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Boy, are we ready to go camping. Made reservations for the end of March for Roosevelt State Park, here in GA. Never been so we thought we would hit that one this year. Hoping the weather will be warmer than it is now. So ready to take a vacation. Also made reservations for Florida at Rocky Bayou State Park in July. Both of these parks will be new to us, so we'll let you know what each is like. We are also going to do some impropto camping between and after these reservations. I did notice that many state parks already are half full with reservations. Glad I looked early. Have some work to do on the truck and a crack on the shower gray water tank. Got a plastic welding kit and will be doing the weld as soon as the weather warms up just a bit. Its been a long cold winter in the south this year. Can't wait to retire so I don't have to deal with this weather anymore. These old bones don't like cold and damp. On another note, softball season is here again and the grandkids are ready for the season to begin. Love working with all the girls in their practice. Work is not allowing me to coach this year due to being on call 2 out of 4 weeks a month, but that's how it works. Well all, have fun and hope for an early spring. I do see buds on some of the trees, so that is a good sign. A big welcome goes out to all the new members of the class.

Well our first trip of the year is planned. Going to F.D. Roosevelt State Park in Georgia at the end of March. Hopefully the weather will be warmer than it is now. We have had a cold winter with lots of rain. No snow or ice like last year so far. Fingers crossed. We've never been there and from what I have found out from various websites, this is a huge park. Since it is right outside Calloway Gardens, we'll have to visit that also. I have some mods I want to do to the 5th wheel before going and need to fix the shower holding tank. Seems we have a leak there. Getting a plastic welding kit to repair it. Hopefully it will be an easy repair. I do have to remove the coroplastic so I can access the tank, but I do like having it there. The floors stay much warmer. Sill have to finish sealing the sides of the coroplastic also, so I'll do that after the tank is repaired. I see we have more people coming into this class. Welcome all and have a wonderful day and year. Although we live in our RV, we can't wait until I retire so we can travel without work restrictions. The DW and I are looking forward to it.

Happy New Year everyone. May this year be even better than the last.

Welcome to the class, where we learn from each other. We started out with a TT and then upgraded to a fiver. I have to agree, a fiver is the way to go if you fulltime IMHO.

Congrats on the progress and the new RV. As you, we are also looking forward to the day we can hit the road. Ours may be delayed a bit, but eventually we WILL be out there. Time does go by much quicker that you may realize. Before you know it, it's time to out and have the biggest adventure of your life. Currently we have our "final" 5th wheel and we love it. I don't see us getting another one unless something tragic happens to this one. Let's hope not. Say "hi" to Maggie and maybe we will run into each other out there. You never know.

Welcome Mark and Darcy. Glad to have you in our group. Feel free to ask any questions and yes it is scary and also exciting. We are in the same situation as you are. We have family and take care of grandkids while we fulltime in our RV. Once the grandkids graduate, I think we will feel free to wonder around this great country of ours. Until then, we'll stick around the southeast near homebase.

Mandolin57, you are more than welcome to join any group in these forums. No permission needed. Welcome to the class and as the years go by, more and more will join. Ask any questions and we will try to answer them to the best of your ability. Hopeimakeit, sounds like you're almost there. Sure you don't want to change your handle to Ididmakeit? jk. Glad you are getting the ducks all together. Sounds like you have a good plan in the works. Keep it up and keep the dirty side down.

Welcome Gannet. you would be surprised how fast that time will fly. It looks like you have a great plan on getting to fulltime. Stick with it and it will be here before you know it. Along with all this, try to be debt free also. It makes life on the road so much easier. Good luck to you.

Been a while since I've been here. We got hit by some financial things (children) this year so the only time we have been out so far is on the 4th of July. Really a bummer. However, we still have the rest of the year to go and our finances are getting back under control. Maybe we will be able to go out a time or 2. We are looking to go out around October when the grandkids have fall break. I know they miss it as badly as we do. One way or another, we will be out at least once more this year. Next year will be better. Come on RETIREMENT!!!

Welcome DebRandio. Happy to have you join us. Glad to see you are getting an early start on getting things paid for. It will take some time to reduce your "extra baggage" from the stick and bricks. You never realize just how much stuff has accumulated. It took us over a year to reduce our weight to an acceptable level, but we did it. Again, welcome and feel free to post anytime. BTW Happy Fathers day to everyone, both in and outside the class of 2016.

Thank you Tumbleweed_FT. After the heavy rains and wind last night, we see no signs of leaks. Sitting here having my morning coffee at the desk and loving it. Now I have a place to work from.

