Changing Blogs

We have decided to change our blog hosting service. From this point forward, we will be using www.goodsamclub.mytripjournal.com/saunteringsampsons.  

Deja Vu all over again

We've had an interesting past few weeks. First it was back to Hendersonville, NC for my mother's memorial service on the 24th of January. We left Ft Lauderdale and stopped by Michele and Gwen's place in Alpharetta, GA where we spent the night and left the motorhome. We also got to meet our beautiful great grandson while we were there! Then we drove to Hendersonville and checked in to the Hampton Inn, where most of the family was staying for the weekend. 

The service was wonderful- very moving, and provided closure for us all. Mom had it planned as far as what hymns were sung and what scripture was read, but I was touched most by the piano solo of Clair de Lune, which Mom used to play frequently when we were young, and by what Bob and Betsy said. I chose not to speak at the service, fearing it would be too painful. Bob and Betsy's comments brought back many old memories that I had tucked far away. It was good to be reminded of all that Mom had done during her lifetime. I had been more focused on how she was the last couple years and not on the past. She was truly an extraordinary person!

We enjoyed spending time with the extended family, catching up on what's been happening in their lives, including meeting our new great nephew, Lincoln! 

The following Monday we drove back to Alpharetta. Tuesday afternoon we cranked up the Molly Bee and headed for Gulf Shores, Alabama.  We decided to stop for the night outside Montgomery at a Cracker Barrel. While driving there, on a narrow bridge, after dark, I was driving too close to the right edge of the road, and hit a bridge abutment, scraping down the entire passenger side of the rig. Kate had been warning me about being too close on the passenger side, and I was working on staying closer to the left hand lane markers, but I slipped up. When we got to Cracker Barrel, we couldn't open the door to get out! I had to call the restaurant and have the manager come out to see what the damage was to the door. He brought out a hammer and piece of wood to bend the lower door trim down so we could get out. Wow, the damage was terrible! All the storage doors are wrecked, The fiberglass front end, fender wells, and rear bumper area all have to be repaired.

We drove on to Lake Osprey RV Country Club the next day. We had reservations for a week for a special price of $99. We were very lucky to find an RV repair and body shop nearby. They have very good reviews from rv'ers we've spoken with. They also have a campground within their facility so we can stay there while repairs are being made. He should have the estimate completed tomorrow (Wednesday), so we'll know what to look forward to. The good news is we don't have anywhere else we need to be so we have all the time we need. The bad news is we don't know how our insurance company is going to react to our second claim in six months. We just have to wait and see...

Changes to the subscription process

Apparently the previous method to subscribe to our blog wasn't working. I've added a new subscription gadget, at the top of the right hand column, labeled "Subscribe by email." Please try this and let me know if it works or not. We'll keep working on this until we get it right! Thank you, folks!

Sunday morning

It's Sunday morning, about 75 degrees and overcast. It's quiet and comfortable and the coffee tastes great!

Rebecca has been with us for the weekend again. Yesterday, she had her weekly session with the musical theater group, taught by "Miss Dolly," a wonderful, very energetic lady in her early eighties, who conducts classes at the Delray Beach Playhouse. Rebecca is going to audition for admission to Bach, a public school focusing on the performing arts. Students must pass the audition, then are chosen through a lottery to be accepted. Miss Dolly has offered to spend extra time with Rebecca to prepare her for the auditions.

We took Becca to her class, and had several hours to kill until she was finished, so we took a sight-seeing drive down Florida A1A, along the coast. The oceanfront mansions in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale will take your breath away! And the yachts along the inland waterway are just amazing! It makes me wonder how so many people can have so much money!

We stopped for lunch in Ft. Lauderdale, at a place called The H2O Cafe. It was very good! We both had Cuban sandwiches, because what else would you have this close to Miami?

As I mentioned earlier, Kozy Kamper RV Park is an interesting place. I will take some pictures of some of the "permanent" residents' sites so you can get a feel for the place. Many of the sites are well kept, but some...

On our trip here in August we stayed at County parks- very roomy and well kept, but not available in the peak season without reservations very much in advance.

Kate and I figured out where we will move on to next. After the memorial service for my Mom on January 24th, we will spend a day with Michele and Gwen in Alpharetta, GA., and then head on down to the gulf coast of Alabama. We found an RV resort that, in an effort to attract new clients, is offering a week's stay for $99. I'm sure we will be "offered" the opportunity to hear about what a good deal they have on permanent sites, but we will point out that we are the "sauntering" Sampsons, and don't plan on settling down anywhere just yet.

