So here’s the story of this summer…

We packed up everything we own, rented a U-Haul and headed to the UP. 

We looked for a house to buy, but couldn’t get a mortgage because we’re both self-employed in a new state. 

We looked for a house to rent, but it had to meet certain criteria:

• Have high speed internet – Cable, or DSL if necessary.
• Have room to store our toys: Camper, ATV, & flat bed trailer.
• Allow Dogs and a Cat.
• Not be a college house. (it’s a college town, so a lot of rentals are trashed or apartments)
• Be under $1000 a month.

We couldn’t find a rental.

Meanwhile, we’ve been staying in our camper on my dad’s property. 

The first month was great.  I got to see my niece almost daily.  The dogs love my dad.  The Englishman had time to build a custom canopy for the back of our camper.  (Check it out!)  And I set up an office at my dad’s house to build my online businesses.

The second month we were stressed.  We still didn’t have a place and we needed to make some decisions. 

It was time to get outta the box.

We are both self employed.  Me, the designer and e-commerce queen, him, the software developer.  Neither of us looking forward to a long, dark winter living in an apartment we don’t like.  We put our heads together and tried to look for alternatives…

We decided to go mobile for the next year! 

So we started looking for a truck bed camper to turn into a mobile office. 
Boy, that was harder than we imagined.  Try finding a truck bed camper that’s reasonably priced, that fits’ a full-sized short bed truck!  We looked and looked!  Finally, I found one in Wisconsin on Craigslist!  For FREE!  The woman was friendly, she was an older woman who just wanted it out of her yard.  She said everything worked fine and it was in good condition.  But her son was staying in it. Could we wait a week? Sure!

We waited a week.

Her son’s wedding in Vegas was cancelled, we would have to wait another week.

We waited another week.

(I forget, but I think we even waited another week in there somewhere.)

Ok… We can come pick it up.

We went.  It was a 6 hour drive.  One way.

When we arrived, after driving through a small town and out into the country, I thought I could faintly hear dueling banjos in the distance.  It was in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.  We pulled in.  There was a 50-something skinny man, sitting in an old lawn chair.  When he smiled at us, his few yellowed teeth shone in the sun.  His mother ambled out of the trailer.  We said our hellos and she walked us over to the camper.  My excitement faded as I saw the sag in the the cab-over part.  We walked around to the door.  Mold and mildew was rotting at the bottom corners.  When we opened the door it was FULL of her’ son’s stuff.  He hadn’t moved anything out. 

With as much tolerance, patience, and dignity I could muster, I told her that the camper was just too big for our truck and that it was a bigger project than we could take on at the moment.

We drove home.

The third month, we compromised.

We decided a truck camper wasn’t necessary and a truck bed cap would work, hopefully a contractor’s type cap. 

Again, having a short bed truck posed a problem.  No luck finding one.

By the end of the third month, we didn’t care. 

We are going to head out in a few weeks.

I’ve searched and searched, and haven’t found either a suitable truck camper or a truck cap.  But we’re going anyway.  We’re going to search en route and just be flexible. 

My online businesses have been steadily doing better and better.  I’ve created a “transportable” office out of a vintage suitcase and some memory foam.  I’ll post about that soon.  We’ve got a campsite reserved for the entire month of October in Utah.  And before that, we’ll head to NC for a couple of weeks. 

After Utah… Who knows…

But this weekend, I’m heading out in a boat on Lake Superior.  I’ll enjoy the couple of weeks I have left here.