Taking the Leap

It is official, after almost 11 years on our 20 acre homestead we have taken the leap. We sold our house and we are moving into our van to travel full time for our next chapter. No more two weeks at a time trips, we will have unlimited time to go where we want and to whatever weather suits us.
We will both be enjoying a midlife retirement while our bodies will still support the activities we have come to love. The blog is my pet project, as an elder millennial with a degree in communications-majoring in journalism, I have always wanted to write about our adventures and now my dreams have come true! Not only will I have lots of adventures to write about, I will have the time to focus on writing which I have been lacking for ages.
We did a lot in our years on the farm including hosting a music festival, building a greenhouse, canning and preserving food, raising hogs, remodeling the entire 1917 farmhouse, building out a bus and multiple gardens and finally our last build at Willowsong Farmstead, our van, which will be our new home for the foreseeable future.
Working title: I’ve been calling the van Momo, short for Moby Dick, the great white whale. Our van is a 2022 Ram Promaster 2500, it was used as a work vehicle and we bought it as an empty shell and built it out in its entirety ourselves.

The first conversation regarding the reality of making this crazy dream happen took place in April of 2024 when we were on a two week trip through northern Arizona and southern Utah’s national parks.
As we scampered around the desert, jaws dragging on the ground at the immense beauty before us, we kept seeing these vans that looked like the perfect adventure vehicles. This (unbeknownst to us at the time) life changing conversation unfolded while we were driving the 17 mile loop that winds through the valley of the gods.
What if we sold part of our land and used that to fund the van build, and what if we then sold the house and property and traveled full time for a little while? What does this look like, can we do this?

During that first discussion about what it would look like to literally sell it all and go van life full time, we speculated we could do it in three years. Here we are one year and 5 months later and we are officially moved into the van and spending some time at my parents before hitting the old dusty trail.
After doing exactly what we had “what if’d” during that fateful conversation, selling half our land to fund purchasing and building out the van, and then selling the house and property and most of our possessions we reflected on how insanely amazing it was that the plan came together. It was an interesting challenge to take a hard look at what “stuff” is important when downsizing from a full house and acreage to one “itty bitty living space” (- Genie, Aladdin circa 1992) for two whole human adults that would include everything we needed to live full time.
After a TON of careful planning we have successfully gone from an 1800 square foot house and 20 acres to 72 square foot and the world as our backyard. Although some things were a little hard to let go of, the experience of a purge of this magnitude has been extremely cleansing and has felt like an immense weight off.
We of course are not trying to say van life is completely care free, we will literally be driving everything we own around in one single vehicle, we will have to figure out where to stay each night and completely reimagine cooking, showering, laundry, bathroom etc but it sure beats worrying about how many hours we need to carve out for lawn care and always low key thinking what will be the next “big thing” that we would need to handle as homeowners.

I will include a post in the future that goes into more detail regarding what we had to think about when building out the van and selling all our earthly belongings, but I really wanted to take a moment to share how we feel about this big change and at least try to express how much gratitude we have for the opportunity to pursue this lifestyle and new chapter in our lives.
For anyone out there wondering if we may have a screw loose, maybe yes, maybe no, to each their own. But seriously, we have definitely thought this through and there is no need to worry. We are fully aware this is a very different lifestyle choice than many, but we don’t really seem to fit in the “normal/majority” category.

As you can tell from our about us story we have gone through a lot of changes in the last few years. We took control of our health, quit smoking and drinking and developed a passion for gravel cycling and hiking.
The “leap” as I have found myself calling it, admittedly, has been slightly frightening, mostly exciting, and absolutely life changing. I personally have had to make a major brain shift since I always feel I need to be “doing” something which in the past meant working, either at my 9-5 or in the garden/on the house. Now “doing” something means whatever I want which is mind blowing and as my 4 year old niece would say, it’s “kinda fweaking me out”, in a good way.
From hiking to biking, mushroom hunting to reading/writing and art, each day is a new adventure with endless possibilities. I recently picked up a tiny travel watercolor paint set and have fallen in love and am adding watercolor to my list of hobbies. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter as there will be some watercolor give aways in the future.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of Eric & Jo On the Go where we will explore the van build and organization elements. Sneak peek of the van as an empty shell below. Momo has certainly had a facelift since this picture was taken just days after bringing the big guy home.

So in conclusion to this whirlwind of a post, I wanted to take a moment after finally getting through all of the craziness of selling everything, leaving my job of over a decade and hitting the road to say how incredibly grateful and excited we are to be taking this leap and we hope that you enjoy following along with us. The past year and a half of working to this moment has been an incredible journey that is sure to pale in comparison to what is to come.