CLASS OF 2016

[khb]

Out here in Africa, where we have lived the past 39 years, we have seen our daughter take the step of saying she'll take on most of our stuff 'n' junk when she and her family come in 2016. The outcome, we have much less to get rid of! We have a buyer for our pickup truck lined up who will take it over when we get on the plane on July 29.

In the meantime, we have to finish some literacy materials in 2 African languages we have been studying.

My DW has done her research on the 'net and decided upon a B+ coach of a certain make. Until it turns up on the market, we'll rent an apartment and furnish it minimally. At this point, we can only dream about what this new adventure will look like.

I told her today about "2-2-2": Travel no more than 200 miles before stopping. Stop before 2 PM. Stay 2 nights.

[SteveandLiz]

A big Hello to everyone planning to full time in 2016. This is Steve of Steve and Liz. I spent 35 years in law enforcement before retiring in 2009. Liz and I ended up in Brunswick, GA on the coast and we really like it here. We started Rving in October of last year when we purchased a 27' TT that we have put about 5000 miles on traveling in the Southeast and up into the Midwest. We are really having trouble staying out of it and have another trip planned in April that will take us through 10 states and over 2000 miles. In January of this year, for a multitude of reasons, we decided to work towards traveling full time starting in 2016. So we are just getting started, and we look forward to sharing our adventure and learning from all of you who have gone before us.

 

I jsut started a blog to chronicle our trials and tribulations, mainly for family and friends, but would welcome you all visiting it. You can learn more than you want to about us. This is my first attempt at a blog and am just learning the software so all I ask is for you to keep that in mind when viewing it. I also do amateur photography and I will attach a link to that too. You can just check out the slide show for a sample.

http://fulltimingit.com

 

http://sbahrnsphoto.com

 

I know I am going to enjoy beeing an Escapeee. We have already camped at Sumter Oaks in Florida so we are getting excited.

 

Thanks

[ronny]

Hello all. Jan 1 2016 will be retirement day for me better half already there. We have a 2013 thor challenger mh and go every chance we get. Have not decided yet if we are going to sell the house or not. Not in any hurry either way.. Our plans are to take our time, stay for a month or more in each location, drive slow and see the country. We live in a little town in Texas (Marble Falls) wich will probably be home base.. Looking forward to meeting friendly people and seeing interesting places

[mike54]

10 months 30 days until I retire. We are cleaning out the house this summer.

I retire the end of February we'll be heading south maybe Florida or Alabama for a couple months.

We'll be full time and have no real plans except to be in Arizona for 5 months during the winter and back in Illinois to visit family and friends during the summer. There will trips around the lower 48 and I want one trip to Alaska.

[chocofolks]

12 Months and the retirement is here. Selling the house, most of our stuff inside the house is already gone... Tick Tock Tick Tock, we can't get away from Chicago, and out of Illinois fast enough.

 

Tom

[Mainuh]

We hope to be in the 2016 class. I plan to retire by 2/1/16 and hopefully a few months behind will be my better half. I'll be organizing yard sales, ebay and craigslist sales, painting, cleaning and fixing and preparing the house for the market in later spring with the hopes of getting on the road before the snow flies. Can't wait. This class seems pretty dead for only a year or less away!

Edited April 16, 2015 by Mainuh

[mandolin57]

This class seems pretty dead for only a year or less away!

 

I agree Don.....I've been on another forum, and seems to have a lot more excitement about leaving in 2016. We're also prepping house for listing March 2016 already, and honestly it's hard to believe we're almost half way through 2015. It will come before we're ready! I'm excited about pulling out, and we're planning yard sale etc like you. Good luck with yours!

[Mainuh]

 

I agree Don.....I've been on another forum, and seems to have a lot more excitement about leaving in 2016. We're also prepping house for listing March 2016 already, and honestly it's hard to believe we're almost half way through 2015. It will come before we're ready! I'm excited about pulling out, and we're planning yard sale etc like you. Good luck with yours!

