First Trip in Final Planning Stage

{editor's note:  I have changed my mind and will try to blog daily from my iPad on my return trip}

Things are falling into place rapidly. It's to the point I am beginning to wonder if there are enough hours in a day before I leave on Sunday morning. I spent the past few days trying to plan around my job, but like most jobs, there is never an end to ongoing or unexpected tasks, requirements or meetings....it never ends. There is never a time to leave because at work there are constant roadblocks popping up for any personal schedules.

So today I got started early and sent off my request first thing in the morning for 5 vacation days starting Monday. After it was accepted by my corporate manager, I sent out an email to my department about my absence next week....LOL  (duck)...from the flood of return emails to the notice and one visitor at my desk within 45 seconds after sending out the email .... you would have thought the whole world was ending, just because I was taking 5 days off.

Some of these ... "But what about....", "you can't...", "who is going to do ....?" etc, etc, etc.

So the great news is, I will spend tonight and tomorrow, tweaking the travel plans. I will leave early Sunday morning for the 588 mile trip to McGaugh RV in Springdale Arkansas, where the trailer was being sold on consignment. I will be taking all freeways to get to my destination. After picking up the trailer early Monday morning, I will start my 1st trip traveling with a trailer and the hounds, driving the back roads through Missouri, Illinois to southern Indiana. The return trip will be much slower and I will probably be staying at camp grounds on the way back so I'll have full hookups. It will give me a chance on the road to learn about the trailer and time to see how the hounds do, plus how I do.

Some of my return trip, just by coincidence,  will follow some of the highways I took in the summer of 1976 on my solo cross country bicycle trip, going east this time instead of west, through the Mark Twain National Forest into the farm lands of Illinois and Indiana.

I am really looking forward to this trip. Not only am I excited about picking up my trailer but also enjoying some much needed peace and quiet. I think by the time I finish the return trip of over 600 miles, I will have a much better idea what will work, what doesn't and what I need to bring with me. All of these 22 months of reading, studying, looking at pictures from other people traveling and asking them a million questions...will finally be on the road.

I will take pictures along the way but I may not post about my trip and the pictures that will go with it until I return home. I am going to try to attempt the trip "computer free".

As I sit here looking at all the maps the computer, on a large Mac monitor ... there is still something about holding, turning the pages and looking though a USA road map sorted by state with all the campgrounds marked, etc. That is coming from a computer geek, that has his whole life on his hard drive, iPad or iPhone.

So as of Friday night, that is the plan. I must say that after the events this past week when I decided to make a purchase, everything has fallen into place at the right time.

If only the hounds knew what they were in for this weekend. They get excited just for the short trips around town, barking, jumping and then sprinting to the truck knowing they are going to go. Only this time I have a feeling they will be sprinting to the wrong vehicle.

My First Trailer ... 2012 Lil Snoozy LS3

Editor's Note: I ended up not buying this trailer, only because I changed my mind about towing a trailer with my dogs in the vehicle. See post about the 584 mile trip for the reasons why.

I hadn't thought anymore about this trailer, the Lil Snoozy LS3, after I looked and read about it over a year ago.  Thought it could work but didn't pay a lot of attention to the dimensions or anything because it was an all electric trailer. No propane....so I moved on even though last year it looked bigger than the Casita's trailers.

So the past few weeks I have been looking at other trailers, back and forth on the Starcraft, even made sure I didn't want a Class C. Sometime over the weekend a friend that full times and was in the process of buying a trailer after selling hers, emails me about a 2012 LiL Snoozy that she likes. I started thinking, this lady has been full-timing with dogs and cats for a lot of years in all kinds of trailers, different trucks and she is considering the LiL Snoozy as a full-time trailer???

I went back to their site, looked more, paid attending to the exterior and interior measurements. There were a few things I liked about it last year and those features were still attractive this year. Once my friend told me she was going to buy something else but thought this would be a great trailer for what I was looking for and what I was wanting to do .... Knowing how many years experience she had living on the road, I spent the rest of the time researching, looking at pictures again and reading forums to find out any kind of information I could. I wanted to see all the good and bad things about this trailer. I could only find 1 used LiL Snoozy trailer for sale all over the internet and this was trailer was the one.

