Course Update #1: Our First Landing Experience – New York State

As could probably have been expected, our first few weeks on our adventure have been a giant learning curve. We arrived here in Copake Falls, NY (or the “backside of the Berkshires” as I have started calling it) on Monday, October 8th, and it took maybe 2 days to get everything we brought with us unpacked and organized to be functional in our new home space. Which is a heck of a lot better than the month that it used to take me to unpack our whole house worth of stuff during our last several moves prior to our Digital Nomad launch.

Then, it was a little longer to get adjusted and locate things that were missing such as a baby gate for the top of the stairs, a few kitchen items we use daily/weekly, and a “pail” for our diaper laundry. (Yes, we are still cloth-diapering Pumpkin even though it takes up a HUGE duffle of space in the car. I’m ok with that rather than much more space in a landfill. A personal choice that’s not right for everyone.)

Physically settling into our space maybe took 4+ days more with running a few errands to Target and waiting for Amazon orders to arrive. But, still not too bad at all. What really “cost” us on this first transition was when our plans for doing a nanny share with my good friend, whose son is almost the same age as Pumpkin, didn’t work out as we imagined.

There were a whole bunch of reasons, but it just didn’t work. So, here we were landed but scrambling to find child care two days/week because of course I can’t schedule time with clients or write blog posts for you all when there’s a baby who needs some love and attention!

So, back on Care.com I went, and unfortunately we’re still looking! Which brings me to Lesson #1 about digital nomad lifestyle that we’ve learned so far:

This lesson isn’t only true of this lifestyle, but relevant for everyone who’s ever moved or just had their life shift significantly. Now, I’m starting a list of “providers” who I will research and (as appropriate) interview in advance of each move (a nanny, a house cleaner, and a chiropractor are the top three so far… darn ribs that slip out of joint too often (*smh*).)

Fortunately, the house cleaner was easy since we just contacted the person who usually cleans this place between guests for the Airbnb hosts, and we arranged to have her come every 2 weeks while we’re here.

Finding the nanny is taking bit longer, but if I had just started the process prior to leaving and done interviews via Skype or FaceTime to identify a few decent candidates that probably would allow us to hit the ground running with that one too in future.

The Chiropractor… well, I’ve tried 2 and don’t love either of them, so *sigh* still looking on that front and missing Dr Ashley McGovern back home ;).

Finding a yoga studio with classes that I want to try and possibly an online personal trainer are two items that are still on my list which have yet to get any love, but hopefully soon.

I’ve also started putting out feelers for a tax accountant who specializes in working with digital nomads because this lifestyle definitely makes your taxes more complex, and I want to be in good shape before tax time rolls around.

So, Digital Nomad Lifestyle Lesson #1 is to find the help you need… which brings me somewhat naturally to the subsequent lesson and decision we’ve made:

Yet again… this applies to everyone’s lives not just folks who might want to be digital nomads. This isn’t a vacation, it’s our lives, which means that we want to be able to feel comfortable and somewhat settled each place we land. It took me less than 2 weeks to realize that moving every 3 months was going to be too fast for us.

Unfortunately, we already have the first 3 places booked for 3 month stays, and extending them isn’t possible (believe me, I asked.) So, starting summer of next year we’ll be lengthening our sojourn in each place to at least 4 months, thus reducing our number of transitions/year from four to three.

We’ll see how that feels and if that gives us enough time to really relax and feel settled in each place. I also think that with each transition we will get better at figuring out what we need and how to find/get it quickly or set it up in advance, so I have hope that when we land in Sedona, AZ in the winter it might feel easier than this past few weeks has.

Those have been the big “Lessons” of our first experience of landing as digital nomads. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t also share some of the fun that we’ve had!

We have visited with local friends which has been truly delightful. We took a drive into the Catskills to attend the Hunter Mountain Oktoberfest which was beautiful and so much fun! We tasted wine (and beer of course), enjoyed some German music and dancing, explored the vendors, and soaked in the lovely surroundings of the Catskill mountains in fall.

We were having so much fun that we forgot to take many photos to share, oops! But, Pumpkin enjoyed watching the dancing!

Brian has discovered a “semi-local” improv class in Schenectady, NY, which is something that he’s always wanted to try. So, last weekend while he enjoyed that, Pumpkin and I went to the Via Aquarium about 15 minutes away from the class and had a great time watching the fishies and splashing around in their super cool, multi-level water table.

However, mostly we’ve been exploring the rail trail, which is walking distance from our house and enjoying the beauty of Fall here in New York State nestled between the Berkshires and the Catskills.

Much to our delight we also had a great Halloween with Pumpkin, who definitely enjoyed her first experience Trick-or-treating as Yoda on “The Hill” in Great Barrington, MA.

Locals tipped us off that it was an excellent place about 20 minutes away from us, and it was packed with kids and excellent halloween decorations. Granted about one street was our max at toddler pace and with bedtime in sight, but she’ll work up to zooming through the neighborhood like other kids later ;).

So, all in all… we’re having a great time, learning a few lessons (as everyone does), and mostly finding joy in our everyday. I have definitely had moments driving through the rural landscape and looking up at the mountains covered in their fall colors when I said to myself… this, this is why we’re here. Such glorious natural beauty.

We’re here for another six weeks, so we’ll get to enjoy watching the leaves finish changing as well as spend some more time with family and friends. So, next month I’ll likely be wrapping up our adventures in New York State, sharing plans for December, and our BIG cross country road trip from CT to AZ.

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In the meantime, it’s time for a deep breath and a smile knowing more adventures await.

P.S. For those of you in the US – Today’s Election Day. Remember!  #VOTE2018