Category Archives: Getting On the Road

The House is Sold. Now What?

The House Is Sold. Now What?

Hello everyone! Now that you have read all about my cute little, easy, painless knee surgery and house selling adventures, you might be asking yourself, what now? What could these crazy kids possibly have to tell us next? Buckle up people! We have lots to share! 

First, we did get an amazing deal on our house. The buyer is wonderful and is graciously letting us stay in our home, rent-free, until June 22. So in the next month, we need to get rid of literally everything in our home. Think about it, we can’t take any furniture with us, no glass, no artwork. As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, we have been purging, selling, and donating up a storm. But we need a way to get rid of essential items right before we go. For example, we will need our bed until the last night in the house. 

Jerry and I decided on an estate sale. It will take place in mid-June and they will be selling everything in the house, including, but not limited to, our bed, silverware, artwork, Tupperware. Really, you name it, they will sell it. And if they can’t sell it, they will donate it. We are excited about this last purge! 

After the estate sale, we will be officially ready to start our journey to becoming full-time RV’ers. As mentioned in a previous blog, we will be traveling to South Dakota to begin the process of domiciling. We ordered our truck and rig from Utah at the beginning of the year. Why Utah, you ask? Utah was the only state that was willing to give us a decent price. We were able to negotiate with them. No where else would even consider it. The price was the price. Especially here in California, which has a gag-worthy sales tax rate of 9.75%. Now that we will be South Dakota residents, we will only have to pay 4% sales tax. And we lucked out because both the rig and truck will be done in June. Perfect timing! 

We will be driving my Ford Escape from California to South Dakota and plan on taking lots of breaks. Remember, I am still recovering from knee surgery and won’t be able to sit in a car for extended periods of time. And I will be needing lots of ice for the swelling and pain. Jerry even bought a plug-in car freezer to hold all of my ice. What a production. From South Dakota, we will drive down to Utah to trade in the Ford and then pick up the truck and OUR BRAND NEW RV. Can you tell how excited I am? 

From Utah, we will drive all the way back to Sacramento.  We have been using a storage unit in Sacramento for everything that will be coming with us because Jerry has a  friend who is a carpenter and is going to customize our RV. Now I know you must have lots of questions here. Isn’t the reason we ordered the RV so far in advance because it was going to be customized already? Yes, you are correct. RVs sometimes don’t use space in the best, most useful way. There is no way a woman designs RVs. 

There are cabinets all over the RV. But when you open them, they are just a giant space. There are no shelves anywhere. Call me crazy, but a girl needs her shelves. How can I organize anything in cabinets without shelves? So, we are adding shelves in the kitchen, bathroom, and living room cabinets. Also, there are two couches that pull out into beds, plus two recliners. We are only two people and do not need that many places for our butts to go. So Jerry and I decided to have one of the couches taken out and plan to turn it into a workstation. As some of you may know, I am a coach for WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and plan to run my workshops on the road. It will also be a great place to do super important things like paying our bills, doing our blogs and YouTube videos and let’s not forget online shopping. 

We plan to be in Sacramento for a few weeks and say our final goodbyes. So if you are around in July, give us a shout and we would love to see you! 

Our first real destination will be the Escapees Convergence at the Grand Tetons in Idaho from August 14-22. The Escapees is the RV club we joined that gave us the invaluable information to go full time. We are so excited for their annual conference to meet other full-time RV’ers. We plan to take our time getting to Idaho by going up through the Pacific Northwest. On our way there, our first stop in Ahsland, Oregon to decompress for 5 or 6 days before continuing the journey. If you have any great recommendations for Ashland, let us know! 

This is where our adventure truly begins and we are so excited to share it with you along the way. 

Just One More… Shelf. You can’t have too many shelves! 

Make sure to check out our videos on YouTube by clicking HERE! Regular videos will be coming once we hit the road!

The new truck!
Storage… for now.
Joe & Susan planning the SHELVES!

You Want To Do WHAT?!

Welcome to my very first ever blog!  My name is Susan.  I am married to the most amazing guy, Jerry.  We presently live in Northern California.  We were both previously married.  Me for 13 years and Jerry for 20.  We celebrated our 21st anniversary in March, 2021. Jerry has two sons and between them, 6 grandchildren. I did not have children, but I do have my niece and nephew who are the light of my life!  

