Fulltiming Decision

The decision to fulltime was pretty much an evolutionary process. In August of 2003 Darrell's company transferred us to their Marietta, Georgia plant. Rather than rent an apartment we decided to live in our RV at the KOA campground in Cartersville, Georgia. It was during our time there that we stumbled onto Norm and Linda Payne’s (seeya-downtheroad.com) and Rich and Diane Emond’s (roamingamerica.com) websites. The fulltime RVing seed was planted.

We subsequently returned to Michigan in the fall of 2004. Our house in Harbor Springs had sold and Darrell had accepted a position in the Mount Pleasant area, but after spending over a year in Georgia we just couldn’t get back into the cold winters. We continued to think and talk about fulltime RVing, wondering if it was right for us and finally decided that we would go fulltime once we retired. The seed was watered and now sprouting.

In the fall of 2005 we special ordered a 2006 Cedar Creek 36RLTS Custom fifth-wheel with the plan to continue outfitting it for full time living over the next couple years. However, that second winter in Michigan (2006) pretty much did us in. Being that we were debt free Judy asked why are we were waiting. Darrell’s reply was “For enough money to retire”. To which Judy stated that “if we had waited to have enough money to have kids we would have never had any” (don’t you just hate it when women are logical?). Yay, 2006 would be the last winter we would spend in Michigan. The seed was now a growing plant.

In May of 2006 we listed our house and in July accepted an offer on it. We moved into the RV fulltime on July 28th and closed on our house on August 1st. In September Darrell gave his notice to retire on October 13th (yes, that's Friday the 13th - ya gotta love it!!!). We hit the road on October 14th, but not before receiving two inches of snow on the 11th (just a confirmation that we had made the right decision). The plant was full grown and ready for harvest. We're on our way!!!