I’m a “Baby Boomer.” I have long teeth and even longer memories of a simpler, freer, United States of America. It’s these memories, and a desire for a deeper connection with loved ones, that motivated us to simplify our lives; that is, to sell our home, possessions, and hunker down to a 24 foot motor home. In essence, we have declared our independence.
Our Declaration of Independence, 2011:
Given that we want to decrease the ways we’re impacted by governmental direction, and decrease the time and resources required to maintain a house, and given that we want to increase our freedom, and increase the time we spend with loved ones around the country…
We have sold most (virtually all) of our possessions, including our home, and purchased the motor home we think works best for us. Thus, we declare ourselves official members of the full time RVing community. We’re delighted and quite pleased with ourselves.
However, my beautiful grown-up girl frets, ” But Mom, what if you regret selling everything and moving into an RV?”
“Well, then, darling…we’ll adjust accordingly.”
Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll change our minds, get a tiny home base, and morph into snowbirds. Or maybe not. We’ll live the full time RV life for a year or so, and then assess things. But we won’t know how we feel or what we’ll learn unless we step out in faith, and embrace our belief that there truly is more than one way of doing things (and yes, some of our friends think we have “lost it”).
We’re thrilled with our increased freedom, our ability to connect more deeply with those we love, and our scaled down standard of living. Oh, and about that…I’ll let you know if, or how much, square footage correlates with contentment!
My husband and I declare we can live, love, give, serve, and work from a home on wheels as joyfully as we did from a home on soil, and with fewer entangling alliances.
What about you, Dear Reader? Is there a Declaration of Independence in your future? If so, what might you declare ? I’d like to hear what you have to say. I hope you enjoy the upcoming blog series on full time Freewheeling, and
Happy tales to you and yours,
Patti
Jackie
Patti,
I think it is great that you can go for RV full time. Enjoy your travels and keep us informed. We are new RV owner for the first time. We have only done weekend trips so far this summer but hoping to travel for a couple of weeks in the fall. Who knows maybe soon we could go full time, my husband is self employed contractor and we may still be able to find work when the employment gets better.
My wishes to you and your husband is to enjoy the adventure.
Jackie
Patti Faustini
Hey there, Reinita, and how great to hear from you. Yes, I’ll keep you posted and I am positive we’ll make plenty of mistakes that Woodall’s readers can hopefully avoid! I’ve already made some.
For instance, I was so worried about bringing too much stuff , that I gave away half of my flatware set (of eight). Now we only have four forks, four spoons, etc. and certainly have room and need for eight. Duh!
And I don’t like eating with plastic!
Happy Tales, Patti
reinita
All I can immediately say is “wow.” Our kids are still too young for us to pick up and go, but we do dream about it. Maybe when the youngest, DS4, leaves the nest…
We suspect we, too, will make the transition into full-timing, but it’s going to be quite a while. In the meantime, please keep us posted so we can learn through your mistakes, I mean, wonderful travels.
Happy camping…err….full-timing!
Patti Faustini
You’re too funny, Butterbean! And yes, that good looking guy with me is my husband. Lucky me…and he’s really nice, to boot! Anhd yes, we’ll have fun with our full time RV life, and I’ll let you and our great Woodall’s readers know all about it.
Happy Tales, Patti
butterbean carpenter
Howdy Patti,
Whatza wrong wit bein a littl crazy every now an then, hah?? If you joost be strait an sane alla time you
no hava no fun… You be alittle crazy an hava lotsa fun and dem dat don’t lik it can sit on they thum…
DECLARE YOU ARE FREE AND IMPORTANT AND HAVE LOTZA FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smooth roads, clear skies & balmy breezes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
pms: Who’s the movie star with you, hah?? Lookza likea Marcello Mastrioni !!!!
Patti Faustini
Thanks Diane,
Another friend recently used the word “courage,” as you have above, but I think she secretly meant “crazy!” But you don’t mean it that way, so thank you! Of course, we could be a bit courageous AND a bit crazy!
Happy tales,
Patti
Diane Berry
Patti–Kudos to the two of you! What courage! Our declaration of independence for 2011-12 is to sell the home we’ve lived in for the past 22 years and move to a small home we purchased in a place we love to vacation, New Mexico. Will also be simplifying our lifestyle and, though not RVing full time, will be doing quite a bit more traveling. Who knows…maybe someday we, too, will abandon the brick and mortar and go with a full time home on wheels. Good luck to you both! Can’t wait to read more…
Patti Faustini
Thanks so much, Jan and Don! We love the idea of visiting family for long periods of time, and not being a burder, too. Also, we frankly prefer staying in our own private mess doing things our own private way!
It was nice hearing from you, and have a great time in Alaska and the midwest. We’re still making our plans…we’re kind of in shock!
Happy tales,
Patti
Jan and Don
You’re going to love full-timing. We started a year and a half ago, after living in Hawaii for 20 years. We can visit family any time and not be a burden because we have our own home with us. We have traveled to Nova Scotia and are now on the Alaska Highway, just a day or two away from Alaska. We plan to spend 3 months here and then back to the Midwest to visit our daughter and to celebrate Don’s parent’s 70th wedding anniversary. Then back to Florida to visit our daughter. The freedom is wonderful. It’s an economical and green lifestyle. No regrets.