Kate here...it has been an interesting 10 days .

Rebecca stayed with us for a week before school started again. She'll spend more time with us during the remaining time we're here in FL. We are meeting some of her friends and they are typical 11 year olds, just like her. Having raised two boys, it cracks me up to watch her grow up. So different than boys. Fortunately Rebecca gave me instructions on how to apply make-up. I have been doing it incorrectly for over 50 years.


The park we are staying in leaves a lot to be desired. 70% of the sites are permanent, meaning that people live here. And some of the residents do not take care of their RVs or sites. Hopefully you guys are getting the gist of this.


Both of us are very badly bruised because we are banging into things while we are getting used to the layout of the rv. We're both black and blue. :)


Our 3 pets are loving this RV life, except when we drive too many hours. They all enjoy that we are so close together in the small amount of space. 


To be honest, it is taking me a while to get used to the space. It is very difficult to keep the RV looking neat, because it gets cluttered, And it is bugging me. But every full-timer says that it takes time to get comfortable. This too shall come to pass, as my dad used to say.


However, it takes no time to clean the RV. This, of course, suits me just fine. Do not mind cleaning anymore.

It has been unseasonably hot for this time of year.....cooling down tomorrow. It makes me feel sorry for the folks that are struggling with the cold and snow in other parts of the country. My son, Jeff, told me that it hurts to be outside where he lives in western NY.

Starting to think about where we will travel to next, and that is exciting. Hopefully our tendency to fly by the seat of our pants lifestyle will not get us in trouble since we do not plan in advance and make reservations.

Closing for now.....talk with you soon. Hoping that the new year is going well for you. Thankfully it is for us.

We Are Sauntering!

Okay, we've actually been sauntering since Saturday, December 27, and it's taken this long to recover from the ordeal of breaking ties with a physical address. At 1:00 PM that Saturday, we had the house emptied, locked up, and the Molly B. (our rig) loaded up and ready to go. As I closed the door and prepared to drive away, I noticed that the steps did not retract. They had worked just fine earlier that morning, but now they were stuck in the extended position. I checked fuses- all good. So off to Camping World we go to see if they can fix the problem. 

The service manager discovered that the magnet that activates the microswitch for the door was missing. I guess it was broken off while we were loading the motorhome. He got another magnet and sure enough the steps extended and retracted as they should. But wait... there's more! Examining the drive motor for the steps, we discovered that the mounting bracket was broken, and the motor was not securely fixed to the frame. Sure enough, after three or four more activations of the step switch, the whole motor assembly fell off, dangling only by its wiring harness. I had visions of being stuck at Camping World for days waiting for parts to come in. We had to be in Boca Raton by the next evening to pick up our granddaughter, Rebecca, as we were to be taking care of her for the next week while her dad worked.

Camping World came through, though. The tech was able to extract the broken bolt, replace it and remount the motor. We were on our way after a mere two-hour delay (and a $197 repair bill).

We drove for about six hours that evening, stopping for the night at a Walmart in Madison, GA. We had decided to take the western route down US 75, hoping it would be less harrowing than the madness we knew would exist on US 95.  

The next morning at about 6:00,  I punched Boca Raton into the GPS and off we went. Unfortunately, I was focused on the trees, rather than the forest, The route chosen by Rand McNally was taking us diagonally across Georgia to 95, adding quite a few miles on secondary roads to our trip. Kate had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, but I just kept plugging on. It's a guy thing...

When we  both realized our situation, it was obvious that we needed to pick up our pace if we were to reach Boca at a reasonable hour. Our plan to drive at 55 mph to optimize fuel mileage had to go. Molly B. sped up to about 70 to 75 mph for the remainder of the trip, dropping our mileage from 11 mpg to about 9.5 mpg.

We got to Boca around 6:00 PM - 12 hours on the road at 70 plus mph on 95!  Rather than going the campground that night in the dark, we spent the night parked at a Cracker Barrel, a great place to stay since breakfast is so conveniently located!

The next morning we arrived at the Kozy Kamper RV Park. Because we were a few days later than expected, we had to park in an overflow site the first night, but now are in our "permanent" site for the month of January!

Okay, that's enough for today. Happy New Year to all!! To be continued...

