First of all, I wanted to say a sincere thank you for all of the heartfelt condolences left on our last blog post in response to my father’s passing. I am so very touched by how many people have reached out, and helped make this time a little bit easier by reminding us that we are not alone in this experience.
Last week, as anyone who has been through a similar situation knows, was crazy busy dealing with all of the logistics of a loved one passing. Paperwork, details, informing friends & family and trying to take care of each other. We had a beautiful ‘Celebration of Life’ service for my father yesterday, and have had lots of family in from out of town.
We know that no one expects us to be blogging & Facebooking during all of this, but we do feel a bit neglectful – even though there’s really nothing all that interesting in our lives to report. No scenic pictures, no adventures beyond a daily commute across town and no change in our view.
Our current campsite is paid up until the 26th of the month, so we are starting to shift our thinking to ‘where next?’ – something that only a few weeks ago seemed like an unlikely thought for at least several more months.
Over the next couple of weeks we should be able to wrap up the logistical help my mother can benefit from us – helping her with technology and such. But it won’t make much sense for us to stick around the area much beyond that. It’s already getting hot & muggy here, requiring regular use of the air conditioning. She lives in a wonderful community of peers, and I know she will have many friends to help through the coming months as she adjusts. And of course, we have technology to help us stay just a button click away.
And, we have itchy feet to get out there exploring and meeting new people again.
It’s been 3 years since my dad’s initial diagnosis, and since then our routing and travel decisions have been based around our desire to be ready to head back to Florida at a moment’s notice. And particularly the past 18 months, 11 of those months have been spent in central Florida helping out.
We think we’ve been able to do a remarkable job at balancing our nomadic & professional lives and we have indeed had some amazing adventures in past few years anyway. We in no way regret this time spent, it’s been exactly where we wanted to be.
But it does feel a bit… different.. to now be contemplating routing that doesn’t necessarily include quickly getting back to Florida for the long haul as a top priority.
Some things that are on our radar:
- We have tickets to the World Domination Summit in early July in Portland, OR. If we intend to go, we need to figure out how we get there – fly, train or make a cross-country repositioning with the bus? If we don’t want to go, we need to find new owners for the tickets by early May to transfer them.
- We have a storage unit on the west coast to clear out and finally get rid of (a common nomad right of passage after many years on the road it seems).
- Burning Man in late August becomes a possibility now.
- Another celebration of life event to coordinate in Connecticut with family to honor my father.
- We have a desire to move forward on several bus projects – namely: adding solar panels, expanding the lithium ion battery bank, swapping out the driver’s & passenger seat, some minor interior remodeling and new more efficient air conditioners. All of these things will require either finding reputable RV shops and/or a places to pull in with tools and space to do the work ourselves with help of friends.
- We also have a desire to just find a scenic monthly spot in an peaceful location (hmmm… is there such a thing as a RV spa-type community with private waterfront spots and onsite hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, massage therapy, yoga classes, meditation, hiking, yummy organic healthy foods, etc. out there??), and concentrate on some recuperation and focused app development time.
- Or whatever else serendipity has in store for us.
Whatever decision and routing we make, we know it will come together in a way that feels right… and it will be a bittersweet ‘until next time’ when we pull out of Central Florida.
In the meantime, we look forward to resuming blogging and even hosting some more live video chats. We have setup a new email notification list for when we schedule those video chats (which we tend to do rather last minute as we find open time & bandwidth)- if you’re interested in catching them, you can sign up here to be notified.
Well if you decide to bring the rig to Portland I’d suggest just staying on the coast for the whole summer. It’s gorgeous, cool (ALL summer) and we’re there too 🙂
Nina
“(hmmm… is there such a thing as a RV spa-type community with private waterfront spots and onsite hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, massage therapy, yoga classes, meditation, hiking, yummy organic healthy foods, etc. out there??)”
OMG, finally someone in the RV community is thinking ahead clearly! I’ve been an RV’er for over 25 years and have been calling myself “NuNativs” which is eerily similar to the NuRvers?!?
I’ve long been spouting out to anyone who would listen that WE should build RV parks across the U.S. that combine what you described above, with on site composting, permaculture food parks and community gardens, solar and alternative energy, basically creating a health resort for nomads that improves the surrounding landscape and becomes a mini Oasis.
The closest thing going is the Escapee’s who at least buy land as a coop, then build the park themselves with contractors of course so they have the freedom to create what they desire. Unfortunately, the RV community as a whole tends to be unhealthy and would rather have ice cream socials instead of surrounding themselves with all manner of semi-wild growing fruit tree forests.
But I digress…
Sounds like you totally need to connect with the NuRVer crowd… our convergence in Cedar Key earlier this year included lots of vegan/organic pot lucks. Tons of fun, and super healthy.
We’d totally love to be frequent patrons of a RV parks more suited to our lifestyle, but definitely not ready to ‘settle down’ enough in order to build it 🙂
So what you need is to be part owner of several of “your” parks so when you go to a different part of the country you have a place with hot tubs, massages & vegan/organic pot lucks.
A new business venture maybe?
Ahhh… if only we had time for more business ventures 🙂 Running a RV Park is a tough business to break into.
portland is a fantastically fun spot to spend some time but remember that July is just the beginning of summer in Oregon and the coast will always be a bit chilly…
A ‘bit chilly’ would be a welcomed way to spend the summer. The average temp of our past two summers was in excess of 110. 🙂
Dorothy and I would like to express our condolences to you and your family.
On a lighter note, please come to Burning Man so we can also meet you guys IRL…
That definitely adds incentive. The odds of us attending have gone up 🙂
Stop in Austin, TX along the way, we’d love to see you again!
As much as we’d love to see you guys again soon.. thinking that ‘hot and humid’ thing might overrule Austin on this pass thru. 🙂
There is not much in the world better than the Oregon coast in the summer time … the last time I looked Portland was not far from the coast & July is the middle of the summer.
Just saying….
We have far too little Oregon time under our belts.. it’s definitely very tempting!
I’ll be camp hosting in the Mt Hood NF again this summer, about 70 miles from Portland. Maybe we can finally meet.
That would be awesome!
oh!,oh! i know some people who are going to move to Portland in a few weeks who would love to see you!
You guys, and Pace & Kyeli (who you just have to meet!!) moving there this spring are definitely incentives to get there! 🙂
I missed the last post so wanted to relay a belated condolences. I also wanted to say that if you make it to Portland this summer, I hope you will look me up. Oregon might be one of the more beautiful areas on earth in the summertime. I’d be happy to give you two or three hundred places to visit. 🙂
Elia –
It would be great to catch up with you after all these years. If/when we make it to Portland, we will definitely need to make it happen.
Cheers,
– Chris