For years, our vacations consisted of flying somewhere, renting a car, and driving a loop around the countryside - we covered about 40 states that way. We got tired of hotels and road food and so bought a boat. We could weekend camp on the boat so we did for nine months of the year for two years, even taking week long trips in the boat (towable) to places like Key West and the Outer Banks. But, a drawback of a boat is that you can't go for a hike when you feel like it (you can only walk so far on a 22' c-dory) so we decided to try a tt. We got a small 22' no slide jayco and, after the boat, it was luxurious. It had a toilet and a shower! So for two years we spent nearly every weekend (and many longer vacations) in our tt. We would leave friday afternoon and come home Sunday night; our s&b was where we stayed so we could work so we could travel on the weekends. Last September we traveled cross country to Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. About 8 days into our month long trip, a tree fell on our s&b. We had some family and friends assess the damage and meet with the insurance people. It damaged the garage, the electric service, my daily driver; we continued on our trip anyway. Every night, when we returned to the tt after an amazing day of hiking and site seeing, we thought, "eventually, we have to go home - our other home." So on the drive back east, we decided we would rather live in the tt than live in our house. We wouldn't have to drive for three days to get 'home' because we would already be there. We got home, fixed our house, went back to work. And hated every minute of it. By December, we were looking at new tts, one that we could live in full time. In January we bought one. I retired from my job July 1; DH retires on December 14. In January, we hit the road. We have been saving for years, living way below our means so we could retire early (we are 47). We just didn't know exactly what we would do when we retire. Now we do, at least for the first two years.
We haven't started fulltiming yet - we have four more months before we go. When we realized we only lived here because of our jobs, we decided we would leave when we retire. I have spent the last two months painting and purging - getting our house ready for sale. Right now the market is great for sellers so we hope to sell pretty quickly. And then, we are out of here.