 

Thanks... I've got a countdown of days on the calendar at work. They are ticking down for sure. Been working hard on the "honey do" list and already have so many things knocked off, the wife said next march/April time frame I'd probably need to think about a road trip to find our new home". It was great to hear that from her as it seems like she's really (finally) getting on board with the plan. Not sure I'll list the house as early as March 2016, but by May for sure. Closing after 7/1 when the wife retires and hopefully we can be in the MH by then. She still wants to put some stuff in storage and not really ready to hear the logic of why that's not a good idea so may be some concessions there. I've got to get on the stick and do some more research on the health insurance stuff. Have looked some during last fall's open enroll on ACA, but we'll be 57/58 when we hit the road so paying our own freight on insurance and spending money for a few years.

Good luck with your plans and keep us updated!

[Ramblin Reck]

Hi folks ! George and Ann Marie here. We too plan to start full timing in January of 2016. We are in the last stages of getting rid of all our stuff, so we can get the house on the market. Lots of work getting to this point, but we know it will all be worth it. !

 

 

[mandolin57]

Hi George and Ann Marie.......congrats on soon going FT 2016! Hard to believe in another month we're half way through this year, and I'm sure it will go very quickly for you. We're already organizing a huge yard sale for September to really downsize on the things we know we aren't taking or packing up. We have a family painting party organized for Memorial Day with about 15 people and want to get the entire inside painted, and a few other minor things and we'll be ready to list by March. It's actually starting to get scary now. Exciting but scary! Take care and wish you the best in your plans and let us know how you're progressing too!

[Kaybee]

Well, after a year of dreaming and only having a vague "sort of" plan, hubby and I sat down last night and committed to a date -- Sept. 30, 2016. I'm going to quit showing up at work sometime between January and the end of February and his official retirement date will be Sept. 30, although he has enough accrued vacation and sick time so that he can quit showing up around July 1. We hope to have the house ready to sell by April.

 

Neither of us has ever RV'd before and we do not even own a truck, but we have decided to jump in with both feet and buy a fifth wheel and a truck and hit the road with our Golden Retriever. We think we know what truck and trailer we want but need to do a little shopping to confirm that.

 

At this point I am overwhelmed with all that has to be accomplished in the next 12 months and have no idea how I'm going to get rid of our "stuff." We are thinking we will store the bedroom and dining room furniture for a little while, just in case we don't like fulltiming and want to get back into a house/condo. This is exciting but a little scary, sort of like a roller coaster ride!

[mandolin57]

Hi and Welcome Kaybee! We also have a golden retriever that will head out with us next year. You're in the same time frame as us too because] we're listing on March 17th. Thought maybe the luck of the Irish will help. Good luck in picking your unit and truck too. That was really fun when we were deciding. We got ours in October and chose the Ford 450 dually and a Grand Design Solitude for our camper. Can not wait! Take care and keep pushing the "stuff" out!

[Mainuh]

Congrats Kaybee and Ramblin Reck. Feels good to have a date to look forward to, eh? We're getting the task list of things to do before selling the house thinned out and slowly but surely things are coming together. We hope to be on the road to warmer places before the snow flies. Expect the house will sell quickly given that one like it just sold in 1 day in this fairly sought after neighborhood. I guess my bigger concern is having a rig here and ready to move into when the house sells out from under us and what we'll do with the "must keep" stuff. We expect to FT for 3-5 years (but who really knows) and settle into a small retirement house after that... maybe keeping the rig or possibly downsizing to a smaller rig at that point. The bigger concerns for us is good health care coverage and we're paying full freight on that for a few years since we'll be retiring at 57/58. I plan to retire 1/15/16 and the wife will work until maybe the end of June, but my full time job starting Mid January 2016 will be finalizing getting the house ready for the market by late May 2016 and finding a rig somewhere and getting it home to prep for fall departure. Good luck and keep us posted how it's going!

