SeilerBird
Well-known member
Well I let the cat out of the bag a bit early so I might as well tell you all the whole story. I was planning on posting this on the 31st of May since that would be my 10th anniversary for going full time, but it will be easier to explain it all right now.
On May 31st I am going to hang up my keys and retire from being a full timer and return to civilian life. I began my full timing adventure on May 31, 2003 when I left Reno in an Isuzu with a tent and a sleeping bag, never to return. I had initially planned a 6 month tour of 26 western National Parks, one week at each park. By the time I had been on the road for exactly two days I had decided that I was going full time. It takes guts to go full timing in a tent. Or massive stupidity. You make your own call there. I remember lying in my tent at Great Basin National Park around midnight thinking "Why would I ever want to go back to living in an apartment again?"
Well I am not going back to living in an apartment, I am going to be buying a mobile home. The reasons for this move is very complex and to avoid explaining it many times I am going to attempt to explain it here as completely as possible. This is going to be long winded so you might just want to skim the story.
You see I met this beautiful rich woman who thinks I am the world's greatest lover and she wants me to be a kept man in her mansion. Not. The real story is a lot more boring than that. Last summer I was staying in Crescent City California and I decided that it was time for me to visit the number one spot on my Bucket List and spend two weeks at Disney World. Of course when I made the decision I was as about as far away from Disney World as I could be without speaking Canadian. Eh? So in September I started my slow cross country journey (55 all the way coast to coast).
All went well until I got to Phoenix in December. My brakes were pulsing and it had become much worse. I decided it would be foolish to drive across country on bad brakes so I spent $800 and got my front brakes done. In January I once again resumed my journey. I got to Florida without further incident. I spent two fantastic weeks at Disney World walking about 10 miles a day. It took me two months after I left DW before my feet and my hips returned to feeling normal.
I left DW and headed for Denver (and if you have to ask why Denver then you don't know me very well) but I only got 30 miles and the transmission started acting up and the check engine light came on. So I called CoachNet and got towed to an RV repair place in Kissimmee. They could not solve the problem. I posted a thread here and no one here could come up with the answer to my problem. I have had several other mechanics take a shot and no one could solve it. Meanwhile with thehelp of Catblaster I got my RV parked in a great RV park. I love this place, it is like living in a bird sanctuary. It is not everyone's cup of tea but it sure makes me happy.
So a few months ago I was trying to decide if I should keep this RV and fix it up or sell it and buy another one. The problem is that this RV really needs back brakes, front springs, shocks, tires and a tune up. You see the home part of the motorhome is in fine shape. Everything works. The motor part of the motorhome needs $5k in repairs at least. I only paid $6.5k for the RV so it is hard to invest another $5k into it. The alternative would be to buy another RV, but that would take at least $10k and actually $20k would be a lot better. Since I hate credit and don't have a large savings account I would have to sit here and do nothing for a least a year or two to get that much money saved up. Just fixing up this RV would require a six month sit.
Then it finally dawned on me. I am not a religious man at all however on this 10 year trip at several key junctions I have received a sign from God. Each time I followed the sign God was right. I realized that getting stuck here in this wonderful place was a sign from God that it was time for me to hang up the keys. And it is not a good idea to argue with God.
I have always had it in the back of my mind that some day I would get stuck some place. After all if you get a 20 to 30 year old RV and travel all over the country like a drunken pinball then eventually your luck will run out. What really convinced me that this would be the place to settle down was the neighbor across the street from me. I met Larry one fine day and spent some time chatting with him. He told me he just bought the mobile home he is living in. I asked him how much he paid and he said "$5,000". I almost had a heart attack. This is an old mobile home, to be sure, but a very nice looking place that is in good shape. The lot is large for a mobile home park, there is a giant oak tree and a storage shed on his property and it is located on a canal with a dock in the back yard. $5000!!!! He only owns the mobile home, not the lot, but the lot rent is only $250 per month. This is a small mobile home but it feels like the Taj Mahal after living in tents, vans and RVs for ten years. You can see his mobile home and the canal in the photos below.