Well we decided to trade our faithful 2001 dutchmen for a 2004 dutchmen 33RLK. With the trade, we only had a bit of money to put with it. Turned out to be a great deal. We purchased it from MidState RV in Georgia and I must admit, everything we found wrong when we took a look and purchased it, was done and ready when we went to pick it up. The sales and service department were professional and filled us in on all the details. One thing I did like, was the fact that this RV was modified to withstand the cold temps of North Dakota. Yes!! it's a four season RV now and it also has 3 slides. Here are some pics of our new baby. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9290957/newtrailer/front.jpeg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9290957/newtrailer/desk.jpeg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9290957/newtrailer/livingroom.jpeg I'll have to get a new pic for my profile now, but really glad to do it.

Welcome back, burks353! Wondered if you dropped the idea of full timing. As for us, it has been a while since I last wrote here. We are in the final stages of getting another fiver and this time we have had it upgraded to a 4 season. Full bottom panel with insulation, all basement areas have expansion foam in the cracks, etc. We will be picking it up this Friday. This means we have to work a bit longer, but we are still living full time in our RV. Our first trip this year will be to North Carolina for a week and then we go out again on 4th of July Holiday to Stone Mountain. I really don't understand why they have you pick a spot on the website and then they put you in a completely different area then you chose. It's like they didn't read the email they are sent and just pick a site for you. At least we do have a space. Hopefully this July will not be a washout like last year. Fingers crossed. Did get all the downed trees cut up and the yard needs to be mowed now, all 3 acres of grass. Will be glad when someone else does it, but the grandkids are still young enough to love doing it, so that helps. I'll be cutting down 10 pine trees later this summer so I have that to look forward to. Never a dull moment. Never worry about posts being too long. We all like to read about other's adventures and how they get prepped for full timing. There may be a suggestion or two there that you don't even realize, that will help others. Well time to get packing. Have to get the old fiver cleared out by Thurday night and pull out Friday morning at 6 to pick up the new fiver. Hope it's ready. Be safe and have fun this summer.

Welcome to the class. We are glad to have you and like you, I also look forward to that day of whooping it up and hauling (at a gentle speed) a$$. We don't mind if your writing is longer then most. It tells us that you are serious about getting where you want to be. Your choice of the New Horizons is great. From what I read from Jack, they are a great purchase. Since I am at work, I'll have to cut this short. Welcome to the class.

Sometimes we are glad to have the ability to boondock anywhere. What do I mean by that, you ask? This past week, Georgia was hit by an ice storm in our area, and we were one of the hardest hit in the central Georgia area. Our daugters home is totally electric so with the ice storm, she had no water (on a well), no heating, and no way to cook anything. The solution? Move in with us for 2 days. It was a bit crowded, but we managed to stay warm and fed, and the best thing, be able to shower. Sure we ran low on water with 6 people taking showers, but we managed. The 5th wheel battery got low several times and without a generator, I used my truck to recharge it. Where there is a will, there is a way. I'll be looking into getting a generator of some type, if nothing else, to charge the battery. Our next 5th wheel will be better equipt to handle boondocking to include a generator, mulltiple batteries and possibly solar panels. We do plan on getting a newer 5th wheel in a few more years so we don't want to invest a lot of money in this one. Only thing let to do now is the cleanup. We had a bunch of trees fall and thankfully they didn't hit anything. Two went down on each side of the pool, one along side my truck, (close call there) several in the driveway, and branches alongside the RV. We came out good. Anyone need firewood? Have a good day and stay safe.

Welcome to our class, Tcwndsr. Glad to have you join us. There aren't many yet, but some of us feel that time is what it takes to get ready for full timing. You will find that as you begin cleaning out, some of the things you thought you would need to keep will become items to give away to family or sell. We took 33 years of accumulation and gae away most of it, trashed alot of it and kept just a bit. We actually feel better, not having all the stuff to look after. We are part-time full timers. Although I still work, we live in our RV full time. We love the fact that we can clean it from top to bottom in about an hour or so. Life has gotten simplier for us. I have 3 or 4 years left to retire, and look forward to the day that I don't have to punch a clock. Today, we put new carpet in the living room of the RV and next payday, we'll get the slides done. We enjoy doing things ourself and some of it is a learning process. We try to be self-sufficient. One lesson to learn, is to try to fix it yourself. You never know when the knowledge you learned at leisure, you may need in an emergency. Well that is it for today. You all have fun and welcome to our class of 2016. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Thanks for the link. That may be something for us in the future. Fortunetly our winters are short lived. We are good up to 25 degrees, but lower than that, and we begin freezing up. By the way, today everything is unthawed. Hurray!

We have survived the deep freeze of the south so far. Our water did freeze for 2 days, however we didn't break any pipes. Still waiting to be able to drain the black tank since it froze also. I'll just wait another day or two and then drain it. I think its frozen near the exit portion of the pipe. It's not full yet and hopefully will unthaw before that time comes. We hit lows of 9 degrees one morning and 13 the next with a high inbetween of 28, so there was no time for any thawing. The rest of the week looks to be warmer temps and getting back to normal, whatever that is. Hope everyone survived as well as we did. At least we were able to stay toasty warm.