• Hi Everyone, this is Kate. ....the copilot and passenger in the motor home. You will get the facts from Tom and the emotional impact of our journey from me. 
•  
• Besides all the activity around getting the house ready to sell, and the motor home ready for our journey, there has been a death in the immediate family, so we have been hosting out of town family members. As you can imagine, it has been quite stressful here the past two weeks. And we haven't been able to spend much time at the house because of hospital visits. In addition, all the people going in and out of the house have created chaos for our two cavalier spaniels and one cat. They have been used to nestling next to us on the furniture, but now that the furniture is gone and we are sitting on camping chairs, there is no room for them. We find them staring at us with sad and confused eyes, begging for life to go back to normal. Fortunately all three of our sweeties (pets) do well traveling in the motor home, so their trauma will be short lived.
• 
  Meanwhile, Tommy and I are also looking at each other with sad and confused eyes, begging for life to go back to normal. Our trauma will also be short lived.

Three days to go!

The buyers' home inspector completed his report and we have a few things to take care of- some small roof repairs, replacing the exhaust tubing for the dryer, and putting a sump pump in the crawl space. We are getting everything done for just over $1000. Not what we wanted to do after giving the buyers such a good deal on the house, but, hey, if that's what it takes to get on with our travels, so be it.

We will depart for Florida on Christmas Eve day. The closing will take place after we've left, but our realtor will handle everything on this end.

We are staging all the stuff that goes with us in the garage, next to the pile of stuff that's being donated. That way if the motor home fills up before everything is in it, we can just move the leftovers into the donate pile. "Must haves" become "nice to haves", and "nice to haves" become "donate." Kate just finished cleaning out the fridge and freezer. She filled up two garbage cans with stuff that we can't use or take with us.

So the journey will finally begin...

We're Still In Shock!

In October we decided that we would once again try to sell the house. At first we considered For Sale By Owner, but after a lot of research and soul searching, we decided to go with a Realtor (actually a husband and wife team who have sold several homes in our +55 community over the past couple years). 

Long story short, three weeks after listing the house, we got an offer. We countered, they accepted, and,since they've already sold their house, they want to be in ours by December 19! They are pre-approved for their mortgage, so barring something catastrophic during the home inspection, we will be full-timers on December 20th!

Oh, the lists, the lists! What doesn't fit in the MH must go! Donate, sell, throw away... making sure that our auto, rv and health insurance are able to be transferred. And of course, we are going on the assumption that everything goes as expected. We really don't want to get rid of all our stuff if the deal falls through.

So now we are figuring out our best options for the state to call home. We have concluded that for us it boils down to Texas or South Dakota. We have a pretty short timeline since we don't want to have a mailing address in one state and plates and licenses from another. We aren't really crazy about a trip to South Dakota in the middle of winter, so Texas seems to be the state we'll call home.

Escapee's can provide us with a mailing address and a permanent street address. They even have a brochure on their site called, How To Become a Real Texan.

Our first destination will be south to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where we've made reservations for a month. After that, it looks as if we'll meander across the Southeast to Polk County, Texas to take care of all the processes to become official Texans. 

After that, it's wherever the wind blows us...

Checking Out The Black Tank

We made a trip to Camping World primarily to dump and flush the black tank. Everything seems to flow okay through the tank, and it seems to be empty, so I guess we have sensor problems. After perusing the web, I can see that sensor problems are fairly common. Next time we're out, I will try the Geo method - water softener, dish soap and a little bleach, and see if that cleans off the sensors.

We have two dogs and a cat, and the dogs are absolutely fascinated with litter boxes, so we've been trying to figure out how to work that out in the motor home. We've decided to put the litter box in the shower, with a mat covering the drain. I bought a 1/16 x 1 x 36 inch strip of aluminum at Lowes, and bent it into a bracket that fits over the top of the shower stall, and then over the door. It holds the door open just enough for the cat to get through, but doesn' t allow the dogs access. It seems to be working very well so far.

We haven't figured out when our next trip out will be. With my current work schedule we have three days in a row available so we can't get far.

Maiden voyage of the Good Coach Molly B.

Well, it was the maiden voyage for us anyway. We took a three day shake down trip to Paris Mountain State Park near Greenville, SC. And yes, we've christened the rig Molly B. in remembrance of an old pet of ours.

The trip was only about forty miles from home, just in case something went wrong. We don't have a toad yet, so we were park-bound once we set up.

