Someone once said (or wrote) that there is a book inside every one of us just waiting to be written. Books and reading are passions of mine, hence my well-known Library, which, if you have known me for more than a nanosecond, I’ve probably bored you to tears with photos and descriptions.
As for the books…….. I’ve written some fun stuff with my grandkids as the main characters. I think they are fairly good, others that have read them liked them also. The fact that only my relatives and close friends have read them leads me to wonder if they are just being nice to me and do not want to hurt my feelings.
So on to this BLOG thing. There is SO much already out there. My feelings are somewhat mixed about them, similar to my feelings about Face Book. Is everyone so vain that they think that the world needs (or even wants) to know every little thing that goes on in their (or my) puny little lives?
Are we THAT important?
To some of us, (us being the collective for Humanity) depending on how narcissistic one is, the answer would be yes. And those attitudes come shining through as soon as one starts to read them. I hope that I am not included in that group of humans. I don’t do Face Book, I rarely post on Instagram (and that is usually confined to a pretty picture) but I’m fairly sure that narcissistic folks are not aware of their annoying disease, so, who knows, maybe I’m one of THOSE.
I hope not.
My thoughts about me writing a BLOG started when Paula and I decided to try out full time RV’ing. I did not know anyone who has done it and the thought of keeping family and friends apprised of our where-abouts and well-being got me thinking about this process.
So……
If you are reading this, you need to know that we both have our respective jobs.
Mine is to write.
Yours is to read what I write.
But within your job description, there is a sub-category and that is to slap me around if this becomes anything more that my attempt to do a modern version of a “Letter to Home”.
So now that we’ve got that straight, let’s get on with what the name of this blog will be known as,
Drum roll please…….
“My Unsure Chapters Having A Description On All Bits Of Uninteresting Tales Not Overly Telling Happy Insights Now Germaine.”
Or for short,
Much Ado About Nothing-dp.com
Now, to borrow a line from everyone’s favorite movie and which we may have more in common than I would care to think……. Glinda in the “Wizard of Oz” told Dorothy, “It’s best to start at the beginning.”
So here goes!
“It was a dark and stormy night, “
Oops! Wrong beginning!
Actually, I have No idea what the weather was like when we finally decided on this course. Conversations of where we would like to go centered around where our respective families were located. Texas, Southern Colorado, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and the annual migration to Florida were all in the mix.
Really wanting to get away from the Northeast Winters, Colorado, Texas, and Florida became the likely landing spots for most parts of the year.
Paula fell in love with the West after just one visit to Colorado and the Four Corners Region. Paula can tell you the weather in each one of our respective relatives’ areas at any time. So it was not uncommon to find her staring at Durango’s weather which ALWAYS (always being a relative term) showed the Bright Sun and the Clear Moon icons in her weather app.
She would then look up from her phone with that longing I-need-to-be-there look on her face.
But…..
Texas winters are a lot milder…..
Hmm….
Two places?
Two houses, apartments, condos?
How about a permanent residence somewhere and a motorhome for the other? That would help with the fact that we do have family in other parts of the nation. Now the wheels (figuratively) started to turn. The real wheels didn’t arrive for some time yet. The debate over Texas vs. Colorado heightened in intensity with no clear-cut winner.
Colorado, et al, is usually gorgeous. Winters can get cold at times in the high desert of the Four Corners Region, but that usually only lasts for a few days.
Texas has some gorgeous times also, but you must be able to put up with a fair amount of inclement (?) weather of Biblical Proportions that maybe only Moses with his Ten Plagues could appreciate.
Colorado is “expensive”.
Texas is “cheap”.
Both are “Open Carry” states, so my old wish to be a cowboy and saunter down dusty Main Street with my spurs a jinglin’, my ten-gallon hat pulled low on my brow, my Colt six-shooter on my hip, and the tumbleweeds blowing past Hoss’s Livery as I walk into Miss Kitty’s Saloon for a chocolate milk could be a reality in either one!
What a dilemma!
The more we researched the possible RV/Motorhome scenario, the more we ran across statements from Full-Timers like, “Our only regret is that we didn’t do this sooner” and “We visit everyone we want at any time we want”. These comments were not just from a few folks, they seem to be rather universal with respect to those types that have a desire not to be in just one place. So it was off to Amazon and ordering books like “How to Live In A Motorhome Full-Time”. These tomes of information were filled with all the do’s and (especially) don’ts of being “Full-Timers”.
The first decision one needs to make (after deciding if you really want to do this or not) is where to be “Virtually Registered”. One needs to have a home state for all of the obvious reasons.
Vehicle registration and driver’s license
Voting
Taxes (boo)
Mail, etc.
