Gypsy Mom Ready to roll – NOW

OK- I guess we don’t have to have the house cleared out by tomorrow.

And…. that’s all the excitement I’m going to discuss right now. If you check out the Upcoming Trip Details page, you’ll see that I added a map. At this point, the itinerary listed is pretty solid looking. Let’s see how long that lasts.

We’re still technically “undecided” about our plans after October. I’d like to go back on the road and explore the Southeastern states, so if you live out that way please don’t hesitate to add yourself to the List of People to Visit.

OK… I’m heading back into the jungle of sticky notes, endless lists, reminders, notes-to-myself and things to send to Goodwill.

Oh boy. I’m freaking out here. So OK we’re leaving technically on July 2nd because my daughters have a wedding to go to. I’m not freaking out about the fact that one of their friends will be married, honestly, although the bachelorette party sounded hilarious.

I’m freaking out because I just realized that I have LESS THAN A WEEK to pretty much be DONE packing.

On the 22nd, we’re picking up a friend at the airport, she’ll be driving down to LA with us and also on that day we need to be out of our house. I could make a long story short, or I could just say “It’s a long story”

Either way

our last week or two in town will be spent AWAY from this house and never coming back (hopefully- I really can’t stand this house)

I’m so completely excited, except for a few things.

1- I’m a little obsessive and even though I SAID I wasn’t going to rework the dates & locations a thousand times, I have still done it. By reducing our time in (everywhere) I have discovered we can go more places.

2- Except- I wanted to ENJOY and SAVOR every place we visited for at least a week because HELLO- like we really want to spend the entire time DRIVING. Even if it is in the motorhome, I want to stop, explore, take pictures and visit. So I’d rather have LESS STOPS and savor each one rather than having more stops and only staying for a minute.

My other half (why do people call their spouses that?)

Brandon (my husband) has friends in the South and wants to visit.  Can’t blame him, I want to visit my friends, too.  I was trying not to put them on the agenda because i want to be SURE that when we return in October it’s just for a little while.  I want to be on the road INDEFINITELY.  I don’t want a “coming back” date. I never want to come back here, except to visit.  The South is a great place to spend the winter, I want to take the kids to Epcot and Nashville and Ashford and Atlanta and Memphis.

I don’t WANT to do everything on our list this summer because then my husband might think we’re done traveling.

I love that he’s decided to embrace my desire to travel. I don’t want him thinking he’s going to get it out of my system in only ten weeks. Ten weeks is NOT LONG ENOUGH.

Anyway- so I think I started this by saying I was freaking out. Just about getting everything out of the house. I guess another few runs to Goodwill tomorrow and we’ll be good to go.  It’s weird having the house so empty. It’s refreshing.

I was feeling nauseous about giving away so many books, we really had an AWESOME home library.  I kept all the field guides, all the best cookbooks, travel books and whichever books the kids wanted saved. I’m mailing my childhood books to my sister for safe keeping (knowing full well that she stole my baby quilt) We packed away some of the kids’ favorite bedtime stories and picture books that aren’t coming with us.  Here’s one goofy thing I did with the books we donated… I wrote gypsymom.com in the inside corner of each one.  It became much easier to give them away when I knew that it could potentially go to someone who would enjoy reading about our adventures. I also sent some to my nephews, I hope they enjoy them.

Clothes- we got rid of all the winter clothes. We kept a jacket each, a sweatshirt and jeans. We got rid of tons of sweaters, sweatshirts, sweatpants and warm jammies. I never want to be cold again as long as I live and if I do, I think we all deserve new wardrobes in exchange.  Maybe that will keep us traveling this winter

Either way, I drank two 6 hour energy drinks this evening and now that there’s nothing left to clean I will play word games until I can’t think any more.  I can’t believe how fast this is happening. I can’t wait to get on the road.

Here’s the blog of my friend Kerri, she’s hitting the road the day before we are: Stagg Family Robinson

(I just realized that the new theme ate my entire blogroll…..)

22 days until we go on our grand adventure

In 22 days, we’re leaving. OMG that’s like one day more than 3 weeks. I think my kids finally “get it” that they need to be getting rid of stuff. We’re donating a LOT of stuff. We’re 12 miles from town so a yard sale sounds like a lot of work for not a lot of sales. I don’t want a bunch of people in my quiet yard anyway.

So here’s our system so far. Each human in the house is packing up one Rubbermaid tote for clothes, 1 for whatever else they want. Since we’re also packing up the entire house in preparation for extended travel or relocation once we return from this Summer trip, we’re storing “storage” things in more totes. It’s been difficult to explain to them why we don’t want to save holey jeans that don’t fit anymore. All the offers to replace them are refused and we end up with holey jeans going into a storage box for God only knows how long.

In addition to “bring, donate, toss and store” we have 3 or 4 piles of stuff that the girls have been collecting for their cousins and friends we’ll be visiting on the road.

