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Sounds like your headed to Tucson. I'll be there in a few days for the winter. Pima Air Museum is awesome and if you haven't been there before, I'd also suggest the Sonoran Desert Museum https://www.desertmuseum.org/ (stay for the raptor show!), Gates Pass is beautiful as you drive in to the museum. The Tucson Botanical gardens are very nice and a drive up Mt Lemmon is a must if you haven't been! There's a very large open mine in Kearny which is about a 90 minute drive from Tucson. Safe travels.

Got to Wickenburg last winter and enjoyed some of the team roping competitions while staying at the nearby Escapee park. May swing that way for a bit if I end up going to Quartzsite again this year. Enjoy!

Where are you going in AZ for winter? I'm headed to Catalina area just north of Tucson for Dec-Mar. Love it there and love watching the weather app for all my friends and relatives slugging it out back in Maine.

Just passed the 1 year mark FT in rig since 7/12/16. Left Maine last September and slowly ambled down the east coast to FL where we spent a few days doing some business, then headed west to TX for most of November. Made it to Tucson area in early December and stayed there with some Maine friends for much of the winter, with some repairs and side excursions to Tucson, Quartzsite, Cottonwood, Jerome, Sedona, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, and Congress AZ at the Escapee park for a week. Got back to Maine May 1st which was cold and wet for most of the month, but having a beautiful summer here in a seasonal spot. Will head out late Oct with destination AZ again where a seasonal planned from Dec-March. Other than a Norcold failure which was 6 weeks fixing, things with the coach have been good. Spent 130 nights in Thousand trails system on our membership so that has worked well and will be a cost savings going forward. Renewed the Passport America as well but not KOA (just didn't see the value in KOA membership - minimal discounts on overpriced fees IMHO). Found our Good Sam Gold extended service/warranty plan very worthwhile and having glass coverage on insurance also paid off as we needed a new windshield at $3550.

Hi Angie, Congrats on getting your house under contract! Now the real fun begins cleaning it out! We closed on ours last July so it's all too fresh in our minds! We had only moved into our rig full time about 2 weeks when we went to the Escapee boot camp and rally in Essex Jct, VT. Perfect timing and it was right in our backyard so to speak. FYI, we were in Florida last week staying at 3 Flags (TT) in Wildwood and tending some business in Zephyr Hills so we drove through Bushnell and stopped at Sumter Oaks to check it out for the future, In talking with 2 very friendly guys in the office, I would say that if you haven't already called them and seen about reservations you should do so right away. They spoke of it being full and sometimes hard to get reservations in the peak winter months. It's a relatively small park but looked very nice with mature trees and nice shade and folks seemed very friendly. We are Thousand Trails members as well as SKP's and we just got to Lake Conroe TT in Willis TX yesterday. Wow! What a nice facility. We'll be in TX through early December then heading to Tucson area for Dec and earl Jan. We'll stop at Las Cruces along the way to visit White Sands and in mid-January will join the Escapee Boomers at Quartzsite to see what that's all about. Good luck with your plans and keep us informed on your progress!

Hi Rick and Mary, Congrats on the 1 year mark. It was great meeting you both at the Escapees Northeast chapter rally. We're coming up on the 3 month mark. :-) We're in NY near Rochester and turning south Monday for PA, NC, then generally towards the FL pan handle and TX before heading to AZ in December. Hoping we'll run into you at Quartsite or Yuma this winter. Safe travels and stay in touch!

Woops. Sorry for the dupe. Internet was flaky here...

We'll probably be down in TX late fall to visit friends (maybe check Bentsen Palms in Mission TX) then on to NM & AZ into early 2017 before heading back towards FL in Mid-March or so. We haven't been either so not sure where we'll stay but may hit some of the Escapee parks along with Thousand Trails as we are members of both.

