Fulltiming... The Beginning

In our last post I tried to explain all the steps necessary to take our journey On The Road. This process was complicated, time consuming and filled with excitement, apprehension, fear, joy, frustration and dreaming. Well now... we're there...now what???

As many of you know, I was very committed to my volunteer work with the Boy Scouts. As we were tossing around the idea of going fulltime, one of my major areas of concerns was my commitment to BSA. I had many ongoing commitments, many committees that I either led or was involved with, many leadership roles, so just walking away was not an option. I was not going to leave any of my responsibilities in a lurch. So once we decided to go fulltime I started on my exit strategy, finding people to replace me in the many roles I played. Any good leader knows that one of the fundamental characteristics is to find and train your replacement and I had been practicing this over the years so it was just a matter of transitioning them in and me out. Sounds simple and in several instances it was, BUT the Boy Scouts is a complex organization and in many cases you just can't say that a person of your choice is to be your replacement, where you are working under another person or committee the decision has to come from the chair and/or committee. In these instances I made recommendations and explanations of why I was choosing a specific person and in many cases the approving body chose my recommended person...but not all...it's complicated. So the few instances where a different person was chosen I tried to work with the new person to transition the job, this of course took more time as they typically were not involved to the level my protege would have been.
One role that I had was leading the Aerial Sports venues at the BSA Jamboree in Beckley WV. I had been working on this project for close to three years and the event was scheduled for July 2013 and I would have to be onsite for three weeks. I was not about to walk away from this so our travel plans were to evolve around this last commitment for BSA.

Planning before the transition...

Our original plan was to stay close to Atlanta/North Georgia for May and June, then travel to WV and set Ruth up in a campground close to the Jamboree while I was onsite. Then we planned to travel to New England for the Summer and Fall before heading to Florida for the winter.

Well, while planning, Ruth visited her doctor for an ongoing health issue, as were explaining our new lifestyle and travel plans he threw a BIG challenge to us!! He wanted Ruth close so he could monitor her progress, he wanted us to be able to get back to Atlanta quickly if he felt she needed to see him. So.... change of plans!!!

Around this same time we get a call from a campground in North Carolina asking us to work there for 3 months, from August through October. We discussed this and decided to take the job.

So now a plan was beginning to take shape. We had already planned on staying close for May and June, now we would continue to stay close for July then head to Cherokee, NC in August.

Magic time...

We had made several weekend trips in the new coach before leaving the house in Bogart but it was now time to go... May 23, 2013... We load up the few remaining things in the house, load the cats in the car, lock the door to the house...look at each other, smile, shrug...we're off...we are now fulltime RV'ers...no looking back!!!

Next up...the early days of 2013

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...

Preparation, Part 3... The RV 

We've sold the house, we now have a HUGE truck!!

The move from the river house in Dahlonega was traumatic. We've moving from a 2,100 sq. ft. house with a full basement and a ginormous attic, all of which are packed beyond reason to a single story, maybe 1,200 sq ft rental for the short term until we move into the RV (coach). As mentioned in the last post, Ruth was way more diligent about getting rid of stuff than I was but when it came time to move it seemed like we hadn't gotten rid of anything. So many trips from Dahlonega to Bogart, truck, car, trailer and then finally we rented a truck to move the big stuff. Thank God for good friends who made moving day a possibility. Many subsequent trips after the big move we finally get to closing day and we still have stuff in Dahlonega and to make it worse, I have a trip to West Virginia for a meeting. While traveling up on a Friday morning I get a call from our agent, the closing is scheduled for MONDAY, the following Monday and I'm gone till late Sunday. I told him before I left to not schedule the closing till at least Tuesday but it's Monday, after several delays it's scheduled and can't be rescheduled. Ruth is not happy, I mean really not happy, I'd have to say that this was the closest we have come to a marital meltdown.

