Wagons Ho(meless)

It’s October 26^th – how did we get here already?  The estate agent has just confirmed the final completion of our home sale;   which means we are officially homeless.   I tell people 'we are moving' with the kind of nervous energy you have before ripping off a band-aid – you know the next question coming before they even begin to utter it…”Where?”   The answer, “umm, well, west” I mutter.  

The thing is, we don’t really know where we want to live – so we will spend the next year or so trying on different places – or as Andy likes to call it “the road trip of a lifetime”. 

This blog will capture our experiences for those of you who will be travelling in spirit rather than body.  I’ll aim to put to paper (screen?) our preconceived notions of the places we’re heading, our first and lasting impressions, and of course tell you what to do if you should ever find yourself in <city x, place y> for even a short stay.  

We’ve packed up the house into long term storage leaving us with 6 giant north face duffel bags full of the essentials we might need over the course of the year.  Some (you know who you are) think we have overpacked – but, it will be warm and cold, we will hike, we will bike, we will play tennis and golf, we will still have some business meetings (we aren’t on holiday, we’re just on the road), we will swim, we will get sick, we’ll hate the provided bedding, we’ll want our ipods playing, we’ll need our computers, we’ll get rained on, we’ll need help navigating the roads of unknown places.  So we have 6 bags – big deal.  With 176 pieces loaded to long term storage, I think 6 bags, or 3.4% of our belongings (yes, of course I did the math) is positively restrained!

Of course 6 bags do not fit into a normal trunk (yay I can call it a trunk again, no more ‘boot’ nonsense).  Not even a normal American sized trunk.  So now we have to buy a big car – a really big car. Because perhaps I failed to mention that the 6 bags are in addition to the bike and the golf clubs?  We will probably buy an SUV, but I’m desperate not to come across as a soccer mom.  So stay tuned for a review of Ford Escapes and Nissan xTerras and Toyota FJ Cruisers. 

The route is a little confusing.  Westward ho is our mantra, but we are taking a bizarre easterly detour for the first 4 weeks as we had pre-existing Christmas plans on the south east coast.  After Christmas we really will head west.

For now, it’s us, 6 duffels and soon to be a really big car.  We hope you’ll enjoy the journey with us.