Edited May 17, 2015 by Mainuh

[Kaybee]

Thank you Marianne and Mainuh. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures.

[xdragr]

Hello All! My husband and I just want to introduce ourselves! We're Sherri and Robbie from Southwestern VA. Currently, I'm an RN and he's a mail carrier. We have five children, three of whom still live at home, ages 3, 5, & 7. It is our dream to live full time on the road! We've been planning this off and on for the past two years and almost took the plunge last year about this time. We backed out though after I couldn't make the decision to sell our home . Now, we're ready to take the plunge into preparing for our journey. We've done a ton of work on our home and we're working out the details on what we need to do to sell. After that, we're working on getting rid of most/all of our debt before we head out. We currently have a 2014 Keystone Passport 3320BH which we love, but we really want a 5th wheel before we head out. Our kiddos are excited about heading out, but we haven't really shared much with the extended family. We're still working out the details on what we're going to do for income, etcetera. With kiddos, we know we have to have some sort of guarantees before we uproot them. I'm currently searching for an online nursing teacher position. The hubby isn't really sure what he's going to do, but honestly, he's very talented with his hands and building/fixing things so, I think he'll be just fine.

Anyway, sorry for my long winded hello! Its nice to meet all of you and I'm really looking forward to sharing our experiences!

 

~Sherri

[Mainuh]

Hello All! My husband and I just want to introduce ourselves! We're Sherri and Robbie from Southwestern VA. Currently, I'm an RN and he's a mail carrier. We have five children, three of whom still live at home, ages 3, 5, & 7. It is our dream to live full time on the road! We've been planning this off and on for the past two years and almost took the plunge last year about this time. We backed out though after I couldn't make the decision to sell our home . Now, we're ready to take the plunge into preparing for our journey. We've done a ton of work on our home and we're working out the details on what we need to do to sell. After that, we're working on getting rid of most/all of our debt before we head out. We currently have a 2014 Keystone Passport 3320BH which we love, but we really want a 5th wheel before we head out. Our kiddos are excited about heading out, but we haven't really shared much with the extended family. We're still working out the details on what we're going to do for income, etcetera. With kiddos, we know we have to have some sort of guarantees before we uproot them. I'm currently searching for an online nursing teacher position. The hubby isn't really sure what he's going to do, but honestly, he's very talented with his hands and building/fixing things so, I think he'll be just fine.

Anyway, sorry for my long winded hello! Its nice to meet all of you and I'm really looking forward to sharing our experiences!

 

~Sherri

 

Welcome Sherri! It's been a little quiet here in the class of 2016 of late. But sounds like you're in for some adventure. What a great experience that would be for your kids. We hope to be on the road in late fall 2016, theoretically after our only child gets married. They'll take off on their honeymoon, and we'll take off full timing it!

 

Keep in touch in here and let us know how you're making out. We've been looking at rigs and come close on a couple, but got tons of time so we're being pretty picky right now. If we could score a great deal this year, we'd have more time to try some shorter trips and get it setup the way we want while I still have my workshop and garage before the house sells next spring. We'll see.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Mainuh

[xdragr]

 

Welcome Sherri! It's been a little quiet here in the class of 2016 of late. But sounds like you're in for some adventure. What a great experience that would be for your kids. We hope to be on the road in late fall 2016, theoretically after our only child gets married. They'll take off on their honeymoon, and we'll take off full timing it!

 

Keep in touch in here and let us know how you're making out. We've been looking at rigs and come close on a couple, but got tons of time so we're being pretty picky right now. If we could score a great deal this year, we'd have more time to try some shorter trips and get it setup the way we want while I still have my workshop and garage before the house sells next spring. We'll see.

