I know this life-style isn't for everyone and have been asked several times "why or how did you's decide to become full-time rver's?" I know a lot of this is has already been posted in earlier postings but I have been talking to a lot of full-timers here and love listening to their stories and how and why they decided to go full-time and they all say the same thing, it wasn't an overnight decision, I tell them it wasn't for us either! I also get a lot of friends asking how do they get started, the first thing I tell them is that it isn't for everyone, you have to have a desire to travel, be able to let go of material things, learn to live in a small place and learn to walk sideways, lol, but most of all you and your spouse have to share the same dream and be able to get along in small spaces, there is no escape! The first time I even heard about people who actually lived this life-style was about 5 years ago when a fellow employee was retiring and I noticed he had his house up for sale and was having an auction sale to sell all his belongings, then I heard he bought a new MH, I asked him what in the world was he doing and where is he going to live, he said "we are going to live in our motorhome and become full-time rver's" I said how are you going to support yourself? He said "we are going to be workampers until our house sells" and then he explained where they were going and about their first job, I was hooked from that time on! Craig had been retired for about 3 years already and he asked me "so what are we going to do when you retire?" I told him I wanted to sell everything including the house and buy a motorhome and be full-time rver's, he almost fell out of his recliner, he said "that is something I have always wanted to do too, but would have never asked that of you"! Then I started researching on the internet and reading books about it, joining rving sites, reading full-timer's blogs and looking for a motorhome and at first we talked about should we buy a motorhome, fifth-wheel or a travel trailor, what would be the best way to go, so I talked to a friend that had a motorhome and he said that he likes the motor home because you get more storage and you don't have anything to unhook or back in, what he liked the most about a motorhome is that when you get to the campground and it is raining you don't have to get out and set up camp until the rain stops, I asked him about gas mileage, he said that if you buy a big gas eating truck to tow your fifth-wheel or trailor then you are stuck driving that everyday but with a motorhome you park it and use your tow vehicle to do your site-seeing in and in the long run you may end up saving money, so that settled it we decided on a motorhome, I also talked to my father-in-law about what size to buy, he has owned large motorhomes for years, he said that you are going to get 8-9 miles to the gal. no matter what size you get, you might get a little better gas mileage with a 20' then a 36' but it isn't worth the space you lose to save a buck a gal. So that is how we decided on a motorhome! I knew we could not afford a new motorhome so we looked for the best used one we could get for our money, the first one we looked at was this beautiful 36' 1997 dolphin with dolphin decals on both sides, I have always loved dolphins and fell in love with it and so did Craig, he loved all the storage in the basement and the big 12' slide but I didn't want to buy the first motorhome we looked at, so we looked for another 6 months, drove all over Michigan and nothing came close to the price or quality of that Dolphin, so we bought it! We also found out that 1997 was the last year the made the Dolphin with actual dolphins on the side! So then we started to tell friends and family, most thought we were nuts, some envied us, some followed our example! From the time we decided to do this our life was never the same, we ate, talked and slept full-time rving, I would sit there and start crying when we talked about it, Craig would say why are you crying, I would tell him that I was so afraid it would never happen, he said yes it will, think positive!! Financially it was going to be a challenge and we knew it, we knew if we didn't sell our house right away it was going to be tight and nothing in Michigan was selling, so we started looking for someone to housesit, someone we could trust with our home and furnishings, thank God for Facebook, a dear friend had just left her husband and was interested in housesitting, she would take care of all the expenses except the taxes and insurance! Once we made this decision it seems like everything fell into place for us! We told our grandkids that we were only going to be gone for 6 months in the winter and we would be back in Michigan to spend the summers with them! We love Michigan and will always go back there to be with family and friends, Michigan is beautiful in the spring, summer and fall, there are still things we want to see and thanks to my friend Malia, who I met online thru a full-time rving site, I realize that I miss Michigan and need to revisit a few places and discover a few others, strange thing is that Malia is from Texas and visiting my Michigan as I am from Michigan visiting her Texas! But my real drive to live this life-style is my parents, they loved to travel and were always gone and all they had was a 20 + yr. old motorhome to travel the flea markets of Michigan and in the winter they drove their older conversion van to travel out west, I remember watching their video's after they passed and I got to see a side of them that I never knew, they laughed alot and kidded back and forth with each other, there was even a little flirting going on, they were living their life to the end!
Well, at least our Motorhome is newer then this!
Us living our Dream!
MY DAD!
MY MOM!
Yep this isn't the life we planned when we got married but it is the life we want to live! Oh, we still fight but it lasts about 5 minutes and then we move on, yeah, it's tight in this motorhome but we love it, everything is in it's place and there is almost a place for everything, yep, money is tight and we live on less money then we ever have and it get's scary at times, but it's worth it to live our dream, we can't wait to sell the house so we can relax a little more about finances, so glad we paid off most of our credit cards, but the house taxes and insurance takes a big hunk out of our monthly income! But we are doing just fine and living every moment of this crazy dream of ours! Today we are doing nothing, I am going to get out one of my books and start reading it, Craig is going to do one of his favorite things by dozing in and out as he watching old movies or sci-fi! Lenny is going to do what he does best, stare out the window and growl at everyone that goes by!
So until next time have a great day!
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