I think there are very few folks left who don't already know what our Big Plans in 2022 entail, and this post title surely gives it away to the rest. By spilling the tea to all the people we've seen in person since October and, of course, to family, I've ruined the surprise of the big reveal for many. TBG thinks I should wait even longer for this post because he supposes that readers may drop off when less travel is happening. If this blog was a source of income, I'd consider that, but since it is the opposite (I pay so you don't) I'm willing to take that chance. With that, I will tell you what you've been suspecting is true: We have captured some of that dirt we've been chasing and are coming off the road.
Before I get to the details -- and there are lots of them -- many of those folks who have been in the know have pleaded with me to continue to blog. "Silly rabbits," I've assured them, "I was blogging for years before we ever even owned an RV and have no plans to stop in the foreseeable future." All of that blogging still exists, by the way, and is a mere click of the Before There Was Here tab up top if you're curious. Will I rename the blog? Nope. We'll still be chasing plenty of dirt, we just won't be doing it from an RV for awhile. But why are we putting on the brakes shy of only four years? you may be wondering. Excellent question! The answer is multi-pronged.
One of the most common questions we got when we were setting out was how long did we think we'd travel full-time. TBG thought about five years, I thought maybe a bit more. The answer then was that we really had no idea in a number, but we had answers in the form of circumstances. We knew it would take only one of us to grow weary of this lifestyle and say "enough." That didn't happen. Illness/injury could sideline us. That didn't happen. Major mechanical or structural problems would certainly put the kibosh on our travels. That didn't quite happen, but close enough to give us serious pause.
I only briefly touched on some of our RV troubles after we left North Dakota, and I'm not going to belabor the specifics now. The upshot is that Essie spent some time in the hospital, and while she recovered, the whole episode left our faith in full-timing shaken. In a lifestyle that is fraught with uncertainties under the best of circumstances, we had to face the fact that we needed to reassess our options. Did we want to stay with Essie who, though recovered, was possibly vulnerable to a major meltdown again? Did we want to trade her for a new rig with potentially new problems and put a big dent in our future house money? Any RVer will tell you that a new rig doesn't guarantee problem-free travel at all, and sometimes brand new rigs have even more problems than seasoned ones. What we did know was that we wanted to be able to make our choice while it was still our choice and not wait for a bigger hammer to fall, making it for us. While we were in the throes of trying to decide, an unexpected opportunity presented itself in the form of a desirable piece of property to purchase in a place we'd been casually keeping our eyes on for some time.
Put down in words, that all sounds too coincidentally good to be true and too neatly packaged. We are not blind to the good fortune of how the events have ultimately unfolded, but hear me now. We spent a few dark, sad days when we both realized in our hearts that we were coming off the road. Even though there was never a goal to our travels, neither of us felt done, and as silly as it may seem, the decision to stop traveling full-time felt like a failure. Once we got over that and recognized the new opportunity for what it was, we were able to dry our self-indulgent tears and plan our new chapter.
As you've ridden along with us, Faithful Readers, you know that we've assessed every place we've been as to whether or not it would make a suitable settling-down location for us. We never seriously considered anywhere east of the Mississippi, but we gave it a fair shake.
We thought pre-RV and long into full-timing, that we'd most likely settle in the Southwest. We love so much about the bottom left corner of the country, and it was a tough decision.
TBG was enamored with the St. George/Hurricane area, I liked it well enough, and for a long time, that area remained at the top of the list. It checked a lot of the boxes, but we had more time there than anywhere in our travels, and here are OUR reasons it lost the contest.
Heat. Sure, no one likes to freeze their butts off, but as bad if not worse than bitter cold is months of 100+ temps, and that's what's been happening in the SW the past few years. I do not like air conditioning if I can get along without it, and in the SW you ain't getting along without it.
Dry. Well, duh, much of the SW is desert, but the itchy skin, my perpetually red eyes, the need to drink and drink and drink, the increasingly hazy and dirty air, not to mention Valley Fever, filled the "con" column.
Glare. This may seem silly to some, but the constant glare of the sun -- off every surface, through every window, in your eyes continuously -- is ultimately intolerable for us, mostly me. We love a sunny day, but when you have to always wear sunglasses or keep the shades down, the loveliness of the sunshine is somewhat defeated.
