Welcome to the lifestyle!!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we have. Take your time, smell the roses, explore the areas that you pass through or stay at, and above all, HAVE FUN!!!!!

Jim

That is terrific!!!!  We are so happy for you!!!

When Janet and I started full-timing (we didn't know that this was what we were doing at the time. We thought we were on a 6 to 12 month vacation) we wanted to do it all and not miss anything. We planned some dates that we felt we needed to be at a specific location at a specific time and then we planned what stops we wanted to make along the way. We planned this very, very badly and we ended up running rather than walking around this great Country of ours. Hopefully, you will have started off on a better foot than we did and you have plans to make as few plans as possible. We made some really serious rookie mistakes (looking back) and they were wonderful!! If you don't pile the RV into a tree and kill yourselves then everything else is just an adventure. You are going to make mistakes and some won't be as fun as others but let them all be adventures. I promise that you will look back at them all (some take longer than others) and just laugh at what you got yourself into. This is a great life and it's not always rosy (but then what is?) but it's a damn sight better than sitting at home or at work and watching the paint dry. Our first big stop was Yellowstone. We planned this for early May. Spring, right? Not so much in Yellowstone. We pulled up to the East entrance and told the Ranger we were headed for the Flying Bridge campground. She said that it did not open for another week or so, they were predicting snow very shortly, there was a 9,000 ft pass we had to cross to get to anywhere a campground was and the roads were a bit slick and icy. Have a nice stay! Well it started snowing before we got to the top of the pass but we made it through OK. The pass was closed at 2pm due to heavy snow. We spent one of the best weeks of our life there. We went back in Aug. of that same year and just hated it. Too many people, too hot, no animals, no fun. Spring or Fall (while the kids are in school) turns out to be the best time to visit. We were completely oblivious but thank goodness as we might have missed this if someone had told us what we might run into.
Enjoy! Have fun! Discover! Do stuff you never have before or even thought you had an interest in. Search the internet for events where you are traveling. (Sorry to ramble) Two examples of the last...We are passing through IL by way of Aurora. It turns out the the Fermi Labs are located here where they are splitting atoms trying to discover what they can including the beginnings of the universe (searching for the "God Particle"). Turns out that there was the annual event where they shut down the facility and give scientist lead tours. I was completely lost at the beginning but at least understanding what they were doing by the time it was over. The other was while we were in NM. It turns out that the VLA radio telescope antenna (Very Large Array) is South of Albuquerque and again 2 times per year they shut it down for tours. It was great and I actually understood quite a bit more about what they are doing then I had on the tour in Aurora. We are always looking to find special events outside our comfort zone and while we have not always hit a home run we were always glad we gave them a try.

Congratulations Judy & Bob!  You should be proud of yourselves for seeing your plan through and making it to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!  We are SO jealous... we have about 18 months or so until our day of freedom comes!

CONGRATULATIONS JUDY & BOB!!!!

It is one thing to talk and plan, but finally getting there is a great accomplishment.
You beat Sherri and I by two weeks. We leave for the rally two weeks from tomorrow and we will be full-timers

Congratulations on your dream and Welcome to the road!