One year ago, we were making our maiden test voyage up to northern Minnesota.

We had just gotten back from NYC and picked up the newest addition to our little family.

Mr. Theodore was just a couple months old when he joined the crew and he adapted quickly. My parents and sister joined us on our test run up north to some family land. This is the last time we saw autumn in Minnesota.

After a few days of staying at “the farm,” Andy and I headed over to Lake Superior for our first solo RV trip.

I remember being so nervous to be on our own. But we had an amazing time visiting one of our favorite places in the world.

We performed a private memorial service for Fritz on our favorite hiking trail, spent a few days getting accustomed to actually living in an RV, and then headed back to my parents’ house.

Not long after that, we left on our real adventure. It’s crazy to think that was just a year ago. And now here we are…

Living in Southern California has almost been a dream come true. When Andy and I were younger and realized that we wanted to live somewhere other than in Minnesota, we started searching for our new home. One of the first places we looked was SoCal. We went so far as to fly out to tour apartments, trying to find something that would work for our family. That was just over three years ago and now here we are.

Now that we have been fortunate enough to live in SoCal for a while, I still absolutely love it here but I have realized that it is not where I am going to end up living forever. Becoming park hosts has been a wonderful way to live in an area without making too much of a commitment to that area. It has given us the freedom to experience life here while making it possible to leave when we are ready.

Perhaps my feelings for SoCal have changed with my age? I no longer want the same things I did when I was in my early 20s, when we first started thinking about moving. I would have loved living in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego (I love that we found this area). I love that area now but I know that I want more space.

If I wanted a life in a ranching community, I would stay in Ramona. But there are a few things that will not make Ramona our final resting spot. Some of those things include the lack of fresh water and the fact that we are not done traveling yet, among others.

I have been struggling with an idea for some time now. I love that we have such easy access to the ocean and the activities that I love so much. We have met some amazing people and it will be difficult to say goodbye to them. But we both are starting to feel the draw of the open road again.

When we were on the road, I longed for a stable place to stay for a while. I did not want to have to continue to search for our next spot, not knowing what to expect or even if it would work out.  I didn’t want to wake up in the morning, wondering where the heck I was, not even knowing what state I was in.

Becoming park hosts gave us that stability again and I loved that. But that wandering spirit that made us take this adventure in the first place is back, whispering in my ear that it is almost time. The wandering spirit that loves traveling and seeing new places, that loves the adventure, says that we have explored this area quite a bit and we need to think about moving on in the future.

Over our weekend off, Andy and I started tearing apart the inside of our motorhome, going through the belongings we had and setting aside things we hadn’t even used. We found a full bag of stuff that we could donate, plus a couple of piles of things we want to send home (for use in our future house).

We just brought too much stuff.

Going through this process made us feel like we were getting ready for the road again. And that was exciting.

We know that, monetarily, it will be a while before we can leave, but the idea is there. It is implanted in our heads.

We have started talking about where we will go next. We broke out our huge road atlas and started plotting our next route.

We are still discussing things and, in the meantime, enjoying life in our little slice of paradise. As exciting and necessary as it is to think about the future, we are trying to keep our minds in the present, to enjoy what we have each day that we live here.

Winter will be beautiful here and we have many hiking trails left to explore. Plus, I’m not quite ready to give up all this lovely sunshine. I may have complained about it at first but I am certainly not going to anymore – what a mood-booster!