Three years ago we chucked it all. We sold our house and the majority of our possessions. We quit our jobs. And we bought an RV to begin traveling full-time.
When we first announced our plan to follow this lifestyle, we received a mixture of reactions from our friends and family. Some people were jealous of our upcoming adventure. Others thought we were completely crazy. But none of it mattered to us. We were following our dream. We moved into our class A motorhome in May 2018, and hit the road the following month.
It’s been three years since that transition, and we’re now back to living in a traditional “sticks and bricks” home. We have a street address and mailbox (where we can get mail!). Plus a nice little yard. We’re even thinking about getting a dog again.
So, what exactly happened? Why did we decide to return to a more traditional lifestyle after three years on the road? Did the nomadic life disagree with us? Was living in 300 square feet with a teenager just too difficult? Did the pandemic force us to stop traveling? Or was it something else altogether?
I understand the curiosity from well-meaning acquaintances. Travel blogs seldom discuss the return to “normal” life. The majority of the internet seems focused on how to begin your nomadic travels and all the wonderful adventures that occur while on the road. No one seems quite as excited to talk about the transition back.
Our plan
To fully understand the reasons behind why we stopped our full-time travel, it’s important to know what events caused us to begin in the first place.
We probably aren’t the image you picture when you think of the word nomad. Keith and I aren’t young hipsters hitting the road in a van to experience personal freedom in our 20s. And we certainly aren’t empty nesters on a grand quest to visit every single national park.
Based on our observations, there aren’t a huge number of 40-somethings who just chuck everything and travel. Most of us are in that chapter of life where we’re busy managing careers, getting kids to/from activities, and overwhelmed by too many social obligations. But for us, our it seemed like the perfect time to travel and enjoy a bit of freedom.
Both Keith and I joined the Army right after college and that’s what we’ve done our entire adult lives. Most people we knew left the military after a few years then moved on to a more stable life. Yet we stuck it out for more than two decades. We served through peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, the terror attack on 9/11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more family separations that we can count.
But, you can’t simply hang out in the military until you’re ready to collect Social Security. The Army needs fresh, young men and women on the front lines. So after 20+ years of service each, it was time for us to leave active duty and transition to civilian life.
The second difference between ourselves and most full-time RVers is the composition of our family. Our son is currently 14 years old. And you won’t see that many nomads with teenagers when you hit the campgrounds.
Back when we started this adventure, Finn had just finished 5th grade and about to enter middle school. And to be completely honest here, he wasn’t 100% sold on giving up everything he knew just to travel full-time. He wanted to be with his friends, and play sports, and do all the wonderful things that come with being in a kid in a suburban neighborhood. That was his dream.
So, to make this lifestyle work for everyone, we struck a deal with him. We would homeschool him while he was in middle school. Then, we would give Finn the option of attending high school at a traditional school if he decided that was something he wanted.
That agreement would give us three years, while he was in 6th to 8th grade, to live out a different version of the American dream. We’d build some memories and expose him to tons of different places. And that was our mental starting point for this journey.
Where is home?
Knowing we had an expiration date on this adventure turned nearly every place we visited into a scouting trip for a new home base. After decades of moving around the US (and abroad) while in the Army, we never really set down roots in a community. We needed to figure out if there was anywhere we actually wanted to live.
Seeing this country and all the beautiful places it possesses was so much fun. Could we imagine ourselves living in Portland, Maine? What about the Adirondacks? Or Taos, New Mexico? Virtually every town we visited was a potential home. And we used that motivation to explore unusual spots, try out the local restaurants, and just feel out a town’s vibe.
In the end, we didn’t opt for a remote mountain town or a cute little beach home. We narrowed our search down to places near our family. The one thing our prior military life didn’t afford us was the stability to see our relatives whenever we wanted. Family get-togethers or birthday celebrations were few and far between. But our future didn’t have to be that way.
Living out a stationary life was already going to be a difficult transition after so much adventure. So, if we intended to stay in a single place while Finn went to high school, then why not create a home that was within easy driving distance of our extended family?
