3 1/2 Years "On the Road"

Kay and I lived in an RV as our one and only residence from March 2004 through September 2007, a period of about three and a half years.

Both Kay and I spend a great deal of time in front of our computers. Therefore, our old rig was designed as a RV Mobile Office for Fulltiming, as will our next rig.

While we were fulltiming in our first rig, Kay took a LOT of photos which she uploaded to SmugMug along with a bunch of other travel photos. She had a great time doing her photography.

Then "Off The Road"

But a few months before we came off the road, Kay started getting nostalgic about having a house, her "stuff", and a yard. We ended up buying a house on the southern coast of Oregon in Brookings.

As of March 2011 we had been in the house for about three and a half years when Kay started getting the itch to move on again. See a pattern? Yep, she has a long history of not wanting to stay put in one place. We have had several houses between us and always started feeling trapped after around three years. Not a good pattern financially. Maybe we should stop buying houses that we cannot relocate easily?

Then "On The Road Again"?

So here we sit in a lovely house on the beautiful coast of Oregon wishing we could move on. A bit annoying, that urge. But I guess it is time to accept that we are nomads, and give up our futile quest to be "normal".

Of course, getting back on the road is not easy or cheap in this economy. Who knows when the housing market will recover enough that we could sell our house. Where will the money come from to get the next RV? We will both qualify for Social Security in the next couple of years; that will help. We can both probably work part time on the road; that will help.

No more fixed-address houses for us! We want a nice RV with facilities that will allow us to do our computer-based work on the road.

We will stay at each location for three to six months. This has at least these advantages:

  1. Reduce costs: nightly stays are relatively expensive, and fuel is expensive and getting more expensive. On the other hand, seasonal site rates can be very reasonable.
  2. Reduce wear and tear on us. We find towing very tiring and a bit stressful. So do our kitties.
  3. Give ourselves time to get to know and enjoy a locale. Kay will want to zip around and tour an area for a while. I will want to kick back and soak in the feel of the area.

I'm sure that as we get older our stays will get longer and our tows shorter. Eventually we will not be able to move on anymore. Then, we'll put the rig on blocks with a nice skirt around it, and just hang out until health issues or death move us on against our will.

We were both fairly poor WV hillbilly kids, and both swore that we would never live in a single-wide (or double-wide). Yet here we are wanting to spend most of the rest of our lives in something smaller than either! But at least a fifthwheel puts some true mobility in "mobile home"! And to end up putting the fiver on blocks some day, well that's some rich irony right there!