A Roaming Hiatus

Tomorrow will be two weeks since we left our last gig in Ehrenberg and arrived in Phoenix.
We’ll be here for a year.
“A year‽ Why?“
Well, I may not have mentioned it but I’ve got Keratoconus and I’m getting a cornea transplant so that I no longer have it!
“Why didn’t you mention it, Greg? You should have! Inquiring minds want to know.“
I HAVE been writing about it on my personal blog. You can get up to speed by reading The Keratoconus Chronicles.
The long and short of it:
The surgeon said he’d only do the surgery if we gave up our “troubadour lifestyle” and stayed put for at least 9-12 months. We took a few months to discuss, ponder and make plans. My surgery is scheduled for May 3rd.
The reason we have to stay put is multi-faceted.
After the surgery, I’ll have to make frequent follow up visits (every few days, then every few weeks, then months, etc). In that time (and after), there is a possibility that a stitch could “pop” and I’ll have to be within an hour of a qualified surgeon to address that. If we wound up in some remote area like Ehrenberg again, that just wouldn’t be feasible.

Courtney and I see this also as an opportunity to decide what our next adventure will entail.
Some of the options and factors we’re considering:

• We make Phoenix our home for half the year (Winter! Not Summer. We’re here in Summer only because of the surgery) and travel around the other half.
  • Workamping may or may not be part of that plan. Honestly, while it was a great experience and allowed us to have a roaming life, ultimately I was unhappy not working a “real job”.
• We continue the full time roaming life, but both work remotely (or some other “both of us bring home the bacon in some fashion” variation) and travel more; no more stationary for 3-4 months but rather move on after 3 or 4 weeks — or even 1-2 weeks — to a new destination once we’ve done and seen all there is to see wherever we unhitched.
• Buy land/house. Put our 5th wheel in the back 40 and AirBnB it, giving us the freedom to stay put, generate extra income or travel at our leisure.

We don’t know what we’re going to do just yet and we’ve got a year to think about all the options.

Things might get a little quiet here, but as things develop for us or for me surgery-wise, we’ll be sure to update everyone!