One Year!

Location: Campbellsville, KY (High 41, Low 17)

Today marks the milestone of one year of fulltime rv living! It was one year ago today that we pulled out of the driveway for the final time. We were very happy to have nice weather to get packed up and move to our temporary location in Catskill, NY.

 

It was so exciting to get settled in our spot and know that we no longer had to maneuver ourselves back into the driveway.

 

 

It has been a whirlwind year. After Harry’s retirement in January, we headed south as quickly as possible. We didn’t quite beat the winter weather and our trip through PA and VA was a little cold and snowy. But we made tracks and made it to the warmer parts of the country…enjoying a few days in Savannah, GA on our way to Jacksonville, FL.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the month of February in Jacksonville. We had a lot of fun visiting with Harry’s sister, Linda and seeing a few of the sights, including a couple trips to St. Augustine.

 

 

Unfortunately, Harry was already feeling the effects of a hernia so we weren’t able to be as active as we would have liked to have been. He was pretty limited in the amount of walking he was able to do. One of my favorite activities (and Harry’s longest excursion) was on a nature walk in Willison, FL, which was our stop for the month of March.

 

April was our craziest and busiest month. We had already registered our vehicles through SD, but we still had to make a trip there in person to get our drivers licenses and complete the process of becoming residents. We left Florida on April 1st. We traveled north to PA to meet up with Heartland friends for a campout the second week of April and then went over to SD and back to NY by May 4th. We traveled 3,181 miles in the month of April. Not an experience either of us plan to repeat if we can help it! Over the entire year, we put 16,777 miles on the truck and spent $5,558.98 on diesel fuel, which I don’t think is too bad considering the truck is our only vehicle.

 

From early May to early September, we were settled at what has become our “home base” in NY. I like it because it is only ten minutes from my sister’s house. It is also a good starting point for visiting other members of our family, although we didn’t do too much of that last summer as Harry did end up having surgery in late May to repair the hernia.

 

And from early September to the present, we have been at our present location in Campbellsville KY and working for the first time at Amazon for the holiday season.

 

 

Do we miss having a house? Not one bit. (With one small disclaimer for an extreme dislike of being in an rv during severe storms, which I have already shared.) We love the space and floorplan of our rv and it sure feels like home. I do find that we have to work a bit harder to keep it picked up as clutter seems to pile up pretty easily. But I seem to remember sometimes having similar issues in the house, so I don’t think that is limited to fulltime living only. Although there is maintenance involved with having an rv, Harry doesn’t miss the upkeep required with a house – like mowing lawns, loading the pellet stove for heat, carrying bags of salt down to the basement and snowblowing the driveway!

Have we had problems? Of course…like a water leak on Christmas Day 2012, a faulty water pump that had to be replaced, the spring in our slide topper broke in Williston FL, an air conditioner leak in July, and most recently the thermostat in our water heater went. But things also stopped working when we had a house…and it’s just as inconvenient when it happens in your home no matter what kind of home you are in at the time. Overall, it’s been exactly what we expected…and hoped for…, and we are loving our life in our home on wheels.

We are looking forward to Year #2!!