If you would have asked us back in February about our summer plans, we would have told you how we were retiring from the military and moving to the Seattle area where J would start his new career with an airline. We had no idea that a viral pandemic would hit the planet, shut everything down, derail our plans, and force us onto an entirely new path.
In January, J interviewed with and got hired by Delta Air Lines. We were eagerly awaiting our military to airline career switch when in March, because of the pandemic, Delta halted training for new hires with no foreseeable date to restart. J was set to start his terminal leave in April so we had to make a decision: defer his retirement and stay in the Air Force or go ahead with the retirement and exit the military life. We decided, despite the uncertainty, to get out.
Luckily, J had a backup career on the horizon that he was able to secure. After his terminal leave and official retirement, he began working as a civilian pilot with a government contractor. This requires him to regularly travel to other locations, such as Valdosta, GA, to work and fly.
We still owned our first house in Valdosta and it would have been extremely convenient to move back into it. There was just one problem… we couldn’t imagine ever living in Valdosta again; six years was long enough.
We had our property manager oversee a few updates on the house and list it. Based on prior experience of failing to sell it, we were prepared to pay the mortgage for a few months but to our surprise, the house sold after only one day on the market! We took that as a sign that we definitely made the right decision.
We suddenly found ourselves with no reason to stay in our rental in Virginia, nowhere that we needed to be, and the ability to go anywhere we wanted. It sounds amazing but it was actually a daunting decision and we had new limits to consider because of the delay in the airline career.
We decided not to choose one specific place. We decided, instead, to make the most of this chapter of our life by living full-time in a camper and exploring the country!
While we had thought about one day getting a small camper for short trips, living full-time in an RV had never crossed our minds before now. These unconventional times call for unconventional ideas! Once we made the decision, we rolled ahead full steam. We first sold J’s SUV to get the cash and then started researching campers online, thankful for all the reviews and walk-through videos available. We ultimately decided upon a new 2020 Grand Design Imagine 2800BH. Lucky for us, camper sales in April were slow so we were able to get an incredible deal on it.
After purchasing the camper, which remained stored on the dealer’s lot for a month, we then had to research and purchase a truck that could pull it. Because of the shutdown, we were limited to what was in stock. We test drove some different makes and models locally but found the truck we wanted, a Dodge Ram 2500 6.4 Hemi with RamBoxes, a few hours south of us at a dealer in North Carolina. J drove my SUV down and traded it in then drove the truck home.
In May, we transferred the camper to a storage lot and started preparing for the move. We had to decide what to put in the camper, what to put in storage, what to sell, and what to get rid of. We kept much of our furniture and belongings since we are planning to purchase and move back into a real house again next year. The military packed up and will store the belongings we left behind for up to a year post-retirement.
Near the end of June we took our new rig on a trial run to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for three nights. We were blessed to have camper-experienced friends who camped in the site next to ours. They helped us learn how to use all of the camper systems for the first time and they were great company to camp with. It was a good trip to see what things we still needed to get and what things we thought we needed that we didn’t.
Our movers came on June 29; they packed and took everything the same day. As is becoming a tradition, we spent the final night in our empty house camped out together on a bedroom floor.
We finalized everything and said good-bye to our townhouse and our neighbors on June 30th, officially starting our full-time adventure. It was a tearful and difficult goodbye.
It was hard leaving Williamsburg. We truly loved our neighbors, our neighborhood, C’s school, the weather, the convenience of nearby shopping, and the variety of historical and fun things to do in the area. Although we wouldn’t want to stay there forever, it was a really great place to live for a couple years and I am so thankful it was part of our lives.
This was the view from our front balcony. 
It was so convenient having all of this right out of our front door!
So, what are our plans for the coming year? We are traveling around the country to see what we can see while visiting some family and friends along the way.
C will be homeschooled (or “roadschooled”) for 2nd grade. Honestly, I never wanted to homeschool my own children despite being a former elementary school teacher. We were forced into it when C’s school shut down in March and we did ultimately find a routine that worked for us. That experience has given me the confidence that C and I will be able to do a good job of it this year. It’s certainly worth all the effort and some inevitable frustration in order to live this life on the road. What better way to learn than through first-hand experiences? I’m excited for all the extra things she will learn this year as part of our journey.
Dulce is excited to come with us. She travels well; having already been to 21 states and 2 other countries before this! I know she will love getting more fresh air and exercise than she has in the past two years living in a townhouse with no yard. She’s getting older, having just turned 11 years old in July, but I hope she has many more healthy years ahead. She’s had an incredible life so far and this may just be one of her best years yet. I started her an instagram account of her own to document the trip from her point of view because I know I’ll enjoy looking back on it. www.instagram.com/travelingdulce
J has been thoroughly enjoying both retired-military life and his new civilian job. It’s a little strange seeing him in a flight suit with a beard. It’s also a little strange hearing him talk about how much he likes his job which is something he hadn’t said often in the last couple years. He is content traveling for life and for work right now. When the time comes that Delta restarts hiring and training, we will have to decide what direction to go.
I am looking forward to dusting off my cameras to photograph our country and resurrecting our blog to document our journey. Although most things are being photographed with my iPhone and uninterrupted time for computer work is hard to come by, I do hope to have a few opportunities to use my real cameras and to write some blog posts. I am keeping up with our journey on my instagram account if you want to follow along.
www.instagram.com/_angelagreen
We are looking forward to living a simple, flexible, and nomadic life for a while before we have to choose a permanent place to settle down. As awful as the pandemic has made everything, it has presented us with this unique opportunity that we wouldn’t have otherwise had. Looking back on events of the past few years in our life, it almost feels as though it was leading us to this point… as if this path had long been decided for us. We may be crazy but we only have one wild and precious life so… why not? We are ready for the adventure!
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
~Mary Oliver