Today was day 83 of our road trip, January 1, 2016.
This morning we woke up, took a brisk walk around our campsite, saw the ocean from afar (waved goodbye!), and both looked at each other with those knowing eyes: it was time to start the trip back east. We’re not sure exactly when we’ll reach home but today we made headway driving all the way to Tucson, AZ where we are currently reside in a Walmart parking lot, (I’m sitting in a Starbucks adjacent to the Walmart parking lot using their complimentary internet in exchange for me purchasing their hot tea).
We had a long drive today and lots of time to talk about what home will look like for us. A few days before we left for our road trip, we moved into a smaller apartment, (with tenants living above us). We made this decision for a bunch of reasons, one of the most important being to better align our living space with our lifestyle.
In 2015 we spent the first three months of the year and last three months of the year traveling and a considerable amount of time in between on the road shooting weddings. While we don’t have plans to spend that much time on the road in 2016, we’ve come to a realization that travel will always be a part of our life and having a smaller living space makes being able to get up and go a lot easier for us. We have less space to care for, less utilities, less things to fill the space, less space to fill, less time cleaning and organizing the space, less to worry about when we’re gone, and less of a mortgage with the help from renters. We’ll have more too. More time & energy to spend traveling and exploring things we are passionate about.
A few days before we embarked on this road trip we moved into our new dwelling, but didn’t unpack anything except the essentials, some clothes, and some big pieces of furniture that sort of just got plopped around. And now, as we start the trek home we can’t help but think about what boxes we will actually unpack upon our return and which ones we donate/sell. It reminds me of the packing party that The Minimalists write about.
When we get home we’ll have to develop a system of going through all of our stuff and deciding what goes and what stays as well as acknowledging that for the last three months we haven’t actually needed any of it. While for most people packing and unpacking is a chore, I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I’ve never been more excited to unpack a simpler life.
