One year ago today we became homeless by choice, gypsies with jobs, geographically independent professionals scratching the itch to see what’s around the next bend and over the next mountain.

How has it been, you ask?  Marvelous.  It’s dizzying for us to look back at the miles we’ve covered, interesting things we’ve seen and people we’ve met. How quickly the year has gone and how much more there is to see! We’re both still enjoying roaming and plan to continue this adventure for the foreseeable future.

We appreciate your support and encouragement, your nudges when we haven’t posted in awhile and your comments so we know somebody is reading this stuff!  Knowing you are here on this journey with us is part of why it’s not lonely and helps keep it fun.

We posted the common questions we hear, and here’s one more:

What has been challenging about being (happily homeless, gypsies? ?)?

Jim:

For me, the biggest challenge has been logistics.  As a professional business traveller for the last 15 years of my life, planning my travel has become second nature to me.  But planning for two people, in two different places, with different needs and with two different people paying for the travel (work pays for my travel, we pay for Colette’s travel) has been extremely challenging.  Things like finding cheap flights from Denver to St Louis to Panama City Beach to Seattle to Denver (Colette) and St Louis (me) that combine paid flights for my legs and vouchers or points flights for her legs.  Wow.  I don’t recommend that kind of craziness to anyone!

Colette: 

It’s a little like drinking from a fire hose.  With the flurry of interesting, beautiful, historical, natural things we see our challenge is staying in the moment. While sailing in Charlotte Harbor, don’t let your thoughts drift to the Germany itinerary.  Hiking at Mt. Rainier, don’t give thought to the fact that you don’t have a place to sleep yet next week.  I’ve never had better practice at slowing down and enjoying this thing, right here.

Women will understand this scenario in the middle of the night when nature calls. You stumble to the bathroom, and in your own home your hand knows where the toilet paper is without having to wake up your brain. Different bathrooms + different layouts = a lot of feeling around in the dark to locate that roll.