I here you loud and clear. Our launch date isn't until oct of 2015 and that is etched in clay. We are taking short weekend trips to enjoy the lifestyle as best we can while we wait. About the only positive I can think of is extended prep time. You have plenty of opportunity to make sure everything is done without rushing. However, keep in mind that "planning to" or "thinking about" cleaning out the garage does not help you get to the desired result. My garage looks exactly the same as before I started thinking about it. I guess I'll have to physically do something to make it happen. I'll start that, ummmm, tomorrow.

Here's a little gem I use with myself whenever I want to whine. "Suck it up, cupcake. Life sucks and then you die". I think of it as tough love. It's just short of, drop and give me 25. Given my age and physical conditioning, I've moved the decimal point on that to 2.5. In a few more years I'll change it to "drop and give me a nap".

Today it supposed to be 108. The positive is, we can use the pool while we think about the 70 degree high in Leadville, Colorado. The negative is, I still have to clean the pool. For all intents and purposes, there are no positives. Tough love is the only practical alternative that works for me and it doesn't work all that well. When it gets real bad I can always go and curl up on the bed in the fiver and sob myself to sleep. Not a pretty sight, I'm sure.

I certainly wasn't any help. You're on your own.

I promise, Lee, it will happen.

Decisions made in a rush are always not the best.

I fall in the fast catagory.. Decided in Jan this year..

The downside for us is we had to sell our business cheap.. I have 8000 sq ft of my own stuff to liquidate too.. lots of tools, fishing, mining, comic, and baseball card collections,, Got the gun collection down to like 10.. still need more to go.. can't figure it out.. Have a art collection 100 pieces deep.. not sure what to do with it.. it may come with us.

We have been dropping our collectibles off at auction , and getting pennies on the dollars.. We are prepping for a garage sale next week today.. more work. And plan a second one few weeks from now.

I expect to make some decent money, once my personal stuff is sold.. But I'm giving it all away.. I think we are giving our furniture to a consignment shop before we leave..I'm sure that won't go well.

Just completed a 64 falcon that I plan to give to my pops in FL.. That has come with us.

We have 1 month to be finished with all of it..Go to FL first, then up to RVS4LESS to pick up the DRV.

Both our house lease, and the warehouse lease ends 8/31. That is also driving this. I also find myself being much more lazy , as it get closer..



SOOOOO .. Take your time. Don't sell your stuff off short. I wish I had more time to sell this stuff. We know how to do it.. Our only income was/is a ebay store...
Go out with your friends and family .. and say goodbye.. we don't have the time.

Oh.. another thing.. aside from starting in florida.. We have no clue where we are going, where we are staying, when we get there.. Nothing.. That Isn't good either I don't think. I hope to have some time the first couple months to plan out a tentative timeline and route..

I don't feel that we went fast at all - it was 3 years in the planning (30 years in the dreaming). The only real reason for the last minute hustle was because I lost my steady job at the end of December. Mitch's career as a freelancer is extremely unreliable, and without my steady paycheck, we couldn't afford to pay our mortgage and other bills for more than 3 months and needing to use our savings to do so. I believe God was with us every step of the way so we did not have to get rid of the house via foreclosure. But time did become extremely critical by then.

My advice would be to take it as slowly as possible - doing a lot of planning and research along the way.

