Ok, so where was I? Oh yes, after all thefrenetic activity of selling Escape Velocity, shipping our entire worldly goods to America, getting last minute PCR tests in time to catch a plane to Tanzania with a two week African safari and quick hop over to Zanzibar, we finally made it to New Jersey where, after more PCR tests we were ensconced into the safety of our family. Any one of which events, by rights, could have been an individual blog post.
We voluntarily chose to set up shop in the family’s comfortable basement where our noise and clutter would be less annoying to our patient and sympathetic hosts. And there we sat. After redistributing everything we own, the full weight of the loss of our home and adventurous lifestyle began to envelop our subterranean existence. Seemingly powerless we descended into a funk lower than where we slept every night.
We tried to ameliorate the loss with rental cars and short trips to see the kids, Gettysburg, and the sights around Old Tappan.
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Too many options and no clear direction emerged from our brainstorming sessions. It wasn’t like us. Timing or cash pressures seemed to preclude just about every way we turned. Touring the USA in a camper van in times of Covid seemed to me to be the safest and easiest but Marce was quite resistant, having already done a lot of domestic travel. Prices for class B camper vans in the US had ballooned into the stratosphere, we’re told not due to greed but Covid. Be that as it may, we weren’t having it! Europe, where camper vans are very popular, had many choices and reasonable prices and the UK even better. Marce setup our google nest hub to scroll through photos of our adventures just to remind us of who we are and what we’ve done.
The hunt was on.
Weeks spilled over into months spent pouring over terrible, poorly organized websites with SOLD emblazoned over 80 percent of their outrageously priced offerings until we found ourselves mindlessly wordle-ing or descending the inevitable rabbit hole of cat videos.
It turns out it’s very difficult to buy a camper van in Europe! Eventually Marce came up with the name of a small dealership that had great reviews and who agreed to help us. “That’s it,” I said, ”we’re going to England.”
Great decision. Sitting and brooding on it isn’t going to do it. Welcome to what for all intents and purposes, although many Brits will deny it, is Europe. Not the EU, but Europe. Enjoy you travels
Congratulations on your “fifth keel” and your decision.
Your shopping experience reminds us of our attempting to boat-shop for a boat in Florida from the Pacific NW. Like you, it didn’t take long to recognize the way to do it was just to go to Florida.
I am betting the divisive state of this country and the gun violence (and Americans fret that other areas are unsafe!) reinforce your desire to wander elsewhere. Looking forward to following your new adventures as we’re “anchored” here off the Columbia River and it will be a bit before we’re traveling much again.
Delightful…
Awesome. I love the UK and have been in London a few weeks now. I’ll shortly be roaming a bit within England, then off to Europe for a month or so before I return. London is my happy place, so I spend as much time as I can here, but finances restrict that more than I like ’cause it ain’t cheap here.