Hi Steve, Great to hear from you. Hopefully, our paths will cross at some point. We'd love to do the balloon festival but can't quite make the timing work this year, but definitely putting it in the plan for next year! We're also planning a trip into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to board the ferry to Newfoundland and spend some time over there (I've been to Newfoundland and Labrador on the bike a couple times, but Jane has never seen them). Good luck with the house sale. It really maxxed us out cleaning things out and coming down to the wire on the closing. My buyer used a "Midnight mortgage company" (1st time home owner thought he'd save a few bucks) which gave him fits and we didn't have a firm closing date/time until 3 hours prior to closing! But it all worked out in the end. Phew... It does feel pretty liberating to have zero debt, coach title in hand, and no lawn to mow, and no need for a snow blower to clear a driveway! We hope to maximize use of our TT/RPI membership to keep RV site costs down where possible. So tell me what the Hoots rally is and how do I find info on it? We're heading out of Maine sometime after labor day and going out through the Adirondacks and Rochester NY and thinking of stopping by Newmar on the way out before heading south/west. Take care and keep in touch!

Well, we finally made it as of about 6:30 last night, we closed on our house here in Southern Maine. We had been living in the coach for a few days, but somehow the house being gone makes full-timing seem much more real! Now it's just some banking to attend to in the next few days and off to the Escapees boot camp and VT rally next week. We'll spend August back in Maine near our daughter at Pumpkin Patch RV where we'll also attend the Northeast Escapee summer Lobsterfest rally while there. Then a slow migration south and west. So I guess we've graduated! Hope to meet some of you at the VT SKP rally and boot camp!

Great to see everyone's updates! Here's ours: House is under contract (took 8 days). Just had our 2nd yard sale today and started donating items not sold. Waiting on appraisal and inspection by buyers bank, but expect to close by July 15... We'll be full time in the coach likely just after July 4th, just before we head to the Escapee rally in Boot camp. Handy that it happens to be in our back yard this year. Coach has been excellent and we're both sleeping better in it than the home bed. Got our Thousand Trails Elite connections membership which will help us keep camping costs down. Decided to register in Maine which was painful but ended up being cheaper than FL for this year, but we'll change domicile next spring when we get to FL. We've got a blog setup to chronicle our travels... will add URL to signature soon once it's spruced up a bit. We plan to stay in Maine until mid-late August (except for Escapees rally in July) then head towards the Adirondacks to visit some relatives then on to NC to see my nephew's 1st child (my brother's 1st grandchild). Everyone wants to know what "our plan" is and seem perplexed when we tell them "our plan is not having a plan". We ended up trading wife's leased Subaru for a Jeep Grand Cherokee (she loved it 5 minutes into the test ride and "happy wife=happy life"). So we're flat towing, although, now that we've done it, a dolly is looking awful good! We thought our furry best friend Emma would start our new life with us, but sadly, she didn't make it, although she made it to 14 years old. I do plan to write a paper and post on the blog about buying a coach in Canada and importing into the USA. We saved 6 figures ($) over NADA pricing on our coach buying on a US dollar worth $1.41 at our time of purchase. And the dealer in New Brunswick Canada couldn't have been nicer to deal with. From Maine he was closer than almost any other decent sized dealer (about 380 miles). So that's the update from here. Any other 2016 classmates attending the Escapade and/or Bootcamp in VT?

UPDATE: House went under contract 5/20 after 8 days on market and at our asking price. Expect we'll be closed and full time in RV just prior to heading to Escapees rally & bootcamp. Gaining momentum now! Been spending as much time as possible in our new Mountain Aire and getting used to it. Haven't got where we want to put everything yet, but it's coming together.

Congrats to both of you! Feels good to see the plan coming together eh? I retired 12/24/15 and working diligently getting the house ready to list, selling things on craigslist etc.. Counting down at 80 days today before we go get the coach out of storage and bring it home to prep it for full time life. We'll probably list the house in early May. Daughter has thrown a curve in that we'll be hanging around a little longer for a possible wedding in late September, but I suspect the house will be sold then and we'll be living in the rig. But we'll definitely be headed to warmer climates by October. But we're signed up for for the Escapee rally in VT as well as boot camp in July. Looking forward to that. Good luck with your plans! Counting the days till we can go get our rig! (Tucked in for winter in the northeast)

Good luck with the plan, Mike! And good deal on the work camping job! Our rig is in storage and we'll pick it up in 89 days (but who's counting?) and start prepping it for full time living.

