eleven down, four to go
Capitolo, Italy
11 months since we left home
111 days we’ve been on the road in the vans
(and an extra week squished into one of them while we waited for the second one to be ready)
131 places we’ve slept in so far
(60 before the vans, 71 on the road trip)
93 watchers were keeping an eye on one of our Ebay auctions
(32 on the other one)
We’ve had the vans on Ebay, but not because we’re coming home. Not just yet.
While we’ve got good internet access in Italy we thought we’d list them to see if there was any interest, knowing it was a long shot when they would not be ready to be parted with for another two months. Seems interest is high. Could be the low asking price!
The Bear Cave, the one with the highest interest level, sold tonight….to….of all people….a kiwi bidding from India. She, along with kids and German husband, are on their way to Europe….bidding on a van sight unseen from the other side of the world….it all sounds a bit familiar. We hope they’ll be as happy with it as we have been.
The Other Van has yet to sell. Do you know anyone in Frankfurt looking for a vehicle?
Even when we abandon the vans, we will not be coming home. Spring will be well and truly breaking through Down Under, but we will be zipping into a short winter before we seek out another summer. PostRoadTrip we plan to revert to busses and trains to move us eastwards to our old haunts in Krakow, before heading to reunite with friends for a hopefully snowy Romanian month and then a final fling in Istanbul.
While we have treasured the freedom and spontaneity the vans have afforded us (not to mention the next-to-non-existent accommodation costs and the ability to cook for ourselves), we’re looking forward to not being the drivers again, and being able to feast our eyes on more of the passing scenery. We’re looking forward to stopping in a place for more than a few days and enjoying the greater sense of connectedness that accompanies a longer sojourn. We’re looking forward to having to eat out. We’re looking forward to donning our backpacks and using our feet again.
We’re so glad that when we woke this morning to cheers of “Happy Father’s Day Dad, we’ve been away for exactly eleven months today!” there was no “and it’s only twenty-something days until we go home” as we had originally planned.
We’re not quite ready to be going home; we are, however, thinking about home. Over the past couple of weeks we have been processing aloud which world foods we want to take back to our kitchen. We have contemplated not *having* to conserve water (though mother has asked the question: just because we CAN use it freely, unthinkingly, *should* we?) We even ended up discussing routines and chores and study plans and there was a sense of expectation, rather than dread. Thoughts have occasionally strayed to new opportunities.
Sitting on the beach this week, scratching in the sand, I designed a (Rob’s words) “ridiculous thirty square metre house” for us to build on a piece of land we started internetly searching for the other night. Actually, the house plan was a bit bigger than Rob’s estimate, but definitely smaller than our current home, which is going to seem far too big!
Last night we threw out the *what would you like to do when we get home* question to the children, which within an hour elicited a long letter from one child and lists of aspirations from all the others. Even ERgirl3 knows she wants to write, play and stay up late.
Rob is having similar thoughts (not so much about playing as finding a role to fit into back at his money-giving establishment) and is anticipating receiving a phone call tonight to explore options. Walking out the door at 7:30 in the morning is going to be a rude shock to his system. Watching him go will be a shock to ours. From the vantage point of having been constantly together (and eventually getting completely on each other’s nerves as we renegotiated roles and parenting styles…then coming through the other side to working together and enjoying each other’s presence), I strongly favour a take-less-money-from-the-boss spend-more-time-working-on-the-farm option. Not that we have a farm. Yet.
Tags: 2008/09, children, housing, parenting, postcard: Italy
rayres
Dear Robert and Rachel and family. I have followed your travels with great enjoyment, and now, back in China, after day 1 teaching, I even find time to comment. I love being back here, and after meeting classes today, I know it will be a good semester. “We” are Janine, Jenny, Judi, Maureen, David and Nick S. After 6 weeks Nick, Judi and Maureen are going back and Basheba and Ailsa come up. JJJ had 9 days in Inner Mongolia and Shanxi province so we are right into Chinese ways now. However, I am really frustrated because China is blocking access to facebook, blogger.com and various other sites. I cant even get a Picasa web album sorted. However, i can still access your site, so may try to set up a blog there. Reminds me that we are lving in a communist dictator ship here. I just wish I had your skills. Rachel, your writing and photos are stunning
love Jenny Carryer
I think the only way one can really survive the going home bit is the fact that you have good advance warning it’s going to happen so you can prep yourself for it. Building in some “transition time” so you have time to adjust without having to wake up for work every day helps too- I had a week where I went with my family to our regular vacation spot for example.
Of course things don’t go back to “normal” but it would be depressing if they did! I started graduate school at my old university a few weeks ago, and marvel at how better focused I am on everything, how effortless it is to strike up conversations with everyone, and how doing work in two or three different places a day seems much more normal (ex office, coffeeshop, library all in one day!). Am wary of hitting the rut of “wait, I’m really back” but perhaps because I’m still catching up on my blog and keeping busy it hasn’t really sunk in yet.
hey if you build that house, then don’t like it, i’ll have it! 😉 going back to feet, bus & backpack mode is going to be interesting! would love to hear how it compares (how you *see* things etc) now that you’ve gotten used to van life…
I like that floor plan a lot. And floor plans are a hobby of mine, I’m always fooling with them. Yours is so practical, yet comfy looking. Great job!
[…] back I wrote: Over the past couple of weeks we have been processing aloud which world foods we want to take back […]
I see that with three bedrooms you’re probably planning on having all the boys in one room and all the girls in the other. Just so long as you realise that when they are 18, 14, 9 and 7 (hope I got the age differences right there!) the girls might not like sharing a room with three other sisters! 😉
May not like it? There’s always the garden shed!! Seriously, it’s just an expectation that we have – it’s the way it will be, and we will learn to live with it. Right now our girls are split over two rooms – one set of bunks in each. Did we put the older girls together and the younger ones together? No – there’s one big oen adn one little one in each room! We want them to learn to get on and to have opportunities to practise. So far it’s working. And if there were gumbles, we’d remind them of the families in Thailand and Mongolia, who all live in one room. Not that we’ve needed to. I do think parental expectation can determine a lot.