Sue on the beach
Do you dream about taking a year “out” and just getting away from it all? (but never do!) Maybe you are thinking about a sabbatical but need inspiration.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a very inspirational lady who has done exactly that. I am absolutely delighted that Sue Garret @rustiesoo has taken the time to post on Dwyle.com.
Here’s her story.
“Before you make a dream come true, you must first have one”
Ronald McNair – Astronaut.
We, (Andrew and Sue) took this seriously, and about year ago put our house up for sale – we’d lived in London for 6 ½ years, having moved there from Herefordshire – that’s another story, but the move from quiet country town to the big smoke, gave us the get up and go to do what we’re doing now…
Like millions of people, we’d got caught up in the daily grind of living to work – it was time for change…
Our plan was to sell up, buy a motorhome, take a ‘gap year’ and see a bit of Europe.
A trial week in a motorhome in England in November convinced us that motorhome was a ‘no’ for various reasons – not least the fact that with Andrew at 6’2”, head height was a huge consideration!
By chance, we discovered American Fifth Wheels, which is a big caravan with sides that extend, and it’s hitched to a truck – perfect for long term living and traveling. Excitement levels went through the roof when we put down a deposit and arranged to collect our duo – an American Ford F150 truck and Rockwood Ultra Lite 5ver (that’s what they’re called by people in the know…) in the middle of December 2012.
Our departure from UK at the end of January 2013 was delayed somewhat, but eventually, after packing up our house and putting the precious bits into storage, we set sail from Portsmouth to begin our adventure…we’d never done anything like this before!
2 questions we’re often asked – why? And what will you do when you get back?
Easy answer to the 1st question…why not? We’re fit and healthy 57 year olds, intelligent people who just decided that if we didn’t take the chance to get out there and do what we’d dreamt of doing, we’d probably never would.
We are incredibly lucky to have the chance to escape everyday life for a year, and blessed mad enough to have the courage to go for it! Neither of us had any experience of the 5ver, but we’re both practical people with a healthy dose of common sense, so that minor detail didn’t deter us…
We had 4 days in the UK getting used to the setup and towing before we caught the ferry to Caen. Our first wobble was getting lost on the way to the first campsite in France – trying to reverse a rig which is 47 feet long, in the dark, in the rain, on a narrow residential road in a tiny French village, would have sent a lot of people hightailing it back to England, but we figured if we could survive that, we’d tackle anything…
That first week away was challenging in many ways – getting used to living in a small(er!) space, just ‘being’ without the demands of a 9 to 5 job, and learning about the rig… it did leave us questioning at times whether we’d done the right thing…but, as the days and weeks have passed, not only have we been able to visit beautiful places, but we’ve met so many interesting people – fellow Brits escaping the British winter, folks from France, Germany, Spain, Holland and Belgium who are all keen to chat and share their stories and advice…
I’ve created a blog to track our adventures, and we’ve learnt that chasing the big bucks is not what life’s about, it’s about appreciating the little you actually need for everyday life, about sharing special moments, and making each day count.
We’re in Spain now, but plan to head on up to France and then on to Italy for the early summer…
2nd question – what are you going to do when you get back? This trip has given us time to think about what we actually like doing and how we can earn a living…we have lots of ideas to explore, and aren’t fazed by the fact we may have to go back to the 9 to 5 for a while, perhaps just long enough put into place what we really want to do…
So, my advice to anyone thinking of going after their dream, there’ll be questions which will be personal to your circumstances, but the only question that really matters is, what have you got to lose?
www.rustiesootravel.com
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