My wife and I are working on a plan and hope to be fulltiming sometime in 2010 as well. Looks like we found a great site for making the best of it and learning from others. It is very strange how changes in one's lives show you who your real friends are...but at least you now know is the positive side of it. I'm sure things will go well and best wishes. Also, please thank your son for his service for our country...it is truly appreciated!

Welcome to both of you!!

Sounds like you both have plans to hit the road full-time.

You've found a great site for information on the subject, and there's a great bunch of people here on the this forum more than willing to help answer any questions you may have.

Good luck with you plans,

Jim

Greetings Rene and Andrea-Hope all is well with you. Thank you in advance from our son, we will pass the message on next time he is able to contact us. We are finding more and more people out their who are being forced to give up their homes, some are content with gov't housing while others like ourselves are opting for the freedom of the road. One of the advantages to having an RV, is going to be able to visit (or extended stays) with our son when he returns. He isn't sure where he will be living yet, as he no longer has a job waiting for him. His wife and he are planning a two week trip to Oregon, he met some other soldiers from there, and they told him the job prospects look good at this time. Oregon is too cold in the winter for me, but a summer visit okay. Good luck with your plans for 2010. Ann and Don

Hello Ann and Don...sounds like you have some good plans for starting full-timing. I still remember the feeling of freedom when we sold the house and moved into the RV. Good luck on shedding your headaches and welcome to the wonderful world of full-timing.

Hi Dan - Thanks. Each day the headache (load of material possessions) becomes a little lighter. And with each passing day the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. My husband Don was 82nd AB (you know an "idiot" LOL!). And the visual of your Jeep pushing your coach gave me a chuckle. We had originally wanted to keep my 71 Jeepster Commando, but now we are going to sell it. We decided to get an enclosed trailer to haul our '89 FLHTC instead. I still have my MC license but I am sort of on the short side, so the FLHTC is too big for me. Eventually I would like to get a service car or a smaller bike with a side car to be-bop around on when we get where we are going, I need atleast 3 wheels to ride myself due to my muscle problem. Oh! So much stuff. It is truely amazing the amount of "stuff" one accumulates in a lifetime. Oh! To be free of it all, except my cats, husband and guitar, those are my therapy items (not in that particular order). LOL! We think we found a vinetage coach we really like, we will know for sure in about 2 weeks, it is a 5 hour drive from here, and it needs tires on the rear. We will find out more when we are ready to go get it.

Good luck to you - I think you'll love the RV lifestyle. We sure do.

Hi again everyone- We got our new-used home. It is a 1979 Sportscoach (Coachmen) 33 footer, with a Dodge 440 engine and a 727 Torqueflite transmission. When we left CT we only had headlights, a turn-signal on one side, a brake light on the other and the gas gauge worked; 250-some miles later, all the dash lights worked and all but 3 exterior lights (We named her Christine). Now we are under way cleaning and repairing. We found out from a gentleman that has been in the RV business for almost 50 years, that in its time, it was a top of the line coach. It is hard for me to believe that after all these years that most of the items are still in functioning order. We have an Onan Generator that has less than 80 hours on it, 2 Coleman roof AC's, 2 furnaces, large refrig., with separate freezer, and even another separate ice maker. It also has a 4 burner stove top, oven, microwave, trash compactor and security system. All are original factory installed and work. We have yet to try out the plumbing system, and propane on the refridg. We need to replace a broken throttle cable, one wiper motor, and perform a tune-up. We also have a small roof leak in the front, where someone at one time drilled a hole for something and didn't seal it properly, that we should also have repaired (properly this time) soon. We were also surprised that we got 10 mpg on the way back from CT, and that was with the engine in bad need of a tune-up. Luckily my husband worked as an automotive technician for over 30 years, he is also an electrician, plumber and a carpenter. I myself, had worked in the service department also for over 20 years, so that has definitely paid off for understanding and repairing this old girl. We are underway. Thanks, Don and Ann

The Roof leak is repaired.  The throttle cable is replaced.  The water tank is full and holding.  The coach has been tuned up, greased and fluids changed.  We still have a few issues that need addressing, but we can move the coach and live in it as is need be.   We are living on what money we can make by selling stuff out of our stix house.  Our son came home for a suprise visit from Iraq on 2 weeks leave, so he borrowed our truck to spend time with his wife and visit friends.  We have created a list of things that need to be addressed on our coach, most of them are crossed off now.  But we seem to add to it also.  I have read about check lists, RVers' use, but I am unable to find one to understand what they are talking about.  Our home computer is dial up (the monitor belongs to one friend, the tower from another), so we don't have any pdf capablitiy, no printing, and can't use the documents file.  Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter much.  We will be loosing our telephone service within a few weeks anyway.  My parents have wi-fi in their home and we can go over there and use our wi-fi capable laptop till we get on the road.  The nearest major city is 22 miles from where we live now.  I am keeping up a bright out look, looking to the future and hopefully being somewhere warm before the snow flies.

We finally found a trailer in our price range and size. It is a rolling frame (dual axle) with a title, we pick up next Wednesday. We have to finish it. Install decking, new tires, fenders, lights, sides, etc. But things are slowly falling into place. Yeah!, one step closer!

Good deal. One step closer. I can feel the excitement building...

Thank you NorCal - Everyone here has been so kind and very helpful to us. And as each step gets closer, the burden of the old stixs-n-bricks lifestyle gets lighter. Bless you all! Ann and Don

Well we made it! Ye-ha, we made it to Florida with a snow storm chasing us. It took us a week to get here with a breakdown in Jacksonville, where we were stuck from Saturday till Thursday while they repaired our coach. But, we are feeling much better, now that we are in a somewhat warmer climate. This cold spell in Florida is terrible, but it sure beats 11 degrees and snow.

Congrats on getting on the road! hope you fun adventures.

Thanks - I'm enjoying the local folklore and such.