Check out our latest video on the Messy Suitcase YouTube channel — Crossing The Border (a.k.a. Why was Bob fretting?)
On the Road to Mexico
How do you get 3 people, 3 cats, 3 musical instruments and multiple suitcases and bags to Mexico to start a new life? You drive. 37 HOURS.
Welcome to Messy Suitcase on You Tube! Part 1: Launching a New Life
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Leaving Tlaquepaque & Guadalajara
destination, Guanajuato.
planned to stay in any one place, but wanted to have a familiar, reasonably accessible
place for Aryk to call home on their Spring Break from Keele University in
England.
of things we wanted to do here and we’ve whittled it down to just a few.
We’re Sad to Go
There is a lot to like about Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara. We love Tlaquepaque’s
colorful, artistic character. We love its relaxed, friendly vibe. We love living
within easy walking distance of the TLQ town square, Jardin Hidalgo, and all of
the energy, activities and food options there. Lisa has recently started making
Mexican friends.
the fact that a subway from our neighborhood to Zapopan, on the other side of
Guadalajara, is scheduled to open sometimes in 2020. And with a new road under
construction, Guadalajara could soon be just two and a half hours from the Pacific
coast.
riding and our apartment are barely acceptable, but our home’s location has been perfect
for accessing the town square. We’re definitely going to miss being here. We’ve
even started discussing that this area may be a place we want to come back to
and spend even more time getting to know, perhaps living in Guadalajara proper.
But first, we need to experience more of Mexico.
and restaurants for one last time.
Our loyalty to Guadalajara won us GDLt-shirts at a promo event in Lake Chapala last weekend! |
Vermont – A Change in Plans
The Lake House |
Snowy hot tub morning |
Running in the snow |
Building a snowman |
Visiting the Green Mountain Sugar House |
Discovering Outback Pizza |
Baking Christmas cookies |
Why I made the decision to permanently stop working
When Lisa and I started talking about traveling after the kids graduated from high school, the discussion always included doing some sort of part-time work. First, when we thought we would travel the United States in an RV, that talk included doing seasonal work at an Amazon warehouse or being the host at a campsite. Later, I considered doing some part-time database or project management work, or even working for my then-employer part-time.
I reminded my boss that I had always done everything they had asked, including trips that others in the organization essentially refused to take. Yet I was told that in all their years in business they had NEVER been asked to approve something like this, and that it sounded like a second job. They wanted a complete schedule, which was reasonable, and an assurance from me that I would make myself available for any calls they wanted me to be on at that time of day. I reminded my boss that they routinely worked around my co-workers’ schedules and that the times I was asking to shift were also at the end of the East Coast day of two of my co-workers.
In the end, my boss very reluctantly approved my request, but their attitude made me realize that they didn’t really care about me. It made me question my dedication and loyalty to them and the organization when there was no reciprocity.
And I was gone
With that, I was gone. I no longer wanted to work for my boss and I no longer wanted to work with my co-worker. Any thoughts of working part-time for them in the future evaporated. I couldn’t leave fast enough. To make matters worse, my boss insisted that I fly to San Francisco earlier than usual for a scheduled staff meeting so that I could spend an excruciating afternoon alone with my co-worker in an attempt to resolve any conflicts we had.
Over the next several weeks, I made my final decision and gave my boss three weeks notice of my impending departure. I essentially couldn’t take another day dealing with both of them. My boss’s reaction to my notice was hostility, accusing me of abandoning the organization, which only reinforced the fact that I made the right decision. Once again, I had never been treated so badly. When my boss flew out to Denver for a transition briefing, they did not even offer to take me to lunch before their return flight, and I once again felt disrespected.
I continued to assist with keeping things running until a replacement was found. But it wasn’t until a month and a half after I finally finished that they even sent me an email thanking me for my 4 ½ years of work for them and the organization and the award-winning site I built.
Earlier than I planned
So I stopped working sooner than I had wanted, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. Financially, yes, it was a little soon, but the market was doing well and I knew we would be ok. I’ve worked for many people in multiple organizations over the years and this boss was, by far, the worst person I had ever worked for.
In some ways, it is sad that my working career had to end this way, but in others, it doesn’t make me look back. I never want to work for someone like that ever again, and I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to. Good riddance to them and on to something much more enjoyable!
Hasta La Vista!
That’s it, we’re doing it. Our oldest child Aryk is off at university in England. Our youngest child Gavin has just graduated from high school. Rather than be empty nesters, my husband Bob and I are stepping off the treadmill and hitting the road to spend the next decade or two exploring the planet.
Our oldest child Aryk is off at university in England. Our youngest child Gavin has just graduated from high school. Rather than be empty nesters, my husband Bob and I are stepping off the treadmill and hitting the road to spend the next decade or two exploring the planet.
We are relatively young and healthy, and the stock market has done good things with our investments over the last few years. So we are renting out our house just outside Denver, putting our stuff in storage, and packing up a few suitcases, three cats, our daughter (for a gap year) and our musical instruments and heading south of the border to explore Mexico for the next few years. We plan to spend three months at a time in different communities, mixing up cities, mountains, coast and historic pueblos, to really get beyond just a taste of this glorious country.