So I started shopping Craigslist for mobile homes in Florida and I was blown away. It seems all of Florida is covered with mobile homes. There are hundreds of them for sale all over the state. I have seen them as low as $1500 completely furnished. I can afford one of them. So I decided to buy me a nice car and a mobile home. The two of them together will probably cost less that the price of fixing this RV up.
I have to buy a car first. I realized I can't drive around Florida looking at mobile homes on my 50cc scooter. As everyone knows buying real estate is location location location. That means I must do extensive shopping to find a location where I get 4 bars of 4G service on my smart phone. The house can be a dump but I must have a good Internet connection. I looked at ads on Craigslist endlessly and I have decided the panhandle is out of the question. Very few mobile homes in that end of the state and it freezes up there. I decided that the south end of the state is too crowded or two swampy. Both the left coast and the right coast have pricey lot rent. It turns out the Orlando/Lakeland area will be just perfect for me. Lot rent here runs between $200 and $400 a month. There are a zillion lakes in central Florida so it won't be too hard to find a place with a lake close by.
There are a lot of factors that led me to stay here in Florida besides my RV breaking down and God speaking to me. Number one would be Florida. There are a lot of exciting things to see and do here that appeal to me. There are three National Parks here including number four in my top ten, the Everglades. There are many great National Wildlife Refuges here including one of my all time favorites, Ding Darling (Google it). There is Canaveral National Seashore, the Florida Keys, Kennedy Space Center, Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Busch Gardens and a bunch of my friends. And there are four cruise ports here in Florida. Going on cruises are also on my bucket list. I love scuba diving in the Caribbean and this will be an excellent way to do that. And birds. There are gazillions of birds here.
Friends is another great reason for moving here. There are a lot of forum members living here and some of them have turned out to be great friends, Will, Glen, Karen and Roni and a few more that I haven't met. It is slightly weird to move someplace and already know people but such is the power of the Internet.
Then there is the whole east coast thing. I was born and raised in the mid west. Moved to California at age 11 and lived there for 40 years. I have been full timing for 10 years. The only section of the country I haven't lived is in the east. Living here will make it much easier for me to explore the east coast. Believe it or not I have never seen the fall colors change in New England. It was in my plans for several different years but something always came up. I have only spent a few days in New York City and I excited about spending a few weeks there. Same thing with Washington DC. I am anxious to drive all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. My east coast bucket list is long and exciting.
But how am I going to explore all these places without an RV? I have come up with a wildly bizarre plan. I am going to stay in motels! Imagine Tom in motels? Alert the media. Of course I won't be able to take the cats so I will find a pet sitting service that will come in and feed my cats and change the litter box daily. They charge around $15 a day for this service.
So my basic plan will be to have one vacation per month. I will pick an exciting destination and spend a week there. That gives me three weeks at home and one week one the road each month. I have already drawn up a Google map and put a dozen pins in it with the places in Florida that appeal to me the most.
There are a few other miscellaneous reasons for my decision that I will reveal in the interest of full disclosure. I was in a band in Reno called Sierra Express and I had to quit the band to go on the road. I really miss being in a band and it is impossible to be in a band when I change locations many times per year. As soon as I get settled in I will be advertising in Craigslist for other musicians to form a band. I have already started putting together a song book for us. Not that I care if I make money at it, I just want to play and have an audience too if possible.
Another reason is that it is tough to find a girl who will go out with a guy who is leaving town next week. I don't necessarily need another girlfriend but it would be wonderful to have some female companionship occasionally. Tonight I am going to see a Paul McCartney concert in Orlando. It is tough to go to concerts when on the road. If I get to a city and there is a concert I want to see it is generally already sold out and tickets are pricey. I can't imagine what tickets for tonights show are being scalped at.
The bottom line is I am not signing a lifetime contract here. If after some time passes I should get tired of living in Florida or if I really miss living in an RV I can always change directions (one of the perks of being single). I have the option of buying another motorhome and either A - selling the house and car and hitting the road full time. Or B - keeping the house and car and spending winters in Florida and summers on the road or C - occasionally going camping. And in Florida there certainly are a lot of campgrounds.
