Getting the RV registered proved to be a bit of a hassle. My first trip to the Registry of Motor Vehicles was aborted because Jett had to be there, too.  The second trip was aborted because the insurance agent hadn’t signed and stamped the application.  A phone call to the agent taught me something (which doesn’t happen often now that I have reached the Age of Wisdom): the liability insurance for the RV/trailer is carried by the insurer of the tow vehicle (aka Big Red Truck), not the insurer of the RV itself.  A trip to the agent who insures the truck got the application signed and stamped. He also, thankfully, caught and corrected some other errors on the application that would have aborted my third trip.  But with his revised, stamped and signed application in hand, our third trip to the RMV proved to be the charm.  We now have a fully insured and registered rig.

And we have made arrangements to get the RV onto the Saddleback camp site.  It will happen the afternoon of Saturday, May 5.  We probably won’t stay in it that night, but shortly thereafter we will have our first night in our new home on wheels.

I sure hope the bed is comfortable.

Today I spent 90 minutes in a meeting in which the company strategists laid out their plans for the company’s product line for the coming year.  I tried to pay attention.  Really, I did.  But I found my mind wandering to thoughts of driving a big rig across the country.  After all, I have absolutely no intention of participating in the development of those products.  I’m just puttin’ in my time.  Like a convict nearing the end of a long sentence, I am counting the days until my release.  Or, more accurately, I am counting weeks.  The current count is 20.6.  I now mentally click off another tenth of a week each day at lunch, and again when I get on the elevator to leave the office.  At the end of this week the counter will have clicked down to 20 weeks.  100 days.

Maybe next week I will be counting the days.

While the count is getting low enough to get exciting, it is also increasing the pressure to get things done.  That master bedroom still isn’t completely painted and I haven’t even started on the first floor.  There is still a myriad of other tasks to complete.  Weekends will largely be spent in New Hampshire once we get the coach moved onto the campsite – just four weeks from now!  That is both exciting and scary.  Where will I find the time to get all the work done if weekends are spent away from the house?

I had better get cracking… my time here is nearly up.

One of the most time-consuming preparatory tasks is getting the laptops set up for full-timing.  Jett has had a laptop for over a year and hers will be easily prepped for travel.  In her case it is largely a matter of switching her one comcast.net email account over to the ourwanderyears.com domain.  And maybe some work getting the backup procedure tweaked.  But nothing major.

I, on the other hand, have purchased a new laptop and intend to move everything over from my desktop machine to the laptop.  This is a HUGE amount of work.  Besides email addresses (at least 5 of ’em) and backup, I also have numerous applications (e.g. photo editor, Skype, tax software, Quicken, etc.) that need to be reinstalled and files brought over.  The file issue I will address by moving them to a portable hard disk, then moving the disk to the laptop.  But reinstalling applications will take a lot of time.

I have been fairly smart, I think, in dealing with email addresses.  A couple of months ago I changed my Outlook rules so that emails would be sorted into different bins depending on which email account they were addressed to.  Today I set up an email client on the laptop and configured all of the ourwanderyears.com accounts to be received there, then removed those accounts from Outlook on the desktop.  So I now have the desktop only receiving emails for accounts that will be closed by September.  Any email that appears there is a de facto notice of a need to correct somebody’s address book. Except, of course, for those people and companies that I don’t want to follow me when I leave.

You know who you are.

As a member of the Escapees “Class of 2012” I have been reading with great interest (and envy) the detailed reports of those who are preceding us in throwing it all away and hitting the open road.  Their experience seems to match ours pretty closely so far – great anticipation, lots of planning and huge gobs of work in cleaning out the house.  Some have clearly sacrificed a lot to get away sooner rather than later.  One couple recently announced, with undisguised glee, that “our realtor will buy our house.” I find it hard to believe that a realtor would pay top dollar for any property – they are more interested in turning a quick profit.  How many thousands (tens of thousands?) did they sacrifice so that they could depart sooner rather than later?

Which reminds me… I had better repost that rental ad.

Maybe I will knock off another $100 per month so that I can leave sooner rather than later.

