As athletes age there naturally comes a time when the conversation turns towards trying to determine how much one has left in the tank. Eventually, athletes begin to ponder life after their sport. This inevitably leads to public statements which then leads to questions being asked. It’s the common progression in sports that points to the fact that the end is near.

The old adage in sports is that if an athlete is talking about retirement then they have already retired. At least in a mental capacity.

The hardest part for the athlete is recognizing when the line has been reached so they can walk away gracefully. Everyone wants to find that most opportune time to bow out with their head held high. And no one wants to overstay their shelf life only to be mocked because of it. It can be a fine line to walk.

For some that line is when playing for the love of the game turns into becoming a burden to your team. For others that line is when injuries or wear and tear take a toll on the body that no longer heals as it once did. Then you have the athletes who know in their heads the time is near, but still think they have a couple of years left in the tank. Other’s believe they will somehow defy age and logic to become their old selves once again. This is where reality breaks from mental awareness and the return on investment is negative to the individual and the team.

Back in May we posted a blog asking a simple question “What’s Our Endgame?” In that blog we covered the factors that could possibly lead to us deciding to end our full-time RV adventure. The five factors listed in the blog were health, finances, a family event, finding a forever home and, our personal favorite, we are just over it.

Since we posted that blog none of those things have come into play. At least as far as we can tell. We just had our check-ups and our health is good. The markets have rebounded this year and our financial situation has improved. Nothing is happing on the family front, aside from our son graduating from college next spring. We haven’t found a forever home and we don’t feel like we are tired of traveling and exploring.

But, something strange started brewing beneath the surface and we can’t quite put a finger on why it’s happening. As of late we have been enjoying life, exploring and lounging around the pool. However, some different conversations have started happening. These conversations revolve around where we would eventually like to live after this adventure ends. It’s only natural to have these types of conversations and they are healthy discussions.

But this was different and it didn’t stop at just talking about it. And that’s what has triggered us to write this blog. Eventually these conversations pushed us into researching areas that we have visited and liked. Areas we would consider settling down in if the price and other factors were right. This in turn has lead us to actually looking at houses in those areas to see what’s available and at what cost. Ok, kind of fun and informative for future reference.

Then things took a more serious step when I created a spreadsheet! If you read this blog you know I love my spreadsheets. And this tells me something deeper is going on because building a spreadsheet and inputting data and criteria for a home search is serious business for an accounting type. This is where we had a WHOA moment!

After taking a step back and giving it some thought the the analogy of sports came to the forefront. If we are thinking about settling down this much have we already made our decision? Are we near the end of this long road trip, but have not fully realized it? Are we pushing ourselves in that direction? And most importantly, where in the heck did this come from?

We would love to sit here and tell our readers we have all of the answers, but we just don’t. This all just sort of came out of no where and snowballed up to the point of looking at houses. It’s perplexing as we don’t feel like we are anywhere near finished with this adventure. In fact, we have made plans all the way up to next summer already. And the only reason we haven’t booked further out is because we need clarity regarding our sons graduation. Once we have that information will be putting the finishing touches on the rest of the 2024 year.

While we still feel like we have a lot left to enjoy on the road we have to begin to ask ourselves if the end is near? If we continue to research areas and stumble upon the perfect home in the perfect location are we really going to pass it up? Why would we even be looking, let alone building a criteria based spreadsheet, if we were not considering stopping in some form?

Something is going on in our minds and we need to figure it out. Maybe we are subconsciously realizing that this adventure we dreamed of and planned for is not sustainable for as long as we had hoped? After all, we will be well over one thousand straight days on the road by the end of 2023. That’s kind of a lot!

The thing is, this isn’t just one of us driving all of this while the other is pushing back and resisting. We both went down this path and didn’t think twice about it. It was actually quite exciting looking at all of the possibilities.

This makes us think there could be more to this than just curiosity. And while we are not done yet, maybe things have started to run their course to the inevitable end point? Maybe we are the athlete who is just starting to realize that this can’t go on forever? Sure we are still playing at a high level, but maybe it’s just not as easy as it used to be? And it’s only going to get more difficult as we age.

The one thing we do know is that we don’t want to be like the athlete that feels like they can somehow return to their former glory. If we feel like it might be time to end this adventure then we should end it. Staying on the road longer than we should could cross the line between happiness and dangerous very quick. Being on the road is fun, but making mistakes can be very dangerous or even deadly. We have to be on our game and stick to our process to stay safe.

Time will tell if this is just a phase or if there is something more to it. We have always had discussions about the future or what we would do when our son finishes college so maybe that’s what’s driving this. The odd part is that those discussions have never involved leaving the RV for a regular home. It was more about the RV life being a great way to visit without inconvenience.

For now we will just keep on keepin’ on and see where this all leads us. Who knows maybe we will find our forever home and that will be the end of it. Maybe this urge will just fade away and we will stop the madness. Or maybe we save it for another time so we can stay focused and enjoy this why we can.

Either way the next adventure will be great. The question however is, what type of adventure will it be?

Safe travels!!

Joe

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