One Year on the Road!

September 10th marks our one year anniversary on the road! Roadiversary? During that time we've been to 11 states, stayed in 49 sites, stayed an entire month in four different places and pulled the trailer about 6,000 miles. Whew!

It really took a good six or seven months to feel 100% comfortable with this lifestyle change, to get used to our new reality. Now, the small living space and the regular change of venue seem normal and right, interesting and exciting.

Our perspective as new full time RVers was fresh: I had come from a background of RVing but I hadn't RV'd in 15 years. Hans had never RV'd before. We were both newly retired; having quit our jobs, sold our house in San Diego, and relocated to Oregon one month before we bought and moved in to our Montana 5th wheel. A lot of big lifestyle changes in a very short time frame!

We spent at least two years researching and shopping for the type of rig we felt we would be comfortable in. We chose a 5th wheel trailer because we wanted only one vehicle with an engine to worry about and the cash outlay would be less than buying a motorhome and towed vehicle. We are happy with the floor plan we chose on our Montana 5th wheel; the layout is comfortable and cozy and everything we want or need is conveniently placed.

We love our cozy home on wheels!

We are also happy with our four wheel drive Chevy truck, it's gotten us into some amazing back country in several places we've visited. The diesel engine has gotten decent mileage both towing and regular driving.

One of the biggest challenges to full time RVing is two people learning to live together in such a small space. We could have gone with a smaller RV with the capability to get into smaller, more nature-centric parks easily, but we chose the 5th wheel so we'd have room for our hobbies and more comfortable, roomy living space. This turned out to be the right decision for us. Bringing our cat, Rosie, into the 5th wheel after four months on the road really turned the place into a home.

Rosie brings us joy every single day!

So far, we've chosen to camp mostly in places with full hookups. We like not having to monitor our showering (we hike, we sweat, we shower) or our dish washing (I like to cook so I wash a lot of dishes). Though it's a trade off for privacy. Many full hookup parks have sites rather close together. We've learned that most folks in RV parks are friendly and considerate of their neighbors.

So far, we've booked most of our locations well in advance of our arrival (sometimes months). While that doesn't leave a lot of room for spontaneity, it has often gotten us into the best sites in the campground or state park, while our friends who show up without reservations might end up in overflow camp sites or the least desirable sites if the park is busy. It's a toss up between flexibility and peace of mind, knowing where you'll drop your jacks each night.

The first month of full time RVing was stressful due to learning the ins and outs of RVing: making sure you did everything properly so nothing would fall apart while driving down the road. Then you have to get used to the moving about, the planning where you are going according to weather and activities available that you like to do.

The next six months were really about learning to get along together in this new small footprint. What each persons responsibilities are on a daily basis, what each persons strengths are, giving each other some space, settling into retirement as well as living on the road. I don't think a couple could handle this lifestyle for long if they weren't best friends before they started!

We are so lucky to be living this amazing life together!

Now, after a full year on the road, we are truly comfortable with the nomadic lifestyle, the small living space, our ever changing front yard. We prefer to stay at least a week, and sometime 2 - 4 weeks, in one location. This gives us the opportunity to have down time; we don't feel the need to see everything right away because we're leaving the next day. On our low key days we like to visit the library in small towns or hang out at the RV reading, cooking, planning, researching; just being retired!

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this lifestyle is the people we've met on the road. Both through blogging and proximity, friendly folks are often near by. The RV blogging community, in particular, fosters immediate kinship upon meeting when we have been following each others blogs. Already in just one year, we've engaged with new friends multiple times as we each travel around the West. We've got the flexibility to have both quiet, alone time and socializing time.

Occasionally I'll read a blog or talk to someone in a campground that is critical of others choice of type of rig or where they like to camp and I just don't understand that. With so many options for mode of travel: car camping, tent, pop up, truck camper, class B, class C, class A, travel trailer, toy hauler, 5th wheel; and so many places to camp: boondocking, private park, state park, national park, Wallydocking, truck stops, urban stealth camping...it seems to me there is room for everyone to make the choices that are right for them at that particular time.

