Two Years on the Road and Seven Lessons Learned

Sunday, November 19th, 2017 marks two years since we left our real estate behind. That was the major anniversary, but all milestones can be measured in steps. It was actually September 11th of that year that we officially moved into the cargo trailer, right before heading north to Indiana for a couple weeks. When we got back home we decided not to move back into the house... too much sorting and packing going on yet. So we continually lived in the trailer in the back yard for roughly two months while we finished packing.

After that, it was December 11th when the auction was held (in our absence, of course) for the stuff we left behind. Personal property was sold first... anything that wasn't fastened down, including the storage shed and the propane tank! You would think that latter piece of equipment would stay with the property, but not necessarily (according to our auctioneer). Unfortunately, the bids on the real estate were not satisfactory, so the auctioneer closed the sale when he couldn't get a bid high enough.

Then, sometime in February 2016 (I don't remember the exact date without looking it up) we signed the final paperwork to close the deal on the sale of the real estate. It all happened long after we had left, and they simply emailed us the paperwork, we printed it out, had it notarized with our signatures and "snail-mailed" it back. Even then, it wasn't really official until the recording of the deed in the new owner's name at the court house. But somewhere along the line, we realized we were finally "free".

Now, we have been on the road RVing full-time for two years, and can say that we have no regrets at all about not owning real estate, or having the constant chores that go with such responsibility. I could jokingly say that all we have to do now is to shake off the welcome mat... except that we don't even have a mat! We have a folding metal step, and that's all. (It looks like there used to be an automatic single step on this RV (the magnetic actuator switch is still there), but the previous owner must have removed the step.)

But even on an RV, there are other chores, from refreshing the holding tanks, to keeping mildew off (in the southern states). On board propane tanks have to be refilled, requiring moving and securing everything so the RV is roadworthy and safe. Tires and batteries have to be checked regularly and topped off with air and water. Even the roof needs some maintenance, with special roof coating. But even an RV roof will last far longer than shingles on a normal house, so the overall cost is far less.

As I have said previously, "simple is always better"... along with my favorite slogan "no more than you need". We make exception for some things, but not many. We like luxury in some things, but most everything about our lifestyle is very basic, to the point that it would be boring to most people.

Seven lessons learned

This being on the road as full-time RVers for the past two years has taught us some new lessons, and reminded us of ones we already knew, but on which we needed a "refresher course".

(1) Simpler is always better. We bought this 27-foot Class A RV to have more space... period. We didn't care about all the fancy systems (although having our own shower is nice). But we already had everything we needed in the cargo trailer. The extra size, age of the RV and the fancy systems have only brought more problems and more expense. We could have gotten by with an empty shuttle bus and put our own stuff into it and gotten by just fine, and for much less expense.

(2) Because of the size and type of rig, we have had problems that an ordinary van would not have, such as having to add air bags in the front suspension, and finding people who actually know what a P-30 chassis is and how to align the wheels properly. The tires are only "mid-size" for a truck chassis, but still, they cost more to replace. On other repairs, such as the furnace, it takes a specialized RV mechanic to know what an ordinary mechanic might screw up. Other repairs that have already been done (badly) may have to be done over by someone else, because apparently some mechanics don't even know how to do a proper brake job on a truck chassis!

And as far as the RV part of the vehicle, the manufacturer doesn't even have wiring schematics available anymore, and were no help at all on providing any information about this RV. Because of the size and complexity, it takes far longer to troubleshoot and trace wiring. I am a master electrician, and even I dread working on it! There is no way I would take it to someone less experienced and have them spend hours upon hours of labor time to locate and repair wiring problems!

(3) The extra size (weight, height and length) has also been a problem getting into places that we really would have liked to go, but couldn't. This RV sets too low to the ground, has too much overhang behind the rear wheels, and is just a little too long to navigate tight parking lots when shopping or even just going out to eat.

We can't go on just any back roads, because if we come across a rural bridge, we have to worry about what the weight limit might be. In many places, there are some really shoddy "home-built" bridges across drainage ditches that are actually entry driveways to properties, and there is no way I would take this 13,000-pound RV across them! And if we ever got stuck in soft ground, it would mean an expensive towing bill to pull us out. That has already happened to us with a different RV that was even larger than this one!

The height (11'-4") isn't normally a problem as long as we stay to main roads, but on many secondary roads there can be branches overhanging the roads that could wipe out awnings or any equipment on the roof. We have already seen very low bridges, just in eastern Indiana (one at Pokagon State Park) that would barely clear a normal van. The farther east you go, the more of them you find.

(4) Having been RVing for over 35 years with membership resorts, and knowing about the restrictions on certain types of vehicles (no converted buses or trucks, no cargo trailers, no porta-potties, etc.) we know what to expect from some RV parks. But back then (before the Internet), the membership parks seemed like the way to go. But that has all changed, too. Many of those membership systems have gone out of business, others have raised their "free" use to charging a "discounted membership rate" that is higher than some state and national parks! As a result, our ways of RVing and camping have changed to stay affordable.

Now, we couldn't care less about membership resorts that are over-crowded, have too many rules, and look down upon anyone that doesn't travel in a $100,000 RV. We are just as happy with more space around us, more peace and quiet, and less rules to worry about. We don't have school-aged kids, so all those fancy amenities mean nothing to us. We don't even use swimming pools! We could just as well buy a comfortable bed and a couple of nice recliners and put them into an empty van and probably be more comfortable than many people with factory-built RVs. And without having to lay out huge sums of money to buy a fancy RV, I can guarantee you that we sleep just as well as they do... and probably better!

