Posted on 05/22/2006 10:57:55 AM PDT by SantaLuz
We are thinking of making a life changing family decision in the next couple of months: To sell all, quit my job, buy an RV, leave California and go fulltiming across the USA for a year or so, and find a new home city. We are a family of 5 with children aged from 5 to 15. So why would we do something like this? Well for a number of reasons:
- My health has deteriorated due to stress, long commutes, and lack of time to take care of myself. I've known I needed a sabbatical for some time now. - We've made the decision that we want to move away from California, but we don't know where we want to move to. We been looking at Boise, Raleigh, and parts of Texas lately. - My oldest was diagnosed with ADD in kindergarten and we have been trying to keep him from being forced to take drugs to fit into the formal square school peg ever since. He's been in public school, home school, and currently in a very expensive private school. But it's hard to watch him suffer in a formal school setting. We just had him complete over two full days of testing, and they diagnosed him with superior intellect, but with ADD holding him back. From experience we already know home schooling or very small class setting works best for him, and the experts diagnoses confirmed that. - My wife already home schools our other children and so this is something we already have experience doing on the road. - We'd have less distractions and could really focus on the learning of our children. - We've always wanted to travel across America and see it together as a family while we are still fairly young. Both my wife and I are in our forties. Our parents retired with poor health and never had any "golden years". We want to be rich with family memories and not with material things. - Visit some older relatives across the country that we've not seen in many years and whose days are numbered. - We want to blog, write a book, and create a family movie of our experiences. - We're not rich but we can afford to do this for a year if we sell everything. We'll have less money to put as a down payment where ever we move to; but at least we'll know something about the area.
My wife and I were discussing next steps the other day when our kids begged us to go see a movie. They chose RV! Without knowing what we were talking about. My wife and I laughed so hard in the movie and winked at each other knowing our kids didn't have a clue. And the we realized we didn't either.
It would be hard to say goodbye to family and friends, and certainly there are many risks; but it is something we can't get out of our minds. Our kids are excited about it too now.
I'd be grateful in getting some opinions on best family oriented cities to live in. Best places to visit. Best RVs to own, and any extended road travel experiences with children.
Are we being bold or crazy?
Do you own a home now in CA?
Just bailing out of California would be a great start.
Many FReepers have moved from Cali to North Texas and the Dallas area.
Sounds pretty impulsive to me. I would wait a month before making a decision. See if you still feel this way mid June.
There was a report just last week that Nashville was the number one city now and we have neighbors moving there in two weeks.
He is part of Nissan Auto that is moving out of CA and to TN. The entire company started moving this year and when school is out in a couple weeks the families are going.
They got a super house and yard for half of cost.
Sadly the only down side we could come up with is they were from New York/New Jersey and are very yankee and in TN, some are still fighting the war of "North American agression" so they might have a problem fitting in but, they will be with all the other employee's they know.
Yes we own our home in Southern California with decent equity.
GO FOR IT. Your kids will see the real America. What a great experience! God go with you. I'll bet many of us would like updates on your journey.
Be sure to see the movie LOST IN AMERICA by Albert Brooks before you hit the road. And bypass Nevada altogether.
We left SoCal in l984 and haven't looked back. We live in the midwest. We love it here, and although we grumble sometimes in the winter, it was a great move.
While camping in Big Bear, we were shot at. A man exposed himself to me and my young son in the front yard of my home.
It took over 45 minutes for me to drive 15 miles to work in the morning. Haven't had anything near those experiences in the good old midwest.
However, we do think wistfully about how our 79k house in Anaheim is now worth about 400k. Sigh. If we would have waited until now to sell and move to the midwest, we would be able to buy a mansion!
With SoCal real estate prices, you could move almost anywhere off the coasts, pay cash (or nearly so) and have a nicer home than you do in California. Take advantage of that equity position!!
Move here to Northeast Wisconsin. Lots of great hunting and fishing. Fish frys. Packer game tailgatings. Most houses are under $100,000 with low property taxes.
Do travel for a year then join 2 million other ex-Calfornians in Oregon!
This whole idea sounds great to me! I wish you the very best of luck and envy (just a little envy :0) ), all of the wonderful memories you and your family will be gathering. God Bless you all!
oh, right, and make sure you have a reliable snow machine,
roof rake, and cables.
better get that undercoat option for the car, since they
use the most virulent road salt known in WI!
Yes.
And many of us are envious.
I did a drive from NY to Caliornia a few years ago for no reason other than to look and enjoy, and the wish to do it more slowly has never left me.
What area of California are you moving from? Some are more fun to leave than others...
Not very helpful to fail to mention what state and portion of the state you're talking about...
Yes it does sound impulsive. But it's been in the back of our minds going back 14 years, and we been seriously discussing it for a couple years now. Impulsive isn't something people usually attribute to me. Calculated risk? Good advice to wait some time and think it seriously through.
I know it may sound crazy but I say go for it.
If your financial house is in order and you can afford to take the time, then by all means do it. As for where to end up I really couldn't tell ya.
I moved from California to Kansas and I love it, but it's not for everyone. I have several friends who homeschool as it is getting fairly popular around here, and Kansas is a different world from California. If I were fleeing Cali with children I would seriously consider landing somewhere in the midwest or great plains states. There aren't a lot of high paying jobs outside of the cities, but the cost of living will simply shock you compared to what you are used to in California. This area is actually pretty good to raise kids in. One caveat, you will occassionally get "bored". It's a good thing though. Whenever I get bored I just remember sitting in traffic in California during 100 degree weather and I am at peace again. Kids will do fine. Between 4-H, baseball, soccer, fishing and riding bikes around town without worrying about getting shot, the kids will probably survive. The people here are odd. In smaller towns they generally leave people alone. They do like to do little "joining" clubs, be it social groups, church groups, gun clubs, bowling, civic groups-just think of the 1950s. I guess people want to be left alone, but they get lonely too, so they make their own little communities.
As for other places, I have friends and relatives that live in Texas and Texas is heaven on Earth if you avoid the major urban areas. Commuting around Dallas will remind you of California on a really bad day. Oklahoma is not as bad as everyone says. I lived there once and the people were the salt of the Earth. The Ozarks are beautiful, but I don't know enough about S. MO and N Ark to give a recommendation either way. I also fell in love with the Dakotas on a trip there once, but again, I have no idea what people do for jobs there.
I too have often thought about the RV life. My grandfather owned a big old Winnebago and he took a month every year to travel around with my grandmother. They used to take us on summer trips.He wanted to go full time after he retired, but as it usually happens, two years after retirement he developed cancer. The message is: Live your life while you can...
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