Month: August 2019

4 years in: RV there yet?

Still no.

We were originally thinking it would be a one-year thing. Maybe two? We certainly didn’t imagine it would be a two-RV thing. But we were quite happily wrong, and we’ve now got enough events planned for Year 5 that there’s no way we’re giving this up yet!

We’re a retired military family. Moving every 2-4 years is in our blood.
We’ve even moved from one RV into another (not as many cardboard boxes; just as tricky).

To celebrate our nomad-versary, I shall regale you with an Amusing Tally of Miscellaneous Statistics.

In four years, we’ve used, purchased, worn through, or replaced for any number of reasons ranging from the mundane, to the catastrophic, to just not getting the right thing the first time around (or second, or third…):

~ the new BFT’s baby picture ~
There were 12 miles on the odometer when we drove it off the lot in May of 2017.
As of August 1, 2019: 57,894

We’ve also held memberships/accounts with:

  • 3 RV insurance companies
  • 3 cellular service providers
  • 2 RV owners’ clubs
  • 4 RV travel/social organizations
  • 2 mail forwarding services

And in addition, we’ve experienced:

Our preferred types of workamping jobs offer visible results.
Here’s how & why we use these opportunities to supplement Tim’s retirement pension.

I’ll spare you a full reprint of last year’s annual review, which included answers to the 13 Questions We Hear All The Time, but I’ll update the three that need it.

How many states have you visited in the RV, I mean like, for more than just a rest stop?

By my count, 37: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

My criteria for counting a state as visited are a bit fluid, which I know will drive some people a little nuts. Did we stay overnight? Long enough to do the weekly laundry? Go on a hike or visit a national park? All of those are valid to me. Just driving through on the way to elsewhere, with a potty break at a gas station? Not so much — otherwise, we’d have counted Mississippi about 8 times by now, instead of zero.

Map created at amcharts.com

Are you thinking about getting a new RV still?

Response in August of 2018: No. We’ve decided to keep upgrading and modifying this one until… well, until we feel like we’re done. (The rest of the lengthy answer is here.)

October of 2018: We uhhh… well, we felt like we were done, so three months after saying we weren’t thinking about getting a new RV, we drove a new one off the lot.

Go ahead. We’re still shaking our heads too.

This sign hangs in our entryway.
Pretty much sums it up!

What’s next?

We’re going to Maine, we’re adding a solar power system, and we’re taking on some seasonal work in San Diego this fall. You’ll find us in the pumpkin patch, and you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter for updates as we go!

So that’s it for the end of Year 4. If there’s a topic I didn’t cover, you are welcome to ask your question in the comments section below, but keep it clean. My parents read this.

Other updates: We started full-timing in August of 2015, but I didn’t think to do an annual review until the end of 2016, and it was just a listing on Facebook of places we’d visited. After that, I started using a quarterly format for the where-we’ve-beens and what-we’ve-dones.