Is Travel Still A Sustainable Lifestyle?

We have been in Arizona since the middle of March when we left South America. The flowers are blooming (you may be surprised to know that almost everything here in the desert flowers).

Outside our rental home

Prickly pear. After the flowers fade a fruit forms. Usually used for jam. 

I call this yellow season because the first flowers of the season are yellow. Actually, most of the flowers in this season are yellow. Maybe where you are too- like crocus, daffodils, forsythia. 

Fortunately, we were able to stay in a condo we have previously rented in Scottsdale. We are close to parks and several nice walking trails. There is open desert at the end of the street for walking as well. I have a bicycle and exercise has been a big part of our daily activity. I have been doing grocery pickups and haven't been in a store for a month. Compared to others we are having a fairly easy time of quarantine. However, this isn’t our home and we have a time limit here until another renter arrives. Yes, even in these strange times and even in summer in Arizona someone wants to come here. So we have to move on.

We hit the road in February 2018 and have been traveling nonstop ever since. But the question now is: is this nomadic lifestyle sustainable now?  We need to go somewhere soon. Where is it possible to go, and how could we get there? And do we need to quarantine once we get there? Actually, that last question is not such a problem. I  have not been in public or a store for a month and have no plans to go in the near future.

While we don't have the stability of a home we can count on, we do have flexibility. If someplace looks good we can go there on relatively short notice. However, a lot of my life for the past few years has revolved around dancing tango. The chance to dance with other people in public again is not looking good for the unforseen future.

Depending on the results of the next election we are prepared to buy or rent a home but not until then. Which gives us a minimum of six more months as nomads. Can we make this lifestyle work for us and equally important, keep it fun for the next six months?

Our usual Portland rental is available but it is someone’s real home and crammed with her possessions and memorabilia. Because the location is so nice (a large houseboat on a pretty stretch of river) we have compromised and stayed there for a few years but previously we were only there a few hours a day, not 24.  It doesn't feel like home. There is barely room for our luggage, or room to unpack. So that won’t work long term this time around. And with travel restrictions and park/beach closures, we are unsure where else we can go.

We usually spend the summer in British Columbia but that isn't looking too good right now. At the moment there is no non-essential travel across the border and two weeks quarantine for those who do cross. We still have a rental booked in Victoria later in the summer but it seems unlikely that will be possible or fun.

I don't know many other senior nomads but have been trying to keep in touch these days. One couple is happily quarantining in San Miguel Allende, Mexico.  They have no car or bicycle but they are walking around to bars and restaurants as things slowly reopen.

I was raised near numerous beaches on Long Island, New York. People are still going to the beach but maintaining physical distancing and stressing about the beaches remaining open in the summer.

Another nomad in South East Asia is with children and grandchildren. I don't know whether they have beach access or not but their movement is limited to grocery trips. Someone in the UK is walking, biking, exercising, eating vegan, getting high and soaking in a hot tub.

In Argentina, people are still pretty much housebound, with one person per household allowed to go to a grocery or pharmacy. I believe they take your order outside verbally and bring the items to you. No recreational walking has been allowed, however, that is about to lift in non-urban areas, where you will now be able to walk (not jog or bike) up to half a kilometer from home for an hour a day. A friend in a rural area left her winter clothes in an apartment in a nearby city. She can go there but she isn't able to come back to her rural home if she leaves.

In Oregon state parks are closed but some other parks seem to be open. People seem to be walking and biking a lot but because this is a dense urban area there is concern about joggers coming too close for safety. I experience that too here but it is not dense and I usually step out of their way.

Anyway, stay tuned to this station for the next episode in our life on the road.