Friday, February 20, 2015

370 weeks remaining....

Well, with over 7 years remaining I still feel confident with our decision to fulltime. I read a blog yesterday where they saved about $70k before they started to fulltime. I was astonished with this number. I was thinking about $500k for us. This got me thinking about what is really needed. There are many people on the road now living the lifestyle with way less than I want to have and most likely a lot people have less savings than the people in the blog I talked about. So there must be a middle ground, balancing freedom and security. I'm hoping readers of my blog will chime in with what they anticipate or had when starting to fulltime. I know this is a tricky subject, but this conversation is being had all over the country every day.

On to a much brighter topic. We are headed to Glacier National Park in August and are very excited. I think we can stay two days on the west side of the park, then two days on the east side, then maybe a day or two in Waterton National Park in Canada. This will give us a good feel for these parks for future visits. We love wildlife and Yellowstone so I think this trip will be a no-brainer.

See you all on the road!

Bill

Thursday, February 5, 2015

A Word from the Wife... by Cait!

     I've been thinking about what we do and don't want from fulltiming.  We're still figuring things out, and I'm sure much more will be revealed once we're actually out there, living it.

     Being around people is important to my husband.  He needs the juice of human interaction, the hum and the buzz of other people to talk to (in addition to me).  Some time out in the woods alone is fine, but then he wants to go into town.  He loves to shoot the shit, press the flesh, rub elbows, trade stories, hear opinions, ask questions, break bread, maybe get in a game of pickle ball.  He's a people person.  So I think we will want to stay in campgrounds and RV parks at least half the time, and boondock alone in the middle of nowhere once in a while.


     My family is what's really important to me.  I want to be able to spend a good amount of time with them several times a year, at least.  So even though I want to see the far reaches of the country, I don't want to be too far away for too long at a stretch.  Or maybe traveling half to two-thirds of the year and wintering near family would work. 

     This will all require some balancing and some compromise on both our parts. One thing I know I need to do is re-calibrate my idea of where "home" will be.  Home won't be back in So Cal.  It will be on the road with my honey.  We will get used to it, and if parts of it aren't working for us we can make adjustments.

     There's a lot to do to get ready, but I wish we could leave right now!