Time To Face The Change...

BIG changes coming up for us.  A whole new way of living. 

If you're new to this blog, let me introduce us.  We are Phil and Jan Conwell, currently living in the mountains of eastern Arizona, in a tiny town called Lakeside.  We've been together for (almost) thirty years, have four grown kids and nine grandkids scattered across the US.  Phil retired from the Air Force in 2007, then began a new career managing Air Force construction data.  I was a civilian Air Force instructor for ten years, then spent the last twelve on a folk art business, making art dolls and such.  We are getting ready to retire from all that. 

Now--you're mostly caught up.

I am really not sure if it's just Phil and I, or if many people really want a big change to shake them up in their lives.  He wanted to live in the White Mountains all his life, and had fond memories of boyhood summers spent running through pine forests.  Jan always wanted to live among trees and raise chickens.

When we got to the point where it was financially viable for us to do so, we moved here and built a house.  If you've read posts from 2018 to now, you know the story (aside from all the doll stuff).  The house has been finished for quite some time.  The chicken coop and run finished.  Got chicks in April, and they were laying by late September.  So Phil had his pine forest, and Jan had her chickens. 

  All was right with the world.  Wasn't it?

But here we were, in our happy place, discovering it was NOT all happy forest dwelling.  Why were we still antsy to DO something?  Go somewhere?  So we bought an RV (ahem, he corrects me: it's a Motor Home). It's huge--36 ft long.  It has a bath and a half!  Two slides to make for more room. Why not just get a camper?  You'll see in a minute.

Riggs is a 2016 Fleetwood Bounder 35K

Right after Phil retired from the Air Force, we lived at an RV park in White Sands, New Mexico, while we put together a small homestead at the foot of the Organ Mountains.  Three months in a 19 foot camper with no slides.  And we enjoyed it!  The only hardship I remember was RV Toilet Paper.  Ugh.  I'm grateful to learn as long as we use "septic safe" and plenty of water, our black tank will be fine.

Life in a camper was fun, but we missed having a couch or recliner.

 

I don't remember what our 2007 camper was.  Why is that?  Why don't I have pictures of it?

Some other catching up on us: we have moved 18 times in our (almost) 30 years together.  I have the list of addresses.  Each time we moved, we enjoyed learning a new place.  In some cases, we were in one spot six months.  Our record so far is five years.  Five years!  Seemed like forever.  We need travel!

We've been here in our newly built, custom-designed home for...well, it'll be two years this Christmas.  And we're antsy again.  Great little town, but this will be our third winter here and--guess what?  We're not truly "mountain".  That's a derogatory thing to say to someone up here, but we'll admit it right out loud.  The whole John Denver-Rocky Mountain High thing?  Over rated.  We officially hate winter.

However, it's more than just a need to travel and escape the cold.  We don't want to be "vacationing" all the time, coming back to a town we know.  A town we're already bored with.  But we're too old to keep moving!  I have had my fill of packing and loading a U-haul.  I've had my fill of all this STUFF.

The solution?  Riggs.  I realize this is not the solution for everyone, but it is for us.  This spring...we're going to have an estate sale, clear this house, and sell it.  Then we're going to hit the road for real.  I haven't told his Mom and Dad yet but I expect they already sensed it.  Their son and his wife are true nomads.  (And apparently have the attention spans of goldfish). 

But with Riggs as our home, and nothing to tie us down, we'll go see ALL the towns.  And state parks, beaches, national monuments, and Vermont when the leaves change.  We'll be full timers on the road, and snow birds in the winter. 

Did I mention I'm through with winters here?

I'll keep a couple bins of creative supplies--that will never change.  But I'm over worrying about selling stuff.  I'll be happy the day I can tell Etsy to get lost. My creative nature will thrive as it should.   

From this point forward, this blog is about life on the road.  I will post about our upcoming endeavor, the changes it will bring.  Later, once we're on the road full time, I'll post things of interest to other Full Timers (there are more of us than you'd think!).  So...big changes coming.  Between now and late spring of '23, we will divest ourselves of everything.  Except a new Jeep to tow behind Riggs.  I will name our Jeep "Toad".  It's not original, but it will make Phil twitchy, which is always fun.

  One more winter here.  We can do that. 

Then maybe we'll see y'all on the road!