There are three preferred states that always pop up when this subject presents itself and they are Florida (it’s OK), South Dakota (no one wants to be there), and Texas (brakes screeching to a halt).
TEXAS !!! Hey, we actually know someone (Paula’s son Danny) who lives there so that gives us the best of both worlds! No need for a “virtual address” that some service supplies us with, we have an actual building, real mailbox, and throw that package on the front porch address!
As this scenario progressed it seemed more and more likely that it presented itself as a viable (and fun) solution.
Can we do this forever?
Probably not.
Can we do this for at least 5 years and possibly more?
Probably yes.
The process of learning about motorhomes is a daunting one. There are hundreds to choose from and everyone has an opinion with respect to what they like when it comes to make, model, type, and amenities.
Back to the books!
Lots of folks do full-timing in all types of RV’s, Class A,B,C, 5th wheels, pull-behinds, etc. are all in the mix. The favorites for full-time are the A’s and C’s. A’s are the ones that look like busses and C’s are the ones that are more traditional looking set-ups. Class A’s are the ones that we settled on so that left the decision with two ways to go. Diesel or Gas.
Gas has the motor up front and is based, more or less, on a specialized truck chassis.
Diesels have the motors in the rear and are more like a bus chassis than anything else.
The more research we did, the more it seemed that the diesel pushers were the most recommended and most frequently used for full-time. They are significantly more heavy duty, with massive chassis and tons of storage underneath, the “Basement” as it were.
Only one issue….
Diesels are probably DOUBLE the price of gas units for the respective size and features. But as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Don’t get me wrong, Gas ones can be awesome units and Diesels can be pieces of junk, but with the right research and weeding out the differences, made the decision a little more clear-cut. This is where I found out an interesting fact about my Co-Captain, Paula. Paula is definitely the “thriftier” of the two of us. She revels in the act of the weekly “Shop Rite Circular Coupon Cutting Ceremony” and proudly shows me the results of her labor when she brings home the receipt from the store showing the “Savings” on the bottom.
Back to gas vs diesel. There are plenty of choices out there that one can get for $20,000 or so. They are older, some in better condition than others, but perfectly good and safe to drive around. A HOUSE for $20,000!
That was my starting point.
After checking out RV Trader.com, it looked like we would realistically need to spend a little more than that, so I kind of doubled the cost of what I was looking at. Originally I was more comfortable with a gas engine, having worked on many over the years. I had zero experience with diesel and was therefore a tad reluctant to venture into that arena. So in the beginning I only looked at the gas ones.
Enter Paula.
Now I’m quoting here.
“I don’t want anything over 10 years old.”
Ok, so now we’ve definitely narrowed the field. (And definitely upped the cost) We looked a few gas units and Paula was un-impressed with storage and noise level. In the meantime, I did a little more research on the diesel pushers and found out a little more about the benefits of them over the gas units.
I said to Paula, “I think we’re going to spend a lot more than we thought.” Paula agreed and with us both comparing the pros and cons of the respective choices, we started leaning and then totally going for the diesel pushers. Mind you, there are some nice ones out there for $50,000 to $80,000, but they are “older” ones. We drove one in Vermont, a Tiffen, which is top of the line, like a Mercedes or Lexus. It was the first one we looked at. The owner, Chuck, had kept detailed information on all the services that he had performed on her from the beginning. This definitely gave us a comfortable feeling that she had been maintained and cared for over the years. But it was these “years” (and the fact that Paula was completely un-enamored with her) that were her undoing. I was ready to say “Yes”, it was Paula who put the brakes on.
Air brakes in this case.
It seems that the diesels use an “air brake” system similar to the big rig tractor trailers. Believe it or not, you do not need a special license or need training to drive one of these babies. A regular license is all that you need. A kid of 17 who just got his license or my 87 year old grandmother (God rest her soul) can climb behind the wheel of these behemoths and drive away.
Crazy isn’t it?
Dean, my brother, who drives busses part-time, and who has to jump through hoops to get and keep his Commercial Drivers License, was kind of, shall we say, “pissed off” when he found this out.
Oh well.
We left Vermont with a really good “first look at buying” experience. Chuck could not have been nicer or more forthcoming if he tried. He told us that we could call him in the future with any questions about motorhomes even if we did not buy his. Nice guy.
Now we were into the Procurement Stage hot and heavy. The next weekend we drove to West Virginia to see what was going to become the make and model of what we would eventually end up with, a 2014 Winnebago Forza. This guy, Chris, was as nice as Chuck, had good records and was as forthcoming.
But he also had 5 kids.
And it showed.
