We’d only been on the road for a couple of days last month when it happened. I asked Tom “What time is it?” and he replied “Who cares? We have no schedule, and no place to be right now!” It is true-our time is ours to fill as we please, planning all kinds of adventures to places we’ve long wanted to visit. And we’ve done just that – planned lots of things to see and do. One of the biggest differences between vacation and full-time living on the road, is the ratio between activities and available time. When we were on vacation, we knew that we had limited time to squeeze as much fun as possible into the short time we had for a particular trip. Now that we’re living on the road, we don’t have the same time constraints. If we want to spend all day soaking up history in small town museums in the same county, we can do so and not feel guilty about what we’re not getting to down the road.
Sometimes, though, we still have that sense of urgency in hurrying through whatever we’re doing so that we’ll have time to get to the next thing before time runs out. Last week, we were driving between stops in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and I found myself getting anxious that the day was getting away from us. It took some convincing self-talk to calm me down: it doesn’t matter if we get to the campground a little later than we usually do; we’ve got plenty of daylight left to set up camp; we have no scheduled wake-up time so we can stay up as late as we want; all we really need to do tonight is cook dinner and enjoy an evening campfire. We had a late dinner, stayed up late and slept in-and it was fine!
On the other hand, vacations are usually short enough that routine tasks like laundry, grocery shopping, bill-paying, keeping up with mail, and cleaning/maintenance can be put off until we return home. Pulling our home around behind us means that we have to set aside time for the more mundane tasks while we are on the road. It’s still a little early in this retirement phase for us to claim expert status, but we have already learned a few lessons. We don’t like to spend much time on these tasks, so we try to coordinate them all at the same time. When it’s time to get mail (we have ours forwarded from the Escapees RV Club service in Texas) we locate a community on our way that has general delivery, and also has a grocery store, laundromat, bank and a library. Having these services ensures that we can get almost any business taken care of in the same day, leaving most of our time available for fun! We keep laundry pre-sorted for quick loading at the laundromat, we keep a running list of shopping needs, and maintenance issues so that we’re always ready when we stop for services. Libraries are great stops for catching up with news via newspapers and magazines, and of course free Wi-Fi for the electronic communications.
So far, we’ve been in retirement mode for 6 weeks – sometimes it still feels like a vacation, but we’re working on getting used to it!
The day we’ve been planning and preparing for, finally arrived. Tom’s last day of work was Friday, the first of May. We spent the weekend with the Central Indiana Unit of the WBCCI (Airstream Owners) club, at Brown County State Park near Nashville Indiana. We had set up camp Thursday evening; Tom commuted from camp to work on Friday. When he returned to the camp Friday evening, all of the Airstreamers lined the road to our site, cheering and congratulating him. What a nice way to start the weekend! Brown County State Park is one of our favorite Indiana parks; this weekend the dogwoods and redbuds were still in bloom, and it was Morel festival weekend. Some visitors were finding the mushrooms, but most in our group were not very lucky.
After a wonderful weekend with our central Indiana Airtream friends, we went to Jackson Center Ohio, for a couple of days. Airstream’s factory and service center, often called the “Mother Ship” are located there. We had a short list of some service items and a safety check, Silver’Rita was pronounce road-ready! While Rita was getting checked out, we took the short drive to Dayton and visited the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We have visited twice now, and it will take a few more visits before we will have seen it all. It is a free attraction and well worth the time. If you go, be sure to sign up for the Presidential Aircraft tour. It is also free, but you must sign up – it involves a bus ride to a secure area of the base.
From Jackson Center, we travelled to Virginia to meet up with son Brian and his sweetheart Ashley and to visit with our friends, the Heuers who graciously allowed us to park at their cabin in the mountains near the Blue Ridge Parkway. While there, we visited several wineries and breweries, enjoyed good food, and soaked up the peace and quiet. We had no cell phone service, no TV or radio, for four days! We all shared our plans for the summer, and took notes so that we might plan opportunities to cross paths again sooner rather than later. It was wonderful!
