Skip to content
  • HOME
  • START HERE
  • DESTINATIONS
  • ABOUTExpand
    • About Us
    • Find Us on FB
    • Youtube Channel
    • WORK WITH US
  • TRAVEL RESOURCES
  • GET UPDATES TO YOUR INBOX

Americans Abroad: Sandra and Jeff's Travel Blog

Two Retired Americans traveling and living abroad, on a budget, one country at a time

American Expats & Senior Nomads

Our Blog about Traveling and Living abroad, on a budget, one country at a time

Our Backstory Story: How We Traded Our Oregon Home for the World

23 May 2023: So it begins…..

Not quite how we felt when moving to our first temporary home as we prepare to leave the US
That wasn’t really the mood, we’re actually excited to be making progress towards the goal of full-time travel

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Yesterday we moved to our first temporary home in this new nomadic journey. It was interesting because we loaded up a moving truck with the things we’ll need to get us through the next 6 months but we aren’t ‘done’ with our former property yet. Now we need to go back and deal with donating and junking everything we haven’t been able to sell.

After we finished loading yesterday Sandra sat on the rear bumper of the truck looking at the house. I asked ‘Do you have a sad?’ and she said that yes, she kind of did. I get it. I’ve been having small sads occasionally for a couple of weeks as we get rid of stuff. At the same time, though, I’m way more excited about the retirement part of our new journey.

We got unloaded pretty quickly once we got to Redmond. This place is hotel room sized, so, we didn’t bring that much with us anyway. Plus, we are sharing a property with Sandra’s sister and her hubby so he jumped in and helped carry a few things. Which was VERY awesome; made moving the bed a lot easier, too.

Affiliate Disclaimer

Our first temporary home is a backyard ADU, extremely fortunate that Holly and Kevin were moving at the same time and happened to find this place.

556 canyon composite
Left image is the view while standing in the front door. Right image is after stepping inside

Some things were left behind unintentionally, LOL. We got settled in a little bit after we got back from dinner and I went (wifi) ‘Router?’

“sunovabitch”, she says “It was up high so I completely spaced it”

That’s on my list for when we go back out to the old place today. Well, okay, NOW it is…

We have a serious lack of storage here in the new place but I think that a couple of pieces we haven’t sold yet are going to wind up here. There’s a dresser in her office that will become my new nightstand as well as providing a spot for socks and t-shirts. There’s a little wardrobe included here that will hold a few things and probably will help me reduce my clothing stash to travel-size. One of our unsold shoe cubbies is going to get dragged out here, as well.

Big adjustments to be made settling in to our our first temporary home – Our living room space is now outdoors. Our Ikea chairs and footstools are okay to live on the covered patio and we should be pretty close to comfortable outdoor living weather. I’m very happy that we had invested in the adjustable bed frame so it can double as a sort of pseudo-couch allowing me to sit here and work indoors. We also have the option to invade Holly and Kevin’s space when needed and apparently a lot of the meals will be happening there. Our kitchen is equipped but it’s also maybe 30 square feet and with a queen-sized bed there is no space for a table.

TIL… Sort of today, but kind of yesterday…? I thought that I would write about the day at the end of the day. That’s not a thing.

So, yesterday, after I typed out all the bits above this, we went out to the old house to get a few more things. A couple storage solutions things we originally didn’t think we had room for and the foodstuffs. We also had some cleanup help that we hadn’t completely anticipated

← Previous Page Continued on Next Page →

If our stories inspired you, share the journey with your friends—just click your favorite social media button below or copy the url at the top of your screen. Your support means the world to us!

About

About Us

Sign up for our Newsletter

Privacy Policy

Contact

Youtube

Work with Us

Visual Sitemap

Made with ❤ by Sandra and Jeff, Retired Americans Abroad & Slowmads
© 2026 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Scroll to top
  • HOME
  • START HERE
  • DESTINATIONS
  • ABOUT
    • About Us
    • Find Us on FB
    • Youtube Channel
    • WORK WITH US
  • TRAVEL RESOURCES
  • GET UPDATES TO YOUR INBOX