ROUGH START - our first 6 months of vanlife

After years of dreaming, doing research and putting a well thought out plan into motion, we hit the road.

It’s Nov. 3, 2020, infamous election day. Both political parties think the world is going to implode depending on the outcome. We voted early, a few weeks prior, signed closing documents the morning of the 3rd, hooked up a trailer carrying the things we couldn’t part with, and hit the road. If the world was going to implode, we were self-contained and able to survive the impeding apocalypse for a couple of weeks.

We decided that we were going to head to Florida to spend time with friends and family as well as spend the holidays with them before we hit the road. You know, make those Norman Rockwell type memories. You see, we moved away from FL in 1999, and didn’t spend a lot of holidays with family. So, spending some much-desired family holiday time was looking good.

Oh, did I mention we are slap dab in the middle of Covid? Ugh! We all handled it so differently. Some family members acted at though it was a hoax, while others took it seriously, and did the best they could, and others were completely covid-phobic!

Which made for really difficult family gatherings.

Soon after Thanksgiving, my mom fell and broke her shoulder. Without tons of details, it was probably one of the most difficult times of my life. Once I was able to get to my mom and help take care of her, it became some of the most precious times of my life. But long, lonely and difficult. We ended up spending Christmas in a Rehab center where my mom had to undergo therapy not only for her shoulder, but had to learn to walk again, and regain balance. Once we got home we had an additional 6 weeks of therapy, and my mom was doing so much better. By this time we’re at the beginning of March and we decide it’s time to finally hit the road.

Approximately 3 days after being on the road, I get a call from my mom stating she needs to a have a procedure in a few weeks. Well, I don’t want her and my dad to go through it alone, so we decide to do a quick trip through the Natchez Trace Parkway, see some friends in Franklin, TN, and circle back to Florida. Mom’s procedure went well, spent some time recovering, and back on the road.

As we headed west, we took a stop in New Orleans and got stuck in a horrible storm. BUT, after that we stopped at a Harvest Host, one I wanted to go to so bad!!!! John Schneider’s house! YES!!! Bo Duke himself. We got to meet with him before he left for a concert, and he allowed us to make his property our home for the evening. Y’all!!!! That was great and all, but we’re in May, in the south! HEAT, HUMIDITY and MOSQUITTOS!!! After 6 months of stress, hair loss, missing my friends, broken relationships, and being flat out exhausted…I LOST IT!!! Full on breakdown mode! I missed my friends, my church, my job, MY LIFE!!! I was mourning relationships lost, and I just needed something familiar! I told Ray that I couldn’t do this! Living in this kind of heat with bugs was not what I had in mind when living this lifestyle. I wanted what I saw on Instagram! I WANT AN INSTAGRAM LIFE!!!! It doesn’t exist. And now Ray was freaked out. We just sold just about everything we owned. Quit our very nice jobs, sold our house and cars. He was not happy. But neither was I.

Many people we follow on YouTube and Instagram had mentioned that there is this time at about 6 months where you have a “WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE?” moment! I had it, and I had it BIGTIME!!!

This lifestyle is nothing like I thought it would be.

After my complete breakdown, we left Louisiana, and headed west. We found ourselves in Carlsbad, NM. I met my first travel friend, Cindy. We talked for hours! We had beautiful sunsets, and gorgeous weather. After an afternoon at Carlsbad Caverns, and dinner under the sunset – I thought to myself. I think I can live like this.