If you read my latest blog post, by now you know that Jan 2025 will start a new adventure for not only me but my husband as well. He is planning to fully retire and we are planning to sell the house, store our belongings, and live a nomad lifestyle for at least five years. We plan to travel the USA via RV, foot (long-distance trails), and motorcycle.

So, I will begin documenting our journey as we prepare to live a much more minimalistic lifestyle as well as everything we are doing to reach the goal of being able to live in the woods for 5-6 months at a time with just what we carry on our back as well as moving from a 2700 sqft home to a travel trailer which will become our permanent residence for five years when we are not on the trails.

The Decision

I guess you could say the first step was making the decision to live this way. It wasn’t an easy decision by any means. We toyed with it for a while. Our biggest obstacle was reaching the decision to sell our home. The home we worked so hard on with our blood and sweat (literally) for the past 10 years. It was the home where our kids had resided the longest (thanks to the military lol). Plus, by the time we sell the home, it will be almost paid off.

The Timing

So how did we choose Jan 2025 to start living a Nomad Lifestyle? Simple. It is the date all our debt will be paid off (minus the house) and we will have enough saved to not only hike the Appalachian Trail together, but also have a 6-month emergency fund (granted that fund included all the bills we will no longer have, but I am keeping it as a goal anyway).

So we talked about it and Jerry decided he would be ready to fully retire at that time as well. Well at least retire from a full-time stationary job. We do plan to do workamping to supplement our income while we are RVing.

21 Months to Go

21 months to go before we start our Nomad Lifestyle (maybe even sooner for RV living if we sell the house before then). The biggest thing I am currently working on right now is trying to purge our home of duplicate items, items we no longer use/want, or items that we won’t need in our new home (wherever that may end up being).

The last thing I want to do is wait last minute to try and go through and sell/donate items. So far, I have done a quick once-over of the entire house (minus the garage and shed). The money I get from the sale of items is going directly to our debts.

No More Yearly Light Show

For those that are in the area and have enjoyed watching our yearly light show through the month of December, I am sad to announce that this year will more than likely be the last year we do it (here in the area at least). We will more than likely have already sold the house by the time Christmas 2024 comes around.

I do believe I may have talked Jerry into decorating the trailer and doing a mini light show beginning in 2025 and on until we settle down at our new location (which won’t be until 2030). So keep an eye out.

Our Plans

The plan is to have the house sold, stuff moved to storage and the RV and bikes moved to my Mom’s by February 2025. Jerry’s last day of work will be December 31, 2024 (or possibly into January).

2023 – Last normal year here. We will have one last Christmas Light Show & also plan to do a Halloween night Light Show. The rest of the year will be spent purging items in the house to prepare to live either in the woods with just our backpacks or in an RV.

2024 – More purging of items, sell the house, get all doctor appointments squared away, start marking items off the checklist, start living in the RV full time while we wait for Jerry to retire either December 2024 or January 2025.

2025 – March thru August hike the Appalachian Trail; September Route 66 on the bike; October – February 2026 RV Travel

2026 – March thru August hike the Pacific Crest Trail; September thru February 2027 RV Travel

2027 – March thru August hike the Continental Divide Trail; September thru December RV Travel

2028 – American Discovery Trail????

2029 – Arizona Trail & RV Travel

2030 – Settle down??? and do shorter trails as time allows???

Follow Our Journey

We’d love all of our wonderful visitors that have watched the light show to continue to follow our journey, Please feel free to follow us on Facebook (both the business page and my personal account) as well as YouTube, TikTok and here on my blog:

That’s all for now! Back to purging!