Green. Though the SW has a lot going for it, what it doesn't have is green. Yes, the desert perks up after the rains. Yes, you can explore in the canyons where there is much more greenery. But the first words, literally, out of every one of our SW friends' mouths when we shared our decision were, "Oh, it's so green there!"
So what was our criteria then? The usual boring reasons of all the things retirees look for, such as good medical, nearby amenities, affordability, etc. factored into our decision, of course. Beyond that, for us it came down to two things: Ample outdoor activities, namely hiking, and a mild climate that allowed us to do that most days of the year. After ruling out the southwest, our choice was clear, and it is
SEQUIM, WA!
Washington?! WTH? Isn't that where we were to begin with? Yes, and if anyone had told us when we left there that we'd return for the remainder, we would've laughed them out of wherever they were when they said that. Let me explain how we settled.
I don't normally condone the silencing of letters, but the "e" in Sequim has been muzzled, and it's pronounced Skwim. Other than that, what's so special about it? For one, it's located on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula and not on the east side of the Puget Sound where everything is crazy-crowded. I find it interesting that two of our major dislikes, snow and high population density, are shown in the same color on the map.
Our new dig's location is shown in red. The green dot is where we used to live, and the two brown dots are where TBG's family still lives. On the map, the distances from family don't appear to be that great, however, the closest (TBG's parents) will be a 3-hour+ drive or a 1.5-hour drive/ferry combination away.
Going back to our top two desires, Sequim definitely has a mild climate. Wait for my posts from this time next year, and I may be crying in my crab about it being a little too mild. Average daytime summer temps hover in the low 70s, winter's the upper 40s. It is still the PNW, and there will be gray and rain. For a little comparison, though, our old-home averaged 60" per year, Seattle comes in around 34", with Sequim sitting pretty between 16-23". This is because our new hometown lies in what's known as the Olympic Rain Shadow, a small, unique geographical region that is protected by the Olympic Mountains from the dominant (rainy) SW airflow. The below graphic from olympicrainshadow.com illustrates this.
Another illustration of this is a technique we've used all during our travels by way of our weather app(s). As we move along, we not only keep upcoming destinations plugged in, but also those of family/friends and anyplace we've been considering for permanent living. Of all the places to get nasty weather alerts routinely, Sequim gets next-to-none, and of those it does get, there is never any reading "tornado," "hurricane," "hail the size of grapefruit," or even "severe thunderstorm." Although at first glance it seems as though it would be quite vulnerable to a tsunami, due to more detailed science than I'm going to explain here, it's more protected than one might think.
Once we knew where we were going to be, we began monitoring the webcams at the Dungeness Lighthouse, which is a mere eight miles from our property. Even when the forecast says it's crummy there, the webcams often tell a different story.
You'll notice that the first day on the forecast snapshot calls for the chance of a frozen mix. The same snapshot on the webcam clearly shows Sequim falling outside the area's PoP. We have taken to calling out on a near-daily basis, "It's another beautiful day in Sequim!" Some area info will proclaim that the local climate is akin to that of Southern France. I think that's quite the exaggeration, but it is known as the Lavender Capital of North America with its myriad lavender farms and annual festival in mid-July. Bottom line, the climate is mild. Check!
As to our second-biggest want, if you plug our new town name into the AllTrails app, up pop 500 choices. Five hundred. Five. Hundred. That is because much of the peninsula is taken up by Olympic National Park and the Olympic National Forest. In addition, there are several state parks and the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. The peninsula is not wholly unvisited by us but only lightly explored during our years in Washington, leaving a staggering amount of adventuring on the table still.
We have visited the Hoh Rainforest, Hurricane Ridge, Sequim Bay State Park, and the Olympic Discovery Trail (which will be within walking distance from our new house!) In addition to those places, all of which also offer several volunteer opportunities, the Dungeness Audubon Center will be about 1.5 miles from our new place, and I have already attended their free online Zoom class for Birdscaping! Bottom line is there is an amazing plethora of outdoor activities right at our doorstep. Check!
