New Beginnings

I find myself looking into space a lot now asking myself “what just happened?” Space and time feel so abstract to me right now. The last 4-5 months of life has been so vividly full of adrenaline and anxiety that now, since the extremes have lightened, I am breathing and sleeping and feeling more calm. 

We have landed in the laps of family for a few weeks. My sister Michele and her hubs Patrick have welcomed us back to Indy. We have the entire downstairs suite of their house to sort through our lives and get some rest. And, we have a brand new great niece to meet!

After much discussion and knowing the new reality of Kimberly’s job, we decided to make Moodus, CT our last Yolo and the Toad stop. Stop number 35 and 10,000 miles into our 15 month journey, it’s time to find our next landing spot. Grandview Campground and Cottages was such a great way to make the transition in. We sold Yolo and the Toad to a couple 8 miles from there that are excited about their upcoming adventures in our former house on wheels. It was a hard few weeks as we condensed down to 5×8 U-Haul trailer size and began to realize that, although we have accomplished so much, this chapter is over. 

We bought a car and pulled our little trailer of belongings to Tom’s River, New Jersey. The final memorial for Catherine with all of her family and friends from her younger years were there. It was sad, of course, and also really hard to say goodbye to Cassandra after such an intense few months. We pulled away Sunday after the memorial and headed to Indiana…a long long drive. 

One of the ways we passed the time in the car was to re-read our blog. We didn’t even get halfway through because we had sooo much to discuss after every entry. It was a great way to relive and remember what we have done. 

From here we will head back to the Denver area; specifically, Aurora. We are dog and house sitting for a few weeks followed by 3 additional weeks at our friends Kathy and Joe. While Kimberly travels and on weekends we intend to immerse ourselves into the area to see if that ends up being home. 

After 5 weeks there, we head to Marin county to dog and house sit for a month followed by an extended visit with Safety Ho Helen who will be sailing the Baja Ha with Ho Jo and her brother David. We can easily and happily hold the fort down in Marin enjoying one of our favorite places. So, the plan is to hang with Ho Helen until 2/1 if at all possible and then to “housesit” for HI Ho/SonoHo from 2/1 til sometime in May. In the meantime we will be house hunting and preparing to land.

We have learned that Kimberly really needs an office. Her new job, when she’s not traveling, requires a ton of office. That was a big factor in selling Yolo and the Toad. It’s truly impossible to have the set up she needs in an RV. And when she did have to work out of Yolo, Mollie and I had to be gone or silent. That wasn’t ideal. We do think we may find a home that we can manage with a smaller version of Yolo for our traveling bug that we most certainly can’t shake anytime soon.

As we continue life, I will keep the blog open and update it regularly. All this forethought and planning for our immediate future seems kind of funny since our last chapter had so many unplanned events.

This is life on earth.