Closing out the Year in Style

We made it to Birmingham, AL and spent a night in the Cummins Service Center parking lot.  They did a fine job the next morning changing The Bus’ oil and checking over the chassis.  From there we went to Red Bay, AL and let the technicians at Tiffin’s service center work our AquaHot system.  They worked on it for a week and THINK they have it fixed.  While there, we had the pleated shades and curtains replaced with modern easy roll shades and a one-piece power shade in the front.  I loose the ability to let the curtains fly out the driver’s side window as I roll down the highway, but I guess you can’t have everything.

I gave my employer my notice late October that I was retiring 13 Nov.  However, the project I was working on was extended, so I agreed to stay until 4 December and that turned into 11 December.   On 12 Dec, we drove the Jeep from Red bay to Muscle Shoals, AL where I sent the company back their computer via FedEx.  Liberating to say the least. We celebrated over lunch and then found the trailhead at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve.  This private preserve is free to the public to enjoy and offers some beautiful hiking opportunities.

We departed Red Bay, AL on 14 Dec and checked in to a site at Stone Mountain State Park in Georgia the same day.  We stayed here three weeks and had to move three times as others had reservations for specific sites.  Fortunately, all our sites were well above the lake because it rained 8 days and many areas flooded.  We laughed that they would begin charging us extra since our site was suddenly waterfront.  Being masters of our own schedule and mobile allowed us to stay in the Atlanta area so Pattie could assist her mother who had eye surgery mid-December.  While she was doing that, I built a table top for The bus' steering wheel.  We had seen these in other motorhomes, but only found one plastic one when searching on-line.  I was able to make do with the few select tools I carry with us and it came out pretty good.  Pattie now has a place to put her seasonal decorations or a lamp.  

On Christmas Eve, our sons came over and spent the night in The Bus with us.   We have modified our floor plan to accommodate two people comfortable.  We had to get a little creative to sleep four, but we managed.  We opened presents with our sons and had a nice breakfast with them. Afterwards we drove down to Senoia, GA to see the outdoor set used to film The Walking Dead TV series.  Later, we took Pattie’s mom over to Pattie’s sister Nancy’s house and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with them and their extended family from Canada. 

Between Christmas and New Years, Pattie and I took time to hike some trails around the lake at Stone Mountain State Park and we climbed the mountain.  This is a really unique area and a must see for anyone visiting the Atlanta area.  We had no idea that the Christmas holiday is the park’s busiest time.  This is because they build large slides on the sloped field in front of the rock carving and make snow for people to slide down.  It is probably the closest place people from Florida can come to see snow.  We saw many Florida license plates and had to laugh.  We have lived in snow country and the little snow on the slide here was not impressive.

For New Years, we returned to Nancy’s house and celebrated with the Canadian family members who stayed over for Nancy’s daughter Margaret’s wedding on 2 Jan.  Our sons returned and stayed with us to attend the wedding.  Gordon and Margaret were married in the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.  The wedding was beautiful and the party went on until midnight. 

With no events on our calendar, we departed Stone Mountain on 3 Jan and headed southwest to Ft Benning, GA.  We heard the campground just across the river in Alabama was nice and we thought this would be a good location as it is close to Auburn if we want to see the boys and it has a 300-yard rifle range.  Some guys retire and want to play golf.  I like to shoot competitively.  Same thing, one is just a lot louder than the other.

Until next time, thanks for following us at keepingupwiththejonesrv. 

The Schedule – A Review

We met other Tiffin motorhome owners while at Red Bay, AL and got a group together to go to dinner one night.  It is interesting to hear how people are using their motorhomes and their background.  There are some who full-time like us, some use them half a year, and others just use them for vacations and short trips.  We often get asked how we decided to begin full timing and what was the hardest part of the journey.  Here is how it came to be.

Pattie and I have kept and updated a 5-year family strategic plan since early in our marriage.  This allows us to set goals together and celebrate accomplishments when we review it annually.  About 8-years ago, I slipped in an option in the plan for us to sell everything and travel the country like gypsies.  It was more of a joke or wishful thinking, but we laughed about it each year when we reviewed the plan.  Then about 3-years ago I came across the web site www.rv-dreams.com and began reading how a couple did just that.  The web site is a great resource with hundreds of full-time RV’ers sharing their experiences. I showed it to Pattie and we began to actually consider this as an option. 

