Choosing Road Life
I found this proverb in a new jar of Climb On! lotion: “If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.” This completely applies to my decision to embrace road life. This time last year, I worked a full-time professional job in Indiana. I kept saying for the past five years that I wanted to move to Colorado for the outdoors and/or take a long-term climbing road trip. My boyfriend agreed, but something always held us back – student loans, work projects, promotions, a newly signed lease, etc. Finally it no longer made sense to renew a lease – we could buy a home in Indiana, but that was so permanent. We just have one life, and buying a home far from the mountains was the opposite of what my gut told me to do. It was time to change direction!
So we did it. We yanked the wheel, embraced road life, and suddenly switched life direction. My boyfriend and I married in May and then immediately prepared to move. Our stuff went to Craigslist, Goodwill, and friends. We gave ourselves a hard deadline by not renewing our housing lease, and we needed that kick in the rear! We moved the last day of our lease, and hit the road for a 1-2 month climbing road trip. Five months later, we’re still traveling strong!
Simple car sleeping platform with storage below
Our climbing trip enabled us to fit several years’ worth of work vacations into a few months – Ten Sleep, Maple Canyon, Rifle, Red River Gorge, Spain. We only move on from an area when we feel ready. On weekdays, we either climb before or after my husband works remotely, and driving to the crag on the weekends is a casual 15 – 20 minute drive. I’ve jumped up three climbing letter grades, and I love our current direction.
Three months of climbing!
Our Winter climbing destination is Spain, which lets us climb in the mornings before the US workday begins. We plan to stay in Spain until our 90 day visa expires, though we may take side trips. Life is easy and warm on the Mediterranean, and there are so many climbs to tackle and Spanish words to learn! Soon, we’ll shift directions again to settle down and become weekend craggers once more, probably in Colorado. But not just yet!
Check out our car camper set up here.
Check out my favorite road life happiness tips here.
