Living In Our RV For Two Months!

So now we've been living in our travel trailer for two months. We sold our house, and we sold Most everything that we owned. I quit work the week before Christmas, this way I could the be available to sell our household items. I used two apps One was called "let go" and the other one "offer up". Between the two, I was able to sell most everything. These apps were free. Now you could get premium advertising if you want to, but I sold most everything through the free ads. The garage was a real challenge, it was just packed full of stuff. So I rented a dumpster from a company called "Bin there dump that". So we dumped a lot of stuff. We moved into the trailer January 4th. And we still have too much stuff. The back of the truck was full of stuff and including the back seat. I have been slowly sorting through it consolidating down. I built additional storage inside the trailer by building steps for the two sides of the bed so the dog could get in-and-out. Inside the steps, I created more storage space. We bought a new bed to replace the Rv bed because RV bed was terrible. We bought a Novaform memory foam mattress. It is a 14" thick mattress, and so that is way taller than the original mattress. That's why I had to build the steps. If you are gonna live in an RV full time you need a comfortable bed, RV beds are just not going to cut it.




So we are still Sitting here in Manitou Springs. That is giving us time to continue to consolidate down and to continue to organize our things better. It's also giving us an opportunity to pay down our bills and get our taxes taken care of so all our financial things are in order before we start to travel. I'm trying to preserve as much cash from the sale of the house but we have to get rid of the credit card bills. The amount of interest that we pay each and every month is crazy. what a waste of money! I have paid off about half our credit cards so far. I started off by paying all the small balances first and have been slowly working up to the cards with the higher balance. I did it that way so it felt like we are accomplishing more. We had way too many credit cards which made it very difficult to keep track of it all. As I pay off these cards it will reduce our future monthly bill Obligations.

watch My Video "two Months Living In the RV Full-Time"

I can't wait to start traveling. We should be able to hit the road end of April. The first trip will be to South Dakota that's where we are going to domicile. First order of business will be to get new drivers licenses. I already have a PMB in South Dakota. A personal mailbox becomes your legal address.We signed up with America's mailbox because they offer a lot of services. I'm currently working with them to register my car. They will mail me my plates. It's definitely nice to have someone in South Dakota to do the legwork for you. Once the car is registered in South Dakota I can get auto insurance in South Dakota. Auto insurance is way cheaper there.

 If you decide to sign up with America's mailbox please use me as a Referral. Tell them Syd Robinson #9435 sent you. You will get a $25 Gift card good at 15,000 restaurants around the country www.americasmailbox.com




Cathy's already collecting her social security retirement and mine begins this month. Between the two of us, we will have a decent monthly income. Fortunately, Social Security is not our only resource. even though we retired early we can still make extra income through various work opportunities. We won't lose any benefits as long as we keep our earned income below $17,020 each. As long as we continue to make some extra money we should be able to do pretty much what we want. I plan on trying to keep as much money in our retirement funds as possible by not using them. It will be good to continue to allow the retirement funds to grow until age 70. At that time you have to start withdrawing money from your funds or you will be penalized.



While we continue to prepare to travel I will continue to keep you updated with these blog posts. So until next time happy camping!


PS: Check out my youtube channel! RV Tips And Trips!





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You can install solar on your RV

Solar is a great way to keep your RV batteries in Tip top condition. The controller has a program that conditions the batteries. About once a month it intentionally overcharges the batteries for about 2 hours. This blows off any sulfate deposits of the plates in the cells. Is it worth installing solar on your RV?.

If you go camping a lot then the answer is yes. It's not that difficult to install.  you can do-it-yourself and save a lot of money. My biggest fear was putting holes in the roof of our travel trailer and having it leak. One of my other fears is that the panels on the roof are not secure enough and having them rip off the roof as I'm driving down the highway. Well, I've traveled coast to coast with these and that hasn't happened. I had gotten the basic 100-watt Renogy kit to start off.  I went with monocrystalline because it is slightly more efficient than the polycrystalline and the cost difference is negligible. The kit came with a PWM controller. The Mppt Controller is more efficient, but on small setups, the cost difference isn’t justified. The PWM is simpler, and so less to go wrong. The MPPT works better at a higher Panel voltage. When the voltage output of the panels drops below a certain point it reverts to PWM style of charging anyway.

