HOME ON THE ROAD
Abbotsford couple sell their home and possessions, buy a motorhome and hit the highway as nomads
Patricia MacNeill and her husband, Arleigh, are living out a Tom Cochrane song.
“There’s a world outside every darkened door ... where the brave are free and lovers soar.”
Yes, life is a highway for the couple, who sold their Abbotsford home, packed in the rat race and are living on the road in the motorhome they’ve christened, The Beast Caroline.
“The first few months living in a 34-foot motorhome was a huge adjustment, to say the least,” Patricia said. “But now, living in this home on wheels is just that, my home. Having less has given me more.”
Something the couple would say to each other as they explored the U.S. for six months and now begin a tour of Canada, has been: Whose idea was this anyway?
“It was like a fantasy,” Patricia said. “We’d talk about selling it all and go travelling, but it didn’t seem like something we’d actually do. It was a pipe dream.”
The MacNeills have recorded their adventure on Facebook and Instagram.
Two events nudged them toward making the plunge: Their friend Ray died of cancer at age 40 (Patricia’s dad had died of cancer at 30); and their young friend Olivia was diagnosed with leukemia and came down from Prince George to stay at Ronald McDonald House. Life is short. Meanwhile, the housing market was nuts, Patricia’s clients were talking about how it was time to sell.
“I remember looking at Arleigh and saying, ‘Let’s sell everything now, buy a motorhome and drive across the land,’ ” Patricia said. “He said, ‘OK.’ ”
That was a year ago in April. The couple did some renovations and sold their house for three times what they’d paid for it 12 years earlier. At the same time, they got rid of 95 per cent of their belongings.
“We went hard, it was intense purging,” Patricia said.
They bought a used Seneca motorhome, packed some clothes, Bunny and Babs (two rescued rabbits) and pugs Sally and Owen, and headed into the wild blue yonder: Down the West Coast, across the bottom of the U.S., then up the East Coast, 25 states and the District of Columbia in all, and into Newfoundland and Labrador.
They waited-out a storm and camped at Cape Spear, N.L., late last week, the easternmost point of North America.
“We don’t know where we will end up,” Patricia said. “We live in the unknown like nomad Gypsies.”
The two were teenage sweethearts at Sardis Secondary in Chilliwack. Now 38 (Patricia) and 40 (Arleigh), they’ve been together 25 years, married for 10.
Do not be under the illusion that moving from a big house in suburbia to 300 square feet of rolling living space has been wrangle-free.
“Sometimes you need to recognize when to go for a walk,” Arleigh said. “Or sometimes you need to be told it’s time to go for a walk.”
Also, it teaches you to be a jack of all trades.
“It sort of forces a guy into being a plumber, an electrician, a mechanic, all at the same time out of necessity,” he said.
Patricia was a hairdresser, Arleigh a production manager for a gypsum company. Both made good money, both loved their cosy home.
“To give it all up took an amazing amount of courage that neither of us knew we had in us,” Patricia said. “Plus, everyone around you tells you you’re insane.”
One of her clients, in fact, said, “I’m glad I’m not you.”
“We hear questions from friends and family, ‘Now what are you going to do?’ We are determined not to get caught-up in that lifestyle again. There are slower, healthier ways to live. This journey keeps teaching us the value of time. The idea of waiting until retirement to do the things you want to do is just silly.”
The MacNeills hope theirs is a message that inspires others to escape from a lifestyle that can drain wallets and sap energy from souls.
They expect to land in Nova Scotia around the May long weekend. They’ll make their way to Montreal, probably keep heading west. Maybe they’ll cross the country and be back in the Fraser Valley by Labour Day, who knows?
“We’re going to see where we end up,” Arleigh said.