We also wish everyone a Happy and fun filling New Year. Although we were not able to travel as much this past year due to financial issues, we are already planning our trips for this year. First on the agenda is fixing a roof leak. I think I may have hit a tree branch and cut the rubber roof. I didn't notice it for a while until we had a heavy rain. I have covered it with a tarp until the weather gets a bit warmer so I can do a good repair. I'll want to make sure the wood is good and dry and use some Git Rot on it. Next replace the weak secion of roofing and then seal it all. Gotta love it. I think our first trip will be to Indian Springs. Hope the weather turns warm early this year.,

I'm back, again. After somewhat of an absence, I have returned. Last week we took a trip to Richmond IN and made the trip from Macon, Ga in one day. What a drive that was. I had done some work on the TV and it really paid off. I was able to pull the 5ver up the 4% grade at Cumberland Pass at 50. Last time I did that pass I was lucky to do 40, so the changes were good ones. I did have a minor issue where I hit the front of the 5ver with the toolbox I installed. This happened at a turn and did some damage. Minor, but it still hit. Now, after the fact, I'm looking for a low profile box. This was the first time that the 5ver had ever hit it in over a year. Guess it only takes one time. The trip was beautiful and colorful. The leaves were in full change of color and the views were magnificent. In Richmond, IN, we stayed at the KOA. I must commend the owners there. They were very welcoming, greeting us at the truck and escorted us to our site. This was at 9:00 at night and they still did this. They let us pay the next morning and during our chat, we learned about some of the history around Richmond. The campground was well maintained and we also found out that they just purchased this campground about 6 months ago. I highly recommend this KOA and I don't say that lightly. Well its good to be back and welcome to the class, Gene. Happy to have you.

Well we survived all the rain on 4th of July weekend. We still got some chances to enjoy the place and did do the skyhike. The grandchildren loved going to all the places they had. Even got to go swimming for a bit. Didn't have any issues with the 5ver and was really happy with the fuel mileage. Tried an experiment. I reduced my speed up there and back to the top end of my torque curve, which is 1800 rpm doing 52 mph. I have driven this same route before at 60 and got 11.3 mpg. This time I got an impressive 14.1 mpg. Guess reducing the wind on that wall behind me really makes a difference. Debating on whether to go out on Labor Day weekend. The DW frowned about it and we may select another weekend to go. Who knows. This year has really been abnormal for us. So far we have had almost a month of rain every day. I think I'm growing web feet again. I left western Washinton to get out of the rain, now it has followed me here. Still camping was not bad considering. Haven't seen anyone on this board in quite a while, where are you all, or am I by myself again?

Well the tires are all changed, the fenders are done, and only 2 more days of work. Hurray!!!! We will be headed for Stone Mountain Park, GA for 5 days of enjoyment with their 4th of July celebration. We'll be in spot #310 so if any of you want some coffee, stop by and say hi. Where are you going this 4th of July? Let us know. When we return home on the 7th, we have to get a good nights sleep and then head out on the 8th and get our granddaughters in North Carolina and then head back on the 9th. Oh it gets better On the 10th, we head for Indian Springs Campground for 10 days with our daughters church group. Whew, maybe by the end of the month, we'll actually be back at the home base for a few minutes. I'll see if I can get some pics of the fenders before I go. Really need to replace that signature with a better pic anyways. See you all down the road. (or in the campground)

Well today I was checking over the truck and found a leaking rear axle seal. Really not wanting to fix it before our July trips, but I will have to. Shouldn't be much of an issue doing this. Parts should be cheap also. Still have one tire to replace on the 5th wheel and then all tires will be new. Yea!! Now maybe there will not be any blowouts. All the tires are US made so no more China bomb tires there. Hopefully, I will have enought time to make the new fenders for each side. They don't make the fenders anymore and I don't want to have to pay an arm and a leg for custom made. I'll be using sheetmetal for this and hopefully will come out looking halfway decent. I'll bend a ridge near the bottom of the long section so it will have some horizontal strength. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the fender making process. Once I get going, I have a tendency to forget the picture taking process. Looking forward to the 4th of July trip to Stone Mountain. Only 20 days to go.

Well, we survived the beautiful weather, drowning of some worms and just a great time overall. High Falls did have some water in the river side so the grandson and I tried to get some fish. Seems this place has skunked him and I again. Oh well, it still was worth the trip. Sure hated to go back home. Even the DW said she now understood why people stay in one place for a while. It really does get to you. No work, just relaxing times. Next trip, Stone Mountain GA for the 4th of July celebration. Can't wait.

Last day at work before taking off for camping. Now counting the hours. I am thrilled that we will be able to spend most of the summer camping. I'll be traveling to work during the month of July, but hey, I don't have to mow grass, clean the yard, etc. Life could not be any better. I will have a long commute, about an hour or so, but then camping does come with some compromises. 8, 7, 6, still counting