Thanks to the RV blogging community

I started this blog in 2010 when we began seriously researching early retirement. Through this research we discovered other fulltime RVer's blogs and really appreciated their background stories - how they got to be on the road. It quickly became clear that blogging would be a source of education and community among the fulltime RV crowd. Some of our favorite fulltime RV blogs are in the links on the right.

The blog was made public after we gave notice at work a couple of weeks ago. To date I have documented some of the soul searching we've gone through to get to this point. Retiring early is not a decision made lightly! We both had to get to a point where we felt comfortable knowing our funds would last for the next 30 -50 years; without having to work unless we really wanted to. Some sites that helped us with the financial aspects of early retirement have been: Mr. Money Mustache: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ and the forums at: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/.

The fulltime RV blogging community is a wealth of information on exploring cities and towns and back country and history; where to camp; where to hike; how to handle RV maintenance issues; and much, much more. With this blog I hope to pay it forward to the community that has helped us so much over the past two years and will continue to help us for years to come.

Here's where we are in the process of moving:

Lots of good-bye dinners going on in the next week as we purge and pack. Good byes are not too bad because we know we will be back in San Diego on a regular basis as our parents and siblings families are here. I don't even feel retired yet because I am so busy with closing out the house! I feel like retirement is really going to start on August 7th when we get in the truck, loaded to the brim with our possessions, and head for Oregon.

Back to packing...Lisa

SOLD!

It's official, and only a few days later than expected, the house is SOLD!

My last day of work will be July 27th and Hans' will be July 31st! That was a wonderful sentence to type! We have to be out of the house on August 7th, making our way to Oregon and a whole new life!

Now I'll try to write a sentence that doesn't need exclamation points... :-)  We are now renting back our own house for a period of 3 weeks, allowing us to get rid of everything inside it. We still have most of our furniture even though most of it is allocated to friends, so living here still feels pretty normal. That's going to change dramatically over the next 3 weeks!

Life is most excellent!!!!!!

I love Friday the 13th!

Looks like Friday the 13th will be our new favorite day...that's the day escrow is supposed to close!

Removal of escrow contingencies was delayed for a week due to the banks being overwhelmed by so many people refinancing their homes that it took longer for our buyers to get final loan approval. This added an extra week of mild stress as we waited for the good word, but now we are on the downhill slide!

When escrow closes and the money is in the bank, we give two-week notice at work, and are out of the house on August 2 or 3. It's amazing to think I only have 3 MORE WEEKS of work left!

We are going through our belongings a little every day; determining what goes in storage (art mostly), what will go in the RV, what goes to my daughter, and the rest is for sale or donation.

You really don't have a good feel for how much stuff you own until you have to go through every single piece of it and make a decision. With each item I eliminate from my life, I feel lighter and free-er and ready for anything!

Since obtaining Oregon residency is supposed to take about 60 days, we've got a little time to fill before we buy the truck and trailer. The current plan is to stay with my daughter and SIL for a week or so at their home in Southern Oregon; then we have a house sitting gig in Portland for 8 days covering Labor Day; we'd also like to take the Arcic Fox manufacturing tour at their headquarters in La Grande, OR where we will see our future home being built (or one just like it).

Metamorphosis is awesome!