Class of 2013 is awful quiet

[2much2c]

 

Just joined Escapees yesterday after 6 months of lurking on the website. We're in countdown mode with 1 year and 1 month left till retirement and full timing. It's hard not to wish the year away yet we want to enjoy the parts of our life we'll be leaving behind. Still we can't wait to see this year in our rear view mirrors. Ha! Our house is in minimalist mode and goes on the market in the spring. Can't wait to see other class members on the road.

[Dale P]

In 2011, Susan and I had a decision to make, sell the RV and keep the house, we built ourselves in 2005 and I continue to work until age 72. Or we could keep the RV and sale the house. In April of this year we short-sale the house, and been saving every extra penny. I still work a full time job, and this pass summer we had the opportunity to work camp on the RIM country. I worked 7 days a week, drove 220 miles round trip and the work camping job was by far the happiness and most fun time Susan and I had in a long time. I will be 62 in April 2013, Susan will be 61. As of today, we could go on the road without applying for SS or my pension, however I promise to complete 2 assignments before I retire in April 20 (B-day). I may leave earlier if someone ticks me off. Currently we live in our rig full-time and continue to make improvement. We can't wait till 2013, but everyday it does get harder not to just pack up and drive off.

 

We hope to meet each and everyone of the class of 2013 somewhere on the road.

 

 

Susan and Dale

DaGirl's RV

Alfa SeYa 2003

2008 Jeep Liberty

[laudette]

Hi All. Don't think I have ever posted, but Andre & I are planning on an early 2013 launch into full timing. This is the culmination of a "five year" plan that we are expediting to 4 years because we can't stand to be on the grid another year! We'd leave today if the house was sold. We do have a purchase & sales on the house but contingent upon the buyer selling theirs so hopefully not too much longer! Our target date if all goes well is the end of January 2013. This will be a big year for us as we will start full-timing, celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and also both turn 50! Just settled our youngest into grad school at Carnegie Melon in Pittsburgh for a 5 year PhD program and our other son is in his final years of grad school and living on his own. Time for us to fly the coop. It didn't take long in an empty nest for us to realize all we really wanted to do was toss the nest and hit the road. Almost there. Three yard sales and 60 Craig's list items down - one final yard sale to go... We are practically living in an empty house. Hoped to avoid one more New England winter but it looks like we'll have to suffer through at least half of this one. These last months are KILLING us! And to respond to the original post, Yes, the economy is a killer and my plan to live on interest after the sale of the house is a bust, as rates are so pathetically low. Don't care, though. Going in 2013 by hook or by crook!

[laudette]

Hi Dan & Barb. We, too, have unloaded most of our furniture and belongings on the kids - which was quite good timing as they were both just setting up their first apartments without room mates, etc. Now it's funnly when we go to visit them we are actually visiting all of our own stuff. the only down side for them is that it will force them to re-consider moving to a new apartment every time their lease is up. Now they have too much furniture to fit in their buddy's pick up trucks! Looking forward to a first Thanksgiving that my older son will be preparing at OUR old table, with OUR pans, nice dishes, etc. Funny how it works out.

best of luck on your plans. Perhaps we will see you on the road in 2013.

 

Laura

We joined Escapees in April, but we were not sure which year we could make our goal. Well, looks like 2012 is our year! Once we made our decision there was no stopping us! We have given most of our furniture to our children and all of our treasures now belong to them. Our house was listed a week ago and we have someone interested all ready. Danny is finishing a school gym and library he has built and will finish in about a month. I will work until our home is sold. We have our fifth wheel picked out and we are so excited we can hardly contain ourselves. Thanks to all the wonderful discussions on this forum we have learned so much about our new lifestyle to come. I look forward to meeting my new friends on the road!

[roadhousecharley]

Hi all! Originally hoped to be in the class of '13 but My Bride took a 2 year contract at work. That put us into '14. Now she's getting out of the contract and I'm the one holding us up. I have a "best if used by date" at work of 6/29/12. That'll put us on the road late fall of 2013!

 

We have the RV and a "for now" toad but have a LOT of work to do on the house before it'll sell.

 

Looking forward to hearing about everyone else's progress.

[gfstryder]

We just finished our tag sale, are meeting with real estate agents this week, and are trying to fix up the house for a spring sale.

[roadhousecharley]

Ya know... everybody always said my treasures weren't worth anything. Looks like they were right. Thought it would be a good time to get rid of Christmas stuff. Can't even give it away. Really puts "stuff" in perspective. Looks like I'll be making a LOT of trips to the dump over the next year.

