Fear and Decisions

Since returning to blogging and stating I was back in the RV/TT decision mode, I have received a lot of good feedback from blog followers and friends via blog comments and emails. I have asked over the months if not this past year, why I am having such a hard time deciding on whether to by a Class A, Class C or a TT and that question would bring a lot of answers through blog comments and emails.

All along I really knew that answer but didn't feel it needed to be public knowledge. Maybe afraid to say.

A friend today pointed it out to me via an email and it's a word that many have and it's only 4 letters.

FEAR

Yes I was and continue to be confused on what to buy but the difference is, not only today but the past few days, I am going to buy one of my options and hit the road. If that doesn't work out, I'll sell it and buy something else.

Yes, my house is paid for but I'd really rather live in a different part of the United States. I grew up in Indiana, graduated from Indiana U and am an avid fan but I also spent 10 years in southern California and  another 10 years NW of Seattle in the San Juan Islands. I spent only a year in Breckenridge Colorado and traveled through many of the western states. I would love to live in a different part of the United States, I just don't know where yet.

I would rather end up in the west or southwest therefore I am putting my house up for sale by Sunday afternoon and sell it as is, by owner.

My best option is to wait to sell the house and then buy the rig and then travel but that is not the only option. My other option is to buy the rig/TT now, apply for some workcamping jobs even though it's late in the game for that and then travel to the job, learn more about my rig and in May of 2014 when I can add Social Security as another source of income, I would then have the choice of workcamping or not. The last option is work until May 2014 or until the house sells and then hit the road.

I did look at and thought of keeping the house as a few suggested or even rent it out but looking at all the angles, being an out of state out of mind landlord or home owner is never a good thing in my opinion.  I need a clean break while I am out traveling. No late night calls from renters or disturbing news by email about a house problem.

If I decide RVing fulltime is not for me, then I move to a place I like in the west and go from there. As they say in basketball "no harm no foul".

Sooooo, it's back to selling as much as I can and/or donate what doesn't sell to the local goodwill or others that need it.

You didn't think I would leave you hanging by ending this post and not telling you my fear(s) did you?

1.  Financial disaster - either have something break on the RV/Tow Vehicle that would cost a lot of money to fix that would put a huge dent into my savings. Even after seeing all options spelled out for me on an Excel spreadsheet showing me that it would be ok, that I had enough income to live on ... the question was always in the back of my mind "what if...."

2.  Regret - selling a house already paid for where you have lived for 16 years. I don't 'love' where I live, but it's not that bad, where I just have to move to keep my sanity. Plus, having to buy a house later possibly where I was getting less bang for the buck .. but like a friend reminded me the other day, the difference in house cost is the cost of living in an area that you love compared to an area that you could leave at any time.

3.  Dogs - My dogs have a great set up here. The field behind the house where we walk every day is 10 acres of hay.  Would it be good enough for them to travel all the time and be outside in the dirt of the desert floor at times, etc, while their environment now is perfect for them? I know they can/will adjust but I kept wondering if it was the right decision for them.

Those were basically the 3 main fears.

They WERE a factor in not making a decision sooner because at some point in time I started focusing on the worst possible situations instead of remembering what led me to RVs enough to learn about them and the places to travel and how to boondock. I forgot about my original plans to "follow the weather", or travel to see a specific area that I had been to in the past or an area that I had always wanted to visit but never took or had the time. Or, have the ability to pack up and move when my mind wanted to change views.

You have NO reason to believe me because I have said the decision has been made before....you can scroll down on the right side of this blog to the "decision" or "decision is made" and see the number of times I posted that....but finally it has been made and I am already in action to make it happen.

1.  Final inspection level cleaning by Sunday afternoon.
2.  For Sale sign planted in the front yard by Sunday afternoon after the cleaning evolution.
3.  Look for, find and buy the vehicle, a Class C or TT
4.  Advertise my 2006 Mini Cooper and my 1994 Chevy Pickup for sale in various formats.
5.  Sell as many possessions as possible before I leave.

The excitement is back about fulltiming on the road, selling everything and not looking back.

P.S. - Yes I will post a picture on this blog Sunday night that shows the For Sale sign in the front yard with the house in the background!!!