At this one year marker we feel we have made the right choices for our on-the-road lifestyle, at this stage of our lives; and we intend to continue our exploring and enjoyment of this beautiful country at our own pace, in the comfort of our cozy home on wheels.

It's a good life!

Farewell San Diego, For Now

We are winding down our two month stay in San Diego, our former home town. It's been a whirlwind of visits with family and old friends and we've made a number of new friends in the RVing community. We've done some reorganizing in the RV, outfitted it with stuff from our San Diego storage unit, and completed a few projects to make our awesome little home even more comfortable and give it some character. And best of all our kitty joined us for our future travels!

New tiki-themed pillows, made by my mom with a little assistance from me.
Same fabric front and back, different trim on each.

On Saturday we head out for Arizona, jumping back in to exploration mode...the reason we retired early into this lifestyle after all! The next few months should be a tour of Southern Arizona, then into New Mexico as the season changes and summer in the mountains of Colorado. Notice I say "should be", nothing is written in stone and the route is open to change at any moment; boy, I like the freedom of retirement!!!

Just another fantastic sunset over Mission Bay.

Reflections on Three Months Full Time RVing

Happy Holidays to all our readers from sunny San Diego!

We appreciate your taking the time to read our little blog. It's been fun to share this major lifestyle transition with our family and friends and to meet new friends on the road through the blog.


So...We now have three months of full time RVing under our belts! Here's our first impressions of this major lifestyle change...

We started out by purchasing the rig in Boise because that was the only place in the West that had the model and decor option we wanted. That turned out to be a wonderful way to start because neither of us had ever been there before. Most of the places we have visited in the past three months as we made our way to San Diego have been new to both of us, making everything about this lifestyle a new adventure right from the get-go.

The first couple of days were a bit overwhelming with all we had to learn. Had we known better, we would have pushed the dealer to do a better job of instruction when we picked up the rig; even though they were aware we were brand new at this, in hindsight the delivery process was pretty unorganized and incomplete.

Our first few moves to new campsites were full of anxiety...but we now know what we need to do and it's no longer stressful, it's just life. It takes about half an hour to pack the rig up, and less than that to set up in a new site.

We've had very few hiccups with our new Montana. Had to replace the galley sink vent, we have a GFCI outlet that trips occasionally and one fender skirt that is now cracked due to having to continuously tighten the screws...the last two items will be repaired at a dealer when we switch RV parks here in San Diego. All in all a pretty pain-free start...knock on wood!

We've towed the trailer about 1700 miles in three months and stayed in 5 states and 15 campgrounds. Now we are settled in San Diego for two months visiting family and friends, before we head to Tucson for a month.

We like the idea of settling into our stops for at least a week at a time, and maybe 2 - 4 weeks is better. There is a lot of research involved with every stop we make so frequent moves can sometimes seem like a lot of "work". The "work" usually includes: researching campgrounds and their reviews, researching things to do in the area, and may cover several locations as we decide where the next stop should be. We are thankful to be doing this in the age of the Internet!

Of course, for longer stays we'll need to be in areas where there are plenty of things to keep us interested and occupied, but so far several places we've stayed have seemed like we've only scratched the surface.

Also, when you have a number of things you want to do in an area and only a few days to pack it in to, there is no down time! One of the things we wanted to do more of in retirement is relax, without feeling pressured to go do stuff, to cram it all in. We've really only managed to incorporate good stretches of relaxation into our last few weeks of travel.

Before we started this lifestyle we were a bit worried about finding places to stay that were appealing, not just parking lots. We didn't want to spend a lot of time in RV parks that were just rows of sites with each RV jammed right up close to the next RV. While the state park-type campgrounds (McDowell Mountain, Yuba, Usery Mountain) were definitely more relaxing, beautiful and spacious and our preferred type of campground; it turns out that the typical RV park, with rows of RV's next to each other, are not always so bad. Each place you stay can be pleasant depending on your needs at that particular moment, plus our home is so cozy we are always happy to retreat inside to our own personal sanctuary!

