Feeling Content

I have to admit that the fall season is one of my favorite seasons here in southern Indiana. Great daytime temps of low to mid 70's and night time temps down in the 30's. There has been just enough rain to make up for the lack of last summer, so there is still the yard mowing every week. Attending football games at IU is great. Not a lot of wins but it's great being outside in good weather watching one of my favorite sports and teams.

During this change of seasons, I noticed a change in my urgency to "sell out" and hit the road. I didn't feel that "rushed" feeling of getting a bunch of things done so I could put the For Sale sign out in the yard. I'm still downsizing, took another huge load of clothes to the goodwill just last Monday and have disposed of a lot of things that I had not used in years. So the downsizing is still progressing. A couple of blog followers emailed me to tell me they thought all I needed more than anything was a vacation away from my home and local area. I thought about that on my daily dog walks through the field behind my house. They might be right. I haven't had more than a day or two vacation days off from work in 7 years and that includes the time I was working at home with my online business.

I also noticed a trend in the blogs I read. More and more people were saying how they were either looking for or had a 2nd location so they were not traveling every week or two constantly. Some had already returned to their winter locations where they will stay in their RV's or trailers until next spring and then travel during the spring and summer. A few that I follow are traveling and will travel full time during the winter, moving to different locations every few weeks.

I liked the honesty recently in a few blogs I follow. They each brought up things in my "con" column on my analysis spreadsheet for which of my 4 options to choose. I have always wondered how much I would be willing to compromise while living smaller on the road. I have always wondered about my short attention span and how that would affect traveling on the road full time. How soon would I tire of it and want to do something else? Or would I tire of it at all?

So I think I am back to my original plan that I had even before the thought of full-timing and RVs were ever a thought in my mind. That original plan was to keep my house that is paid for as a "base camp", and travel in warmer climates during the Midwest winter's or travel when the urge hit me and for as long as I wanted. Then follow whatever I felt like doing.

I am still wanting the travel trailer/truck/SUV combo.  I'll decide on either a Casita, an Escape, Bigfoot or the Lance 1575 towed by my H3 and visit the places I have been to in the past or the new locations I read about on my blog list. During those travels I believe all the questions I have had about what to do will answer themselves and only then will I know if I should "sell out" and hit the road full time or keep a couple of locations to stay at.

I am still sure that when I do travel I want to boondock more than anything and get off the grid as far as possible. With 3 hounds possibly my largest quantity of my supplies will be drinking water...for me and them. Who would have thought that water would be possibly the biggest quantity of all the stuff I would take with me? Yet it would have to be based on the water consumption of myself and 3 big dogs. (granted 2 of them are short but over 60lbs).

Thank you for the Amazon stories, I now know I would never want to work there.  :)

So in summary, not much going on here. I feel the "hibernation" stage approaching. In some ways I am like a bear once winter hits.

Next week will be 2 years ago when I read about Glenn on the Yahoo Business page and started my curiosity of RVing full-time.

Still Alive

I have had a few people email me asking me if everything is ok since my blogging seems to have taken a vacation. At the end of August I had huge amounts of motivation and action. Then Labor Day weekend hit with a lot of plans to get closer to putting the house for sale, downsizing and hitting the road after finding a tow vehicle and a trailer.

I hit a gigantic wall that weekend.

Did nothing on my list, watched a lot of college and pro football, mowed the yard once, did a lot of thinking, reading and looking at pictures of different setups and spent time around the house with the hounds.

I haven't done anything since.

I've been looking at google images, reading forums and talking to a few people that fulltime or have in the past with an SUV and a small trailer. As far as trailers I have narrowed it down to the Escape made in BC Canada, the Lance 1575 and the Bigfoot 17'-19'...possibly a Casita.

While I am still able to with good health, I want to travel to locations that are way off the path. It's the only experience I have in camping, but those were short stays, camping in a tent after backpacking in the Cascades in Washington. Still I want to be able to take a trailer/SUV as far back as possible and stay there. Also have the ability to stay on BLM or National Forests.

I chose to trade my Mini Cooper for a H3 Hummer, even with the low towing capacity of 4,500 pounds.  I am using the 75% of the max weight to find the trailer that will fit those limits while traveling in the west. I don't mind going slow in the truck lane, but I liked the comfort of the ride and if needed they can climb anything. It has low mileage, serviced regular at the dealership and in my price range. Currently just driving in the local area not towing anything, I am getting 19.2 mpg. The Toyota FJ Cruiser was my other option and a hard decision to make but I couldn't find one with less than a 100,000 miles within the price that I wanted to pay. Each has it's pro's and con's.

If I get out on the road and decide all of this does not work, then I'll go from there and buy something bigger. This combo gets me out on the road the fastest and without touching my savings. Also I have never wanted to take a bunch of stuff with me and fit the rv/trailer around what I was taking. I have wanted to buy the trailer/rv that I want and then decide from there what I would take. I have always said I can and have traveled light.

What about the hounds??? They are going with me just as it has always been the plan. Once I am on the camp site I will not be spending a lot of time inside the trailer. Bad weather sure, we all will be inside until it passes, it will be much bigger than a tent!! They don't take up a lot of space inside based on their sleeping habits. From the people I talk to that live full time on the road with dogs, they say a trailer 17-19' will be ok. I have done some testing here at home by using the smaller 2nd bedroom I use for my office/bicycle trainer/dog kennel and two desks, just to see how cramped that space would be with the hounds. It's doable without any problems.

I know it's a big change than what I have looked at, wrote about and questioned in the past 11 months but everything feels good in this.

All is good here in the tropics of Southern Indiana!