The Transition... from Sticks & Bricks to Rubber & Resin

Moving into the RV

We now own an RV, a BIG 40 foot fifth wheel with three slides. By comparison to a house this is a tiny living space, our home in Dahlonega was 2,100 sq. ft. not including the basement or attic closets, the total square footage of that house was ~4,000 sq. ft. The RV is ~400 sq. ft. not including the basement ( storage area below) which would give us an additional ~40 sq. ft.

My point...much less living space and MUCH MUCH less storage space. As we started loading our stuff into the new coach we quickly realized just how much smaller!!! Take clothes you hang in the closet for example, both Ruth and I had been sorting though our hanging clothes during the wait period, I felt like I had done a pretty good job of picking what to transition to the coach. Well as I started loading my clothes into the closet of the RV I quickly realized...whoa, too much... it wasn't all going to fit...so back to the drawing board, time to get rid of more and get creative.

Here is the floor plan for our coach, by RV standards this is a large fifth wheel measuring just at 40 feet in length. There are larger ones but there is a price to pay, both literally and figuratively but I won't go there. My point, you have what you have so you have to adapt. We no longer have the luxury of just finding another place to put stuff, everything has to fit, there is no extra space. The other issue...weight, everything you bring into the RV adds weight and there is a finite amount of weight you can carry to safely move down the road without compromising something, the suspension, the brakes, the tires. The point... you just can't keep putting stuff into this thing, you have to make decisions about what you take and what you don't.

As you are most likely aware, we are posting these blogs almost a year after we got the RV, we are still trying to figure out exactly what we should carry in the coach, I think it will be a never ending task. Its very difficult to limit two grown people who like to have stuff to a mere ~1,600 pounds of belongings!!!

Learning...

We took delivery of the coach on April 4 2013, we plan to be out of the house before the end of May 2014. Not a lot of time to move into the new digs, check it out with short term camping, learn all the systems and adapt to a significantly smaller space, but we did it. Over the next month and a half we went on four different camping trips over weekends which gave us a chance to check everything out. If you remember, we had a problem with the hydraulics and had to take the coach back to the dealer the day after we picked it up, we had a trip planned the following weekend so the pressure was on for the dealer to get it fixed within a week. This doesn't seem unreasonable, a week to replace a hydraulic line, well it's just not that easy, they have to work with the manufacturer to explain the issue, get the part and get it installed and RV dealers are busy, it's not like a car dealer where you take tour vehicle in for service and get it back within a day. RV's take weeks, but when I took it in I told them we had a trip planned for the following Thursday and they got it done. I drove down to Southern RV on Thursday and picked up the coach and drove it to Lake Lanier for our first camping trip...the beginning!!!

We learned a lot, I mean a lot in those first few trips. The really good news...there were no other issues which required a return to the dealer. Minor things, sure, but nothing we couldn't resolve ourselves. Mostly just adjusting to the new lifestyle, learning to live in smaller quarters, we learned how to adapt so that we weren't constantly in each others space. To sum it up...we love our new digs and the opportunities that lie ahead with our new lifestyle.

As we were going on these test runs the one thing I dreaded...having to park the coach back at the house in Bogart. Backing into that driveway was not a pleasant experience and I dreaded it more than you can imagine. Our original plan called for us going to Duckett Mill campground over the Memorial Day weekend, leaving on Monday returning to Bogart for the remainder on May, then leaving the house permanently on the following Saturday, June 1st. I was telling Ruth one day how much I disliked parking the rig in Bogart and she said...why are we going back there after Memorial Day, its only for a few days...so, we didn't! We had already made our reservations beginning June 1st so we tried to bump the arrival date up for the same site but couldn't, so we reserved a different site from May 27th to June 1st.

Next up... Fulltiming, the beginning.

The Wait... and preparation for Fulltime RV Living

So now we're back from Florida, it's late January 2013. We have a BIG truck in our driveway and the coach (RV) has been ordered. We are in "The Bunker" surrounded by more stuff (personal belongings, furniture, clothing, etc.) than we could possibly begin to get into the coach for fulltime living so we get back to sorting...keep for the RV, give to our kids, take to consignment, take to Goodwill or trash.

When we move to Athens in November 2012 Ruth and I started attending Athens Church which we really like, it's an Andy Stanley church and he is amazing!! After returning to Georgia we returned to the church and linked up with a Small Group, a group of wonderful Christians from the church who we really love spending time with to explore our Christian walk, who by the way openly welcomed us in spite of the fact that we would be leaving them in about 3-4 months. Though we are no longer there in flesh, we remain connected to these beautiful people by way of email as well as spirituality.

Another big plus, we're really close to one of our daughters, her husband and our grandson, so we get to spend LOTS of time with them!!!

Ruth and I are settling into retirement, we are both now officially unemployed and loving it. Daily life is filled with puttering round the house sorting and tossing...it's beginning to warm up a little, spring is in the air...and the grass is growing... WHAT, I discover that there is lots of grass at The Bunker and it grows fast, but it's only temporary. Soon we'll be in the RV and then no more yard work!!

Along with spring, we get word that the coach is nearing completion and we're getting anxious. So many unknowns, so much research, so much stuff...STILL!! But we're making steady progress and the piles are dwindling, the end is in sight.

Delivery of the RV

We get the call from Brad at Southern RV, the Redwood has been delivered. He sends me an email with pictures of the coach...we're jazzed!!!

They will be doing the pre-inspection and adding several dealer installed add ons that we had arranged for when we ordered the coach. We should be able to take delivery on March 29, 2013...Good Friday. So I call our bank to move money and yep you guessed it, they mess up the transfer so we don't have the funds available on delivery day, so we reschedule the delivery for April 5, 2013!!!

Delivery Day...