One big factor in the appeal of each place we've stayed is: we've never had bad neighbors. RVers are very friendly folks. People are always happy to stop and chat, or lend a hand or some advice, or join in a happy hour.

The main purpose of retiring early into an RV was to be able to travel long term, in comfort, with our kitty, without breaking the bank, without the impersonal feel of hotels or rentals and eating out all the time. We have accomplished that in spades. We are enjoying the beauty that is all around us, from the amazing comfort of our own home that holds everything we need. We can move on whenever we choose, to wherever we choose. Retired life is most excellent!

We'll be in San Diego until January 20th, when the adventures begin anew as we head out on the road again. We'll spend a month in Tucson starting January 25th at Justin's Diamond J RV park, but have no firm plans beyond that...and we like it like that!

Settling in at Santee Lakes

It's nice to have a month in one place. Santee Lakes has a beautiful RV park, one of the best in San Diego, and we are here at the right time of year...Santee can be very hot in the summer.

Lots of visits happening with family and friends. Plenty of time to relax as well as hiking well known local trails and exploring Santee which we were not too familiar with. Meeting some great people in the park.

We've picked up some things we left in storage because we didn't have room in our old truck to haul it to Oregon for the transition. Hans has spent some time organizing his CD collection while I cooked up some banana bread and biscotti.

Consolidating the CD collection into binders while listening to an amazing variety of music.

Spending the morning creating deliciousness...I love my little kitchen!

Rosie didn't have any projects to tackle...

We are Oregonians!

Wednesday we took our time leaving Berkeley. We took a walk before hitting the road and actually ran in to someone we know: Danny Snyder of Meshugga Beach Party and Tomorrow Men and Frankie and the Poolboys fame.

Happily we would get through the flat farmland halfway through the day's travel and into the mountains:

First look at Mt Shasta

Black Butte

We arrived at our new home address in Myrtle Creek, OR at 5:30pm grateful to be done with the long drive. Here is the view out our front door:

Chantal & James view out the front door

Thursday we started the process of becoming Oregonians knowing that it could take 60 days (according to the DMV website). The key items to be accomplished towards that goal were bank account, voter registration and DMV. One of the options for proving residency was to bring along an Oregon resident with whom you are living to vouch for your intent to stay in OR. Chantal (my daughter) met us at DMV on her lunch break to do just that. Within an hour we had taken and passed the drivers knowledge test, gotten our temporary licenses, and transferred the truck registration...we are officially Oregonians!



Next up: spend a couple of weeks with the "kids", helping them with house projects, then head to Portland for back-to-back housesitting gigs.

NOW we feel retired

August 7, 2012...the day retirement REALLY started. We woke up in our empty house at 3:30am, packed up the last bit of necessities and were on the road by 4:15am (including a brief freak out of Hans having forgotten his sunglasses at the neighbors the night before...thanks Carol for being so accomodating at 4am!). We still managed to accomplish our goal of making it through LA before the traffic got unbearable.

The truck is stuffed to the brim:

With our final destination being Myrtle Creek, OR, it's an easy, yet boring, drive up interstate 5 through California. To pass the time through the central valley we reminisced about San Diego and studied the Oregon drivers manual so we'll be ready to take a test for our new drivers licenses.

We spent the night in Berkeley because it was about half way and gave us the opportunity to use a gift card for Trader Vics in Emeryville that we'd been attempting to use for several years. Nothing like a really good Mai Tai to celebrate the start of the journey!

Lots of good walking in Berkeley and the local marina parks. Next stop: our new address in Oregon!

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

Metamorphosis...Delayed!

On Dictionary.com one of the definitions of metamorphosis is: 

3. any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.

