Seven years until retirement and I need a plan!
The prospect of living the rest of my life in my Georgia house seems like a prison sentence. I have to find some other way! I want to get more out of life than the same old routine! But what?
I search for an alternative.
The photos for today’s post were taken from our Sore Finger Road camp in west-central Arizona.
Well, I could sell the house and move somewhere else. Maybe rent an apartment so I don’t have the burden of maintenance. But where would I go? And wouldn’t I tire of that location just as I tired of Georgia? And of Florida before that? Again, I’d end up looking out the window at the same old view.
I try to think “outside the box.”
Hmm . . . Maybe I could reside in another country. At least I’d have a new environment and culture to explore. I research online, stumbling upon forums of ex-patriot retirees.
I think this is Martin’s Peak (elev. 2,333 ft.).
It isn’t long before I know that isn’t the life for me.
What, then? What exactly DO I want?
In order to figure out what I want for my retirement years, I find it easier to eliminate what I don’t want.
I don’t want to work. That’s for sure. I don’t want responsibilities or commitments. Had those since the age of seventeen . . . .
I don’t want to be tied to a schedule. I don’t want to worry about bills. I don’t want routine. I don’t want predictability. I don’t want to fade away.
This photo shows our camp along a spur of Sore Finger Road.
Okay, how do I live a full life?
I discovered this cactus at the edge of a wash, hidden under the branches of a creosote bush.
I want to live well within my means. I hate debt.
I want to feel free and unburdened.
I want to get rid of all this stuff in my life!
I want to get away from the rat race!
I want to roam!
I don’t know much about RVing or camping.
This is what I think RVing is . . . People retire with tons of money and buy one of those huge RVs like rock groups ride around in, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they travel from one RV resort to another in it, paying high fees, so they can eat in high-end restaurants, ride around in carts on golf courses and get their face plastered with mud in spas.
Hummingbirds have plenty to eat from the many ocotillo in bloom.
That’s not the retirement I want, even if I could afford it.
Months go by as I continue to commute to work, use up my weekends doing chores and preparing for the next week of commuting to work and so it goes, round and round.
This lane behind our camp goes to the cholla cactus garden.
All the while I carry around those questions in the back of my mind that keep nagging at me: Where does all this lead? What will I do when I finally retire? Is it all downhill from here? Is this all there is?
One Saturday afternoon I sit at my desktop computer at home and browse the internet.
I’m not looking for anything in particular, just bumbling around to entertain myself. I don’t remember how it happens exactly. I open up a page and there’s a picture of a man standing next to a Class C RV. Of course, at this point I don’t know the term “Class C.”
By gosh, she’s got it!
I read a little bit and I’m stunned, absolutely stunned. The next few hours I devour post after post of Tioga George’s blog.
Here’s a guy on a limited income who wants to live each day to the fullest, having gone into cancer remission. He doesn’t go to RV resorts, golf courses, and spas. He goes wherever he wants at his own pace, and he lives simply and economically in his RV!
This is it! This is the answer!
I have no doubt that I’ve found what I’ve been looking for, and the funny thing is . . .
I’d never camped a day in my adult life.
The vision of traveling and living full-time in an RV is love at first sight!
(In the next installment I’ll describe how my vision evolved from Tioga George’s style of vagabonding to one of my own.)
Thursday, March 20
The crew and I are in our third day at our boondock on a spur of Sore Finger Road near the Harquahala Mountains of west-central Arizona. Since we’ve been here we haven’t seen one other person. No vehicles have driven by. Absolute peacefulness reigns. The weather is divine.
Spike and Bridget in their usual poses.
The crew’s supply of meat and our supply of drinking water is running low. Tomorrow we go to the Safeway grocery in Wickenburg and rather than drive all the way back here, I’ll take the Best Little Trailer along and move us to a new camp!
rvsue
AS ALWAYS, THANKS FOR SHOPPING AMAZON HERE!
