Ed’s been retired for a little over three years. But I still have a few years to work until I can get guaranteed health insurance that doesn’t cost more than a mortgage.
Recently, though, we’ve faced some health issues that have made us rethink this whole “normal” retirement plan.
So… we’re thinking about doing something absolutely crazy.
In about nine months, we have the opportunity to do something that has us both extremely excited and terrified at the same time.
We have the opportunity for both of us to be retired, leave behind the routines that have defined our lives for decades, move into our RV, and spend a few years exploring this incredible country.
You know… just casually selling our house, stuffing our lives into an RV, and driving off into the sunset… when diesel fuel is $6.00 a gallon and we get about 6 miles to the gallon.
What could possibly go wrong?
Right now, we’re in that strange in-between stage.
We already own the RV. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about where we might go, what we might do, and whether we’re really ready to let go of the life we’ve built here in Kentucky.
At the same time, I’m still driving ten hours every week to get to and from a job I don’t even enjoy anymore. We’re still maintaining a house that is way too big for the two of us, paying the bills, and trying to figure out what we want the next chapter of our lives to look like.
And we have about “eleventeen million” questions.
Can we really afford it?
What do we do for health insurance?
What do we do with all our stuff?
Seriously… where did we get ALL this stuff?
Where will we travel?
When will we settle back into a home?
Where will that home be?
How will we get our mail?
And probably the biggest question of all…
Are we crazy to even contemplate this?
The truth is, we don’t know all the answers yet.
We’re just starting this journey and trying to figure out all the pieces we’ll need to put together to make it happen.
There are spreadsheets.
There are conversations.
There are increasingly complicated discussions about what will fit in the RV.
There may or may not be an occasional glass of wine involved.
That’s why I’ve started this blog.
I need a place to keep track of our thoughts, ideas, plans, questions, and probably a few panic attacks along the way.
I want somewhere to document the entire journey, from where we are today to wherever the road eventually takes us. Plus, it’s a great place for our friends and family to follow along, make sure we’re still alive, and see that we haven’t completely lost our minds.
There will probably be excitement.
There will definitely be mistakes.
There will more than likely be moments of panic.
And I’m pretty sure there will be at least one moment when one of us looks around the RV and says, “Where exactly are we supposed to put THAT?”
But we’re hoping that, in the end, there will be countless memories, new friends, beautiful places, and experiences we never would have had if we’d played it safe with a “normal” retirement.
So… that’s where we are right now.
Nine months is going to fly by.
Nine months from now, we might be heading down the road, driving our tiny home on wheels, looking for a place to park beside a mountain somewhere and… wondering why we waited so long to do this.
Or…
We might be sitting on the back porch, looking at each other and saying,
“What on earth were we thinking?”
Either way, it’s going to be one heck of an interesting ride.
And if nothing else, we’ll have a really good story to tell.
Welcome to Starrs Aboard.
Leave a Reply