To be or not to be

I made an offer on the house and 7 cabins on Lake Vallecito near Durango.  We're still in negotiation.   I've been investigating tiny houses further and am realizing that getting one for under $60K may be a challenge.  I did find a builder called Hummingbird in British Columbia who designs and builds unique "micro" homes for just under $30K US but I'd have to transport it over the border from Canada.  What do you think of their Cowboy model?  Pretty funky huh?  I'm trying to find out why they are half the cost of the two builders in Colorado who I've been investigating---Rocky Mountain Tiny Homes and Sprout Tiny Homes.  But first, I have to wait to see if I have any property to put it on.

I've been on this adventure in my 24' motorhome for 4 months now and have enjoyed it immensely. However, I'd have to say that for the first time, last weekend, I did feel a little down.

After dropping Lydia off at the Durango airport Sunday morning, I met with Mitch the realtor at Keller Williams to go over the offer he wrote up for me.  Then, I bee-bopped around Durango like a tourist.  I found a cool old movie house so I went to see Meryl Streep's new movie (don't recommend it) and while I was there, it occurred to me that when I leave, I don't know where I'm going to stay for the night.  Moving almost daily from campground to campground trying to find one at a decent price, with a nice view of something other than other RVs with phone and internet access has proven to be quite challenging.  Saturday night, Lydia and I pulled into a park that claimed to be on the river.  I asked for a river front site with trees and was assured they had one for me.  The site had what looked like a man made stream and while it did have a tree--it didn't provide any shade.  As we backed the Navi in, one of our neighbors was sitting outside his RV smoking and while he was just trying to be friendly---started providing me with verbal guidance on how I should hook up my utilities.  Basically, this park was a big gravel parking lot with a bunch of RV's stuffed together.  We were disappointed but since we had already paid, we distracted ourselves with a soak at Trimble Hot Springs north of Durango.  By the time we got back, it was dark and we were lulled to sleep by the little trickling sound from the stream.

While I feel very much at home in my tiny house on wheels and it is retrofitted to meet my specific needs, I find that staying in one of those parks and paying the price ($35-$46/night in and around Durango) makes me really appreciate the good camp sights when I find them.  The next night I stayed in a National Park on Lake Vallecito with no hookups for $22/night.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the campground closer to town to show a comparison but here's what it was like on the lake....much more of what I had in mind when I started this trip.  The Navi and I are quite comfortable with the onboard systems so living off the grid is quite doable.

As I'm writing this post, I'm sitting in the Navi while my clothes are washing/drying at the coin laundry near downtown Salt Lake City--a task I've learned to grin and bear.  At least I get to wait in my home while I wait.  I took the picture with my new remote shutter gadget and a Gumby like tripod and my iPhone.  I plan to shoot my own "how to" videos showing lessons learned about the RV lifestyle and post to YouTube.  Maybe it'll help others as I was helped with similar videos before I embarked on my own adventure. 

They joys of the gypsy experience

  

I'm staying at a KOA near the SLC airport and am flying out to see Reid in Google land for a week.  While the KOA is nothing exciting, they will allow me to store my RV for $20/night and there's a rail line in front of the KOA that will take me to the airport a few miles away.  I'm looking forward to seeing Reid and helping him in his quest to find a home near his work.  He's found some lovely places but none fit exactly.  For the price he's going to have to pay for a home near Google, he deserves one that he can get excited about.  

Reid has been working at Google since October and has been living out of a suitcase most of that time.  He had his car shipped to CA and he's got his SUV at the Houston airport for his trips home to see his boys.  Like me, he's found the nomadic existence can be challenging.  

Before I left, I was concerned that I might feel "untethered" and wasn't sure how I'd handle that.  That can be a plus or negative depending on how you look at it.  For the most part, it's been ok because the excitement of getting to do this has outweighed the negatives.  But I am a little tired of not knowing where I'm going to be from night to night and not always liking the choices available to me.  

For this reason, I'm hoping the real estate transaction works out so my family and I can begin to try out our own little community in Colorado before the first snow.