
How it all
started.
Once upon a time . .
.
in a border
town in west Texas, we saw a GMC motor home. It belonged to someone that
was active with a group we were active with as well. This group would often
take trips throughout Texas and New Mexico. They would, of course,
travel in their motor home and we would travel by car. Need I say, we
were envious?
We couldn't
afford to live a normal life AND buy a motor home, but we could dream.
Over the years we enjoyed the camping lifestyle. At one point we had an
ole van that we used for camping. It wasn't much, but we had loads of
fun in it. All the while dreaming of the time when we would have our
very own motor home.
We agreed that we would have to put off a motor home until we
retired. As
retirement got closer, and closer, and closer our thoughts were more and more
of the motor home lifestyle. Quite often we would
hear people say how they wished they could travel more, see more of this
wonderful country we live in. We felt the same way. Both of us
loved to travel and would really love to do it in a motor
home.
We started going to RV shows. We'd visit RV dealers, scan the 'for
sale' sections online for something we could afford AND something that
we'd be happy living in. This took some time. We saw many
models we'd be happy living in. The only problem, most of them
required a little more money than we had to spend.
So we kept looking. Eventually we realized we'd have to settle for
something a little less than we really wanted in order to realize our
dream of living 'on the road' for awhile. One Saturday we saw
several listings for class "A" motor homes, all concentrated
in the area of the state capitol of Augusta. We picked out a
couple we thought met our requirements and decided to 'check 'em
out'.
The
first two were, how shall I say it, terrible! By the time we got
to the third one we were about to give up on the whole idea. Then,
there in among the trees, we saw it. Almost before getting out of
our car, we had decided, that's it! That's the one! The
owner was inside cleaning. The unit was already 100% cleaner than
the others we had looked at, so we saw it as being cleaner than,
perhaps, it was. We did, however fall in love with it.
It was
clean, fairly modern (only 10 years old), and did I mention,
clean? Yep, we could see ourselves living in it. We walked
around it, looked in the stove, kicked the tires, looked at the
bathroom, walked around it again, kicked the tires again, looked at the
underneath storage, kicked the tires again and spoke with the owner for
awhile. Asked the price, looked at the mileage and kicked the
tires again.
After
leaving the place (owner's house) we talked about the 32' Chieftian and
decided we both really liked it. It seemed to meet all of our
requirements. The price was a little higher than we wanted to
spend but we hoped that if we offered a lower price, they would accept
it. By the time we got home, we had already decided we wanted, and
I mean really WANTED that motor home. We called them and asked
what it'd take to keep it off the market until we had a chance to really
go over it. They said our word was good enough. We were in
heaven!
After
checking it over we decided we'd take it provided they would fix a
couple of things. They accepted and agreed to make the necessary
repairs. It was scheduled to be completed by my birthday (June
13th) and we were expecting to have a really big birthday party.
It was touch-and-go, all the work wasn't totally done but we were able
to have a party and have me accept the unit as my birthday
present. It was wonderful!
It was
more expensive than I thought it would be to register it. Then, of
course, more for the vanity plate. Interestingly when I tried to
get the vanity plate R-Way they said it was taken. The state of
Maine has more than one TYPE of license plate. The one that said
R-Way was only one of several so I asked them to check the conservation
plates and low and behold, it was available with that plate (the one
with the loon on it). By the evening of June 13th, I had my motor
home with it's name on the license plates. Glory, what a great
day!
I
should have known. Once I had the vehicle, retirement looked
closer than ever. I started really counting the days, all the days
I could use for retirement. I checked EVERYTHING I could think
of. Yep, I could leave anytime I wanted. If, however I
wanted a pension I'd have to wait almost 6 months. After checking
with several people as to the amount of that pension for someone such as
myself, I decided it wasn't worth sticking around for. Even though
I was over a year away from drawing my social security at the earliest
age, I decided to throw caution to the wind and retire anyway! I
left my final employer on the 8th day of July and haven't looked back
yet.
We got
everything sold or given away by the middle of July and only needed to
get rid of a few things (5 or 6 hundred things) before we could move out
and into R-Way. Naturally a yard sale was in order. With the
help of some good friends we managed to set aside one weekend for a yard
sale. What a success it was, even though there was some things
left over. Those we donated to Goodwill. Anything not
worthwhile, went to the dump! At last we were free from all our
STUFF!
Well, that's how it all got started. We're on our trip now and
enjoying every minute of it. Come along with us and enjoy the
times and places too. It doesn't cost any money, just a little
time.
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