When we purchased Silver ‘Rita in September 2013, we made arrangements to store her for the winter. It was a smart move, as the winter or 2013-14 was quite brutal in Indiana. In April 2014 we brought her out of storage and began living in her. Remember- our original plans were to begin full-timing around May 2015 when Tom retired, but after we found just the right trailer, and after the house sold much more quickly than anticipated, we found ourselves accelerating the time table. We spent the summer and fall in and around Indianapolis and central Indiana, with trips to Michigan, Missouri, West Virginia, and Texas. As winter 2014 approached we decided we were experienced enough “trailerites” that we’d try to survive the winter in the trailer. We returned in mid-January from Florida and prepared ourselves for several weeks of winter in an RV park on Indianapolis’ south side.
The park had heated/insulated water pipes for our water connections; we purchased a heated water hose for our fresh water connections. Tom put a light bulb for heat in the hose connection compartment. We put bubble wrap pads over the skylights and fan vents; we lined the windows with bubble wrap. We added extra weather stripping around the door, and on really cold nights we draped a heavy blanket. All of these actions really did help reduce heat loss. When the sun shone, we peeled back some of the bubble wrap to wipe down the condensation. Exhaust fans helped, but never completely stopped, condensation on single pane glass. Whenever the weather allowed we opened windows to get fresh air in for as long as possible.
We propped open the cabinet below the kitchen sink, and held the shower door open an inch or so with a bungee cord. The wardrobe door was likewise propped open, to help keep the pipes to the shower valve, and the water pump, from freezing.
We didn’t experience trouble with running water until the temps got down below 10 degrees. Although the compartment for the water inlet had a light bulb in it, the brass fitting on the hose connecting to the trailer water line did freeze up. Fortunately, the fresh water tank was full, ready to go, and in the heated area below the floor. The same was true with the gray and black holding tanks. While the tanks never froze, the valves didn’t like temps below 10 degrees either. Most of the time we could simply wait until the temperature came up before dumping, but if we really needed to dump and the valve was frozen, we would take a pot of heated water, and pour it into the drain hose backward toward the valve, hold the hose up so that the hot water pooled by the valve, until it thawed out – presto, problem solved! There were also some days when we would leave the gray valve open, allowing the warm water from showers and dishwater to flow directly into the sewer drain.
On a couple of really cold nights we had water freeze in the shower drain trap. Rock salt in the drain prevented that from recurring, and in the black tank as well. If salt didn’t work for the shower, RV antifreeze did the trick.
We have two 40 lb. propane tanks. A tank would usually last about a week when we were using the furnace regularly from January to late March. When one was empty Tom would take it out, strap it into the truck bed and get it filled. We became good friends with the propane man at Flying J! We had two small space heaters that we used quite a bit as well. The one in the bathroom made getting out of the shower much warmer in the morning.
We didn’t have a lot of heavy snow and thought that we’d get through the winter without having to buy a snow shovel-our old ones went into the garage sale offerings after we sold our house. But, with only a couple weeks of March left, we did get a deep enough snow that we had to get a shovel. Not so much for us, but for our dog Jasmine, our short-legged, blind mini dachshund-she couldn’t find a place to do her business so Tom shoveled a doggy doo area for her!
When we decided to spend retirement full-timing in our Airstream, not only did we have to downsize our household and personal possessions, but we had to reduce the number of tools we took with us. Today Tom writes about what went into deciding what tools to take with us when we hit the road……
Downsizing the garage tools, after a forty years of accumulating them, took some thought. Some of the tools were my Dad’s, some were my oldest brother’s, who had upgraded to high quality mechanic’s tools over the years. Others were ones I bought over the years, over several homes and two marriages, to tackle various jobs and projects. I took a long look at the pegboard covered walls of our garage, and thought carefully about a vagabond life, where something might break miles from the nearest hint of civilization, what my skills were, and what it would take to at least band-aid a problem to hobble down the road.
