Ever been in a dollar store where you quickly realized how they can charge so much less for name-brand products than other retailers? After your first look, you probably prided yourself on being so clever as to figure out their gimmick.
That, at least, was our experience, when it dawned on us – “smaller packages at smaller prices.” If you haven’t shopped in chain stores like Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, 99-cents Only Stores or Dollar General lately, you probably don’t realize that many of them have large food sections filled with packages that look the same as in groceries with labels by companies you trust, but the packages are slightly smaller. “That actually fits our full-timing RV lifestyle better in many ways, given our choice of rig, the campgrounds we visit, and the routes we travel.”
About four and a half years ago, Monique and I didn’t know anything about RVing; after all, we were tent campers, contemptuous of those monsters sharing our campgrounds. Then, one day I returned home from work to be greeted by, “Whatdaya think about selling the house and traveling fulltime?” Having just fought Southern California traffic for two hours to get home, I asked, “Can we afford to do that?” She said yes, and I said yes, and thus it began … that quickly!
We took eight months to turn our lives around, from enjoying a comfortable suburban home to that scary moment when I pulled away from our house on our “shake-down cruise” to a state park seven miles away (and along the way I dropped off $100 to pay for the damage I did to a truck).
In the months ahead, you’ll hear more about us and our lifestyle, but briefly, after spending many hours at the Pomona RV Show in Southern California and returning home to talk about what we had learned, we decided that a travel trailer would give us the experience we were seeking. The traveling is more important than the destination to us. We prefer smaller campgrounds and love taking “pigtail” roads that may not be suitable for larger rigs.
Again, more on that later.
This year’s travels began in Key West — 5,000 miles later, we arrived in Southern California. This Friday we will begin our climb northward into Washington State, where we will meet up with a caravan going to Alaska for 58 days. It will be our first visit to the Land of the Midnight Sun and our first time RV traveling with others. We wanted to start RVblogging now so you can also learn from, or at least appreciate, our experiences along the way.
We have lots of stories to tell and quite a few suggestions that could make your lives easier, like the dollar store item above. And as the name implies, we have never gotten bored since our travels began.
See you on down the road!
GaryM
We traveled to Alaska in 2006. Took the Ford Powerstroke and the 30 foot 5th wheel. While we did hit some high priced diesel in Canada, everything was high that year. We went up through Canada into the Yukon and across into Alaska at the most northern border crossing at Dawson Creek. What an awesome trip, we came down through Chicken to Tok, then up to Fairbanks, down to Denali, Anchorage all the way to Kenai and down to the Homer Spit. We fished for Salmon and Halibut, we also caught greyling somehere. Be sure to take the bus ride into Denali. What awesome beautiful country plus we saw so many wild animals that we were overwhelmed. We drove up in July which was perfect weather. We camped in tiny little campgrounds designed to accomodate much smaller RV’s without slides. Somehow we managed and I want you to know that we had no trouble with any of the roads. We didn’t even get a rock chip on our new truck. Take it easy through the frost heaves and don’t ever get in a hurry. We put 7,000 miles on and enjoyed every inch. We do live in Montana so it was fairly close for us to get to Canada. You will love the trip.
Gary
On your trip, do not forget that to get there you MUST go thru’ WA state. Do not just travel across this colorful and varied state. This is also a destination for travelers, not just a road to Alaska. Enjoy every moment, sight and sound. They are all there!!! Here, in WA.
Geoffrey Pruett
We finally upgraded to a class A, 25 foot rear bedroom, and find it fits our usual needs which are destination trips like visits to relatives, fairs, air shows and most important Square Dance events but we still keep looking at trailers. A huge A would be fine for living on the road but still requires having a toad, the problem we now have. Will be following your journeys with some envy, do not know if all of our “dirt” will ever be sold off until I am using some permantly but the idea has real charm. Always had a built in urge to see what is over the horizon and spent my twentys working for NASA and other USA based contractors in Africa and Europe and have fond memories. The boss has a desire to see Scotland but starts to wring her hands at three days away over how our furry children are doing so actually doing it may be a jolt. Am certain it will be a trailer of some type as breaking camp constantly gets old quickly.