I will still be hanging around this forum. I will be posting my photos every month as always. I will be posting my exact location so if anyone is traveling though Florida and wish to stop by and say hi I would be honored. It is always a pleasure to meet forum members.
On May 31st I am going to hang up my keys and retire from being a full timer and return to civilian life. I began my full timing adventure on May 31, 2003 when I left Reno in an Isuzu with a tent and a sleeping bag, never to return. I had initially planned a 6 month tour of 26 western National Parks, one week at each park. By the time I had been on the road for exactly two days I had decided that I was going full time. It takes guts to go full timing in a tent. Or massive stupidity. You make your own call there. I remember lying in my tent at Great Basin National Park around midnight thinking "Why would I ever want to go back to living in an apartment again?"
Well I am not going back to living in an apartment, I am going to be buying a mobile home. The reasons for this move is very complex and to avoid explaining it many times I am going to attempt to explain it here as completely as possible. This is going to be long winded so you might just want to skim the story.
You see I met this beautiful rich woman who thinks I am the world's greatest lover and she wants me to be a kept man in her mansion. Not. The real story is a lot more boring than that. Last summer I was staying in Crescent City California and I decided that it was time for me to visit the number one spot on my Bucket List and spend two weeks at Disney World. Of course when I made the decision I was as about as far away from Disney World as I could be without speaking Canadian. Eh? So in September I started my slow cross country journey (55 all the way coast to coast).
All went well until I got to Phoenix in December. My brakes were pulsing and it had become much worse. I decided it would be foolish to drive across country on bad brakes so I spent $800 and got my front brakes done. In January I once again resumed my journey. I got to Florida without further incident. I spent two fantastic weeks at Disney World walking about 10 miles a day. It took me two months after I left DW before my feet and my hips returned to feeling normal.
I left DW and headed for Denver (and if you have to ask why Denver then you don't know me very well) but I only got 30 miles and the transmission started acting up and the check engine light came on. So I called CoachNet and got towed to an RV repair place in Kissimmee. They could not solve the problem. I posted a thread here and no one here could come up with the answer to my problem. I have had several other mechanics take a shot and no one could solve it. Meanwhile with thehelp of Catblaster I got my RV parked in a great RV park. I love this place, it is like living in a bird sanctuary. It is not everyone's cup of tea but it sure makes me happy.
So a few months ago I was trying to decide if I should keep this RV and fix it up or sell it and buy another one. The problem is that this RV really needs back brakes, front springs, shocks, tires and a tune up. You see the home part of the motorhome is in fine shape. Everything works. The motor part of the motorhome needs $5k in repairs at least. I only paid $6.5k for the RV so it is hard to invest another $5k into it. The alternative would be to buy another RV, but that would take at least $10k and actually $20k would be a lot better. Since I hate credit and don't have a large savings account I would have to sit here and do nothing for a least a year or two to get that much money saved up. Just fixing up this RV would require a six month sit.
Then it finally dawned on me. I am not a religious man at all however on this 10 year trip at several key junctions I have received a sign from God. Each time I followed the sign God was right. I realized that getting stuck here in this wonderful place was a sign from God that it was time for me to hang up the keys. And it is not a good idea to argue with God.
I have always had it in the back of my mind that some day I would get stuck some place. After all if you get a 20 to 30 year old RV and travel all over the country like a drunken pinball then eventually your luck will run out. What really convinced me that this would be the place to settle down was the neighbor across the street from me. I met Larry one fine day and spent some time chatting with him. He told me he just bought the mobile home he is living in. I asked him how much he paid and he said "$5,000". I almost had a heart attack. This is an old mobile home, to be sure, but a very nice looking place that is in good shape. The lot is large for a mobile home park, there is a giant oak tree and a storage shed on his property and it is located on a canal with a dock in the back yard. $5000!!!! He only owns the mobile home, not the lot, but the lot rent is only $250 per month. This is a small mobile home but it feels like the Taj Mahal after living in tents, vans and RVs for ten years. You can see his mobile home and the canal in the photos below.
So I started shopping Craigslist for mobile homes in Florida and I was blown away. It seems all of Florida is covered with mobile homes. There are hundreds of them for sale all over the state. I have seen them as low as $1500 completely furnished. I can afford one of them. So I decided to buy me a nice car and a mobile home. The two of them together will probably cost less that the price of fixing this RV up.