We made our reservations over the phone, so we didn't know exactly what the site would look like, other than the length of the pad. Unfortunately it turned out to be quite narrow, with a slight drop-off where we should have been able to set up our outdoor sitting area, so we pretty much just stayed in the coach for the three days. It wasn't a pull through site, and had trees pretty close to the pad, so I got to practice backing in with Kate's guidance - something we hadn't talked over prior to arrival so we had a few tense moments as we worked out hand signals and such.

That was fine because we needed to determine if all of us, Kate, me, two dogs and a cat, could survive close quarters for an extended time. And it worked out great. We were quite comfortable. The pets enjoyed being able to look out the windows and watch neighbors come and go. We discovered that we had all the room we really need, and have plenty of storage space for everything we need (so far) to be able to go full time.

We made a relatively extensive list of things we forgot to bring, most notably a cork screw. I opened two wine bottles with my pocket knife. The first one was successful. The second, not so much. While twisting the knife to remove the cork, the neck broke off the bottle, so we had to strain the wine through a paper towel prior to consuming it. No big deal in  the big scheme of things.

Of course it was raining when we had to break camp, so I was glad we hadn't opened the awning. Next was the stop at the sanitary dump station. This was the first time I'd used one of these and I was a little nervous. The drizzling rain didn't help me either. I dumped black water and then the grey, just as instructed. However, after I'd finished, I checked the level indicators inside, and the black water tank was still showing full. By this time I'd already put everything away, so I figure I'll stop over at Camping World soon and complete the job. I'm guessing that the black tank has two problems - blockage, and fouled sensors, so I'm planning on the bag of ice and possibly a wand treatment. We'll see...

Finally!

Well, if anyone is still around, here is an update to a long quiet blog.

My last post was two years ago. That was when we were on Plan A. We have gotten to Plan D by now, and finally it's happened. We have an RV!

We've had the house on the market two times with different Realtors, with not one serious buyer showing up. That's discouraging! So we thought we'd try "For Sale by Owner." Just before we started advertising the house, a neighbor told us of a couple that was looking for a place in our area. And they wanted something that wasn't listed with a Realtor. Wow, we thought. This could be it! They made three visits to look over the place, and then opted out. It wasn't exactly that they were looking for at a price they wanted to pay. That just took the wind out of our sails.

We reexamined our situation, and came to the conclusion that the time just wasn't right. We'd given most of our furniture away, taken down all the wall decorations, and had been sitting on camping chairs for nearly two years - all for naught. We had a diesel truck that we'd been making payments on for two years in anticipation of getting a 5th wheel. We had been way too optimistic (some would say foolish) in our choices.

So we talked it over, and decided we were going to be here for awhile. We might as well be comfortable. Eventually we might get on the road, but it could be a few years down the road.

We purchased new dining room and living room furniture. We put pictures back up on the walls. We made our house a home again. We put the truck up for sale. No need to be making payments of over $500 a month on something we didn't need.

No bites on the truck. We were asking $7000 less than Kelly Blue Book and no bites. We live in the mountains of North Carolina, and everyone wants 4 wheel drive. Ours was 2 wheel drive - all we figured we really needed to pull a rig on the highway.

I was talking our situation over with a friend, and he suggested that maybe we could trade the truck in on a motor home. Motor home? We'd long ago decided that a 5th wheel was the way to go for us, but maybe...

Kate and I  talked it over and it seemed like a possibility. Maybe we could make that work. We had been working with a sales person for over a year at Tom Johnson Camping Center in Concord, NC, located about 120 miles east of us. Not the closed dealer around, but we really liked her. We gave her a call. She took all the info on the truck and shopped it with the used car dealers they worked with. A couple day later she called and said she could get us a little more than the pay-off on the truck if we wanted to trade it in. Okay - a start!

We asked her to let us know what she had in stock that might work out for us. That was on a Thursday. Saturday morning she called us. She had a coach that had just come in that morning on a trade. It was a 2007 38 foot Coachmen Cross Country diesel pusher. She knew it would go really quickly. Could we put a fully refundable deposit on it to hold it until we could get over there to look it over?

We put down $500. Two days later we drove to Concord to look it over. The coach was in excellent condition, with 52,000 miles. Inside and outside clean as a whistle. One big slide out. Cummins diesel and Allison transmission. Built in Onan 5500 watt generator. It had been kept in a garage when not being used. Beautiful - but how were we going to be able to afford this?