Vickie
You are several years ahead of us. We are in the process of dismantling our home and putting it up for sale plus selling two rentals so that we can go fulltiming. If you want to follow our journey of preparation, go to our website at:
http://www.sentimentaljourneyz.com
I update it weekly. As soon as everything is sold, we will hit the road fulltime…while still doing our business. We feel we have the best of both worlds. Sure, it’s emotional and stressful but the excitement of the end results keeps us moving forward. We researched this type of lifestyle thoroughly and have bought most of the books available that will help you through the whole process. Hope to catch up with you on the road soon:-)
Dave
Sounds like a beautiful trip, can’t wait to follow your journey. Enjoy the scenery along the way, that is to me some of the most beautiful highway traveled.
Brian Morris
To go full timing sure must require a lot of courage. As a “dirt” owner it is hard to contemplate being “footloose and fancy free” 24/7. Have not been to Alaska yet but have been to the Yukon Territory and loved every minute of the trip. If any of you get there be sure to visit Keeno and call on Geordi Dobson in his bar. See the following website about Keeno and Geordie at:
http://explorenorth.com/articles/geordie.html
Hope you have a safe, enjoyable trip and look forward to following your travels on your blog.
DebbieT in Alabama
*sigh*…. now if I could JUST get TheBigGuy to agree to retire, we could roam around as well. I suppose we’ll just be living vicariously through your journeys for a while….. looking forward to it!
Lee Ensminger
Welcome, welcome! We took our 38′ motorhome to Alaska for the summer of 07. You will love that trip!! Be sure to go to Fairbanks. It is spectacular in the summer. The mining experience and the riverboat tour are worth it….you know, I could go on and on, but one thing you might want is Scott McMurrans Alaska TourSaver guide. Many two for one tickets and you get great ideas from it. You’ll recover the cost of the book in nothing flat and save money from there. If nothing else, look at his website for ideas. I will list several Alaskan resources:
Scott’s Alaska TravelGram
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=067e92087406c6c185f2bb422&id=e94b052426&e=b864409c37
Travel Alaska
http://www.travelalaska.com
North to Alaska
http://www.up0.net/functions/message_view.html?mid=590202&mlid=5786&siteid=666846&uid=9f2f0162de
Start searching these and HAVE FUN!!! We can’t wait to go back.
joann & Gale
good luck on your adventure! Eleven years ago we sold everything and “full-timed” for 16 months, then the call of “dirt” won out. Now we sit tight in the winter, (living in the south) and travel in the summer. I agree, Homer and Seward are great stops, we drove from WPB to Homer, the Dalton Hwy wasn’t so bad, unless it was raining. Have fun, smell all the roses.
Bob Difley
Welcome Barry and Monique – It will be fun to follow your adventures, and to relive our first venture into fulltiming seventeen years ago. We began in the late fall and headed north. What did we know. We just liked the redwoods. It was cold, rainy, and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. But it didn’t take long before we turned 180 degrees and became snowbirds. Glad to have you onboard here at RV.net.
M H
Good Luck on Your trip to Alaska. We were planning to go the 15th of may with our 37 ft motorhome and spend a couple of months, But we have now postponed our trip for this year. Maybe next Year we can go if things get better. Cap and Trade and the price of gasoline in Canada at almost $6 a gallon Plus a couple of unexpected things. Put a damper on things for this year. Have fun and enjoy.
M H
Jerry X Shea
Good luck on your travels. We spent 4 month (no caravan)on our Alaska tip last year.
Make sure you see Seward and Homer.
This is our 3rd week of “full timing.” After being gone for 9 months the last 2 years, we decided to sell our home and just live in the motorhome for 5 years. Then, if we want to keep going we will. Have run into so many people that are in their 80’s and been this for over 20 year. You can see our Alaska Trip and what we are doing now bby going to http://www.findingjerryandmary.blogspot.com
Teri
Anxious to follow your travels. I’m with you all the way. The fancy resorts have their benefits and we go there for a vacation from our “regular” travels but we much prefer the out of the way places on America’s blue highways. Right now we’re kind of hitched at one of those out of the way places, operating the families RV park but the open road is in our future.
Richard
And you’ll love Alaska. Just don’t take your rig up the Dalton Hwy!!!
Richard
Looking forward to your next report. Am thinking about full timing but wonder if, in a few years, we’ll want to land somewhere for awhile…what do you think so far? Having lived in Orange County and fighting the 405 every day back in the 70’s, I can imagine what you felt like each day coming home in all of that parking lot traffic. We got away from all of that (lived in the DC and Boston areas, later on) and now live in the country in eastern NC. No traffic problem here! But we love the trailer life….