This is a brief recap of our journey to the decision to go "full-time". Full-time is a term used by people who choose to live in their recreational vehicle instead of a "stick" house. Believe it or not there are thousands doing it; and very happily, I might add. Our purpose in writing this journal is to not only keep a log for ourselves, but to enable our friends, family and loved ones to share in our adventure.
So, where do we begin? While we had not intended to stay a long time when we moved to the Denver area in the year 2000, we have been here for 9 years now. But, our plans changed as we settled into jobs. Dale was working as a Senior Project Manager for Kaiser Permanente in their Information Technology Department. Marj was working part-time as a Library Clerk for the Aurora Public Library. We had been in the Denver area for 5 years when we purchased the condo we now live in. We were both looking forward to the time when we might retire, leave the Denver metro area and move to "Mayberry" when we found it.
But, our plans are not God's plans. In March of 2006 Dale underwent a typical hernia surgery. As weeks passed and he did not seem to be recovering, the doctor's realized that there was a nerve entrapped in scar tissue. Suddenly, after many years of being a healthy guy who rarely needed to go to the doctor, he became a frequent visitor to the doctor's office. After many, many doctor visits and numerous procedures tried, they labeled it "chronic pain". Even with all the pain medication he is taking, he still suffers continually. Sadly, his medical records now consist of volumes, not pages.
Fortunately, he did have "long term disability" insurance, so after 6 months of not being able to work at his position at Kaiser, he was granted disability at one half of his current salary. Just as Dale's earnings had peaked, not only did we lose one half of his salary but all further contributions to our retirement savings through Kaiser came to a complete standstill. Now each day is a financial challenge. But more importantly a challenge as to the level of pain he will have to endure that day. Concentration and staying on simple tasks is very difficult for him but many times he pushes himself because he refuses to give in to the pain.
About a year and a half ago, Dale and I read a book called Choosing Simplicity by Linda Breen Pierce. It made us think about the benefit of simplifying our life and ridding ourselves of excess baggage. We decided we would sell our condo, buy an RV and give living on the road a try. We had always enjoyed traveling but with job restrictions, most travel was hurry to get there, then hurry to get home. Financially, we need to be out from under the burden of our mortgage. While we love and enjoy the beauty of Colorado, we are also anxious to leave the crime and congestion of the metro Denver area. We are thrilled at the thought of being able to make plans that include relaxing visits with our children and grandchildren as we travel.
Not knowing how things were going to play out with selling our place, we decided to begin looking at RV's just to get an idea of what we wanted. We decided that a motorhome would not be our first choice because we didn't want to tow another smaller vehicle behind us. We thought about a trailer because it was all on one level and getting in and out of it seemed easier. It was not until we began to look at the 5th wheel options that we set our site on a 5'er. And, as usually happens, just a few months into our search we found a used one that had most all of the features on our "wish" list.Since this was going to be our "home" we were looking for ample living space, a desk, large kitchen counter space, separate toilet room and generous closet space. The kitchen doesn't have as much counter space as we would like, but the trade off was that this one has a washer and dryer in the dressing area! It also has 3 slide-outs which expand the living room, dining and bedroom room areas.
It has been several months now since we purchased the 37 foot 1998 Carri-Lite 5th Wheel and a 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 quad-cab pickup truck as a tow vehicle. Since that time, we have been working on
the trailer trying to customize it to our likes. Also, we are trying to get rid of the "stuff" that 4 kids and 37 years of marriage brings with it.There is no denying that letting go of material goods is not easy! But, with each item that goes out the door the burden of storing it, cleaning it, and trying to find it IF you need it, is lifted. I think what made us realize that it is all just "stuff" came from storing things in Boise when we made the "temporary" move to Denver years ago. There was very little in the storage that we missed or even had need of while we have been in Denver. In fact, so much of what we thought we could not live without, actually lost value as a result of storing it. During the time it was stored, there was a fire in a unit next to ours. Between the smoke and water that came over and under the wall, many things were not as we had left them. Over the years we have been in Aurora, we have gradually reduced the amount of things in the Boise storage. We recently went to Boise to retrieve what was left, most of which will be sold in our big garage sale or given back to our kids.
So there you have it. We are at a point where hopefully our progress will be moving at a faster pace. All our entries from here on out will be updates on our departure progress and eventually journals and photos of our life of the road. We truly look forward to serving God in any way we can as we meet other campers and members of our church family along the way.