[ssaarraa]

I am right on target for full-timing in April 2013. I will be retiring at the end of March and April will be my transition month.

 

Hope more 2013'ers will be out there.

[leksmk]

Hello, some years ago I thought we might be going FT but that didn't work out. Now the house is on the market and we are planning to purchase a 2008 HR Endeavor 40PDQ.

 

We plan to be on the road FT in 2013.

 

Larry

[pintada]

Best of luck on the sale of your house, and the transition to RVing.

 

I'm nearing completion of work on my house, and expect to have it on the market in January. With luck I'll be on the road by March. It's been several years of planning and preparation. I look forward to retirement and traveling the country. Hope everyone in the Class of 2013 makes their target date. Have a wonderful holiday season.

[roadhousecharley]

Things are working out for us.

 

Totaled the toad 1 1/2 weeks ago. Gave us the excuse to buy the Jeep we were wanting as a FT toad. Then I read on the FL DMV site that unless you own the vehicle for more than 6 months when you tag it in FL you have to pay sales tax again. Hoping to convert to FL residency next summer and avoid 1/2 year of VA personal property tax so the timing was perfect.

 

Took the first trial load of "treasures" to the metal recycler today. $31 in the plus column. WOO HOO!

 

Hope things go as smoothly as possible for everyone in the Class of 2013.

[archer]

Glad to see some activity oh here. We are moving a little slower than we hoped, but should have the for sale sign in the yard in a month or so.

 

I just placed roadhousecharlie on the 2013 MAP.

 

Anyone else who would like to be on the map can send me a pm with their location and info they would like included.

 

Good luck fellow classmates, looking forward to meeting you on the road!

[roadhousecharley]

I just placed roadhousecharlie on the 2013 MAP.

 

 

Thanks Archer.

 

In the original thread there was mention of a "pre-union" but didn't see anything else. Anything more to say about that? Do classes get together at Escapee events? Reading about others going through the same issues at the same time we are has been helpful and I'd enjoy meeting fellow classmates in person.

[archer]

Thanks Archer.

 

In the original thread there was mention of a "pre-union" but didn't see anything else. Anything more to say about that? Do classes get together at Escapee events? Reading about others going through the same issues at the same time we are has been helpful and I'd enjoy meeting fellow classmates in person.

The Pre-union never came together. Many classes do stay in touch and meet on the road, I think they do BOF (birds of a feather) groups to keep in touch.

[amybelles]

Hi, Everyone!

 

I just found out about this site today, and I can't believe my dh and I didn't know about it all these years...well, we've been RVing for about 5 :-) It looks great! (just a bit overwhelming!) about where to start reading/posting. Any advice is welcome!

 

 

I am a teacher and plan on retiring in June after 30 years. Our house has been on the market since Sept. 1st and our hope is to sell it by the spring, so we can start full-timing this summer. My hubby is 9 years older than me but works from home and can continue his job for several more years on the road.

 

 

Looking forward to meeting people here and discussing topics as we make our future plans (and continue toward graduation!)

[vrainsmd]

Roger & I hope to be on the road by April 2013. I left my hospice job in August and have been getting rid of 20+ years of junk and getting the house ready to sell. It goes on the market in Jan. 2013. Roger still has to unload his practice which will hopefully occur in the 1st part of 2013. We bought a 2012 Allegro Open Road in April of this year and are trying to get all of the kinks out of it. We used to think our Bounder was a lemon (We have been vacation RV'er's for 18 years.) but now that I've read all the RV books available at least twice I now know that this is to be expected. So the new RV will go into the shop under warranty to fix the door, the leak, the sinking slide and the non-working passenger side camera.

We're scheduled for boot camp in Feb. and look forward to meeting other full time newbies like us. I have 5 years to go before Medicare and Roger has 6 so we will be doing doctor "work kamping" which is called locum tenens for part of each year. We hope to do it in the Indian Health Service so we can work together. If anyone knows any doctors who are F'timers we would love to make contact with them.

We plan to make our domicile in South Dakota so we can stop paying outlandish taxes in "wasted" California. I really appreciate this forum and all the advice everyone is giving.

 

Vicki & Roger

Allegro Open Road 36 LA

Redlands, CA (for now)

[Jim & Alice]

My wife and I are still on track to go fulltime the first week of January... House is rented, motorhome is getting new tires Wednesday, and the toad is ready to go - that just leaves acquiring medical insurance... we won't be eligible for medicare for 2 - 3 years yet. Got to decide between COBRA, and commercial insurance.