In reality, considering the kids fact, the unit was not in bad shape at all, just not in the shape we wanted it to be in.
Back home to Jersey.
Press the Repeat Button for the next weekend except we drove further and went to North Carolina. In retrospect, we should have gone from West Virginia to North Carolina that same weekend as we knew that this motorhome was also on our very heavily, easy to do, researched Prosect List (thanks to RV Trader.com!)
When we arrived at our destination, just north of Charlotte, we spied our (but we didn’t know it yet) baby sitting comfortably on the road in front of Doug and Vicky’s house. Doug greeted us as warmly as only a person with a Southern Hospitality type personality (and have a motorhome that one is trying to sell) could. No, really, they were genuinely nice, all salesmanship aside.
We gave her the “once over” before driving down to a local church parking lot to open everything up and really dive in.
She only had 15,000 miles on her in 6 years.
Why so little?
Was there something “not right” that kept the previous two (including Doug) owners from driving her?
All these and many more questions were asked and answered to our satisfaction. It seems that the first owner would basically drive to Myrtle Beach for the summer, park her in a campground, and drive back home at the end of the season. Doug and Vicky would pretty much do the same except they did not leave her for the season.
Hence the milage.
Doug had records of most of the maintenance that he had done and after listening to how he handled periodic maintenance and the like, it was easy to see that she was properly taken care of for the past 6 years. And, with only 15,000 miles on the odometer, there was little need for much in that department. Especially since it never left North Carolina, hence never having experienced a real Winter. I crawled underneath to confirm this. Not a speck of rust or sign of anything like you would expect from a Northern coach.
That’s what the proper name is for these diesel pushers.
A Coach.
Sounds kinda nice doesn’t it?
Not RV.
Not camper.
Not motorhome.
“Coach”.
It is all of the aforementioned titles also, but only these babies come with the title “Coach”.
That’s not all they come with.
They also come with the previously mentioned price tag. We were now at the uppermost limit of our price range but once you ride and drive one of these it’s hard to go backwards.
But we did.
Just to be sure.
In between the West Virginia and North Carolina trips we went to a local dealer that we had gone to before but didn’t have the chance to test drive a Class A gas unit. So we hopped into a brand-spankin’ new Forest River Georgetown. The feel, noise level, (because the engine is up front) and all-important storage space, were not even close to a “Coach.”
Now we felt confident enough that a pusher was what we felt most comfortable in and comfortable with parting with the additional shekels.
We left the church parking lot with me at the helm. This was only the second time that I had been behind the wheel of one of these, the first time was two weeks prior in Vermont. Driving a large rig like this has ALWAYS been a wish of mine. Ralph Cramden aside, I have secretly harbored the desire to be a Bus Driver. I think that I drove rather well, Doug thought so also, at least he told me that. Remember, he wanted to sell it to me. But I didn’t detect too much cringing from the Co-Pilots seat when we were out on the test drive.
Back to the house we go, it is now Negotiation Time and they were asking a bit more than what we wanted to pay. Paula and I stayed outside to discuss the obvious while Doug and Vicky went inside to get “refreshments”. We decided that this was exactly what we were looking for and knowing what was currently on the market and their relative pros and cons, especially with mileage factored in, we knew that this was fairly priced, even at full ticket (and little doggie pin-pricks) The only negative we found was some of the upholstery had worn prematurely. They had one of those little yappy-type dogs with claws instead of paws. We also knew that we had started this process at the beginning of the dreaded “Great American Covid-19 We Can’t Go On The Cruise Vacation So Why Don’t We Buy An RV And Go Wherever We Want Buying Spree.” This anomaly has been documented all year now, so we were fortunate to be in on it in the early stages where the upward pressure on price had not yet been felt.
Back to the house
It took about six seconds.
“Would you like a Coke or something?”
“No Thanks, we’re good”
“Will you take $XXX,XXX?
“No, how about $XXX,XXX”
“Sold”
Handshake.
Hand sanitizer.
We gave him $5000.00 as a good-will deposit, which he did not even ask for. He took it and true to his word, he did not deposit it until the day the sale was complete about 2 weeks later.
Apparently one of the hard and fast opinions of buying a used motorhome is to walk away from a deal where the present owner does not possess the title. This means that they need to pay it off before they can sell it.
With your money.
I wasn’t born yesterday, actually I was born in 1954 which just makes me old, but maybe a little wary also. The idea of me sending Doug the $$$ so that he could pay off the loan and send me the title was just a little scary. Based on his past and soon to be future dealings with us, this scenario would probably have worked.
But.
Better safe than out a ton of $$$ and nothing to show for it.