Working down the list, we come to affordability, and we'll just keep moving along on that one. While we'll be comfortable, Washington state is not known for its budget-friendliness. As for the practical amenities, there is a Safeway, Costco, and Walmart right in town. Check! Two major medical centers are a mere 17 miles away in Port Angeles with ancillary services in downtown Sequim. Check! Farmers markets, live theatre, and fresh seafood round out the close-in conveniences. Check, check, check!
If I have allowed my excitement to make it seem as though we're headed for a life of perfection (would that be a bad thing if it was possible, though?) let me assure you, we are not imbeciles. While we think we've chosen the most perfect place for us, we know from experience that no perfect place really exists. We will never get a balmy evening, and even most days will be too cool to simply sit outside unless you're in the full sun and shielded from the wind. I really love our house plans and building from the ground up is a true luxury (future blogs will discuss this in more detail than many of you will care about) but I will never get the adobe-style house of my dreams with breezeways and an interior courtyard. Do you have a favorite time zone? Well, I do, and PST ain't it. I like the CST, and I hate the time changes. Summer days will be impossibly long, but winter days will be impossibly short. I will probably never have occasion to say rattlesnack again unless we're traveling.
Speaking of traveling, we're not done by any stretch. It might be a year, two, outside three, before we hit the road in any grand manner, and we're still discussing what form that travel will take and where it will take us. In the meantime, we'll be preoccupied with all things house-building, something that is already taking up large chunks of time remotely in the form of hours-long phone consultations and e-signing about a million forms a week.
We still have more than three months of full-timing between now and then, more after that if you count living in an RV that's not moving as full-timing, which some folks do. It has become a greater challenge for us to stay in the present while building the future, both wanting to enjoy where we are but eager to be where we're going, and remembering that these problems aren't really problems at all.
**********COMMENTS**********
Big news but we love the PNW, especially the long summer days. We stayed on a horse rescue farm close to your new dirt that was an Airbnb listing that we loved. Toohey loved the horses as long as they stayed on their side of the fence. Then we spent a while in the driveway of a friend’s home on Whidbey Island, which we loved! Great choice and have fun and embrace the change!
It’s an easy place to love when it shines! Our old neighbors (NEIGHbors) had horses, and our oldest dog at the time felt the same as Toohey
We’re planning to have an RV-friendly space at the new place, which means you’re welcome to driveway surf with us in the future!
Congrats! I so enjoyed your blog while travelling and I can’t wait to read about your house being built and see all the pictures you gather from the 500 hikes! You’ve nailed all the things I would like in a place to live, unfortunately, I will still have to live vicariously through you since I am in snowy, cold Ontario.
Thank you, Barb! I’m sure I’ll have more building details to share than most folks will care to read about, but I’ll try to keep them interspersed with some good hiking/outdoor stuff so no one gets too bored
Stay warm up there!
Big smile emoji. What an adventure! We got to that decision pretty early; er, not Sequim, but Port Angeles but we had different challenges that went beyond life of the road. Interestingly, your requirements checklist is pretty close to what we had and just reenforces our choice. It didn’t need reenforcing but it is sort of like after purchase confirmation. We went from class A full-time, to house, then house with a very small travel trailer (the Happier Camper) and now house with class b to support our travel bug. Joshua Tree is beautiful by the way.
We’re looking forward to being neighbors! Glad we could confirm your wise decision in a settling-down place. I love the name Happier Camper, and we sure hope to have one of those in the future, too. We’ve visited Joshua Tree several times and agree wholeheartedly, it’s a beautiful place!
Thanks again for checking the property out for us. We just closed on the purchase. Permits and all the other nonsense is still ahead of us.
Although we’ve known about your plans to stop traveling and build a house, it’s really interesting to read through your decision making process. I completely understand your feelings of sadness at stopping your full-time travels, and I completely understand why you would make that decision. And I also understand why you would choose Sequim as your home!
