Erkharts gonna Erkhart

Just about a year ago, we dropped everything and headed off on our RV adventure.  It’s been a busy, crazy, interesting, stressful and still pretty fun 12 months.  We wouldn’t trade the experiences for the world.

It was the right move at the right time, we needed to break free of the rut of living in Stepford-ville and doing what the world expects grown-ups to do.

Just this year, we’ve been to 8 European countries, 8 US states, driven 6k miles in the RV (traumatizing the cats the whole way), met lots of people, made friends, found jobs (some challenging and cool, others not so much), and had a ton of experiences. 

We’ve stayed at beautiful state parks (Our favorite was Trinidad Lake in Colorado.) and iffy RV parks (like Jantzen Beach in Oregon.)

We spent a lot of time customizing the Imp to meet our (and the cats’) needs so that we could live our way and not in a retro 1970’s lizard lounge. 😊

We’ve had some personal challenges, individually and as a couple, which have just made us more determined to live our lives and not the lives that are necessarily expected of us.

So, with all that’s transpired in the last 12 months, we’re changing it up again.  

Cuz Erkharts gotta Erkhart. 

We realized that while we liked living tiny, we didn’t like living in RV parks.

 

When you by a motorhome, there’s the romanticized and theoretical ability to pack up and drive away whenever you want. But, the reality is that you’re stuck with a limited number of places you can live legally, especially if you’re trying to stay somewhere for more than a couple weeks.  And unfortunately, those places are more often than not RV parks that are crowded, expensive and not in very good neighborhood (or they’re in a decent neighborhood, but too far from anything useful – like jobs.)

The other odd thing about RV parks, as opposed to the state parks we’ve stayed at, is the use and abuse of the shared facilities.  Sharing showers, restrooms and washer/dryers with 50 to 100 other families seems to bring out bad behavior in many folks since it’s “not their house” they don’t have to care or take care of it.  Even with great park managers trying to keep up with the cleaning, we saw some really gnarly bathrooms and laundry facilities.

With that and a few other considerations in mind, we packed it in and rented a cute boutique studio apartment in Vancouver Washington a few weeks back.  The wife feels like Madeline from the children’s books because the building is set up like a hotel and feels like one too!

And finally, last week  we sold the Imp to a little old man and his wife who were thinking about moving to Colorado 😊

Portland, part one

When we last left our intrepid heroes…. Oh, wait.  Wrong story 😋

The last installment of the Beth and Jeff saga had us getting back from Italy, regrouping in Colorado and not being nekkid anymore.

Since then, we’ve been a bit like leaves on the on wind.  Soaring, but a little bit lost, carried along by the fates/winds/norns/universe/what-have-you toward the Pacific Northwest.

Our original destination had been Seattle, WA, but opportunity and some persuasive talk from a few local friends swayed us to stop a few hundred miles early in Portland, OR.

The road to Portland

We landed in Portland, OR on Mother’s Day with a space reserved for a week at what online had looked like a decent RV park about 5-7 miles north of downtown.  The name had “beach” in it and it was on an island in the middle of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington states.  What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out a lot – some issues were actual issues, other things were mistakes on our part.

The issues:

• The park was on an island – BUT no beach, in fact, the park was in the middle of a retail/industrial area in the flight path for the Portland International Airport AND next to a shipping lane for barges and commercial freighters.  It was LOUD.
• Portland seems to be home for many homeless people – and the island seems to be a gathering place and home to many of them.  While generally polite to us, it got uncomfortable being approached in our own home by people knocking on the door or going through the park on their way somewhere else at all hours.
• The park facilities were not maintained.  The bathroom seemed to have mold older than our nephews.  Nuf sed.
• The park also didn’t have any room for us after that first week, except for occasional days.  We were looking at being homeless ourselves.

Our mistakes:

• Assuming that our being able to get a week-long space meant that there would be room for us to stay longer. There wasn’t.  This lead to a scramble to piece together places to stay for at least a night or two so that we didn’t have to boondock and risk being towed or ticketed.
  
• Assuming that we both could find jobs easily/quickly.  In Jeff’s case, he got a temp job 3 days after we arrived and has been working steadily since then.  The wife didn’t get even a call or bite for 3 weeks, even though she was signed up with 4 temp agencies and actively applying directly to companies.  On the 4^th week, the job gods finally had pity on her and she spent the week running from interview to interview.  By the end of the 4^th week, she had a temp to perm job in downtown Portland.  (Yay for public transportation that actually works and is affordable – yes, we’re looking at you, Denver!)
• Not taking into account that the cost of living in Portland is higher than Austin (which was really affordable!)  It seems to be higher that Denver even.

Overall, we didn't love Portland right away like we thought we would. Trying on the city felt weird and uncomfortable, even though it isn't all that different in vibes and values from Austin or Denver.   

By 6 weeks in, we still weren't super comfortable, especially in the park we we'd been staying.

All of this leads to what happened next: 

We moved to Vancouver, Washington 😊

We're not naked anymore.....

We're not a snowball anymore!

After much delay, deliberation, wind and cussing, we've started adding decals to the Imp.

