Red Roads Fulltiming Family

Our Story

Preliminaries

   David and I have always appreciated travel as an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. When David was a child, his family took camping trips. My parents took our family on vacations where we drove long distances in the car and stayed in motels. As single adults, David and I both traveled out of the U.S. After we were married, we continued to take car trips for our vacations. Sometimes J and Bud went with us, but sometimes they stayed with grandparents while we went by ourselves.

    In July 1998, we took our first two-week family car trip, traveling in a rented minivan. We were on the move a lot, saw a lot of new things, and returned home ready to rest from our adventures. In August 1999, we bought a conversion van, thinking it would make our traveling vacations more comfortable and therefore more enjoyable and less tiring. We began thinking about traveling for an extended period of time or even moving to a different state. This would involve David's quitting his job, so we gave careful scrutiny to our financial situation.

    For a long time, David had dreamed of cruising aboard his own sailboat, visiting exotic ports of call. Although this idea did not appeal to me, I began to investigate it through books and the Internet. While looking for information about cruising families, I discovered the Families on the Road web site. This was the door that opened to us the world of fulltime RVing. We subscribed to the e-mail list and began to learn from the folks we "met" there.

Preparation

    For the next few months, we continued our research. We had a lot to learn! Within seven months of buying our van, we were amazed to find ourselves just about ready to make some big changes in our lifestyle. First, David would quit his job. Then we would sell our house and many of our possessions, buy a two-bedroom fifth wheel and a medium duty truck, and hit the road. We interviewed real estate agents, looked at RV's, toured the Travel Supreme factory in Wakarusa, IN, test-drove several MDT's (medium duty trucks), went window shopping at Camping World, attended two RV shows, turned over my home business to a friend, joined the Good Sam Club and Escapees, subscribed to Trailer Life magazine, and even went to Ontario, Canada, to tour a toter home factory. Whew!

Postponement

    The day David went to work intending to give his two-weeks notice, however, we were suddenly pulled up short. It was March, 2000, and our stocks had taken a nose dive overnight. Well, we consoled ourselves, at least we had not signed any papers. We were not committed to buy, sell, or quit. We decided to continue our lives as usual, hoping that our plans were only on hold. The difficulty was that our hearts had been changed. We had a desire to be on the road. 

    For the next seventeen months, we continued to think about and research fulltiming. I read books, David and I went to a Life on Wheels conference, and we kept searching the Internet for information. In March, 2001, David and I attended the Great North American RV Rally in Perry, GA, staying in a motel because we had no rig.

Progress

    Finally, in August, 2001, we decided to prepare our house for sale. If we were able to sell it, then we would decide what steps to take next. This seemed like a better plan than becoming unemployed while still having a house payment, as we had been about to do in March, 2000! As it turned out, near the end of September, 2001, we found, on the Internet, a used Travel Supreme fifth wheel offered for sale by the owners. It was the model we had selected after our factory tour in 1999 and it was only two hours away from our home! By the middle of October, 2001, it was ours! We took a short "shake-down" trip, then winterized it and put it in storage. In November, 2001, we put a "for sale" sign in our front yard.

    In January, 2002, David learned that he would be eligible for an early retirement buy-out plan soon to be implemented at his place of work. His official retirement party was given on his last day on the job, March 1, 2002. What a blessing it was to have him home with the rest of us! In the spring and early summer, we were able to take a couple of short trips in our rig. It was great! On the Internet in June, we found a Stalick International MDT for sale by the owner. We negotiated a tentative deal via telephone and e-mail, then drove our van to Massachusetts in July for a final inspection. Everything was fine, so we closed the deal and drove the truck (and our van) back to Ohio.

    With our rig now complete, we just needed to find a buyer for the house. Finally, we decided to abandon our unsuccessful attempt to sell it on our own. One day in August, we called a real estate agent and made an appointment for the next day. That evening, however, a couple made us an offer on the house. We accepted it and cancelled our appointment with the agent! Closing was set for October 15. Labor Day weekend we had a huge garage sale, clearing out most of our furniture and many personal items. Two weeks later we had a "clean-up" sale to get rid of as much small stuff as we could. Then we headed to the Escapees' Fall Escapade in Van Wert, Ohio, about an hour from our house.

Participation

    After turning over the house keys to the new owners in October, we had some financial and legal matters to tend to, including the sale of the conversion van that had started this whole, amazing chain of events, three years and two months earlier. Then we said good-bye to our family members and friends and on November 2, 2002, left Ohio for the sunny South. It felt great to be on the road at last! 

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