I can hardly believe I just typed the title of this post! The actual date of our RV anniversary is 8/29/2014 – which is the day we closed on our last house. The date we became houseless. Notice I didn’t say homeless, as our 2014 Heartland Landmark 5th wheel is our home. We tow it with our 2011 F350 DRW diesel. We also still have our 2006 Honda CRV. These vehicles are the same we left with 10 years ago, and while they have significantly more miles and wear on them, with the care Bill takes, they are all still in great condition.

For our first 6 years, I did a post about the previous year, talking about our costs and thoughts on being on the road full-time. I stopped doing them because it started to feel like I was saying the same things over and over. Now, after a 4 year gap, I’ve decided to revisit the “year end” summary type post.

Looking back, I actually did 2 or 3 posts per year, one (or more) about the numbers, and one about the more touchy feely side of things. I’ll have to wait and see how long winded I get before deciding how many posts this will become.

The specific numbers I usually talk about are: campground costs, fuel/gas costs, cost of having on-board laundry vs laundromat, and the one probably talked about the most: keeping my car vs not. I also talk about our fav stops vs least fav stops, thoughts/plans about the future. I also usually like to talk a bit about how our attitude and feelings about our full-time life have changed since the beginning.

Since Bill is not at home, and he is my numbers guy, I will first talk about the non-numbers things! Let’s dig in!

Since my last two summary posts, published back in September 2020, there has been lots of change. Life has continued on and we’ve had some truly fantastic times!

One of the big changes has been how we are doing solar installing now. Well, I guess I mean the behind the scenes of that has changed. Greg decided he wanted to retire RV Solar Solutions, so Bill and I started our own company, RV Energy Solutions. Back in the spring of this year, I created (with significant help from BlueHost) our own website, we opened a new checking account, new credit card and credit card processor. Check it out our website here and our Facebook page here.

About 2 1/2 months after those last summary posts, Freya’s sister Arwen was born. COVID was still a thing and it created a crazy situation where I had to fly up early, with Bill joining us after the birth. Mom and baby were both healthy, thank goodness! Arwen is now getting ready to turn 4 in November – time sure does fly! We still spend our summers at Hickory Hollow Campground, which is about a 20-25 minute drive from my daughters. Also of note is our son moved from Lancaster (3 hour drive ONE WAY) to Pittsburgh (3 hours ROUND TRIP,) making it much easier to visit him and have him visit us.

Since that last summary post, we have also taken a couple of international trips. First one was to Ireland and Scotland in August/September 2022, I visited Israel to see my Aunt Aura (who sadly passed away only 8 short weeks after my return home) in January 2023, and lastly Cuenca Ecuador in December/January 2024.

In an attempt to answer a frequently asked question – when will we settle down and stop this full-time life? – we still don’t know. We (mostly me) have been lurking on Zillow at properties near our daughter. We’ve driven by a few of the places; we’ve actually stopped at a couple of open houses. Are we considering buying one of them? Not really, but we do believe it is important to know what we might get within our budget in the area where we will most likely “settle down.” I put that in quotes because I truly believe that we will never, short of a serious illness or other life-changing event, fully settle down. At this point, I believe we will end up being snow-birds, heading south for at least the coldest part of the year. As far as where we will spend summers, it makes the most sense to buy a place near our kids, whenever that time comes.

It’s safe to say we will always travel. I can’t image not wanting to travel. I truly believe it is something some people are born with – wanderlust. I say that because while most people think the way we live is cool and interesting, and they may even say they’d love to do it, but they don’t. There could be a ton of different reasons for that, but honestly, if they had been born with wanderlust they would do it. Once I heard of this lifestyle, plans started being made to do it. I already had a bucket list of places to go.

Someone asked me recently, “you’ve been on the road for 10 years, haven’t you exhausted your bucket list yet?” My answer is that my list is probably longer now than it was 10 years ago. How’s that? Well – it’s easy – we are always learning of new places. We are starting to spread our wings and travel internationally. It’s a big world and even after 10 years without a house holding us back – we’ve barely scratched the surface of where there is to visit. In preparation for this post, I read a statistic that the average American has only visited 12 states in their lifetimes. Twenty eight percent of Americans never leave the USA. Another 30% have only visited one or two countries.

Having said all that, what has slowed us down is the birth of our granddaughters. I had been warned that would happen, but I wasn’t sure how I would feel. Well, the fact that we’ve had a seasonal site since 2019 (the year Freya was born) near our daughter is telling, isn’t it? I will say it never gets easier leaving. I’ve started telling them in advance when we are leaving, and discussing when we will be back, especially with Freya since my daughter is teaching her about calendars. The last time I told them we would be taking a trip and would be gone for a few weeks Freya just cried out “NO NANI! I don’t want you to!” I gave her a big hug and said we’d be back soon. She did not want to let go and I’ll admit I had to hold back the few tears that welled up in my eyes. Ouchy tug on my heartstrings stuff.

Another factor is my parents. They are both in their 80’s now (sorry Mom) and while in mostly good health, I do feel like I want/need to spend time with them whenever I can. I love being there for them when we are in FL in November and December. The last couple of years I’ve also flown down in the summer. I don’t ever want to look back and say “I wish I would have…” That is one type of regret I cannot live with. We have friends who have elderly parents and some aren’t doing so well. It’s a scary thought that my parents might get sick someday, but I’m happy that I can always be there to help.

Having said all that, one of the best parts of this lifestyle – by far – is the friends we’ve made. Our tribe, as we lovingly refer to them, mean the world to us. We go out of our way and/or arrange to see them whenever we can. Some are off the road, having settled in TX or FL mostly. There are as many stories as there are couples. Each doing their own thing. They are the family we chose. The wild ride wouldn’t have been nearly wild enough without them.

What does the future hold for us? If I only had a crystal ball! What I do know is we will be trying a new venture. As I type this, we are currently on a Fantasy RV Tour. Why, after 10 years, would we do that? That’s an excellent question! Answer is we are going to be attending training in November to become Ambassadors for Fantasy. If you haven’t taken any type of organized caravan trip before, they require that you do before training, just to make sure everyone is on the same page with what the trip looks and feels like. It is very different than the way we generally travel. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well – I’d say its just different. Totally neutral. I can understand and appreciate why they do things the way they do. I’ll be doing a post on this trip in the future once we get back to Somerset.

So, now that I’ve “talked” your ears off, I’ll close for now and I’ll catch up with the numbers next time. You will need a serious cup of jo and a comfy chair!

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What to look for next: The Numbers Tell the Story

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