On the Road Again

Franklin and I just sold our home.

It was a big decision as we loved the house but we love Scottsdale and Arizona less since the election. So rather than settling down somewhere right away, we plan to ... have no plans at all. Not necessarily to travel a lot, but to live abroad about half the year. We are heading to Portland for a tango festival, then on to Portugal for a few months.

In our youth (even before Franklin and I met) we both loved to travel. We both dropped out of college for a while and lived abroad. He lived in France and I lived in Singapore and England. And since we have been together we have continued to travel more than most people. Franklin and I have reminisced many times about those 'good old days' on the road and talked about how we wished we could we do it one more time. And now we can.

 Today we sold our house and rather than settle down again immediately (probably in Portland) we have decided to hit the road for an extended time. It is a very exciting plan (or lack of plan) and just a little bit scary.

We put the house on the market at the end of December and in four days we had three offers. We were not thrilled about the offer that went through but hated the process of selling a house and are relieved it is over. We were given less than ten days to sell or store everything we own and leave our home. If this ever happens to you I recommend not accepting the offer. We've been here 25 years so this was no small task. We worked 12 -15 hour days for the whole 10 days packing, selling, storing. It was awful.

Our plan is to continue the good part of our lives- living in Portland for 4 months a year, Vancouver Island for 2 or 3, and rent homes in other parts of the world for the winter months.

Both Franklin and I have inherited our gypsy nature from our ancestors. My own grandfather immigrated to the United States at the end of the 19th century, spent a few months in New York then took a job in Japan and China for some years. Franklin's ancestors owned camel caravans that traveled the Silk Road, across Asia.

Some of you have been following my blog for a few years. But other people have recently expressed interest in our journey. I am sending this first blog post out to people I think might be interested in reading about our journey and what comes next. I don't anticipate writing a travelogue. I'm not planning to review cities or restaurants, as we travel. But who knows- I may be doing some of that too. Mostly I plan to write as a senior gypsy living an expatriate life. And as always, post some photos.

For folks who have not seen this blog before and would like to see some back posts, just scroll down past this post to see older ones from previous years.

For the next few days we are staying in the condo of some Canadian friends who are out of town and generously lent us their gorgeous condo. During the last few days we were running out of time to pack neatly and  were just throwing stuff in boxes. We are now trying to organize our stuff, cram a few more boxes into storage, and pack enough of everything to last 9 months. We head to Portland to dance this weekend, stay there for a week, then off to Lisbon. A lot of people have said they wished they could just take off as we are doing. So you are invited to share our journey via this blog if you'd like.