Preperation, Part 2... Plan, plan,WAIT, plan

So we've decided that we want to sell our dream home, the one we thought we would stay in until... we want to become full-time RV'ers and we want a Redwood 36FB. Now the real work begins...

THE HOUSE -

We list the house for sale in the winter of 2010, right after Christmas. After we talk it over with our agent and sign the papers he asks for the key to put in the lockbox... Ruth and I look at each other... do you know where the key is I ask?... No she replies... it took us 3 days to find them... we NEVER locked the doors in that house the entire 11 years we lived there as it was so far off the grid. I even left the keys to the car in the ignition with the car in the front driveway!  So where do I find the key to the house... in the car, unlocked in the driveway of course! When we find the keys we call the agent and he comes by to put it in the lockbox... and we get a call to show it. Ruth and I both freak out...what, they want to come look at OUR house... what if they want to buy it!!! We tidy up and get ready to leave... Ruth is crying, I'm freaking out...we start to pull out of the driveway and see our neighbor getting his mail. We stop, tell him what's going on, why Ruth is crying and off we go. After returning home the neighbor comes over and tells me he wants to talk...they want to buy the house and rent it back to us till we're ready to hit the road... too good to be true... and it was!!! !!! We sign a contract and the deal is set. The bank drags their feet, and when I say drag I REALLY mean drag... six months later and after our neighbor has since purchased another home in the Savannah area they tell us they cant wait any longer, that they have used the funds they had set aside to purchase the other house... so we're back to zilch!

So we start over, sign an extension on the listing with our agent and wait... fortunately the wait was not too long before we start getting lookers. We get a call from an agent saying she wants show the home to a woman so we get out of the house for the afternoon. Funny, we could always tell when the house was shown...  when we return home and try to go into the house... the door is locked!!! When this happens we just go around back and go through one of the sliding doors which were not locked either. Then we get a call from the same agent, they want to return, this time with the guy, a couple from Athens so we wait for a call telling us when...and we get a knock on the door...they're there, at our house, unannounced AND without the agent??? Well, turns out they are a great couple, love the house and after a couple of more visits and another long bank delay we sell the house and close at the end of October 2012. Turns out he is a musician and play Celtic music, plays often in Dahlonega, so the move is great for him...he works in Atlanta and has to commute at least 3-4 days a week (about a 75 mile drive one way)...better him than me!!!

Funny thing about moving, the longer you have to prepare, the longer you wait to get started! Knowing we were going to move, and knowing we were ultimately moving into an RV we knew we needed to get rid of stuff...LOTS of stuff!!! Going from a 2100 sq. ft. home with huge basement and attic full of stuff to an RV, maybe 400 sq. ft.???
We started, at least Ruth started, going through stuff pretty quickly, me...we had plenty of time so what's the rush and besides most of the stuff is Ruth's anyway, I have very little... HA!!!! Big mistake!!!
Regardless, once we know we had a deadline the pressure was on. Ruth had eliminated a huge amount of our stuff, some to consignment, some to our children, lots to charity and even some in the dumpster. But we still had more that imaginable. I finally got busy going through my stuff...
I've been a volunteer with the Boy Scouts for close to 30 years... Boy Scouts is a program where you get a t-shirt or patch or both for most any event you participate in and I have been involved with several committees who enact policy and have lots of meetings so I had LOTS of paper and books. Needless to say, I had tons of Boy Scout stuff and sorting through it all was overwhelming...do I keep it of get rid of it, if I get rid of it should I give it so another Scouter or toss it...so over 30 kitchen garbage bags of shirts and at least 6-8 trips to recycling later I have a box one single box, to store, pretty good huh??? Took lots of time to go through all that stuff!!!
The closer the closing date got, the more stress, Ruth is dealing with leaving the house, dealing with a job she really dislikes and me. I'm closing in on a HUGE assignment for the Boy Scouts which is consuming more and more of my time, not to mention I'm still trying to work...at least a little. To make things worse, the Boy Scouts has a meeting scheduled in West Virginia the weekend before we move...let's just say the final weekend didn't go well... but we survived it and we got moved. There are too many people to thank, lets just say THANKS to everyone who either helped, or prayed, or encouraged us!!!

Praise God our daughter Erin, who is a great real estate agent and has a great eye for a deal, she had a house we could live in until we got ready to hit the road. Thank you Erin!!!!!! So off to Athens we go, happy, sad, anxious, excited, all of the above, and then some.

Did I mention that we REALLY miss Dahlonega, our friends there, our church there...we miss Dahlonega!!!