(5) "Stuff". We already knew that we didn't need a lot to live with. We have no one in the family that wants or deserves our "stuff" when we are gone, and we knew that having too much "stuff" was driving us nuts with all the clutter. So we started disposing of it as we got closer to leaving our real estate behind. There's no sense in leaving it for an estate attorney to dispose of, and why not get as much out of it for our own benefit as we can, while we can?

Even so, we brought along WAY more than we should have! If we had more time before we left our real estate behind, we probably could have disposed of even more of it, but the truth is that we didn't start soon enough. The many garage sales that we had didn't produce huge results for the piddly "stuff". Things like antiques and collectibles were better off on eBay.

We had never dealt with an auctioneer before (other than to buy things). But knowing what we know now, we would have loaded up what we absolutely had to have with us and left the rest set there for an auctioneer to deal with. A good auctioneer will have his own people to work with, They come in ahead of the auction, and organize it. They will group small things into salable lots, set up tables, and have it all ready to go on auction day. When it's all said and done, they don't charge any more than you would pay for eBay and transaction fees (roughly 12 - 15%), or the hassles you have with your own time and expense for selling it in a garage sale.

And an auctioneer will make sure that EVERYTHING is gone! An "absolute" auction means that everything will sell at some price. You may not get what you could have gotten from larger items, but the fact that they will get rid of all the little stuff that would have brought next to nothing in a garage sale, balances it out. You don't even have to be there, and they actually prefer you aren't! When it's done, they will send you an itemized inventory of what sold and for how much, along with a list of their fees, and a check for the proceeds.

We spent nearly two years sorting through all our "stuff" and having our own garage sales, plus writing listings for eBay, and sorting what we had into piles. Never again! All that time of our own was worth WAY more than what the auctioneer charged!

What we kept and took with us, we ended up putting into two rented storage units, the most expensive of which we kept for nearly a year, and cost hundreds of dollars. The other one, we still have, and is also going to cost us hundreds of dollars before we can clean it out. On top of that, we have bought a larger RV just to accommodate our "stuff" that we actually wanted with us. All of that is costing us more than what all that "stuff" is really worth, and does nothing but take away from traveling money!

Our nine linear shelf feet of LP albums and other vinyl records, no one wanted to buy. We kept those until we realized the storage space and weight was worth more than the records, and ended up giving those, along with the record player, to a thrift store... free of charge! Our intentions of converting them to digital format were outweighed by the expense and the time we would have spent on it. And besides, you can find almost any recording on YouTube today!

We also gave away (to a senior center in Kingman) all of the pre-recorded VHS movies and tapes we had spent so much on back when we belonged to Columbia House. Most of them had only been viewed once. Again, the space to store them until they could be digitized, and the time devoted to them, was more than they were worth!

(6) "No more than you need"... is a minimalist's goal. That has been my favorite slogan for quite a while now. The word "more" can also be substituted with "bigger", "larger", "fancier", "more complex", or any number of other appropriate words. The result of becoming minimallistic is more freedom, and that's one thing you can never have enough of!

The smaller the vehicle you can get by with to live and travel in, the more money you will have to live and travel... not just stagnate in one place for the rest of your life. Possessions don't mean nearly as much as making memories. No one wants your "stuff" when you are gone, and if they do, then gift it to them while you're still alive, and let the rest go to auction! You can't take it with you, whether in an RV or beyond the grave!

With no one to leave our "stuff" to that even would want it, there is no sense in keeping it. We have gotten to the point where if we haven't used something in at least two weeks, we don't need it! Certain compact holiday decorations, tools, and other small items might be excepted from that rule, but we try to live by it.

Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go, but are progressing. We just shipped out two large cartons of collectible books that we sold on eBay, and have another bid on another one. We still have photo slides and printed photos to scan and then dispose of, as well as home-recorded family and travel VHS tapes to digitize. The purging process is a slow one, so the best advice we can give someone who is thinking about becoming full-time RVers is to start plenty early, and don't be too sentimental.

Even in this RV, we have things stored in the basement compartments that we haven't even looked at since we put it there a year and a half ago! We DON'T want to carry that stuff with us every day when we run errands or go out sightseeing! That's why we bought a daily driver vehicle and intend to downsize our "home base" even more in the coming months.

When we finally get all this extra "stuff" cleared out so that we can fit in a smaller van, we will open up so many more opportunities for going places, being able to get into them to park, and less overall expense, so that we will have more money to see and do things!

(7) Life is about experiences, not possessions! If you are hanging onto possessions that keep you tied to a bigger dwelling than you need to "live" and more expense to manage it all (utilities, taxes, insurance, etc.) then that stuff owns you, and is making you work harder and longer to keep it! Think what you could do with all the money you are spending on it, if you didn't have it! Let it go!

Summary

Anyway, I could keep going on this subject for a long time, but I am seriously trying to make an effort to keep my blog posts shorter. Since we haven't been anywhere lately, other than running errands, I have no new pictures this time, but will have some in the near future.

Bottom line is that we have no regrets about ditching our real estate. We have other regrets that we should have done it a long time ago while we were still younger, and we regret some of the other mistakes we made along the way, but we know what those mistakes were and are correcting them as fast as we can. Overall, the RV life is great for us at our age, and provides everything we need.

As always, feel free to comment. I have tried to make the comment form easier to use, although it wasn't that hard to begin with, just a little confusing. Ask a question if you've got one. I see every comment that comes in. And thanks for reading. I hope our insights help other people. And if you have clicked on our links, we thank you.