(If you'll remember, one of the first things we did was take off all of the lame factory decals.)

NEKKID!

It took almost 4 months to figure out what we wanted and get them custom ordered from a couple sellers on Etsy. Then we had to do a full cleaning of the exterior of the RV to make sure that all of the gunk and residue from the previous stickers was really gone. That took a while :)

Finally, we started stickering - and realized that we needed a ladder.  We "acquired" one and got to it.

First up were 10 little kitty paws - 5 on each side of the RV.  Then the heart and paws on the door.  Then, the husband took the plunge and tackled the 2 foot panda and 3 foot kanji on the passenger side walls.  There was much cussing and a large usage of blue painters tape.

 The wife is impressed with the results :)

The kanji means "Wanderer" or "Drifter"

Then, before we could install the back and driver's side decals, we had a Texas weather problem and all stickering stopped.  (Basically, it got hot and windy.)

Soon after that, we left Texas and headed to Colorado.  (Traveling and staying in campground - neither of which are conducive to applying decals.) 

Finally, we landed in Fort Collins and the weather cooperated.  (We also borrowed a couple ladders - thanks Zach!!! 😀 )

A four foot kanji on the driver's side and a world map on the back!

 

The kanji means "Adventurous Spirit"

Big markers on places we've lived!  Yellow dots on some of the places we've visited - we're not done yet!!!!

We still have plenty of room to decorate, so we're planning and plotting and designing the next round of decals.  We'll share once we've got them up!!

We interrupt this life….

To bring you a new adventure!

Well, not a BIG adventure, but at least another chapter in the “how many places can we go before we die” book.

Right before we headed out in the RV to explore Texas, we took a long planned and repeatedly delayed trip to Greece.  The Peloponnese - and particularly Sparta - had been on the husband’s “must see” list for decades, but life kept happening.

Then the Imp happened and life changed.   

The Imp, slightly less naked.....

 
Now, we’re playing by slightly different rules since our daily and monthly expenses dropped by two thirds.  

Now, we can work one week to pay our regular monthly bills, another week to pay for the irregular but known expenses like car insurance and Christmas, another week to fund the life happens/emergency funds and one week to save for travel.  Once we have enough saved up to travel, off we go!

While in Texas, we planned a semi-spontaneous trip back to Europe to get a few of the tiny countries off “The List.” The micro countries have been on it for quite a while, and the only reason to visit most of them is to say you’ve been there. Well, we’re gettin’ there this time, dammit!

We picked Italy as the country to start from – and Rome in particular, since it has Vatican City (smallest country in the world!)  San Marino is also pretty close to Florence and Milan is close enough to get to Monaco.  We’re ending our trip in Zurich since getting to Liechtenstein from there is relatively easily.  

The Vatican in Rome was simple: just walk in. 

The Colosseum in Rome

The Republic of San Marino (RSM) takes a bit more travel. From Rome to Florence, then to Rimini by train, and then by bus to RSM. Totally worth it. Beautiful countryside, and a quaint old town. Got a pretty cool Tourist visa stamp in the Passport as well. It kinda makes up for all the places we’ve been that we don’t have stamps for. (Looking at you, Mother Russia!)

View from the walls of San Marino

On the way back to Florence from RSM we had a transfer in Bologna.  We walked all over the station, looking at every departure board and couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t find the 4:15 train to Florence.  It’s cuz there wasn’t one!  We were looking at the wrong time on our tickets and we missed our 3:40 train! 

Duomo di Firenze in Florence

The Travel Gods were watching out for us, though – the train to Florence had been delayed and was 20 minutes late.  So, it’s like the Gods held the train for us since we weren’t paying close enough attention. Derp. Thanks Rad.
 

Morning train from Florence to Milan

And Rad was watching out for us again in Milan.  We stood in line forever to get tickets for Saturday to Monaco – we got stuck in front of a crabby old nonni (grandmother) who bitched at everyone in line ahead of her as well as at all of the Italia Rail employees within earshot about the wait.

Once at the counter, we were told that there were no seats on any trains to Monaco the next day.  (Apparently it’s a popular place for Italians to go play on the weekends.)  Boo!  (We bought our tickets to Zurich instead....)

Discouraged, we headed back to our hotel to make a new plan. Once there the wife wielded her internet travel magic and found train tickets that routed us a bit out of the way, but got us to Monaco in about 6.5 hours.  Whew!  

Monaco overlooking the Grande Prix track

View of the harbor from the Grande Prix track

The next morning, we were off to Switzerland, which has two of our favorite things: mountains and chocolate!

We've been to Switzerland before and have always loved the beauty and order of the country.  If we ever expatriate, it's on the list of placed we'd want to live.

From there it was a beautiful train/bus ride over to Liechtenstein to get another passport stamp for the husband and ice cream for the wife :)
 

We were back in Zurich in time for a walk on the river, a cider at an Irish pub while hiding from the spring afternoon rain showers and dinner before it was time to go back to the hotel and pack :( 

Then it was back to the US for us.  Where, upon landing after a 20 hour travel day, discovered that our bags were still in London.  Dammit Rad!!