Two years ago this summer, after retiring, we downsized our possessions and moved into our fifth wheel with a plan to travel the country and visit the forty-eight contiguous states. So far we've traveled some 15,000 miles and visited twenty-six states...all of which is documented in previous blog posts.
When we started our travels we had two older dogs, Maggie (top right) and Ryan (bottom right). Maggie never liked car rides and always had to be coaxed to get in, but she's adjusted pretty well and is always ready to hop into the truck when it's time to move on. Ryan always loved car rides, but had more trouble adjusting to life in the fifth wheel...maybe because he was aging and his health was deteriorating. We lost him in California in September 2014, but his ashes travel with us. At fifteen, Maggie remains in good health but does show signs of her age.
We love traveling. I do all the research and planning for our travels and Jack does the driving. I enjoy researching the places we'll visit, finding interesting restaurants to try and sights not to be missed, planning routes and researching campgrounds to find the best place to stop at the best price. Jack has no patience for the planning so we complement each other in this area.
Traveling has enabled us to get out to California to see Jack's family. He has enjoyed seeing more of them and I've gotten to know them better. I think we both really enjoy the time we spend with each other's families. The downside is that I see less of my family than I used to and I miss them, but I route us back here as often as I can.
We've adjusted pretty well to living in a small space. The trick is to stay organized and keep things uncluttered. We've never been the types to retreat to separate rooms, so not having them hasn't been a problem. We have a second TV in the bedroom for those times our tastes diverge...such as during football and racing seasons!
We read many comments about how easy and fast it is to clean an RV...people saying they whip through it in twenty minutes. We disagree, it takes us a few hours to clean both bathrooms, the kitchen, dust all the wood surfaces, vacuum and mop floors. Maybe my standards are higher than other people's but I doubt it! Still...it is faster then when we lived in a house.
Having only one vehicle when we are staying somewhere for a while is a tougher adjustment. I miss the independence having my own car gives me. That was never more apparent to me than when we had an issue that prevented us from unhitching the truck while visiting my brothers. I borrowed my old car from Glen and really enjoyed running around in my old Honda!
We knew going into this that we didn't want to do it forever, that someday we'd put down roots again. We live in an RV for the travel not for the lifestyle and we're not ready to stop yet. We've been a lot of places and seen a lot of things but there's still more to see, including twenty-two more states!
How long we continue is dependent in a large part on finances. We've hit some really rough patches and have had about $15,000 in repairs to both the truck and the fifth wheel. Any more major repair expenses will likely sideline us before we're ready...but, ever the optimist, I'm already planning our next route!
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