The idea got started after saying goodbye to our daughter, Alicia, at the airport several years ago as she flew back to Charlotte. All our visits with her since she moved from home were fantastic but for some reason this particular visit, was super great and our hearts ached way longer than they usually did and we kept talking about never having enough time with her. But neither of us wanted to move to the East and neither of us wanted to spend weeks in a sterile motel room and Alicia lived in a one bedroom small apartment.
So I think it was Bill who read about airbnb and he immediately liked the idea of staying in a condo or house but having a middle man regarding deposits and reservations and damage deposits. Bill tends to be a bit conspiracy minded and paranoid so never felt comfortable about a disembodied voice on the phone or words in an email talking about the great house they owned (was there REALLY a house or just a field?) and wanting us to send money. and with airbnb, there was protection since they held the money in sort of an escrow account until we saw the place and it matched the owner’s description of it.
Our initial forays were 2 in number for a week each to facilitate hiking in the area. We were really surprisingly pleased at how pleasant it was to start our day from an actual bed in a real bedroom and to make breakfast in a kitchen while surrounded by walls filled with beautiful art work (not those dime-a-dozen pastel abstract smears of paint found in motels) with fluffy towels in the bathroom and an actual color on the walls (instead of utilitarian off-white) and lovely dishware and unique lamps; staying in a REAL house with character and lots of space.
So the decision was made; and then started the planning.
We turned in our notice to vacate our rental house and started packing. Always big discussions about what we were going to bring with us versus what we would put in storage. I wanted the security of all my stationary things (i have a 12 step worthy addiction to paper, pens, note paper, stickers, stationary, cards, etc. etc.) so i insisted on a big big plastic bin and everything accompanied me.
We sold our vw. and had our Toto checked out for road worthiness by our trusted mechanic. Toto is a 2006 Toyota Tacoma with a custom canopy which has a sloped and raised roof so we can sit upright on our porta-potty, an essential on this trip. Though to tell the truth we’ve had it for years; comes in handy when driving on state highways or when the Walmart bathroom toilets are broken. We rented a 10 X 10 storage unit and it is packed to the rafters with clothes, all our furniture and tv and cooking stuff and beds and STUFF. how did we accumulate all this stuff? and WHY? what’s sort of funny is that except for a very few things (more about that later) we have missed nothing.
We then had to decide where we wanted to go and what was available on the airbnb site. The main goal was to spend quality time and a long amount of time in Charlotte, NC to see Alicia. but we also wanted to include Bill’s relatives and his dad (Wisconsin, several places in Michigan, Arkansas, Chicago area,), my sister in New Mexico, friends in Portland, Oregon but also ‘free’ time for us; hiking in areas we have always wanted to go to like Big Bend, Texas and necessary no-drive or small hours of driving days. Neither of us like to spend over about 6 hours in the truck and this 6 hours has to include rest stops to stretch our legs and lunch and a stop to pick up some Cheetos which is our travel treat. (we have since expanded it to Fritos also)
Bill used the location map on the airbnb site to find specific areas where we wanted to stay. then he used Google maps to help pinpoint the house or condo. and this is because we wanted to be close to what we like to do: book stores, coffee houses, parks, hiking trails, movie theaters.
Bill also uses the same tool to keep track of our money. As soon as we make a reservation the money for the time reserved (or the first month of a multiple month stay) is taken out of our account and ‘held’ by airbnb. So Bill kept track of that on the google spreadsheets. We have a credit card that didn’t have any interest for the first 18 months which made making reservations way in advance possible.
Also using that same internet tool, he kept track of exactly where and when we were checking into and out of places on a colored calendar. even though airbnb gives a lot of reminders about upcoming reservations, our own calendar/reminder system helped a lot.
so in early February we were off! We stayed at apartments, condo’s or homes (except for the motel stays during the travel days and during the month of July when we did a lot of relative hopping). Since we were carrying our ‘entire home’ in the back of our truck, we tried to stay in places with 2 bedrooms; one bedroom being for our suitcases, computer stuff, my books, extra kitchen tools and spices and the ubiquitous and increasingly burdensome STATIONARY BIN.
Before we left Tucson in February we had made reservations at airbnb places through May. It was and is a balancing act between deciding months and months in advance where we want to be and for how long and making it set it stone by a reservation (for rentals of a month or more, the cancellation policy is always strict which means unless there is death or dismemberment or maybe a major mauling, there is no refund) or waiting till closer to our arrival time but then having just the perfect place at a good price with excellent reviews disappear and be taken by someone else.
For the reservation in Charlotte, NC it was really essential that the place had 2 bedrooms at least because we wanted alicia to be able to sleep over when her boyfriend keith was driving (he is a long haul flat bed driver). so when we saw the ideal one located with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, we grabbed it. Plus it was in a great neighborhood and very close to Alicia’s apartment and it was also conveniently located on her way to work.