We took a short camping trip after I installed the panels period of solar panel stayed on the trailer in high winds sigh of relief. I found that the 100 W panel made the battery last longer but the battery eventually still depleted. So I bought another 100 W panel and connected it in parallel.i also installed a Renogy 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. It will run sensitive electronic equipment with no problem. I also love the wireless remote to turn it on and off. Shortly after we went on a 2-week vacation we found that when we boondocked the batteries lasted much longer. But still eventually would deplete. We added a 3rd 100 W solar panel on the roof and put that in parallel with the other 2. We took A weekend trip and we were able to watch TV for 4 hours, our furnace all night without a problem, never ran out of power. We have a mini fridge in the outside kitchen and it was able to run that too.

300 W of solar seems to be sufficient for our needs. The battery bank consists of 2 12 volt batteries in parallel and they are 94 amp/ hours each. The batteries should be of same age and type. This way they will charge and discharge at the same rate.

You should never run your batteries below 50% of their capacity. So total capacity of our system is 94 amp hours. Max charge rate of our system in full sun is 15 amp hours. So the panels should be able to fully recharge the batteries in a little over 6 hours.

Of course, there are many environmental factors that would affect the charge rate such as elevation, clouds, and time of year. For example, in winter the sun is less intense giving you less power output. Also the further North you are in the country the less solar output as well. So to compensate for this one more solar panel may do the trick.

One would ask “why didn’t I install the system all at once?”. Two reasons, 1) it spread the cost out over time 2) if I created a leak when installing I would know which panel was the culprit.

I will write a second article detailing the installation.

Until next time, Happy Camping!

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Preparing to retire early and Travel in the RV full time

This is the first article in a series of preparing for full-time RV life.

Well, retiring at 62 is that really early? Who the heck wants to wait until 70 to retire, I want to have fun and enjoyment now while I can.

I'm sure Thomas, our miniature dachshund, will enjoy having us full-time.

To live full-time in the RV means we would need to sell the house and get rid of almost everything that we own so we can scale down to live in the trailer.  We are scaling back from a 2600 sq. ft home to a 30 ft travel trailer. Do we keep some of our furniture and put it in storage in case we decide to come off the road? Is it worth it paying for storage? Then we need to apply for social security retirement money. What do we do about health care for me because I would only be 62?  Should I chance not having health insurance and hope I don't get sick? Maybe I should establish residency in a state that has lower health care costs. What about voting? Where do I get mail? What about income tax and sales tax, drivers licenses, auto registration, auto insurance? What state has the best deal overall?

Do we use the money from the sale of the house to pay off bills or do we try and conserve the cash and pay down the bills as we go? Both my wife and I will be collecting Social Security benefits early, but she's closer to the full retirement age than I am. So we will have income from Social Security and perhaps we can make some extra money while on the road to help supplement it.

So the plan is, after taking care of all these miscellaneous items, to travel in our current travel trailer for one year. If we decide that we like it then we will upgrade to a 5th wheel. The trailer is set up with 300 Watts of solar panels on the roof so we should have plenty of power while boondocking. We also have a 1000 Watt pure sine wave inverter to run all the electronics. The plan is to boondock for five or six days at a time and then one day at an RV park. That should help reduce our living expenses quite a bit. Certainly not having a mortgage payment and utility bills anymore will save a lot of money each month. It's certainly a lot of things to consider and to prepare for.

So the smaller items, we will try and sell on eBay and then the rest of stuff try and sell in yard sales. We will have to do a couple yard sales until it is all gone.

So in preparation for all this, we purchased a new truck that has better towing capabilities than our previous one.  We had a Chevrolet Silverado 1500 truck and now we have a Chevy Silverado one-ton truck.  I decided to go with the gas 3500 because I can't justify the cost increase for the diesel.  Also, only 50% of the gas stations across the country carry diesel so it's a lot more convenient using a gas truck.

We switched our cell phone carriers from Sprint to Verizon because Verizon has much better coverage which will be important when we start traveling. Having unlimited internet access will be important because we watch a lot of YouTube, Hulu, and Vudu.

I'm sure this is going to be a lot of fun but it's also kind of scary.

Our preparations begin now. They say you need to have a date set to commit to, or it may never happen, so we need to have all tasks completed by June 2018. The clock is running! I will write updates as we plan and discover new ideas on how to do this.

If you have any thoughts or ideas that will help as we move forward, please feel free to comment.

Watch for my next article on why I decided on the truck that we bought.

Until next time, happy camping!

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Should Children Be Raised on the Road? Is Living Full Time in an RV a Healthy Choice For Kids?

