking up an "Extreme Rattle Snake Area" to see "Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies" along the Columbia River, caving in the Siskiyou Mountains in Oregon, San Fran and the Redwoods, the Navajo Reservation, Mesa Verde in Colorado, the Grand Canyon, the Alamo, New Orleans and Florida...
Fast forward 15 years. Danny and I have been together for just under 4 years. We are total opposites, except for our unadulterated love for adventure. Kayaking desolate bayous, music festivals in West Virginia, impromptu bike rides across the 7 mile bridge in the Florida Keys.
We are a never say die, if we got ourselves in this mess we can figure ourselves out of it, wonder whats around that bend kind of couple. And it has been fun, a lot of fun.
Naturally, when Danny started getting close to graduating with his B.A., talks of future plans started circulating. As a youngster, Danny spent summers in California, and when I went across the country the first time I fell in love with Colorado, so it was no question that we wanted to move west. But, it became apparent that neither of us knew exactly where we wanted to live, nor how to relocate with our pets and years worth of stuff.
Then one day Danny said the magic words, "We could live as modern gypsies, going wherever the call took us." Naturally, I thought of my previous trip but didn't see how we could pull it off...
After much research, we started bouncing the idea off family and friends.
Now we are simplifying our belongings and looking for a truck and travel trailer. This week I gave my boss my official 4 month notice, she said she really appreciated it. I think we may have found the perfect truck too....
We will keep everyone updated through this blog as we get ready and, of course, the adventure from the road in a few months!
I was born in the Pacific Northwest and grew up on a tiny island in the Pudget Sound. At an early age my parents helped cultivate a sense of adventure for the sake of adventure. Our family adventures would be as extensive as walking to the other end of Fox Island to taking long hiking trips up Mt. Saint Helen and extended camping trips to the Olympia National Forrest (the only rain forest in the northern hemisphere, btw). We would go on long drives to just see where it would lead us, and more often than not we would find amazing and beautiful places. We found Washaway Beach, an area where the Pacific Ocean literally erodes miles of the coast line every winter taking farmland and houses, because the road simply ended on one of these drives. It became a regular summer camping spot.
My parents also had some more extreme ideas about travelling. For instance one summer they insisted that we needed to learn Portuguese, because we would be moving to Portugal. I even did a report on Portugal for school that year. It never happened though.A few years after talk of immigration to Portugal died down, my parents started talking about moving to Florida. At first, I thought, "Eh, this won't happen either". But they were serious, and in October of 1998 we moved to Florida.
Naturally, my parents didn't just fly the family to their new sunny home. Where's the fun in that? Instead, my parents bought a late model Chevy Suburban and a 19 foot travel trailer. We took just over a month to drive down the Pacific Coast, across the Southwest, down into the South and finally to Flagler Beach on the East coast of Florida.The trip was epic with lots of little side adventures. Hiking up an "Extreme Rattle Snake Area" to see "Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies" along the Columbia River, caving in the Siskiyou Mountains in Oregon, San Fran and the Redwoods, the Navajo Reservation, Mesa Verde in Colorado, the Grand Canyon, the Alamo, New Orleans and Florida...
Fast forward 15 years. Danny and I have been together for just under 4 years. We are total opposites, except for our unadulterated love for adventure. Kayaking desolate bayous, music festivals in West Virginia, impromptu bike rides across the 7 mile bridge in the Florida Keys.
We are a never say die, if we got ourselves in this mess we can figure ourselves out of it, wonder whats around that bend kind of couple. And it has been fun, a lot of fun. 
Naturally, when Danny started getting close to graduating with his B.A., talks of future plans started circulating. As a youngster, Danny spent summers in California, and when I went across the country the first time I fell in love with Colorado, so it was no question that we wanted to move west. But, it became apparent that neither of us knew exactly where we wanted to live, nor how to relocate with our pets and years worth of stuff.Then one day Danny said the magic words, "We could live as modern gypsies, going wherever the call took us." Naturally, I thought of my previous trip but didn't see how we could pull it off...
After much research, we started bouncing the idea off family and friends.
Now we are simplifying our belongings and looking for a truck and travel trailer. This week I gave my boss my official 4 month notice, she said she really appreciated it. I think we may have found the perfect truck too....
We will keep everyone updated through this blog as we get ready and, of course, the adventure from the road in a few months!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Hi! I'm Danny
There is never a better place to start than the beginning. Introductions first, Hi! I'm Danny. I am awake early right now because I think they will be releasing LSAT scores today. The deadline is tomorrow, but in the last eight years they have only once not released them early. That was last year because of the Northeast blizzard named Sandy. Unfortunately there was a snowstorm again this time around that delayed test takers up North for a few days, so that is definitely a factor.