We're cat people, we have two cats, Toonces and Tom. Toonces is a 14 year old Maine Coon female mix, Tom is a 4-5 year old male tom mix. Toonces is declawed, Tom wasn't. Tom was ferrel, he showed up on our door one winter evening and you know the story,  don't feed him cause he'll never go away...well we fed him and he didnt go away, but how do you let a starving cat freeze to death, we couldn't. It took over a year before he would let us really get near him and another several months before he came into the house. Toonces rarely goes outside, she used to but no more, Tom, well that's a different story, in the warm months we rarely see him in the house, he always wants to be out. In Dahlonega that wasn't a problem but in a more suburban area where there are cars, streets and other houses in close proximity, well we were concerned and afraid that if we took him with us he would end up getting killed so we started looking for someone to take him. No one jumped up and volunteered so while talking with the buyers, who also have dogs and cats, we mentioned our dilemma and they say they will take him, GREAT!! So when we clear out the house in Dahlonega on the morning of the closing we leave Tom along with food water, bedding and LOTS of tears. We get through the closing and we congratulate the new owners and tell them that Tom is in the house, they tell us they won't be moving into the house for several days...what... we jump into the car and drive back up to Dahlonega and get Tom, his food, water and the bedding...we still have Tom!!!

So we're now in the rental house, a single story concrete block house on a slab. All the walls are concrete block, interior and exterior with no insulation in any of them and its November in Georgia. Now Georgia isn't the coldest place on earth but it does get cold, especially for a Florida boy, and this house doesn't have insulation in the walls or ceiling. The water heater is in the well house, a separate building about 50 feet from the house so when you turn on the hot water you wait, and wait, and wait. To take a shower you turn on the hot water, brush your teeth, pick out clothes to wear, make a cup of coffee, then go check to see if the water is hot yet!! If there were a tornado coming, this would be the place to be, I think it could withstand a nuclear bomb, we refer to this place as "The Bunker". as we were moving our stuff into this house we started off very methodical. placing like stuff in specific areas. Clothing in our bedroom, kitchen stuff in the kitchen, etc. As the moving progressed we got into a bigger crunch for time so stuff just gets pit somewhere, when it's done there are literally foot paths within the stacks of boxes...mass craziness. So we get to work sorting and putting away, after a week the place is starting to clear, at least in some of the rooms, the bedroom, living room and kitchen. The other rooms are still pretty cluttered but manageable. Well, this is home...at least for the short term, so ordering the coach becomes a priority. Now the task to sort through everything we still have; does it go into the RV when we get it, do we sell it, take it to Goodwill or simply throw it away?

There were  couple of positives about being in this house. First, we're really close to our daughter Erin, her husband Kevin and our grandson Eli. This was a blessing and we took full advantage of our time together. The other positive was the church we chose to attend, Athens Church which is one of Andy Stanley's churches. We joined a small group while there and met some really wonderful people who we still communicate with and visit when we're in town.

But wait, we're supposed to be ordering the RV

We have been researching all aspects of the RV for months, years. We've looked at the Redwoods at least 4-5 times and we have a pretty good idea of what we want so it's now time to get busy. All the cards in the deck have fallen into place so we decide to get serious and we think, we'll go get a firm quote from the dealer here in Georgia then while in Florida for Christmas we'll price out the coach from dealers there and after we have the two quotes we'll choose the best deal and order the coach. 

So we head down to Southern RV in Jonesboro GA again, this time to sit down and choose exactly what we want to get a quote. The folks at Southern RV are wonderful, so patient, so helpful. We sit down with Brad, the owner and we tell him that we want to price out the coach and then compare the cost with the dealer in Florida, and he starts the process, asking what we THINK we want and jots down several notes. Then he starts explaining what he thinks we said and makes recommendations based on our comments. We walk through the entire list of options, some we're very familiar with, some we're clueless, but Brad takes the time to explain the pros and cons of each option and we decide yea or nay. When it's all done he gets out the calculator, crunches the numbers and gives us the bottom line...pretty much what we expected. We're waiting for the final estimate and Brad is on the phone with another customer and I hear him say that the delivery will be in March or April. When he gets off the phone I ask him if he was talking about a Redwood and he says yes, Redwood's build time is about 5-6 months and getting longer due to the volume of orders!! Wait, we want to take delivery in the April 2013 timeframe, its now November 2012...we have a problem. If we wait until after we get a price from the Florida dealer in January we will not get our coach until June or July, we can't wait that long, we have to be on the road by May 2013. Now what... we tell Brad that we need to think and pray about this so we head home to make a decision. After a couple of days of praying and discussing our options we decide to order the coach, so we call Brad to tell him to go ahead with the order. Now the wait..