I'll spare you the details, but the dealership got us into the unit with payments that are only $40 a month more than we were paying on the truck. And that includes gap insurance and extended warranty on everything from "the driver's seat back." Not the engine, transmission, or frame, but everything else.

We picked up the rig last Saturday. Drove home in the pouring rain, through Charlotte traffic. Exhilarating and exhausting.

Kate is  busy decorating the interior, making it into "our place." I'm figuring out what will fit and where it will be stored. We won't be full-timing for a while. We have a house to sell. But we will be "shaking it down" on short trips, learning the ropes and having fun!

Here's a link to some pictures of the coach -The Sauntering Sampson's new home

House For Sale!

Finally, the house is on the market! We decided to go with a Realtor, given the relative weakness of the housing market. We can use all the help we can get. Just in case you might be looking for a nice place to drop anchor, you can see the house here: http://www.beverly-hanks.com. The MLS # is 520577.  You just can't beat the mountains of western North Carolina if you're planning on settling down somewhere.

Our fifty-five plus community has a website here: http://riverwindhoa.com/ if you'd like to check it out. It truly is a very well maintained community with lots of amenities. Please let all your friends know!

We can't wait to catch up with all you RV'ers on the road.

April 2012 Update

We are getting really close now. The house is nearly de-cluttered. We've gotten rid of (nearly) everything that won't fit in the fifth wheel. We should have the house listed by next week.

We bought a truck last week! We found a really good deal on a 2006 Dodge 2500 Heavy Duty Megacab Cummins Diesel with only 62000 miles on it. It has air filled shock boosters which should help considerably with the 2500 HD suspension.

We loaded the truck completely inside and out for a trip to Goodwill today. It is simply amazing how much unnecessary junk we carry from house to house with us all our lives. And then when it gets down to it, and we have to decide what's really important, it becomes relatively easy to discard most of it, some to the kids, some to Goodwill, and some to the dump. We have managed to sell a few things and our next door neighbor has taken a bunch of stuff he feels he can sell on eBay and craigs list for us. He's getting 30% of the sale for his efforts, which is well worth it for us not having to deal with all that.

So that's what's happening in our neck of the woods. Think good thoughts for us. We'll see you soon on the open road!

Closer and closer

Here it is, Spring, 2012, and we're still in the house and not on the road where we belong. But... we are getting much closer! We have detached ourselves from our house and a great deal of the things inside it. We've gone through most of our "stuff" and either donated it, put in on Craig's List or Ebay, given it to friends, or trashed it. Things we just couldn't live without for years (and moved with us all over the country) have finally hit the landfill! Each thing we pick up either has to fit into the 5th wheel, or out it goes. It's amazing how much easier it is to clean house with that attitude!

We've also done all the things we should have done long ago to the house in preparation for selling it- like replacing the worn carpet, painting a few rooms, pressure washing the house and driveway, etc., etc., etc. We figure we'll have it on the market in about three weeks. We have some neighbors who have been a tremendous help in all this. They helped us rid our minds of the doubt and negativity , and focus on the positive energy needed to make the next phase of our lives a reality. Think Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Ekhard Tolle. We are working hard at this, and know it will work. There are buyers out there that want our house- all we have to do is connect with them.

That being said, if any of you out there want to help, here's what you can do.  Just focus some of that extra unused energy you have lying around to help us get there. I promise we'll return it when we meet up with you on the road!!

A Year Since My Last Post?

So okay, we thought that we would be on the road by now! Many things have happened, or not happened, to prolong this agonizing wait to become road warriors- the housing market certainly not the least of the issues. 


But now we are (finally) fully retired, so we can concentrate on the things we need to do to get the house ready to sell. We've resigned ourselves to the fact that we're going to lose money, and all we're hopeful for is that we can recover enough of our equity to cover a big chunk of the 5th wheel and truck. Since we're located in western North Carolina, quite close to Asheville, we're planning on marketing the house as a fully furnished second home in one of the most beautiful areas of the country.


Kate has been following all the blogs as well as conducting many hours of research during this past year. We've pretty much settled on the new rigs from Redwood as our first choice. Their 36RL looks like a perfect setup for us. We've visited Southern RV in Jonesboro, GA, our closest dealership, and have been very impressed with the Redwood line, and the very knowledgeable staff at Southern RV.


One of our customers at my last place of employment is a diesel mechanic working on 18 wheelers. I asked him what truck he would recommend for our situation and his response was to get a 2003 or 2004 one ton Dodge. His words were "you just can't kill them." They can be repaired almost anywhere, and they run forever. So it looks like we're pretty well set as far as nailing down our gear. 


