The "itch" to Full-Time Travel is Back

I just finished up a 3-day weekend not doing a lot, but thinking, reading different blogs, glancing at RV's for sale .... and did I say thinking?

That feeling to travel full-time is back stronger than a few weeks ago and increasing. I can't see it any other way when I think of what I should do after I retire or even sooner. I feel my time is up here and it's time for new adventures, new towns, and new people.

Otherwise, it is my belief that I will continue the same "rut" I have been in for what seems like forever. I have had some good times at this place, but it's not one of the best places I have ever lived. I've lived across the street from the beach in Carlsbad California, to Whidbey Island Washington, ten months living in Breckenridge Colorado during ski season, back to Whidbey Island until 1995 when I moved back to Indiana.

It's strange that I have such an attachment to this place.

Is it the chance of mortgage free living? Low cost of living? Near a large college town? I keep wondering what it is that keeps me here.

I can sell my house, my Z4, my Toyota 4Runner and buy a good used RV for cash. That's mortgage free living isn't it? Low cost of living could still be maintained with solar panels, tanks large enough to boondock and I could visit about any large college town that I wanted and even tailgate on Saturdays if I wanted to attend a college football game.

That kind of paints a different picture doesn't it.

I stepped out of my house the other day to hook up my bloodhound to her 80ft climbing rope I have anchored in the field behind my house. If she isn't tethered she would take off at the first smell of a deer or rabbit and being 100ft from a RV traveling US Highway, her life would be short lived.  I would hate that ... so I tether only for short periods of time when she wants outside. She knows where that 80' ends, someway.

So, as I started to say, just as I start to connect her collar to the rope connection, my basset hounds start baying loud and they are off the to races. I glance up and deer are scattering everywhere in the field behind my house. Going in different directions. Maybe 15-20, too many to count and too fast for me to get inside to grab my camera. They must have been grazing in the hay field before we came outside.

The hounds eventually stopped and stared. Some of the younger deer stopped and stared back.

That's one of the nice things about living in this area, the wildlife, unannounced appearances.

Still, I could get the same thing camping out in the Cascade's or Rocky Mtn state parks.

Basically, I need at least two things:

1. The freedom to move when I want
2. Solitude

RVing full-time is the only way I can get those two things ... in my opinion.

P.S.  .... It would be nice to get rid of the year-round allergies I have.

Back to What to Buy and What to Do

Sunny, blue sky and 28 degrees.

Just returned from a dog walk, the hounds and I were getting "cabin fever" and the ground was hard enough to take the trip through the field. It has been wet most of the time with the temps hovering around the freezing point give or take a few degrees.

The past few weeks I've been keeping updated on my blog reading. People boondocking in the desert, out in Santee, down in rainy Texas and some up by Las Vegas. The stories and pictures keep the flame lit to travel full-time.

That has always been my plan, boondocking as much as possible. Following the weather, SW in the winters and up through Utah, Colorado, the Dakotas, Washington and Oregon in the summers. All places I have been to in my past travels but not far enough out in the "boonies". With no schedule on how long I stay at each place.

With that in mind, the perfect vehicle would be a diesel pusher, large tanks, solar panels and my large screen tv for sports along with my 27" monitor.  Along with my 3 hounds, would all that be attainable in a 16'-17' camping trailer pulled by my V8 Toyota 4Runner? The easiest way would be a 33'-36' Motorhome, downsize both my cars to a smaller SUV as a toad. Rent my house if it didn't sell ....

Then hit the road full-time with no obligations behind me.

My exit plan would be a smaller place to live somewhere in the SW USA or eastern Southern California. Somewhere the temps are good year round. At the age of 62+ depending on when I would stop RVing and single, a smaller house would work in that area.

The nomadic lifestyle excites me, whereas the thought of retirement and staying here makes me feel bored and restless.

Instead of leaving as soon as possible, I am going to change my departure date to May 2014.

Now, back to my laundry, watching basketball, reading some blogs, continue my downsizing and looking at RVs for sale.