A Sample of Winters in Florida

We originally planned to spend Christmas on the beach in Florida, then decided to spend a few weeks there so we could attend the Tampa RV show in mid January. We would leave Georgia late December and go directly to the beach house, then we'll move to Ruth's aunt Mary's house after the week and stay with her until the Tampa show. So we're plugging along in Georgia going through our stuff, it's getting colder, the house is getting colder, it's now early December and I say to Ruth, why wait till Christmas to go south, will Mary be ok with us coming down early? Well we leave Athens in mid-December, ah warmth... Part of the rational of staying in Florida for an extended time is to look for a campground to stay in for the winter of 2013-2014, while down in the Sarasota area we visited almost every campground between Bradenton and Punta Gorda, there are lots of campgrounds and they are expensive in the winter. We did fine a spot, a beautiful place under big old oaks dripping spanish moss, about 5 minutes from the beach...perfect!!

So the time in Florida goes by way too fast and we discuss staying longer...no we have stuff to do back in Georgia and we miss our cats so it's off to the frozen north for one last time. We leave Florida on a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid 70's and arrive back in Athens, its gloomy, rainy and the temps are in the 20's. What a rude awakening. The "bunker" is like a refrigerator so we go from wearing shorts, t's and flip-flops to long pants, sweaters and fleece, and thats in the house.

Now we're in the final stages of lining in a "sticks and bricks" house and we're going through EVERYTHING...what to do with it; keep it (to take in the coach), sell it, donate it, recycle it of trash it??? Did I mention that we had lots of stuff?

Next... the final push, and delivery!!!

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...

Preparation... Part One

A Little Background Info

Ruth and I have been camping both separately and more recently together for quite some time.

I began my camping adventures as a kid in South Florida, I remember a particular summer when I was about 13-14 when  my friend across the street and I set up a tent in my back yard and spent most every night during the summer "outside" when I had a perfectly fine bed in the house, just so we could camp! Looking back at those memories, it was one of the highlights of my childhood!!! Also looking back... what was I thinking, it was HOT, I grew up in Miami where summers are incredibly hot, but in those days we didn't have air conditioning so who knew it was hot! Those childhood camping adventures continued through my teen years and were some of my most memorable experiences but fell away to work, the military and other interests. But the longing to be in the outdoors has never wained. Much later, after a long hiatus, I started camping again when my son, Danny, joined the Boy Scouts and we began our scouting career (thats a whole book in itself).

Ruth's camping also goes back quite a way, she too has been an outdoor enthusiast for quite some time. She spent an extended summer with a good friend in Europe after graduating college and they explored a variety of different "sleeping" arrangements. Ruth, having two daughters, didn't spend much time camping during the girls youth but was ready and willing to join me once I came on the scene in the mid 90's.

In the Beginning...

So begins our camping adventures... at first in a backpacking tent, graduating to a car-camping behemoth tent, adding a blow-up queen size mattress and finally giving up on ground camping, well almost, I still on rare occasion will rough it, but it's not too often. From there we graduated to our first RV... a Coleman Pop-Up, the biggest of the biggest, with all the luxuries of home... including a toilet! Man, we were living large, no more sleeping on the ground in the sweltering heat or frigid cold.

As we explored the Southeast, pulling the pop-up and going through the set-up and tear-down process many, many times we quickly realized the time needed to perform these tasks and I soon realized that it took me longer to set-up the pop-up than a tent, but the perks were definitely worth it!!! This was great, we could have the entire family join us and we all had a place inside to sleep. Ever seen 7 people inside a pop-up, especially on a cold rainy night ? I thought living in a military barracks was cozy, but this gives new meaning to close quarters. <grin> Then came Eli, our grandson and camping got ramped up, sometimes every weekend of the month during the spring and fall.

