A funny thing happened on the way to nowhere.
The rationale (not that we needed one) for our nomadic life was to research and find our next home.
We had a list of desired attributes and a short list of candidates for a new hometown. We were open to some list-editing, in fact found a couple of cool small towns in Arizona that begged a second look.
We didn't have a plan, other than to keep working and to have fun. We fished in the Tetons, camped in the mountains and all of the southwest deserts and got rained on at the beach a lot.
We visited most of the towns on our list, and some new ones. We worked; Nancy successfully completing some commissioned work and took some online courses. I traveled when necessary and learned how to decipher cell service maps which are mostly comprised of wishful thinking and deception.
Along the way, we have met some super cool people. A few we overlapped routes and met up again, others we WILL meet up with in the future.
A month or two ago, we were driving through a rainstorm in Arizona (Right??) and Nancy turns to me "We don't have to stop this year. I can do this a lot longer". We are in no rush to stop traveling.
When telling others about our trip, many people have suggested towns. "How about Ojai?" (It's awesome, but way too expensive) "How about Ketchum?" (Awesome, but the road riding?)
We also checked out those click-bait articles in Facebook, like the idiot suggesting Victorville CA was the ideal retirement community. Clearly the writer had never actually visited. Unless they went there to buy the meth they were smoking when they wrote the article.
But I digress.
Nancy and I attended Desert Rendezvous this spring in the beautiful Anza Borrego desert. While there, we bumped into a friend who owns a business in Arizona. We were telling him about our trip, and he said "I have a town for you". We expected he meant Prescott, where his business is located. "Dude, its on our list, we just haven't been yet".
"No", he said, "I have another. And I love it so much I bought a house there". Like us, he and his wife had their list, and did a bunch of research. We have been to this particular town a bunch, but never visited longer than a day and it was never on our list.
Weeks later, trading email, Mario said he was going out of town for an extended period, and offered up his house.
We drove up and made ourselves at home. As is our habit when checking out a town, we visited stores, went to coffee shops and brew pubs and, as a co-worker would once say, "get the vibe".
And we liked it. Day 2 at the brewpub, someone recognized us from the day before and offered us seats at their table. Day 3 at the coffee shop, we were standing in line and someone behind me said "Lou Patterson?" Turns out Brad, an old friend and co-worker had moved to town from Boulder.
By Day 4 we were having coffee with new and old friends, and realized we felt at home.
We decided to stay a bit longer and look around more. Nancy got her black-belt in Zillowing. We decided to have a realtor drag us to a few houses. The third and last house had a contract on it, but we thought, what the heck, we are here, let's look inside. It was perfect for us. Half the size of our old house, one floor, huge garage and room for the Earthroamer. Too bad it was sold. We loved it.
Later, we were getting a beer and I got a text from the realtor: "Call me". Turns out the house wasn't under contract after all.
So, we made an offer the next day, thinking if it doesn't get accepted, it wasn't meant to be.
A few hours later, we were hiking with our friends Ken and Ali and James when I got a text. Our offer was accepted.
So, we have a house. We closed today.
Is this the end of our trip?
Nope.
In fact, after we close, we'll move our stuff, then take off again without unpacking.
There is a lot to see and we have places to go. We can unpack later.
It seems very serendipitous.
In fact, we close on the eight month anniversary of selling our house AND the day the Fat Tire Festival starts.
I guess we need to buy mountain bikes.
As the locals say: WTF
Welcome To Fruita!
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