The last few weeks have been very busy and a lot has been accomplished.  We bought a truck and completed the purchase of the RV.  We got insurance for both.  We sent off a check to pay for our summer campsite in NH. I finished the planning for the trip west. New carpets in two bedrooms and the enclosed porch.  I even finished (finally) the painting of the old office and turned it into our new master bedroom.

Now it feels like there isn’t much to do.  That is a mirage, of course.  I am still WAY behind on the renovation tasks needed to get the house ready for rental (renovation of the old master bedroom is next).  And though we have had a couple of nibbles on our Craigslist ad, no one has yet been serious enough to come see the place.  We have time – we really would prefer to lease it starting in September, though August would work – but I will feel a lot better when we get someone to sign a lease.  Not finding suitable tenants is really the only true obstacle to retiring at the end of August and hitting the road in September.

Speaking of hitting the road, I am enjoying my new status as a member of the Escapees “Class of 2012” – those who are planning to enter the full-time RV lifestyle this year.  We have our own forum on the Escapees web site and I am struck by just how much work is involved in leaving it all behind.  One couple was planning on hitting the road March 9 but now have delayed it until at least the 14th because they just have too many tasks remaining.  Cleaning out a house is a LOT of work.  Jett has spent much of the last month going through the attic and has done a great job clearing out that space.  The basement is next.  She has also stacked up a few boxes and drawers for me to go through.  There was a time when I thought that we were premature in starting preparations nine months before our escape date, but I no longer feel that way.  Now I think we should have started sooner.

Anyway, I will come up for air today, take a few breaths, then dive into those boxes and drawers.

We completed the purchase of the Open Range fifth wheel today, along with the used hitch.  I did the walk-through, learned how to install the hitch in the bed of the truck and actually hooked the truck up to the RV!  I wish I had taken a picture of that – the first coupling of those two vehicles that, hopefully, will provide many happy memories next year and beyond.  They seemed to be happy together.

First coupling, bed, taking the weight, happy together… hmmm… sounds familiar.

Anyway, I did get one picture of me in front of our new baby, snapped by the seller.  Notice the snow.  Hopefully the last snow that this coach will see for a long time.

Sparky and His New Baby

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about next winter.  Specifically: where to be and what to do?  We plan on staying in one place January to March next year.  Possibly until April.  During that time we both want to work.  Well, “want” may be too strong, but our budget demands that we work much of next year, to delay dipping into Social Security.  So we need to find a place that allows long-term camping and is near jobs.  It probably has to be near public transportation too as we will have only one car /monster truck.  Or one of us needs to telecommute.

Actually telecommuting would solve one other problem: what to do with the dogs.  Most RV parks prohibit leaving dogs alone in the RV.  Perhaps the rule can be bent if the dogs are quiet (and I don’t know yet if ours will be), but for planning purposes it is best to arrange a work schedule which allows one of us to be in the RV.

This is going to be difficult, if not impossible.

Ideally we would have these jobs arranged before we even hit the road.  But that, too, will be difficult if not impossible.

One thing is certain: we can’t stay four months in the boonies.  We have to be near jobs.  So that pretty much limits us to (in order of preference): San Diego, San Francisco / San Jose or LA.  For purposes of planning the last segment of the Trip West, I will assume San Diego.

But it is time to clean up those resumes and start contacting the employment agencies.

I have to go to the bank today to get a cashier’s check that is needed to complete the purchase of the fifth wheel.  The insurance guy finally called me back and is all set to issue the binder.  And the seller has agreed to sell me his hitch.  All of which means that it is now almost 100% certain that Jett and I will be owners of a complete rig in less than a week!

But to counterbalance all that good news, my sister called last night with news that my mother is in the hospital with heart problems. I have tickets to go see her in April, thanks to Jett’s urging – she felt that I couldn’t wait to November to go see my 88-year-old mother.  I sometimes think she is more in tune with my mother than I am.  Maybe it’s a “maternal telepathy” thing?

Now I just have to convince my mother to stay well for 6 weeks.