Ten months ago today we took the picture on the top of our blog page, and six and a half of those months we’ve been on the road. We’ve reached the mountains again, and will stay in them pretty much for the remainder of our adventure.
We both noticed the extent to which returning to the crisp and dry air, rushing streams, and pine smell gave us a palpable sense of relief. Even if things change dramatically, there’s no doubt this part of the country feels like home.
Here’s our progress:
Still no real movement on the house, other than some verbal feints: “what if we offer this?” Us: “Put it writing and see!” (more or less… that’s a two-line summary of various painstaking multi-day exchanges) and lots of vaguely positive but ultimately unproductive feedback from open houses and visits. It hits Tacco and I at different times — our frustration with the house situation that is — and I think it comes more from realizing that we really need to be looking forward now, not back. The idea that selling our house was once a no-kidding prerequisite for even doing this trip seems hopelessly quaint now. It now looks probable that we will have done the entire year paying for an empty house.
Interestingly, what we’ve learned is that we can be pretty thrifty on the road, even without skimping. Our only main expenses are gas, RV sites (lodging), food, and entertainment. The entertainment tends to be cheap if not free, arising naturally from our destinations. And we’ve gotten very good at meal planning, such that we very rarely eat out. Even fast food, which we’ve not done once.
At any rate, we are still optimistic that we’ll get it sold based on recent activity, and we have left July and August fairly open and unplanned, anticipating the need to both return to Maryland to pack out our house at some point and do some house-hunting in Bend (or wherever — still not 100%!). We still intend to nail that down before the kids start school.
If you look at our map, it has us returning to Park City after we’re done playing in the Colorado / NM Rockies and eastern Utah. I’ll fly a trip from there, and then we’ll bolt to Bend in order to reach it by the 4th of July. Our stay in Bend is open-ended. We added a possible (hopeful?) loop through Washington and northern Oregon just because. But we’ll see!
That’s not much traveling left, and that fact has yet to sink in…