GOOD INFORMATION

I don't post a lot during work weeks, however I wanted to give a special thanks to all who have given advice, information and encouragement concerning our decisions that we face. I am discovering there are a lot of others that have went through this process and also a lot that are facing the same decisions. Thank you friends for all your advice, information and support.

I don't have a lot of time to post this morning and I would like to acknowledge all the comments that were received on the previous post. Anyone that is facing similar decisions in their fulltime transition, I encourage you to check out the comments. Thanks again.............. God bless us all :)

HARD DECISIONS

I have had a great "lazy long weekend" doing nothing but surfing the computer. I have also been doing a lot of thinking about upcoming decisions concerning my retirement or resignation (decision 1),  buying a fifth wheel or motorhome (decision 2) and keeping the house or not (decision 3).  I have always thought those would be easy decisions to make when the time came, however the time is here and I now know otherwise!

Decision 1, retire or resign. Why is this a decision, well  if I retire it means I wait until March of 2015 to finally be free to travel when we want and not based on our work schedule. It also means the difference of collecting some additional pension money or not. The pension money would be about $350. a month, since I only would only have 10 years in that pension plan.  If I did wait on that pension money, with rising fuel prices, it may equate to a tank of fuel for the rig! However is it worth working another 4 years to get it? I don't think my laziness is a factor in this decision; I have literally had a job since I was 15 years old (if you count the working in cotton fields, make that 12 years old!)

Decision 2, fifth wheel or motorhome?  I know it is a personal preference thing. Cheryl and I both love the Mobile Suites fifth wheel and the Fleetwood Voyage motorhome. If we go with the fiver, we are also looking at a truck, cost could be as high as $130k. If we go motorhome, cost could be as high as $220k (we would cap it at that).  Another consideration other than cost is health. I have a couple of health problems, will they effect my ability to setup a fiver? I am scheduled to have rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder in a couple of weeks (fairly routine). I am not the macho male I used to be!

Decision 3, sell the house or not. I believe fear is a factor in this decision. Our house is relatively small, 1450 square feet. We bought it in 1997 and have some equity built (depending on the market). However we still have some mortgage left also! Emotionally (a term not used a lot by us macho males), selling it would be like cutting ties with our past life. We do want to get out there and travel, see America; we do not want to cut ties with our past life. Our family is important to us and at times it seems they are really dependent on us. Maybe we should just keep the house and use it as a home base?

I know that these decisions may not seem like a big deal, however they have been wieghing heavy on my mind lately. It helps to write about them and I am sure it would help to hear opinions and advice.

Until next time... God bless us all...............

WHAT'S NEXT?

That is the question on my mind for the past couple of weeks. What is the next step in our journey to change over to a fulltime (or most of the time) RV lifestyle?  I know what the answers should be, yet know I find it sort of intimidating to be at the point where I need to make life changing decisions. We have reached our financial goals, no debt (except the house) and now I can easily go out now and finance a fulltime rig and even make a decent down payment.  On the other hand I can put the house up for sale, wait a year and a half, then tap into our retirement savings and house equity to pay cash for the fulltime rig. Then there is the question of our 22 year old son who decided to move back in with us and start school! Things get complicated, its time for prayer :)

WHOA, SLOW THIS HORSE DOWN.....

Ok, so I have gotten too busy again and not posted for a while. What can I say except, whoa..... slow down! Usually we start slowing the pace of things at work in December, however this year it is not the case. I guess they are freezing our paying but firing up the amount of projects we have! Oh well, it will not be too much longer before I will save them some money....... by retiring!

Just wanted to let everyone know we are well and still having our rv daydreams.  I will try and post again soon. In the meantime here are some pics to prove our life is not all work and no play.




God bless us all..................

THANKSGIVING, MORE THAN A HOLIDAY

Happy Thanksgiving all. This is the day we have set aside to reflect on all the blessings we have received from God. It sometimes seems we have made it a holiday of parades, feasting and shopping, which is all a part of it, but let us not forget the true intent of Thanksgiving.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers. On the journey, they set up an agreement, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, regardless of their religious beliefs. The ideas used in the Mayflower Compact came from  the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. This early foundation for the laws of this nation were built on the pilgrims faith in God!


President George Washington first proclaimed Thanksgiving to be "set aside" as a day to recognize the blessings of almighty God in the following proclaimation:

General Thanksgiving



By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America


A PROCLAMATION


WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:"


NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.


(signed) G. Washington


Obviously there was no such thing as political correctness involved in the day of that proclaimation! President Washington was not worried about the actions of the ACLU!

As we enjoy our feasts of today, watch the parades and football games, let us take time to pray and thank our Father in heaven for all he has blessed us with as a nation and as individuals. Until next time... God bless us all ..  and Happy Thanksgiving :)

WHEELS CHOCKED FOR A WHILE!

