The Deal: One Year Later

One year ago today I typed the words: WE SOLD OUR HOUSE.

We couldn't believe it then. Today, we still consider ourselves pretty darn lucky. Selling our house unleashed the last tether to our sticks-and-bricks life and brought us one giant step closer to fulltiming.

As we sat in the shadow of beautiful Mt. Lassen a year ago, celebrating our freshly inked offer, we wondered what was ahead for us. Sitting here today, between a couple of mountain ranges in scenic Idaho, we have the benefit of the kind of perspective that comes with 365 days and some 12,000 miles.

The three weeks that followed this monumental day in 2009 were exciting, crazy and stressful. That's how much time we had to empty our house of everything, put a few things in our motorhome, store a few more in our tiny POD and sell, give away or toss everything else. In between we said goodbye to friends and put our plans in motion to live life on the road. We did much and slept little.

In the midst of that 21-day cyclone, our sole purpose was to get everything done. We didn't have the time or the ability to step back and see the magnitude of the task at hand. But, today we can see it. And, it was BIG! Since then, people have asked how we did it. Honestly, we don't know! What we do know is we don't want to do that again...ever. We're not sure we have it in us!

Looking back, it was all worth it. Our efforts of those three weeks and the year or so of preparation before that have paid big dividends. We were hopeful back then, but now we know. It truly was worth all of the stressful days and sleepless nights. And, then some.

The next three weeks this year will be oh-so-dramatically different than the same time last year. Instead of emptying our house and hitting the road, we'll sit still and enjoy the rest of our time in and around Yellowstone. We'll celebrate our first Independence Day since hitting the road, then we'll head for Mount Rushmore. Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Several of our faithful readers are making their preparations to hit the road. Some are just weeks away. Others won't hit the road for a few years. They're in the pre-fulltiming cyclone. To these dear folks we have one thing to say.

Believe us, there will come a day when your life is not all about simplifying your life. When that day comes, things will be simple. And, it will all be worth it.

Really, it will!