I know people think we’re crazy. Whenever I tell them the plan, they look at me uncomprehendingly.
Why are we doing this?
- Because travel opens your eyes and heart in ways nothing else can.
- Because meeting all kinds of different people expands your horizons.
- Because learning a new language stretches your mind and keeps your brain supple.
- Because settling in one place forever feels limiting.
- Because the ocean is beautiful and the mountains are glorious.
- Because thanks to social media we can stay connected to old friends and dear communities while we make new friends and create new communities.
- Because Mexico has a low cost of living and high quality of life.
- Because … salsa and mole sauce.
- Because … bougainvillea and pelicans.
- Because … waves and reefs.
- Because … whales and dolphins.
- Because … ruins and festivals.
- Because … the Day of the Dead and Three Kings Day.
- Because … tequila and mezcal.
When we’re done with Mexico, we plan to move on to Central America and South America.
When we’re done with Central America and South America, we’ll give the cats back to the kids, ditch the truck, fly across the pond (Atlantic Ocean) and begin exploring the rest of the planet.
Because life is short. And the world is big. Join us on the adventure!
Posted by Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
Prelude to a New Life
I know people who have lived in the same place their whole lives. Most people, I suspect. My high school peers. Friends from childhood. People in my church, who tell me stories of their parents taking them to the same church when they were young. I have one family of seven cousins who have all settled down within 20 miles of their childhood home outside of Harrisburg, PA. I don’t know if any of them has ever journeyed any farther afield than the Jersey Shore – or even wanted to. I often envy their closeness, their sense of community. They are there for each other’s weddings, baby showers, Baptisms, every birthday, every Christmas, every Thanksgiving. They never miss. They know every street in their community like it has been tattooed inside their brains.
But that’s not me. That has NEVER been me.
A nomadic childhood
Some of it was by circumstance. The fact is, I never even had a chance to live in one place my entire life. My dad was an accountant for GTE (and various evolutions), so by the time I was born, Number 3 of an eventual eight kids in an Irish/Italian/German/French, very Catholic family, the brood had already moved a couple of times. I started life in Williamsport, PA, my parents’ hometown, but only after they spawned their first couple of kids while living in New Cumberland, PA. We were in Billtown long enough for my parents to have me and my brother Michael before we were on the road again.
Warren, Pennsylvania. Syracuse, New York. Littleton, Massachusetts. Higganum, Connecticut. Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, where I finished high school and went off to Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in South Jersey.
A nomadic adulthood
The first time I made the choice to move, as opposed to being moved, was after I graduated from Glassboro with a degree in mass communications and my parents announced that they were moving again, this time to Vienna, Virginia, outside of Washington, DC. The opportunity to launch my broadcasting career in the Nation’s Capital was so compelling that I went along.
I got a job in the news department of WMZQ, a Top 40 country radio station, and then at the Associated Press, which was the largest news organization in the world. As soon as I saved enough to move out of my parents’ house, I moved into DC, and then to Arlington, VA. Living in Washington was a fascinating experience, but I found a culture of pursuit of status and government bureaucracy a bit stultifying and champed at the bit to leave.
Traveling woman
I started traveling. I visited San Francisco, England, Scotland, France and Switzerland. I backpacked through the Loire Valley and southern France. I joined the Ski Club of International Journalists and skied in Colorado, Italy and Spain.
Turning point
When I was 30, I decided it was time to pursue work abroad. An opening came up on AP’s World Desk in New York, the news agency’s way station to becoming a foreign correspondent. I considered a stint in New York a necessary evil to reach my goal – it would be crowded and loud, all skyscrapers and their shadows, with no nature in which to recharge. I would hate it.
Instead, I fell in love
I fell in love with Central Park
From the moment I arrived in NY, I was hooked by that dirty, cacophonous, unpredictable, multicultural, over-the-top, awe-inspiring city. I could almost feel the creative pulse flowing into my body through the soles of my feet the moment they touched the ground at Penn Station. When I went for my first glorious run in Central Park, I almost flopped into the grass on the Great Lawn weeping with joy. Something inside me was opened up. The world got bigger. I got the job, and the Upper West Side of New York became my personal nirvana.
Three and a half years later, I was posted to Puerto Rico as a foreign correspondent covering the Caribbean islands. I had finally done it!
But oops, love
Alas, love interfered with my “travel the world” dreams in the form of Bob Greenawalt, a fellow adventurer whom I met a few months before I was posted to PR. Bob also had lived in many places, including Germany, while serving as an officer in the US Army. He followed me to Puerto Rico, but there was no work for a high-powered IT consultant on that perennially depressed island. So after a couple of years we returned to NYC, a city we adored that offered employment for us both.
We got married and started a family. The adventure of parenting two gifted, autistic kids kept our feet on the ground for a while.
But after a decade or so in Manhattan and nearby Mamaroneck, the 2008 recession hit and Bob lost his job. We packed up the kids and the cats and headed across the country to the rugged mountains and of Colorado.
And that’s where we’ve been for almost 10 years. We’ve cycled up mountain passes, camped beside lakes, skied down black diamonds, hiked 14ers and drunk our fill of what this state has to offer. But the last kid has graduated from high school, and the next adventure awaits.
Life is short. The world is big. Let’s go!
By Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt