by Donna B. Yeaw

It was on the trip back from my father's funeral that we began to face our own mortality and started to talk. We had been married twelve years, the kids were all grown and scattered across the country and scarier yet, retirement was fast approaching.

When we were first married, we often talked about how wonderful it would be to buy a motorhome and travel the country when we retired. As the years passed, we moved through several states and eventually found ourselves in Colorado Springs, CO. We got involved in working the craft shows for one season and once again the topic of an RV life came up. But that soon passed and was followed with more moves, more changes, more states and then finally we landed in Atlanta, GA.

We bought our dream home on a 3/4 acre wooded lot in Stone Mountain. It had everything, lots of room, gorgeous yard, cathedral ceiling. stone fireplace and more. Yet here we are, dreaming about selling our home and moving into an RV! Are we crazy? Some may think so, but we're not so sure.

What are the advantages? Well some are obvious:

• Travel flexibility
• Privacy and solitude if you want it or lots of company if that's what you prefer
• Exposure to healthier outdoor lifestyle
• Lower cost (depending on your choices, of course)
• No yard work (personally, this is a big one for me)
• Less stress, more simplicity (again, depending on your personal style)

But then, of course, there are always disadvantages:

• No permanent address (unless you own land)
• No permanent phone number (cellular does help here, but costly)
• Limited storage for 'stuff'
• No privacy from each other
• How to deal with financial and health issues

The more we talked, the more excited we got about the idea but we knew we needed to learn a lot more about the lifestyle. There was a lot to do! We started by picking up our local Trailer/Motorhome/Motorcycle Trader. This is a great place to see what your local market is like for new and used vehicles. We attended a couple of local shows as they came to town and spent time roaming the different dealers to see what each manufacturer had to offer. The more we learned the more we realized how much more we had yet to learn!

We ordered some great books from Amazon.com Books as well as getting a subscription to Motorhome and Trailer Life (we weren't sure if we would be getting a motorhome or a fifth wheel.) We had a lot to learn about RVs, their trials and tribulations. Do we want new or used? Can we afford new? What size do we need? What size can we afford? The list goes on and on! We also joined one of the largest and most well known camping club, Good Sam's. This provided us with a more resources and more places to find information. We also found a club targeted at full-timers, the Escapees, and we joined them as well. (We have since added FMCA to our growing list of memberships. They limit membership to those who own motorhomes or coaches only, no trailers or fifth wheels.)

Finally, after much hemming and hawing (yes, some folks still do that) we took the first giant step and purchased a 1988 35' Allegro motorhome from a local dealer. I was as excited as a little kid waiting in the movie line to see the latest release. The drive home was interesting for both of us. I don't know who was more nervous, my novice driver husband or me following behind him - anyway, we made it!

So now we were the proud owners of a motorhome set for travel but we were still too busy to enjoy it. Work beckoned constantly and any travel was done in the air and individually. Not what we had envisioned when we started. But things always have a way of working out - by the end of 1997 we both had job offers that would allow us to travel and work together. Needless to say we jumped into it with both feet!

Next time I'll go through some of the steps that we took to actually move into our full-time lifestyle: dealing with all our "stuff", sorting out financial and legal matters, mail forwarding and more. In the meantime, keep on rolling!