Great post, Sherry.

Every time I come from work I suffer from fatigue. I enjoy the work and the pay but that isn't enough anymore. Half my waking day is spent in the pursuit of supporting myself and family. That ratio needs to change. Fortunately that time is getting closer. I can't imagine fulltiming and working full time too. But I am ready to, if need be. 

Then I get to mow the yard, work in the garden(though that is something that produces tasty rewards), 3200 sq ft of finished space to keep up and its also ten years old now, so the list of issues needing attention gets longer with each passing year.  Sure I'll be trading one set of "honey-does" for another when we finally get on the road.... I'll take that trade anyday. We are alone here in IL. All of Cindi's family is in CA, TX and elsewhere plus mine is in Canada so the we don't see the fatigue thing in  that area, and if we do... we'll just disappear for a while and come back with another tale of the open road and the amazing things and people all over the continent.

Brian

 

-- Edited by biggaRView on Thursday 26th of June 2014 09:02:59 AM

Sherry - you made me chuckle, I had actually thought about posting about this, but then got busy with something else, imagine that during this week.  Our whirlwind, social butterfly calendar has got our life a bit out of balance right now.

We are experiencing a busier social life than we've had for months. We've been back in the area where we used to live for almost a month, we've hosted 4 different gatherings at our RV with different / family members, we have another scheduled for tomorrow night, then the next night we have dinner out planned with other friends.

We've managed to squeeze in dentist appointments, hair cuts with the people who used to cut our hair (so nice to not explain what I want done!!), vet visit for our kitty for an annual check up, then an emergency vet visit with an overnight stay when she got sick 2 weeks later, doctor's visit scheduled for tomorrow, etc.

Like HDrider, we also tackled the storage room. We have just about emptied our 10x10 storage room, moved some items into a smaller one, dropped some things off at a consignment store, Salvation Army has seen us 3 times so far and we'll finish the task on Saturday, hoping the items on Craigslist sell so we don't have to figure out what to do with them.

Just changed our plans to head to an area a couple hours north of Seattle on Sunday because yours truly has to jump on an airplane Monday for my "real job", so we quickly changed plans to try to stay somewhere closer to the airport to avoid a 3 hour drive to the airport.

Due to Washington State parks having 10 day limits, art show traveling, etc. we'll also relocate our home 8 times during the 8 weeks we're here, sometimes just for 3 days at a time due to the free parking we get at a couple of art shows, so that in itself takes a little time, planning, etc. not to mention stress of driving through Seattle area traffic with each of those relocations.

We've had one art show, 3 more on the schedule over the next 5 weekends, we're right now on a pace of doing 4 art shows in 8 weeks, plus trying to squeeze all the family / friend time in we can and it's really leaving no down time. Like Sherry said, we really miss that. However, the fun won't stop when we leave Western WA, because we head to northern ID, close to where I grew up in Spokane WA, which means more family, friends, not to mention one of those art shows where we're actually working.

Love this lifestyle, love being able to experience new things, so looking forward to going sailing on the 4th of July with my Dad and his wife, it will be the first time we've watched fireworks from the water, so I'm not complaining. We're having a blast, we love the flexibility, we just got to a point 2 nights ago where we sat down for dinner and just looked at each other and wondered how we're going to find time to just chill any time soon.

We're not really introverts, but we are also not social butterflies and right now we're exhausted. I told Dale this morning, as I crawled out of bed for my early morning conference call, there's something wrong when all I can think of is Saturday and having a day to not set an alarm. 

Working on finding the balance that we have enjoyed through most of our year of FT'ing.   Again, not complaining, we knew this would be a really busy time for us, just hadn't quite anticipated just how busy it would be and how exhausted it would leave us feeling at the end of each day.  Already thinking ahead to next year and thinking we need to plan a 3 week schedule here, then 2 weeks away where we don't know anyone, then come back for another 2-3 weeks and maybe one less art show.  Live and learn, but for now the whirlwind continues.

 

Trace, I was fortunate with the fact that I worked from home for 5 years before we went on the road. My friends and family were used to that idea, I have to explain it to other RV'ers more than the folks who already knew I worked from home. They are used to me having a phone "glued" to my ear and always on-line.

However, since Dale is self-employed as an artist, there are those that think if you're self-employed you are your own boss without a schedule and therefore have all the free time needed. That's actually been more difficult as we've discussed decreasing our show schedule so people tend to think he has more free time than I do.

The balance between seeing non-artist friends and family on the 4 weekends we're here without art shows and then seeing artist friends on the 4 weekends when we have shows when we're all tired and cranky after dealing with the public all day has been a challenge. Summers always were our busiest time, that's when the art show schedule is busiest, so we learned to deal with it. We just hadn't quite anticipated the extra busy schedule due to social demands.

Cherie has great advice, planning down time between the busy times in our own home, we're still knew enough at this FT life that we didn't really think that through too much until now. After thinking / talking about this a little more, I think we just worked 2 "hermit weekends" in to our schedule where we're not telling anyone where we will be, not planning anything and going to plan to sleep as late as Tazzy Kat will allow us on a weekend morning, etc. Still working on those logistics, but we've decided that 2 hermit weekends in a three month period of time is not taking too much time away from the family and friends and we'll be in a better state of mind to enjoy the time we do have with them.

Billy Joel! I'd tolerate a little stress to see him. Can I borrow your daughter for a while? I'm not complaining. My daughter and her husband are moving to Denver so the whole family will be in one place and we only have to go to Denver to see everyone. Ok that's not the reason but this is my story. After our Memorial Day weekend we get the relaxation factor. We are really looking forward to not having a care in the world. I spent enough time with the government to know the value and satisfaction of watching other people work. Until that day comes, I will continue working 14 to 16 hour days, knowing that soon I can relax.

Whoo Hoo!! 5 weeks after we crossed the WA state line, we finally had a weekend off. After 3 weekends of shrinking the storage room, an art show weekend, 9 social events, doctor, dentist and vet appointments, plus an emergency vet event, a business trip out of town for me we finally had a weekend off. Friday was an aborted sailing trip with my Dad and family, weather got too nasty with Seattle's "liquid sunshine" coming down, high winds and huge seas so we had brought the sailboat back in and had dinner out, and went back to their place for a very long, very fun card game.

Yesterday we relocated to Whidbey Island and spent last night and today wandering through small towns, riding our bikes and just chillin'!!! Ran into an artist friend unexpectedly, but still, had a very relaxing weekend.

Now, I need a few more of these weekends, haha, back to back art shows the next 2 weekends then a final week back in the Seattle area before we head to an art show in Couer d'Alene ID.

Love this life on the road, already planning for next summer's visit and a better balance between work, social life and some chill time that is more strategically planned into our schedule.

One more lesson learned!!!