We love Sequim. Although we’ve only been there in the summers (perfection!) there is truth to that whole rain shadow effect. And you guys are already accustomed to the PNW, so a bit of winter gray and chill won’t keep you from getting out and enjoying life! Plus, you’re going to have an awesome wood stove! Your property looks beautiful and we’ve been in your backyard plenty of times biking along the Olympic Discovery Trail, although we didn’t know it at the time. Next time, we’re stopping in for a visit! :-)) Happy new life adventure, dear friends! We’re looking forward to reading all about it.
Oh, I know — the PNW summers are what sucks everyone in, then the time changes and the skies cloud over and everyone starts crying LOL But as you say, it’s the devil we know, and choosing a whole new area allows it to be both familiar and exciting at the same time. (we hope!) And even though I complain about too much socializing sometimes, you know we’d be delighted to have you in our backyard for real any time
Congratulations on making exactly the right purchase for you, in exactly the right place! While no place is perfect, it’s great to find one that ticks most of the boxes. And aren’t you the smart ones for recognizing the ideal opportunity when it appeared. I enjoyed your description of your thought process, even if it did make us feel a little inadequate/haphazard/random.
Also, I am here for ALL the construction blogging you care to do.
I would never describe your choice of where to build a house and the house you built as inadequate/haphazard/random! You put so much careful and wise consideration into it. I have gone back over many of your posts to see how you did something, and they’ve been very helpful in our process already. Putting our process into words gives the appearance of it all being so much neater than it was. I’ll have more about that in upcoming posts, and I will not hold back on the construction stuff, especially thinking of YOU
FANTASTIC! You’ll be close to all our WA people too (Tim’s sisters in Bellingham & Mt Vernon, and our older son in Port Townsend), and I’m truly excited about allllll the possibilities. We *will* see you there. We *will* help you with home projects. And we *will* hike and explore with you, and I’ll even smile and nod my head politely when you point out particular birds, even though my brain will be thinking, “OK. Bird. Another bird. This one’s brown.”
It is one of those places that gives rise to the saying, “We live where you vacation!” We *better* see you there
We’ll save some projects just for you, too, and hiking together? Yes!!! I’ll try to only point out the really colorful birds. You sound like TBG, though, and it reminds me of a story I forgot to relay about a bird in Madera Canyon. Be prepared, I might just get you hooked on birding!! (p,s. My mom likes your metal chicken avatar — is that your personal chicken?)
Yes! That’s Mary Jo, and she has traveled with us since Day 1. Her predecessor, Charlene, was a 5′ tall metal chicken who stood in the yard of our home in San Antonio. She was far too big to travel in an RV, so she went to appreciative friends elsewhere. The whole reason I ended up with metal chickens in the first place is because of this: https://thebloggess.com/2011/06/21/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/
Hahaha!!! I read that post from the Bloggess years ago…I’ve never forgotten it! I love that you travel with a metal chicken.
Same here! I didn’t even need to click on that link to know it was about Beyonce the giant metal chicken!
We too have made the decision to end travels on the road but as slow as we are at deciding where to end up I am going to guess it will take us at least two more years… sigh! Glad to see the stars aligned for you giving us hope they will do the same for us…
Two years will go by before you know it, and some days we wish we had two more years of travel before settling down. I’m sure you’ll find the perfect-for-you place. RVing sure is a great way to figure that out
I think people just know when it’s time to come off the road, and like all good things, it comes with mixed emotions. But the nice thing is, you can always do more RV travel, maybe with a more flexible set up and the security that comes with having a home base. Sequim really looks like the perfect choice and the picture of your land confirms it. So, so pretty… and long summer days and lots of green and plenty of trails, and a Costco to boot! I’m looking forward to reading all the details about your build process and the many, many choices you’ll be making. Then, it’s onto your animal plans! Just dogs? Dogs and cats? Dogs, cats, goats, and a chicken coop? Dogs, cats, goats, a chicken coop, and an enormous aquarium???? The possibilities are truly endless! Onto the next chapter!!!
