Thanks for all the great responses.

I enjoyed reading them, and will keep what you said in mind as I plan our next life!

Whenever anyone asks Craig what we are going to do after we sell the house, he answers "we are going to get into our RV and drive off into the sunrise". We live only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean and wouldn't get far driving off into the sunset!

When they ask me, I usually say: "north if it is spring, and south if it is fall."

I am pretty sure we will be houseless full timers sometime in the next year, and am looking at some destinations that require advanced reservations. For example, the Bahia Honda State Park in Florida, at the tip of the Keys, takes reservations eleven months in advance. So if we want to be there next winter, we should be making reservations soon. 

My way of planning "trips" has been to make the core reservations as soon as we decide where we wanted to go and make "coming and going" plans as side trips presented themselves.

I'm learning to use a variety of resources to find places to stay. We really have not yet done any BLM camping or boondocking, but I do try to find the best bargains thru Escapees and Passport America. I also use the Good Sam book.

Recently I bought a book called "RV Camping in State Parks" at Camping World.  It lists all state parks in the US that have RV camping, their size restrictions, approximate cost, hook ups, and contact or reservation numbers or web sites. I think it will be a valuable resource.

Of course I like the high-end luxury resorts with their heated pools and hot tubs, and we will go to some of them when we can get a deal or a Passport rate, or perhaps a winter monthly rate, but their regular daily charges are a bit rich for my budget. So far the state and national parks we have stayed in have been great. I find the park atmosphere appealing. That is why I was delighted to find the above-mentioned book.

As I have paged thru it, I am pleased to see that most states have parks with spaces big enough for the Alfa and have hookups. In California, many parks have size limits that are less than 35 feet, and hookups are generally not available. We don't need sewer or water, but an electric hook up in hot or cold weather is a must as far as I'm concerned. I hate to run the generator because of the noise, the smell, and because it disturbs the neighboring campers. We may add solar eventually, but not until we have really come to know our preferences. 

Of course, first we have to get the house sold, but it is fun to dream, and now I know it is just a matter of time. After living in the Alfa for more than four months, we both know we want to do this!

Being away from the house has given Craig some time to look into several upgrades he would like to do (or have done) to the Alfa after we sell the house. A new TV in the front, a satellite system, get fogged windows fixed, new AGM batteries, and eventually four new tires. As he talks about all of this I have to say: "Whoa, we know we are limited to the 36' size by camp driveway, but what if after we go on the road we want to trade up? Shouldn't we be sure we want to keep the Alfa before making these improvements?" 

So on Monday we stopped in at a couple of dealers and looked at the class A diesels they had on their lots. We looked at about ten very nice expensive rigs, both new and pre-owned. All bigger than our Alfa, and all with more luxurious decor. None of them appealed to me. Even the new $225K Tiffin Allegro Red didn't turn me on. 

When we went back to the RV park and I went aboard our Alfa, I knew we had the right rig! The only improvement would be to have a 40' See Ya or Alfa Gold. Our Founder is a 2007. Alfa went out of business in 2008, so there are not many newer than ours. 

All of this is just babble at this time. The house has to sell first. But it is fun to dream.

If you are a full timer, did you trade up after you sold your home?

Getting Ready for Our Next Trip

Within a week of returning from our trip in January, we decided our next trip would be in April to Casa Grande, Arizona, for the National Alfa Rally. We are still in the learning phase of using and owning an RV. Do you ever stop learning? Craig has found the Alfa forum very interesting, and hopefully has learned how to fix a few things without ever having them break!  He is looking forward to meeting some of the people he has been chatting with on the forum. 

After that we are going to visit my brother in Surprise Arizona for a day, and then go on to the Grand Canyon.

To get there, we will be driving across country we have traveled before, so it will be a couple of long driving days without much stopping. Not that that is bad. I like just riding and driving along in the Alfa. We plan to do our first Walmart boondocking. 

Our daughter bought us the Rand McNally navigation system for Christmas, and one feature is that you can have it show all the Walmarts, Sam's Clubs and Rest Stops on your route with notations of which allow overnight parking. I'm not exactly sure where we will stop, but I know what the alternatives are.

We have worked very hard on house project for over two months. I had a wish list of things I hope to see finished before we went out again. Many of them have been completed. Some things were done that were not on the list, but the one big project, the bathroom downstairs, will not be finished. That makes me sad because with that rolling over into the month after we get back, it is unlikely we will get the house on the market this summer. Craig gets really mad at me when I say that. He is far more optimistic than I am. I really wanted to have it ready by early summer because I think this house will show best in the summer months. People will appreciate the wonderful decks and cool family room more on a hot day than in the winter. There are also many more accidents on the nearby highway in rainy winter weather. It's funny how people tend to forget about that during the summer months. For me a classic example comes from Craig himself. Years ago, when we lived in Wisconsin, he was offered a job in Texas in July. He said no because Texas was too hot. He took the job in October or November, and I sat alone with a country house for sale in rural Wisconsin through the winter. 

I'm at loose ends right now. I don't have a project that I can work on that will make me feel like I am contributing to the goal of getting the house done. Just about everything I need to do involves Craig, and I don't want to take him away from working on those %*@x  bathrooms. Somehow I thought two months would be enough time to do one, but we have had some set backs.  

Next week I will be shopping and packing for our trip. I'm not sure what groceries to take because the week of the Rally will include a number of dinners, lunches and even one breakfast.  No sense in carting around food we won't need for a week.  I figure on shopping in Williams before we go up to the Canyon.

We finished our taxes yesterday, and now I have the use of the dining room table back. It is my trip-packing "staging spot." I have a long printed list and will be filling the table with things for the trip.  I know that if I put something in the Alfa, I will probably need it in the house, so most loading is done on the last day. I don't leave much of anything in the Alfa for the same reason. As I pack I try to think like we are leaving for our full time life. If I'm not putting something in that I will want to take along then, I am either leaving room or really evaluating if I will actually need it. I think this time when we get home instead of rushing around putting things away, I will put most of it back on the table and evaluate what we left behind. It would be a good time to fill some large boxes with things we can get rid of.  

One nice thing about having my list on the computer is that I can reprint it and make changes or additions with each trip.  In addition to what to pack, I list where in the Alfa everything is put. If I decide there is a better place, I simply correct the list. By the time we are full time, I should have a master list!  Of course it will continue to change, but I can try. 

My next post will be about a few little innovations I have done in the Alfa. Little fixes for little problems!