On The Road

Finally, we are on the road. It took a lot of work, in all regards, but here we are.

Remember last time I said we were finally insured? Well, that fell through, of course. We've had to tell a white lie or it was going to be impossible or extortionate to insure. There is a fair amount of water damage, and we haven't mentioned that in our insurance policy. But we are honest people, so we have agreed with ourselves that we won't claim any damage caused by the pre-existing water damage. No insurance agency will take you on your word at that, so we lied. Score one for the Damy mission.

Then work wanted me to stay another week. Then they made me an offer to stay permanently. Both were turned down after very careful consideration, and it wasn't as easy a decision as we would have thought. The appeal of more money, doing the whole trip with a little more security, had its draw. But then where would the adventure be? So, we decided the amount of money we had would do us just fine. That, and my last 2 weeks of work were beyond stressful. Both Dave and I felt confident in our decision to leave - it may be the one decision we have made over the last year that we have no ounce of doubt in. We made the right one.

But now for the interesting stuff!

Our first RV site is on the beach. Well, the RV site said the beach was a 30 second walk away. I'm not a professional sprinter so it takes me more like a minute. But it's a walk through sprawling dunes and the beach is lovely. We haven't seen it in the sun yet - the closest we got yesterday was a brightening in the clouds. The sun did come out, it just waited until we had left the beach. It's a long, sandy beach punctuated by large pieces of driftwood which would sit nicely in an abstract artist's studio. As we walked along we noticed it seemed like a crab graveyard. There are literally hundreds of crabs in different states of decay and dismemberment all along the beach where the tide comes in and out. The birds are having a field day, and we even came across an eagle having a snack on what looked like the remnants of a baby seal.

The view from our window

Our first night was spent exploring the beach in between rain showers and glasses of champagne (obviously), and setting up home. When we left the apartment, we pretty much just stuffed things into boxes, and then stuffed these boxes into the RV anywhere they would fit. It took a little while - an evening and a day - but now everything is 'mise en place.' I have to say, I love our little RV (ok, not so little). It feels so homely with all of our stuff. It's only early days, but I'm happy as a pig in shit. We still have lots of projects to do - find out how big all the tanks are, a bit more sealing, and set up a herb garden. I bought Dave the makings for a herb garden that we could take on the road for his birthday, so hopefully we will have our own chives, rosemary, oregano and parsley.

Yesterday we busied ourselves by going into Long Beach town. It is getting to the end of the season now, so places are a little more quiet. We went to the supermarket to pick up a few things, and practically every employee in the store ( and a couple customers) greeted us with beaming smiles and welcoming hellos. Much different from the 'look at the feet and barge ahead' approach of Seattlites. We stopped into an Aussie themed bar for a pint to lubricate the walk home, only to discover it was run by a Scottish woman and a Seattle man who had met in Australia! We walked a bit further and tried to locate a beachside drinking establishment. Seattle seemed to have an aversion to putting pubs or bars in places with a view, so I was dubious about finding one. Luckily, we did. It wasn't oceanside, but it was a beautifully decorated restaurant on the 6th floor of a little hotel.

Our bedroom

The view was epic - the sky was moody with clouds and only accentuated by the rough seas of the pacific coast. We had a pint. Then another. Then food seemed like a good idea. As we ate our dinner, we noticed a never ending stream of birds flying across the water. It lasted the whole time we were there - about an hour and a half - and the trail of birds never waned. When we asked, we were told this happens every day at this time, we were just stunned! Well fooded and drinked, we got
back to the RV and took a beer down to the beach and watched the wind whip up the sand and fog which emanated from the ground. This is what it's all about. The freedom, not the beer (although the beer comes a close second).

One near setback we encountered when we checked our bank account. Someone had fraudulently used Dave's card to the tune of $80.99. We caught it as it was pending and no serious harm was done, but the card had to be cancelled and of course we no longer have a fixed address. That will be the next challenge. This is our biggest concern right now. Life is fucking good.

Next, we thought we were going to be in Oregon, but it turns out it's just on the border. So we are in Washington for Labour Day, then on to Oregon.

Our cozy home

The Time Is Nigh

Amid the Cascades

It feels like it has been a long time since I posted last. I have a few theories for this. The first is sheer laziness. The second is a lack of inspiration. I know that if I'm not in the mood to write, or if I have little by way of creative flow, the result is a little lacklustre. But the main theory, I guess, is fear. Well, fear is a strong word. Nervousness is probably more accurate. We are getting ever closer to the launch date, and the reality of it has only just started to dawn on me. We have so little money, we have a fragmented skeleton of a plan, we have no idea what to expect. Well, here, let me start over and tell you what led to these fears.