Since this blog is about our transformation from the working world to the retired world, I'd say change in circumstances fits our story just fine. And we currently have a change in plans.

About a year ago, when we started this blog, we had agreed that we would ready the house for sale starting January 2011 and put it on the market in the spring of 2011.

We've been painting the interior, scraping ceilings, replacing carpet, etc., etc., etc. Lots of little cosmetic things to make the house more appealing to someone who wants a house they can live in immediately, and eventually tackle projects here and there to make the house their own.

While all this has been going on, Hans has taken on several large projects at work and in the meantime, fuel prices have gotten higher and higher. These pressures have had us discussing endlessly the pros and cons of selling now or waiting a while. Ultimately we have decided that now is not the best time for us to proceed with marketing the house. We've decided to see how the work situation plays out and continue to save money, building our fuel nest egg. Perhaps some time in the next year we'll be ready to sell the house and hit the road.

The metamorphosis continues, just at a slower pace for now!

Metamorphosis Road Guiding Principles

Words to live by, on the road and off. We'll post these prominently in the RV.

Be present

Acknowledge love

See beauty in all things

Keep an optimistic outlook

Slow down and experience the moment

Live simply and within our means

Practice forgiveness

Be prepared

Be grateful

Breathe



Is Fulltime RVing Environmentally Friendly?

As we slowly but surely make our way toward life on the road in an RV, we are constantly questioning ourselves, making sure that this is the path we should be on. The current state of the world economy and the environment are parts of the equation that must be considered.

Currently we do what we can to control our water usage, cut down on the packaging we consume, keep our long driving trips to a minimum, and limit our purchases to products we "need" as opposed to those products we simply "want".

Obviously I am heavily biased towards fulltime RVing! That said I do believe an argument can be made in favor of the fulltime RV lifestyle when compared to our existing lifestyle.

Currently we are two people and a cat living in a 2400 square foot house...waaaaaay more house than we need. We've got to heat and cool and clean and maintain those 2400 square feet as well as take care of the yard.

Currently we own, operate, insure and maintain two vehicles; which we drive to work daily, separately, adding to the congestion of San Diego freeways.

In comparison:

Living quarters in the 5th wheel trailer we are considering are around 400 square feet. These days every time I clean our expansive kitchen counters (and anticipate having to do this constantly while the house is on the market) I can't wait for the transition to a smaller space! So: less to clean and maintain. Less water usage since we won't be maintaining a garden (except maybe a pot of basil!).

Some aspects of life on the road are the same as the stationary lifestyle: we will still purchase and cook most of our food which means when we buy food we continue to do so with the intention of limiting packaging and avoiding waste. We will still be able to recycle packaging, even if it means finding a recycling center.
On the road, we will own only one vehicle. This vehicle will be a large truck, possibly diesel, that will perform dual duty as our tow vehicle and our daily driver when the trailer is stationary. This truck will get fewer miles per gallon than our existing vehicles, but we will be driving together everywhere and we anticipate spending as much time as possible walking, hiking and biking instead of driving. Also, the longer we stay in a campground or RV park the cheaper it is to stay and the less we tow the trailer so we get better mileage!

We anticipate doing some boondocking on the road, that is, camping off the grid, on public land. When boondocking, we will only be using whatever electricity we generate ourselves, and the water in our RV tank.

In our quest for the road we have been purging unnecessary belongings for the past year or so, sending many truckloads of perfectly usable goods to Goodwill and AmVets. This has been a therapeutic process that has me eagerly anticipating a lifestyle that celebrates minimal consumerism (no sense in buying tons of stuff when there's nowhere to put it).

I believe the only way we could retire early and make less of an impact on the environment would be to purchase a small piece of land with the intention of growing as much of our food as possible and limit our exploring to a very small area. At this stage of our lives we don't want to be stationary...one of the reasons for retiring early is to make the most of the years when we are young and healthy enough to go places and see things and get out and explore.

