Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
What a hectic day today was but it was all worth it. Our house closing was this morning at 10:00 and by 10:15 it was all over with and we had a check in our hands! The buyers were paying cash so it was an easy transaction.
The rest of the day was spent getting all our other ducks in a row - changing our official domocile at the county clerk's office, cancelling homeowner's insurance, changing the address on our driver's licenses and vehicle registrations and a bunch of other stops (16 stops today and over 100 miles driven to make them).
It sure was a stressful and strenuous 30 days. The house selling in 2 days with closing in 30 meant we had to totally empty the house in about 4 weeks. We worked about 10-12 hours a day for all 30 but made it happen.
Thanks to all of you who contribute to this forum for providing your real life experiences in the fulltiming life. Of course we are especially thankful that Howard and Linda creatied the entire RV-Dreams.com site and for answering questions we've had along the way. After the rally in April 2011 we knew we were fully convinced we wanted this life!
Tomorrow we start our treck westward! Life is good!
-- Edited by RVRon on Wednesday 28th of March 2012 08:15:46 PM
__________________
Ron and Joan 2005 Itasca Sunova 34A 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
Congrats Ron and Joan! I think we just went through the same thing, except my house isn't sold yet. It is however empty! What a job! We're currently in Branson, MO. Probably not on your route west to Utah, but hopefully our paths will cross in the future. Keep us posted on the workamping job as it is one we considered before landing here.
__________________
Carol
Carol Kerr Welch
Wife to Jeff, "Mom" to Chuy; Retama Village Resident
My sincere congratulations as well! We were hoping to be on the road this year as well, but since we can't come up with the funds to make the necessary cosmetic repairs to sell the house, and all the offers we've gotten to sell "as is" haven't even been enough to cover the mortgage, looks like we'll just keep the dream alive living vicariously through our friends here on the forum. We will get there too... some day.
__________________
Cheryl B. in her new RV
(well, not new any more! Full timing since 6/25/14)
2008 DRV MS 36TKBS3 (the CoW: Castle on Wheels), 2005 Ford F550 hauler (the Bull)
Jim and Linda Full-timers from 2001 to 2013 http://parttimewithjandl.blogspot.com/ 2006 Dodge 2500 Diesel pulling a Heartland 26LRSS TT May your days be warm, and your skies be blue. May your roads be smooth, and your views ever-new.
"The rest of the day was spent getting all our other ducks in a row - changing our official domocile at the county clerk's office, cancelling homeowner's insurance, changing the address on our driver's licenses and vehicle registrations and a bunch of other stops (16 stops today and over 100 miles driven to make them)."
Congrats Ron!
I believe others have already documented this, like Howard, but I would be interested in exactly all the steps you took to get to this point to full-time, especially since you indicated a few of them above, and then another "16 stops." It's nice to keep a "punch" list handy for the future of those who traveled down this road before.
Congratulations to you both! I'm looking forward to keeping up on your travels, hope you get chance to pop on here occasionally to update all us 'wannabes', enjoy yourselves and slooooow down for a bit, catch your breath you are all done now with the S&B, so lucky
huggs Kim x
__________________
2016 Vilano by VanLeigh, 2012 F350 Diesel SD 6,7L long bed SRW
Staying at Greenlakes RV Resort nr San Antonio TX
Kim is way too busy planning to have a 'real' job!
Jay is a civillian Gov't Historian Randolph AFB TX (retired AD in '07 after 23 yrs)
Congratulations RVRon. I remember how exciting it was for us when we first pulled out of what was now someone elses driveway. Don't miss the house one bit. What stops are in your immediate plans?
Ivey
__________________
Life is an adventure.......live it large. 2004 Holiday Rambler Presidential 2008 Dodge 3500 Dually
Thanks everyone! The first travel day went without incident and we're settled in at Eastbank COE Campground west of Tallahassee, FL. It's our first stay in a COE facility. We followed the lead of so many of you and did not make reservations (OMG!!!). We did call ahead and were told there were campsite openings and I think getting here at about 2:30 in the afternoon helped us get a decent site. Not on the water, but it's not a long walk.
I do have to say it really feels weird... knowing we are not on vacation and don't have a "house" to go back to. As much as we thought about what it would be like I guess you just have to do it to really get the feel for it.
__________________
Ron and Joan 2005 Itasca Sunova 34A 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
"The rest of the day was spent getting all our other ducks in a row - changing our official domocile at the county clerk's office, cancelling homeowner's insurance, changing the address on our driver's licenses and vehicle registrations and a bunch of other stops (16 stops today and over 100 miles driven to make them)."
Congrats Ron!
I believe others have already documented this, like Howard, but I would be interested in exactly all the steps you took to get to this point to full-time, especially since you indicated a few of them above, and then another "16 stops." It's nice to keep a "punch" list handy for the future of those who traveled down this road before.
Jake, remember we lived in Florida and other states may vary in the procedure. We set up our new address about a month ago at a mail forwarding company in a town close to our house but did not make it our permanent domocile at that time. In Florida you get a healthy discount on your real estate taxes called a "homestead exemption". If we had changed our domocile before actually selling the house we would have lost that discount. So, that was one of the stops - to go to the mail forwarder and get the form to make that dinky mail box our official domocile! That form had to be filed at the Clerk of Courts for it to be official.
Changing our addresses on our driver's licenses at the DMV was actually easier than we expected but we had been warned as to what documents to have. We needed 2 pieces of mail that we had received at the new address (to prove we were actually there) and because of the post 9/11 legislation, proof that we were actually citizens. That meant Social Security card and a passport or birth certificate.
Once we had the driver's license addresses changed we could change the addresses on our vehicle registrations.
Other stops were to the bank, insurance company to cancel homeowner's insurance, library to return borrowed books, post office to mail packages out to our kids and 3 complete-waste-of-time stops at Verizon stores to get Joan's Sprint phone moved to Verizon. All 3 stops were met with sales clerks who were tied up doing other things and couldn't help us. One was actually on a phone training session and couldn't help any customers! The sloppy Verizon customer service is a topic for another thread entirely.
__________________
Ron and Joan 2005 Itasca Sunova 34A 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
Thanks everyone! The first travel day went without incident and we're settled in at Eastbank COE Campground west of Tallahassee, FL. It's our first stay in a COE facility. We followed the lead of so many of you and did not make reservations (OMG!!!). We did call ahead and were told there were campsite openings and I think getting here at about 2:30 in the afternoon helped us get a decent site. Not on the water, but it's not a long walk.
I do have to say it really feels weird... knowing we are not on vacation and don't have a "house" to go back to. As much as we thought about what it would be like I guess you just have to do it to really get the feel for it.
It sounds like you are in Chattahoochee. We lived there in the 90's, when half the town flooded.
Best of luck and be safe.