Some were obvious. A pole saw was not needed, nor was the crosscut and rip saws my Dad had used when building his first house, the one I grew up in. Not easy to let them go, as the memories would flood in, of how he taught me the basics of carpentry, plumbing, and electrical wiring. At least, those were the obvious lessons. Down deeper, Dad was teaching me how to be a father, showing patience as the young mind asked questions and the young hands ruined a pricey piece of lumber. Never the less, these would go into the sale. More practical tools were kept, such a set of socket wrenches, and a hand crank socket handle, which could lower the stabilizers faster than an electric drill. But the cordless drill was kept, and the Craftsman corded electric drill he gave me that first married Christmas so many years ago, went to the sale. The miter box went, the odd and ends screwdrivers went, but the newer, intact tip ones were saved. A couple of adjustable wrenches, large and small, came along for the ride, a nice hammer for the tool box, and a second one, with a bright orange handle, stayed in the boot drawer for tent stakes. Orange shows up nice in the gathering dusk, making it easier to find. Pliers, needle nose and regular, a mini hacksaw, the soldering iron, all came along. I soon had the collection shown on the picnic table, all of which fit into one small toolbox, which fits nicely in the “attic”. The attic is a lockable tool box on the truck, wherein lives a few other tools, along with the boards and blocks needed to level the trailer on just about any site. A four-way spinner lug wrench, a torque wrench, and a buck saw, reside here as well. Over a year of living full-time in the Silver ‘Rita, the choices made that day in the garage have held up well. I found it useful to have some duplicates inside the trailer, such as a set of screwdrivers, a pliers and a small adjustable wrench. There are screws, nuts and bolts inside which work loose, and need tightening, but may not be worth putting on shoes or a coat, to retrieve a tool box from the attic, but should be attended to before it develops to a big problem.
I just finished a job, of adjusting the shower handle hot water limiter adjustment, which needed various sized allen wrenches. Now, the shower gets nice and hot, not just lukewarm. Then, with that folding set of allen wrenches in hand, did another little chore on the Hensley hitch, to lube the pivot arms. Somewhere, somehow, I set the allen wrenches down instead of returning them to the tool box. Hopefully, someone has given them a new home, and, I will remember to buy a replacement before I am hundreds of miles from a store and immobilized by a set screw needing adjustment….
Be Warned! This entry is a long one— but it begins to covers our most frequently asked question: “How did you downsize from your house to your Airstream?” It was one we often pondered in the months before we bought Silver’Rita, and one that fully consumed us in the weeks afterward. Because we learned so much from reading about others’ methods and thought processes we’ve decided to go into detail about what we did, why we did it, and how we did it.
Today you will get an overview of how our home is organized. Our trailer is a 2008 30 ft Classic. Here is a floor plan drawing:
Silver’Rita’s Floorplan
Starting in the front of the trailer:
Here’s what the “living room” looks like:
At the front of the trailer, above the sofa, are two cabinets. One of them already had audio-visual equipment in it: Sound system, CD/DVD player. We filled the remaining space with our DVD collection. Multiple binders house the classics and favorites, and one just for the grandkids.
The other cabinet holds our “office” including documents, financial records, office supplies. Most of the folders are for short-term storage and organization. Most documents are scanned and stored electronically if they need to be kept long-term.
Notebooks and files for travel topics and filing subjects
Beneath the sofa is a long drawer- one side is taken up with electrical equipment. The rest of the drawer houses our office electronics: laptop, printer, Ipad, Ipod, camera, and all the cords and accessories that go with them.
Under each sofa arm is storage. One side houses the Airstream briefcase with all of the original documentation that came with the trailer when it was first sold. We have added documentation about anything we’ve added, repaired or modified. The other arm stores overflow pantry items (when I buy too much at the grocery store!) It also is the designated indoor storage area for our outdoor table accessories, when weather prevents us from setting up our outdoor living area.