Back to Looking at RVs and Trailers While Working on the Blog

As some of you may see, I've been spending time trying to get my blog back to the way it was before I deactivated it.  I guess some things on Blogger have changed in the past couple of months. It wanted to load my nonexistent Google +1 profile into the blog but just found how to fix that problem a few minutes ago and was able to change my profile back to my Blogger Profile.

When you look to the left you will see I have lost my link to people that follow this blog. I know the 'why', its because my domain name is not active and does not redirect to this blog address now being used -- www.bhounds.blogspot.com

I'm pretty computer literate but after searching all over the internet I cannot find a way to change the settings to "Friends Connect", which was what it was before I left in March 31, 2013.

So I am asking anyone that is reading this, how can I change my URL like it is asking me to do, so the faces and links of my followers are back to showing up on my blog.

While doing this I have been taking time out to look at RVs for sale, trailers for sale, jobs listings on Workcamper and finding new blogs with good information.

Like a friend told me tonight, "its all about whether or not you really want to do it - if not, any excuse works. dogs are easy to rv with, rving itself is no big deal to learn."

I didn't have any doubts when I started this RV research in October 2011 and as time went on I found more and more excuses to keep me from making a decision.

Has anyone else done the same thing when they were deciding to full-time or part-time on the road?

My Domain Name Update

GoDaddy reactivated my account today and had my domain name in the "terminal" status....which basically means I needed to pay $80 for a redemption fee to load the domain name back to this blog. I wasn't going to pay that. So in a few months I will buy the name when it comes available and then redirect the old domain name to this blog.

In the meantime, my blog domain name is:  www.bhounds.blogspot.com

My Mind is a Constant Journey

As you recall sometime in late March, I was a "test drive" away from buying a Class A, great condition, very low mileage and local. The night before I decided I didn't want something that large and was planning on going back to my original plan of a SUV and a Trailer, even with the hounds.

I am really not sure what happened in my mind that is in constant motion and I do mean constant, never slows down. I woke up around March 31 and decided a whole new idea of no RVing, keep the house, keep the job (misery) and travel when I want using this small house that is paid off as my base camp. Yet that traveling and camping would be with an H3 and a tent....no trailer, no rv.

Instead of keeping the blog open and not posting, I decided instead of keeping followers hanging, that I would just delete the blog since I had decided not to rv in any form or fashion. I even had doubts that I would even camp when I traveled. So, I deleted the blog, domain name and got as far away from the thought of rving as possible.

It may have been the weather, maybe information I was reading from blogs I followed, but it seemed that more and more people on the road were moving back into sticks and bricks, or downsizing their rigs and/or not traveling at all. The funny thing is I started to figure out and dwell on the amount of water I would have to carry with me for me and my hounds drinking water. It seemed to be an astronomical amount of water, where I would probably have to go to town more often to get water for all of us more frequently than going to town to get food for myself.

So, I proceeded to push the thoughts of rving full-time, part-time, anytime out of my mind. I didn't look at rvs, trailers, etc. I DID keep reading the blogs I follow and I did think back to the reasons I had when I started to research about traveling and living full-time on the road. As these two months away moved forward and myself being in a "normal" routine, through 5 days at home due to the government sequestration and government contractors, plus the recent 3 day weekend .... I realized I still did not want what I have nor live where I live. I could look at my routine while home away from work and realized there was no way I could do that day after day being retired.

I realized with my mind constantly changing, what could be more perfect than a situation where I could pack things up and move to a different location every two weeks or every month or whenever. That was one of my original reasons to research about living full-time on the road.

Yes, I could keep this house as a base camp but at the same time to keep the house and yard maintained that is additional expense. To rent it out and pay to store my personal stuff, that is added expense. If I were traveling I don't believe I would want to keep the house in the back of my mind, wondering if it was ok, no storm damages, no theft, etc.

I started thinking of selling everything I own, house included and leave at the time of the sale closing. I have nothing holding me to having to live in this area.

My spreadsheet analysis has 4 different options, each listing expenses and income....of the 4 options, the one with the largest net income per month is selling the house and rving full-time.

Do the numbers and my gut feeling add up to the correct decision?