When Jerry and I first met in 1999, I realized right away, that this could be a very serious relationship.  I wanted to make sure that he knew one of my deepest desires was to be a full-time RVer someday.  When I mentioned this to him, his first reaction was, “You want to do what?” Not an uncommon reaction when talking about living in a home on wheels.  Let me explain why this is so important to me.  

When I was in my early 20’s, my dad told me (after a few glasses of wine) that he really never wanted kids.  Now, don’t be shocked at this statement.  I turned out ok even after hearing this.  He loved my sister and me very much, but he had a passion to travel. The minute I turned 18 and moved out of our family home in Southern California, he sold the house and built a custom home in Morongo Valley (close to Palm Springs).  He and my mother both were in the medical field.  My dad was a Chief X-Ray Technician and my mom was a Registered Nurse.  They left their jobs in Southern California and started working at a hospital in Palm Springs.  Well, after a year, the commute from their incredible home to Palm Springs was getting to them both, so they sold that house and moved into a beautiful double-wide mobile home.  That lasted a few years and they retired from the medical field in their 50’s. They bought a houseboat in the Delta in Northern California.  However, my mother hated living on a boat.  So the next and best thing was to buy a 35-foot trailer and travel all over the country.  This is where my story begins.

I was in my 20’s,  finding myself career-wise, and decided to join my parents on this journey.  I put my measly belongings in a friend’s garage and met my parents in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in my Dodge Colt.  Trust me, there really was a car named Dodge Colt. I would follow them from state to state and, of course, lived in the trailer with them at each stop. Thank goodness we had lots of family in Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, which allowed me to sleep in a real bed every so often.  After a few months of this, I realized I needed to go back to Southern California and find a job/career/do something for money. Also, traveling with your parents in a very small home on wheels really hinders your dating life.  But, I always knew I would get back to the RV living. Why do you ask?  RVing means freedom to me.  Freedom to travel from state to state, meeting people from all walks of life, experiencing what each state has to offer.  I knew I wanted to get back to that way of life. 

Back to Jerry.  When I explained why I wanted to live this lifestyle, someday, (after being a bit shocked) he said, “Why not? But, later on right?” “Sure”, I said, “but let’s keep the dialog open”. To make me happy, Jerry purchased a 25-foot trailer for us to enjoy on weekends and short trips.  That lasted a very short time. Talk about close quarters. For those of you who are not familiar with RVs, 25 feet is VERY small. We went up to a 34-foot trailer and then graduated to a 36-foot 5th wheel, which I LOVED.  It was an older model, but we didn’t care. We did a lot of great trips in that RV.  The RV started to need a bit of work and we knew we were going to have to either trade it in or sell it. Then the wildfires in Northern California started in the fall of 2018. These fires were deadly and left thousands without homes so we decided to donate our 5th wheel to a family in need.  

A little secret about me, I have a tendency to get bored pretty quickly.  Being married to Jerry is the longest thing I have ever done and that’s including career/jobs, hobbies, you name it.  When we were married for 13 years living in the same home, Jerry said, “Ok time to move”. He knew I was getting restless and 13 years was the length of time of my first marriage.  (Yes, he was a bit nervous). In our 21 years of being together, we have lived in 5 different homes. In July of 2021, we will have been in our current home for 3 years.  That totals to three homes in the last 6 years.  

Being a very active person, all I can say is that 2020 sucked. That is the best word for it.  As an essential employee at a hospital, Jerry’s schedule did not change during the pandemic. I, however, like many others, started my remote work journey. The only time I have left the house in the past year is an occasional trip to the grocery store and my 3-5 mile walks every day. I know you all can relate. 2020 changed everything.   

During our many nights at home, I found some amazing videos of people buying RV’s and going on family vacations just to get out of the house.  I looked at Jerry and said, “You are retiring soon, IT IS TIME.”  Of course, he said, “Uh?”  I responded with, “Hello! IT IS TIME FOR US TO GET A RV AND HIT THE ROAD!”

Our plans are to go full-time in mid 2021 when Jerry retires.  We will sell our home, purge our worldly goods and take off.

This is the beginning of our journey of  “JUST ONE MORE…” 

In the future,  we will discuss the process of getting ready for this lifestyle.  We are talking about finding the perfect RV, purging our home, selling our home, doing our research on how to be full-time RVers, and more!  And we can’t wait for YOU, dear readers, to join us on our journey!  

So join me in enjoying “just one more…” sunset, margarita, day by the pool, etc. The sky’s the limit, well, until we run out of gas or freeway.