Category ArchiveEverywhere Once |

Convoy

by Brian on February 21, 2010 in How To, Planning and Prep, RVing

Kris Kristofferson would be proud. We’re going to have ourselves a convoy. At least for a little while.

It took all of about 3 seconds to figure out that we can’t tow our existing car in any reasonable fashion. It took much longer for me to understand what a pain, and expense, it is to get a suitable car ready to tow. That hassle, combined with growing anxiety about how difficult it will be to drive the R.V., even without towing, convinced us to delay setting up a toad (that’s “clever” R.V. slang for a towed vehicle).

One option is to go without a car altogether. Some people do and we considered that. But the thought of driving the R.V. to the grocery store, or to run other errands, isn’t very appealing, to put it mildly. We also envision really only using the campground as a base to explore an area. After all, our reason for doing this isn’t to see the world’s campgrounds, but rather to see the world. So we feel we really do need a car if we’re going to make the most of this trip.

So we’re definitely bringing a car. But if we’re not towing it, that leaves only one option; we’re driving it. It looks like we have ourselves a convoy.

“Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?

Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon.

Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy…”

– C.W. McCall

Reality Bites, South Dakota Edition

by Brian on October 25, 2009 in How To, Planning and Prep, RVing

The good news is that we’re going to be Longhorns after all. The bad news is that we already bought non-refundable tickets to Omaha in November; planning to do the short-ish drive to Sioux Falls so we can get shiny new drivers licenses.

Why are we deep sixing SD (aside from my penchant for leather chaps)? Health insurance. We’re changing plans because of our bloody-awful health insurance system. On a hunch I started calling some insurance brokers in SD to ask about using the mail forwarding address as the basis for insurance in the state. All of them told me the exact same thing, that I need proof of physical residence to qualify for health insurance. Are you freaking kidding me? We’re a couple of healthy 38 year olds and we can’t buy health insurance unless we also buy or rent a house in the state?

So Texas here we come. Yeeeeeee-Haaaaaaawwwwww!

Our Rig

by Brian on October 14, 2009 in How To, Planning and Prep, RVing

After a day in Hersey, PA, at a large RV show, we now know what rig we are going to get. It’s the one everyone else at the show was hanging out in, and the one we went back to three times to check out. Spec-wise, it was one of our leading contenders going in, but seeing it sealed the deal. The floor plan is brand new this year and it blows everything else we’ve seen away. It doesn’t feel like a “camper” on the inside at all. It feels like a mini-apartment. Which is perfect, because that is exactly what it will be for us.

Reality Bites, Part II

by Brian on October 5, 2009 in How To, Planning and Prep, RVing

After countless hours of research, we’ve settled on South Dakota as our future state of domicile. We narrowed the list of potential contenders down to Texas and S.D. South Dakota won out because it is a bit easier to set up and maintain and looks like it will cost us a bit less for things like insurance. I have to say the S.D. choice is a little bit of a disappointment. Being a Longhorn just seems so much cooler. I already had a Stetson and leather chaps picked out, but seeing as how this is a family oriented blog, we’ll just leave it at that.

So now the fun starts. To get an idea of what we’re up against, here is an abbreviated version of our to-do list:

Contract with mail forwarding service and get new address
Fly to Sioux Falls, SD to get driver’s licenses
Register to vote (must be done in person)
Register vehicles in SD
Get new auto insurance
Get health insurance
Find a storage facility were we can park the RV until we’re ready to go
Buy an RV
Get RV insurance
Sell our car and buy one that can be towed
Outfit the car and RV for towing (towbar, base plates, wiring, auxiliary braking system . . . do you see that everything is more complicated than it seems?)
Find a property management company to handle our condo while we’re on the road
Find a tenant for said condo
Find a storage facility for the furniture we’re keeping
Sell or give away the junk we’re not
Plan our trip

So who still thinks this is a good idea?

Reality Bites

by Brian on September 8, 2009 in How To, Planning and Prep, RVing

The euphoria lasted a couple of weeks. Now the reality is setting in. We don’t have a clue what were doing. We’ve never owned an RV, we’ve never driven one, hell, we’ve never spent the night in one. And somehow we thought it would be a good idea to go live in one.

When we decided to do this, we didn’t know a motor home from a fifth-wheel from a travel trailer. Looking at the choices, makes, and models is all a little bit staggering. Having never done this before, how do we decide between what we need and what is just excess? If we make the wrong choice, it will be very expensive to fix, so we’re kind of stuck with it. It’s hard not feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

But our challenges run even deeper than just picking out a rig. As it turns out, the fantasy of walking away from our life and actually walking away from our life are two completely different things. In the fantasy, we simply fill an RV with groceries and our cat and set off on merry adventures. In the real world, things are much more complicated. Until now I never thought about the concept of “residence,” probably because I never had to. My residence was wherever I lived. But what happens if you live nowhere? Or everywhere?

This may sound like semantics, but its not. It’s important. You need a driver’s license, you need insurance, you need a county in which to vote, you need someplace to get your mail, and if you enjoy your freedom, you need to pay taxes to someone. All of that requires a physical address . . . and we plan not to have one.

Luckily we’re not the first people to do this and a lot has changed since Steinbeck set off with Charley. Apparently you can get the equivalent of a P.O. box with a mail forwarding company that serves as your permanent fixed address. Not all states allow this so we’ll have to do some research to figure out the particulars. This is all going to be harder than we thought.

May fortune favor the foolish.