May 15, 2013

OUR NEW HOME ON WHEELS

   We spent our first night in what will be our future home last night.  "What in the world are we thinking, you ask?!  You're gonna live in a 28 foot trailer?!  With a 75lb black lab?" Well, first off, the black lab, Bowie, is lazy and just sleeps.  Secondly, I (Jen) am losing my job in October due to government cutbacks (and here we thought the government wasn't cutting anything back...), Monica is finishing up with school in the fall and now has to decide what she wants to do and well....neither of us have any clue what we want to do with ourselves.  All we know, is that we're sick of work and school and need a brake.  So, that's what we are going to do.  Take a nice, long break.

Iggy's First Night camping at the Crescent Bay Thousand Trails overlooking the Columbia River

   Therefore, the plan is to sell the house this summer, move into our new home on wheels, and then save up a bit more money while I'm still employed and Monica is finishing off school.  Once I'm not employed anymore, I plan on finishing off the Marine Maintenance and Technology program up in Anacortes while Monica looks for some sort of job that will either be working on ships or some sort of part time job.  Once I finish up my school program next year, then I think it will be time to do a bit of traveling.  We have watched way too many people recently who have waited for retirement to travel and then find they can no longer do the things they wanted to or travel at all for that matter.  Plus, we are both becoming so unhappy in our current jobs/school, that we both believe it is time to take an extended road trip and figure out what our plans are for the next few years.  

Jen knows that she wants to stay in Washington State.  Monica isn't so sure of that, but Jen is confident that she can talk Monica into staying as long as she can find the sun every so often.  And if we can't, then we'll just go search for it somewhere for a little while.  So, in the beginning, the plan is to stay in the Pacific Northwest traveling around Washington State and also in Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  Once we've exhausted ourselves there, we might venture further, but the comment has been made that we might need a year for each state.  Now, don't worry, I'm sure we will be making some side trips to California and the Upper Midwest to visit family and friends too.

Anyway, our first night was spent at the Crescent Bay Thousand Trails RV Park, which is near the town of Quincy.  The park overlooked the Columbia and we happened to get the last site that was overlooking the river.  Even though the park wasn't our favorite type of place to camp (not many trees, not much privacy between spaces), it did provide us with a great view for our first night out.  And our neighbors were quite nice, giving us some advice on how to fix our day/night window shades that weren't staying up and another neighbor who gave us some ideas on how to keep the trailer looking new when most parks won't allow you to wash your trailer.  All in all, a good way to start our new adventure. More to follow soon...

Crescent Bar Thousand Trails