Update–November 18,2010

It has been a couple of weeks since my last entry and I feel like I am letting down my followers (all 4 that I know of!), so here is an update to keep me motivated and you interested.

After having the trailer at the house I brought it to the storage yard in Big Rock, Il., where we have been storing our trailers for the past 4 years.  The space that we had been renting was for a trailer up to 30’ so other arrangements had to be made.  We rent by the year and our renewal is at the beginning of December.  I was reluctant to pay for another year as hopefully we will get out on the road early in 2011.  The solution was to rent month to month, at twice the annual rate.  The nice thing though for this higher rent was a very long pull thru spot so we do not have to pay them to put our trailer away and take it out as we did in the past.  So now the trailer sits in storage waiting for the big day!

No we have not sold the house.  The showings picked up this last weekend but no one to date has been serious or placed an offer.  The market in this area is tough as there are limited buyers and a large inventory of homes for sale.  We continue to drop the price every couple of weeks to stimulate interest.  Hopefully someone will be interested.

The past couple of weeks I have gone out to the trailer to do some things on it.  Geek Alert! (I will be talking techie stuff).  Mainly I have been trying to figure out a set up for my DirecTV that will work with the wiring in the trailer.  This has been an evolving issue as I started taking our satellite service with us in our trailer for the past 3 years.  The system has moved from a standard definition dish with receiver and 19” flat screen TV to our current system which is high definition (Single wire set-up, SWM) with two HD-DVR’s in the trailer, a 40” LCD HD TV and a 23” LED HD TV.  Fortunately new trailers are being pre-wired to accommodate satellite systems.  I just had to figure it all out so I could have a separate tuner/DVR in the living area and one in the bedroom.  I think I got it all figured out this time.  I still will have to test it out at a later date.  For those of you asking, how does the satellite service work in a trailer, here is how.  I have a regular dish that I mount on a tripod outside the trailer and then connect the coax wire to an external jack on the trailer.  I get the satellite settings from the receiver and then align the dish.  As the local channels are spot beamed by DirecTV we were not able to get local channels (major networks) when we were out of the Chicago area, however when we move into the trailer we will then subscribe to a DirecTV RV account.  This type of account allows you to receive your network programming from the network stations in Los Angeles and New York, so it should work out fairly well.  In addition the trailer does have an HD antenna on its roof to pick up local channels in the area we are in if needed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Open House

WE PICKED UP THE TRAILER! 

Another checkmark on the fulltimer to do list.  I went and picked up the trailer from the dealer.  Got a little orientation on hooking up and unhitching a fifth wheel as this is a new experience.  Big thing, watch those turns.  This trailer and truck turn like a semi, you have to have a lot of room.

Brought the rig home to do a few things to it and we invited Fran’s co-workers and boss over to take a tour of our future home.  So we started off right, a wine a cheese house warming.

Above is the staff from the office.  The view is to the back of the trailer.

Here is me with two of the other husbands of the staff.  Of course, I am near the wine!  This view is of the kitchen with the dining table and entrance door to the right and the stairs up to the bed and bath towards the center.

It was a fun time and I had a great time showing off the remote for the slides, jacks, and awning.  It’s a guy thing!

Left the trailer on the street overnight and then brought it to our storage yard.  I had warned them that I had bought a larger trailer and it would not fit in my old space.  Fortunately they have some very nice pull thru long spaces for me.  The problem is the fee is about double.  Hopefully it will only be for a couple of months.  So, we got the trailer and now it sits!

What’s Your Plan?

It has been interesting since we made the decision to go to full time RV’ing.  The look on peoples faces when they ask us where we are moving because our house is for sale.  Once we tell them then the next question always is, what is your plan?  Where are you going? 
At first it seemed as though we had to justify that we were going to live full time in a fifth wheel, but if you think about it what is the difference from this and living in an apartment or house.  The main difference is that we can get up an move anytime we want, otherwise we have the same (somewhat) comforts of a permanent abode.  Granted the square footage of our fifth wheel is much smaller that what we are used to, but I am sure we can adapt (have any of you seen my parents condo!).
As for what's our plan - here is a tentative outline of what we see ourselves doing for probably the first year once we start.  From Illinois we will be heading to Texas.  First to Houston to visit my niece and her family so we can see her new twins, plus visit with other friends we have in that area.  From there we will make a stop in El Paso to see my other niece and her family, then onto Phoenix to visit with our daughter and possibly view some baseball spring training.  Next up would be Southern California where we will probably stay for awhile to visit with many friends and relatives.  From there we will work our way up through California and do some sightseeing in Oregon then to the Washington/Oregon wine country.  From there it is into Canada where we want to meet up with our friends from Idaho in Banff.  After that we will work our way back into the Midwest to meet up with our other daughters in Illinois and Ohio before the cold weather sets in.  A stop in Tennessee to visit with my nephew then most likely head back west through the south to avoid any cold weather.
Just to keep you informed, the trailer financing was approved and the trailer will be picked up this week.  Again, to any prospective full timers out there, buy the trailer early as lenders are not lending to full timers, unless of course you plan to pay cash. 
I did some research on this lending issue and it seems that full timers are a victim of the stimulus bill that was passed and the tightening of bank regulations on mortgages.  An RV for a full timer is considered their home so the regulations require that banks must impound (collect upfront) for insurance and taxes.  Well for a full time RV’er they cannot determine where they permanently live so the banks do not know what to collect and are concerned, legally, how they should handle such loans.  So the result is they are just not lending to full timers.