Three Months

August 6th, 2022

This day marked 3 months since I sold my home and went on the road. When you are mostly alone for that length of time, questions undoubtedly pop into your head. Sometimes, I find it helps to write about them and their answers. Putting things into exact words and sentences seems to clarify things and reduce the chaos of random thoughts.

Do I regret what I have done?

I really have not spent enough time over the 3 months to get a good feel for what my life will be like long term. The first 2 weeks I was only 11 miles from Oxford and my son Zach. During that 2 weeks, I was able to visit him several times. I also saw some of my friends and was able to say good-bye to them.

Later that month, I moved north to Upper Michigan. But, that meant I was still only 5 hours away. Also, I was still employed and working remotely. That meant getting up early every weekday and logging in for 8 hours. Of course, that also meant I had to carefully pick locations to camp where I had cell service. Working each day, from 7am to 4pm, kept me busy enough to not dwell on being away from home too much.

In June, I moved west to Wisconsin, where I camped for 4 days with my friends from Minnesota. Again, this kept my mind busy. The USFS campground we were at did not have cell service. Because I was in the Central Time Zone, that meant I had to drive 8 miles down the road to get service at 5:30am in order to log in by 7am Eastern Time. But of course, I was done for the day at 3pm. Working from my truck was not nearly as comfortable as in the trailer, but I could not complain as much about that, as the work itself.

After the 4 days, I joined my friends at their home for 10 days, parking in their driveway. I still worked, but had time each day to help work on solar systems and other projects. This also gave me a chance to visit with my mother and sister, who only lived about a mile away.

So actually, there was plenty going on until near the end of June to distract me. I drove across Minnesota and South Dakota and spent my first camping time far away from home, friends, and family over the 4th of July weekend. Even then, I was busy working each day, 5am until 2pm in the Mountain Time Zone, and dealing with logistics of becoming a South Dakota resident.

Finally, I spent a couple of days with Tyler near Boulder, Colorado. The thoughts of what I was doing really started as I left him on Friday, July 8th and drove up into the mountains. It was also the last day I worked. This was when my new lifestyle really began. From that point on, I only generally knew of where I was headed, and had no idea when I would next see family and friends. So, out of the 3 months, I am not sure I really can answer the question of regret. As of now, I continue onward.

Am I enjoying myself?

This question is really like the first, as not enjoying oneself probably would mean you have regrets. I enjoy waking up every morning to pine scent and fresh mountain air. I enjoy the lack of city noise. As I am no longer working, I enjoy sleeping each morning until I want to get up. This is not to say that I don’t set an alarm occassionally to be first fishing at a stream or lake, or first to head out on a trail. But, I am not setting an alarm each day to start work. I mostly find myself waking shortly after dawn, and decide then to start my morning coffee and breakfast, or just roll over and doze.

There have been a couple of very good days. On one of those early mornings I caught a large number of trout. Another, after a very scenic and enjoyable hike to a high mountain lake, I caught my first Greenback Cutthroat trout. At my first campsite near Leadville, I met a retired couple from Arkansas who summer each year in that area, living out of a trailer, like me. I will probably meet up with them again in September. I met 2 young cross country runners from Texas who were up at high elevation with their high school cross country team. They were getting in shape for the fall season by running up and down trails to the peaks. At my current location, in a USFS campground, I talked quite a while with the campground host who is also from Arkansas. She has been in “full time” RV mode for 4 years, and still enjoys it (it seems that people in Texas and Arkansas love to come up to the mountains in Colorado for camping in the summer, just like people in Illinois and Michigan, drive north into Wisconsin or the UP).

Like any time, you have days that are very enjoyable because of what you experience, or who you meet. Other days may be a little less exciting. But you at least are in surroundings that promote enjoyability.

Do I get lonely?

You can’t raise 2 young boys for 20 years and then not be a little lonely once they go out on their own. It was hard leaving Tyler at the university prior to the start of his freshman year. I don’t think the tears really stopped until I was back into Nebraska on Interstate 80. I suppose that is the x-chromosone part of me. Then back in March, Zach moved into his own apartment. I saw him often though until I left Michigan. I miss him a lot. Not seeing them and talking to them every day is hard, I suppose that leads me to one observation. I am not doing this to be a hermit. I enjoy talking to them once in a while, and texting almost daily. I find that campsites where there is cell service are more enjoyable than those without. I enjoy the communication with them and my friends. The challenge is to find the more “out of the way” places to camp, while still having some sort of signal. Perhaps I will have to invest in Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink. Or, am I just experiencing withdrawal symptoms for not using the internet on a constant basis.

I also miss seeing my friends. If I was still at home and retired, I am not sure I would be any less bored or lonely. However, the occasional meet ups were always something to anticipate. Hopefully, I can entice some of them to join me in the mountains for a vacation every so often.

Do I miss my home?

I lived in my house in Oxford for 25 years. You can’t erase that from your mind in 3 months. I won’t say that I miss that house, but it is still there in my subconscious due to habit. For all those years, whenever I left, I always knew I would be back. When I think about it now, it is to tell myself that there is no going back. I wanted no escape plan. That would be like a crutch (something I know a lot about). I did not want to have the ability to give up at the first sign of discomfort or doubt. My current home has wheels. If I don’t like my neighbors, I can move. I don’t have to mow the lawn. The scenery can change. I do not have to walk very far at all to get from the kitchen to the bedroom. I can practically cook while taking a shower. I can clean the floors and dust in about 15 minutes. The cost of heating and electricity is minimal.

Do I miss my job?

Absoluetely not! I enjoyed my work as an Oracle Database Administrator for 35 years. I was good at it. I enjoyed the challenges. I thought I could do it until age 70, or perhaps until my head finally dropped and hit the desk. For the first 30 years, I enjoyed most of the people with which I worked. But the last 5 were torture. With the last generations, it seemed that accountability had disappeared. Not all, but many worked just to receive the paycheck. There seemed little pride in workmanship. What happens is that you find yourself in a never-ending battle to keep everything operating with efficiency and little down time. I like analogies. It is like sharing a car with several people. Nobody puts gas in except for the half gallon they need to get somewhere. You have to fill the tank. You have to change the oil. You have to pay for the tune-up and new tires. No matter where they are at when the car breaks down, you get called 24 x 7 to come rescue them and make the repairs. If you say, please change the oil, they say “yes” but their head is shaking no. If you say “don’t drive this at 100 mph down a gravel washboard road full of rocks”, they say “right” and then ignore you.

Of course, these observations are a generalization. I worked with 2 young women, one Indian and one Chinese. They were new in the industry and I was assigned to train them. Their appetite for knowledge was ravenous. They had great memory. They wanted to perform well and were very hard on themselves if they did not. I worked with a few developers and system/network administrators who were knowlegable and reliable. You could count on them. There were also managers, who tried their best, but worked with both arms tied behind their back by the “kinder and gentler” workplace of the day.

I read an article. It was about the things besides accident, disease and illness that reduce people’s longevity. Once of the biggest factors is stress. I saw all the indications in myself. Had I stayed, I doubt that I would reach 70. I would either die from stress, or get fired for telling somebody what I really thought.

It has been only 2 weeks since my last work day. I can already feel a difference. Not once have I felt angry. Not once have I felt jittery as though my heart rate was peaking. Not once have I awoken in the middle of the night, wondering how I was going to fix an issue at work.

Is this trailer working out?

So far the trailer has been great. My Ford Ranger has plenty of power to pull it up the long uphill grades. Even better, the 10 speed transmission is wonderful at holding back the speed and saving my brakes on the downills. I did a lot of research and read many reviews on the trailer. Most issues seem to be related to the lightweight construction. I have learned to avoid some of these by just being gentle. I have made a few modifications to reduce the chance of other failures.

My solar system works wonderfully. It provides plenty of power to use lights, allow DVD watching on the television, keep the refrigerator and freezer cold, charge up the iPhone, iPad, laptop computer and kindle. I could go a minimum of 5 to 6 days with overcast and clouds and not worry (this would be pretty rare in the western mountains anyway, as it is not Michigan).

The trailer has two 20 pound propane tanks. Propane is used for heat and hot water for showers and cooking. In the 3 months, I am still on the first tank (later I discovered during that time I had only used 1/3 of the tank).

When I arrived at the first site in the mountains, I spent 10 days before having any water related problem. I still had fresh water left, but the “grey” tank, that used for dish washing, cooking, and showers was near full. So the grey tank was full but the black tank was not. I suppose that means I spend more time doing dishes and taking showers, then handling “the call of nature”. If a little more frugal, I could probably go for 2 weeks, which is generally the stay limit for USFS or BLM camping anyway.

Am I staying within my budget?

Yes, I am well under budget. However, there will at times be unforeseen repairs or other difficulties that could push me over. This is also the summer. Things could change in colder weather, or around holidays when I might like to catch a flight to see Tyler, Zach, and family. Fuel prices could go even higher than they currently are (so far they are going down). Food prices have gone up also. Fortunately, I do have some control over expenses. I can move less often and travel less miles. I can also increase the ratio of “free” camping to “pay” camping.

Where will I go next?

This question requires the most thought. Many campers are weekenders. A few arrive on Thursdays, many more by Friday evening, and then a few more on Saturday morning. They then leave Sunday afternoon, or at the latest, sometime on Monday. So if you are moving your location, you want to avoid Friday and Saturday. The best times to relocate are Sunday afternoon or better yet, Monday to Tuesday. When you decide on a place, you must also decide how long you will stay there, so as to avoid the busy days. You also have to decide on whether your new location has cell service. Is it free or does it cost money? Is there a potential laundry stop somewhere on the way? Is there a place to dump garbage? Is there an RV dump station or place to refill your fresh water tank? Do you need mail forwarded to a local post office? How many miles will you have to drive? What are the roads like? Is there hiking and fishing in the area?

I have talked to a few other full time campers and also campground hosts. The consensis is, that moving too much requires to much planning and too many unknowns. It is the less fun part of this whole process. I do agree, that moving too much is not fun.

In the coming days, I will be meeting some friends at a campsite near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Following that I will circle to the west around the fringes of the Flat Top Wilderness Area and then down to Grand Mesa. That will take me through Labor Day, at which time I may spend time near Leadville again, perhaps linking up with earlier aquiantences from Arkansas. As I get into the fall and colder weather, I will probably stop in and spend some time with my son Tyler before crossing back over the mountains to Utah and eventually Arizona. I will winter there. One campground host couple, suggested I check the Tucson, Arizona area for the winter. They said there are enough snowbirds down there camping, that they have all kinds of activities going that you can attend, including workshops, card games, and group outings to town.

In recent days, I have also been advised that a cell service booster device is a good idea. While sometimes not powerful enough to get enough signal to connect to the internet, many times in fringe areas you can at least expect the ability to make voice calls and text. But of course, in the back of your mind, you worry about becoming a nuisance with too much communication.

So, in a nutshell, mornings are usually great, evenings can be lonely, but I am coping, and mostly enjoying this lifestyle.