2020...what a year full of change.
My last day in the office with Target was Feb 28, 2020. It's been 166 days since then filled with a lot of time working from home with George in our 739 square foot one bedroom apartment. Looking back at our grand plans for getting a small space to save money and to simply utilize the 5 work from home spaces or 2 lounges if we ever decided to work from home on the same day seem comically misguided.
But we got creative and made do with what we had. We initially tried both working in our main room - George at his normal desk and me at my flimsy Amazon desk. Unfortunately we just had too many video conference calls to make it work well. Whenever my coworker Peter couldn't hear George in the background, he asked where he was. Ha!
Our second approach involved turning our closet into a "second room" (note the big air quotes). It took some shifting to combine our clothes into 1/2 the closet, but we did manage to fit a desk in there. Each day, we would share the two spaces. I would work in the main room in the morning & then pick up my computer, keyboard (George and I have very different opinions on keyboards!), headphones, notebook & yoga ball chair to swap into the closet post lunch. We got very good at the quick switch.
As timing to renew/end our lease approached, (our first year living together!) we started brainstorming where to go next. After Target announced that we would be fully remote for the balance of 2020, we realized it didn't make sense to keep paying downtown - walk to work - luxury apartment with shared facilities fees anymore. Initially we were looking at somewhere further out in the exurbs/suburbs, but worried about how I would get to work at the point we would need to return if we were too far out.
So the idea was born - what if we took remote to the extreme? We started brainstorming in a google doc that grew to be 12 pages long. I'll share a few of the highlights here.
Goals
Explore new places (G, M)
Mountains and hiking (G, M)
Biking (G)
Live somewhere different (G)
Spend a similar amount of money on living expenses (G, M)
Test run places we might want to live (G, M)
Long vacation in places we wouldn’t want to see in just a week (G, M)
Visit new national parks (M)
Minimize driving to meet other goals (M)
Requirements
Have somewhere we can work - aka wifi and 2 desk setup - could bring 1/2 (M)
Start Aug 16th & have the option to return at end of 2020/when Target calls Megan back
Access to groceries and household supplies
Option 1: Minneapolis -> Kansas City -> Denver -> Salt Lake -> Butte -> Spokane
Option 2: Minneapolis -> Bozeman-> Glacier -> Portland -> Oregon #2 -> Salt Lake -> Denver ->Minneapolis
Option 3: Minneapolis -> Denver -> Grand Teton/Yellowstone -> Ketchum -> Portland
Option 4: Vacation to Glacier & then Minneapolis -> ship car to Portland -> Somewhere in Idaho -> ??
After weighing the various costs, potential Covid risk, driving time & likelihood of our future plans, we landed on option 4. And the whirlwind began.
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