I believe there is a place for full-time RV living, but I have some serious misgivings about parents who decide to raise their school-aged children full time in an RV. 

My Wife and I are in our early 60’s.  We’ve worked hard our whole life, paid into retirement and social security, and are now considering early retirement and full-time RV living.  We plan to sell our home, travel in our RV and see the whole country before we are too old to continue to do it.  We have the resources from the equity in our home, our retirement money, and of course, social security.  For us, the choice to live full time in an RV is a sound decision. 

But what about the children who are raised full time in an RV?  Don’t you think they are giving up a whole lifetime of experiences that they will never get back?  In my humble opinion, they might grow up with little or no social skills.  They will never experience going to school with children their own ages and never make lifelong friends.  And what about school dances, their first prom, going to football games, joining sports, joining the band, trying out for cheerleading, the list goes on and on.  None of these activities are available to them on the road. 

I’m NOT a big proponent of homeschooling to begin with.  Where will these children get the ambition to go to college, or to leave home to get a job?  Where will they get the skills and/or the knowledge to even go about being on their own in a traditional environment?  Most kids in a traditional home have chores.  Most kids grow up getting a job delivering newspapers, or cutting grass, it's how they learn the value of a dollar.  Where will these kids learn this lesson? Kids learn by example. Aren’t the parents teaching these children a way of life that may not be appropriate for them?

If I’m wrong, I’d love to hear from the adults who have chosen this life for their children.  I’d like to know why they chose this life for them, and if there are any children who have actually grown up on the road with their parents, kids who have been doing this for a very long time.  What effect has this had on them?  Do they feel deprived? Please send me your comments.  I would really like to know.

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Choosing the Right RV/Camper

Which RV is right for you?  Million dollar question, right? Speaking as someone who is on camper number 3, and my wife really wanting camper number 4, this is a really tough decision.

Our first camper was a 20 foot Cabin A.  It had a very TINY bathroom, a full-size bed, and a very small sink with no counter space, and a refrigerator with a freezer that could hold maybe one pound of meat.  If you’re upgrading from a tent or pop up trailer, then this type of RV would probably be perfect for you.  If you’re only going to use it for the occasional weekend camping trip or once a year vacation, then this type of RV will work for you.  Even though it was small, it had a big closet, lots of storage, and it slept 6.  We were in our early 50’s when we purchased it and it was a little difficult climbing over people to get into the bed.  A young family would’ve really enjoyed this camper.

When we decided to trade in the Cabin A, my wife's main concern was a bigger bed.  She walked into what would be our second camper, a 25 foot Aspen Trail, saw a huge queen sized bed, and decided it was the camper for her.  She didn't notice that the bed sat very high, and it was a challenge to get in and out of the bed.  Also, we were now in our mid 50’s, and all the jacks and the awning were manual cranks, and it eventually became burdensome to set up, and take down the campsite.  It had a much larger bathroom, no slide-outs, and a “U” shaped dining table.  It had a nice sized refrigerator, and a separate freezer, which was pretty awesome.  As time went on, she felt the height of the bed was a pain, and she really did not care for the “U” shaped dining table.

That brings us to camper number three.  Again, she walked into a 30 foot Sprinter Campfire Edition camper, saw the queen sized bed, this one closer to the floor, a slide out which made the living area much bigger, a really nice couch, a huge bathroom, electric jacks and awning, and to top it all off, an outdoor kitchen.  So you’re probably thinking this one should be perfect right, so why is she looking for camper number 4?  Well, now we’re not just using it for the occasional weekend or yearly vacation. We are now thinking about living in the camper full time, so now she wants a little more space.  The couch is very comfortable, but not for sitting and watching TV for a couple of hours.  It's barely big enough for me, my wife, and the dog.  And I need a lot more storage space.  So, looking for number 4.

So, when you walk into that camper that looks just perfect, first decide what you’ll be using it for and what your needs are.  Do you want a camper, a fifth wheel, or a coach?  What’s important to you, a big bed, lots of storage, a big bathroom?  Walk into the camper, lay on the bed, sit at the table, stand in the shower, sit on the toilet, open the cabinets, take your time to imagine what you will take with you and whether there is enough room.  Go to a place that sells hundreds of campers and RV, not a small lot that doesn’t have a lot of choices.  Go to an RV show and look at all the options.  Then pick your camper or RV.  Don’t do like we did.  In the long run, it will just cost you a lot of money because you will be upside down on every decision.

Happy camping!!!

