The Reason is Revealed - The Decision to "Hit the Road"

Five days after Angel's death, I was talking to my roommate/landlord, Jim about getting another dog and he said, "You can't get another dog." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I don't want you to get another dog." When I asked why he said he just didn't feel it was working out with Angel and he didn't want me to have another dog. I was so shocked I hardly even knew what to say. I was in the middle of my grief and for someone to be so cruel and say something without any fore warning was almost beyond my comprehension. He had never once complained or talked to me about any issues he had about Angel so I had no idea where this was all coming from. At that point I decided I was going to find another place to live. It always annoys me when I read about people who are giving their dogs away because their landlords won't let them have their dog.

Within 24 hours I found a new place to live. It was completely perfect. I would have the whole one side of a house to myself and a small yard for my new dog that the landlady said I could get right away when I moved in. I went home and wrote an email to my landlord giving him notice that I was moving out by the end of April. He said he was disappointed and he didn't understand why. When I explained to him that it was very important to me to have a furry companion and with Angel gone I needed to get another dog as soon as possible. Then, he explained to me that the reason he didn't want me to get another dog was because he was getting a cat and that the condo association only allowed one pet and that his cat was going to be that pet. He also explained that he was "rescuing" this cat because a co-worker was having to move and didn't have any place for her cat. He evidently thought this would make me feel better. It didn't. First, I knew he was lying about the condo complex only allowing one pet because I knew a lot of neighbors with two pets. Second, he only came to the condo about one or two weekends a month so his cat would primarily be living at his place in LA and no one would ever notice if he brought the cat to the condo. And third, I would be left alone the rest of the time without a dog for companionship and it felt bad that he thought rescuing his co-workers cat was more important than me rescuing a dog that I could have as a companion.

The next day I got a call from my "new" landlady with changes to our rental agreement and within another 24 hours two more changes. When I called her to let her know I was uncomfortable with these changes, she got very upset and said that if I couldn't deal with changes, this wasn't going to work and that she would give me my deposit back. She had turned out to be quite a whacko so that was perfectly fine with me.

Unfortunately though I now had to go back to my landlord and tell him I might not be able to move out by the end of March as I had planned. He was understanding and said that was fine as long as I was out by June 1st which I told him I was sure I could be. At this point my new place search was back on. Because I did not make enough money at my job, which I didn't even like, all I could afford was a room in a house. As I searched Craigslist, called and emailed people, and went to see rooms something was starting to stir in me, I felt like there was something wrong with this whole situation. As I was meeting with a potential landlady who was telling me that I shouldn't even be thinking about getting another dog yet because I needed to grieve and telling me I could use her son's bathtub (who she said was never home) only if it was OK with him and if I gave her a schedule of when I wanted to use it ahead of time. And when she found out I would spend an hour or more in the bathtub soaking, reading, and meditating I thought she was going to choke and told me that would be entirely unacceptable... even though her son wasn't there and no one else needed to use that bathroom. Not only did I get the message loud and clear that this was not the place for me, in that moment I was guided by Spirit that it was time to finally change my whole life, the life I had been living and hating for so many years. When I wondered exactly how, the answer came... "Buy an RV and go on the road!" So when the woman told me she was interested and should she hold the room for me, I said, "I need to think about it so don't hold it if someone wants it because I'm pretty sure I'm going to go ahead and buy an RV and hit the road." There I had said it and I had said it out loud. The excitement and freedom I felt and when I got in my car and drove away from there was amazing! I knew for sure I had just declared my future and it was definitely going to happen!

Read About Bev’s Start here: HOW IT ALL BEGAN - Living the Dream

Read About Full-time RVers and Bloggers the Boyd’s Start here: The Ugly Truth of RVing

Read About Full-time RVers and Bloggers the Hulbert’s Start here: RV Full-Time with Us