Great read Carol. This hit home for me as well. I've been told I'm never satisfied, that I'm looking for something that doesn't exist. But in reality, I believe I simply haven't found my 'place' at all. There have been pieces and part's of my 'place', but never enough of them in one place. So, like you, I dream. If I were single, I'd have my anchor of a small room or apartment somewhere near family, but I'd be traveling most of the time. And, I'd love to have a little van to do it in...at least in the US. There is so much I'd love to see, so many people I'd like to meet along the way. I refuse to give up my dream of the search. It's what keeps me alive.
DiAnn, why don't you start shopping around for a van? I purchased mine online and I don't regret it. Google has a product that shows you everything about the engine, tires, ac and everything to help you with your buying decesion. I chose and researched a family owned business in White cloud , MN and a delivery guy from Chicago brought the van to me in Louisiana. That was in 2020. I got a good deal. I've put 60,000 miles on it in 6 years and it still runs great with 141,000 miles. I take good care of it and keep it serviced. Let me know if I can give you some contacts. I will be happy to help.
My dream place was Az. From my youth. Got there, 18 mos. Of the best and the worst of it. Older single womanhood is not always a good place to be. Lost ev-er-y-thing left after I had already whittled down. Back where I started and safe. Still dreaming of that high desert. So you are off the highway now? I got confused since I had been reading RV stories.
My story is similar to yours. I had a similar “dream place” to move to since the first time I went there in the early 80’s, and that was Santa Fe, NM.
I visited and stayed there for weeks at a time, in all seasons for many years and finally I took the plunge, and moved there in 1999. I was 47 at the time. I had a friend’s townhouse to stay in when I got to Santa Fe until I got a place of my own. I was still working and needed to get a job and a place to live. In the first week I found a good job and a great little casita to live in. I was excited about starting a new life there. I loved the architecture, the geography, the openness and space of NM.
Well living in a place, having to have a job to support oneself, as well as being being a single older woman was a whole different deal. Santa Fe is a very cliquey place. Everyone was siloed in their “group” (artist/creative types, trust fund babies, Native Americans, Native New Mexicans, the wealthy, new agey/spiritual types, you get the picture) and there was little intermingling. I spent the loneliest 17 months of my life living in that city. I did everything by myself, no one invited me to Thanksgiving or dinner parties the whole time I lived there.
I finally packed up and moved back to California. Because I had family and friends there, not because I wanted to move back to SoCA, because I didn’t, but at least I had a support network there.
I’m ready to leave again. There’s too many rats in the cage now where I am in SoCA and I want to move to a smaller town, with nature around me. Which will not likely be in CA. Only this time I’m going to consult with an astrocartograper as to the best place to relocate, that will support the focus I want for the rest my life at 73 years young.
I am constantly thinking about my next trip or, more accurately , the trip after the next one. Sometimes I try to work in a short trip in between trips, even if it’s just a day trip . If I’m not on a trip, I am usually thinking of one.
Yes; I wholly endorse the sentiment. You have a luxury in the mobility; you can actually taste those locales and your memory of them from past times. You have pared your possessions down to the essentials, a very admirable accomplishment. You have a home base from which you can spread your wings for a day, a week, a month or longer. If you remain connected to those whom you love and who love you, being mobile is no "sentence", rather a freedom seldom experienced by most of us.
You give me hope Carol. This is what I want to do when I hit seventy. I want be a wandering granny, with my eyes on the next mountain. Great read. I think you have found your niche. Write more and more stories from your life.
Great read Carol. This hit home for me as well. I've been told I'm never satisfied, that I'm looking for something that doesn't exist. But in reality, I believe I simply haven't found my 'place' at all. There have been pieces and part's of my 'place', but never enough of them in one place. So, like you, I dream. If I were single, I'd have my anchor of a small room or apartment somewhere near family, but I'd be traveling most of the time. And, I'd love to have a little van to do it in...at least in the US. There is so much I'd love to see, so many people I'd like to meet along the way. I refuse to give up my dream of the search. It's what keeps me alive.
Here's to both of us, believing and dreaming...
DiAnn, why don't you start shopping around for a van? I purchased mine online and I don't regret it. Google has a product that shows you everything about the engine, tires, ac and everything to help you with your buying decesion. I chose and researched a family owned business in White cloud , MN and a delivery guy from Chicago brought the van to me in Louisiana. That was in 2020. I got a good deal. I've put 60,000 miles on it in 6 years and it still runs great with 141,000 miles. I take good care of it and keep it serviced. Let me know if I can give you some contacts. I will be happy to help.
My dream place was Az. From my youth. Got there, 18 mos. Of the best and the worst of it. Older single womanhood is not always a good place to be. Lost ev-er-y-thing left after I had already whittled down. Back where I started and safe. Still dreaming of that high desert. So you are off the highway now? I got confused since I had been reading RV stories.
My story is similar to yours. I had a similar “dream place” to move to since the first time I went there in the early 80’s, and that was Santa Fe, NM.
I visited and stayed there for weeks at a time, in all seasons for many years and finally I took the plunge, and moved there in 1999. I was 47 at the time. I had a friend’s townhouse to stay in when I got to Santa Fe until I got a place of my own. I was still working and needed to get a job and a place to live. In the first week I found a good job and a great little casita to live in. I was excited about starting a new life there. I loved the architecture, the geography, the openness and space of NM.
Well living in a place, having to have a job to support oneself, as well as being being a single older woman was a whole different deal. Santa Fe is a very cliquey place. Everyone was siloed in their “group” (artist/creative types, trust fund babies, Native Americans, Native New Mexicans, the wealthy, new agey/spiritual types, you get the picture) and there was little intermingling. I spent the loneliest 17 months of my life living in that city. I did everything by myself, no one invited me to Thanksgiving or dinner parties the whole time I lived there.
I finally packed up and moved back to California. Because I had family and friends there, not because I wanted to move back to SoCA, because I didn’t, but at least I had a support network there.
I’m ready to leave again. There’s too many rats in the cage now where I am in SoCA and I want to move to a smaller town, with nature around me. Which will not likely be in CA. Only this time I’m going to consult with an astrocartograper as to the best place to relocate, that will support the focus I want for the rest my life at 73 years young.
I am constantly thinking about my next trip or, more accurately , the trip after the next one. Sometimes I try to work in a short trip in between trips, even if it’s just a day trip . If I’m not on a trip, I am usually thinking of one.
You sound like a wonderful, lively, adventurous human, Carol. Why question it….
I'm just wanting to make sure I'm normal.
What's "normal"? 🫠
Yes; I wholly endorse the sentiment. You have a luxury in the mobility; you can actually taste those locales and your memory of them from past times. You have pared your possessions down to the essentials, a very admirable accomplishment. You have a home base from which you can spread your wings for a day, a week, a month or longer. If you remain connected to those whom you love and who love you, being mobile is no "sentence", rather a freedom seldom experienced by most of us.
You give me hope Carol. This is what I want to do when I hit seventy. I want be a wandering granny, with my eyes on the next mountain. Great read. I think you have found your niche. Write more and more stories from your life.
❤️