My husband and I live in Southern Ontario. We like it here. We have a nice house on the outskirts of Toronto. Our backyard faces onto a forrest, we have a pool, my husband has a golf membership at a nearby public golf course. Because we live in the suburbs, we have lots of great hiking trails nearby, but can also easily get to Toronto for all that city life has to offer. Life here from May to November is really lovely.
Then the winter comes.
Don’t get me wrong – we get out in the winter – we continue to hike and enjoy other activities. But if we didn’t have to live through the winter, we wouldn’t.
A long time ago we decided that, once we retire, we will become snow birds. We will leave our home shortly after Christmas and come back sometime in April. At first we thought we would buy a condo, use it during the winter, and rent it our the rest of the time. But one problem with that plan is that to cover the carrying costs of a condo in the south, we need to rent it in the winter, when we want to use it. And we like to travel, so the idea of going back to the same condo year after year seemed a bit boring to us.
So we considered renting different condos each year, in different locations. But what if we got there and didn’t like it? We would be stuck there for three months.
In the end, we decided that we would buy an RV and use it as a portable condo, going wherever we wanted – stay if we liked the location, leave if we wanted to. In an RV we could explore several different southern locations with the convenience of having our “home” with us.
Add on to this that we also like to camp, but I have decided that I am too old to sleep on the ground in a tent – and an RV seemed like the perfect plan for us.
But then it hit us …. why are we waiting for retirement?
The why for this year off is simple. RVing is our retirement plan. But our board allows for us to take a sabbatical. So we decided that we should stop waiting, take a year off and live out our dreams now.
In essence, this year off as a “trial” for our retirement. We bought a small RV – not the one we hope to use forever – but one just to use for now to see if we like the lifestyle. We are spending our year off camping and travelling – mostly, but not always, with the RV.
And my why for writing this blog? Well that is less simple. Maybe because as educators it seems natural to share our journeys and our stories with others so that they may learn from us. Maybe because I like to write and need a hobby on our year off. Mostly I think the answer is: because I can.
I hope that you enjoy our stories. I hope that you are inspired to stop waiting. To start living out your own dreams – whatever they may be.
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