Today is not a new day for the world. It’s not a new day for us or even myself. It is a new day for our journey, our journey to Alaska. Over the next few posts, I’ll begin to unpack our drive and desire to move to Alaska. It was not a short decision. It was in fact, a 12 year choice.

Our desire to move to Alaska actually began in 2012. We had previously toured around the US in a 5th wheel in 2007 (before everyone else did it) looking for a place to call home. What we were looking for was seclusion, mountains, trees, creeks, rivers, waterfalls, usable land, 4 distinct seasons, and a strong sense of “this is home”. We wanted to be off grid as much as we could. And, we wanted it to be affordable with very limited government red tape.

We called it “The Escape from Super Walmarts” because every time we would move somewhere, within a few years, a Super Walmart would come close to us and change everything. Don’t get me wrong, we loved shopping at Walmart (until they went to self checkouts – never again, but that’s a different story). We just didn’t want to be near one as it brought in more people, more apartments, more houses, more subdivided properties, etc.

We settled on a tiny little non-town outside of Austin, TX. We built a home, a homestead and raised our 2 daughters.

After only a few years, it didn’t really feel right. It didn’t have many of the features we desired. It only had seclusion, trees, usable land and that’s about it. We began wanting another place. The place we dreamed of. <cont.>