Caught off guard cooking breakfast

We took her out on her first boondocking expedition a couple of weekends ago. This was also a sort of farewell party to which we invited our closest friends, mainly people from my work. It was great - the RV did its thing in all its splendour. Apart from the fridge. The fridge is going to be our biggest headache I believe. It has to be pretty level to work properly. So we bought levelling blocks that look like giant pieces of lego to set beneath the wheels. We also bought a pair of stabilizers to stop the rocking as you, ahem, walk or do any vigorous activity in the RV. These worked. Brilliant. But then the fridge started to randomly cut out. We scratched our heads and just hoped it wasn't a permanent

The river by our campsite

issue. As far as issues go, this is going to be more like a hemorrhoid than a gangrenous leg. Every time we turn the water pump on, the fridge cuts out. Seems to be a common issue in RV's. Just means we have to start the gennie (generator) and flick the fridge back on again. I can cope with that, and I wouldn't expect anything else from this idiosycrantic adventure. Overall, the RV worked a treat for the whole weekend. The gennie is a touch louder than we expected it to be, so we are going to have to change our behaviours somewhat, especially if others are camping nearby. But, we couldn't hear the TV show we were watching on the laptop over the gennie anyway. I know what you're thinking. Why the hell are they watching TV when they are in the splendiferous surroundings of Washington nature? Well, to be honest, it was more to get a feel for what life is going to be like when we are on the road full time. You can take in awe-inspring beauty til you're blue in the face, but, at a point, your neck gets tired of looking up and your jaw gets tired from being agape. When that happens, you just want some creature comforts. Ours is a spot of TV.

Our bedroom looking more homely

As you already know, this whole thing has been a mass of complications, surprises and some flat out good luck. But as with just about everything, it has turned out to be a hell of a lot more expensive than we anticipated. This is my next worry. We were leaving with around half the amount we had planned on. And considering that was still in the four figure mark, it was weighing on my mind. We finally got it registered, which was a HUGE weight off my mind. But that was nearly $700, 200 more than we thought. But that comes with its own little tangent. We had the title, we had the repairs invoices to "prove" that we spent less on it than we actually did (a little felony never hurt anyone), we had all the paperwork. "I'm afraid he's signed it in the wrong place. Take this form, send it to the owner, get it signed and notarised, bring it back, and we can get that title for you." Time is running out on our end - it can take up to 6 weeks to get the registration posted. This added another week to the processing time and when we got it back the guy hadn't notarised it, of course. We tried our luck anyway and this time had an attendant who barely looked at our paperwork. Massive relief as she put the information into the computer. Heart jumped into mouth when we were given the price, but the rest of me was just thankful the whole debacle was over. Okay, back to the point of the paragraph. Money. Big worry. Then work turns around and asks me to stay an extra week - and if I do so they will give me a $500 bonus. KA-CHING!! It was a more difficult decision than that. I'm done with my work. They use people, they abuse them, and then wonder why everyone hates them. But, if I stay an extra week, we can double the money we are going with. With the light at the end of the tunnel, I can just about make it through. Just got to have that blinkered focus for the next 2 weeks. Money fears alieved.

We know some of our options. To make our money last, we can volunteer at state parks and in return you get full hook-ups. This brings me on to my next big fear. Lack of transport. That may sound silly when you are driving your home around, but that means that wherever you go, you have to bring your house. No quick stopping, no just nipping down the road to get some milk. If you want to go anywhere, you have to disconnect, pack up, and go somewhere that has parking suitable for a 30ft vehicle. Most full-timers get around this with a 'dingy' vehicle. Sadly, we don't have the money to spend on the extra petrol to tow, or the tow-bars, or the maintenance on 2 vehicles. So we are thinking about getting bikes, or maybe even a scooter somewhere down the line. We'll take it as it comes. It may not be as big an issue as I'm thinking, but I'm more inclined to think it's going to be a bigger pain in the ass than we thought. We can get lifts from other people in campsites if we're friendly. We can rent a car for a day if we really must. Like everything else, we're just going to head out and see what happens. My Dad gave me card once that said, "leap and the net shall appear." I don't know if he realised just how much I would take that on as a mantra. I was talking to Dave last night and remembered the extent of my planning for the Central America trip. There was such little planning. We had booked our hostel for the first few nights, but after that we had no idea. We arrived in Cancun with our bags which were packed with meticulous care, but with little idea where we were going or how we were to get there. And we had an awesome time. We planned our next move when we got to where we were going, and continued that way all the way through. Sure, some planning may have benefited us, but it was not to the overall detriment that we didn't. You find more interesting things with no plan and no timeline. When we tell people here that we have no real route planned, they think we are adventurous. I wouldn't say we are adventurous (although maybe we are), we are just kind of disorganised and think predominantly in the now. Not having a route or a plan doesn't scare either of us - we do sometimes wonder what we're getting ourselves in for, but a plan wouldn't change that. A plan is just a false sense of security.

So now we are just waiting. 2 weeks. Our stuff is up on Craigslist (America's version of gumtree). We both got credit cards. We took stuff out to the RV to start setting up home. We patched up the last few holes in the roof. We have handed our notice to the apartment. We have started to redirect our post. All our final bills are in order.The car has a buyer. We are registered and insured. Once again I wait to jump into the unknown, another adventure, another story to tell.