And that’s how we ended up buying a home in Eugene, Oregon.
Exploring Locally
For those who’ve never visited, Eugene is home to the University of Oregon, which means there’s an eclectic mix of people who are native to the area and temporary transplants.
There are 19 amazing microbreweries in town and so many interesting local restaurants. We are nestled between two phenomenal wine-producing valleys along the Willamette and Umpqua rivers. So it’s a delightful place for friends and family to come and visit us.
With two major rivers running through town, the outdoor community is thriving here. There’s plenty of good hiking trails, kayaking, and fishing to fit our respective hobbies. Plus, it’s only 60 miles to the Pacific Ocean and a similar distance to the Cascade Mountains.
Eugene’s climate also tends to be cool and sunny for much of the year. It a runner’s paradise, and is known as Track Town, USA, which fits the bill perfectly for Keith’s running addiction. Most important though, it’s a region of the country where neither of us served while we were in the Army, so it was a fresh place to explore.
Do we miss nomad life?
It’s only been a month since we transitioned from our RV to stationary life, so everything is still new and fresh. There are certainly some charming benefits to living in a house again.
We no longer have to worry about how much water we have. There’s no need to check to see when our gray or black tanks are full. If fact, regular household plumbing is pretty darn amazing! Everything seems to work 100% of the time, and our wastewater just magically disappears down the sewer pipes without any work on our part!
Another perk of stationary life is the absence of “planning fatigue.” There’s no mental energy spent trying to figure out where we are going to go next. No more worries about whether the campground will have reservations available on the days we intend to be arrive. Nor calculating how long it will take to drive there. That aspect of our life is simpler, for sure.
We love the benefit of additional space too. We can walk into another room and close the door for some privacy. We don’t have to be right on top of each other in 300 square feet of space. Someone can be in a bad mood and just have a little room to gather their thoughts instead of addressing it immediately. This is a wonderful thing when you have a moody teenager on your hands.
It’s wonderful to experience high-speed internet that consistently works every day too. We no longer have to worry about whether we’ll have connectivity or how fast (or slow) the download speeds are. All we have to do is connect to the wi-fi and voila! It works!
Finally, Keith is super excited to be growing a garden again. He’s not limited to the one basil pot we had to lug in and out of the RV every time we moved to a new location. And he doesn’t have to abandon it if we drive through California and it’s agricultural checks. Now he has the joy of raised vegetable beds, and flowering plants everywhere, and even a small patch of lawn to mow.
However, there’s also a lot of things we miss from our nomadic life too, like:
- Enjoying tons of new running and hiking spots, and never getting bored of the same old routes
- The thrill of trying out new restaurants, breweries, and bakeries and finding something completely unexpected and delicious
- The ever-changing scenery as we traveled around the country while dispelling our preconceived notions of what a place is “supposed” to look like
- Feeling like you’re part of the outdoors, and never needing an excuse to head out and explore
- The sheer thrill of looking at a road map and asking ourselves, “Where should we visit next?”and the adventure of never knowing who we’ll meet on our journey
- The simplicity that comes with minimalist living
Final thoughts
So is this transition to a house in Eugene an end to our nomadic life? Is that chapter over and done? I don’t think so. In face, we’re already eyeballing a small towable RV to take out on weekends and shorter trips.
Our plan is to use these next four years as an opportunity to get to know the Pacific Northwest better. I’m already looking forward hiking some of the longer trails here in Oregon and the neighboring states, while Keith can’t wait to catch some wild salmon in the rivers.
After Finn graduates from high school and transitions to his own adult dreams, I have no doubt Keith and I will find ourselves pulled back to the nomad life. There’s a certain bit of wanderlust that never goes away once you’ve had a taste of it.
What that adventure looks like is still in the air. Maybe we’ll focus on international travel more. Or maybe we maintain a home base and spend part of the year in traveling and part of it here. Regardless of what we decide, I can’t imagine life without a little adventure!