Since we have lived in 12 different locations in our 26 years of marriage, we do not have deep relationships tied to a specific geographical location.  Most of our family is in Alabama or Georgia and we were living in Maryland where I retired from the USAF after 24 years.  When both our sons chose to attend Auburn University in Alabama, there was nothing really keeping us in Maryland and establishing residency in Alabama would cut the tuition bills in half.  The simple solution would be to just relocate to somewhere in Alabama, but where?  This made the RV life for a few years attractive.  We purchased a property in Auburn for our sons to live in and we could use as our legal residence.  We would store about half our things and get rid of the rest by selling them or giving them to charity.  Pattie agreed to the concept, but was not totally sold. So, we each got some paper and separately wrote down:

1. The top 3 reasons we should do this
2. The top 3 concerns about doing this
3. The 3 things you will miss the most
4. The top 3 things we will miss the least
5. The top ten things we want to do while full-timing

When we compared notes, many answers were the same.  Living in very close quarters, having an exit strategy, handling emergencies, and financials were top concerns.  Being able to make our own schedule and go where we want together with no set timetable was the number one reason for full-timing. 

We discussed each item and built 2 ½ year program management timeline (see photo) that enabled us to see the multitude of tasks and events that needed to take place before we would actually be own our own to explore those places we want to see.  Tasks and events included selecting a college for our youngest son, getting him a car, moving him to college, selecting an RV, preparing our home for sale, numerous yard sales, trips to the dump, and selecting a location to store the items we want to keep.  We were advised to buy the RV at least six months prior to beginning the adventure to test it and learn how it all works.  We purchased The Bus about nine months before we began and were able to make some modifications to it and fit items in it.  The most difficult thing was to determine what to take in The Bus, what to store and what we could discard.  Doing this early allowed us to move into The Bus and use our much-reduced belongings to stage the house for sale.  This worked well and our house sold in 10 days mid-June.  We hired a freight forwarder to move our storage items to Alabama and we were on our way.  In December, I gave my final notice at work and we sold Pattie’s car leaving us with the Jeep Wrangler that we tow (TOAD). 

For anyone considering this lifestyle, I am happy to provide advice from our lessons learned.  There are also many good references on-line like the rv-dreams web site. 

Until next time, thanks for following us at keepingupwiththejonesrv. 

Cross Country for Thanksgiving

We made it to Oklahoma and checked in at the Tinker AFB FamCamp.  We have many fond memories of the FamCamp at Tinker and often say, “This is where it all started.”  In 1996 we were stationed at Tinker AFB and took our 3-year-old son on a bike ride around base where we stopped at the base lake near the FamCamp.  We had been thinking about a pop-up camper and we saw a fellow near a nice Coleman unit.  I had no idea that Jim Bury would become a life-long friend.  We talked about the pop-up and some of the things he did to make it an easy set-up and tear down.  Within a couple months we purchased our first RV, a 1993 Coleman Sequoia pop-up.   That was a great unit to enjoy with a young family on a budget.  We could take short vacations in comfort and at a reasonable cost. 

While in OKC, OK, we had the AquaHot serviced and they found two of the four pumps were bad.  AquaHot honored their 2-year warranty (the unit had been installed just before we bought it) and they replaced the pumps.  Now we have heat, sort of.  It tends to turn itself off when it gets tired in the middle of the night.  We will need to keep an eye on it and schedule service again. 

We were able to connect with some friends in OKC, OK.  My friend Mike owns Custom 4X4 Fabrication and we have designed several Jeep products together over the years.  I mentioned to him that I was concerned about bending the tow bar brackets on the front of my Jeep when I go off-road.  This is probably not a concern for most people; but if you go off-road, it would not take much of a hit to tweak the brackets enough to prevent hooking up a tow bar.  Mike came up with an elegant skid plate design that can be quickly attached/detached as needed.  In a few hours he made the prototype and I later painted them to match the bumper.  They look good and will protect the attachment points. 

