Hi! Our names are Mike and Desirae and we’re looking forward to sharing our adventures in our new blog. Here’s a little information about us and how we got here…
We began dating in 2005, and were married in 2010 at Kennedy School McMenamins in Portland, OR.
We are from the west coast (mostly Oregon) and moved to Detroit, MI in July, 2016. Our three amazing adult sons and daughter-in-law live in Oregon (first grandbaby expected March of 2022!), as do many of our close family and friends.
Here’s a pic of us and the “kids.” They’re pretty great.
When we first began dating we quickly realized some important shared interests that would come to define much of our lives… being outdoors, being adventurous, traveling, and camping. Together we have landed on the philosophy of living life now, and not waiting around for things to happen. As Mike likes to say: It’s later than you think (surely someone else said it first, not sure who). Both of us have seen lives cut way too short and know we need to make our lives happen sooner rather than later. We’re determined to make that our reality.
So, on that “make our lives happen” note, we picked up and moved everything we own across the country in 2016. We quit our jobs, left everyone we knew, bought a house we had walked through one time, and moved to a city we visited one spring break a few months before. And we moved to the place we now consider HOME. Detroit has been so good to us. We got jobs, made amazing friends, and fell in love with the city. Now we’re on a bit of a new adventure, while Detroit remains our home base.
When we first started dating we tent camped every summer for our first ten summers together. Each year, October would come around and we would stop camping — not being the hardcore sleep in a tent in the winter types. We hated the end of the season and decided we needed a camper in order to camp year round.
We purchased a T@B teardrop travel trailer in 2014. And we LOVED it. It was perfect for us. We had a bathroom inside (no more nights of laying in a tent dreading going outside to find the bathroom — perhaps my favorite upgrade), a kitchen outside (we still wanted to cook and be outdoors a majority of the time — this is for camping after all), air conditioning, heat, and a comfortable bed that doesn’t go flat in the middle of the night. We really felt like we were glamping after that! But we also felt like we kept the fun of camping because it wasn’t a camper you would spend a lot of your time in. For seven years we camped year round in T@B and absolutely loved it.
But over the years we kept coming back to “the dream.” The dream of living in a camper and traveling whenever and wherever we want to. The past couple of years we’ve talked about how we need to either make it happen or…. (well, the “or” was not an option for us!). In 2020, the pandemic kept us from our usual winter visit to Oregon family and friends. It kept us from being sure when we would be able to see them again. So, it was time to make RV life a reality, both for the “dream” and for sanity. We could drive to Oregon in the summer no matter what. No wondering if it would be safe to fly or stay in hotels/airbnbs. We’d have our own food and bathroom and could feel safe in our own space. We could isolate if needed along the way. AND we could now try out living in an RV…
So, we made our first big move towards making it happen over spring break 2021. We sold T@B (SO sad to say goodbye). T@B was amazing and we will always have such fond memories in that beautiful camper, but to live in an RV means we need a bit more space. Especially living in it with two cats! Then, we drove to Florida to pick up our new 2016 Thor Vegas 25.2. We traded in the pickup (no more need for towing and why have a second vehicle that sits at home for months on end), and drove home in our new motorhome. It was definitely a great way to get to know the motorhome right away.
Immediately we started getting her ready for our first big trip, that had grown from just a visit to family and friends inOregon by now. A four plus month trip to Oregon, down through California, and back to the midwest via Route 66. THE DREAM!
We’re still figuring out exactly how this will look for us… will we ever be permanently in the RV? Or will we just take months long trips and spend months in Detroit in between (probably), or will we stay mainly in Detroit and take a month or two long trips here and there? Time will tell!
We travel with our two cats. Patsy is our old lady (the tuxedo) born in September, 2004 and the “baby” is Vlade (all white) who was born in February, 2020. Pronounced vlah-day (think Vlade Divac from the NBA.. he flops and so does this boy!).
Patsy is very sweet, calm, and well-behaved. Desirae has had Patsy since she was 5 months old. Patsy loves nothing more than a nap on Desirae’s lap and being left alone by her annoying little brother! We love her so much and are so proud of how patient and flexible she has been while learning to adapt well to a life on the road.
Vlade is mostly just the exact opposite of Patsy. He’s definitely not calm and not very well-behaved. But he is pretty sweet, and getting sweeter all the time. He’s hilarious, quite an athlete (seriously, he could join a travel soccer team with his dribbling skills!) and brings us so much joy. We love him so much. He adopted us August 2020 by showing up hungry and lonely in our backyard, and we are so glad he did.
So far, we love this new adventure. We’ve competed one big trip, and are on a second one. Wish us luck!
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