It has been a while since I’ve been on here. We left Georgia and traveled on towards beautiful South Carolina, before spending a little bit of time in Virginia and Washington D.C. From there we had a sudden change of plans. Jordan had to fly back to California so we decided to get back to the Cape so I could park and spend time with my family while he was gone. Well, our planned three week stay turned into a fast-moving 2.5 months. This was unexpected, but it was desperately needed.
We had been on the road for just over six months when we parked at my parents house in Harwich. This experience of selling everything and moving into our motorhome has been one of the most (top 3) transformative periods of my life. Leaving California behind came with a huge void, and adjusting to this nomadic lifestyle was not easy for me. It has been beautiful and raw, and the most incredible experience of my life. But easy, it was not. I have struggled to feel grounded through this time, and it has been difficult to find routine in a day-to-day life that feels ever-changing. These are complicated feelings… and I will probably explore this topic later, in another post. The bottom line is that we spent two and a half months on the Cape, spending a lot of time with my family, and processing everything we’ve been through since we left our home in August. I wish we could have stayed forever. Being close to my family again was the most amazing thing. I got to watch my nephews cross through milestones… walking and talking. Collecting every beautiful word that emerged from Sebastian’s mouth and falling in a puddle over Christian’s grin as he wobbled across the room.
The time we were able to spend there was priceless. But as May came to a close, we knew we had to move on. This was always our plan. We would sell our home, buy an RV and spend half a year or so traveling across the country while we tried to find a new home base. Well, we are almost at month nine (with just over 3 months spent on the Cape), so alas… the time has come. Operation home base. We have both come alive in this time of creativity and travel… and neither one of us want to give up this lifestyle completely. There are many facets of our life as it is now that we hope to bring forward into the next more stable chapter. I have felt a huge appreciation develop for living in a tiny space, and we have realized that travel is a priority for both of us. But at the same time, I have felt a strong urge to find a home again. So we left Cape Cod with the intention of finding our next home base. We knew from the beginning that North Carolina was a really solid option for us as a place to relocate, and it remains at the top of our list. So we left Cape Cod with North Carolina as our destination.
But first wanted to stop in New York. I’ve been really curious about the Hudson Valley, so we decided to spend a few days north of Hudson and a few days out west towards Ithaca. From there, we will drop straight south, towards the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and by the time the New Moon hits mid-month, we will get to North Carolina and we plan on taking as much time as we need to explore that state while finding a little spot to call home.
While we were on the Cape, we wound up doing some small renovations to the RV. I will have a whole separate post on this later with better before/after photos. This has really changed our quality of life in the RV and has made the space much more livable for us. We expect to be living in here even after our travels are done, while we acclimate to a new city & for however long it takes to find a place to live. It has been a huge relief waking up every morning in such a more functional and appealing space.
So we left Cape Cod on the day after Memorial Day, around 4:15, just as we had planned. After almost of two months of pushing our leaving date back, it was somewhat surprising that we stuck to our plan… up at 3:45, out of the driveway by 4:15. It was 4:16 actually, but whose counting. We drove to Nauset Farms, hooked up the tow car for the first time since March and then we hit the road. By the time we crossed the Sagamore Bridge it was light out. It was an overcast morning so we didn’t see a sunrise but we felt it. We took 495 to the Mass Pike, got gas and Dunkin’ Donuts somewhere between Worcester and Springfield, got in a fight just passed Amherst, and realized how exhausted we were right around Lee. I had scouted a possible campground there just incase we lost steam early on in the day. We had been up until midnight watching the Warriors win the Western Conference Finals the night before, and the 3 hours of sleep + the intensity of being on the road again hit us hard, right around 9:45. This was also in the plan though. There was a full moon at 10:20, and we had hoped to be stopped before that timing hit. We had also hoped to be stopped in New York by that time…. But sometimes you have to accept what you’ve been given, and we did… meandering through some backroads to get to October Mountain State Forest just outside of Lenox. We found a small campground, and were pleased to we realize we were its only occupants.
I am hesitant to place judgement on what that day was like. Because I want to say it was not a good day. But that isn’t exactly true. It wasn’t a bad day. We weren’t exactly in a place to handle anything that came up… feeling somewhat shellshocked with weariness and the overwhelming feeling of being on the road again. The fact that this part of our journey is so different has definitely affected us. We aren’t really in the realm of travel anymore… our driving and travels have gotten more serious. We are trying to figure out what our lives are going to look like, where we will be, where we might be able to set down some roots. It was also a somewhat abrupt and jarring experience leaving the Cape, as well. It was really sad for me… plus we had been there for so long that getting back on the road, and knowing that we would have to be moving every few days, felt overwhelming. We spent the day just dealing… managing what came up, and trying our best to come back together as we adjusted to being on the road again.
We spent another quiet day in this campground before driving into the Hudson Valley. We found a state park in Ravena, NY… right on the Hudson. I have been blown away by the landscape here. There is such immense beauty, in the wildflowers and the majestic trees. Everything is so green as we enter the last three weeks of Spring. I have to constantly remind myself how brutal the winters are here… because this spring glory is seriously intoxicating.
The cottonwood trees must have just bloomed, because their seeds are blowing in the wind and falling like snow all over the campground. It is really the most magical sight. The weather is perfect, and the state park we are staying at has the most incredible hiking trails that traverse through lush, green forests… with pockets of ferns and sprinklings of wildflowers.We have spent the last few days taking long walks and bike rides in the woods, buying & enjoying local produce, driving around the Hudson Valley & having a bit of quiet time to reflect and prepare ourselves for what’s next. I am trying to blog more here through this time, and we are still posting videos from our travels on our YouTube account. Our few days here have given us just the peace and quiet we needed. This week hasn’t been easy, but it has had the most beautiful moments. This has felt like the perfect place for us to get back to ourselves and I feel so grateful that we chose to give ourselves some time to reconnect and adjust before getting down to NC. Nervous but excited to see what’s next.
