At age 57 and 59, we clearly value free time more than most anything in life, except perhaps Chocolate. We have donated and sold most of our belongings to live a minimalist lifestyle. Downsizing from 2200 sq.ft. houses, to a 300 sq. ft art studio, to the 100 sq. ft available in “Rhoda” (2000 Roadtrek 170 CamperVan), we have little “stuff’” to maintain, other than each other and Lety, our sassy Mexican street dog. Our children and elders are high-functioning, independent adults with great support systems, so we are able to roam the world, paint, dance the Tango, and pursue adventure and competitive sports with a vengeance. (Oh yeah, and pay for college….thus the need to downsize!) Our friends and family (our target audience for the blog, although you are welcome if you found us by accident), you know we love you, but we have to go see everywhere while we can. Seize the day! Knowing our San Francisco Bay Area art/sports/neighbor/jewish communities will continue to thrive, gives us the confidence to pull anchor and head out. We may not blog often, just enough to let you know a few high points. When we are tired, maybe we will publish just a “Photo of the Week”.

We’ll also try to let you know where and when we plan to go next in case any of you can join up with us to explore together for a while. We also welcome your ideas about people, places, and things not to be missed as we move forward, so we will try to tell you where we will head next. We thank you in advance for your interest in this site and your good ideas for us to explore.

Checklists: (Thank you RV Goddess.com, you are the checklist queen!) You have thought of every single item that a 700 sq. ft. custom built rolling home could possibly use. Our task now is to scale it down to 100 sq. ft. of true essentials, where a piece of sporting equipment is just as crucial to us, as the duct tape and the fan.

Issues when you are leaving for a year or more:

• Mail: Do we really want to have all that non-essential mail expensively scanned/emailed so we can then decide to throw it away? Online bill pay rocks. Prescription meds by mail….sent… where?
• Painting Materials: Can we really work that small, and still be satisfied with the result?
• Shoes: Running, Water Sandals, Hiking Boots, Tennis, Golf, Dressy, Slippers…yikes! 7 pairs apiece….stored where? No way…more downsizing…..