What leads up to deciding to live full time in an RV.

Having worked 8 years at a dealer’s only repossession auction I was lucky enough to see the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly of many, many different RV’s, vehicles, motorcycles, and boats.  None of the units that went through the auction ever struck me as something I wanted to own.  Until the day one of the lot guys came in and told me there was this really cool RV with a garage attached that I just had to check out.  Even though I said I had no interest in an RV, he insisted that I just had to see it to believe it.  There were many things that arrived on the lot that unless you actually saw it, you’d never believe it.  What some people do to their vehicles is just plain scary.

The unit was a Class C Four Winds Fun Mover.  He was right; I had never seen anything like it before.  I had seen toy hauler pull-behind travel trailers, and 5^th wheel toy haulers, but neither type ignited enough interest to make me want to own one.  We own trucks big enough to comfortably pull either type, but having traveled once in said truck with a trailer attached for a multi-state trip was enough for me.

Although the size of the unit was small, it had everything in it that I was looking for.  I got into the driver’s seat, started the unit up and drove it around the lot.  It was just like driving a truck, but the driver’s seat was way more fitted for a regular sized person to sit in for long stretches of time.

The inside was comfortable, and felt safe.  We had taken many trips on a 92 Harley Davidson Classic motorcycle pulling a trailer behind the motorcycle with all of our gear in it.  This was our preferred way to travel.  Not only is it an extremely cheap way to travel, but you get to experience everything about the places you travel through.  People are much friendlier when they know you’ve been experiencing the elements.

The last trip we had taken out west had turned scary, so our options for where to travel were changed forever.  Yellowstone National Park was being devastated by forest fires, the North entrance was closed, which was the closest entrance to where we were at.  The rest of the park was still open but we had to go to the next entrance.  By the time we got to the entrance it was getting pretty late.  The fire had travel through the park and now the entrance we were at was closed. 

It was getting dark quickly and there was no way we were going to make it back down the mountain in the dark.  We had no choice but to stay at the little roadside campground near the entrance.  The ranger was not happy about us staying because we only had tents and there was a mother grizzly with two cubs that had been frequenting the campground.  We explained our predicament to him and after listing to him explain all about bear safety he finally showed us to a campsite that was as far away from the other campers as possible and closest to the road, in case we had to get out quick he said.

Having traveled a lot, we knew about bear safety, but this was the first time in our 12 years of traveling that we had been warned about a bear.  It was a sleepless night because momma bear decided to visit the campground that night.  She didn’t mess with us, but as I cowered under the blankets and listened to her walking around the campground I swore that this would be the last time I ever stayed in a tent in bear country.  It wasn’t the last time because we still had to make it back home to Michigan, but it was the last trip of tent camping in bear country.

The Class C at the auction had been sold while I was on vacation, so I started doing extensive research on what RV’s were available that fit our needs.  I defiantly knew the only type of unit that was going to make us happy was a toy hauler.  Neither of us liked the idea of putting our motorcycles in a trailer because of all the horror stories we’ve heard, and because we'd all ready done it twice and neither time turned out well.  Maybe I’ll get into some of those stories at another time but for now I’ll continue with how we decided that we wanted to live full time in an RV.

The years ticked by and we continued to research and look at toy hauler RV’s.  I really, really liked the Outlaw Class A by Damon, but by the time we were ready to make a purchase, Damon was out of business, and there just weren’t any used units in the Michigan area for sale.  There were some for sale in southern states, but the timing of a unit being for sale and us having the time to drive down and look at it just never meshed.

Work, kids graduating and moving out, and just life in general got in the way, so we kind of put RV shopping on the back burner until life kicked us in the ass.  I was terminated from my job, all three of our children attached themselves to guys that didn’t like us, so our kids walked out of our lives and basically had no further contact with us.  This is a topic for another blog which someday I may be able to write, but at this point in time my emotions are so wounded and raw that I try to avoid thinking about it.  I do think the subject would help a lot of other parents, because I know I wish there was someone out there that could help us deal with what we’re going through.

OK, got off topic a little, but it is the most influential thing that happen in our life that pointed us in the direction we are heading.  Being unemployed after having spent the majority of my life working full time left me with a lot of time on my hands.  The joy of spending time at home quickly wore off.  Todd was thrilled that I was home all the time concentrating all my efforts on his business and taking care of everything around the house.

Surfing the net one day looking for anything to peak my interest, and cure the boredom I was experiencing, I came across a used RV site that had an Outlaw for sale.  Of course it was located down south, but it led me to start searching, and searching, and searching.  We once again started looking at used RV’s, but none that we checked out gave us the feeling of ‘this is what we want.’

During my internet surfing I learned that Thor is now the builder of the Outlaw Class A toy hauler.  I contacted Thor for more information.  Thor forwarded my information on to a dealer located close to the manufacturing plant.  The salesman contacted me, and we set up a date to tour the factory which is the only way that we were going to be able to get inside one of the new Outlaws, because there still wasn’t anyone around this area that had one on their lot.

During the time between finding Thor and setting a date to tour the factory life again kicked us in the ass.  Many things took a downward spiral while others took off in their own new, unexplained direction.  We spent many a night talking about the past, where we were currently at, and where we were headed.  The answer to what was in store for our future shook us both up to the point that we spent days just kind of walking around in a stupor.

As we saw it, we had two choices for our future.  One, keep working, and maintaining, and improving what we currently have so that eventually it could be left to people that think we’re the worst people to walk the earth, or leave it to people that don’t even know we exist.  Or number two, stop everything, spend what we’ve accumulated and wait to die.

Neither option was appealing to either of us.  Then while surfing the internet looking for anything that could change our future, or at the very least give us another option for our future, I came across lots of web sites about full time RV living.  I spent the next several days learning everything I could, and sharing what I was learning with Todd.

The main thing that everyone that currently is, has in the past, or is planning to live full time in an RV will tell you is; it’s completely different than anything you have ever experienced.  It’s not a vacation, it’s not something that is going to happen overnight, and it’s not for everyone.  We spent weeks doing intense research, and discussing the aspects of our life.

Even after years of looking, we still hadn’t found an RV that was for us, so we decided that ‘yes’ full time RV living is something that we’re going to do if we can find an RV that fits us.  Neither of us was willing to fit ourselves to the RV, it had to fit us.  Each person or couple is unique in every part of their being, so what is right for us may not be right for them, and what’s right for them may not be right for us.  We’ve never been the kind of people that fit into the box, the norm, general society, whatever you want to call it, we’ve always been unique.

We decided to approach buying an RV the same way we’ve approached all of our other major life purchases, ‘we’ll know it’s the right one when it feels right,’ but this is defiantly something we want to do, so let the search begin.