Behind the sofa is where extra linens (sheets, blankets, large beach towels) and winter coats are stored. Vacuum storage bags reduce the bulk; they also make it easier for us to pull them out when we need to pull the sofa out into a bed for company. This is also where our US flag and its pole live when it is not mounted outside.
One of the features we like best about the 30 ft floor plan, is the entertainment center that clearly separates the living room area from the dining/galley area. We use the storage in this center for a variety of items.
The top cabinet has been put into service as wine/spirits cabinet, using pieces from an under cabinet storage system we had in our house. It holds up to 9 wine/liquor bottles along with drink ware and accessories needed to enjoy them.
In the lower section, we use the three right-side shelves for games and entertainment items: one for playing cards, games and puzzles for us on rainy days, the other two store games, toys, and craft materials for granddaughters’ visits. When they’re here, they know exactly where their “stuff” is, and know they can get into it without asking permission. The two open shelves on the left side hold several camping directories and guidebooks. Inside the closed cabinet we have all the books that we have brought with us; the drawer inside the cabinet holds souvenir keepsakes/scrapbook type items: our national parks passbook, collectible pins/badges/coins, etc.
The galley/dining area is nearly 100% dedicated to food and food prep. We eat out rarely; we enjoy cooking, both inside and out. When weather and timing permit, we cook outside; evening meals are cooked outside, usually over a fire. We cook weekday breakfasts inside on the gas stove, but on the weekend you’ll most likely find us taking our time making coffee and cooking breakfast over the fire. Deciding what kitchen items to bring from the house was probably the most difficult decision during our transition from the house to the Airstream. I will discuss the galley in greater detail in my next post, but the basic ideas were: above the galley: one cabinet with enough dishes/glassware to serve six ( plastic to reduce breakage potential) one cabinet for staple foods; one cabinet for nonperishable food. Above the dinette: variety of mixing/storage and food prep dishes, pitcher, bake ware, a very small selection of small kitchen appliances. There are two large drawers under the dinette benches. One holds all of our cooking pans and skillets, mostly cast iron; the other holds overflow non-perishable foods and staple foods.
Items on the kitchen counter are easily stored in the sink when we are travelling. We no longer have a built in microwave. When the original one quit working, we replaced it with a small countertop model, which leaves room on the sides and on top for additional temporary storage. A tension rod holds the curtain, and an additional tension rod is used to hold the microwave in place when we travel.
Under the sink houses a small waste basket, all cleaning supplies, the dog’s food and supplies. The small drawer in this cabinet holds the small oven bake ware I purchased to better fit the RV oven: cookie sheet, brownie pan, mini-muffin pan, small loaf pan. One of the two drawers under the microwave holds the silver and all of the cooking utensils and knives we use. The bottom drawer is our miscellaneous gadget drawer, matches, lighters, batteries, bulbs, spare parts, hooks, screws, clips, cords; you know the stuff. I frequently re-organize this drawer as the contents change. The storage space under the stove holds a small toolkit for indoor quick fixes that don’t warrant getting the big tool box out of the truck. The drawer under the refrigerator is my paper product storage area. Rolls of foil, wax paper, parchment and plastic wrap, zip storage bags, paper towels, napkins all fit into this drawer. The secret to fitting it all in is taking them all out of their boxes. Watch for my next post with details on making the most of kitchen storage.
Between the galley and the bathroom is the wardrobe. Tom keeps his work clothes here. (only three more months to work, then he’ll recycle some of them!)) We each have one formal suit/dress for dress-up occasions, a few other shirts better suited for hanging than folding. Also in the wardrobe: laundry supplies, small ironing board and iron, hand vac, broom/dustpan, picnic backpack, folding beach chairs, an electronic keyboard, extra tote bags and extra linens. We do have a large number of souvenir tote bags, collected as souvenirs from our various travels. We use them throughout the trailer to store items, and to provide “green” totes for shopping. Besides being practical, they keep memories fresh from our past adventures!