That's the news from the Sauntering Sampsons. Hope all of you are doing well. We'll see you on the road soon!

Time For Some Honesty

Tommy and absolutely love the picture of us in Seattle that he posted on our blog today. It was taken quite some time ago ( it's scary that we can't remember what year), probably in the mid 90's. Here comes the honesty.........since that time we have both gained a few pounds...even some more honesty....about 20 pounds each. Oh how I wish I still had that great neck and chin!!!

Have a great Labor Day Weekend. Hopefully you are not on the East Coast with Hurricane Earl chasing your ankles.

Now The Pressure's On

Wow! I'm amazed at how quickly our list of followers is growing. Welcome to you all- Pidge, The Freely Living Life gang, John Souva Jr, Karen, John and Judy, Laurie and Odel, Rick and Paulette, Kenny and Angela, the Bayfield Bunch, and Bill. You do realize that this is really putting the pressure on us to keep this going :). That's a good thing, because I've been known to procrastinate on occasion (pretty much any occasion, like Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday...)

Thanks for the suggestion to list our house here in the blog. We're not quite ready for prime time yet, it's that procrastination thing again, but we will get the info here as soon as we get the garage cleaned out. We hadn't thought about full-timers wanting to settle down again and give up the life on the road. That's some kind of sacrilege, isn't it? Don't they have to go into the Witness Protection Program?

We've been doing all kinds of research on trucks and fifth wheels- on the web, reading blogs, visiting dealers, and asking experienced RV'ers. Here's where we are at this point. We're looking at a Ford Lariat 350 Crew Cab Diesel pulling a Carriage Cameo 37 RESLS. This package is expensive, but we think that getting this setup, rather than something smaller with plans to upgrade in the future, is better for us. We won't have any more money coming in than we do right now, unless we win the lottery (rumor has it that this prospect is unlikely), so we figure we better get a system  that will suit us for the long haul (pun intended).

We've gone back and forth between a coach and toad  and the 5th wheel option. Our decision goes this way: only one engine to worry about, service for that engine is easier to find, service on the truck should be less expensive than service on coach engine, and more storage space available. I'm pretty handy, both mechanically and electrically, so I'm confident that I can handle most maintenance on the rig.

We also plan to boondock when we can, so we will outfit the rig with solar panels, robust batteries, and a small generator.

So that's the story so far. Your comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

I've Got To Get My Two Cents In Too

Hi.....this is Kate, the person who will be in charge of the GPS and deciding where to stop for food when we get on the road. My husband, I call him Tommy, will be the main blog writer. He is a fantastic wordsmith, and I can most times barely put three words together. But I do have a lot to say about pretty much everything, so I'll be posting a blog on regular basis too. I trust Tommy to write about not only the facts of our adventures, but also the emotions related to our adventures. He is a man who is (most of the time) in touch with his emotions. If he doesn't, then I'll step up to the plate.

Thanks to all of the folks that have joined us already. We certainly do very much appreciate your desire to follow us. I follow many blogs, and I'll be posting them soon. I have learned so very much from you folks and can't wait to meet you at some point.

In The Beginning...

We are dreamers, my wife Kate and me. Not so much long term planners, but dreamers for sure. Our latest dream is to sell most of our earthly goods, pack what's left into our (not yet purchased) diesel truck and (also not yet purchased) 5th wheel RV and, along with our dog and cat, set off across this beautiful North American continent to see what we can see.

We don't want to set too many conditions on this plan, lest we condition ourselves out of ever getting started, but the housing market isn't doing us any favors at the present time. We need to get most of the equity out of our "sticks and bricks" to fund our expedition. Our house is located in an "over 55" manufactured home community near Asheville, North Carolina, and we're hoping to sell it essentially fully furnished as a second home to someone looking for a nice place in the mountains.

In the meantime, we are reading lots and lots of blogs written by full-timers and others on the road, living vicariously through them, jotting down places we have to visit, and tips we have to remember, in hopes of avoiding at least some of the pitfalls and misfortunes befalling those who have gone before us.

So, to those bloggers who occasionally feel tired of blogging, please remember a lot of us out here hang on your every word, enjoying your journeys, your tips, your ups and downs, and getting to know you. Most of all, we look forward to pulling up along side of you at one of those wonderful places you talk about, most hopefully in the very near future.