We Sold Everything. Again!
Back in 2017, we sold EVERYTHING (condo, clothes, shoes, furniture, appliances, etc.) and bought an Airstream trailer to take our nonprofit [HAS HEART] mission across the country ourselves, state-to-state and city-by-city.
Then, we were contracted by Campspot to do a second national tour as their nomadic creative agency. We created terabytes of photo/video content, wrote blog posts, worked with their PR firm on special projects, consulted with their marketing and in-house design teams, and more.
For our third tour, we wanted to do it more for ourselves. We still freelanced for clients, including Snow Peak and Roadpass (Roadtrippers, Campendium, Togo RV), but we also took the time to go where we wanted to go and stayed as long as we could in the places we loved most (Grand Teton NP, Olympic NP, and more).
+ STEP 01: Sell our Airstream (SOLD!)
It was our first home after we got married in 2017, and it was our home base everywhere we’ve been since then. It has been a difficult decision to sell it because we hoped we’d have it forever, but it became too difficult to hold onto as we started looking for the place we’d like to settle down.
+ STEP 02: Sell our Truck (SOLD!)
We’ve towed our Airstream with three different vehicles over the years. The first was a leased 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD and then a 2010 Nissan Armada before we purchased a 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4. All three had their different pros and cons, but this last truck was by far our favorite. In order to bring our life safely with us, we added a custom truck topper, pull-out bed storage unit, Yakima roof rack with bike mounts, and a bonus shelf in the bed.
+ STEP 03: Sell Excess of Outdoor Gear
JUST KIDDING! This third step would definitely help free up space and recoup some of our investment, but we purchased all of our Snow Peak collection with the intent to use forever, and just because we no longer have an Airstream or a souped-up truck, doesn’t mean we’re not going to find new ways to enjoy the outdoors.
There is a variety of outdoor gear that we had to use as props for certain shoots that we won’t need to keep for ourselves, but we’ll be finding good homes for the items we no longer need.
+ STEP 04: Decide Where to Live!
This step is becoming the hardest for us to tackle. After traveling around the country three times, we’ve seen and experienced every corner of the country. How can we possibly PICK a place?!
There are so many places we love and could see ourselves settling down in, but the struggle to narrow that selection down (while being mindful of the cost of living, feasible careers, etc.) is our current dilemma that we hope to solve in early 2023.
UPDATE (May 2023): After considering different opportunities in the PNW, there were too many “pros” on our list to plant our roots back in Grand Rapids, MI. We’ll share more updates about this decision later.
…to be continued