In the bathroom in addition to toiletries, medicines, and toilet tissue, we keep items such as insect repellant, sunscreen and supplies needed for cleaning the bathroom and treating the holding tanks.
A few metal baskets help keep things in order under the sink and on the countertop. As in the kitchen, items on the counter move to the sink for travel.
We like the 30 ft classic bedroom layout-the combination night stand/mini wardrobes work well for us. Folded shirts stack well and the reach in nightstand are very convenient In addition, there are three large drawers under the bed: one on each side and one at the end. We use the drawers and the mini wardrobes to store our clothes, except the few things that hang in the wardrobe. Shoes in bags hang along the wall (3M command strips) along with my sewing supply totes. You can’t see the laundry bags, but there’s one for lights and one for darks in the corners near the foot of the bed. Mesh bags are easily moveable and easy to tote to the laundry on wash day! The quilt on the bed is made from souvenir T-shirt quilts. As we recycle shirts, the designs are kept to make quilts, pillows or storage bags- another way to keep the memories alive, but in a new way!
Under the bed, in space that is accessible from outside, as well as by lifting the bed, we keep most of our outdoor living accessories: chairs, tables, canopy, stove, lights, etc – but that’s info for another post: what goes into all of the outside storage areas, and what tools we carry in the truck.
Well, you’ve had a little “walk-through” our home. Please come back soon for an in-depth look at the kitchen and the ways we’ve maximized its storage.
Our Host Site at McCormick’s Creek State Park in Indiana
I can’t believe that it’s been four months since my last entry! I had intentions of updating much more frequently, and still hope to do so on a mostly weekly basis, but we’ve just been so wrapped up in life that I keep finding others things to do. Here’s what we’ve been up to since mid-May when I last updated:
We wrapped up a two seek stay at Mounds State Park, near Anderson Indiana, on May 18. We really like this state park. The weather was terrific, there weren’t very many campers there for most of our stay. Tom’s commute to work on Indy’s east side was not bad unless there was an accident on I-69. On May 18th, we moved to Lieber State Recreation Area, just south of I-70, near Cloverdale Indiana, for the few days before Memorial Day. This campground is larger, and much more heavily wooded than Mounds. Our site, # 53, is our favorite site in the part- on a quiet more secluded loop. Severe weather, including hail storms, threatened but skirted around us – we were lucky! We spent Memorial Day weekend at Starve Hollow State Recreation Area. This area is popular with fishermen and campers alike. On a previous trip last fall, we spotted a bald eagle, located her nest, and watched her off and on most of the weekend. This time, we did not spot her. The last few days in May were spent at KOA, Greenfield (Indy East) it’s a nice KOA, with a mix of shady and sunny sites, both back-in and pull-thru. They had a pool, playground, laundry, Wi-Fi (reception was best in the store/office) and was right next door to Mt Comfort RV, which has a nice parts/accessories store. Compared to the state park nightly rates, KOA is pricey but the park was nice and facilities were clean. We’re glad we have the KOA membership which saves us 10% on our stays.
In June we were campground hosts at McCormick’s Creek State Park, near Spencer Indiana. This commute was longer for Tom. Duties as host included greeting and assisting campers with rules and park information; keeping restrooms stocked with supplies; cleaning trash and fire pits after campers depart. Sundays were busy days. A benefit: as we cleaned up after campers we often found unburned, and partially burned, wood that we could take to our campsite. On Sunday afternoons, we had quite a woodpile at our site! A negative: too many campers are disrespectful in that they don’t pick up trash, and they try to burn trash in their campfires. I can’t count the number of fire rings that had partially burned trashed, trash that wouldn’t burn, or countless cigarette butts littered around the site. McCormick’s Creek is Indiana oldest state park. It is heavily wooded with many trails winding through woods and along the creek. There are waterfalls and caves to explore. They have a large pool, an active nature center, horseback riding. The park is very near where my son and his family live. We saw our three granddaughters several times. I was even able to volunteer at Allison’s Girl Scout day camp that was held one week in the park. We did not have a full hook-up site as host. We had electric only. We were across the road from the restroom/shower house and a water spigot. We filled our fresh water tank when we arrived. We tried to limit our indoor water use as much as possible, hauling what we needed as needed from across the road. We do most of our cooking and dishwashing outside anyway so that wasn’t too hard. We tried to use the campground restrooms and showers when possible to save our holding tank capacity. At the end of the month, we still had a little fresh water, and capacity (not much!) in our holding tanks. Our friends, Greg and Linda Heuer visited us on 6/23, with their Silver Otter. It was a great evening of visiting and catching up.
