As bad as I want to leave now, the financial numbers and the "to do" list prevent my impulsive, exciting departure. A HUGE blow to the left side of my brain....HUGE! On top of this, I haven't bought my RV yet! Throughout the day at work today I was ready to pack and go. Job stress was not causing this thinking because there isn't any job stress in my life. It was just the continuous thought of living in the pictures I am seeing in the different blogs that I follow. When I make my 12 mile commute every morning through farm lands, trees, hills etc, with the sun coming up I can relate to my past experiences driving down the highway at that time of day while on a trip of some kind and YOU driving your RV or just getting outside at your campground with a cup of coffee as the sun is coming up. I have always loved driving long distance.
So my day started by answering a the few emails I had in my inbox, did about an hour of work, then got online and started looking at different kinds of RV's. Read a few blogs, checked the forums for new posts, then back to looking at RV's. I looked at different National and State Parks I like and know of (ie: San Clemente State Park) and checked for maximum length. At San Clemente, it was 30ft. Others I checked up through the Pacific Northwest, near Whidbey Island was set up for any length.
Now the day starts getting interesting. A co-worker of mine that kind of lit my RVing flame last spring was at work today. I had not seen him for a few months. I figured he was traveling. We start talking and catching up on our interests when I told him my "new addiction" is RVing. He asked if I was going to buy one, a 5th wheel or a motorhome. I answer motorhome, probably a Class C, around 30' max so I can get into some of the state parks. He mentioned that he wished he would have known that limit before he spent money on his 40' 5th wheel last spring. He said he did do a lot of research on what manufacturer to buy from but not much more than that. He is 59 can retire anytime from his previous employer retirement plan but has been waiting for his wife to retire from work in 2 1/2 years. Last spring, they sold their house with plans of living in their 5th wheel until she retires. Which they have been doing. Plus they spent some time this summer traveling and finding out somethings they didn't expect or didn't know about.
He said "there were just a lot of places I wanted to go but couldn't get into because of the length of my 5th wheel. He has bought space at an RV park in Florida and is thinking of just leaving his 5th wheel down there and live in a smaller RV up here until his wife retires. (Indiana winters???). Anyway, the "bomb" hit suddenly in his conversation.
The wife wants to buy a house and stay in the area permanently and RV part time. Last April it was full-time after selling their "dream home". I just listened but was surprised. He would prefer to RV full-time. We then started talking about retiring from our work positions instead of waiting. That got me thinking that I needed to take another look at my analysis I have on an Excel spreadsheet and make sure the numbers are good.
So when I got home, finished the daily walk through a 15 acre hay field with my 3 hounds, I sat down and went through my numbers again. I then made a "no holes barred" pros and cons list. The list surprised me! I guess I found out that I have a lot of likes living where I do, that I really hadn't paid attention to. This then led me to wonder if I should ever sell the house? When I looked at the numbers....I CAN'T quit today, unless I pay my mortgage off or sell the house. I do have some people interested in buying this house and I believe I could price it right for a quick sell and good profit. That list put a little bug of confusion if I should sell everything or not.
My financial analysis showed it would be best for me to work another 2-1/2 years, instead of retiring now and yes that is a valid option.
So it feels almost like it did the first time I started this RV thinking.....like what to do? That is somewhat disappointing after the emotional high I spoke of last night. So, I guess it is back to my original plan of taking this next couple of years of downsizing (selling my cars, my house), then picking out an RV. Still, with the economy the way it is, it seems to me it would be a great time to buy the RV now. Then take it out on weekend trips (I rarely take vacations from work) for the next couple of years to "sharpen my RV skills".
My plan LAST YEAR was to keep this house as my base camp and spend most of my time traveling and camping in an old, mint condition, VW camper. With 3 dogs that would change from VW CAMPer to VW CRAMPed. So that vehicle is a dead issue.
This whole thing is like mental torcher.
So an interesting day.....the RVing co-worker story, my pros and cons list, my number analysis and possibly a dab of doubt wondering if I am making the right choice.
I saw that google visited my blog today, which was kind of cool. It usually takes google 3-5 weeks to show up to "crawl" your blog or site and it took less than a week to pay me a visit. For those that don't understand what I am saying, anytime you have a blog or website, google "spiders" will crawl your space automatically gathering keywords so you can be found in their google search engines when other people type in keywords that can lead them to your site. This is advantageous for those here with an adsense account and make some money with their google advertising on their blog or if they were selling something on a website like I use to do.
After the day I had, I still thought it was pretty nice that google showed up.
Now.....back to looking at of those RV's for sale online !! (laughing as I open my sales site)