We've been talking about this trip for about six months now, but it's now just starting to feel real. The plan, generally, is to take a year around the country in a van (or RV), with the hope and intention of spending the majority of the time with our families, who are spread all over the US.

So far, the talk has been in the forms of dreams and guarded conversations. But Mike just started doing research on vans for sale, and found one that seems pretty cool down in San Diego. One of the long-standing debates (that is still ongoing) is whether to get a camper van, an RV, or something else. A van is smaller, easier to park and stay incognito, and has a cool-factor that an RV just never will. But there's no bathroom, and it will be hard to re-sell when we're done (if we want to re-sell) so it might be a harder hit financially. An RV would probably be bigger and more comfortable, and have a bathroom, and would be easier to re-sell. But it would be harder to get around, harder to find places to park it, and we'd probably feel more like retirees than a young couple on an adventure (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). Mike pointed out that, either way, buying our van/RV would end up costing about the same as a year of rent for our place in San Francisco, so there's not much savings there, to my surprise.

It's exciting, most definitely. But also a little scary, of course. Our main sadness is the thought of leaving this apartment. It's a great place, at a (relatively) great price, and the decision to give up the apartment is basically a decision not to come back to San Francisco afterwards, because it would be too expensive once we got back. Neither of us really want to make that commitment, and the thought of not at least having the option to come back makes us sad. Currently brainstorming ways we might be able to keep the apartment while we're gone.

Other than that, we've started talking about our route, and when we'd be leaving. Mike will have to figure out work (either staying at his current job but negotiating the ability to work remotely, or just finding something new, or doing something entirely on his own). That means he can't really talk about the trip at work yet. So far, his coworkers know we're shopping for a van. But they don't know about the trip. The logical conclusion is that he will be giving up his rent controlled apartment in San Francisco to live in a van... on the streets of San Francisco? And has somehow convinced his girlfriend to live with him in a van down by the river? Which I think is hilarious. The story has spun out of his control, and he doesn't know how to reign it in. On my end, I'm hoping that my employees will be trained up and ready to keep the place afloat once I take off, so I can work remotely and they can take care of anything that needs to be done in person.