Our first summer trip

As mentioned in our previous post, we decided to down size in order to tour the country the way we wanted too. Back roads, 200 miles or less per day, no interstates, state and corp of engineer parks.

After checking a lot of class B's and C's, preferring diesel under the hood, we realized real quick that there weren't to many out there. And, the ones that we did find were under powered or out of our price range. Pat suggested we keep the truck and get a truck camper......shocked me......I thought they were a bit TOOOOO small. But much to my surprise, they have come a long way. The advent of a slide out on a truck camper made a major difference in the living area and made them quite comfortable for full time living.

After checking several brands, we settled on the Lance 1191. We were going to get a trailer to haul the Goldwing, washer/dryer, bicycles, tools and misc. items so we thought this model with a side entrance door was perfect. Didn't have to step in and out around the trailer tongue. Turns out this was a great change and it has been working out now for 8 months.

We traveled over 6500 miles through 20 states in five and a half months. We were able to keep to our wondering retired life style by moving the camper from campground to campground, staying for a week or so and making day trips out from there with the Goldwing motorcycle. Turns out we traveled over 7500 miles on two wheels while seeing a lot of the back roads and small towns. We had a wonderful time and met a lot of great people. We took over 70 albums of pictures and can relive all of it any time we want too.

A transitional year

Just before our retirement from Embarq, a telephone company that was started after Sprint and Nextel merged, we traveled up to Kentucky for Jeff's family reunion. Stayed at a very nice state park, Barren River Lake near Mammoth Cave in central south Kentucky. We found out the Alfa 5th wheel was a bit too big for the kind of traveling Pat and I wanted to do. It was very hard to fit our home in a camp site and as you can see in the picture, we had a tough week climbing in and out of our front door

Despite the fact that we liked the room and comfort of a "HOW" this big, we felt it was to big. Not only the squeezing into campsites but also having to use the bigger highways and interstates, just wasn't what we had in mind. And, on top of all this, loading and unloading our Goldwing in the back was just to much work. We had to down size and figure a better way to carry the bike.

So, after two years living in the Alfa, we went on a search for something smaller and more convenient. At first we looked at class B's and class C's thinking this would be small enough but ran into problems finding one with the construction quality and diesel power we have grown to be comfortable with. Then Pat came up with an idea to keep our Ford truck, which we love, and a covered trailer to haul the motorcycle in, and just put a camper in the back of the truck. During our research and traveling around looking at various models, we found that this side of the RV industry has come a long way. We were amazed at the room and comfort that could be had in such a small camper.

Living our dream, the early years

Living our dream.

Pat and I have been working toward retirement and the interests we wanted to pursue for several years prior to retiring. My dad, Joe, has been living the RV lifestyle now for 18 years and is staying young doing it. Since Pat and I both love to travel and have a desire to see what this wonderful country of ours looks like, we decided to follow in his footsteps.

About three years ago, Pat and I purchased our first RV, a 2005 leftover new Alfa Toyhouse fifth wheel trailer. Decided since we were going to live in it full time, we wanted a big one. This unit was 40 feet long and 13 feet tall, weighing in at 18000 lbs. loaded. Then knowing our new "HOW" (house on wheels) we had to buy a BIG pickup truck to pull it. Researching the products out there, we decided on a F350 Ford, diesel, duly, long bed with the tow package. It was the right choice, we made several trips to north Georgia while taking vacations from work. The Alfa pulled great, and we were able to see if this would be the way we would spend our retirement years.

We both love riding on two wheels also, and figured this was a wonderful way to travel the back roads and really see the country. Sure beats traveling fast on the interstates. We would retire and travel the smaller highways at lower speeds, only do 200 miles or less each day, my dad's suggestion, stop in the smaller towns and meet the "Locals". I was an over-the-road truck driver in years past and felt like I was missing a whole lot, not really seeing the country from interstate highways at 60+ MPH.

We were loading our 1997 Honda Goldwing motorcycle in the back of the toyhouse and camping in the mountains of Georgia. We would ride the "Wing" on day trips from camp and really get to see and smell what all the back roads had to offer. We feel you really get to see so much more while on a motorcycle instead of inside an automobile.

We moved out of our house and into the trailer, living in it full time was our goal after all. Figured if we found this was to drastic a move we would still have the house to move back into. But, knowing that we both loved being in the woods and more less away from it all, I kind of knew we would not be needing the house anymore. I was very happy to see we fell in love with the new lifestyle and decided to sell the house. We were hooked, big time.