STILL SEARCHING FOR THAT PERFECT RV

As my last few days of "rest and recovery" wind down, I am taking advantage to the time to continue my research into RVs. I should say as my last few days of "rest" wind down, I will still be recovering, however I return to work on Monday :(  ..... The doc realizes that since I am a "desk jockey" I can do my job with one arm and half a brain .....lol

Since this is the second rotator cuff surgery (the first on the right shoulder) and my tendency to attempt to exceed my physical limitations, we have decided to explore the motorhome option. It has been said that setting up a motorhome can be a lot less physically demanding than setting up a fifth wheel. 

Here is my first choice in the motorhome choices:

Well maybe if I sell the house, everything in the house and the truck, then negotiate about 80% off the dealers invoice price............ :)

God bless us all.......

GETTING WELL, TIMES TWO

Hi all, just checking in to let you know I am still here and getting better everyday. I am referring to the recent surgery and not just my ego! I failed to mention in my earlier post, Cheryl has fallen victim to the flu :(  and has had a tough time with it. She has been improving with medication (tami-flu). It has really been challenging around here with my being benched with one arm and her being down with the flu, but we are both getting well :) 

One silver lining is that I have had plenty of time to think and ponder our future plans while being mobility impaired. I say it is a silver lining, however it could just be perplexing and dangerous! :)  I have been giving a lot of thought concerning the "fulltiming" lifestyle.  I have also been reading a lot of blog articles concerning the lifestyle and my attitude has changed a bit!  I think I am re-evaluating the importance of being deemed a "full timer" and thinking maybe we may just want to be deemed as "any time we wanna goers" LOL.  Now that classification needs a little work, doesn't quite sound as catchy as "full timer", but maybe it will catch on   ;) ....

The decision to sell or not sell the house may be a mute point. Since the market is whacked right now, we may be better off to set our sites on something less expensive for our rig and keep the house. We would be in the sticks and bricks from November until about February, then hit the road in late Feb to destinations to be determined. Once we are living this lifestyle, we can then determine if we want to sell the house or make any adjustments necessary. :) ...... Now these have been my random thoughts and could change with my next mood! Cheryl is like-minded and will be happy just to hit the road, no matter what we decide..lol

Well I have rambled enough for today. If anyone has any opinions on my rambling thoughts, please let me know. I need all the help I can get!  God bless us all.........  :)

BODY REPAIRS GOING WELL

For those that may not know, I had some "bodywork" done recently. No, there was nothing wrong with my truck or Rv, the body that was worked on was mine :)  The repairman did an excellent job and it would seem the repairs were successful (thanks Dr. Shane Barton). I have been sitting , sleeping and generally living in my recliner since the second of February and I am going stir crazy!

I did leave the recliner and house to go to physical torture twice already. Those were interesting trips. The first was easy enough, all I had to do was lay there and let the PT move my arm in all directions while watching me wince and make painful faces. Now he did a little of that on the second visit, but then he hooked me up to a rope pulley, a handle in each hand, then had me torture myself by pulling my left arm above my head! Those people are sadistic. I cannot believe they talk me into torturing myself and then I even pay them lots of money to do it! Oh well, as I have said earlier, oh the humor of a complicated mind...lol.

Well I have been sitting around the house for nearly three weeks now and you would think it would be a sort of preview of what retirement would be like.  I kind of messed that up by setting up my home computer system to remotely connect with the servers at work and enabling me to work at home (man I dedicated). I don't think this absence from the office is a fair indicator of what retired life would be like, especially since I couldn't get off my rear bumper and do anything much!  I guess in the next couple of years,  I will just have to try the real thing instead :)

Until next time friends... God bless us all

PAINFUL TIME OFF

Wow, once again it has been a while since my last posting. It never fails, I either get busy or lazy and end up procrastinating on the blog posting. This time though I have an additional excuse of being incapacitated. I am recovering from some surgical repairs to my left rotator cuff and trying to learn to operate with one arm for a while. Thank God that this time the surgery was on the left rotator cuff and I am right handed. :)

This will not be a lengthy post, because for some odd reason being able to use only one arm has reulted in my ability to type and I have succumbed to typing with only one finger! It is like my brain has made a special rule: one arm limits me to one finger? lol.  Oh the humor of being a "complicated" person.  Never mind my ramblings, I am also under the influence of some strong pain drugs ;)

I thought that being "layed-up" for a couple of weeks would give me an opportunity to catch up on some of my preparations for fulltiming, however the first week and a half after the surgery I was only good for comic relief to others! I was able to get some organizing done today and got rid of a bunch of paperwork that has been piling up. I was pretty happy about accomplishing something to uphold my status of "preparing to fulltime" and all with only one arm too!  :)

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

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!