 

Thanks Don! Well, things are moving quicker than we anticipated! lol. We put our house on the net for sale today and we've already had one couple tell us they want it and are going tomorrow to get their bank loan. We shall see! If it sells, they want us out of here in 30 days! We already have a 2014 Keystone Passport 3320bh travel trailer but we really want a Heartland Gateway 3650bh. However, I have to stay within a few hour radius because I'm in the middle of a legal situation in which I am the plaintiff soooo..... until that is settled, we won't be sure what we're going to do RV wise. Anyway, we're completely ok with putting some things in storage and then selling/giving away the rest in a short time :-) It should prove to be an interesting wild ride! Thanks again for the welcome! We may end up being in the Class of late 2015!

Edited June 1, 2015 by Robbie & Sherri

[Mainuh]

A big Hello to everyone planning to full time in 2016. This is Steve of Steve and Liz. I spent 35 years in law enforcement before retiring in 2009. Liz and I ended up in Brunswick, GA on the coast and we really like it here. We started Rving in October of last year when we purchased a 27' TT that we have put about 5000 miles on traveling in the Southeast and up into the Midwest. We are really having trouble staying out of it and have another trip planned in April that will take us through 10 states and over 2000 miles. In January of this year, for a multitude of reasons, we decided to work towards traveling full time starting in 2016. So we are just getting started, and we look forward to sharing our adventure and learning from all of you who have gone before us.

 

I jsut started a blog to chronicle our trials and tribulations, mainly for family and friends, but would welcome you all visiting it. You can learn more than you want to about us. This is my first attempt at a blog and am just learning the software so all I ask is for you to keep that in mind when viewing it. I also do amateur photography and I will attach a link to that too. You can just check out the slide show for a sample.

http://fulltimingit.com

 

http://sbahrnsphoto.com

 

I know I am going to enjoy beeing an Escapeee. We have already camped at Sumter Oaks in Florida so we are getting excited.

 

Thanks

 

 

Steve,

 

How are the plans progressing? Also former LEO and retiring early 2016 and hope to be on road FT by fall 2016. Also into photography and have a website for that! This 2016 group needs a shot in the arm. Pretty dead for for only months away. Let us know how your plans are progressing.

[Mainuh]

 

Thanks Don! Well, things are moving quicker than we anticipated! lol. We put our house on the net for sale today and we've already had one couple tell us they want it and are going tomorrow to get their bank loan. We shall see! If it sells, they want us out of here in 30 days! We already have a 2014 Keystone Passport 3320bh travel trailer but we really want a Heartland Gateway 3650bh. However, I have to stay within a few hour radius because I'm in the middle of a legal situation in which I am the plaintiff soooo..... until that is settled, we won't be sure what we're going to do RV wise. Anyway, we're completely ok with putting some things in storage and then selling/giving away the rest in a short time :-) It should prove to be an interesting wild ride! Thanks again for the welcome! We may end up being in the Class of late 2015!

 

 

 

Sherri, Guessing you and Robbie may be "homeless" by now? How's it going? Class or 2015 or 2016? :-)

My brother lives only a couple miles away, just put his house on the market and sold it for asking price in 1 day and moving from ME to NC. Amazing how fast it all happened for them (no RV, just retire/relocate). Another house ( a cape like ours) just went on the market and sold at full asking price, also in a day. Hope the market is that hot when we sell next spring.

Hope your legal situation is resolved.

[SteveandLiz]

 

 

Steve,

 

How are the plans progressing? Also former LEO and retiring early 2016 and hope to be on road FT by fall 2016. Also into photography and have a website for that! This 2016 group needs a shot in the arm. Pretty dead for for only months away. Let us know how your plans are progressing.

Don,

 

Sorry I haven't been active here much lately. Always great to meet another LEO and a photographer to boot. Please give me your photo website so I can check it out. Photography has taken a little bit of a back seat lately. Hopefully it will pick up as we get along in the process here.

