We are John and Carol from Sacramento, CA. I am 67 and John is 64. We bought a Holiday Rambler Presidential 5th wheel in 2003 with the intention of living and traveling in it while I worked as a travel nurse. As fate often changes our plans, we had to come off the road after several years. I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and was no longer able to work. We bought a manufactured home, John found a job, and we kept the 5th wheel for vacation and weekend use.
Now we are planning to sell the house next year and get back on the road. We will not have any equity in our house so we aren't going to be able to purchase a new RV without having payments, so we've decided to do some major upgrading to our current 5th wheel and hit the road with only two years left to pay on the RV and no other debts. We plan to put in new flooring, new roller shades, a new electric awning, and stackable washer dryer and replace the RV stove with a cooktop only. We've already replaced all the furniture and are going to cut down our king bed platform to fit our current memory foam queen mattress. The king bed is so difficult to make as the mattress takes up all the space in the bedroom slide and we don't need a king bed.
We are both very excited to finally be able to retire of good and travel with no financial worries, and as long as our health holds up we plan to do it until we can't anymore or we decide we are tired of it.
We have two French Bulldogs that travel with us and we have everything we need and a lot of things we don't!! We feel very fortunate.
I plan to take an RV driving course so I can do more than just drive the truck when traveling. John currently does all the backing up etc and I'd like to be able to do that too.
I hope everyone who dreams of this lifestyle gets the change to do it. We loved it the first time around and this time, not having to work, it will be even better.
TRAILERKING said
01:02 PM May 8, 2014
Welcome aboard...........
BiggarView said
01:49 PM May 8, 2014
New exception to the rule.... Second time's the charm. Welcome aboard.
MarkS said
02:15 PM May 8, 2014
I knew it! This full timing thing is like a drug. Once it gets in your system, you just can't shake it!
Welcome back.
DebbieM said
02:38 PM May 8, 2014
Sounds like a great plan! We are almost neighbors, we live in Placerville. We'll be heading out full time this summer. Just picked up our 5th wheel and head back to CA tomorrow.
Enjoy!
WestWardHo said
02:54 PM May 8, 2014
Galtgirl, welcome back!! Your plans sound terrific. Ther IS NO right way to fulltime per Howard & Linda. I did the RVDrivingSchool.com thang and I loved it. I now drive about half the time when I can wrench the steering wheel from my dear Jesse! We both enjoy the driving.
So happy you conquered the lymphoma and hope to see you in the road!
Sherry (& Jesse too)
-- Edited by WestWardHo on Thursday 8th of May 2014 02:55:33 PM
Lucky Mike said
03:27 PM May 8, 2014
Welcome John & Carol!!!
galtgirl said
03:44 PM May 8, 2014
Thank you everyone for your warm welcome. Sherry...I just got back from my annual Oncology check up. I'm now 5 1/2 years post treatment and the doctor said he thinks I'm home free and doesn't think I need to worry about a recurrence. That was just what I was hoping he would say. I still have to go back in a year but I keep thinking a year from now we will be getting set to hit the road. This year can't go by fast enough for me. We will spend the next year updating the RV, getting our truck paid off and getting rid of the house.
RickandJanice said
07:01 PM May 8, 2014
John and Carol, welcome back to the full time lifestyle!! Hope to meet you on the road some day. We just got out here this past December and do not plan on leaving the road until we can no longer do it. Great life, lots of wonderful people and a beautiful country!
We are John and Carol from Sacramento, CA. I am 67 and John is 64. We bought a Holiday Rambler Presidential 5th wheel in 2003 with the intention of living and traveling in it while I worked as a travel nurse. As fate often changes our plans, we had to come off the road after several years. I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and was no longer able to work. We bought a manufactured home, John found a job, and we kept the 5th wheel for vacation and weekend use.
Now we are planning to sell the house next year and get back on the road. We will not have any equity in our house so we aren't going to be able to purchase a new RV without having payments, so we've decided to do some major upgrading to our current 5th wheel and hit the road with only two years left to pay on the RV and no other debts. We plan to put in new flooring, new roller shades, a new electric awning, and stackable washer dryer and replace the RV stove with a cooktop only. We've already replaced all the furniture and are going to cut down our king bed platform to fit our current memory foam queen mattress. The king bed is so difficult to make as the mattress takes up all the space in the bedroom slide and we don't need a king bed.
We are both very excited to finally be able to retire of good and travel with no financial worries, and as long as our health holds up we plan to do it until we can't anymore or we decide we are tired of it.
We have two French Bulldogs that travel with us and we have everything we need and a lot of things we don't!! We feel very fortunate.
I plan to take an RV driving course so I can do more than just drive the truck when traveling. John currently does all the backing up etc and I'd like to be able to do that too.
I hope everyone who dreams of this lifestyle gets the change to do it. We loved it the first time around and this time, not having to work, it will be even better.
New exception to the rule.... Second time's the charm.
Welcome aboard.
Welcome back.
Sounds like a great plan! We are almost neighbors, we live in Placerville. We'll be heading out full time this summer. Just picked up our 5th wheel and head back to CA tomorrow.
Enjoy!
Galtgirl, welcome back!! Your plans sound terrific. Ther IS NO right way to fulltime per Howard & Linda. I did the RVDrivingSchool.com thang and I loved it. I now drive about half the time when I can wrench the steering wheel from my dear Jesse! We both enjoy the driving.
So happy you conquered the lymphoma and hope to see you in the road!
Sherry (& Jesse too)
-- Edited by WestWardHo on Thursday 8th of May 2014 02:55:33 PM