We also visited Ed Wright who I served with in the USAF, Ed has a beautiful home in OKC and he invited us over for grilled steaks and football.  It was good to see him and discuss the latest happenings in the USAF.

We departed OKC and spent one night just west of Memphis at a roadside campground before arriving in Tuscaloosa, AL.  My mom and sister live in Tuscaloosa and there is a campground about two miles from mom’s house.  We were able to spend Thanksgiving with her and my sister’s family.  I was able to help with some chores for mom and we watched the Auburn vs Alabama game together.  It didn’t end the way we would have liked, but Auburn gave it a good try. 

We left Tuscaloosa and headed to Auburn, AL just as the football crowd thinned out and were able to score a great campsite right on a little creek and spent a week visiting our sons and completing our annual doctor’s appointments.  We figure December is a good time to do it as we will probably be back in this area for the holidays each year.  Of course, we fed our college student sons and their friends a few times and somehow got suckered in to helping them cleanup around their house.  I thought I was finished with this yard work when we hit the road!

Our next stop will be Birmingham, AL at the Cummins Service Center to get The Bus’ oil changed.  From there we plan to go by Red Bay, AL and let the technicians at Tiffin’s service center look at our AquaHot system.  Until then, thanks for following us at keepingupwiththejonesrv. 

RV Tip:  Buy a couple foam yoga mat squares and keep one in a lower bay on each side.  It really helps when you get on your knees digging around the storage bays or working on systems below the floor. 

Retiring…not so fast

I retired from the USAF in 2010 and have worked for an aerospace defense company for the past five years.  We are now at the point where I would like to go into semi-retirement.  What is semi-retirement?  Well, I see it as I have control of my scheduled and can take short-term jobs that interest me.  So, I gave the company my notice and told them I would finish up a project I have been working for 3 years and my last day would be 12 Nov.  We worked out a plan where I would attend the Annual Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) conference in National Harbor, MD (across the river from Washington, DC.) then return to California to out-process the company.  Pattie, seeing an opportunity to visit friends and her hairstylist in Maryland, jumped at the chance to join me.

We pulled the slides in, turned off the water to the coach, and left it hooked up in Valencia Travel Village while we flew to Washington, DC.  The conference was at the Gaylord Convention Center and we were able to enjoy the newly developed National Harbor area.  They have one of those giant Ferris wheels there, so we rode that one evening after dinner.

The conference went well and we were able to see old friends and attend our home church in Dunkirk, MD on Sunday. The return flight was delayed and a 12-hour day of travel turned in to 20 hours.  Pattie said it was confirmation that it is time to retire and I agreed.  My company friends treated me to a retirement lunch and all was going as planned until the program I have been working on was extended to early December.  I guess it is the military ethos that says you don’t leave in the middle of a fight especially one you started that made me say yes, I will stay on until it is finished.  However, I asked to be able to work remote as we already made plans to be in Alabama for Thanksgiving.  They agreed and we rolled out of California on 13 Nov. 

The Bus ran great and we spent the first night in Quartzite, AZ.  Quartzite is know for the largest annual flea market and RV gathering the world which occurs in January.  We just did a quick overnight and noted that we may return for that event one day.  The following day we arrived in Prescott, AZ and visited Jeff and Patt Parker our Maryland friends who have retired there.  They gave us the grand tour of Prescott and we had dinner on Whisky Row in an old saloon with a shady history. 

Now in California, it had begun to get cold enough to need heat in the early morning.  We used the heat elements in the roof top A/C units and that was sufficient.  In Prescott, it was in the mid-20s to 30s in the morning with some snow.  No problem since The Bus is equipped with AquaHot that will provide endless hot water and heat the interior and lower storage compartment…when it works.  We had been using hot water, so I thought all was good until I switched it to heat. No heat.  We ran to Wal-Mart and bought two small space heaters to get us through the night.  I sought advice from numerous forum experts and a local technician who did not have time to come check on it.  I worked half a day checking power to pumps and beating on anything that looked like it might need beating on, but no joy.  Time to head to warmer weather and find a qualified tech to service this unit.  Next stop, Oklahoma City.

Thanks for following keepingupwiththejonesrv

RV tip – Disable the your automobile horn chirp when remote locking to keep the campground quiet.