Our goal on the road is to enjoy and explore our country with minimal impact to our wallets but great impact to our souls. I think that can be acheived responsibly, and I'm looking forward to making it happen!

Not the Status Quo

The reactions you get when telling people you are considering doing something outside the norm are interesting. This lifestyle change we are working towards includes both early retirement and fulltime RVing…two things that just don’t make sense to many people.

Early retirement entails taking a leap of faith. Faith that you have saved enough money to get you through the rest of your life…quite possibly another 40 or more years. Faith that you will get beyond the butterflies in your stomach and go for it…knowing that the freedom that lies ahead is exactly what your soul craves.

When you go to work every day and find yourself all tensed up, frustrated and stressed out fulfilling someone else’s needs you begin to wonder, what’s the point? If I can afford to remove the greatest source of stress from my life, what’s stopping me? I know that life will always have stressors, some quite challenging, but I’d prefer they relate directly to my life, instead of in support of some anonymous company. Selfish? Perhaps. But like I said before, if I can afford to change my circumstances, why the heck not?!?! Hans’ view may be a bit different than mine, but it is similar.

Hans and I have scrutinized our financial situation to death. Hans is eligible for a pension at age 55 that we could live on, simply, for the rest of our lives. Our house is paid off and is worth a nice bundle and we don’t want to be landlords. So we sell the house…big influx of cash right there…and gain the catalyst for this next phase of our lives. We’ve worked hard to save a sizeable amount of cash, plus we have several 401k-type plans, and eventually, Social Security.

Ultimately, good financial habits and being lucky in San Diego real estate will allow us to make this leap of faith into early retirement.

As for fulltime RVing, you’d have to have a bit of wanderlust in you to understand that desire. Many people we’ve talked to think we’re crazy to give up a nice house in a great neighborhood in San Diego. San Diego is, after all, known to have possibly the best climate in the US. But when you’ve got a bit of wanderlust in your blood and you feel like you’ve explored every corner within a hundred miles of this city, you begin to wonder what the heck you’re going to do with your time when you’ve retired.

Then you realize that this house is not a house you want to grow old in. And that you really are more comfortable in cooler climates. But most of all you think of all the places you want to explore in depth…the green, wet rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula, the surreal landscapes of Utah, the North West coast, the wide open spaces and gorgeous mountains of Montana and Wyoming, the regional food experiences…the list goes on and on and you know there are places you haven’t even thought of left to discover.

But who wants to explore these places from nondescript hotel rooms, paying for meals out all the time, with your kitty shacking up with your friends? Not us! As fulltime RVers, we’ll have our home with us everywhere we go, our beloved cat right by our side. I’ll still be able to cook, something that’s important to me, and that will save us a lot of money and be a lot healthier. We’ll be able to change our location on a whim, following our little wanderlust-filled heart’s desire.

I am sure life on the road won’t be without its challenges. But what in life is not?

Yet another view of retirement

Even though Hans and I research RV’s and the RV lifestyle endlessly, we still are completely undecided on what direction retirement will really take. We acknowledge that we enjoy relaxing and puttering around our home. We wonder if it really would feel like a tether to have a sticks and bricks home in our next phase, or would it be a source of nourishment in our life. We wonder if we will feel overwhelmed by the complete unknowns and transitory nature of the RV lifestyle.

I wonder how much I will miss gardening and that deep connection to nature that can be achieved by working ones hands directly into the soil and producing your own food and a tranquil outdoor environment. I know I will be able to get a nature fix by hiking while RVing, but it will be enough to satisfy my strong desire to connect with the earth? I'll need to get my gardening fix by helping friends and family with their gardens when I visit them!

Thankfully, Hans and I agree that we are completely undecided. We look at each alternative with an open mind and are waiting to see what path feels absolutely right and natural. We know that we want to live a simpler, more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Regardless of the direction we go, we are purging our closets of all unnecessary or unsatisfying belongings.