July kept us very busy – lots of time with family and friends From 7/1 – 7/3, we stayed at S & H Campground in Mt Comfort, east of Indianapolis. It’s not far from the Greenfield KOA. It is a large park, with pool, lots of planned activities. There were a lot of seasonal campers. It was OK for a few days – it had a bit of a worn feel; restrooms were not very well kept. On July 3rd we headed to Robertsville State Park about an hour Southwest of St. Louis. It is one of our all-time favorite campgrounds. It is very small, only about 30 campsites. It is close to Augusta Missouri, one of the oldest recognized wine growing regions in the United States. We visited a couple of our favorite wineries, Augusta Winery, checked out a new one, Nobleis. By the way, one of Missouri’s principal grape varieties, Norton, produces a very dry red wine. Many people do not care for the Norton wine – we’ve tried many and believe that Augusta makes the very best in the state! My folks visited and spent the night Saturday night. On Sunday, my mom came back to Indiana to spend a week with us. On the way through Indy on our way to Mounds State Park, Silver’Rita had a flat tire – not just one but two! The first one occurred on the east side of Indy- Tom was going to try to change the tire, but his socket adapter broke as he was trying to loosen the lug nuts. We waited about three hours for the roadside assistance to arrive – it was dark when help arrived and we got the spare on. Unfortunately, the spare blew out before we reached Anderson! We limped into Mounds State Park about 11:30, backed into our site and called it a night! Monday morning I drove very slowly across town to Modern Trailer Sales to get TWO new tires – good to go! As soon as Mom’s visit was over, we hosted my niece Elizabeth from California. She’s 11 and this was her first trip alone and first extended camping trip. She stayed a week and aside from concerns about some of the bugs she encountered, thoroughly enjoyed the weeklong RV experience. The following week we were back at Lieber for a few nights. Greg and Linda Heuer were back for another overnight visit on their way out west. The last weekend of July was the Grandkids Rally with the Central Indiana WBCCI group. It was held at Turkey Run State Park. Granddaughters Allison and Ava spent the 4 days with us- we visited the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, enjoyed lots of campfire time, crafts and games with other kids at the rally.
By the end of July we were very thankful for all of the quality family visits, but were just a little anxious for some “alone” time. In August, we are once again campground hosts, this time at Prophetstown State Park, near West Lafayette Indiana. It is Indiana’s newest state park. Host duties here are different than at McCormick’s Creek. We don’t have to clean fire rings; we greet/assist arriving campers, inform of park and local activities, make sure restrooms are stocked, pick up litter, and sell firewood. Selling firewood keeps us close to our campsite most of the time. We are finding it relaxing and enjoyable. Tom’s commute is lengthy however, probably the longest one of the season. His days are long-I’m sure he’s looking forward to next May when his working days will be over!
Silver ‘Rita is out of winter storage – actually she’s been out for about a month, but we’ve been so busy, I keep putting off the task of updating the blog. So I will add a few entries in coming days to catch up.
