moving on

I have spent the last few days writing the sequel to my last post. It has ranged from a rant and rage against the machine diatribe to a cool clinical timeline of what we thought about and why. After going through it over and again, I have decided that what happened next doesn't really matter. Don't get me wrong. It matters to us. I just don't really think it matters to say it out loud here.

Suffice to say that there was a great deal of angst and energy in the discussion about what to do with the realization that we felt we needed to change something major in our lives. After several days we decided that the feelings we had were legitimate, and within a few weeks we had come up with a basic 'plan' of how we wanted to redraw our lives.

We decided to take advantage of the fact that I am able to retire in 2015 after working for the FAA for 25 years. It means a rather drastic pay cut, but it also means freedom to spend time together as a family and set our own schedule and pace. We want to be able to show our children the vast differences and wonders of the world, which is something that we can only do if we have the time to spend travelling. We both have a certain wanderlust that chafes when tied to one place too long. We both want to allow that free rein for a while. To go and see whatever we want to go and see, just for the sake of doing it. The rest of the plan really started to fall together once we agreed on that much. After all, once you decide to go do something, the rest is just the details of how you get there and what happens along the way.

The only way to travel full time on the kind of budget that we will have is to cut completely loose and carry your house with you, like a turtle. No one I know can afford to travel by plane, train and automobile full time, staying in hotels wherever you go. It just costs too much for more than a week or two. If you travel in (or with) your home, that becomes easier. While there may be limitations to where you can go, or to how fast you can get there, the overall cost drops dramatically. The big trade is that your house gets MUCH smaller and a lot more basic. Not outhouse basic, but pretty sparse.

We only found two practical options for this type of travel lifestyle. Travel by RV or travel by boat. Both of these have their merits. Brenda and I spent a fair amount of time looking at RVs, thinking that staying on land might be the better choice. Ultimately we found the space constraints too restrictive and the operating costs too high. Even the biggest 40-45' Class A diesel motorhomes only really have one bedroom. The kids would wind up in bunk beds that were along a hall Pullman style, like the old sleeper trains. It was enough, but not what we wanted. The amenities were nice though: air conditioning, two TVs and some really nice interiors. In the end two things caused us to rule them out. First was the operating expenses. These things are actually not that bad to buy, especially if you buy used. However, 8-10 mpg gets expensive when you are moving full time, not to mention the upkeep on the vehicle and the cost of places to stay/park whenever you decide to stop for a week/month/season. The second issue was actually bigger. In an RV you are limited to travel within the US and Canada. There are many beautiful places in those two countries, and we have by no means seen even a small portion. We want to be able to go other places: South America, Europe, maybe Africa or India. We may not get there, but we want to make sure we have the option, and travel by RV doesn't give us that. If we are building a new life for the dream, we want the full dream......all of it.

That left travel by boat. That is what we have decided to do. The tradeoffs are very different and the lifestyle is an even bigger change from our current way of life. We think we have worked through those issues, or at least most of them. That will be the topic for the next several posts. There was only one little drawback to sailing off into the sunset. I have never sailed a boat bigger than 35', mostly on lakes and protected water. Brenda has never sailed at all. The kids have never even been on a boat. How do we feel about that? Can we do it? How will we do it? What will the children think? Just a little nervous over here.

All in good time. Next I'll write about how we answered most of those questions. Then I'll start talking about the things we have learned and what we intend to do to get ready. I still have that other post. Maybe one day I'll post it. For now I think it's best to move on.