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First Week In Colorado

We had booked a week at an extended stay hotel for our arrival in Colorado Springs. Our original plan was to find an apartment as quickly as we could. I had already scoped out housing on the internet and had narrowed our choices down.

We just needed to visit each one to decide where we wanted to live. But then, while in the Badlands of South Dakota, our life plan changed drastically.

We decided that we were enjoying our adventure and didn’t want it to end. Before we left Virginia, Chris had been researching ways to turn our truck into a stealth camper. He suggested we convert the 4Runner and keep going. I was on board. It would be a drastic change to our lifestyle, but one we thought we would enjoy.

Our week to find housing now turned into a week to get organized with a plan to become full-time travelers with a nomadic, minimalistic lifestyle.

Our first task was to get the contents of our U-haul box into storage. Conveniently, the U-haul hub where it was is also a storage facility. We were able to rent a 10 x 10 unit in a heated building. That was more room than we needed, but we wanted to get to anything we needed without unloading the whole thing every time we needed something.

Storage and Mail

Next, we set up a virtual mailbox, allowing us access to our mail on the internet. The beauty of that is we don’t have to be in Colorado Springs to get our mail. There are multiple plans to suit your needs. We went with the top to start with, expecting to have a fair bit of mail forwarded the first month.

When they notify us that there is mail, we have several options. If it is something that we don’t need, they will recycle it for us.  If it is something we need to read, they will open it and scan it. If it is a rare piece of mail that we actually need to get, we can either pick it up or have it forwarded to where we are. Having access to our mail while we travel makes the logistics of what we are setting out to do so much easier. As a bonus, the virtual mailbox is less money than an actual mailbox.

Storm clouds subsiding Wyoming

Converting the Truck

Before we could continue the journey, our last mission was the tricky part, converting the truck into a camper. Chris already had plans for the conversion and knew what we needed and how much it would cost. We knew that we could rent the tools we needed from Home Depot, but where would we do the work? I hardly think Home Depot would be ok with us doing the job in their parking lot.

We wracked our brains to figure out the solution. We investigated renting a workshop space. They are available, but you are required to join a club, which is pricey.  They also require that you take a class on tool safety, the next not being available for a few weeks.

We also looked into the idea of bringing our plans to a workshop and letting them build it for us, but then decided that it would be more than we wanted to spend as well.

I threw out the idea of getting a storage unit, but then we decided that using it as a workshop would probably be against the rules. I pondered the idea of reaching out to a friend in Boulder to see if he had room for us to do the work there. The idea had just slipped out of my lips when we remembered that a good friend from Williamsburg had contacted us right before our trip.  He had moved to Colorado Springs a few years ago and saw our plans to move on Facebook. He got in touch to let us know where he was and asked us to call him when we got there.

Chris texted him to let him know we were in town and let him know what we wanted to do. Not only did DJ have a driveway we could work in, but also tools, as well as scrap wood and any nails or screws we might need.  In one text, we went from frustration to elation that we could move forward with our plan.  Not only did we find a place to make our dream happen, but we were also able to meet his wife and children and spend a few days with them, very quickly becoming family.

The Last Step

The only thing we still need to figure out is how to generate the income we need to sustain our new lifestyle. Some bills have been eliminated, such as rent, cable, and utilities. Others we can’t escape, like health insurance, gas, food, and paying off the credit cards we used for our cross-country move.

We both lost our jobs as a side effect of the pandemic, and neither one of us is in a hurry to find another traditional job. We are not interested in exposing ourselves to large numbers of people, not all of whom believe in wearing masks or remaining socially distant. We also don’t see the flailing restaurant industry as a viable option for providing the income we need.

With unemployment providing a meager income source, we decided there will never be a better time than now to make this life change.

Sunflower Colorado Springs Colorado
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