Stay Tuned - I Have Returned to Blogging

After 2 months away from blogging, from rv searching, from full-time on the road dreaming ... I have reactivated this blog and in the process of reactivating my domain name. The domain name will take about 3 days to process the request....so in the meantime you can bookmark bhounds.blogspot.com

I know I have some explaining to do for my followers, I'll post that in the near future. During this 2 months away, I have been reading the blogs I follow daily.

I Went With My Gut Feeling

I ended up going with my gut feeling on making the purchase. After my 2nd trip to the RV to look at it again, in the same day....I came home and started having thoughts that lasted well past midnight. By the time I went to bed I had decided I was NOT going to buy it...but thought I'd sleep on it.

I got up on Sunday and the feeling was stronger than ever that I was about to buy an RV that I really didn't want.

What made it hard, was the Rv was very clean, great shape, low mileage .... but it didn't fall into what I had planned. The Class A was my first idea back in November 2011 but after visiting my friends in their 36' Monaco last summer, I had decided to go smaller.

My plan from the start was to "downsize" everything I owned before hitting the road.  Using the proceeds from my house sale to purchase an RV or trailer, not taking cash out of my savings. With this downsizing plan, I couldn't justify buying more RV than I needed.

I have always liked the 24' BT Cruiser's made by Gulfstream, with a couple of slides. I can still tow a 4x4 toad and it is a little bigger than a Casita trailer.

That night of many thoughts, I looked at a lot of blog posts, some forums, some pictures of smaller RV's and knew that is what I needed and had planned for.

The feeling after I called the seller telling him I would not be out for the test drive, was a much better feeling than the one I had when thinking about make the purchase. I knew then I had made the right decision.

A Day Away From the Purchase

Nothing done on the house today, so no For Sale sign this afternoon. As you can see from the picture and the story below, the house schedule was again pushed to the side.

Last week I mentioned I had found an RV for sale in the local small town I live in. I had planned on just looking at it to see if I liked the floor plan and to compare it to the trailers, Class A and Class C's I had sat in up in Indianapolis on 2 different trips.

After talking to the seller, found out he works at the same government facility that I do. He also was in racing with my next door neighbor and came highly recommended for taking care of all of his vehicles. The seller was in Florida with the family for spring vacation and due back tomorrow afternoon. After talking to him this morning, we decided I could go out and inspect the RV as much as I wanted, it was unlocked and keys on the seat. So off i went with my printed checklist for buying a used RV.

I started by looking in every outside bay, granted they have this RV packed with their stuff to camp in, still I could see enough of the bays, engine compartment, wheel wells, tires, roof, all the closets, stoves, microwave, oven, woodwork, plumbing bay, power cord bay, etc.

Condition throughout is like new ... only the driver seat needed some repair, the roof needed a new coat and the rear side light lens needed replaced.

All roof top vents, electrical wiring, electrical power cord, hoses, tanks, tubes, plumbing....like new condition. It was as good as the pictures.

Information and pictures were passed to a couple of friends that have or are rving full time and had bought used RV's, so I could get their opinion and I knew they would ask me all the right questions.  They both said IF it looked as good as the pictures, that everything worked and it drove well .... it was a great deal for the price. NADA had it appraised much higher. Extremely low mileage, only 247 hours on the generator.

The first owner let it sit, older couple and hardly used it. The seller bought it in 2011 and has put 2,300 miles on it, using it while he raced locally, Indy Colts tailgating and Indy 500 tailgating.

So the deal will be final after the test drive. Everything works, extremely clean and mechanically taken care of.  No sign of interior leaks, no smoke smell, no damage of any kind to the wood cabinets and trim. It has been winterized and has been sitting since last November.

I have told him to consider it sold. He has had a lot calls, emails and interest but like all the deals I lost out on when trying to buy different trailers out of state, the local interested person had the better chance to purchase.

So here are a few specs:

2000 Gulf Stream Palm Breeze, 32', one slide (table/couch), Ford Chassis, Triton V10 engine, only 6,343 total miles, tow package, towing brake, 15,000BTU A/C...$19,990.

I had not planned on buying something this soon but I felt as well as a couple of RV friends that it was a deal that I could not pass up and it was what I was looking for if I was going to go the Class A route. With the hounds I felt I needed the extra room and I believe this will be a great boondocking rig after I have solar installed. I plan on installing all new batteries, possibly the tires but they look good.

I'll post more pictures after it's in my possession.