The trip was absolutely wonderful; better and more fun and enjoyable than I had imagined and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect every place we went; it was like being in endless summer. We hiked many new trails. I met a lot of Bill’s relatives that I had never seen. We ate at great restaurants and saw new cities and met a lot of nice friendly people.
i fell in love with Southern drawls and story telling and helpfulness from strangers. The only 2 situations that happened that were not planned for or especially enjoyable (but, hey, this was life; not a road trip novel made into a movie) was my fall on a trail outside of Atlanta, Georgia resulting in a few fractures (elbow, ribs). I was totally mesmerized by flowers along the trail and dogwood trees in the woods and was oblivious to obstacles like stones on the path. Being from the desert, there are mainly shades of brown. and the other unexpected event was that Bill backed into a car - again outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Smyrna to be exact - while we were discussing money.
the main reason for the trip was the crowning glorious days spent with our daughter, Alicia, and her boyfriend, Keith. Besides seeing each other daily when we were in Charlotte, Alicia and sometimes Keith drove to Asheville, NC each weekend to stay with us and we went on a week’s vacation together to Pawley’s Island, SC and Kill Devil Hills in NC.
All the places we rented were exactly as described. There were no surprises or shocks necessitating the mediating arm of airbnb. Communication both before and during our stays was very good with all our hosts . All my questions or concerns were answered promptly with great good humor.
Checking into a house is always interesting and sometimes challenging. and its way more physical work than we thought. so much so that, now, staying a month at one place doesn’t seem long enough; at least 2 months would make the effort of hauling and unpacking and lifting worth it. and maybe it takes as long as it does (i clocked checking into and getting organized into a condo we had stayed in before; it took me 4 hours of pretty steady work.) because we are carrying too much stuff.
However, to buy, for instance, aluminum foil, cleaning products, toilet paper, vegetable oil, spices, honey, balsamic vinegar, etc. etc. everytime we move to a new place doesn’t make economic sense. so we needed to carry some basics with us. (as an aside, all the houses have had the ‘necessities’; toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, but the amount has differed and staying at least a month certainly meant we needed to replenish those supplies and to buy more.) By the end of the trip, I had gotten pretty skillful at judging the amount of kitchen food needed so perishables wouldn’t be wasted when we moved on. I noticed that each house, though, (amount varied) had leftover food in the refrigerator or pantry; half packages of noodles, opened jar of jelly, a jar of pickles.
I also became adept at planning our meal menu depending on how many new ingredients or staples i needed to buy and balancing that with how much longer we were staying at the current residence.
Another thing that affects our meals is what the host has for cooking equipment because again, we don’t want to be outfitting a kitchen every time we move. Though we have purchased a crockpot (this makes up for a lot of “missing” pots and pans and bowls), and a large frying pan and a saucepan with a lid; oh and a grater also.
There is never (almost) any baking supplies so we have been carrying around two cookie sheets since we bake our own cookies for hike breaks. and the Dollar Tree carries disposable cake pans, sometimes muffin tins and pie plates. The only house we stayed at with baking equipment was in Tucson and there was a beater, a spatula, lots of mixing bowls and even a loaf pan; oh i was in culinary brownie and truffle cake heaven.
Sticking with the kitchen and food for a bit, it takes a while to make room for our own groceries and staples. Most lodgings don’t leave much or any empty shelf space. This happens in the bathroom area too but sometimes that’s because the host has kindly set out a basket or other container filled with small scented soaps and hand lotions and shampoo. I love those little treats. Some hosts have basic breakfast food in the kitchen like bagels and cream cheese and orange juice or a bottle of wine or a bowl of fruit.
I absolutely love seeing how the hosts have decorated their house; what pictures, posters, artwork is hanging; are there unusual lamp shades?; colored towels or sheets; an eclectically decorated table; pottery; the selection of coffee cups and the pattern on dishes. Its just fun to see how other people outfit their house. and of course, its really nice to be able to visit all these new places.
I fell in love with North Carolina and was really impressed with Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was also fun to finally see Mackinac Island in Michigan and the Outer Banks.
For Bill, it always stretched his computer skill and knowledge regarding the various hook-ups in each house and in interpreting passwords. “is that a zero or an O? small letters or capitals?” Most people had phone line wifi access and the speeds varied from 1 mbs/sec to 35.
we realized at the end of the trip that we had packed too many clothes and I did NOT need the “security” of my bulky and large plastic bin of stationary. But we also became aware of just how much our homecooked meals involve either bbq-ing or a crockpot. Most places didn’t have a bbq grill and no one had a crockpot.
we have decided that yes, resoundingly yes, we are hittin’ the road again in 2015 using airbnb. Right now we are in Tucson staying at rentals and then in early March start Toto heading Southeast because once again we are spending a nice loving amount of time in Charlotte with Alicia and Keith. This time we’ll take a different route and we won’t be visiting the Aspell clan. We’ve been talking of looking at airbnb’s in Vancouver, B.C.
We may as well keep this traveling going while we can still walk and drive and see and hear and taste all the wonderful food at restaurants across the country.
Alicia; here come the parents!
