Planning the Big Move

Although we have been visiting Cabo for years on vacation, living in another country is a whole new ballgame. We spent months researching areas to live, what type of visa we needed to get, how we would pay our bills, and understanding how we could continue making a living to support it all.

Moving to another country is hard work. You make all this progress in one category, and then while walking to grab lunch one day, you catch yourself wondering about insurance, taxes, if they’ll have “X” at the grocery store, how much can we fit in our car on the road trip down, can we ship, what’s safe, what’s not? Your head starts spinning…

Of course, social media outlets about living in Mexico highlight one extreme to another, making you wonder if you’re moving to paradise or making the worst decision of your life. We know we loved visiting once a year to sit on the beach and sip margaritas while being waited on all day long, but living as a local sounded like it would be a whole different story (UPDATE: it totally is but so far, seems worth it).

Regardless, we have had to find a balance of it all, and remind ourselves that we wanted a change of pace and a new adventure in the first place. The whole experience is supposed to be freeing, adventurous, and while stressful, crazy, and uncertain… we have each other as we go through this experience and any adventure we take on in life together.

We struggled deciding if we wanted a condo on the beach or a mountain-side house in the corridor in Cabo… both, again, have their advantages and disadvantages. Yet we couldn’t help but be intrigued, especially while we’re renting, to be walking distance to go to the beach instead of having to hop in the car and pack up for a “beach day”.

Per usual, we went overkill on a spreadsheet (gallery, even) of rental options…

Cabo Rental Options

After some nights of debate and “mucho vino”, we landed on a house in a gated community called Ventanas. They offered 3 pools and gyms on-site, 24-hour security in a gated community, and our 3-bedroom home would have main floor ocean views with a private rooftop. We could not be more excited to hit the road and settle in to our new digs!

After signing paperwork for our new place, getting a storage unit in Denver for everything we were leaving behind, and creating the most ridiculously detailed car-packing strategy, we were as ready as it gets to embark on our epic journey.

Days before we left and after we’d packed everything in our kitchen, we ordered our Chinese delivery for dinner. Inside one of our fortune cookies was about the best advice to receive before hitting the road, sealing-the-deal in our minds on this decision and why we were committing to this in the first place.

The Road Trip

Below is an overview of our entire road trip. We had an awesome time planning it, as it was the first big road trip we would do together since we drove a U-Haul from Dallas to Denver with Leigh and all her things. Kyle took a little sabbatical from work to focus on the move, where he dove in to the details of each stop. We weren’t just trying to get from Point A to Point B. We wanted to take full advantage of our time on the road and see what we could fit in along the way.

We will follow-up with a new post for each day of the journey so everyone can get an inside look at the amazing sights, the funny, scary, and beautiful experiences, and of course, lots of photos of Kennedy enjoying (almost) every minute of it.

Day 1: Denver → Moab

Day 2: Moab → Grand Canyon → Williams

Day 3: Grand Canyon → Lake Havasu → Brawley

Day 4: Brawley → Mexico Border → Guadalupe Wine Country

Day 5: Wine Tasting Day in Guadalupe

Day 6: Guadalupe → Ensenada → Guerrero Negro

Day 7: Guerrero Negro → Mulegé → Loreto

Day 8: Loreto → La Paz → Cabo San Lucas

Road Trip by the Numbers

Being the obsessive planners and tech junkies we are, a mapped out trip on a piece of paper wasn’t going to cut it. Here’s a snapshot and breakdown of every stop we made. Click here to see details about each or attractions we saw along the way.