 

We have been slowly working at getting stuff done, but there is no sense of real urgency yet (Our plan is to put the house on the market in the spring of 2016). I have sold my boats and our 2014 VW convertible goes today. I've also sold a few bigger items from the garage but, unfortunately, I have accumulated a lot of stuff - all of which was important at the time. The kids still have to come by with their "I want" list and then we will have to decide how we want to handle what's left. I'm for just turning it over to an auctioneer and letting it go and what doesn't go they can haul it off. My problem is that once I'm ready to move on I have little patience in dealing with all the details of selling the stuff. We will see what the realtor says we should keep for showing the house. I guess furnished is better than not. I certainly hope our house goes as quick as the ones by you. It has been a slow market here in Southeast Georgia. We were spoiled as we used to live in the DC area and all our homes there sold in a few days.

 

We have been mixing travel in our TT along with getting the house ready. I won't go into that as I try to post our trips on our blog, but traveling helps remind us of what we are working towards. We ordered our new coach, a 2016 Newmar 4041 DP all electric. Since we special ordered it, we were able to spec it out like we wanted. Newmar allows a lot of individualization in the order. We are adding a few things that aren't even on their option list. We are headed to Nappanee, IN at the end of the month to watch them build it and we will be taking delivery at the factory in early October. We have a five day orientation and shake down run with one of Newmar's techs assigned to educate us and address any problems that might show up. We are obviously excited about that.

 

Once we get the new coach, I will really have to discipline myself as i'm sure I will want to travel even more. So I guess we will focus on getting the house in good condition to sell and slowly work on the mundane tasks of ridding ourselves of 40 years of accumulated things until October.

 

And so it goes....

 

fulltimingit.com

Edited July 2, 2015 by SteveandLiz

[Mainuh]

Don,

 

Sorry I haven't been active here much lately. Always great to meet another LEO and a photographer to boot. Please give me your photo website so I can check it out. Photography has taken a little bit of a back seat lately. Hopefully it will pick up as we get along in the process here.

 

We have been slowly working at getting stuff done, but there is no sense of real urgency yet (Our plan is to put the house on the market in the spring of 2016). I have sold my boats and our 2014 VW convertible goes today. I've also sold a few bigger items from the garage but, unfortunately, I have accumulated a lot of stuff - all of which was important at the time. The kids still have to come by with their "I want" list and then we will have to decide how we want to handle what's left. I'm for just turning it over to an auctioneer and letting it go and what doesn't go they can haul it off. My problem is that once I'm ready to move on I have little patience in dealing with all the details of selling the stuff. We will see what the realtor says we should keep for showing the house. I guess furnished is better than not. I certainly hope our house goes as quick as the ones by you. It has been a slow market here in Southeast Georgia. We were spoiled as we used to live in the DC area and all our homes there sold in a few days.

 

We have been mixing travel in our TT along with getting the house ready. I won't go into that as I try to post our trips on our blog, but traveling helps remind us of what we are working towards. We ordered our new coach, a 2016 Newmar 4041 DP all electric. Since we special ordered it, we were able to spec it out like we wanted. Newmar allows a lot of individualization in the order. We are adding a few things that aren't even on their option list. We are headed to Nappanee, IN at the end of the month to watch them build it and we will be taking delivery at the factory in early October. We have a five day orientation and shake down run with one of Newmar's techs assigned to educate us and address any problems that might show up. We are obviously excited about that.

 

Once we get the new coach, I will really have to discipline myself as i'm sure I will want to travel even more. So I guess we will focus on getting the house in good condition to sell and slowly work on the mundane tasks of ridding ourselves of 40 years of accumulated things until October.

 

And so it goes....

 

fulltimingit.com

 

Steve,

 

WOW! That's exciting news! That looks like a fantastic floorplan. I would love to do the new coach experience, but we're retiring at 57/58 and paying ourselves completely the first 4+ years, so the wife is very nervous about dipping too far into the till before SS kicks in at all. We're also looking to sell our house in spring of 16... pretty funny how similar our plans are. Lots of baby boomers getting into the RV market. Was just listening to a podcast the other day and the industry as a whole is having it's best year ever I believe. We've had many of the same discussions here about what to sell and when to sell it and the house selling better looking lived in. We just went out to dinner with my brother and his wife and they close on selling their house in 6 days. Hope we can sell ours as fast as they did (1 day).

