By way of introductions:

Good Morning.  I am guessing the first thing on the list is introductions. My name is Vicky and my husband is Ira.  We are not full timing yet but we are close.  We are living  in PA for the next while but where we will domicile in the end is still up for discussion.


A  little background would probably be appropriate here.  I have been camping in one form or another since before I can remember.  I have seen pictures of me when I was three years old or younger staying in a tent with my parents and sister.  I have camped in small two man pup tents to 36 foot A class MH and most everything in between.  Living in an RV would not be new to me.  It is something I have wanted to do for about 10 years now. Ira is just the opposite.  Until he met me three years ago he had never stayed in a tent.  Our first date was a camping date.  He took to it like a duck to water. 


Not long after we married we bought a small Jayco 5th wheel trailer to play around in.  We took it to Florida last winter for two months.  We loved it.  The Jayco was small but the life was wonderful.  We didn't want to come back home.  That was when the decision was made that we were not going to ever have to "come home" again because in the future we were going to take our home with us.


We knew that as much as we loved the little Jayco she was not going to cut it as a full time rig.  We definitely needed much more room and storage.  After all there was more that just us to consider.  We also had our four legged family to think about too.  We have Troy, an 80 lb Golden Retriever, his sister Shayla, and Kisa, our little 8 lb Malt/Shih Tzu.  The whole tribe is ruled by our 20 lb cat ...Jack.  Believe me the dogs just bow when Jack walks into the room.


Now you can see why a small 28 foot 5th wheel would not be enough to live in.  We started looking around for what we would need versus what we could afford.  The first thing our research showed us was that we did not have enough truck. We had a 2500 Hemi with a towing limit of around 11,000 lbs and we were going to need a bit more muscle to tow the type of 5th wheel we were going to need. We upgraded to a 3500 Dually which we love.  (I love the sound of a diesel engine) and a few months later we found Serenity. She was exactly what we needed and was in our price range.  After some discussion about adoption fees and a chat with our banker we brought our new baby home and settled her nicely in her own special place.  She fit perfectly in our driveway beside the house. 


Much like everyone planning this drastic change in their lives we are busy purging and getting the house ready to sell.  We plan to put it on the market in the next 2 to 3 months. The plan right now is to move out of the house once we have it staged and live in Serenity.  The question is do we leave her parked in the yard or do we move her to a close by campsite.  We shall see.  We are lucky as the market in our area is not as bad as some. Houses are selling just not as quickly as before.  We shall just have to see what develops.  I think we are going to start out our full time lives as full timers with wheels that don't roll.  At least for awhile anyway.


With Christmas fast approaching we are in madcap preparations for the holiday.  We are heading north to Canada to visit family and hopefully get my once yearly dose of snow.  That is about the only time I want to see it and experience it.  There is something about a white Christmas that brings out the child in everyone.


That brings us up to today.  Both Ira and I are working part time at a local store just for the extra income until we hit the road. Tonight is my night to work. You can just imagine how busy it is.  But it keeps us out of trouble.


Merry Christmas to all my friends and family.