Happily, the first steps into retirement are clear: sell the house in San Diego, move to the Pacific Northwest, probably Oregon, rent a place to live. Those steps are clear to both of us. And the beauty of it all is that nothing beyond those first steps needs to be planned out!

Once we leave San Diego we can choose to rent indefinitely. Trying on different towns for the perfect fit. Trolling RV dealers for the RV that fits our lifestyle, be it a 5th wheel for life on the road, or a smaller, cozier trailer for shorter getaways.

The anticipation of putting these plans in motion is intoxicating!

What does retirement look like?

Hans and I have been discussing early retirement since the night we met in 2006. Over the past couple of years as we've honed in on the timeframe we want to make this happen (spring 2011...hopefully!) we've also been honing in on what retirement looks like to us.

First it was moving to the Pacific Northwest and buying a house. Would that house have any land? Would it be in an established community? Newer construction? Big city or small town? We really like to see music and attend cultural events...but how often, really? Proximity to hiking is important as is reasonable proximity to an airport that can get us back to family, quickly if necessary. Proximity to my daughter, Chantal, would be especially nice.

Then discussions turned to the ability to travel. We're retiring early after all...we're young enough to have years to do the hiking we love and to explore countryside and cities and towns of all sizes. We have a cat we love and don't want to have to find a sitter for her all the time. While we'd love to travel the world, one of the trade-offs of retiring early means we have to make our funds last longer, so any international trips would have to be super low-budget. Clearly, the best way to see and do as much as we want would be in an RV with our Rosie cat.

Next we mulled over the idea of buying a house and a smallish RV so we could have the best of both worlds. We considered the amount of money and time we'd be investing right at the beginning of retirement. We'd have to spend significant time in various towns to get a feel for the place, to understand if it would be the right fit for us long-term. Did we really want to be tied down to one location right after we'd just rid ourselves of a house and now were free to call our time our own? Once we bought a house, how much time would we really spend in it if we also had an RV and wanted to go camping a lot...after all, our time would now be our own to fill as we pleased, no bosses to answer to or paychecks to collect. Would it bother us to maintain a house just to leave it sitting there looking pretty while we go galivanting around the country (and possibly have to pay someone to keep it looking good while we were gone)?

The next logical step was to consider RVing fulltime. After all we'd seen my parents spend 11 months straight on the road in their 5th wheel and decide to continue on for another 6 months; and this was not the first time they've done it, either. We'd read numerous blogs of other fulltimers and they seemed to be having the time of their lives. But that brought a whole other set of things to consider: Motorhome or Trailer?; gas or diesel pusher?; travel trailer or 5th wheel?; how big of a truck is needed?...the choices are numerous and daunting!

So began many months of internet research and going to RV shows and RV dealers. First we favored motorhomes, diesel pusher flavored. But, boy, those cost a bundle! And we'd still have to buy a vehicle to tow behind us. Then we gravitated towards travel trailers. They are inexpensive, have everything we thought we'd really need and would be small enough that we wouldn't have too much trouble finding awesome campsites; maybe we'd even be able to keep our Toyota truck!

But the more you look at RV's and really think about the reality of life on the road and the beating an RV takes when you're living in it every day for an indefinite period of time, the more you realize it really needs to be comfortable and sturdy and well made, and you'll need to carry an awful lot of stuff to handle various climates and conditions. It would, after all, be our home. So that brought us to the point of looking at 5th wheel trailers and a truck big enough to handle a home on wheels.

On our recent trip to Oregon we visited some RV dealers who carried brands we couldn't find in Southern California. These RV's are known for their four-season capability and durability for fulltime use. For the first time we walked into a rig that we both felt we could actually live in! Talk about a milestone! Right now that rig is a Heartland Bighorn 3185RL.

Of course, that's not to say we won't change our minds again before we actually get retired and the house sold and we're in the Pacific Northwest and ready to buy...anything! But it sure is nice to have reached a point where we both felt comfortable with one of our options. As they say...the journey is half the fun!