So, we are to the point of dotting the I's and crossing the T's. It is located 584 miles from me, so I plan on loading the hounds into the H3 sometime this weekend or early next week, drive down and pick it up and then spend some days traveling the back roads through Missouri and Kentucky on my way home to Indiana. It should be a good "shake down cruise" for the hounds and I.

Am I "hearing" SHOCK and AWE from the crowd?  Surely not ... not after everything you have read here in the past ... LOL

Was it this past March I was within a day of test driving a 32' Class A and buying from a local family but they were in Florida for spring break, holding the test drive back a day?? The the Starcraft AR-ONE 17RD was declared the winner twice, but on two different occasions I had changed my mine, once with the check in hand.

So you have to be asking yourself why this trailer instead of the Starcraft AR-ONE 17RD.

1.  Same size bed
2.  A COUCH !!!!
3.  If needed a TV already mounted for travel sitting across from the couch.
4. Aisle is wider
5. 3" taller inside
6. 2'5" shorter inside
7. Plenty of room to mount solar panel(s)
8. A lot bigger Fresh Water  and Gray tanks
9. A floor plan that I love (hounds will have plenty of room)
10. Can be towed by the H3
11. Good storage
12. It's different and cool looking

I do not need a trailer big enough that I can do the same things in the trailer that I do in my house!! I've never wanted that. If I need to stretch my legs I will do what I do here at home, tell the hounds "lets go outside" and walk around. I decided a long time ago in this process that I wanted something small that I could get to places off the grid, unhook the H3 and still go scouting in a 4x4. I the "entertainment center" will be good for those days/nights your are stuck inside with storms outside. I will not miss propane, I have other ideas for a heater, stove etc.

So here are some photos of the new purchase and yes I will be taking pictures on pick-up day and the return trip.

I believe I have looked at every possible option over these past 22 months before I finally came to a conclusion that I like and one that will work for what I want to do.

I have already sold a lot of my possessions, the buyers agreed take ownership on some of the stuff when I leave.  I have talked to the real estate agent and will place my house for sale when I leave so she can show the house empty and move in ready. I am selling my Chevy truck and my Mini Cooper. As soon as the Mini Cooper sells, I will be giving my 2 week notice at work and hope to hit the road before mid-October.

Is This All There Is? Really?

It's almost 10pm local time and I have completed 3 days off in temps of 90s and a lot...a lot of humidity. So it was a lot of computer time and college football time which started Thursday night with the local university's first game. Strange but I didn't go, and only 25 miles away. I use to never miss a home game and even traveled for some away games. That's a whole different story I will not go into here.

Still, these 3 days off just like all of my other long weekends (3 days) prove to me, if I were to retire and stay here I would be one very very bored individual.  Thus, my blog post title - "Is This All There Is? Really?"

I need more than bored, especially once retired and I wake up every morning with no schedule. Nice. So let's move on.

Official retirement day is May 2014.  But (never start a sentence with but), I have been thinking as always, my mind never slows down, even when sleeping. I did some "what if's" on the finances and assets and I believe I have found a way to leave much sooner and have enough to live on that would carry me to more income in May 2014.

So that is what I have been spending most of my weekend doing. Of course I have some new ideas, some familiar and should have something to report more definite in the coming week. A few things "in work" right now....all with the same goal.

Get out alive as soon as possible.  LOL

Just like some of the current athlete's when they are being recruited for college or the pros becoming free agents......I have reopened my decision processes on which trailer!!!  LOL

I know you will love reading that. Yet, all of my email informants tend to agree with my current plans and searches.

I'll keep you posted as soon as I hear something but I hope to have a pretty firm plan this week around my week full of meetings at work....nothing but meetings and Power Point slides....are those slides recyclable?

It's all good ... really.

Clues are everywhere.

Changes

Grab some popcorn, the movie continues!!  LOL

When I left you last, all the vehicles were for sale on Craig's List and I had an appointment on Wednesday to show the house and list it with a Realtor.