We had a great and relaxing time camping at Rocky Point. Shortly after arriving at the "sticks and bricks" things tried to become stressful again! I opened the slide out to unload (something us vacationers have to do) and suddenly it came to a stop, a clattering noisy stop! I went outside to find my slide out room motor lying on the ground! Something had jammed the slide and the end result was the apparently powerful motor sheared off the housing and driving gears. Needless to say that old familiar enemy we call stress started creeping into my body! I did not surrender to the enemy, instead I "called in" (aka: prayer) for reinforcements.  My reinforcements arrived and took the form of faith and assurance that all was well.

Cheryl and I finished unloading the not so long trailer and I took on the monumental task of manually closing the slideout room. It was certainly not an easy task, it was accomplished regardless. I visited Southern RV this past Monday and they made an appointment for me the bring it to them on Thursday, which I did uneventfully. They gave me a call yesterday and give me an estimate of $775.00. This estimate is for a new motor, aligning the slideout and all labor involved. The parts will take about two weeks to arrive and then they will schedule the work. Thank God this happened during a period when we normally don't camp anyway  :)  .. It should be ready after the holidays and we will begin planning some weekend outings again  :) .

Anyway that is the recent misadventures of Don and Cheryl. We are still preparing our house to sell and getting things ready for our transition to a fulltime RV lifestyle. We should be able to start shopping for our truck around the March time frame and then the RV about 5 to 6 months afterwards.  I will try to keep everyone posted on our progress.

Until next time, God bless us all ............. Have a happy Thanksgiving, remember to give thanks to God our father!

CAMPING, RELAXING & RENEWING

Ok, I was starting to get caught up in that w**k frame of mind again, to the point of where it is first and foremost in my thoughts. The only remedy for that is to get the camper ready, hitch up and go camping! Friday morning (5 Nov) I did exactly that; I got the not so long trailer out of storage, got her ready and took off for Rocky Point COE (Corps of Engineer) campground on Lake Wright Patman in Texas.  Cheryl had to w**k, but as soon as she finished her day, she picked up two of our grandkids and joined me at the lake. When we finally got settled in on Friday, it was dark and getting quite cool, however the kids had a great time playing games inside.

Saturday morning started with Papa’s famous pancakes and sausage, which are some of the best pancakes you’ve ever eaten (according to Papa). These pancakes are special; they are made from a store bought mix and cooked by me (which makes them special).

After breakfast we went out to experience the great outdoors. The temperature had risen from freezing to above 50 degrees, so we enjoyed the heat wave. Nana and I enjoyed the heat wave by sitting in our loungers and watching as the kiddos rode their scooters up and down the roads laughing and being energetic to no end! :)

From 2010-11-06

It turned out to be a great day and the kids had a blast. We ended the day with a campfire and toasting marshmallows. They were pretty tired from all the outdoor activities and by the time 10pm rolled around we were all asleep with visions of campfires and toasted marshmallows dancing in our heads! :)
Sunday morning was warmer and the sun was out doing a nice job of warming the campground. We started the day with more of Papa’s famous pancakes. :) There is usually Sunday morning worship service here at the campground pavilion at 10am, however there was none this Sunday morning, so we worshipped on our own, enjoying the beautiful day God made for us. :)

From 2010-11-06

Later in the morning, our youngest grandson (Brendan) arrived with my oldest daughter and son-in-law. Brendan is only 4 years old, although he looks to be 5 or 6 years old and he has more energy than the other two combined! :) He says he would like to camp too, but he has never spent a night away from home before and since we are over an hour and a half from his home, we figured it was not a good time for his first camp out.

From 2010-11-06

Brendan had a great time with his sister and cousin. We had hotdogs cooked on the grill, then a nice campfire to toast marshmallows again. We even took a hike along a nature trail, but when we got deep into the woods, we spotted someone moving through the woods ahead wearing an orange vest. This is the time of year that when you spot someone in the woods in orange vests, it could be a hunter, so our better judgment kicked in and we reversed course to head back to the campground! Now why would a hunter be allowed into an area where there is a campground and a nature trail? Oh well this is Texas……

After a great day with family, they began their journey home and then it was just Cheryl and I for the rest of this week! We have been relaxing and renewing our spirit for the past three days. It has been great to have no certain time to be anywhere and nothing to do (literally since the aircard for the computer died and dvd player decided to quit too!). :)
It is now Thursday and I am writing this with intentions of posting it when I can get near a WiFi hotspot. I don’t know what is wrong with my aircard but I think it has something to do with it being under AT&T service! I am contemplating switching to Verizon and getting a Droid X. I think I could use the Droid to tether my laptop and therefore would not need an aircard? Anyway I need to do something different for better WiFi service!