The Fulltime RV Buzz Seems to Be Gone

That major RV obsession I had from October - December seems to have left! Not sure why.

There have been a few changes I guess that could have help in making the change. My job became much busier after they implemented the new operating system, that took over 3 months of "downtime" to complete the conversion of different systems into one. So now instead of bored out of my mind where I spent practically all day looking at RV's and reading blogs, is now busy enough where I don't have the time to even get online during work.

This winter has been warmer than I can ever remember. It's been great weather until today (rainy) for the Super Bowl week in Indy. So maybe the lack of a reason to escape the freezing temps made the RV urge to decrease.

As far as the house, I started having doubts about selling everything and hitting the road. So I pulled up the for sale sign, to be used possibly in the future but not right now. Instead of thinking of my list of things to do before leaving, that list changed to things I wanted to do to improve or add things I would like if I were to continue living here.  Plus I have been paying extra on my mortgage payment, so that payoff date looks to be about 7-8 months away.

So with my contentment, my mind was not running all over the place at breakneck speed.

I continue to read the blogs I follow every day. Those give me so much information to think about. I continue thinking about driving down the road in an RV and never coming back the majority of mornings that I make my 12 mile commute through the country to work. I still wonder if I will be as bored at home retired as I am at times during long weekends where my job is closed for a government holiday.

I do look at RVs from time to time but nothing like I did a few months back. During that time I would look at RVs for sale and read different forums or blogs until 2-3am every night.

So ...  I've been thinking that I might be leaning towards my original plan even before the RV bug hit me big time in October 2011.  Keeping my home as a "base camp", travel when I want for as long as I want and then come back if I need a break. The house would be sitting here free of charge.

I guess I will know the answers on what to do when the time comes.

Thanks for reading and following my blog, I will try to post more this month than I did in January.

Cold and Snow

It's days like these that make me think of RVing full-time. It's just not the weather, currently 24 with a high today of 28 degrees. Being in southern Indiana I will miss most of the storm predicted for the Great Lakes region, still when I think of 28 or 80 as a high temperature for the day.....my mind goes into the wonder mode.

Besides the weather, it is time off from work that makes me start thinking full-time RVing is right for me. I am starting my 3rd day off from work before returning to work tomorrow on the 3rd. I have to admit I have been pretty bored actually and that feeling is about the same with each long weekend I get off work for a holiday. The hounds and I have a walk or two per day, even later today in the snow a walk will take place. I've read some of the new books I bought recently, watched football games yesterday and will today. I also attended a great college basketball game New Year's Eve with IU upsetting #2 Ohio State.

Still I woke up on the 1st with that old 'itch' to hit the road....maybe it is the weather or the new blogs I have found that have me thinking again about the benefits of full-time RVing compared to being retired and staying here full-time. Here the pace is slow, the scenery is nice but there is that 'itch' to take off. If I were retired and living here I am not sure there is enough things to keep me occupied day after day. Traveling will definitely be a part of the plan no matter where I am living.

One of my readers said it best and it has been an idea I have played with back and forth since October. Keep the house, take some trips and see if RVing works with me and my hounds. If I decided that I love RVing and wanted to do it full-time, then rent out my house and it is still here when I decide to come back off the road.

Also something I have always thought of with that plan, from my travels I might find somewhere I would like to live after I stop RVing better than the place I live now.

Last night when looking a new blogs I saw a blogger with the same Toyota 4Runner that I have pulling a 17' Casita. They have traveled up through Canada and up to Alaska. That is a huge difference than buying a 35' Class A diesel pusher isn't it? I like some of the advantages of the Casita set up and every since I bought the 4Runner this past November I have thought of the small trailer - truck combo.

Well enjoy the warm weather. As I set here watching the big snow flurries outside my window, I am going to have another cup of coffee, read some new blogs, look at some RV's - Casita's - Buses for sale as I prepare to watch college football for the rest of the day starting at 1pm.