I wrote this in mid-September, but delayed posting.
Some people tell us that we are lucky, and we are. However, I also tell them that we began planning this in 1999. It took many years to get the many pieces into place. We traveled by automobile checking out some possible locations, but other obligations limited our travel including work. And, of course there are financial constraints. As we got close to putting all of it into real action we rented a Class B RV in 2013 to test the plan. We then purchased a Roadtrek so we could explore the remaining places we had researched, experience the lifestyle and visit National Parks and other things we were interested in. We jumped at the opportunity to get an annual site at a campground in Michigan although the plan was to first deal with the southwest U.S. location.
I did spend thousands of hours on this research, including deciding which Class B to purchase so we could plan our escape and explore many "lily pad" locales. But, there are no guarantees. LOL. I am a firm believer in the philosophy that "life is short" and "today is the best day of my life". In other words, it is all downhill from here. So, while I plan and prepare it is all about shifting constantly from thought into action.
For those who don't know me well, it all appears to be serendipity, luck and hip shooting. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, I am so fortunate that things have turned out as they have. That is part luck and by the grace of God. My favorite expression is "God loves us, but the universe doesn't care". I consider that to be life-affirming, it empowers me and I act accordingly.
I do hope everyone is doing well in "the year of covid-19". We decided to hunker down for a good part of the summer on the eastern short of Lake Michigan. Politics kept the restaurants locked down but they have gradually opened. We had a good summer but there was less travel than normal; the governor of this state was issuing punitive punishment against businesses which were deemed to be in non-compliance of the governor's orders, which were found to be unconstitutional. LOL.
We had a lot going on. One thing was to prepare the condo which we seldom use for sale. We have two other "lily pads" so the condo has become superfluous. I got a large dumpster and got rid of a bunch of old business stuff, some furniture and I also gave away a lot of Steelcase and Mayline office furniture. In all, I carried more than 3 tons to the recycler or into this dumpster. LOL.
