So today marks 4 weeks in my new life as a vagabond. I have learned many things. Life is simpler in a small space.  Kind of freeing actually.  You have to be at a point in your life where you are ready to let go of all the clutter to make it work. I spent the summer cleaning closets and letting go. If it stayed in my house I had to have enough of an emotional attachment to make it worth packing. I tried to give my kids the things I thought they would appreciate or had developed their own emotional attachment to. The rest went to friends in our neighborhood or to Deseret Industries. This way my kids won't have to do it after I am gone. (Believe me boys you will thank me later).

I am grateful for my eternal companion and best friend who is sharing this journey with me. We made this plan 20 years ago and have spent that time saving for this adventure. We "saved until we were living paycheck to paycheck" for a long time.  But it was ok because we had a goal in mind.  I spent most of our married lives budgeting and could squeeze a dollar til it cried. We are back to that point now as we try to figure out how to live on my salary working 3 days a week and Mike's monthly draw from his retirement. A friend of mine told me a few years ago that it was hard to spend the money you had saved for your whole adult life and she was right.  But we are blessed to have a wise financial planner who managed our savings very well and thanks to Bob Aamodt we are doing fine. He reassures me and is a voice of reason when I have sleepless nights wondering how we will work this all out.

Mike is great to pick up the slack while I work. He does the laundry (and folds it), helps cook meals and does the dishes. We are compromising on things like TV and radio stations. See Mike likes the old time country music (the kind that makes your ears bleed) and I like more modern stuff. But we are working it out and widening our musical horizons. We have a satellite dish but only get satellite reception on one tv (yes the mobile mansion has two) so when we can't antenna reception on the other tv I have watched more sports and he has watched those mushy Hallmark movies (and even said "that wasn't too bad").

Mike is an awesome trip planner and pulls this beast down the road like nothing was there.  I have driven once since we left (and it ended up being in the dark and during a rain storm).  Afterwards, I was even more grateful that I don't have to drive.  I have pulled our trailer and can do it in a pinch but it isn't my most favorite way to pass the time.

I am learning new tricks with technology (and how to use the cloud) so down the road I hope to be able to share pictures of the things we have experienced and the sites we have seen. We have truly been blessed to live in a beautiful country and I am excited to be able to experience new Inge and see new places.  Stay tuned for more as we are #ontheroadtoanywherewewant.