THE RESEARCH -
Once we decide to focus on the Redwood 36FB I start researching... the Redwood company, fifth wheels, towing, trucks, hitches, accessories, full time RV'ing, campgrounds, insurance, mail forwarding, residency, on and on and on and on...

There is an incredible amount to learn about this lifestyle and every time I learn something I find out more that I don't know. So I'm spending every waking hour not doing Boy Scout business or work or enjoying family time researching. And I keep finding out more. and more.

Just a few topics...
Truck - to pull a 5'er you have to have a truck, not just a pickup that you typically see on the road but a TRUCK. Most street trucks are 1/2 ton, the Ford F-150, Chevy/GMC 1500, Dodge 1500. Trucks used for RV'ing are typically 3/4 ton (Ford F-250, Chevy/GMC or Dodge 2500 or 1-ton pickups, Ford F350, Chevy/GMC or Dodge 3500's. The truck needed is dictated primarily by the weight of the trailer you tow and the weight on the hitch.

Don't go by what RV dealers tell you...do the homework!!! RV dealers dont know about trucks, at least many don't, you really need to do the research yourself. I started off hearing from dealers that a 3/4 ton would do the job for a bigger 5'er... not true, especially for a coach as big as the one we purchased. There are really two big considerations, total weight of the trailer and the weight on the bed of the truck (called pin weight). A 5'er as big as ours requires a truck capable of towing LOTS of weight, a 1-ton truck as a minimum.

Once you get into one-ton trucks you also have to decide whether you need 2 (SRW) or 4 (DRW or Dually) rear tires. Again, it's about weight!!! So after much research, and many discussions with truck dealers, RV dealers, friends and fellow RV'ers I decide that we need a one-ton dually truck. So the search begins...Ford, Chevy/GMC or Dodge? Gas engine or Diesel? 2-wheel or 4-wheel drive? On and on... Have I mentioned that I really don't like going to car dealers, well I think we visited at least 20 looking at different trucks. Then we learn about COSTCO's discount program, so we go visit the dealers who are in their program, there aren't many. You can save a bunch with their program...and we did!!!

We purchased a 2012 Ford F-350 in October 2012, it was the end of the 2012 run, the 2013's were hitting the street so we had to hurry to get a '12. Ended up with a very nice truck..2012 F-350 Dually, 4x4, Diesel that is fully loaded...even has air conditioned seats!!! Who knew!!! BTW...these beasts are EXPENSIVE...even with the discounts!!!
The truck is VERY comfortable, a BIG necessity when you spend so much time in it. Plenty of room for Ruth and I AND the 2 cats... Have you travelled with cats...lots of meowing. We find it best to let them out of the carrier and spray pheromones all over the place!!!

Residency & Mail - We lived in Georgia, Georgia has state income tax. I really don't have an overwhelming desire to give Georgia my money if I don't live there so we start looking for other options. There are not many states that do not have a state income tax and even fewer that are conducive to people living on the road. The most RV friendly and most commonly used by RV'ers are Florida, South Dakota and Texas, none of these have a state income tax and all will allow you to title your vehicles without actually being in the state. We weighed all three, along with many others, and first decided on South Dakota.
To complete the process you have to be in the state to get your drivers license and register to vote, I didn't really want to go to South Dakota so we decided on Florida. To declare residency in Florida several things have to happen, sort of a domino effect so I started the process. We had been planning to celebrate Christmas with the family on the beach so I started the process in October. The first step was to establish a presence,  I did this by subscribing to a mail forwarding service. These are awesome... you have your mail sent to them, they hold it and post on a website what you've received. When you're ready to get it you just go online, select the items you want forwarded and tell them where to send it. I tell them to shred the stuff we don't want. The next step is to change our address with banks, and cell phone carrier to the Florida address (there's a reason for this step).

We left for Florida in early December and stayed for almost 2 months (thank you Mary McClendon for putting us up). In addition to the family Christmas, which was awesome, we were able to get our drivers license and voters registration changed AND we looked at many, many campgrounds for our winter "digs" in 2013-2014. Getting the license and voter registration was really easy, time consuming, but easy, doing so required proof of citizenship (the new Homeland Security requirement) and proof of residency which consisted of the mail from the bank and utility bill with our Florida address. Time consuming because...it's government, do I really need to say more...
So BLAM... we are Florida residents! No more Georgia state income tax AND we got to spend two beautiful WARM months in South Florida...then back to the cold and wet winter of Georgia where we hibernated and got rid of more stuff.

Next up... the RV purchase... stay tuned...