 

My photo site is here. I mostly do landscape and nature. Did a lot of sports when daughter was 3 season athlete in HS then on D1 track in college, but that has faded away now. I have a couple Nikon DSLRs and a bunch of glass.

 

So when we sell the house we won't spend it all on a coach, but hope to find a nice 09-10 Tiffin Bus or Newmar Dutchstar. We will hit the road debt free. Was really close on an 07 bus, but the cost of storing it for winter and buying it for only a few weeks use this year was going to cost thousands in registration, storage fees, and others costs. I'm retiring by Jan 2016, so, I'll look much harder in late Feb to March 2016 on the east coast. Hope to purchase by Mar/Apr and have it a month or two before the house sells. We'll hope to hit the road by October 2016 headed for warmer climate. Unfortunately, neither car can be towed 4 down, so I'm looking at a Tandem Tow trailer dolly or fully enclosed car hauler (either of which could take my bike too). Wife's car is a lease to boot through fall 2017 (what were we thinking?), but we'll likely leave that at her brother's to have something here in case the need to fly home arises, we'll have wheels back here. My car can go on a dolly.

 

I keep looking in the basement and garage and wonder where the hell all this stuff came from! We had a house fire in 2002 and started "new" after that. Seems like we have more in the past 13 years than the 20 prior! Anyway... checked your website. Really like that floorplan All electric seems the way to go now. I will looking into 5-700 watts solar on the roof of ours. I had been looking at surge protectors, but also saw this RVGeeks video today and will likely investigate the Hughes Autoformer as well. Pricey, but fry an AC or fridge and you just bought one and then some! Looks like a great product and many parks aren't giving you 120vac!

 

Anyway, congrats on the new rig order... very very exciting! Will you go to Napanee when it's under construction?

 

BTW, Looked at some of your photo gallery. Awesome!!! Looks like you're doing some HDR ? Love your barn shots. Some really great stuff there Steve!

Edited July 3, 2015 by Mainuh

[SteveandLiz]

Don,

 

Great to hear your plans and love the owl shot on your site. Its fantastic. I do like hdr and try to do them in a way that they don't look over processed. I've kind of put photography on hold as we have been focusing on stuff around here. Once things slow down I hope to get back in to it.

 

We are already retired and I have the Newmar ordered so we can really go at any time once we take delivery in October. I figure we will wait till late spring to put the house on the market as I think it will sell quicker. Until then we are traveling occasionally in the TT. When we go to Newmar in Nappanee, IN at the end of the month to watch them build our coach we plan to meet a couple other Newmar owners who we met on another forum. Once we get the new coach it will be hard to stay out of it, but we need to split our time with travelling and getting rid of stuff here. We are keeping our Ford Edge to tow four down. I bought a new VW Beetle convertible TDI last year before we decided to buy a class a so I just sold it. Certainly didn't need that payment.

 

I think you will be happy with a Tiffen or Newmar Ductch Star. Both are great companies that stand behind their product. We liked both the Phaeton and the Allegro Bus in the Tiffen line. I wouldn't hesitate to buy either one used. Initially we wanted to buy a used Dutch Star or Mountain Aire, but ended up making the decision to buy new but had to go with the lesser model. I'm sure we will be happy.

 

I have a Progressive Industries EMS for the TT and won't be without it. Newmar is hard wiring one in the new coach. You are right about the voltage. We have encountered it only one time while camping in Florida. The EMS we have kept cutting off the power to the trailer because of the voltage drop at the pedastel, but it wasn't designed to boost it so we had to wait till it came back to an acceptable level before having power. It would have been nice to have the Hughes Autoformer. We may end up adding one of them too, if I have any money left. Lol.

