Oh, New Jersey

Jill's Journal:
I promised some news a little over a week ago…and then little Miss Logan made her appearance and our news just didn’t seem so important. But an email this weekend (thanks Diana!) reminded me I was holding out, so here goes…

Last time we were in New Jersey as a family (nearly two years ago), I may have said some unkind things about the Garden State. It’s no secret it’s not our favorite place. In fact, I think there’s about 49 other states and several other countries we’d rather spend time in than New Jersey. Ouch.

But, as the old adage goes, be careful what you say…because sometimes it comes back to bite you.

While we are in no way ready to give up this RVing lifestyle or settle down, traveling is expensive and Rob’s employer has been trying to lure him to New Jersey for quite some time. When they offered a raise along with extra vacation time to sweeten the pot, we had no choice but to think about it and, after much negotiation, decided to go for it.

I don’t know how long we’ll be there, but we’ve decided to commit. Yes, we are moving to New Jersey in approximately two months. Oh, that’s hard to say! We’ve had so many wonderful adventures in our two years on the road and plan to have many more. In fact, we’ll just do this a little differently. Rather than moving every week or two or three like we’ve been doing, we’ll have an official base to travel from as Rob will be in the office during the week. Other than that, we don’t plan to slow down too much and won’t have to with so many amazing places in very close proximity.

The area of New Jersey we’ll be in is lovely. It’s rural and near the northern end of the Jersey Shore, but inland. With Manhattan being only a little over an hour away in one direction and Philadelphia being about the same distance in the other direction, there’s so much to explore right there (not to mention the rest of the entire East Coast and wonderful New England). We’ll have plenty to keep us busy for quite some time.

Yes, having a new baby played into this decision a little bit, but not much. The girls are craving lessons (Erika and Victoria are dreaming of horseback riding and Madelyn desperately wants to do ballet or gymnastics) and pets (ponies and kittens). While they love our lifestyle (and so do we!), we thought it wouldn’t hurt to give them a taste of regular life for a while.

So, New Jersey, here we come. Well, in a couple of months anyway. In the meantime, we’re going to soak up these last precious weeks with family, enjoy our new niece, “finish” our journey around California, and have a last “hurrah” in Las Vegas. And then? Well, we’ll see where life takes us from our base in New Jersey.