Amelia is still asleep, so I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and what we are doing. I'm thirty one, going to be thirty two in a couple months. I was a late bloomer as far as school is concerned, and I just graduated Florida State University last August. I have wanted to leave the state and travel the country for a long time, but working while going to community college prevented that. I buckled down to finish my Bachelors when I transferred, and completed my junior and senior years in 18 months. Now having taken the LSAT, I am eyeing law schools. The only problem is that I want to get out of Florida pretty badly, and I am late in the game for law school applications.
Being the stubborn guy I am, I am not going to let anything stop me. My girlfriend is of the same opinion as I regarding the whole situation. So one day I get the idea that the money we are paying towards rent and other living expenses is just wasted, we have nothing to really show for any of it except surviving this long.
I came up with the idea a few months back that we should move into a camper. The idea being that we could live as modern gypsies, going wherever the call took us. Any money we would have been paying for rent, security deposit, etc... could be put towards payments on something that would be ours. Unlike the apartments we have been living in we could be free to make modifications or upgrades to our new home.
We tinkered with the idea of a RV or bus, but we ultimately decided that we would need a second vehicle to drive around wherever we stopped. So we ultimately decided a tow behind trailer would be best with a medium sized truck or SUV to pull it, and to drive whenever the camper was parked. We will try and get the truck first, then scout out a camper. We will spend a month or two working on them while I wait back on my law school applications. Then we will take a journey to wherever I am accepted, if I am accepted anywhere this year.
If I am not accepted we will just try to find a nicer place to live for the next year while we establish residency in that state and I prepare to apply to schools there and try to find work. Luckily Amelia is a fully licensed massage therapist, so finding work should not be difficult for her anywhere we go. We will hopefully be able to live out of the camper wherever we go while we scout out either a house or apartment we can rent and store the trailer, or we will try to find a cheap plot of land where we can hook it up to water and electricity and slowly but surely start building a domicile.
As if this does not sound complicated enough, we also have a dog and a cat coming with us. Oh, and Amelia's pregnant sister pretty much left her cat with us because he likes us better, so a dog and TWO cats.
This is the American dream in action, being able to take up and travel wherever you wish. To be able to find where you truly belong and be able to make it there. Some people wait until they are retired to take this kind of adventure, we are too smart to wait that long. So we thought why not share the journey with the world via this blog.
I am sure Amelia has a lot she wants to share as well, so I will end this post now. Here's to a wide open future!!
Amelia is still asleep, so I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and what we are doing. I'm thirty one, going to be thirty two in a couple months. I was a late bloomer as far as school is concerned, and I just graduated Florida State University last August. I have wanted to leave the state and travel the country for a long time, but working while going to community college prevented that. I buckled down to finish my Bachelors when I transferred, and completed my junior and senior years in 18 months. Now having taken the LSAT, I am eyeing law schools. The only problem is that I want to get out of Florida pretty badly, and I am late in the game for law school applications.
Being the stubborn guy I am, I am not going to let anything stop me. My girlfriend is of the same opinion as I regarding the whole situation. So one day I get the idea that the money we are paying towards rent and other living expenses is just wasted, we have nothing to really show for any of it except surviving this long.
I came up with the idea a few months back that we should move into a camper. The idea being that we could live as modern gypsies, going wherever the call took us. Any money we would have been paying for rent, security deposit, etc... could be put towards payments on something that would be ours. Unlike the apartments we have been living in we could be free to make modifications or upgrades to our new home.We tinkered with the idea of a RV or bus, but we ultimately decided that we would need a second vehicle to drive around wherever we stopped. So we ultimately decided a tow behind trailer would be best with a medium sized truck or SUV to pull it, and to drive whenever the camper was parked. We will try and get the truck first, then scout out a camper. We will spend a month or two working on them while I wait back on my law school applications. Then we will take a journey to wherever I am accepted, if I am accepted anywhere this year.
If I am not accepted we will just try to find a nicer place to live for the next year while we establish residency in that state and I prepare to apply to schools there and try to find work. Luckily Amelia is a fully licensed massage therapist, so finding work should not be difficult for her anywhere we go. We will hopefully be able to live out of the camper wherever we go while we scout out either a house or apartment we can rent and store the trailer, or we will try to find a cheap plot of land where we can hook it up to water and electricity and slowly but surely start building a domicile.
As if this does not sound complicated enough, we also have a dog and a cat coming with us. Oh, and Amelia's pregnant sister pretty much left her cat with us because he likes us better, so a dog and TWO cats.
This is the American dream in action, being able to take up and travel wherever you wish. To be able to find where you truly belong and be able to make it there. Some people wait until they are retired to take this kind of adventure, we are too smart to wait that long. So we thought why not share the journey with the world via this blog.
I am sure Amelia has a lot she wants to share as well, so I will end this post now. Here's to a wide open future!!
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