We're Moving

Right now, as I write this, I'm sitting in my little office, watching snow spiral from the sky and wondering where 2023 will inevitably whisk me away. Despite a lengthy historical preference for all things predictable and routine, I've officially crossed into the threshold of longing for a change every six months or so. It's truly an itch, this desire to freshen things up.

After the last several years of hopping around, however, I will say this: I have come to cherish the PNW most of all. Especially the area we're in now. But as time passes, and as more folks catch on to how surprisingly awesome it is to live full-time in an RV and travel all over the US, the more expensive this lifestyle becomes. We used to pay $300 a month for an RV Park (that was clean, well-managed, and incorporated the perfect blend of being close to nature, but close to the amenities of the city). Now, it's $1,500 a month for comparable spots, and we've also seen a shift to RV Parks no longer accommodating long-term stays, instead charging for weekly or daily stays that are frankly astronomical in price.

The reality of these skyrocketing prices, along with the doomsday-prepper (and I promise we aren't the crazy, underground bunker preppers with a thousand guns, but rather the I-want-to-rely-on-my-own-farm-to-survive sort) in us, we've decided to prioritize our search for a lot of land to begin building our self-sustaining homestead. This means parting ways, at least for now, with digital nomadism, and going back home to Arizona for the foreseeable future, where we already own property. We aren't totally sure what it'll take, zoning-wise, to get that lot of land ready for what we've got in mind. The research we've done so far indicates it'll be a really good option: a place with lots of sun for growing our own produce, and in a region that is largely exempt from geological disasters (such as "the big one" haunting the PNW at every turn) that is also close to family. If we can get what we'd like out of this land, we've now decided, officially, to drop our anchors and grow some roots!

Me being me, however, I'm always reluctant to say anything with total certainty. It's definitely possible that this property won't pan out. For now, though, it's looking promising, and so we will be returning to Arizona to explore this for the foreseeable future.

At the beginning of 2023, I always sort of felt that I'd be officially going back home, and that reality triggers such an interesting reaction. It truly is bittersweet. While I'm happy to invest in the land we've purchased and actually build a HOUSE on it — with a greenhouse, chickens, a water collection system, the works — I've also become so attached to the lifestyle of always being at least somewhat on the move. My partner constantly reassures me that we will keep our RV and continue to travel whenever we get the itch to, though, so that's a help. And I'm honestly really excited to someday have a bathtub again! Ha.

Anyway, all of this is just to say that March is going to be another wild ride! I am so stoked to share this journey with you! Does anybody else have interest in a more glamorous version of the Dwight Schrute lifestyle, and if so, would you like content related to this?