Cleaning house is never something I found great pleasure in. Sure, I can crank up the music and dance around until it sparkles, but it’s never what I’d CHOOSE to do on a sunny day. I’m looking forward to living int he motor home where everything can be wiped down in half an hour. If you’re an RV mom please don’t burst my bubble here

Cleaning NOW, though, is more like packing because everything that passes through my hands gets sorted and actually ends up disappearing. i can’t wait ’til it’s all GONE. In the loft, all the book shelves are EMPTY.

All my art supplies are narrowed down to 2 little drawers.

I’m mailing a bunch of books to my sister, plus some keepsakes, like blankets grandma crocheted.

We threw away a bunch of holey, stained clothes that aren’t salvageable for art projects.

Sometimes I wish I could just light it all on fire and walk away.

I just realized we might be in LA when the next Harry Potter comes out.  More likely, we’ll be near Denver though.

Either way.  I can’t wait…

Getting rid of all this stuff is good for my mind. I can SEE that something is happening, the energy and excitement is building. Bring it on!

When I was in high school, I had a hard time deciding which parties I wanted to go to so I’d spend the evenings hopping from one social gathering to the next so I wouldn’t miss out on anything. No matter where anyone went, I could always say “I was there, too.” Our plan, to drive around the country visiting people we know from conferences and through the Internet reminds me of driving around on a Friday night in high school.

The previous paragraph isn’t really much related to the following video, except that I suspect my daughter Evie (3) might have inherited the tendency. She’s absolutely obsessed with a little girl I met when I was in New Hampshire a few weeks ago and she can’t wait to visit her when we take our big road trip this summer. She’s similarly obsessed with her cousins in Los Angeles and in Palmdale, CA.

Before the following video was filmed, Evie and I had been discussing the trip and we talked about how we’d see mountains, rivers, valleys, beaches, deserts, lakes and hills. We also talked a bit about the people we were going to visit and about who is sleeping where in the motor home. We came into the house so Evie could tell Grace (5) about the trip.

That the ONE thing we want is sometimes the biggest challenge?

I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, so I should know the answer to this. But all I remember is that “When you want something, the universe conspires to help you get it” Can it be true that my opportunity for neverending travel has passed me by several times? Have I missed the signs? Or am I just panicking 5 minutes before the miracle?

The travel plans that fell through last summer are really looking like they’ll happen this summer. I’m super excited because… well damn, I’m just dying to hit the road. All the friends I wanted to visit last year are still on my list and I’ve added more. So far like 8 people have found my “We want to visit you” page. I set it up so that I could add people I want to visit, or they could add themselves. I just didn’t think anyone noticed

I planned to track our proposed route on this spreadsheet, but then I realized that its really time-consuming to try imagining everything 2-3 months in advance. So instead, I just have the unchangeable dates and locations listed. Maybe other stuff, it’s probably a mess. You can see that we’ll be at Burning Man and at Good Vibrations. I’m thinking of going to the Harbin Hoop Jam followed by Hoop Camp in Santa Cruz. Then again, I think my husband has to fly home that time of the month and maybe I’ll use it to visit people he doesn’t want to visit, like my lovely friend Teresa. I’m also hoping to catch up with Kami, hang out with my sister, re-meet Crystal, and just enjoy some old friends from LA. Hmmmmm, there are so many options. I’m not too into the idea of having everything perfectly planned because I like flexibility. So don’t expect to really see a lot of details there yet. Unless it’s an unchangeable date.

Anyway, if the Universe is conspiring to get me on the road, I’d like to help support its efforts. I can’t wait to post the before-and-after pictures of the motorhome remodel. I’ve been working on it a little lately, but the rest will have to wait until my big check comes in the mail. I hope the Universe is conspiring for me to win the lottery or something, too. Maybe I should work on the book, the screenplay, the whatever else would be residual income again. Who knows

Anyway… make a mental note, please. If you’re ever in love with someone who’s dying to travel, please don’t buy them furniture as a gift. They’ll suspect you’re trying to sabotage their travel goals and conspire to travel without you some more. Why would someone need furniture when they’re planning to live on the road? The only answer I can think of is maybe that they’re not planning it, they’re just pretending.

I guess we’ll find out, right?
I’m going anyway.
Maybe this is what I needed to learn. To just GO already.

Maybe.

OK- so we picked it up yesterday (Saturday) instead of Thursday. It needed somethingmechanicalthatIdon’tknowabout and was at the shop. My husband picked it up and was about halfway home when the power failed and he couldn’t even use the brakes to stop himself, so he rolled backward down the freeway until he could roll himself off (down an exit in the opposite direction from traffic) uphill until he found a nice ditch he could pull into to stop it.
I’m so glad I didn’t go with him to pick it up.

He sat about 6 hours in the sun waiting for help.

The tow cost us about half of our fuel budget for this trip next week.

