Welcome to my first blog – Project Mayberry. My partner, Gianni, and I are about to set out on a quest in search of a simpler life in small town America. I decided to create this blog as a way to chronicle our journey and to share our experiences along the way on what is hoped to be a truly life changing adventure.
The Background:
Gianni and I are successful professionals living in Los Angeles with our two dogs Jack and Spencer. Gianni is a doctor and I am a business consultant. I have two lovely daughters from a prior marriage who spend their weekends with us. My oldest has just started college and my youngest is a junior in high school. Gianni and I have been together for five years. Like all couples, we have had both wonderful and challenging times throughout our relationship. Through it all, our love for each other has grown and our commitment to remain together has strengthened. We are both at the doorstep of the half century mark. It’s funny how when faced with the reality of turning fifty, the number itself isn’t as frightening as it seemed twenty or even ten years ago. On the contrary, I delight in the fact that soon I will achieve yet another milestone in my life. What is sobering however is the reality that there are likely less years in front of me than behind me. I don’t obsess on this fact with dread but more so I see this as an opportunity for assessment, self reflection, and planning. Like so many others who have reached this point before me, I find myself asking those age old questions. Where have I been? What have I accomplished? Where am I going? My definitions of success and happiness are changing and my priorities are shifting to align with these new definitions. While the thoughts and words here are mine, I can say with confidence that Gianni is at this same point given the numerous conversations we have had on these topics over the past couple of years. All of this has led us to this point, the launch of Project Mayberry.
The Project:
Project Mayberry is our five year plan to achieve a simpler life away from the crowds and stresses of living in a big city environment. Over the next five years we will visit a number of selected small towns to assess and evaluate their offerings with the goal of selecting the town that is the best fit for us and us for it based on some simple criteria that we have established. In truth, the project has already stated by virtue of several vacations and weekend getaways we have taken over the past few years. We are now just formalizing our efforts and will incorporate what we know of our past visits into this project. Our target “go-live” date is September 1, 2015.
Our plan is to visit at least one town per quarter over the next four years with the goal of making a final selection no later than one year prior to our go-live date in order to provide sufficient time to transition. Below is our short list of candidate towns based on our previous vacations, on-line research, our criteria, and conversations with friends and family:
California
Palm Springs
Healdsburg
Nevada City
Mendocino
Guerneville
Calistoga
Arizona
Sedona
Oregon
Jacksonville
New York
Hammondsport
Saratoga Springs
Skaneateles
Vermont
Woodstock
This list is a first pass with some towns more likely than others to make it to the final selection round. The list may change as we may find other towns throughout the journey that were not know to us at the start of this project.
Along this five year journey, we hope to see and experience many new things and meet some wonderful people. We will try to share as much of our journey as possible in order to engage others in what we hope will be an exciting and inspiring adventure.
Our first visit is scheduled for September 2010. We will be traveling to Northern California to the town of Guernville, a popular family destination, gay resort, and camping center in the Russian River Valley. It was founded by the Guerne family in the 1850s.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I look forward to having you along on our journey.