We are really glad we chose not to spend the winter in our Airstream. Since we are still tethered close to Indianapolis until next May, wintering in the Airstream would have meant dealing with the Indy winter weather. This past winter was harsh, both in temperatures and snow fall totals – there were many times Tom and I looked at each other and said “I’m glad we’re not in the Airstream right now!” We chose to stay at the Staybridge Suites hotel in Plainfield, Indiana. It was a terrific place to stay. Although some questioned why we would pay the cost of a hotel, we counter with: no utility bills, free Wi-Fi, free laundry, daily breakfast, and dinner (with beer and wine) three nights a week. It really comes out about the same. And small-space living for four months is no big deal – it’s what we’re going to be doing from now on! If you ever need a place to stay in the Indianapolis area, either short-term or for longer stays, we highly recommend the Staybridge Suites in Plainfield, Indiana. In addition to a pleasant stay provided by friendly, attentive staff, we accumulated enough points to cover the hotel stay for our Hawaiian vacation planned for (about) fall 2016!
During hibernation (December 1st through first week of April) we concentrated on refining our requirements for small space living, and preparing ourselves for it. We reviewed what would be necessary – from clothes, shoes and kitchen equipment, to tools, entertainment and craft supplies. Upcoming entries will address these issues and what we decided to bring along.
I spent many hours finishing the photo/scrapbook project. All of our photo and scrapbook keepsakes have been scanned, photographed, or otherwise digitized and stored on the computer and backup drives. We have a digital photo frame with a flash drive containing all of our photos. We can view and share them anytime, anywhere. Goodbye to a whole closet full of photo albums and scrapbooks.
I did much the same thing with cookbooks and recipe files. I had over a hundred cookbooks in my kitchen, collected from travels, and handed down from relatives, and many of them had numerous dog-eared pages marking tried and true recipes. I scanned the pages I wanted to keep, along with newspaper and magazine recipe clippings. So now all of my recipes are available on my laptop whenever and wherever I need them. Goodbye to three shelves full of cookbooks and recipe binders.
During our hotel stay, we brought very few kitchen items with us. Most of it stayed in the trailer during the winter. I tried to make a note of every time I thought I needed a piece of equipment that I didn’t have. My plan was to check my list against the equipment in the trailer when we returned in the spring, and use that list to further cull items in the trailer galley that we didn’t need.
We got ‘Rita out of storage on April 8th, and took her to Indy Lakes Campground on the south side of Indy for the rest of April. Being close to town made the commute to work easier, but we were also anxious to take her out and about. We spent the first weekend in May at Brown County State Park with 15 other units and owner groups from the Central Indiana Unit of WBCCI, the Airstream Owners travel club. Weather was wonderful and we got to meet and share stories and ideas with many local Airstream enthusiasts.
Following the weekend at Brown County, we brought our silver home on wheels to Mounds State Park in Anderson, Indiana, for a two week stay. It was glorious to set up, knowing we would be here for two full weeks. The commute from here to Indianapolis is not very enjoyable, but once the workday is over we relish coming home to our Airstream. We spend a lot of time outside-most dinners (and breakfasts on the weekends) are cooked over a fire, or on the tabletop Holland, if weather is too gloomy. Today is Sunday and it’s been so nice watching all of the other campers pack up and head out, going home from their weekend adventures. Tom and I looked at each other and smiled- both thinking “we don’t have to do that – we’re living the adventure every day!”
Now that ‘Rita and I are both out of hibernation, I hope to add at least one entry per week, perhaps more. There are two purposes to this blog – to share our experiences as we prepare and embark on full timing in our Airstream (we’ve learned so much from others, perhaps others might learn from our experiences) and to keep family and friends informed about our adventures and whereabouts.)
Next two blog entries:
Everything we own is in here! – what we took, how we store it, and how we decided
And
Projects – things we’re doing (OK – things Tom is doing) to make Rita more “ours”
After reading numerous forums and blogs by folks who have named their Airstreams, we felt maybe we were not giving proper respect to our new home. We had our previous camper for nearly nine years and never named it either. But now we have an Airstream and we’re finding out, as we get out and about, that they are seen as something special. Other Airstream owners stop to introduce themselves and chat; nearby campers ask us about her; and friends online ask what her name is.
So on the way to Florida we discussed, and tossed around ( and tossed out) a variety of suggestions. Since 2008 we’ve been coming once a year, in fall/winter, to Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys; one of our traditions while here is making margaritas to enjoy at the beachfront campsite. I had debated whether packing the blender was a luxury we could afford, given the limited storage space onboard, but in the end decided the margarita tradition must be upheld. Tasting the first drinks on the beach and toasting to our good fortune in beginning our Airstream journey, we decided to name her Silver ‘Rita, connecting an established tradition with a new one of having her with us for all future campsite margaritas. So here’s to long happy travels in ‘Rita!
As soon as we had the offer on our house, we began sorting through all of the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years, and deciding what would go with us into the Airstream. We felt rather comfortable about what we needed for our future travels, but we still have over a year to work until we can begin the wandering lifestyle-so we have to have work clothes, work shoes, a place to do some work at home, etc.
We were lucky in that our kids took most of our furniture, and the garage sale helped us get rid of the majority of unneeded items. Then we began moving things into the Airstream. One rule I tried (about 95% successfully) to stick to was: for every bag or box of stuff I took to the AS, I had to unpack it and find a place for it before bringing any more stuff. I’ve arranged and rearranged drawers and cabinets several times and will probably do so several more times as we find out what we really need. I feel pretty comfortable about what we’ve packed, but have changed WHERE things are kept, based on how often we use things. For instance, the flashlights moved to the rack by the door – much better for early morning and late night dog walks in the dark! As we cook and use different dishes and cooking utensils, I’m moving things to be closer at hand. And we’ve already eliminated a few things after just a couple of weeks staying fulltime in the trailer.
From our travels in recent years, we have many souvenirs from places we’ve visited, and we wanted to keep some of them if possible. We each picked out a few souvenir coffee mugs to be used to store small stuff around the trailer; T-shirts, after being worn for a while, are converted into squares for souvenir quilts -our rule is when we buy a new one, we must pick out an old one to donate to a quilt. An extensive collection of souvenir tote bags have been put to use storing items in drawers or hanging them from the fabric walls. We use Velcro cord wrap straps to wrap around the tote handle and attach it to the fabric wall covering in the bedroom. We can store several and still be reminded of our travels. Others are used to hold files that are dropped into storage in and around the sofa. Velcro and Command strips have many uses – hooks for hats, cooking utensils, TV remotes (attach to TV!)
For now we’re keeping a multi-function printer. I am working on scanning and saving digital copies of our photos and mementoes from previous travels, so we can enjoy viewing them on our digital photo frame. The boxes of photo albums and scrap books are still residing in the car as I work through them one at a time. Once that project is finished we will probably get rid of the printer – it takes up too much room to keep long term.
We have a couple more weeks before we take our silver home on her first long trip. We’ll be at Long Key State Park for the week of Thanksgiving. We’ve been there several times in the past – one of our favorite places. When we return the trailer will be going into storage for the winter. We really don’t want to winter over in Indiana with the AS. So we’ll take out what we need to get through the winter at a long-term suite hotel, until April. We’ll probably do the same thing next winter, but by June of 2015, we’ll both be done working and we’ll be venturing off to places far and wide! Until then we’ve got lots of time to keep packing, repacking and rethinking what we need, want and can make room for….
A lot has happened since my first post. After we picked up our 30-ft Classic Airstream in mid-September, we realized that we could not wait until our planned date of summer 2015 to begin living our dream. Yes, we still have to work until then, but that doesn’t mean we have to be tied to our three bedroom home.
We decided to advance the timetable and put our house on the market right away, thinking it might take a couple of months. Nine days on the market and we had a buyer! So with closing just a couple of weeks away, we are rapidly emptying our house and preparing for life as full-time RVers.
I plan to add a few more posts, shortly, with details about the process of downsizing, making decisions about what to take with us (what we can and can’t live without) and things we’re doing to maximize storage. Stay tuned!
Long Trailer, Long Trails 