I made it to Wednesday morning, appointment was set for 3pm and my day started by my bloodhound Sadie trotting through the kitchen toward the door for her first thing in the morning trip out to the field, followed by Winston and Heidi, the basset hounds.

"Was that water I heard"????  Couldn't be. Not on the same day the appointment was set for. I flicked on the light switch only to see a small lake of clear water on the kitchen floor, all coming from the closet that holds the small water heater.  Strike 1.

Before anything, coffee must be made, so I tip tow around the edge of the "lake" toward the refrigerator to get some nice filtered water to make coffee. With the door open I catch a small glimpse of water puddled at the bottom of the fridge, NOT connect to the "lake" on the other side of the room.  Strike 2

By 9 am I had the "lake" under control, calls made for cost estimates and availability for a water heater replacement. Also all of my refrigerator contents were loaded in cold Coleman coolers and the defrost processed had started. It is a self-defrosted fridge but a few weeks ago I realized the door was left open for many hours and thinking I had the same problem from last year where those small drain tubes were full of frozen water, I would try to defrost before looking for repair.

Since the most of the morning was taken with DCC, it left me little time to "stage" the house like I had planned before the appointment at 3pm. The more I thought about it, I decided it was not the right day for the appointment, called Linda and cancelled.

Within the hour I had also changed my mind about selling my house.

The rest of the day I continued to think and as you all know "thinking" gets me in trouble.  Not bad trouble, just trouble.

By that night I had confirmed to myself once again, I really didn't need to sell my house to travel nor to buy the Starcraft trailer. The more past emails I read, some blogs I read, I had people that have been on the road for 6 years or longer telling me in more than one email over the year, to hold off selling the house until I try living on the road with 3 dogs to see if it was really what I wanted to do ... and not go by "the beautiful stories" I read about full-time rving on different blogs.

One little tidbit passed on by a full time traveler with 2 large dogs in a very small trailer. She told me something I had never thought about it. She said it's harder to camp in the winter, not because of the temperatures but the decreased time of daylight hours. Meaning the winter months I would be spending more time inside my trailer with the hounds due to shorter days. 

I also decided if I wasn't going to sell the house, I didn't need to sell my old Chevy pickup (I used it a lot this past week). I also decided I would not sell the Mini Cooper S. I had zero emails or calls about the car the weeks it was listed on Craig's List and other Mini Cooper Forums. I also was not going to "give it away" by selling for a lower price just to get rid of it.

So I sit here a week later with the house, truck and cars but with less clothing, less pots and pans, less kitchen utensils, less ice tea pitchers, less juicers .... all taken to the Goodwill.

The downsizing continues.

I admit I did feel better after those decisions and continue to do so even after 5 days since deciding.

So without selling the house the departure date has been moved back to the date I originally planned in 2011....to the spring 2014. I can keep my bank savings intact and my 401's instead of using part of them for monthly expenditures. There have always been financial reasons not to leave before the spring of 2014....unless the house sold. If I were to leave before November I would spend the winter in Arizona, eastern Southern California, possibly NM and/or Texas.  Whereas in the spring I will head west and by the hot months of the summer travel up through my old neighborhood of Washington, down through Oregon and Idaho....then maybe to Montana and Colorado.

Those were plans I had even before I thought of RVing of any kind .... then come back to the house when I got tired of the road or come back and clear out the rest of my stuff and leave an empty house to the Realtor to sell.

So I have come a full circle since October 2011....only the mode of travel has changed.

The dealership has had 3 2013 17RDs since last summer, has not sold one, so they will most likely have them next March when I am ready to leave. I didn't see any reason to buy a trailer, winterize it and store it if I wasn't going to use it until spring.

I have ruled out the Class A and most likely the C's based on how I want to travel.  The Starcraft 17RD will be the trailer I choose. Nothing has changed to make me look or think of a different trailer. It has everything I need and the size is good.

Hope your popcorn tasted good!  College and NFL football starts this Thursday!!