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Thinking About Full Time RV Life

As we get closer to retirement age, all sorts of ideas start running through my head, to include the freedom of traveling whenever we want, and living in the RV full time. All that stuff starts to hurt my brain. It can become so overwhelming. What shall we do? What first? It is certainly something I have never done before.

When I was younger I thought about living that lifestyle when I retired. It sounded great to me at the time. I thought to myself, what a great life that would be. Well, the time to do that is now fast approaching. Instead of retirement being years away, I'm down to just months away.

There are so many things to consider. For one thing, how the heck do we downsize? I have a lot of years worth of stuff. Then of course you need to sell the house. Get rid of all your bills. What about health insurance? If we retire early at 62 you can collect social security but don’t qualify for medicare yet. Where do we want our residency be? Where do we get our mail? What about friends and family? What do we do about doctors, dentists. How much does this lifestyle cost? What happens if we don’t like this lifestyle after a year then what?

As all this starts running through my mind, my head feels like it will burst. So, we need a plan.

Come join me as we start our journey into this lifestyle.

Our preparation begins now. I will write updates as we plan and discover new ideas on how to do this. I know a lot of you are already living the life, and some of you may just be considering it. If any of you have any thoughts as we move forward please feel free to comment. Your thoughts and ideas will help us tremendously as we try to figure this out.

Until next time, happy Camping!

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Road Trip Anyone?

I know, the first thing that probably pops into your head when you hear “road trip” is the disastrous trip of the Griswald family in “Vacation”. That was pretty funny, but thank heavens I’ve never had a road trip like that.

The only way to see this beautiful country is by driving through it. This country is magnificent. The dictionary defines magnificent as impressively beautiful, splendid, spectacular, impressive, glorious, inspiring, breathtaking, awesome, majestic…well you get the meaning. The sights I’ve seen can be described by every one of those words, and then some.

First, determine the amount of time you have. With today’s technology, planning a road trip, and mapping out a route is the easiest thing to do. You need to plan how long you are willing to drive in a day, where you want to stop for the night, and what you want to see while you’re there. Then let your computer plan your route. MapQuest is a good tool for planning the trip.

So now the tough decisions are what to see and do. I’ll tell you about some of the places I’ve been. Let’s start with Colorado because that’s where I live. You have the majestic mountains all throughout the state, Rocky Mountain National Park, The Great Sand Dunes National Park, you can drive to the top of Pikes Peak where the views are breathtaking, or you ride the incline if you don’t want to drive, there are hot springs to rest your body and soul, and plenty of National Forest to just camp. Most National Parks offer camping also. If you’ve never driven up the California coastline, you are missing out on the most spectacular views you’ll ever see, and who doesn’t love the ocean? You’ve got to see the Redwood Forest in northern California. The giant trees can be found nowhere else in the U.S. To just say giant trees does not do them justice. To see a picture of them is not enough. You must see them in person. They are awe-inspiring. There are absolutely no words to describe Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I can only say, GO SEE IT. I’ve climbed up the side of a volcano in Oregon at Volcano National Monument. My absolute favorite, Yellowstone National Park which borders Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Gives you an idea of just how big it is. There is nowhere on this earth as dramatic as Yellowstone. You take a walk though all the geysers and each one is made up of all different colors. And let’s not forget Old Faithful. It is truly amazing to watch Old Faithful go off at exactly the same time, each time. Nowhere else can you see buffalo and other animals roaming down the streets. It is nature at its most stunning and again, pictures won’t do, you need to see it to experience the majesty. I have climbed a snow-covered glacier in the middle of the summer wearing shorts at Glacier National Park in Montana. I’ve toured the civil war battlefields in the south and the sponge diving in Florida. Not to mention Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studies, etc. Take a ride on a whaling boat in Mystic, Connecticut and take the ferry across to Long Island. (Yes you take your car or RV right on the ferry). Take in the beauty and majesty of Niagara Falls in upper state New York. Washington, DC, our nations capital has so many things to offer, but the most impressive is the Smithsonian Museums, and they are free to get in, as are most of the attractions and monuments in Washington, DC. There are so many other places to see.

So pack your bags, pack a tent, rent an RV, but don’t make plane reservations. You’ll miss too much by flying, and there is so much more in between all the places I mentioned that you don’t get to see when you fly. I hope I’ve inspired you to take a road trip. America truly is beautiful, from sea to shining sea.

I would love to hear from you about places you’ve been because I would still like to see it all. Comment below so I’ll know where to plan my next vacation.

Hope to see you on the road.