Even though the stars aligned pretty well for us, we’re still a bit sad that our full-timing is nearing an end. As you say, though, it doesn’t mean that all the things we love are coming to an end, and many of the things we loved about being still can come back into our lives, like a really big bed LOL!!! We *will* get up to Alaska eventually, we’d love to do that by RV, and Sequim is a great launching point for that. I was going to text you a picture of our new Costco cards when we got them — I knew you’d be so proud
Stay tuned on the acquiring of pets — I can’t see us not having some sort of critter eventually >^,^<
Congratulations!! What a beautiful place to call home. We’ve only been to the OP once, but we spent five weeks and got a great taste including a hike to the lighthouse with Eric and Laurel. Sequim has the BEST Costco. We got to park right near the door and it was so empty…my kind of Costco! Finding that settling spot is tough. As you said, no place is perfect but as long as it checks most of your boxes it’s perfect. Looking forward to watching your house being built. Wishing you both the best as you make this transition.
Thank you! I hope the Costco is still uncrowded — maybe I shouldn’t talk the town up too much so the crowds don’t follow us
I can’t wait to make the hike out to the lighthouse. We never even got to see the NWR because the last time we were there we had our little doggie, and she couldn’t go in. It is really hard to decide where to be when you have the whole country to choose from (oh, such problems!) and choosing one means giving up on others (I will forever gaze longingly at your pool!) But we feel good about our choice, and you folks in the hot summers have a place to cool off when you visit!iked by 1 person
First super big Congratulations to you both! I’ve been waiting for you to announce the move and here more details. As you know we love “Skwim” too. So much so we already have reservations for the month of December and January. Who knows, maybe we will be neighbors one day
. I’m one of those that loves the moody, gray skies of the PNW. I think it’s just beautiful. And it takes humidity and some rain to keep all of it looking so lush and green. To me it’s worth it. We spent all of December 2019 in Sequim and saw the rain shadow at work. It really is something.
Can’t wait to hear more details about the build and what critters will find a home with you guys.
Thank you! How cool would it be to be neighbors someday?! I surely hope by the time you’re there this year, our house is finished or finished enough that we could have you over. If not, you can help us finish it
It really is a beautiful area, rain and all, and that humidity also helps keeps our skin glowing while we enjoy all the plants. See you before you know it!
The cat is out of the bag! You put a lot of thought into your choice and found the perfect spot to build. Now the fun begins. I know full timing becomes exhausting after awhile but I hope you’ll still be able to travel and report those travels to all of us. We’d all miss that. We’re looking forward to seeing you before you make the turn north! We’ll put Sequim on our radar – it’s only 380 miles from Spokane!
Oh, so much thought, and so many more thinks to be thought! It’s exhilarating and exhausting, and we’re not even there yet. We *will* travel again, though for a few years most of that will be local — there is a lot of ground to cover that way, so you shall have much blogging by me
(and thank you for the encouragement to continue to do so) Please DO put Sequim on your list; that’s barely more than a day drive away from Spokie!
Leave it to me to start reading a travel blog when the blogger is coming off the road! Have seen and heard your name from fellow-bloggers and in their comment sections – but I was committed to NOT adding new blogs to my reading as I had so many. Now that some have retired from blogging……well my timing sucks, but it will be fun to see your home come to fruition. And Sequim was in our top three of places to land and only lost out because we didn’t know anyone nearby (should have waited!) and the distance to a major airport. As much as we love our southeastern Arizona digs, I’m envious of your green-ness this time of year
I fully understand your disappointment as I, too, experienced it when all my favorite RV bloggers came off the road one by one. Never fear, because even though my blog will be less about travel (always about hiking & critters, though!) I will continue to write, and I hope you’ll still find it fun to read. And now you know someone in Sequim to come visit when you need to cool off in the summer. It’s really good news
I’m surprised to read this post. I guess I missed the post were you mentioned troubles with your rig. It sounds like you have found a good place to settle. I’ll be excited to see all the house decisions. We’re going to continue on the road. We haven’t found anyplace that seems like a full time location yet.
The RV trouble was sandwiched between Theodore Roosevelt N.P. and the Grand Tetons, and I only briefly mentioned it then, so it didn’t stand out very much. It’s all fixed now, thankfully, but it does cast a pall over fulltime travel. SUCH a pain to have house repairs on the road! I’m sure you’ll find a perfect-for-you place when the time is just right.
I’m glad not everyone we know is coming off the road — I need to keep living vicariously through you all while we get that house done!