#115 2022-2023 December 31-January 6. Nomad Diary. Some Things I Have Learned in the Past Year About Being a ‘Retired Nomad’.
Darrell’s brother Glenn moving out of their house and packing these two pods full!
Our second Saturday helping load for Glenn and Phoebe’s move to Tennessee.
Having lunch at Mi Casa in Athens, AL after a morning of packing. Darrell, Glenn, Phoebe and me. They are leaving the area on Wednesday.
This little boy Quinn is so adorable! We are so glad to have a weekly call! Our third son Jeremy, Andrea and 2 year old son live in Maine since September.
Saturday. 31. Helping Glenn and Phoebe continue loading their moving pods. We do a thrift store donation for Phoebe and do some shopping while there because it is a very clean place and everything is 50% off! I find 3 new pairs of underwear for like $3 and 3 packing cubes for another $3! Wow! I love a great find and a great deal!
Visiting Owen. Here with his mommy, Erin.
Sunday. 1. We worshiped with our old congregation “Capshaw”. And then brought lunch over to Eric and Erin’s.
Monday. 2. Today we visited Robyn and her mom Jeannie Thornton in Madison. We also went and visited Samuel at his house and sat on his new sofa! Nice!
Owen loves hanging with Darrell!
Tuesday. 3. We cooked dinner and brought it over to Eric and Erin’s for a farewell dinner with Glenn and Phoebe.
Our shadows while walking Owen during babysitting. He likes seeing Darrell’s sunglasses and then Darrell lifting them to show his eyes! Such a sweet smile.
Wednesday. 4. Babysit Owen a few hours. Call with my good friend Laura. Grocery shop. Nighttime Bible class at Hartselle’s Westside church.
Owen capably feeding himself black beans that Darrell made earlier in the week. He has continued to eat these frequently with pleasure!
Owen walking around outside in his newish shoes.
Thursday. 5. Some babysitting. Darrell went to a preacher’s meeting and then to get one of our truck tires fixed per lifetime warranty.
Eric reading to Owen.
Owen seeing his shadow in the sunshine.
Friday. 6. Some babysitting. It’s sunny and cool. A great Alabama winter. Darrell researched suitcases today and ordered me one. Yay! I had to return my to REI, and I am looking forward to having a suitcase again. Hopefully it arrives before we leave for Maine on the 18th!
Nomad Notes.
We have spent time this week making plans and bookings for our March stay in Denton, Texas. We also have tentative plans for our stay when we return to Alabama in late June- mid-August.
This week I’ve read and re-read Psalms 36-37. I am slowly reading the Psalms aloud to myself. This week my two sisters called me on Sunday afternoon. It’s been a LONG time since we had a talk together. Our Dad past away in March 2022. We’ve had a few IM’s along the way and gifts exchanged through the mail. It was sweet to visit together. We discussed the situation of interring our father’s ashes: possibilities, when, where, and how. We shared about our grandchildren and what’s going on with each of us as grandmothers. Questions posed to me were: What do you do while you are moving around? How do you have consistency in friendships, in community, in daily activities, etc? Will you move to a place and stay?
These sort of questions come up because so few people live this way. We rarely meet up with other nomads or come across their stories. Every nomad we have met or read about has a truly unique story and way of living customized to them.
Some things I have learned about being a ‘retired nomad’ for about a year now.
Our way of living is unique to us. Our moving around is dynamic and changes for us. In 2022 we were in England for 4 months. Our longest stay while in England in one location was 16 days. We were moving quite fast between locations. Our return to England this spring will be slower in that we will stay 1 month in two locations. We chose our two return locations based on where we met with churches and met people we want to revisit. This is about our pace of travel and experiencing our pace by trying different itineraries that we look forward to and are within our budget.
Having a daily routine is part of holding onto a constant. Most days Darrell and I have built in our morning routine of exercise using DDP video routines followed by getting dressed for the day and then making breakfast together. Once we begin our day with this constant, we often have a discussion time together or we get into our daily calendar. Our days can be a mix of together or separate activities depending on what is going on that day. We are separately doing Duo Lingo Spanish. I’m not as far as Darrell so we aren’t conversing yet. Other activities for the day include: various appointments; visiting friends together and separately; babysitting grandkids; shopping and cooking; taking walks; phone calls with friends and family; working through our budget and finances (which Darrell is great at and I must slow him down at times to sit and pay attention to hope to learn more of how the pieces are moving and what is going on); We do our Bible studies separately and our blogs too; We attend worship on Sundays and often we also attend Bible classes during the week; We spend hours of time building our coming months schedule together and then filling in places where we will live and how we will get from place to place.
What we don’t do since we sold our house and most of our things is take care of a house. We don’t manage a property like we have for years. We don’t store things in closets anymore. We don’t have the same relationships because our neighborhood is ever changing. We don’t mow or paint or shop for a house.With all these kinds of house things that took space and time in our lives, we knew that when we removed them something else would come in. What has come in the last year are many opportunities that can only exist in this way we are moving and living. We knew that we can’t have both a nomad existence of itinerant living and a permanent neighborhood for decades. For now we have chosen to go with our nomad existence and to build friendships in a different way that we could not do or experience in the standard way. I have not missed owning a house yet.
Google maps and other apps and the internet has made this kind of travel and living so nice! Using cell phones and social media with messaging is an amazing way to stay in touch with at least the highlights of what is going on with people we know around the world.
Our son Eric and his wife help us immensely by letting us use their address and keeping us informed about important mail. Others, usually family, help us by doing us big favors of keeping and driving our truck at their house. We have so many opportunities to visit friends and family and enjoy their hospitality! Just relaxing with all the love expressed is a challenge that brings my heart joy!
We’ve learned how to streamline our shopping into weeklong coordinated lists. We have simplified our cooking and meals.
The experience of being housesitters in England saved us 6 weeks in rent and connected us with locals.
I learned how to live out of a suitcase and do laundry in small loads for many months.
I can walk farther than I thought I thought I could. When my shoes wear out, buy another pair. Being tired,sick or injured takes time and attention. Comforts are available where I am.
Being a tourist is a choice and it’s ok and allowed to NOT see everything!
Some of my best memories are so unique and in places I wasn’t expecting…In Deal we ate two times at a small Polish restaurant in our neighborhood for the week. When we were there talking to the immigrant owners about our moving on the next day, they were sorry to not see us again. We left the place walking back to our housesit. Around the corner comes one of the couple with a bag of travel snacks for us and another farewell! All we could do was melt and say, “thank-you!” Just a wow for us!
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