We are Patty and Mitchell, recovered workaholics, an accountant, a computer programmer, former business owners, parents of a 20-something, semi-retirees, and ready to ramble!
Many years ago, we dreamed of downsizing and simplifying our lives and ultimately hitting the road to satisfy our severe case of wanderlust. Slowly but surely, we have been able to finally make it happen.
We sold our home and most of our possessions in NJ and relocated our home base to the beautiful western North Carolina mountain town of Brevard. We worked with a software consulting business similar to ours to transition our clients so they would be well taken care of and happy.
In 2013, we hit the road in our Hppy Camper, a 2012 Toyota Tacoma with a Four Wheel Eagle Slide-In Truck Camper. Our adventures in 2013-2014 took us up to the northern border of the US in Michigan and then westward across the northern tier states to San Juan Island, Washington to visit friends.
While on San Juan, we saw an ad for a caretaking job in Barra de Potosi, Guerrero, Mexico and within ten days and 3,000 miles, we were there, arriving on October, 4 – Patty’s birthday. We spent a few months as caretakers there and then drove north, crossing back into the US in Texas and then making our way home to North Carolina.
Before long, we got the itch again and left for a three month stay with family in Arequipa, Peru. We studied Spanish and took buses all over the country and even bussed down into northern Chili on one trip.
While in Peru, found a caretaking job in Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico and went there for a few months taking care of a house, three dogs, and a cat. While we were there, we had an unexpected opportunity to sell our our house in Brevard and then, immediately upon returning, bought a vacant lot in downtown Brevard where we spent the rest of the year building two new houses plus a detached garage with apartment for us. Patty drew the plans for everything and though we subbed out most of the work, we did do as much as we could ourselves. At the same time we were building the new houses, we lived in and ran a Guesthouse in downtown Brevard.
Wanderlust struck again when the construction project wrapped up. Before we could live in our new apartment for more than a few months, we left for a caretaking job at the Seguin Island Light Station in Maine. Seguin Island is located 2 1/2 miles off the coast of Popham, Maine and we spent May 21 to September 10 of 2016 living and working on the island. We kept a blog of our time there at http://www.seguinisland.org/blog/.
Post-Seguin, our travels took us to the Canadian Maritimes and as much of the Maine coast as we could possibly see. Then, southward slowly back to North Carolina to plot our next adventure.
Happy Ramblers 