Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today – May 10, 2007, I left my home vastly emptied out in Florida and hit the road with this new guy I met in his tiny little solar powered travel trailer.

Today is my both my Nomadiversary and ours together.

I spent about 6 weeks cleaning out closets, drawers, paperwork and disassembling as much as my stationary life as I could. As I was already intending to move to California just as soon as I could sell my house, it wasn’t a project that I did only for hitting the road. But hitting the road definitely gave me a deadline and ramped me up into full on purge mode. Getting rid of so much stuff was completely liberating. Trying to figure out what was essential to take – considering we’d be sharing about 45 sq ft of space – was more of a challenge.

As I was unable to sell my house (at a price I wanted) in the crashing economy on the coast of hurricane riddled Florida, I left my home half occupied by my friendly and supportive ex – still paying my half of the mortgage and expenses. While it was a stretch to both take a reduction in income for working less hours and paying for my share of the travel expenses – I simply made it work. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it.

Friends and family where mostly supportive of my decision to embrace adventure and run my little software development company remotely as I bounced around the US. Knowing the adventure would be fueled in part by a big dose of new relationship energy, we looked specifically at this maiden voyage as being a trial phase. We committed to traveling together for the summer ending our trial at Burning Man 2007. At that point, we would evaluate our less than year old relationship and independently, life on the road together long term.

The first day on the road was a blur of handling last minute details, lunch with my parents and trying to stay ahead of traffic towards our first stop in Miami to visit some old high school friends of Chris’. It remains a chaotic day in my memory.

The next couple of months were a rush of trying to make it to California for a wedding Chris was best man in, all the while trying to stop and visit with as much family as possible. The rush contributed to our first catastrophe on the road – a hydroplaning spin-out, that left us a bit shaken and a grateful opportunity to recommit to the value of life.  We got to San Francisco, and hung out there for a while before Burning Man. By the end of the first two months I was digging the nomadic life.

At the end of the three month trial, we committed to each other as life partners. As for living on the road – we decided to meander on back to Florida for a few months and then completely wrap up my life there by finally selling the darn house and looking for a mobile home built with the two of us in mind.

After getting past the initial couple chaotic months on the road, I’ve not once looked back on my decision to live a fully nomadic lifestyle.  Three years into the journey, it just feels.. amazingly normal to me.

Thank you for having followed along thus far!  Here’s to many more shared adventures!