 

See you folks at Boot Camp in February!

Jim

[DAVID B]

I told you I sold my class C a few months ago.

I just purchased a 2012 Airstream Interstate 3500.

We still plan to travel extensively starting in 2013.

 

DAVID B

[TimButterfield]

Our transition has taken another lurch forward. We purchased a 2004 Carriage Cameo 34CK3 just before Thanksgiving. It's currently at PPL in Houston getting some repairs and upgrades done on it. We already have our Texas mailing address, driver's licenses, and truck license. We will pick the 5er up on 12/22 and test it out for a couple of weeks. After completing repairs on the house and putting it on the market, hopefully by spring, we will be living in it full-time, but not travelling full-time, because I still work full-time. With that definition of full-time, we'll be in the 2013 class.

 

Tim

[Jim & Alice]

I got the feeling that 2013 is going to be a good year... my new (to me) Dolphin motorhome sure looks good sittin out in my driveway... Even with snow on it!

 

Gonna look much better next month sittin in Arizona... with sunshine on it!

Jim

[roadhousecharley]

We're still on track for late Summer/early Fall FT. Sounds like things are happening for everyone.

[leksmk]

We have taken another step forward by trading our Arctic Fox 30U and GMC PU on a 2008 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40PDQ. We purchased a 2006 Jeep Liberty for a toad. Now to ride out the winter in sunny Sarasota and get the house sold in 2013.

 

Larry

[roadhousecharley]

Okay Charlie, it's now the 14th and we're still seeing that toad that got 'wadded up' in your profile picture. I have a pair of extensions that slip into the mounting brackets. You might call them the arms that go from the base plates to the towbar. They slip into a std Roadmaster set of base plates and pin in place. No quick connects on the towbar end or pins, but I'm about to throw the arms away if anyone wants them. Usually they come with the base plates, but when the Liberty sold, they got left behind, On the Mini I'm using the twist lock style so nothing shows up front when I take the towbar off. Towbars are a lot of weight to be dragging around on the front of a vehicle, especially a small vehicle. Very hard on the steering components.

Will

 

LOL!

 

Thanks for the offer but I think I have nearly everything I need now. When I bought the RV it came with a Blue Ox tow bar so I've been building from that. After chasing several leads on used base plates I ended up buying a new one. Came in Wednesday and I hope to get it on this weekend. Was going to wait until I was on the road in January but I'll take a picture while I'm setting it up and change my signature block.

 

Thanks for caring. LOL!

 

Try selling the quick connects on hitchtrader.com

[WillDecker]

LOL!

 

Thanks for the offer but I think I have nearly everything I need now. When I bought the RV it came with a Blue Ox tow bar so I've been building from that. After chasing several leads on used base plates I ended up buying a new one. Came in Wednesday and I hope to get it on this weekend. Was going to wait until I was on the road in January but I'll take a picture while I'm setting it up and change my signature block.

 

Thanks for caring. LOL!

 

Try selling the quick connects on hitchtrader.com

 

I didn't realize you were all the way over in the other corner of the world when I offered them. Even if you could have used them it wouldn't have been worth the shipping costs. After reading your last post though, I noticed that I was the one that screwed up. you're day of reckoning is Feb 13, not Dec 13. Sorry about that. I'm going to wait to update my picture until I have a backdrop that makes people envious, if you know what I mean LOL. Take care and good luck in your transition to full time,

Will

[roadhousecharley]

I didn't realize you were all the way over in the other corner of the world when I offered them. Even if you could have used them it wouldn't have been worth the shipping costs. After reading your last post though, I noticed that I was the one that screwed up. you're day of reckoning is Feb 13, not Dec 13. Sorry about that. I'm going to wait to update my picture until I have a backdrop that makes people envious, if you know what I mean LOL. Take care and good luck in your transition to full time,

Will

 

No problem. I'm proud that you were thinking of me at all...

 

Unless My President comes through with an early out (unlikely) I can't retire until the end of June 2013 but we're going on a vacation to FL in mid January 2013. The "new" toad has to be ready by then. We usually stay at Camp Wally World while on the road and was going to take a new picture of the rig while there. Envious backdrop and all... Was making it easy on myself and not committing to an upload until after I got back home. I will try to get a picture of the rig updated this weekend but the background will probably just be the yard.

 

Speaking of envious backgrounds, is there a picture section on this forum? I know some of the members list photography as a hobby.