So I asked for and received the name and contact info for his “gal” at the bank. She and I became best friends. We wired her the money, she applied what was needed to satisfy the loan, gave the rest to Doug and then overnighted us that title, all signed off, properly stamped and sealed with all of the pomp and circumstance that a Notary in North Carolina could muster.
She was ours!
But we didn’t have her. She was still in North Carolina and we were in New Jersey.
After many calls back and forth, trying to work out all of our respective schedules, we finally landed (figuratively and literally) on July 4th in Charlotte where Doug picked us up and brought us back to his place.
This was smack in the middle of Covid Scary Flying.
Which was actually OK. We purchased our one-way tickets for $39.00 each and went to the absolutely deserted airport (except for the at least 25 extra TSA employees standing around because there was NO ONE to check in.)
After a quick tutorial on the specific systems of this particular motorhome, we were given the keys and away we went with promises to send Doug and Vicky photos of her on our Journey. Getting out of the Charlotte area was a bit tricky. Watching out for low clearances and the like were just a few of the items to be aware of. We now have a specialized GPS that handles that for us (more on that in an upcoming episode.) We spent the night at a T/A truck stop in northern Virginia. We pulled around back and found a slot with all the big boys. It was a pothole filled parking area that was impossible to “level” in, therefore there would be no “slides out” that night! And it was HOT so to keep the AC on we needed to run the generator all night. It provided a kind of “white noise” to fall asleep to.
We finished the trip the next day and pulled into our driveway and backed her right up and into her berth next to the garage. First try! Now back to the real world and trying to put all the pieces for the future into place. Work needed to be done around the house to ready it for sale and we wanted to do some re-decorating and the like in the motorhome to make it not just “updated” but “ours” also.
Both projects proceeded nicely and soon we found ourselves “houseless” but definitely not “homeless” because (and this is still hard to get used to) our “home” is with us 24/7/ and hopefully 365! It is really weird sitting in our motorhome and realizing that we are, in fact, HOME. All of our possessions, except for a few things still in the trailer, are with us. The downsizing process was both traumatic and cathartic at the same time. Having “things” and lots of “stuff” is wonderful if you have a Collector type personality like I do. Paula is just the opposite, but even with that, having lived in her home for 34 years meant that there was still a sizeable amount of possessions that needed to be dealt with when it came to the sorting process. The decision of which one to save, give away, sell, or just throw out is daunting. The task becomes easier when one finds out that NO ONE wants anything and for the most part it’s not worth anything! But it all still needs to be handled, one object at a time.
This is the sticky part.
Remember when your Mom ordered you to “Go clean up your room and do under your bed too!” ? You would slowly climb the stairs to your room grumbling all the way and then grudgingly and reluctantly start the process.
Until you found a gem!
“Hey! I remember this (book, photo, paper, stuffed animal, etc.)” and then any progress that you were making came grinding to a halt as you sat and read, looked, and/or played with the offending object until the Commanding Officer yelled upstairs “You don’t have all day! Get a move on!”
Now think about this task when it involves an entire house. It becomes one of catastrophic proportions. But after exhaustive trips to the dump and the local Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store, we eventually emptied our lives of all that, in reality, was not really that important. Obviously, many a lesson was learned here. Maybe a subject for a future post?
We’ll see.
In the meantime, we still had a few loose ends to tie up before leaving the Garden State, but we just got rid of our base of operations and needed a place to park Biggie for a spell. John and Dianne in Lafayette offered their second driveway as a temporary home. It was a great spot, and they could not have been more hospitable if they tried. The fun part was watching the two of them march out into the middle of Route 15 with their arms up stopping traffic in both directions so that I could back across the highway from the firehouse and nestle in our berth. It was a sight. Our other temporary home (because we didn’t want to wear out any welcomes) was in the rear parking lot of Yetter’s Diner. Our usual morning Breakfast Buddies of Tommy, the owner, Sara, our waitress, and Joan, the other early morning customer were all there to wish us Good Luck as the days wound down to “Wheels -Up” (in aviation parlance).
Now finally done with all of our last-minute preparations, our vehicles are sold and the “Last Exit in New Jersey” sign is in sight as we head out on the road. Our first stop was Danny, Kaitie, and Madison’s home in Brenham, Texas. We are presently parked on their property and we have started to navigate the local process of becoming “Texan’s” so we can register the vehicles, vote and otherwise still be “official” instead of really being off the grid!
I will leave it here. The universal opinion on writing a blog is to have several posts ready to insert when it is finally up and going. I am definitely not that internet savvy, so I’ll need to do some homework and lean on someone to get me through it all. Until then I will just keep writing.
Stay tuned.
