Where are we going to live?

My wife’s account of our continued pursuit:

Monday July 20th, 2009 Campgrounds
Before Daddy’s softball game we had extra time. We drove to a campground right off the freeway, in the mountains. It was beautiful and the cost is $375 a month to stay there. By the way, this is what we pay monthly in utilities! However, it is “out of town.” We looked at KOA it costs $575 a month, ugly, but conveniently located. The campground actually has a swimming pool, hot tub, mini golf, recreation area, and a place for you to ride your bikes.

…and boy were we excited!  We still had nothing to live in, but we were seeing the places we were going to live.  It was awkward going into the offices and asking what the monthly rates were.  The awkwardness came not so much because of our potential lifestyle, but because we did not yet have a trailer.  “So, what size rig do you have?” asked the manager at one campground.  My response was less than confident, “Well…um…I think it will…is probably going to be…oh maybe…28 or 30 feet.  I haven’t yet decided.”  Decided?  I had not even seriously looked for one yet, but the search continued.

As I mentioned previously, our dream was to live in a van down by the river.  Well, there is a river here and there is a campground one-hundred yards from it, so I thought I would take a look.  The campground is nestled in a beautiful neighborhood of homes far outside of my budget, and looks quite out of place.  I thought about trying to get some information regarding the place, but decided I would forgo such an endeavor.  As I drove by, repeatedly, silently stalking the place, it began to feel strange.  It was very lived-in and began to feel as though it had the attractiveness of meth and child porn.  It may be perfectly safe, but not for my family!

So it was settled, we would live in a nice campground in the city with all the amenities of a vacation.  Therefore, our motto: It’s like we are on vacation everyday!

The Bookshelf

I have said there was a major financial benefit to changing the way we live, but more importantly has been the intangible benefit of our lifestyle.  The way we would like to approach parenting and our role as parents fundamentally changed during this time.  My wife recounts one moment which lead to this transformation:

After small group, we were cleaning up all the toys in the basement. I sat down by the bookshelf and thought, “If we could only take 10 books with us, which ones would we take?” I actually became very saddened going through the books. I had only read a handful of these books to you, especially Liam and Rowen. Most of them I had only read to Shelton, when life was simple. I realized that the time I spend with you in true quality moments is scarce.

We both came to this realization looking at those books and began tearfully discussing the parents we wanted to be.  Additionally, we began to consider the type of spouse, friend and Christian we wanted to be.  It was here, at this moment, when our transformation departed from the financial to the intangible and the greatest rewards of our potential lifestyle began to unfold.

Our friends think we are crazy.

At this point in the story, no one knows what we have up our sleeve.  We are afraid to tell anyone because we still want friends and we would like our family to believe we are sane.  Nevertheless, we knew the time would come and we would begin telling people so they could pray for us.  Prayer was necessary because we knew this was something we wanted to do, but we felt God’s blessing was the most important.  Knowing where we are in the story today, I am confident God is blessing this decision daily.

Again, an excerpt from my wife’s account to our children:

Sunday July 19th, 2009 - At small group we told our friends about our plans. It is scary to mention such a life change. Will we have friends if we have such an “alternative lifestyle?” We told them we would listen to any criticism they had because God can speak through other people. However, they were positive about the idea. They asked a lot of questions to help us work through potential problems, but they were great. We are blessed to have friends who also know what is important in life.

While we say they “knew what is important in life,” they did think we were crazy.  However, they set out to pray with us regarding this issue and offer any help they could.  While this group of friends was very limited, our circle of friends, who prayed with us, slowly began to grow.  It took a little longer for us to consider telling our families.  As you will see, they are not always understanding of the unconventionality of our life.

We want to live like no one else, so we can live like no one else!

Our decision to search out simplicity grew out of our initial desire to be financially free.  I have endlessly reminded my wife how I love the simplicity of our living situation and she reminds me how much we are saving.  Daily, the stated benefit of our living changes.  When we have enough money to eat out without stress, the financial freedom is great.  When we are sitting under our awning watching the boys ride their bikes without a care in the world, the simplicity is nearly overwhelming.  Nevertheless, how ever you view our lifestyle, it is not normal!

A discussion of what “normal” people do would not be complete without trying to define normal.  I want to take a moment to focus on normal defined by finances.  You see, I like to listen to Dave Ramsey (a financial nut) and if you have ever heard him, you know where I am going.  In the United States of America:

• 7 out of 10 American households live paycheck to paycheck
• The average American family carries $8000 in credit card debt

As Dave says, “Normal is broke!”  We have conscientiously made the decision to live differently.  When we started this journey, many people gave us differing suggestions on what we should do, but they were all the normal options.  Rent out our basement.  Down-size in house.  Rent an apartment.  However, we knew that to achieve simplicity and financial freedom on the level we wanted, we HAD to be extreme.  We have to live like no one else so that one day we can live like no one else!

