This is a great blog post. Well worth the time to read. The details on their first year are amazing and well presented. If you are a numbers person you will enjoy this post.

Thanks Kelly and Bill for taking the time and effort to share your experience.

I'm a numbers person!! Great post, it's always interesting to hear different experiences and perspectives of this FT life on the road.

Thanks Kelly and Bill!   This was really a great blog with a lot of great information for those of us preparing.  We're also from PA heading out next year, so seeing some real numbers like this, seems to make it a little easier to plan.  Granted, we all have different things going on, but basically it sounds like you're doing very similar to how we will be traveling also.   Thanks again, and take care out there.   Maybe see you somewhere!  

Interesting reading. Comparing to our first year, it is obvious that each of us fulltime's differently.

Random thoughts and comments:
We physically moved to a nearby campground on July 9, 2003 after moving out of the house, so it is easy for us to use that date for when we went fulltime. The house closed in September, when we were in New York and had put over 4,200 miles on the RV. We don't miss the house and really want to live in the greater Seattle area again. We don't mind visiting it, we are here now, but the traffic gets to us quickly.
We also had many 1 night stays and our longest stay of 23 nights was at a repair facility. Otherwise our longest stay was 14 nights. We still move more than you do, it seems to fit our style. (We stayed one night in 46 states during our first year. We missed Wyoming and California of the lower 48, but had camped in them pre-fulltime and have camped in them since. Yes, we/are crazy.)
We also spent some time in the Florida Keys our first year. (We also spent two weeks at Sunshine Key this last November, on a Thousand Trails deal, but it was $43.88 a night with taxes.)
We changed RVs our first year on the road. This was not unexpected, but is not the norm. (We still have the RV we bought that year).
The biggest change to us is the internet. We were cutting edge then with a tripod mounted internet satellite dish.

Everyday is an adventure.

I hope I am not causing any hijacking of this thread.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Saturday 29th of August 2015 06:08:13 PM

Thanks for reading!

Bill - we all do find our own way to live this lifestyle - just as we did in our previous lives in our S&B. Bill and I could never keep up the pace you do! I'm glad it works for you!
I can imagine internet being a larger issue "back in the day" than it is now - although we have considered a booster for when we don't have a good enough Verizon signal to get good wifi off the hotspot, which has happened a few times.
Thanks for your thoughts! I always appreciate hearing from the more experienced among us!

Brian - thank you also for your comments! I am glad something I wrote was helpful to you! My car is a 2006 CR-V with 155,000'ish miles on it. We've owned it since it was 3 years old, it came with all maintenance records and he has taken immaculate care of it since, so we have no worries that we can get many more miles out of it. We may have made a different decision to keep it if it wasn't in such great shape. We were also of the mindset that we can always sell it later. We read and heard about others who had gotten rid of their car and had regrets later.
We have considered the idea of expanding our TT membership - maybe looking for a "used" one through a broker, we are tabling that conversation for now, as we are also thinking we will be workkamping, therefore not using TT.
Glad you liked the mods - we do also! I'm so glad Bill is handy - it helps a lot!

Kelly

Thanks SD! We enjoyed putting it together! Please be on the lookout for the second part in a week or so!

Congratulations sweetie!!  So happy to have been a part of your journey

-- Edited by Lee and Trace on Monday 31st of August 2015 07:03:02 AM

What a GREAT read this has been, thank you for sharing. Could you possible send me the info on your solar package?   place bought and all components. how hard was the install?   I'm looking to purchase a solar package in the near future.   On your Thousand trails purchase... did you buy in on a new package or bought from someone selling theirs?   you can email me at     movenit4u@yahoo.com     Thank you again for posting this    Chris.

Happy 1st Anniversary!! That was a very enjoyable read:) Thanks for taking the time to type out your year in review!! I LOVE the back splash!! After a few weather related power outages and too many one night, late check ins, we've decided the generator is necessary, but don't want to keep it in the truck so we're going to upgrade the rig. Next year should be even better!