Where to move?

Wednesday May 27, 2015

Home Sweet Home. How much is that doggie in the window?

We've been living in the Sunset district of San Francisco for over four years. One of the things we really liked about the Sunset is the neighborhood feel. Many of our neighbors have lived in the home that's been in their family for generations. There are hardly any chain stores - we love shopping at the local pet store, grocery store and the locally-owned restaurants.

When we moved to the Sunset, the economy was struggling and housing prices, although high, were somewhat in the ballpark. Even so, we struggled every month to meet the monthly housing expense.

It got even worse when the economy turned around, and now San Francisco is the most expensive place to live in the nation. Our lease was coming due for a renewal, and our landlord was looking to raise the monthly costs by $600. 

Live365 headquarters

We started discussing where we'd like to live. My office at Live365 is 25 miles South of the City, so we thought it might be advantageous to find more affordable housing in the San Mateo area. But as we began searching, we were dismayed to find that housing was even more expensive down the Peninsula as you approached Silicon Valley, the tech center of the world.

What to do? Cheri came up with a very creative idea - let's put all our possessions in storage and buy an RV and travel across the amazing country we live in and see if we can find a new community that we connect with. 

I didn't give it much thought, but two days later when we took our MiniCooper in for servicing at our local garage, we noticed an RV parked out front. We mentioned to the shop owner, who has become a friend, that we had this crazy idea about buying an RV to do some traveling. His response, "Oh, don't buy an RV - I have one that I'll give you to use!"

We were dumbfounded and couldn't believe what he was saying. We realized that this was a "Gift from God." If we didn't do this, we would regret it for the rest of our lives. Sure enough, within a week, we were test driving the rig and then signing papers to take the 1999 National Dolphin on the road.

My next step was to discuss our plans with Live365's CEO Mark Lam. As the Director of Broadcasting, I had many responsibilities, and I did not want to suddenly shirk my duties. At a four-hour lunch, we hammered out the details: some of my office duties would be handed over to others, and I would continue to work with broadcasters from the road. We worked out a timetable of when I would make the transition, and at the beginning of June, our new adventure on the road would begin.