 

Check our blog and I will post pics of the build.

 

Keep in touch and safe travels!

 

http://fulltimingit.com

Edited July 9, 2015 by SteveandLiz

[whatsnext]

Hello to all!

My wife and I are going to be fulltimers on February 1, 2016.

We have purchased the rig and are waiting on a few items to be completed before they are all mated together. Herrin is building our bed on the back of our Volvo so we can haul our Smart around.

The DRV 44Houston is being completed at the dealer with a few punch list items to repair.

The house sold in 1 day last April for full list price so we are now in an apartment trying to get all of our photo's scanned into our hard drive! whew!

We are excited and will be in Hutchinson, KS for the HDT rally in October as our first major trip with our set up.

 

Hope to see many of the Class of 2016 on the road.

David

[Mainuh]

Hello to all!

My wife and I are going to be fulltimers on February 1, 2016.

We have purchased the rig and are waiting on a few items to be completed before they are all mated together. Herrin is building our bed on the back of our Volvo so we can haul our Smart around.

The DRV 44Houston is being completed at the dealer with a few punch list items to repair.

The house sold in 1 day last April for full list price so we are now in an apartment trying to get all of our photo's scanned into our hard drive! whew!

We are excited and will be in Hutchinson, KS for the HDT rally in October as our first major trip with our set up.

 

Hope to see many of the Class of 2016 on the road.

David

Hi David,

 

That is an impressive setup in your signature! Hope you can post some photos... Would love to see them! Can't talk my wife into considering the HDT setup. I did exchange a few emails with Greg at RV Haulers. Who is doing the smart conversion on the 780? Hope we can run into you somewhere when we hit the road next fall. Best of luck with the new DRV and keep us updated in here as things come together!

[SteveandLiz]

Getting a Little Closer!

 

Liz and I are getting a little closer to our full time goal, at least on the RV side. The getting rid of the stuff and the house ready to sell part is still going slowly. The kids are coming into town on Labor Day to lay claim to anything they would like before we start the garage sale/Craigs list business. I was wondering if anyone out there has just contracted with an estate sale company to come in and handle most everything? It certainly would take a lot of stress off us and I'm not sure how much more money we might make doing it on our own. We also have to contact a realtor to see what they think is best as far as staging the house. Our target is sometime in the Spring of 2016. We are fortunate and can take our time as we are already retired and we didn't have to liquidate the house to get the RV.

 

So now for the fun part. We started our RV search back in January with the Tampa RV show. After much hand wringing and discussion we decided on a Class A and then ultimately on a Newmar. Newmar is very ameneable to individual customization so once we chose the model and availlable options we wanted then we started to choose colors, countetops, sink styles etc. that weren't normally offered and that fit our taste. I added electrical outlets and we will have cell and wifi booster antenas added to the roof. We chose factory delivery, so in October when we pick this baby up we will have a week of camping at the factory in Nappanee, IN with a tech at our disposal for that week to completely explain all the systems and how to operate and maintain them. Plus we will drive and live in it so that they can correct anything we might find wrong. They will do other minor installations that we might want such as install inline surge protectors.

 

Finally, we jsut retrned from a three week trip in our TT that included a factory stop to watch part of the build process. It takes 28 days from chasis prep to final paint to complete a unit, but the purchasing customer can watch the four days when they are putting the house on top of the chasis. It was really exciting to watch them actually build what we had helped design and to see it all come together. I've attached a link with pics from the build and a few others that were sent to us once they finished painting it. They are doing the pre delivery inspections now and we were scheduled for pickup on Sept. 14th but because of family obligations we can't get there till Oct. 12th. :-(

 

We are going to have trouble staying out of this thing once we get it.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/u6izbugtlk68nga/AAAXOhxbs0FqOEdE0k3ypYXZa

 

Blog http://fulltimingit.com