Complete newbie with big dreams

[TarheelBornGal]

Thanks for the replies and support, ladies!

Dawn, good job! You are giving me more confidence that I can do this.

Closing on our condo is set for March 15, if all goes as planned. We'll be in the US visiting family for awhile at first, plus establishing our domicile in Florida, where we've had our mailing service (St. Brendan's Isle) for the past 1.5 years since we've been in Belize. So, we'll be all good to go when/if we decide to go full-time. We'll be renting/house-sitting for friends starting in May, and they have a nice big driveway, so we can purchase our rig at any point that we find it and park it in their driveway. We can then start with shorter trips and get all the kinks worked out before we hit the road for good -- assuming we love it as much as I think we will!

I just wish we hadn't just missed the big RV show in Tampa -- that would have been a hoot to go to. We will have to try to catch another show sometime!

Emily

[Sandersmr]

Sounds like a dream is starting to come together. Here's fingers crossed that it all comes together.

[AlmostThere]

So good to hear from you and hubby, and very excited about your condo sale and now serious RV shopping. You know we will want almost daily updates on it all, right?

[TarheelBornGal]

So good to hear from you and hubby, and very excited about your condo sale and now serious RV shopping. You know we will want almost daily updates on it all, right?

I don't know that there will be new news on a daily basis, but I will certainly post when there is some!

Emily

[Nasoosie]

WELCOME ABOARD, EMILY, and CONGRATS on the condo! I think I missed where that is in FL----anywhere near the Orlando area?

Hope to see you in the days to come!

[TarheelBornGal]

WELCOME ABOARD, EMILY, and CONGRATS on the condo! I think I missed where that is in FL----anywhere near the Orlando area?

Hope to see you in the days to come!

Thanks Nasoosie!

Actually, our condo is in Belize. We have SBI as our mail forwarding service in Florida. We'll be hanging out in the Jacksonville area for awhile to establish domicile, then heading up to NC and Ohio to visit relatives. If all goes according to our current thinking, we'll purchase an RV sometime this year. Would love to go to an RV show or two if I can figure out where any are!

[TarheelBornGal]

Whew! It has been a whirlwind in the past few weeks. We have moved out of Belize and are in temporary digs (an extended stay hotel) in Jacksonville, FL. We've purchased a new car, a gorgeous 2013 Honda CR-V, that will serve as our toad when we buy a motorhome. We won't even be looking at motorhomes until summer or fall as we have relatives to visit and then need to get settled into a home we will be house-sitting in, but once everything settles down, hopefully the motorhome search will begin in earnest and not just online! We figure any MH that we see online that we really like, we can plan a roadtrip out to see and also do/see other things in that local area.

Glad to be back to the forum, though way behind. Hope everyone has been doing well!

Emily

[VickieP]

Welcome back to the US! Let the hunt begin!

[Liz]

Welcome back, Emily. Keep us posted as the search progresses.

[WickedLady]

Welcome again, Emily, good hunting.

[Dell]

Welcome Emily!
Too bad you gave up so quickly on your dream of living on a sailboat. We did so for ten years also with no knowledge; in fact, the first sailboat we ever sailed was the one we bought. There were a lot of hardships, but the experiences and people met along the way were worth it. Having said that, your motor home dream is another similar step, one which I took not too long ago myself. I have camped before, but never been responsible for all of it before, like knowing all the various systems that keep a camper moving and live-able. Thanks to this group here as well as the Open Roads Singles Club, a sister group to this club, I have learned a lot. It would be hard to find a more generous, knowledgeable, and sharing group of people. Hope to meet you on the road some day. 8-Dell

[carolb]

Welcome & congrats! I'm a newbie myself, so missed yore intro in May. Yes, so mch to see here in the States, & so mch freedom in an RV!!!!! I'm abowt to end my first "big" trip--been on the road for over 2 months & now wondering why the heck I'm going back to NY??? May have to do the "foll-time" thing as yo're doing! Best wishes & safe travels! (sorry, my "yew" key doesn't work )

[TarheelBornGal]

Welcome Emily!
Too bad you gave up so quickly on your dream of living on a sailboat.

Yes, I still feel guilty about not going through with it and am not sure my husband has ever gotten over having to sell that boat. It really was fun to spend time on, but with a dog, it became difficult to spend extended time. Some places we anchored had NO places to bring a dinghy into, so I never felt like Paisley was happy or getting enough exercise, and she once "held it" for 36 hours b/c we couldn't get her to go on the boat, despite a well-seasoned mat we tried as a "piddle pad". So I was a "worried mom", and that took a lot of the fun out of it for me. And I was just a bit too much of a landlubber, ultimately -- I don't even like a lot of wind, which is kinda the opposite of what you want on a sailboat. But, we try to look forward and not dwell on "what might have been". Gotta live life without regrets and just move forward towards the next dream and adventure -- that's our philosophy!

An RV is a much better solution for those of us with dogs, I think, and since we love to ride bikes and hike, staying in parks will give us more opportunity to do the things we enjoy.

We walked all over Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, FL today and LOVED it. The sites were mostly quite private and surrounded by heavy foliage, and it was very quiet aside from one site with a pop-up camper filled with what sounded like 4 barking dogs and one site with a bunch of college-age kids tenting it. Walking through there definitely reinforced our thinking that this could really work for us. It just felt right!

Emily

[grammynmaggie]

Welcome ...I am a newbe also
donna (aka grammynmaggie)