Well that is about all I can think of to write about for now. We will leave here Saturday to take the not so long trailer back to storage until our next trip :( Until next time, God bless us all…………………………….

NEW TIRES AND WHO NEEDS A DISHWASHER?

It has been a fairly uninteresting week, but kind of costly. I noticed as I was driving to the cursed place (sometimes known as workplace), that my truck was riding quite a bit more roughly than usual. Once I had "Big Red" parked I took a look at the tires to see what was different. Of course, being the picture of fitness, limberness and good health that I am, I could only see the portion of the tires that did not require crawling beneath the truck to see.   The tires didn't look that bad to me, but I did notice that one of them seemed to look as though it bulged a little in the middle of the tread. I decided it was best to take them to a tire shop to have them checked out. As it turns out that was a good decision! The belt had seperated in the tire and the steel from the belt was starting to wear through on the inside edge where I failed to inspect. It would have been easy if I had a lift like the tire shop! I ended up having to buy two new tires for the rear, the two on the front still looked good. Anyway the total cost was $449.64!!

On a brighter note and maybe the only interesting part of the week, my granddaughter was in a school play.   She is my little princess!

From 2010-10-19

From 2010-10-19

She did really well in her role and even had some speaking parts. We were all really proud of her.

So much for the best part of the week, now let me tell you some more of the uninteresting stuff. We have been having problems with our dishwasher and no, I don't mean Cheryl, the automatic dishwasher!    We spent a portion of our free time shopping for a new dishwasher, wow, those are expensive too!  We considered doing without one since we are planning our fulltime dream anyway and that may include selling the house. We have decided however that the house will sell better with a dishwasher. Ok, maybe we are just too lazy to wash our dished by hand? I guess we will have to do that anyway when we are living in our RV!! Anyone out in RV fulltime dreamland have an automatic dishwasher (dh does not count!)??

Well so much for another boring week in the life of Cheryl and Don. I will give you time to recover (or wake up) from this post, then I will try and post again next week. Until then, May God bless us all...........

PLENTY OF FRIENDLY HELP

WOW…..a big thanks to everyone who offered insight and advice by commenting on last week’s post concerning our indecision in choosing a fulltime rig! A special thanks to Donna for putting a “special” shout out on her blog, 2takinga5th,  and got us plenty of responses :).

The advice and experiences of those that have “been there, done that” is always invaluable. I see that there are pros and cons to buying a fifth wheel; then there are about the same number of pros and cons to buying a motorhome! When it comes right down to it, personal preference and lifestyle seems to be the main driver of the decision. Cheryl and I are going to eliminate the stress involved in the decision making process and just buy one of each! :). Anyone know where I can get a loan for a new Phaeton motorhome, a new 38ft Mobile Suites and a new Ford 450 Super Duty truck? Hope my kids don’t read this, they will have to pay off the loan after I’m gone!! :).

This past week I actually took some steps to further our dream along. I began the daunting task of sorting, filing and disposing of years of saved paperwork. The shredder got a good work out , as did the scanner. I scanned a lot of important documents and keepsakes into files for the computer. I have been working on this task all week and I am not nearly finished.


I have also joined Escapees RV Club in order to start “networking” with the experienced fulltimers out there. :)  I discovered the magazine and newsletter the club provides has a lot of useful information also. I signed up for the discussion forum and although it is not as friendly as the RV Dreams forum, it was still a good one. I found out on their website that there is a “Boot Camp” coming up soon at the Rainbow Park in Livingston Texas. I would love to attend and meet some fellow RVers, plus attend some useful classes on fulltime related subjects. However, we have reservations to stay at a COE park in Texarkana that same week. Oh well maybe there will be another one soon. :) Well that is about all the ramblin’ I can do at one time without getting a headache :) . Until next time.., God bless us all…

REFLECTIONS

It has been a while I know, we have been working hard and long. Hopefully all that hard work is going to pay off soon and we will being buying our fulltime RV! I have been so busy that I have become "unplugged" with my RV Dreams and the planning process. I hope to remedy that situation and lunge forward with my plans!

I am wondering if I have become greedy, you know the old addage, "How much is enough? Just a little more!". Well maybe I have become caught up in that mindset. I keep re-hashing budgets and excel "what if " sheets, but cannot decide, "How much is enough".

Cheryl and I have been shopping, researching and attended the Dallas RV Supershow last month. We have been thinking we are set on a Mobile Suites fifth wheel, but still have thoughts towards the Winnebago Journey motorhome. If there is anyone left out there that still reads this blog (after months of inactivity I understand if there is not) any advice is appreciated. I am going to try and post my thoughts more often!