I have about 44-46 hours before I leave. Trying to get a lot of stuff done in a little amount of time. I have my bedroom mostly cleaned out, finally. Making at least one more trip to the storage place tonight, then 1 or 2 trips tomorrow. Of course the rain came back today, the weather has been amazing the past couple weeks, and right when I’m trying to make the last push, it starts raining. Ugh! Going to bring my Comcast equipment to the Comcast store tonight and cancel all my accounts. No more internet and cable tv. That is going to be pretty weird.
Tomorrow will be a crazy busy day! I have a friend coming over in the late morning to help me finish up some things I need help on, then Trav is coming over to move the car that belongs to him out of my backyard. Then a bit later, the man who still (and probably always will) holds my heart is going to come for a final goodbye. That’s going to be a tough one! In between all that, I have to get my bed bagged up and brought to the storage unit, along with a couple other things. I am hoping to have most everything done by tomorrow evening, so that when Monday rolls around, all I have to do is some light cleaning of the house, pack up the animals, and drive away. I plan to leave around noon or so.
I am so ready to be done. Done with cleaning, packing, moving, remodeling, everything that has made my life so busy the past couple years. I am so ready to have little to no responsibilities other than myself, my pets, and my new non-stressful job. A couple more days…
Four days to go. That’s it, just 4. Four days to completely empty my house, get what I’m going to keep into storage, load up my critters and go.
To say I’m a little stressed is an understatement! I am trying to empty a house of 27 years of accumulated stuff. I haven’t been in this house that long, but that’s how long I’ve lived as an adult outside of the house I grew up in. I am very limited as to how much I can take in my trailer, I have a 10×10 storage unit that looks like will be filled, I had a yard sale last week, I’ve donated a bunch, and for the rest, I have a giant dumpster in front of my house.
I bought my current house over 12 years ago. This is the longest I’ve lived in one place since I left my childhood home. This house was the launching point for my children as they grew up and moved out on their own. I bought it as a married woman, and I’m selling it as a single woman. Countless pets have lived here, including many foster kitties. Two of my beloved cats are buried in the yard, that I will be leaving behind. I will miss it, but I won’t miss the upkeep, the work, the constant updating and remodeling, the mortgage payments, the utility bills, the traffic on my street. I will definitely miss my wonderful neighbors, who often called for me over the fence and offered me homemade tamales, traditional mexican soup, freshly picked tomatoes or berries. A lot of memories here, both good and bad.
My house
But the memories I will be making… how can that even compare? The sites I will see, the animals that will walk through my campsite (yes, even bears), I just can’t wait. I will be there in 8 days.
Pic taken by me July 2020, near Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone. Approx 6:30am, with fog slowly burning off.
One week. That’s how long I have until my life totally and radically changes. In one week, I start on a brand new journey, start a brand new life, and leave my old one behind. In one week, I am hooking my travel trailer up to my truck, and pulling away from my house for the last time.
I try to think of myself as a reasonable, normal, compassionate, and kind human. I have my issues, but hell, by the time you get to your late 40s, who doesn’t? I’ve lived a pretty standard life; born in the early 70s, grew up, had kids, husband, house, job, the typical American Dream. I got divorced 7 years ago, the kids grew up and out of the house, and I’ve found myself getting increasingly bitter about the corporate life.
I subscribe to the notion that life is meant to be lived. Unfortunately, the corporate world says otherwise: life is meant to be worked, find your fun 2 days a week and 2ish weeks a year. Trying to fit a life rich in experiences doesn’t fit well with working in the same location, 5+ days a week, 50+ weeks a year. Sure, one could wait until their mid-to-late 60s to retire and then go fill your life with rich experiences, but well, both my parents died at age 70, with lots of plans left undone. This doesn’t bode well for my life-expectancy. I don’t want to wait until I’m 67 years old, and then end up dying 3 years later with so much left to do.
So how does one figure out how to accomplish this? In my case, I have a house to maintain and no partner to share expenses with, so in order to maintain this level of living, I need to keep working my job in the corporate world. How do I escape that? Well, the easiest way is to reduce expenses. No house to maintain cuts expenses drastically! I have a beautiful 33 foot travel trailer, and a great truck to pull it with. Perfect to live in, and be able to cut expenses. Of course, expenses won’t be zero. There is insurance to maintain, cell phone to pay for, food to buy, etc, but none of this requires a soul-sucking job at the same tired location. And since the new home is on wheels, there is no need to stay in the same location!
I am going to become what’s called a Workamper. That’s the term for the people who live in their RV’s (trailers, motorhomes, vans, tents, etc), and find RV friendly jobs, most of which provide an RV site for the employee. Some examples are campground hosts, oil gate guards, amusement park workers, and for some of us, national park (or their concessionaire’s) employees.
On Monday, April 26th, I will be pulling out of the driveway of the home I just sold, and heading east to Yellowstone National Park. There I will be spending the summer living in my trailer, and working for a concessionaire inside the most beautiful place on earth. I am both excited and nervous. There is a huge unknown looming over me. Will I like it? Will I be ok in my trailer, with very little of what I’ve accumulated over the years? Will my pets be happy? But I balance those thoughts with the fact that I will be living inside my most favorite place in the entire world. I get to wake up every morning and say to myself “I LIVE at Yellowstone!” How can it get any better than that?
Musings of a Walking Girl 