Our decision was actually fairly quick. My husband took a job based out of Tulsa, OK at the end of July 2012 and his first project was on the western edge of OK. We (my 2 younger boys and dogs) were still in Clarksville, TN at the time. After a few every-other-weekend trips home, my hubby posed the question to us about moving. The boys actually pressed the issue first. They hated seeing him so little. After much searching, there were no houses to be rented (did not want to buy since only temporarily there while on assignment)that were compatible with our needs, so we went with plan 2. We explained it in length to the boys and they didn't hesitate a bit. We started looking at fifth wheels with bunkhouse or toy haulers, as we knew the kids needed their own space. In October 2012 we purchased our '13 Bighorn Silverado 37QB. It fit perfectly (or so we thought at the time). We decided that in doing this, we were going to commit to the lifestyle for at least 2 yrs. My husband has traveled and stayed in his previous ones since he started in this business over 20yrs ago but this was a first for my children and myself (minus little camping weekends here or there). We sold everything from our over 2000sqft home and rented a temp. controlled storage unit for all the precious keepsakes we couldn't part with but couldn't take either, and set off on our journey the beginning of Nov. '12. Since then, things have changed. Our trailer, vehicles, my boys are trying life with their biological father for a school year ....but we are still going strong and have no intentions of giving up this lifestyle yet. We bought acreage in Tennessee at the end of last year to build our "forever" home, but right now, we are just working our way through life until we feel the need to stop and plant our feet somewhere. So, I guess we have done this process somewhat backwards from many others that I have read about. All in all, we took 4 months from the point of hubby moving to us moving with him......and we haven't regretted it a bit This probably won't help Lee keep his spirits up about the time frame for you guys, but it was what worked for us, not necessarily for anyone else. Don't rush things. All good things come in time. We have had plenty of times that we wished we would have had more time to research rv's or where we would be staying or even write a list of pro's and con's of the differences of this lifestyle. Half the fun is the ride to get there....no need in rushing that

Bill and I made the decision to do this, and it was originally a 5 year plan. Things change/happen and the timeline got shorter. At 20 months into the 5 year plan, we decided ASAP was our new "timeline". We are now 11 months past that, with the house being on the market about 3 1/2 months. So, our timeline is all over the place, but things happen when they happen. Patience has not always been one of my stronger virtues, but I'm doing my best, as I know you are, to stay positive. Some days that is easier than others.

I agree that having more time to plan can't be all bad, but I am at a point, similar to MarkS, where thinking about doing and actually DOING are two entirely different things. We have done a lot, but a lot remains still to do. It's been hard to stay motivated.

Chin up, GF, our days of S&B ownership are numbered, I know it's true, just wish I had a date so I could relax and not worry about it.

You simply have to accept that for whatever reason things are moving slowly, that is the way it is supposed to be. Years later, as you look back, you'll understand why things moved slowly and see how that slowness brought you to a point where you needed to be or at least, that has been my experience. It is frustrating as heck always wondering "Why, why, why?" I just walk through the house mumbling "Things never work out like you plan." I have a list of such things but looking back, I understand. And, "Good things come to those that wait.", well, like how long is that wait supposed to be? Time will tell.

I would have to say in retrospect I agree. Lee and I have come to a place where we have made some peace with the wait. Great connections and support from rally friends has certainly helped. We are trying to take advantage of the time the best we can ...we are practically living in the RV at this point, I have been working some on getting ready to start my own business, and we revamped our budget based on feedback from friends who have been out there with more realistic costs.

Don't get me wrong the waiting still sucks but I have to agree there's a reaso. Behind the wait.

Trace

biggaRView: Oh, my gosh, this sounds like when I was younger and looking for not being so hyped about things and I got this tape called something like " How to ....... and Dance With Life", can't remember the exact title and I trashed it after listening to some of it. (I do not mean this in any offensive way toward your post but it was just funny that it reminded me of that time.) Why? While I cannot control things, well, some, I can work from different angles to manipulate the situations. It is not worry but like some sort of strategic warfare. It doesn't stress me out, it challenges me so I thrive on it except for just a few moments when I feel down but bounce back - emotional resilience from the believes I hold.
I am sure like some others, we live in a winter state where the real estate market is about to hibernate for the winter. We got a late start getting listed a month ago but will pull the listing in November, relisting in the spring. So, I pick out the positives of our situation and try to ignore the overwhelming two negatives of our current lifestyle for now since I cannot control them although I am working behind the scenes poking at them, I'll just refocus most of my energy on being highly organized for spring. I am Type A personality coupled with Leo The Lion so never calmly doing anything but not a worrier at all thus our "flying by the seat of our pants" philosophy. Seriously, I just love life and all the possibilities!