After almost two years in Los Angeles we have moved on. We had gotten to the point where we really needed to establish residency, and although Lee has worked on 15 films and a couple of TV shows, (and gotten some of his his IMDB credits) when he looks at the landscape for work in the future it’s not great at all.

There were many factors that contributed to his decision (and it was 100% his decision) including the fact that a full year after the strikes were settled, the work isn’t returning. It’s going to other states which are giving aggressive tax breaks, and countries where labor is a fraction of what it is here. Productions in LA are down 80% from the same date range prior to the strikes, and there are no indications it’s going to get better, ever. In fact, all of the studios are laying off employees, and building more LED volumes which require almost no crew at all, and AI is also an existential threat to the business on the horizon. Surveys of crew shows that more than half are experiencing serious financial hardship and many are leaving the industray altogether because they just can’t afford to wait any longer. He has talked to many established people who haven’t worked much at all in the last two years and although he could continue to tough it out indefinitely he decided it was time to call it quits and live life instead of hoping to later.

Frankly, I was thrilled. As much as I tried to find a sense of community in LA I never really did, and the high prices and congestion were not my favorite. It was a hard decision but once it was made we acted pretty quickly and Lee spent the week I was on a work trip getting us ready to go.

One thing I will mention is it is tough to get rolling again when you have sat for so long. It took a solid week of prep which included oil changes, replacing a leaking trailer tire, filling up the propane, taking on fresh water, and repacking. Lee gave away all the beautiful flowers and plants to our neighbors (he was very popular) and sold a few more expensive items on Facebook Marketplace. I was kind of happy I missed all the prep because it allowed Lee to focus without me getting in his way.

Saturday morning we hitched up and rolled out around 12:30pm. We were headed to a new place. Lone Pine, California and I booked us to stay for three weeks. Since we didn’t have a solid plan for what came next I wanted someplace new to us, relatively close, and with full hookups. It was a bit like throwing a dart on a map but someone was looking out for me because this place is great!!

I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but I want to thank everyone who has hung in there over the last couple of years with the blog. Things are about to get interesting again!

The rig as we drive north from Los Angeles.

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes