On May 9, 2014, Tim and I sold our
house in Estes Park, Colorado, and embarked on a new life as full-time RVers. Traveling in an RV, let alone full-timing in one,
is not something that either one of us ever envisioned doing. That all began to change in 2010, however,
when I proposed the idea of taking a year off and traveling throughout the
United States. Tim agreed to help make this travel dream of mine a reality, and he was able to take a nine-month
leave of absence so we could travel from September 2011 to June 2012 in an RV.
We called the trip our “Road Trip Ramble,” and viewed it as a trip-of-a-lifetime. I kept a blog about our
trip, and you can read about it here.
Little did we know when we returned to Estes Park that we would sell our
house and hit the road on a full-time basis in less than two years.
But didn’t I mention that we traveled
in an RV? Sarah (and Tim, for that
matter) in an RV? Surely, that can’t be
true. Two people who swore they would
never even set foot in an RV traveled in one for nine months. And not just any RV, but one that is about
the size of a large walk-in closet.
You might ask why we selected this mode
of transportation. It’s simple,
really. It’s all because of the
cat! You see, Tim had a cat when I met him
in 2008, and I quickly grew to love her.
When I broached the idea to Tim of taking an extended road trip, I had
thought we would travel in a car. But
what about Kitty? If we left her with someone
for nine months, she would no longer be our cat when we returned. Traveling with her in the car, however, did
not seem to be feasible. So the idea of
an RV slowly emerged as the only way to go.
You can read more about Kitty here, and how we selected our RV here and here. The cat made us do it!
At the end of our amazing trip, Tim
returned to work, and we considered selling the RV. Tim had no plans to retire for at least four
to five years, and we never really considered ourselves weekend campers. We changed our minds, however, when we
realized that we might need the RV after Tim did retire. There was still the cat to think about. The RV continued to be the only way we could
travel with her.
On October 22, 2013, something amazing
happened. Tim decided to retire early,
and he set a date of March 21, 2014. We
had no plans for our future at that point, and full-time RVing was not high on
the list of possibilities. Although I
had continued to follow the blogs of full-timers and could easily envision
myself as a full-timer, Tim was not so sure.
As we continued to talk about our future, however, he came to the
conclusion that this type of lifestyle might be the way to go. I don’t remember when we made the decision,
but once the decision was made, we began to work toward that goal. We would sell the house, store a few things
and hit the road.
Let me backtrack a bit and tell you a
little about us so you can see how we got to where we are today.
TIM
Tim was born in Fort Morgan, Colorado,
and served as the Museum Curator at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park,
Colorado, until his retirement. Prior to
that, he worked for the National Park Service at Pecos National Historical Park
in New Mexico and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. Before joining the National Park Service, Tim worked
as an archeologist for private companies and universities throughout the west.
During Tim’s career he had ample
opportunity (call it need!) to camp out in tents in order to do his job. So the idea of traveling in an RV doesn’t
really equate with “camping” as far as he is concerned.
Tim’s interests other than archeology
and museums include architectural design, art, natural history, political
science, world affairs, economics, cooking and feline psychology.
SARAH
I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and am
currently enjoying a life of leisure.
After working for the City of Miami for 24 years as the City’s Historic
Preservation Officer, I took early retirement in 2005. The first thing I did after leaving the city was
to take a solo, seven-week Retirement Road Trip across the country. This trip only whetted my appetite for a
longer trip. For the next few years, I
indulged my gypsy soul. I moved to the
west, living in Montana for a year, and then setting out on another open-ended
road trip, which I called “Wide Open Spaces.”
National parks, charming small towns, scenic byways, museums and
historic properties were the main themes of both trips.
I fulfilled one of my dreams, which was
to work in a national park, during the summer of 2008 when I worked at Grand
Teton National Park. From there, I moved
to Rocky Mountain National Park in November to work as a full-time
volunteer. My stint at Rocky led me to
the park’s museum facility where I met Tim.
I found much more than I had bargained for, and Tim and I were married
in October 2009.
Neither Tim nor I socially network – no
Facebook, no Twitter. This blog is our
link to the outside world.
Enjoyed meeting you and Tim last evening in Kerrville (Kitty made the introduction). Love to see another class B traveler. You are inspiring me towards my own fulltime dream. Until then, I hope we meet again on the road. Angelique (Roadtreker from Austin).
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful to Kitty for introducing us. It was wonderful to meet you and compare notes with a kindred spirit who understands why traveling in a Class B is such a great idea. Besides, how many RVers know who Campskunk is?
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