Ooooh, Pretty!!

A excerpt of my wife’s account of this story for our children:

Sunday July 19th, 2009 - RV Lot
After lunch we went to the RV lot to look at trailers.  We know that we will buy a used one on eBay or Craigslist, but we wanted to see them “in real life.”  It is tempting to want a bigger, better, state-of-the art, trailer, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose?  We will look for something that fits our needs and costs less.

Oh, that was close!  I was almost sucked in.  He was not a slick salesman at all.  Montana, as his nametag called him, had the appearance and excitement of an aged salesman but lacked a firm awareness of his inventory.  He kept confusing all the trailers and mixing up the prices.  It would have really been annoying if we cared.  Little did he know, we were just using him and his time to familiarize ourselves with the intricacies of travel trailers.

Regardless of our intent and Montana’s lack of salesmanship, it was difficult to look at the new trailers and not be intrigued.  We would be able to have a trailer free from someone else’s dirt, one with only our grime and one that lacked odors of unknown origin.  Despite having set out to free ourselves from stuff and financial liability, the lure have and spend remained.  By the way, for only 120 easy payments of $249.99 we too could be the proud owners of an aluminum-structured, fiberglass-clad, rapidly depreciating trailer!  Boy did we miss a bullet.

We must act now!

Ok, now we are pumped!  We must get busy.  After meeting the tent dweller, we came home and got to work.  In a matter of hours, I was a registered member of the “Mobile-Living” Yahoo Group, our house was overpriced and listed on Craigslist and we were knee-deep in eBay listings for travel trailers.

Travel trailers are a curious breed.  They range widely in size, color, age, smell, and state of deterioration.  Our price-range was well below the large, good-looking, newer, clean smelling and structurally sound trailers we found to be plentiful.  The hunter’s special seemed to be easy to find at a great price.  On eBay, the hunter’s special usually had very few pictures and vague descriptions that let you now it was equivalent to a dog house on wheels. It was somewhere you would imagine a pedophile, serial killer or the “Unabomber” living.  We knew this search was going to be tough.

5 Bedrm, 3 bath, 2700sqft, BSMT - $2100.  What?  Why did we ask that much?  Well, we didn’t want it to be rented this month unless we got a great deal for ourselves.  I knew our house would NEVER rent for that, but my wife wanted to get it out there and pray that some wealthy person who did not have the wherewithal to buy a house would want to rent ours.  Oh well, with a few pictures and some annoying abbreviations, our house was for rent and the journey toward leaving was begun.

There are Yahoo Groups for anything!  Cat lovers, knitting groups, parenting groups and even trailer royalty (not to be confused with trailer-trash) all have a home on Yahoo.  I found a group where I too was to be accepted.  I was warmly welcomed into the Mobile Living Yahoo Group.  Many of the members eagerly answered my questions and offered suggestions on how to enjoy a life of freedom and mobility.  They also provided me with the bumper sticker which will soon adorn the bumper of our trailer.

“I am not homeless, I am mobile”

Our journey had finally begun, but mountainous tasks veiled by the fog of excitement lie before us.

Normal people would not live like this, right!?

Now, back to the story...

Saturday July 18th, 2009 Hippies
We were at a friend’s party.  I talked with a woman we had met at a party a year earlier.  I asked her how she knew the host and she told me that they house-sat for them because they lived in a tent at the time.  Given what we had been discussing, my ears “perked” up, “Did I hear ‘tent’?”  It was like music to my ears!!  Even now, with a family of five they live in a house that was built for many families to live in, on some beautiful land.  They live in a small room, with a patio and enjoy the outdoors.  This “lifestyle” sounded so appealing to me.  I wonder if God put me at the party to have this very discussion with her.

Wow, she looks so normal!  I say that because no one in their right mind would live like that, in a tent or in a communal setting, right?  We were astonished by her story and motivated to reconsider our lifestyle.  After the party, we went to the park and started dreaming.  How can we make this happen?  Where could we live?  What about our new house?  We have so much to think about, but already we feel free.  The understanding that sometime in the future we will be free of everything, starts us dreaming.

To have seen a young family like us tell of their unconventional living gave us hope.  We now had hope that we really could live our dream.  We could now live in a van down by the river!  Move over Matt Foley, here we come.