Maine or Georgia? :-) I'm an hour south of Augusta (Maine) where it's 14F right now with a real feel of 3F. We'll be in much warmer climate a year from now! Last Maine winter for a few years anyway. 99 days until we get our "new" coach out of storage and start prepping it for full time life.

Welcome Maggie, I just retired on Christmas eve and and hot and heavy into the downsizing mode to prep our house for sale in a few months. Listing more stuff on Craigslist daily. We're signed up for the Escapee rally and boot camp in VT in July and expect we'll be living full time in the RV by the time of the rally or a few weeks before. Tell us about your rig! Got any pics?

Hi Gang, A little update, I'm retiring 12/24 and have the rest of this week off so 4 more work days. While that's certainly a step in the right direction, we took another big step last weekend and bought ourselves a rig to full time in. We found a pristine 2008 Newmar Mountain Aire with 53K miles on it. Bought it in Canada where our dollar is currently at $1.37 so we got it well below NADA retail. It's got a Cummins 450hp with 1450 ft/lbs torque and a CCC of 9766 lbs. The dealer will keep it in heated storage for us until we take delivery in late April (can't do much with it in Maine next few months anyway. It'll be a long wait to pull it out, but means we won't have to make trips to FL, TX or AZ this winter to look at rigs. The wife will be working into spring, but I'll be working on home sale prep, selling off stuff, etc. We had kind of been focused on a Tiffin bus, but this beauty fell into our laps and truly was a deal we couldn't pass up. Here's a few photos:

Congrats! What's the plan after closing?

Roger, Congrats & welcome! I'm 6 work days from retirement and we just pulled the trigger today on a full time rig for when we sell the house in the spring and hit the road. How about some pictures? We'd been looking at Tiffin busses and Phaetons, but ultimately a deal too good to pass upon a Newmar Mountain Aire fell in our lap. Maybe we'll catch you on the road sometime! Good luck with your plan.

Steve & Liz, Congrats!! It's gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the pictures. I've got 22 work days left. Can't wait to start rig hunting in earnest after the holidays. Enjoy and hope to see it in person sometime soon!

Welcome to the class of 2016 Barbara & Dan! We probably should have tried to squeeze in a yard sale or too this fall, but will go into craiglist/ebay & yardsale mode early 2016 after I retire around Christmas. We'll be putting our house on the market around mid-May but may already have 1-2 interested buyers. Just looking through the house at everything seems over whelming some days, but we'll be picking away at it. Do you plan to store anything or really getting rid of all but what you need on the road? We'll probably store some stuff... maybe just buy a used enclosed metal trailer and store it at a friends property... Haven't quite decided. Wife wants to keep a few things like BR set and a few other pieces of furniture. If/when grandkids arrive on the scene, we'll probably buy a small place nearby, but no idea when that will be. Good luck in your process and check in here when you can. Always good to hear how others are dealing with all the issues that arise.

Steve, Guessing you must have the new coach now? Anxious to see some more pics if you do and hear first impressions!

And of course, now that we've sent in our money, our daughter informs us that's the weekend she's thinking of getting married next year! Not going for my refund just yet. she may change her mind 2-3 times between now and June 20! She had been talking September which would have been great. Time will tell...

We hear you on the struggle of getting rid of stuff! I'm retiring Christmas eve and the wife will work a few more months most likely, but I'll be doing the last little punch list items to prep house for market in May. But also full time craigs listing and maybe some ebay sales and planning some big spring yard sales. Our town does a fall and spring bulky trash pickup, so we've carted a bunch of stuff roadside today. Most won't even be there when the town comes by as there's a steady stream of trash mongers that patrol the town during bulky waste week. But looking around and knowing we don't want to store much, it does seem daunting. I think instead of renting a storage unit, we'll purchase a used 20' enclosed metal trailer and put stuff in there and park it at a friend's house. Wife probably won't want to FT after grand children appear... so not sure how long we'll stay FT on the road. At any rate... Good luck with your plans and thanks for the update.