Change of Plans
Sunset View from our home near Lake Lure, NC. August 2024
Just before Covid hit, we bought a camper and we were planning to take some trips over the summer. Since Covid spread we stayed pretty close to home. As we got into 2021, Shawna needed to have a series of foot surgeries, which kept her off her feet for several months recovering. While she was down and recovering, we hung out and watched movies, shows and other videos on Youtube as we couldn’t do many outdoor activities. We watched several different Youtube channels about people traveling in their RV’s. As we watched them, we started thinking about taking some longer trips in the RV, so we could get out west and see some of the many interesting sites that are out there. While there are a lot of beautiful places on the east coast of the US, most of it has a similar feel. To get some real variety, we need to get out west. And it takes time to get out there.
Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde national Park, Colorado
Early this year, 2024, we decided we would take a one month trip in October and go to Utah. We could drive a few days, then Shawna could work for a week and then drive a few more days to get to Utah. We would then have 2 weeks to explore the area and reverse the process to get back to NC, all within a month. After watching some of the travel videos, we thought that one day we might like to close the house up and go travel for 6 months at a time to explore some new areas and take our time doing it.
Most of the time when we travel, we rush around quite a bit trying to see as much as possible. We have limited time and don’t know if we’ll ever make it back to that area, so we want to see as much as we can. With the RV and more time, we could go slowly and spend more time in one location. A more relaxed pace sounds like it would be very enjoyable while still seeing most everything we want to. But this trip to Utah would be a bit rushed in getting out there and back.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
We had fun planning the Utah trip and had it mostly mapped out, then we had a change of plans. On and off for years we talked about doing more traveling and several things led us to ask ourselves why we were waiting. We’d recently had several friends encounter serious health issues and some who passed away. Things like that really make you think about the time you have left that you are healthy enough to do the things you want to do. And no on knows how much time we get.
We considered renting out our home but we knew that the upkeep of our house and property would be too difficult to maintain if we were away for several months of the year. So, we decided to see what we could sell for and had some realtors come out to give us an idea of what the value of our house was. Selling it would give us more options and be less stressful than trying to maintain it. It was a very difficult decision because we truly loved the house, land and the view we had, and we knew that we wouldn’t find anything quite like it again. In the end, selling seemed the best option because it would allow us much more freedom to travel with less stress. So we decided to become full time RVers!
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. Yes, the water truly is this color.
At this point we’ve lived in this home for 10 years. It’s the longest I’ve ever lived in the same house. When we built the house, we figured that we would be here for a few decades. At least until the upkeep became to much to handle some day. But life seems to make a habit of changing things, regardless of what plans you previously have made. It took just over a week to get a buyer and we had our closing about a month later, in mid August.
Everything went smoothly with the sale and the new owner was thrilled with her little home with the awesome view. We got rid of lots of stuff. Sold some and donated much more. Then we put some things into a small enclosed trailer for safekeeping. We made some modifications to the camper to work best for us. We loaded up the things we would need for this trip and moved into it with our two dogs and a cat. Let’s see where this new adventure takes us.