We’re adventurous old farts.
We’ve been happily married for nearly 40 years now, the majority of both of our lives.
We’ve both had satisfying careers, Barb as a Project Manager herding international teams through IT projects and Rob as a computer programmer focused on analytic databases.
Along the way we’ve raised two kids which included a year long trip in our first RV (a 29 foot long Class C). We still refer to that adventure as the ‘Big Trip’. We drove 27,000 miles to get from California to Florida over the course of a year. Spending a year traveling the continent with your teen aged kids is something few other parents have the good fortune to experience.
After the kids were grown and gone, we had a second experience living in a motor home. This time it was in a 34 foot Class A coach which we drove back to southern California with the intention of living in until we found a house to rent. Three years later, we were still living in the coach. Ultimately, cheaper housing would lead us back to Florida.
When Rob was approaching the age where Social Security stops increasing (at 70) we began contemplating what retirement would be like. We had a nice house that we’d purchased in less expensive times at a historically low interest rate. We had everything arranged for a comfortable retirement lifestyle. There was just one problem…
Comfort is like a drug. It feels really good but too much of it will rot your soul.
This was the backdrop to a casual visit to the local RV show in the late summer of 2024. We saw how much motor homes had changed, and we began to reminisce about how much we’d enjoyed wandering around in a coach in the past. It wasn’t long before we realized that we actually could afford to go back to living aboard full time.
We didn’t decide to go back to the Full Time lifestyle right away. There were health issues to deal with (it comes with being an Old Fart) and we had to decide if we wanted to sell the house.
By the end of 2024 it was obvious that we kept coming back to the conclusion that we’d be happiest back in a coach full time. We resolved to sell the house to keep life simple and started shopping for a motor home.
The search for a full time motor home didn’t take long. We stopped by the dealership that had the coach that had impressed us at the RV show only to find the very same vehicle that we saw at the show was still on their lot after several months. Given that it was the end of the year and the coach that we liked hadn’t sold for months, it was a good time for a bargain. Barb made good use of the opportunity to strike a compelling deal.
Having committed to a new home it was time to relieve ourselves of our old one, along with everything in it. Make no mistake, getting rid of nearly all of your worldly possessions is no small task! By the middle of 2025, we’d emptied the house and put it up for sale.
We’ll post about or adventures and interesting places we visit.