It all started in the fall of 2012. We were in the middle of our 2012 Vacation in the Florida Keys. After another beautiful sunset, Trish said “why don’t we do this full time?”. For the next nine months, we prepared for the trip, both excited and worried. Worried about how the kids would adjust, worried about homeschooling, worried about leaving our perfectly good jobs behind.
In August of 2013, we drove away from our rented-out home and headed west. For nine-hundred and eighty-four days, we traveled this amazing, vast continent. We’ve climbed sand dunes and glaciers, walked beneath the world’s tallest trees, and touched the Arctic Ocean. We’ve strolled though a Mexican village, visited our nation’s capital, and panned for gold in the Yukon Territory beneath the midnight sun. Personally, I’ve had the time to bicycle many of the toughest cycling climbs in the US, and I realized my dream, now over thirty years in the making, of owning and flying a PPG. In the mean time, our children have both grown up so much, in so many ways. And we’ve come closer as a family.
And now it’s over.
We’re currently parked in our driveway here in New York. As of now, our plan is to aggressively triage our belongings into a single 26-foot moving truck and then move to Phoenix, Arizona. There are good schools there for M and B, and we will be near our parents. I’ve always loved the desert, and I think the rest of the family has come to appreciate its rugged beauty too. Our plan is to somehow be able to travel during the summers, to leave behind the monsoon thunderstorms of Phoenix’s summer and travel to places yet unvisited. We hope to share those travels with you here.
I considered continuing blogging daily until we arrived in Phoenix, which would be the end not only of the trip, but of this chapter of our life-journey as well, but I don’t think I could stand writing a blog post titled “Day 1045: Packing, Day 46”, nor do I think you would want to read it. I will continue to blog trips we take, as well as bike rides or PPG flights or RV modifications of note, but daily blogging will likely not return until we begin our westward drive to Phoenix. If you like, you can sign up for blog updates via E-mail, or receive updates by liking our Facebook page or following our Instagram page.
So here in the driveway our RV sits. And even though we’re here in the outer suburbs of New York City, when I close my eyes, I can still imagine us parked on some patch of lonely desert in the middle of nowhere, the scent of sagebrush and Palo Verde in the air, looking to the distant horizon beneath a vibrant sunset, with only the sound of the wind for company.
Are you there with me? I hope you are.
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Wow. What a journey. Not just for you but for all of your readers. I found out about you guys about the 600 day. Took me two days to catch up from day one. After that it was more than once a week I checked in with you guys. Thank you for explaining so much and showing your passion to everyone. Hope you are matzliach and happy when you settle down.
Thanks Adam, I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed the trip too! We are looking forward to endless showers and electricity, but once the kids are out of the house I think I’d like to go full time again. We’ll see how Trish feels.
Stay tuned, more adventures are coming soon!
Well played Sir, well played. Even when we were moving full time two or three posts a month was all I could really manage, partly because we were doing so much and partly because there was a lot of “and then there were planes, trains and automobiles” and so forth. We are really digging Florida so far, so I hope you find your bliss in wherever the wind takes you. I am working full time again and surprisingly it is not so bad. After a long lay off it’s sort of familiar and we are looking into buying a place that we can rent out for income purposes so…thanks for all the inspiration! Stay in touch! -Andy T @ http://www.WeTrotAbout.com
Thanks Andy, it really is sad to see it end. The blog was a good bit of work, and it’s painful to turn off the lights and close the door, so to speak. But the exciting part is that I can go back and relive each and every day. What a gift!
Phoenix is close to so much of the places we now love. Now all I just have to find work and settle in.
Congrats in the job, you sellout you. 🙂
Hopefully we will cross paths again soon, my friend.
I would like to welcome you to Phoenix. I may not LOVE the desert as much as you do. But Phoenix has been good to me these last 20 years. So be welcome and happy here. Maybe I can show you around sometime.
Thanks Denny! I thought you lived in Vegas.
I’m with you. I can smell the desert and see the sunsets. Looking forward to years of Death Valley with the family. Thinking about Tuolumne Meadows too. 😀
As you know, I followed the blog from day one and never missed a post. I enjoyed the journey from afar. Thank you for all the time and passion you put into sharing your journey with us.
Thanks for being our unofficial proofreader!
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What an amazing and inspirational journey. My goal is to be able to create the freedom to take the same journey that you guys have taken. My clock just resets with a 6 week old daughter but now I have plenty of time to plan.
I cannot imagine going back to “regular” life after so many years… how is your family adjusting?
It’s been remarkably easy to fall back into our suburban life, but I for one am eager to get back on the road. Hopefully when the kids are out of the house. Keep an eye out for the Sukkos edition of Ami Living magazine, an interview with my wife about post-trip adjustment will be in there.