The Demands of Freedom
Adios Storage Unit…
One day I walked into HR, said “sayonara suckers!”, ditched my lease, hopped in my car and drove off into the sunset!!
NOT.
Things have been wild, and I’ve had several people question “what do you mean you’re busy, didn’t you quit your job?” I’ve also heard plenty of jokes about how I’m still a production coordinator at heart for planning and budgeting our whole trip. And mayyybe I have been a bit obsessive, but the bottom line is unless you win the lottery or have a team of people to handle your affairs - taking off on a long trip like this takes time, planning, saving & work!!
I feel like social media loves to make it seem like #vanlife #travellife is so easy breezy, so I wanted to give an honest glimpse into what it was like getting ready for 8 months of travel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m STOKED and there will be plenty of beautiful moments to share. But I know I’ve always been curious how people pulled stuff like this off, so let me fill you in!
While I’ve daydreamed about taking off on a trip like this my whole life, the idea didn’t really solidify until January of this year. For the past four months, my husband and I plotted out the timeline of when we would each quit our jobs, had meetings with financial advisors, reallocated our savings and investments, drew up lengthy bucket lists and narrowed them down, reached out to our landlord, booked a Uhaul, and slowly began the process of purging our belongings.
Other “fun” tasks we might not have foreseen:
-Finding and booking a storage unit
-Adjusting car insurance, adding AAA
-Renewing car registration
-Selling our 2nd vehicle
-Selling all of our furniture
-Doctor appointments before we left town
-Stocking up on prescriptions
-Finding, interviewing and training my replacement at work
-Working part-time remotely for some additional income
-Creating a travel email account
-Making some really insane excel spreadsheets for our budget & schedule
-Opening a travel credit card and joint checking account with no international fees
-Getting Buster vaccinated (and a certificate to cross the border)
-Reserving over 30 refundable campsites & vacation rentals
-Servicing our road trip vehicle… many times :(
-Changing our cell phone plans
-Arranging for mail forwarding or redirecting packages since we have no permanent address
-Canceling all of our subscriptions & utilities (weee!!)
-Learning our new camera equipment
-Canceling jury duty (LOL)
-Going away party / seeing loved ones before we left town!!
Alright, alright you get the point. I’m not trying to whine or scare anyone off from making a choice like this, but I do think it’s important to realize the reality of turning your whole life upside down. Has it been 4 months of chaos? Absolutely. Do I believe it will be worth it? You bet your buns I do.
I am so happy for those nomads out there who may truly be flying by the seats of their Carhartts, but for most of us money won’t last forever without consistent income, and taking off without some kind of plan is #panicattack.
There are bound to be surprises and curveballs along the way, and we’ll adjust as needed, but the itemizing / scrutinizing / analyzing / BORING part is done at last. We cannot WAIT to see where the rest of the year takes us- literally and emotionally. It’s time to breathe. It’s time to live. It’s time to experiment. And I can’t wait to share the journey.
xxo Kealey
