Spring 2007
“What do you think?” PB asked with a hopeful look on his face.
“What about your job? Our families? Your kids were born in this trailer.” I responded, we had been discussing the possibility of moving away and completely changing our lives, he was showing me pictures and videos of the rough, desolate land in far western Texas, this was not outside the realm of possibility for me, in fact it was something I had dreamed of since I was a young child, I just never thought PB would be interested in living this life as well.
Fast forward a few months, we had taken an 8 hour drive and found a piece of property, a little over 5 acres in a small but isolated development outside of the small town, within 30 days my name was on the title and we were beginning to shut down our lives in the city.
PB had a small restaurant equipment and handyman business, I worked for a big box electronics retail company as well as being a trainer at a gym for women. We both had our families to consider, but for the most part, they were supportive of what we wanted to do.
A few months later, we were all packed up and ready to go. PB had built a 16×16 box on stilts on the property, he had installed a tiny but functional solar system, he had been making regular trips out to the property, sometimes I went along, most of the time he was by himself. He had brought out several trailer loads of our stuff, placing it under tarps on the property to await our arrival.
We had planned on being out here before Thanksgiving, but life happened and things came up, we ended up not being able to leave until near Christmas, between last minute work obligations and icy weather, our start date had to be postponed several times. The last trailer load of our stuff was sitting in the driveway, covered in tarps, at one point I had placed an electric heater in the space where our canned foods were stored, I feared they might freeze overnight.
On the day we were to leave, PB’s son had a car accident right around the corner, we heard the crash as we were going through the trailer for the last time to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. Fortunately no one was injured, but it did cause us to start out many hours later than we had planned. We could have stayed one more night in town, but we had a break in the weather and decided to go for it.
Part two to come.