I guess some people just don’t get it. We are currently spending a month in our old home town of College Station Texas enjoying time with old friends and familiar haunts At one of these haunts at happy hour one of our long-time friends asked incredulously, “Aren’t you ready to settle down yet…after all you live in a tin can”. Gee whiz. I was speechless for a moment. Then I replied that I was NOT ready to settle down nor did I feel I lived in a tin can. It did make me pause to think about why it is so hard for old friends to wrap their minds around what we are doing. I guess they saw that we, like many of our peers with growing families went from starter home to big and bigger homes. So I guess this friend was flabbergasted we could go “backward”.
Upon reflection I remember we started out in a small rental apartment, moved to home ownership with a small trailer house and then sold it for a profit for our first “starter home”. This was a 1500 square foot house with three bedrooms and two baths (1500 square feet) and was brand new! We enjoyed that house with our toddler son for 6 years until our daughter was born. Suddenly in short order, this once loved house soon became too small. We kept the house as a rental income but purchased a much bigger 3 bedroom home which John, with his building expertise, expanded to a 4 bedroom 2 and a half bath 2400 square foot home. We loved this house with the large glassed in atrium in the center filled with tropical plants and a pond. It also had a huge front and back yard. It was our American Dream….that is until the kids grew up and left. How empty and huge it seemed without them there. What a drag it became to clean and maintain. I suffered quite a depression in my empty nest.
Next I had the idea we should purchase an RV to give us the opportunity to sell our big empty house, see all of our daughter, Katie’s collegiate senior year softball season then travel together as retirees! John fully embraced the idea and as he always does he researched, gathered our funds and made a plan. The house I once loved became the albatross of STUFF we had to sell, a place to spruce up for potential buyers and an overall speed bump to being where I wanted us to be. With patience and hard work we unloaded the albatross and downsized enough to fit into our new condo on wheels. Off we went and we have never looked back.
What is not to like? Yes, it is smaller than any our former homes but I cherish that I have had a different view out of my windows every single month in these last 5 years. I have seen beautiful beaches, mountains, deserts, meadows, and valleys. I have met the most interesting and wonderful like-minded people I would never otherwise met had we not chosen this path. I have no regrets and no desire to stop anytime soon. I know that friend of mine can’t in any way see nor understand why I like this lifestyle. It makes me sad for him because I love my “tin can” and I wish I could put into words for this friend to not worry about me. I am more than happy in this simpler, smaller house on wheels than I ever would have been had I stayed here. How lucky I was I had John who helped us move beyond the maybe to the yes we can! I know there are legions of us that “get it” and love the opportunities offered in this nomadic life. It’s not for everybody, but it sure is for me…
