We have been following Howard and Linda's journal and browse the forum for helpful RV tips and tricks for almost a year now. It is long overdue that we say "Hi" and "thank you" to all the RV-Dream Members sharing their experiences to help other RVers with all kinds of issues. We have benefitted from the forum posts quite a few times already and hope to be able to share some of our experiences in the future.

Here is some background info: we are German citizens, living in Victoria, BC since August 2009. Reason for leaving Germany is a longer story, but to make it short, we kind of followed our daughters who attended a boarding school in Victoria (the intention was to spend a year abroad, but they were hooked by the opportunities and wanted to stay longer, which we supported). We are both early retired, working as volunteers for a local theatre. And we both had no camping experience before coming to Canada. But friends visiting us in 2010 were enthusiastic about their vacations in the U.S. with a Class C rental. That was the starting point. We were interested and liked the concept of travelling with your own home on wheels. After lots of research using RV-forums (we hadn't found this one back then) and other internet resources (and doing a test trip with a rental before finally buying) we purchased a used 2009 Alpenlite 31CK Limited fifth wheel (spring 2011). This is one of the last units, if not the last, that came of the line in Yakima before Alpenlite went under. On our first real trip (the short test trips on our island don't count) we kind of moved our younger daughters stuff from Victoria to Savannah, GA, where she attends university. A wonderful excuse for a big trip. We had a blast. Since then we have added five more longer trips, lasting about seven weeks each (since we are German citizens we are only allowed 90 days at a time in the U.S.) and a few shorter ones. Statistically we have spent exactly one year out of the last three years in our 5er. We love travelling with our RV, but fulltiming is not in our future. However, there is so much more to see in the U.S. (so far we have only been to 14 states yet) and Canada, we are not sure if this live is long enough to do all the trips we have in mind. So we might become something between 1/3-timers and 1/2-timers, travelling the North American continent.Since Alaska is on the list, but we do not like the idea of hauling our 5er up there, we just purchased a truck camper (2006 Adventurer 90FWS) and enjoy the first experiences with it. As with the 5er we do some modifications to make the unit a better fit to our needs (and wants). That is where we find the forum an invaluable source of information and we appreciate the effort other RV-Dream members put in to answer all kind of questions that come up. We would love to meet you guys on one of our next trips and share a few stories at the campfire.

Cheers, Bernd&Erika

-- Edited by The Schweitzers on the road on Saturday 28th of June 2014 10:16:14 PM

Hi Mark,

I know the Ramstein area well, having spent some time there when in the army. Glad you liked it in Germany. Lots of American soldiers don't see and experience much more than their military camp when deployed to another country.

By the way, I admire your HDT truck and your 5er. Your setup is in another league than ours.

Cheers

Bernd

Hi Sherry,

you have a nice way to say that some Germans just overdo it with putting miles on the road when travelling. Some should be reminded to be on a vacation, not on the run

Thanks for the advice on the Alaska threads, we will look into those.

As for the Canadian immigration laws, they are pretty simple and straightforward. You earn points for education, language skills, professional experience and some other things. If you make the cut (65/100) your permanent residence card is more or less a matter of time and proof of your claimed skills (30 months in our case). We have applied for Canadian Citizenship in January which will likely be granted sometime in 2016 (after passing the citizenship test).

Bernd

Bernd,

Loved your reply! : ) found it very interesting. Sounds like you both have great skills and will be an asset to this group.

Loved your tag line too!

Sherry

Lived in BC for a few years back in the '70s.  Gorgeous country, will return once we hit the road (come on 2019!!!)  

As for here, as you can see, lots of friendly folks hereabouts, and knowledgeable too. Let the good times roll!

Welcome aboard.