To follow my dream

[RomanyQueen1]

Have wanted to sell up for a while and travel, rather than live in 4 walls all the time.
We'd seriously down size, keep a small home for winter and travel throughout the UK.
Dh has not been on board until now, and we aren't usually the type to plan, just drift through life.
However, I think I've worn him down now, but he also has mh issues.
AIBU to go ahead with it now he's on board or is it wrong as he has mh issues and could be manipulating him.

Yes, he's a musician and I was in/ just starting again in entertainment, we'll be working together sometimes.
So his work is throughout the uk anyway, sometimes he stays in hotels, others he drives home.
This way we could travel, work and stay in our own van/waggon.
We've had that many addresses over the last 30 years, although have been here 18 years now. The first 12 years were all over the place

He’s still got to take his head with him.....

Why don't you rent a camper and try it yourself for a bit as you're the one who's most keen. Couple of months? Then if it's not what you imagined you can pack it in, if it's as good as you hoped you can revisit it as a full lifestyle change?

Try it for two months before making any decisions.

DH & I did something similar (full time travel through Europe and Asia) and it's really not the fantasy you expect it to be.

I had MH issues and it made them worse. All fine now, but you don't know how you'll cope until you try it.

You still have to cook, wash, do laundry, get a good sleep, as well as trying to sightsee and enjoy where you are. You have to be quite resillient, very flexible and have heaps of positivity and energy.

Good luck!

Thank you for the encouraging posts, we will keep a small property and were looking at downsizing anyway.
Our oldest has left home now, ds2 is anytime soon, and youngest is 15 and can't wait.

So your youngest hasn't taken GCSE yet?

No, she's Y10, only home for holidays, will have study leave for a month next year, but that's no problem as her study environment will be whatever she wants.

You’re talking shite hen. You can’t tell specific ancestors from DNA and certainly not far back enough to identify a ‘queen of her clan’

I’ll accept you might have done some genealogy to trace your family through the traveller community, but again this is enormously doubtful because Roma ancestry is notoriously difficult to trace from outside the community since they tend to travel across borders and don’t routinely register births marriages and deaths, never have.

If you know this from word of mouth, treat that with a pinch of salt too. Every traveller I know claims the blood of a nation king in them . If you’ve identified you have Roma heritage from a DNA test and nothing more as I suspect you have, I can see why your DH is hesitant to adopt a travelling lifestyle.

I may well be wrong, but by the way you’re talking about Roma heritage I suspect you’re not an active member of the community.

The real appeal is the easier life

Life on the road isn’t necessarily easier though. Limited cooking facilities, having to fill water carriers, wash clothes, storage space etc, parking up, being just two people in a very confined space....(6 months travelling in a van in my 20’s in another country was an experience. 20 years on and I’m all for my home comforts!)

I do think hiring something and going off for a month or two sounds like a good idea to see how you get on.

Norris

I've gone back quite a long way with my family tree and my ancestors were quite famous featuring in Borrow and Sampson works, and of course featured in Bunyan's Tales. Not to mention a several times gm named as Queen of the gypsies, having a huge funeral shown on Pathe news. I must have just got lucky with the records too, but if you know their routes you soon find them baptising several children at once in the churches.

Bringback

We won't rush into anything and will still have somewhere to live if it doesn't work out.
Also, still very much in it's infancy, just looking for what type of van atm and what requirements we need.

Ok, so you’re not Roma. In that case don’t you think it’s essentially cultural appropriation for you to claim your desire to travel is because of a heritage to a community you’re not part of? I don’t know, that just doesn’t quite sit right. Wanting to feel connected to your roots is fine, but I have visions of you jumping in a van with your family and telling anyone who will listen you’re Going ‘back to your roots’ and that you’ve got ‘Romani blood’.. honestly there’s nothing worse.

You sound like a folky to me wanting to do the festival circuit over the summer. That’s a fab plan and having done it myself I can say it’s excellent fun, but it’s absolutely not something you’d sell your home to do

You’ll need a solid base somewhere even in the summer in case something goes wrong. If someone gets sick or the van breaks or you can’t get a solid pipeline of gigs lined up you’re going to need somewhere to retreat to. One of our folky friends used to use us for this function but after 4 months found himself a flat because he couldn’t get a good run between festivals without needing a break. He still did the circuit but kept the flat on as a base camp.

It’s a nice dream, but practically it would be a lot more difficult than you think to do it full time. I personally think you have an image of yourself as a ‘romani’ folky enigma travelling the circuit in your van and making a living from the festival circuit and I know where it’s cone from, you see a lot of people at festivals who look like they lead this lifestyle but in reality it’s a very different story. Most have some kind of base somewhere and a lot I’ve assets/ rental incomes.

Norris, what are you on about, of course I'm Roma, there's every Romany name in my ancestry. It's not whether you travel it's your blood and your belief system and culture. Plenty of Romany don't travel.

Will definitely take on board it might not be the fairytale, it just seems the right thing for now, if it's not to be we won't have lost anything.
He works throughout the UK atm, and is pretty much booked up with sessions, recordings, gigs, workshops and masterclasses. Festivals are a bit of fun for part of the summer where we can all go.

We will definitely keep a small bungalow and have an income from rental of other properties.

Thank you all for the reality check though, there is a lot to consider.