Have you ever wondered what’s around the bend, over the mountain, through the trees? We did so we set off on a retirement adventure in our RV, Ruff Road, and our three dogs. This has been a journey already and we want to share our journey with you, just in case you ever wandered what’s around the bend, over the mountain, and through the trees…
Retirement…
This all started as we were nearing retirement age. Gary had recently retired and retirement was in sight for me. Like so many others, we had worked long hours in demanding jobs for years while raising our children, being there for others when needed as much as our jobs would allow, and helping my mom and Gary’s aunt as they aged. Like so many others, we had a large house and yard to maintain and of course, our animals- We’ve always had dogs, but sometimes we had fish, cats, and even chickens. I am the wanderer and Gary is the fisherman so we had to squeeze in these recreational preferences as best we could over the years. I’m overwhelmed just thinking about how busy our lives were for so many years. Also, we had several passings within our family and with each loss came the realization that life is precious and we should make the most it. Gary was able to retire early in 2016. I wanted to join him. But what could we do? I wasn’t quite retirement age yet. Fortunately, we had financially planned for retirement and with some number crunching and MUCH discussion, I decided to take the plunge. My wish is that we had been more frugal and started REALLY planning much earlier. Life happens. Word to the wise: Start now to plan for your future.
Tiny House Living, RV Living, Travel?
I knew I wanted to retire but we had no set plans on what we would do once we retired. Our original retirement plans were all over the place: stay in our house of 34+ years, buy property and build, buy a house in the mountains or on the river…But, what about what’s around the bend, over the mountain, through the trees? Would we be happy looking at the same view for the …rest …of …our …lives? In all of my researching for houses, cabins, property, I stumbled across tiny house living and that appealed to me. I watched video after video of living in tiny houses or even on a houseboat. The truth is, we had a large house and only really lived in a fraction of it. Living in a smaller space was a doable possibility. That still left the problem of where and how. Then, in all of YOU TUBE’S wisdom, videos started popping up about RV living. Hmmm…I was interested. I wanted to learn more. Could we afford it? What were the pros and the cons? Would Gary like this idea? I listened to more RV living videos. I shared the videos with Gary. He liked it! We both loved this idea of living and traveling in our own RV. So the decision was made in December 2016 to just start looking for our RV.
Shopping for an RV…
We could just start looking, right? We knew I had 6 months, one year, or heaven forbid, four years before I retired- no set retirement decisions had been made at this time. So I set my preferences in my RV Trader App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DWS.rvtrader&hl=en
Gary and I started visiting RV dealerships in our area. We educated ourselves on the different types of RVs and the pros and cons of each. I really wanted a Class C RV which is the box type RV built on a truck chassis with an overhang over the cab, like a UHaul. Then we fell in love with Fifth Wheels. Fifth Wheels connect to a receiver in the back of a truck and are more roomy and maneuverable than a travel trailer. Some even have kitchen islands and ceiling fans. Class Bs, extended vans, raised roof vans, conversion vans, were just too small for the two of us and three dogs. Class As, motor homes that are larger, rectangular units were ruled out thinking they were too expensive to even consider. The more we looked, the more confused we became. Each class of RV had something to love and something that we didn’t like. Within a class we found the same like this but not that situation. But it’s ok. After all, we were just looking, doing our research- no hurry.
Then, one day during our looking blitz, we headed to see RVs at Tampa RV after talking to the owners at an RV show. They were great people but we never made it to their lot. On the way, we stopped off at Lazy Days in Tampa. I’m pretty sure I heard an angel choir. Gary says the same. I had that feeling that “this is it!”. How could that be? After all, we were just looking. We met with our salesman, Anthony, who created a list of units to view based on our criteria- cost, preferences, fuel type… Now most RV lots will take you around in a golf cart but here you had to have a golf cart because the site is over one hundred acres! The inventory was huge. It is a great place to just look.
I love how we found Ruff Road! We had just looked at a unit that we liked a lot, but I wouldn’t say loved. Anthony had to move the cart further away to make room for other golf carts. This caused us to have to walk past several RVs that were not on our list. As we were walking, we both stopped at the same time. One RV caught our eye. The price was over our budget, but we asked to view it anyway. We heard the angel choir the second time that day. THIS unit had everything on our list. We were able to negotiate a price that was more in our ballpark and that day we put a down payment on our Class A Fleetwood Excursion, Ruff Road. There is no harm in looking, but beware of just looking. You just might find the one that calls your name. And so it began…
