switzerland

Jetlag!

We’ve arrived safely in Arizona as of last week, but we’re still a bit worse for wear. Jetlag in a pair of toddlers is a helluva thing!

Departure from AMS!

We had a bit of an unorthodox travel itinerary: from Zurich, we stayed a week in Amsterdam to visit Oma, and then we flew to Calgary (YYC), stayed 17 hours, and then finally flew to Phoenix (PHX). I’ll refrain from deciding if the stayover in Calgary was the right call or not, as it’s very much a toss-up, but we did stay at the in-terminal Marriot hotel there, which was quite pleasant. And beyond that, we discovered that YYC has some fun playgrounds, for when you’re wandering the empty halls at 2am in your pajamas.

That was only the beginning of the journey, however. We did eventually arrive in PHX, sans one bag–still lost, a week later–but the middle-of-the-night adventures only reached a fine middle. We know exactly which businesses are open at 4am in the Phoenix area, and I must say, disappointment! Turns out, “Dutch Bros Coffee” is not a place for coffee: there’s nary a drink without whipped cream, and when we asked for two latte macchiatos, the legitimate response was “frosted or whipped?” But no matter, Tyler wanted “fries and an ice cream without a straw”, which seemed an entirely reasonable request, so adventure-ho! McDonald’s? Nope, no fries, only tater-tots. Jack-in-the-Box? “We only accept mobile orders” (which they helpfully told us over the order-taking intercom of the drive-up we were at…). The winner? Wendy’s! Frosty’s and Fries! (Apparently the only thing they were able to produce at the time, too.)

Wendy’s at 5am

The kids are slowly adjusting to the new clock though, thankfully. That first week was really rough. This past week we’ve stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a hotel with a built-in water park… but we chose it primarily for the cozy sleeping quarters for the kids!

Next up: we’re getting our truck! It arrived at the dealership today, so we’ll be picking it up very soon!

All Our Bags Are Packed

… we’re ready to go. I’m saying goodbye to our house in Langnau am Albis this week, but Nadine and the boys are already in Amsterdam visiting Oma, while I’m finishing up in an ever-increasingly-empty house. Thankfully, I still have a bed to sleep on!

Nadine & the boy’s luggage (& carseats)

I’ve been making time in the evenings to say goodbye to friends; it’s been fun. It’s hard to know what to say: I’m sure many feel abandoned, which I can understand, with us moving a whole continent away regardless of the RV aspect. But, we’re moving “into adventure”, and I’m sure I’ll see them again in the not so distant future.

Tyler helpfully showing off his newest artwork from his last day at McTot’s

Sappy bits aside, we’re go, go, go! Truck was built and is being shipped, to arrive shortly after ourselves. The Rig is still on-schedule for an 11/11 build. So, off to Amsterdam to meet with the family, then we’re US-bound!

Our Shipping Boxes
Moving in to Gado5
Moving out of Gado5

Downsizing, continued

We’re at T-minus 2 weeks until we’re written out of Switzerland, and things are emptying out rapidly! We’ve been sending visitors to our home away with carloads full of stuff, and we’re now eating off of our fold-up outdoor table.

Lunch at Fischer’s Fritz

We had a pleasant lunch at Fischer’s Fritz today, well, once we wrangled in the children. It’s a restaurant along the lake, but also a “Camping”; it was interesting to see the European variants of what we’re headed towards, and the many differences in vehicle choices! So much smaller, and almost no slide-outs.

The days are ticking away! And it sounds like our new 2022 Ford F-350 DRW truck might even be ready for us in Arizona during the first few days!

Downsizing, Internationally

It’s been a whirlwind these past weeks, as we go through the process of “downsizing” (read: sell everything), and prepare for our international move. A very stressful whirlwind! Did I mention that our plan was to fly with only 6 suitcases? Well, we’ll also ship a few boxes, but there’s no “big shipment” following us.

Thankfully, the actual selling has been relatively drama-free, but so far it’s already involved sales to more than 50 people, and that’s a lot more social contact than we’ve had in the past 18 months! It also feels pretty weird helping someone load up your sofa into their van, knowing that you’re not replacing it, either. We’re also down to nearly nothing left in the kitchen, so we’re getting more creative with our serving and eating dishes!

Our eldest, Tyler, has been very understanding… perhaps even excited, but I think it might be because he thinks it means he can buy entirely new toys. He’s not exactly wrong, but there will definitely be fewer of them! Quality over quantity, right? He also knows that America has Monster Jam, so there’s that.

We’ve also had a few panic-moments with the scheduling of our truck and RV, which have not helped our stress levels! We had to drop the “full-body paint” option off of our RV, because with it, the RV was only going to be available in mid-February… but without? End of November. That’s an insane delay for paint, and it’s also expensive ($12k or so), so this way we save the money, and we can instead use it to get a custom paint job down the line if we decide we need a little pep to our step.

The truck’s production scheduling also went through some hiccups; first being moved back by more than a month, and then a few days later, being brought forward by a week. So now it’s not going to be there to greet us, but hopefully only be a week or two behind. And still ahead of the trailer, which is pretty important. Fingers crossed that there’s no more slippage!

Meet the Dutchmen!

Hi there!

We’re a family of four, currently living in Switzerland, but with a big adventure ahead of us: we bought an RV in the US, and plan to move into it “full-time”.

We had been trying to figure out where to “settle down”, and buy a house, but nothing felt quite right. We knew we probably would end up in the US, but didn’t know where. So, why choose?! Let’s explore instead!

Besides, at least our refrigerator will be bigger.

Eric's first-draft sketch of our logo
Our first draft for our logo. Eric is showing his artistic side!

Time for a round of introductions! We’re Nadine & Eric, and our two boys are Tyler & Aidan, aged 3 & 1 at the start of our adventure. Three of us have Dutch citizenship, though Eric plans to apply for it as well, making us the Roving Dutchmen!

We hope you enjoy following us on our adventures, which we’ll try to detail here. Time for adventure!