And, the list of STUFF to take with us grew, and grew, and grew to the point that we ultimately completely filled every nook and cranny of the deflated pop-up, the front storage compartment, the bed of the truck AND the back seat!!!  Then to include the kids vehicles which were filled to overflowing. Stop the madness!!! I've come to realize that you just cant have too much stuff, or can you, more on that later.

As Ruth and I were camping America, well at least a VERY small part of it here in the SouthEast, we spent quite a bit of time discussing our future. We both love to travel and really struggle with the costs associated. We were struggling with the costs of living in a BIG house, a beautiful home on the river in Dahlonega Georgia, our dream home, which we built and really loved. BUT, it was expensive and we were no where near paying it off. So in about 2008 we starting to think of alternatives...

The What If's (dreaming)...

Staying in campgrounds you cant help but see all the different options there are for RV'ing, motorhomes, Class C RV's, travel trailers and Fifth Wheels... so we began  the What If...

What if we sold the house; bought a smaller, less expensive home and bought a small RV? So we began the treks to the RV dealerships to look at options, you know just dreaming...at least at first. As we looked at the so, so many different options we started thinking about other what if's...

What if we sold the house and bought a bigger RV, one we could live in? At this point we had ruled out small RV's, really had focused in on motorhomes and 5'ers. The Class C's were too small and the 5'ers have so much more room than the travel trailers. So we began the search, still not sure this was what we really wanted but leaning more in the direction of fulltime RV living. We started off looking at motorhomes and 5'ers around 30-32 feet long but quickly realized that there were some serious limitations to a rig of this size, so we moved to 34-36 foot models. At the same time we were looking at what was parked in campgrounds and started looking for specific brands and models. As we were looking at motorhomes and 5'ers we started thinking about associated costs of motorhomes vs. a 5'er, we decided that to move a 5'er you would obviously need a truck to haul it but once parked you could use the truck to get around. With a motorhome you either haul a second vehicle or disconnect everything and drive the rig wherever you want to go (we realized this one afternoon as we watched a very nice man become extremely agitated as he disconnected all the hook-ups and raise the  stabilizers so they could go to the grocery store). We decided that a second vehicle was not the way for us to go. As we looked around  we found our first real "dream machine", a Keystone Montana, then we saw the Montana Big Sky, then the Forest River Cardinal... and then we started thinking about other what if's...

What if we sold the house and bought a RV designed for fulltime living? Sometime in the fall of 2010 we were staying at Unicoi State Park outside Helen GA, we saw a DRV Mobile Suites that one of the campground hosts had and really liked what we saw from the outside so we pulled out the iPhone and started looking for DRV dealers and discovered that Southern RV, in Jonesboro GA, sold DRV. On the day after Thanksgiving in 2010 we drove down to Jonesboro to look at the DRV's. Man these are sweet rigs BUT expensive and heavy!!! Southern RV also sells Crossroads and Redwoods, both Thor lines. Brad, the owner suggested that we look at the Redwoods which at the time was a relatively new line and is designed for fulltime RV living and quite nice!!! They had 2-3 of the Redwood models on the lot which we looked at (we spent about 6 hours looking at the Redwoods) but really liked the 36FB which they didn't have. So we asked Brad to let us know when he had the 36FB on the lot so we could look at it.

Our chance came in early 2011 at the Atlanta RV Show. Brad had called us before the show to tell us that he was expecting delivery of a 36FB in February and that he was bringing it to the show along with several other models including a new DRV, the Tradition, a new line for DRV which was priced comparable with the Redwood. We trekked to the show to look at both the Redwoods and the DRV's and all the other stuff. I never realized just how many different RV manufacturers there are AND how many accessories there were for RV's!!! After looking through the 36FB we were convinced that this is the one for us, or is it?

Now that we THINK we have finally decided three things...

1. We want to sell the house...
2. We want to fulltime...
3. We want a Redwood 36FB...

So now on to the next adventure, stay tuned...