We get an early start to Southern RV on April 5th, it's a cold dreary day, a misty rain, in all a pretty ugly day but not even the weather can get us down...we're getting our RV today, we've been waiting for over two years for this day!!!
The day was full of activity...the walk through, the installation of the hitch in the truck, learning all the systems, touching and feeling everything. We were truly deer in the headlights!!!
So much to learn, remember, demonstrate, questions...questions...questions. I had prepared, learning as much as I could about as much as I could find, but still so much I didn't know. As the day progressed the dreary weather cleared, the sun appeared, things are getting brighter...a very good sign!!

The folks at the dealer are so helpful and patient, taking the time necessary to make sure we understand the many, many new things we are unfamiliar with. After we finally feel comfortable, or at least we thought we were comfortable, we begin to go through the process of preparing for towing the fifth wheel. They walk through every step to prepare the coach for hauling. STOP... we hit a glitch, when we go to retract the slides, those are the moving walls on the coach...they won't retract??? The tech takes me outside to the hydraulic system brain... the fluid level is down so he goes off and returns with a quart of fluid and pours it into the reservoir. We go back inside and after a brief moment of anxiety the slides begin to retract...all is well. Next I'm instructed to back up the truck to hitch it to the RV... huh???


Have I told you that I've never towed anything this big, much less with a fifth wheel hitch, I've never towed anything with a fifth wheel hitch!!! Up to this day my towing was limited to small tow-behind trailers, the largest being our old pop-up camper which was about 20 feet long.
So he patiently explains the operation of the hitch and coaches me to back the truck and connect the TV to the truck. Now we are to raise the jacks, another lesson. As I start raising the front jacks the weight of the RV gets lowered onto the truck...my monster truck is sagging under the load of this huge RV and I stet to wonder if the truck is going to collapse. are the dual rear wheels going to explode under this tremendous weight, but it ultimately stops drooping and the jacks go up into the stored position. Next a final walk around to make sure all the stuff on the roof is stowed, all the jacks are up. we are disconnected from power, etc. We are now ready to tow...

Driving the RV

Are you kidding me!!! Up until this moment I have never driven anything near the size of this thing!!! and I've never towed anything with a fifth wheel hitch!!! Knowing I was going to be towing a fifth wheel... a BIG fifth wheel I tried to prepare, about a month before we took delivery I found on online instruction video for driving a truck towing a fifth wheel and reviewed the video at least three times, I had it all figured out...NOT!!! Watching a video and driving are two distinctly different things. None the less, I did have a good idea of what to do based on what I learned from the video so it was just a matter of doing, so I did.
I have a very dear friend, Gary Greenwald, who for a time hauled RV's professionally, moving them from point A to point B, mostly delivering them from the manufacturers to dealers. I picked Gary's mind, a lot, and he invited me to ride with him while he was towing fifth wheels from a camping show back to the dealer, that day with him was so rewarding, he so graciously taught me so much even though I never got behind the wheel (he couldn't allow that due to insurance restrictions). His tips and tricks were really helpful and every time I hookup, drive or disconnect I remember his comments...thank you Gary!!!

The good news... we made it home without incident, well at least while I was PULLING the coach. Then came the biggest challenge, one I had been dreading for months...backing into the driveway.

The Bunker has a very narrow driveway, one which was built over a 14 foot culvert with deep ditches on both sides. Couple that with a busy two lane road with ditches and obstacles on both sides, a house that was in the wrong place and a tree, a tree I knew would be a problem so I trimmed it up, or so I thought.

We had a plan, we had walkie-talkies, Ruth would be at the back of the RV with one radio, me in the truck with the other radio, she would help guide me as I was backing and would warn me of an obstacles...a great plan.

For those of you who know me, really know me, you know that patience is not one of my virtues. I'm working on that, I really am, but back to parking the trailer...
Between backing, pulling forward, backing, pulling forward, asking Ruth if I was going to crash into the house or hit the tree, Ruth, Ruth, are you there, say again, Ruth you have to hold the button when you talk!!! Finally getting very anxious I get out of the truck and go back to see exactly where the trailer is and what I need to do to get it where I want it, and explaining to Ruth that she has to hold the button down for a brief time before talking I head back to the truck to resume the adventure. By this time we have an audience, several cars from both directions have lined up, they can't go through because there is this big truck in the middle of the road. So we resume the task at hand and we finally get the truck and trailer off the road far enough to let traffic pass...I smile and wave to the smiling <not> faces for the drivers as they pass by. Then after things calmed down on the street I continues the parking project...finally we get the coach parked, almost where I intended to park it.

We started the day at about 8:30am driving down to the dealer. We thought we would be there for a few hours, then bring the coach home...maybe 5-6 hours...so we had accepted an invite for dinner with friends. At about 2:30 we are still at the dealer and have no idea how much longer we will be there so we called our friends to cancel dinner plans. By the time we leave the dealer its about 5:00pm...on a Friday afternoon...in Atlanta!!! For those of you who do not live in Atlanta, or have never driven there, especially at rush hour, especially on Friday at rush hour...well lets just say it's trying, very trying. What should have takes an hour ended up being closer to 2 hours. By the time we drove home and got the RV parked it's close to 7:30pm. I looked at Ruth and said...I'm hungry and tired, she gave me a look that said I'm sorry but me too...we took the Suburu to the closest restaurant we could find where we knew the wait would be short and food would drive quickly where we sat and relaxed, for the first time the entire day.

We did it, we are now the proud owners of our new home AND it was safely parked at The Bunker, a dreaded task that was now behind me. Take a breath and relax, how about a glass of wine for Ruth and a beer for me...perfect...toast...cheers!!!

but wait...there's more... Next up The transition from Sticks n' Bricks to Rubber And Resin...