Editor’s note: For the last several weeks we have followed Ingrid’s travels in Mexico, where she goes each December with her boyfriend, our very own columnist Victor Reyes. Ingrid is a West Marin native, raised on a dairy ranch in Marshall. Over a year ago she lost her home there and, not finding a suitable rental in the area, packed her belongings, bought a van and began to travel. She stayed with friends and house-sat. After her trip to Mexico she touched down briefly here before moving to a new home north in Mendocino County. We skipped over her last two reports from Mexico, but you can read about her time in Mexico City and her New Year’s Eve with Victor’s family in Puebla on her blog, talesofwanda.wordpress.com.  

 

It’s been almost a year and a half since I had to move out of my house on the shores of Tomales Bay. The housing situation in West Marin has only gone from bad to worse since then. I thought I could wait it out; I grew up here after all, I know so many people, surely something would open up that would work for me if I was just patient. But after over a year of scattered belongings and often not knowing where I was going to sleep at night, I was about ready for a change. I had a two-month housesit in the fall, the first time in over a year I could stay in one place for that long. Having that bit of time to breathe, and not having to be constantly moving, packing, and unpacking, gave me the space I needed to come up with a housing plan. So I settled in and started breathing, and it soon became apparent what that plan was going to be: Leave this area and go someplace where housing availability and prices are still reasonable. Duh! In retrospect, I’m wondering why it took me so long to come to this sort of obvious conclusion, but I had this crazy idea that it would be good to stay close to family, friends and home if I could. And sure it would, but clearly I can’t.

So I started calling people and looking at housing ads further up the coast, and it didn’t take long to find a house—150 miles north, near Fort Bragg. It’s not right on the water like my old house, but it’s on a large property at the end of a dirt road (my kinda location), you can at least see the ocean from there, there’s a big state park nearby, hiking trails, two nearby rivers to explore, and best of all, several good friends in the area who have already moved there for similar reasons. The landlords are a home-schooling family of five who chose ME for their preferred tenant, partly because they liked what they read on my blog. Great to feel wanted! and I think we’ll be good friends and neighbors. The house itself is not my dream house but pretty dang nice, spacious and in good shape, with a nice deck and a big attached greenhouse which I’m pleased about.

So I’m moving north..if not to Alaska, at least in that direction. I will visit West Marin often I’m sure, but as of now it’s become, for me anyway, a nice place to visit but I can’t afford to live here. I’m looking forward to getting to know a new community, new music scene, new places to go, people to see, and things to do. Tales of Wanda may start a fresh new chapter (with an updated subtitle) for future travels, of which there will be many, I hope. There may also be a new page called North Coast Notes or something to that effect. 

And though I will no longer be homeless, I fully intend to still be on vacation, as much as possible, to the best of my ability. Thank you for following along on this journey!