I am writing this post from a hot springs RV resort on the central coast of California to inform family and friends of our new status and give some background on how it came to be…. Settle in with me for a cup of tea?
Once upon a time, which seems like a lifetime ago, but was really less than a year, we lived in this beautiful land called HW Cohousing (some of you may be familiar with it). We loved it dearly and at the same time were finding it hard to settle there permanently for several reasons. One main reason (financial), but other small reasons underlying (not the least of which is that we are finally admitting that we are nomads) … Anyway, the day came when our landlord said that he was ready to sell the house and that we would be entering a month to month contract. We would need to show the house and would have 30 days to relocate when/if it sold. Shannon panicked. With visions of having the house sold out from under the family, we planned a trip to California in the spring of 2010. We loaded up and drove to the central coast.
It was a good trip but not feeling inclined to pack up and move there the idea struck, like lightening, to travel for a year. It stuck. We bought a fifth wheel fixed it up and took our lives on the road 3 months later. We toured the SW (again), met friends in canyonlands for a rendezvous and then made our way south to Mexico. Ironically 6 weeks into the trip Chester’s bread and butter contract with the Southern Utes dried up – this was big news after 15 years of working with them. We almost turned away from our travel plans but decided to continue onward and we are glad we did. At that time our ties to Durango began to subconsciously unravel.
Mexico was blissful. We set the need to determine all future plans aside and lived sea port to campground – Mexican town to taco stand, moving along in the moment until…. late January 2011. It was like one minute we were on the road in Mexico and the next we were making plans about our future flying up fast to meet us in the face. We thought long and hard about the next move by the beginning of February came up with 3 separate plans of action: They were…
Plan A. Chester find a national or international job utilizing his skills in water quality and move where his new job took us.
Plan B. Move somewhere in California so that Chester could use his water quality connections and develop BUGS in a different direction. Land somewhere with a big enough demographic to support Embody Real Beauty for Shannon and with good schools for Addy and Jack.
Plan C. Move back to Durango and try to find regular jobs to support the family while the kids finish school.
Plan B became plan A sometime around Feb 10th and we left Mexico on the 14th. We were here by February 17th. Did you know you can travel from south of PV Mexico to central Cali in 3 long days? It was and continues to be a whirlwind and a bit of a culture shock.
That brings us present. It is the 28th of February and we are looking to settle in San Luis Obispo. The weather has been stormy, rainy and cold and we have enjoyed it thoroughly. We haven’t seen rain in 6 months. It has been years since I have seen soaking and sustained rains like this. I love it.
The schools look good, initial recon of salons is showing them to be good/marginal and BUGS work is miraculously already starting to roll in. Chester seems to have a knack for attracting work (thank god).
That is our story. Sending our love.
Shannon and family