I have to buy a car first. I realized I can't drive around Florida looking at mobile homes on my 50cc scooter. As everyone knows buying real estate is location location location. That means I must do extensive shopping to find a location where I get 4 bars of 4G service on my smart phone. The house can be a dump but I must have a good Internet connection. I looked at ads on Craigslist endlessly and I have decided the panhandle is out of the question. Very few mobile homes in that end of the state and it freezes up there. I decided that the south end of the state is too crowded or two swampy. Both the left coast and the right coast have pricey lot rent. It turns out the Orlando/Lakeland area will be just perfect for me. Lot rent here runs between $200 and $400 a month. There are a zillion lakes in central Florida so it won't be too hard to find a place with a lake close by.
There are a lot of factors that led me to stay here in Florida besides my RV breaking down and God speaking to me. Number one would be Florida. There are a lot of exciting things to see and do here that appeal to me. There are three National Parks here including number four in my top ten, the Everglades. There are many great National Wildlife Refuges here including one of my all time favorites, Ding Darling (Google it). There is Canaveral National Seashore, the Florida Keys, Kennedy Space Center, Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Busch Gardens and a bunch of my friends. And there are four cruise ports here in Florida. Going on cruises are also on my bucket list. I love scuba diving in the Caribbean and this will be an excellent way to do that. And birds. There are gazillions of birds here.
Friends is another great reason for moving here. There are a lot of forum members living here and some of them have turned out to be great friends, Will, Glen, Karen and Roni and a few more that I haven't met. It is slightly weird to move someplace and already know people but such is the power of the Internet.
Then there is the whole east coast thing. I was born and raised in the mid west. Moved to California at age 11 and lived there for 40 years. I have been full timing for 10 years. The only section of the country I haven't lived is in the east. Living here will make it much easier for me to explore the east coast. Believe it or not I have never seen the fall colors change in New England. It was in my plans for several different years but something always came up. I have only spent a few days in New York City and I excited about spending a few weeks there. Same thing with Washington DC. I am anxious to drive all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. My east coast bucket list is long and exciting.
But how am I going to explore all these places without an RV? I have come up with a wildly bizarre plan. I am going to stay in motels! Imagine Tom in motels? Alert the media. Of course I won't be able to take the cats so I will find a pet sitting service that will come in and feed my cats and change the litter box daily. They charge around $15 a day for this service.
So my basic plan will be to have one vacation per month. I will pick an exciting destination and spend a week there. That gives me three weeks at home and one week one the road each month. I have already drawn up a Google map and put a dozen pins in it with the places in Florida that appeal to me the most.
There are a few other miscellaneous reasons for my decision that I will reveal in the interest of full disclosure. I was in a band in Reno called Sierra Express and I had to quit the band to go on the road. I really miss being in a band and it is impossible to be in a band when I change locations many times per year. As soon as I get settled in I will be advertising in Craigslist for other musicians to form a band. I have already started putting together a song book for us. Not that I care if I make money at it, I just want to play and have an audience too if possible.
Another reason is that it is tough to find a girl who will go out with a guy who is leaving town next week. I don't necessarily need another girlfriend but it would be wonderful to have some female companionship occasionally. Tonight I am going to see a Paul McCartney concert in Orlando. It is tough to go to concerts when on the road. If I get to a city and there is a concert I want to see it is generally already sold out and tickets are pricey. I can't imagine what tickets for tonights show are being scalped at.
The bottom line is I am not signing a lifetime contract here. If after some time passes I should get tired of living in Florida or if I really miss living in an RV I can always change directions (one of the perks of being single). I have the option of buying another motorhome and either A - selling the house and car and hitting the road full time. Or B - keeping the house and car and spending winters in Florida and summers on the road or C - occasionally going camping. And in Florida there certainly are a lot of campgrounds.
I will still be hanging around this forum. I will be posting my photos every month as always. I will be posting my exact location so if anyone is traveling though Florida and wish to stop by and say hi I would be honored. It is always a pleasure to meet forum members.
