One constant theme of this blog has been looking forward. We haven’t spent much time reminiscing. We are always looking to the next adventure, and trying to make the most of the moment. This is great most of the time, but now looking forward means we can see the end of the adventure coming — at least as it has been.

Eleanor and I have been conferring daily for weeks about our travels through next spring. We’ve finally come to some conclusions. First off, we will park the Airstream for about two and a half months, starting December 21, 2007. That’s the Big One.

There are a few good reasons for this. We need to get serious about feathering our nest in Tucson. One point of buying the house was to have a place to go to in case of emergency, or to catch up on things between trips. It needs painting, furniture, and a few details (like a kitchen) before we can inhabit it.

We want to get back before Christmas to finally meet our long-distance friend Bruno, who is flying in from France for his annual southwest US vacation. And we’d like to celebrate Christmas in the house, even if it means sitting on a rug on the floor and cooking in the Airstream.

It will take us most of two months to get the house in order. This schedule will allow us to scoot off for long weekends occasionally, so we won’t be totally housebound. We’re even planning to keep the Airstream plugged in, stocked, and with the fridge running, so we can grab a quick trip at any time. All of those trips, and some in-between ruminating, will be blogged. By mid-March, the house work should be done. At that point we’ll head out again for at least 6-7 months.

I wonder if, during the house phase, we’ll start looking back on the past two years wistfully. Will we start looking backwards? I’ve heard from other full-timers that the transition back to a fixed location can be a little rough.

Fortunately, for us this isn’t the end, only a transition. We are going to continue to travel extensively in the Airstream even after the house is done. There’s really no reason to settle down yet, and there are so many places we want to go. So the blog will continue.

The only question left is what to do with the blog during the transition period of Dec 21 through mid-March. Well, there’s good news in that department. We are working on a major new Airstream Life website which hopefully will be up by Christmas. I have invited several top-notch Airstream bloggers to join me at our new website, and we’ll all be blogging (in separate threads) here at Airstreamlife.com. So even if our blog is a little quiet, there will be 4-6 other similar blogs to follow.

I may also launch a temporary blog for the house renovations for those who want to snicker as we bumble through the process. I’m sure we’ll have a few amusing adventures of a different sort as we wrestle with contractors and write enormous checks for things we didn’t expect to need.

Hmm … let’s not dwell on that now. We have good stuff to think about in the coming few weeks. Southern California awaits, with all its fantastic spots: Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park, Anza-Borrego, San Diego, In’n’OutBurger … And, we have the inklings of a really great trip across Texas and into Mexico, and then to the southeast US this spring.

Going forward, our goal is to find a good balance between the benefits of travel and the benefits of a fixed home. I expect that challenge will be with us for many years. Just when we think we’ve got it figured out, something will happen to mix the formula up a bit. That’s good. Life is a process of constant change, and that’s what makes it interesting.