But he was able to repair the power issue on the side of the road and drive it home.

He arrived around 3am and I stumbled outside in the moonlight to get a look at it. There must have been ten million stars in the sky and it looked like a BUILDING in the driveway.

This morning I went out to take a look at it. The process of removing it from the ditch damaged the backside of it. It’s cosmetic, but it’s also protective. We need to repair it or completely avoid rain. We might spend the rest of our trip budget on repairs.

It needs a generator and a mattress.

I’m not too crazy about the 1980′s textiles on the inside, but that’s a license to redecorate and that’s my “thing” anyway.

He said it has a lot of storage, but honestly, does he realize that we all have clothes… I can’t imagine where, in that kitchen, our pots, pans, dishes, food, utensils and art supplies will go. OK, the art supplies in the kitchen were fantasy, still..

Anyway, I’m so glad we HAVE it. I’m very very very bummed that it’s not diesel. I’m also upset about the expense of the towing incident but I’m really just glad he’s alive.

I can’t wait to go snap some “before” pictures.

The bathroom is nicer than the one in my house.

I’m not sure how to handle the probably change-of-plans, we’re supposed to leave for our trip in 8 days…

Recalculating… Wondering if anyone owes me money…. wondering if we have anything we can sell… Once we get the generator, etc we’ll end up about $1000 short. Damn. At least we have it.

I’m so glad he’s alive.

Where’s my tape measure.

I’m glad he’s alive.

What if gas is cheaper elsewhere.

I’m so glad he’s alive.

What if it gets better mileage than we were told

I’m so glad he’s alive.

I can’t believe it’s really ours, now.

At this moment, it just sounds like so much fun. How is it possible to LUST a lifestyle? Maybe there’s a better word for it, I don’t know. Crave? Yeah- lust feels more accurate.

We’re making progress. We’ve been scouring craigslist for campers in our area (Central Washington) as well as Idaho, Western Washington and Eastern Oregon. But yesterday, for some reason, my husband checked in Portland, Oregon and OHMYGOODNESS- used RV’s are so darn much cheaper there than any of the other areas we’ve checked (which are all pretty comparable- for $5000 ish, we know what to expect. but in Portland and in Vancouver, WA (which are both big cities on opposite sides of the Columbia River) the “late model, gently used RV, preferably diesel RV over 30 feet” sells for like $1500 LESS. No kidding. If we were a smaller family, we could get a perfectly livable one for under $1000. But we’re not a small family. And we have about a month until we can expect to afford one. So I have marked a “weekend in Portland” on our calendar for next month and we plan to make appointments over the weekend to check out used RV’s. Diesel is important, because we want to run it on veggie oil.

So once again, I’m filled with excitement about this RV life. Let’s all pray that THIS is the plan that works out. Or at least that SOME Plan works out very soon. I’ve donated TONS and TONS of kids clothes to thrift shops lately. I’ve sold a lot of “stuff” and given a lot of stuff away. I’d like to invest in storage containers to go in the RV storage spaces, but I’m really not sure what to get. I also want to avoid plastic, so I’m thinking that once we GET the RV we’ll have to do a lot of shopping around for “the perfect thing” because I won’t buy brand new, either.

Ahh- I’ve been adding things to my list of 50 things I’ll do on the road and, as predicted, I passed 50 without even trying. That’s OK, the more items I have on my list, the more I’ll get to cross off as we go (whenever we go..)

Another thing I’ve done is enter to win a free copy of the Extended World Travel eBook from Tara at organicSister.com. In her review, she says that the book teaches you that you have to believe this is possible. I really do. I wonder if, by nagging about the fact that it hasn’t happened yet, I’m sending a “hasn’t happened yet” vibe out into the universe. That could be the problem. I should convince myself that it is happening next month and that we’re going to find the perfect camper at a rock-bottom price AND my teenagers will be just as excited about this as I am.

So- the title of this post was “living on the road forever” and that’s what I’m having hard time picturing. I wonder if, once we set off, we’ll EVER want to be stuck in one house again? I can’t imagine committing to a life without travel, I feel like this stationary existence has crushed me.

I started law school this week. Week one was super easy. It’s an online program. I’m not sure I want to actually BE an attorney, but once I’m done with this training, I could work as a legal assistant or a paralegal (if I wanted to) I just want to continue writing, though and write books & articles that help people stay out of legal trouble, or get out of legal trouble.

Anyway- so my school is online and my work is online and my social life is online. WHY AM I STILL IN THIS HOUSE? In this town? I completely create my own schedule, I have tons of time to hang out with my kids and enjoy life, I just don’t want to do it in this same town again.

This weekend, we went to an annual music festival. We’ve been to the same event every year for the past 8 years. How pathetic is that? For 8 years we’ve spend the 2nd weekend in July at the same park. If we’re here next year, I will completely give up and get a desk job somewhere. And get an ugly haircut or something.