Tag Archives: RV-Dreams

RV-Dreamers get together and an Upcoming Rally

March 29, 2015 exploRVistas 11 Comments

Today was a marvelous day! Last September, we met Fred and Bonnie Lee at the RV-Dreams Fall Rally. Fred has followed our blog ever since we published our first post, and we got in touch this week after he noticed we were headed their way in Florida. They stopped by our place today, and we went to a place in The Villages for lunch.

Man, it was great to see them! Bonnie recently retired, and Fred has been retired for a number of years now. They just purchased a beautiful motorhome, sold their home and are doing what we are doing. They are yet another couple that went to one of Howard and Linda’s rallys and ended up hitting the road! And they are loving every minute of it. :). Be sure to check out their blog HappiLEE RVing.

Speaking of RV-Dreams, Howard and Linda are holding their fall rally this year in Lake Leelanau, Michigan. The Leelanau Penninsula is near and dear to our hearts, and we highly recommend both the rally and the location it is being held in. If you are thinking about possibly pursuing this lifestyle, this rally is for you. Leelanau County is home to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and was voted as the most beautiful place in America on Good Morning America a few years back. It really is a special place, and the rally is being held in peak color season. Go to RV-Dreams and click on the 2015 Fall Rally on the sidebar. Our work camping job will be very close to the rally location, so we will be sure to stop in at some point and say ‘hi’. 🙂

I was invited by Rob at Rockiesoutdoors to take part in a five day black and white photo challenge. This is Day 3 of the challenge.

Today, I chose a photo I took in 2005 in Yosemite National Park in California. We tease (tongue in cheek) about Ansel Adam’s photos, as how could anyone not get an amazing photo of this natural magnificence!

The rules of the challenge are simple:

Post a different black and white photo you have taken for five consecutive days.

Invite a new blogger each day into the challenge.

So today, I challenge Fred and Bonnie to join in the fun on HappiLEE RVing. 🙂

Fulltime RVing

It’s Showtime!

January 18, 2015 exploRVistas 17 Comments

“There is no such thing as a free RV show”. 🙂
Diana Belisle, 2003

We found that out in 2003 when we went to a show that had free admission, only to come home with a 24 foot Sunline travel trailer. :). That didn’t happen this year at the Grand Rapids RV show, but a life-changing accelerated ‘realization’ did happen to us at last year’s event. Last January, we decided to check out the seminars; something we didn’t normally do. There were two separate presenters: Jim DuFresne (travel videos) and Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams. Howard and Linda were giving seminars on fulltime RVing, something they had been doing for nearly 10 years, after dropping out of corporate America in their early forties.

Up to that point, I had pretty much decided I was going to retire sometime in 2014, but Diana was not sure if she would teach another year beyond June. We had been researching fulltime RVing for years, prior to the show. After listening to the Payne’s seminars, we came away focused that we were going to make a move sooner than later. This lifestyle was not only doable, but was something we felt we needed to do, so as to not miss our chance of being able to roam America in good health. We had seen enough people fall prey to illness, and I myself had survived prostate cancer (5 years…yea!!!) so, by the end of March, I had retired. I immediately began the process of finishing our basement, in order to sell our house.

Above is the basement bathroom in process.

Here is the basement bathroom complete.

Above is the main room of basement in process.

Here is the main room of basement complete.

This is the great room with a fresh coat of paint, staged and ready to put on the market.

As we pushed through the purging and renovating, Diana made the decision that she was ready to put an exclamation point on her teaching career. We made the trek to Lansing and filed the necessary paperwork.

Woo-hoo! That girl is indeed one happy camper!

After Diana’s retirement in July, it was an all out push to have the house listed before Labor Day weekend. We knew the housing market was red hot in Grand Rapids, and we also knew it would slow to a crawl, once school started. We contacted a realtor who got the ball rolling, and the open house was set for the Sunday, August 24. We had three offers the first day, and the buyers accepted our counter offer 44 hours after the agent opened the front door to lookers.

In mid September, we attended RV-Dreams’ Fall Rally in Goshen, Indiana. The weeklong event focused on educating attendees on everything involved in being a fulltime RVer.

We met a lot of great people at that rally. In the coming years, we will feature them as we go. Here is a photo of us at sign-up. The woman in the blue shirt is fellow blogger Debbie from Down the Road with Steve and Debbie and the woman in the pink sweater is Jo from This Moment in Time. Jo and her husband Craig hail from Texas, while Steve and Debbie are from California. Check out both of their blogs to see their recent rendezvous along the Gulf coast.

During the rally, we received news from our agent that our closing date on the house was set. When we announced it to our fellow rally attendees, a collective round of applause went up. 🙂

By early October, we were pulling out of the driveway. Our first adventure was a grueling 2-1/2 mile trip to our current campground. To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, it was a small step…but in reality, it was a giant leap for us. We are wintering in Michigan this year to be by Diana’s mom.

Over the fall and winter, we lost our dear Jenny to cancer. She loved going for rides, and luckily had plenty of adventures during her 10-1/2 years. Her death was very hard on the two of us. Man, do we miss her.

So, our return to this year’s show was somewhat of a homecoming. Howard and Linda were off working the Dayton, Ohio show this year, and Grand Rapids had Shari Galiardi and her husband David Hutchison from Tales from a Mid-Lifeventure. They are traveling in their 1957 Sportcraft ‘canned ham’ trailer. Theirs is a totally different lifestyle than ours is in our 31 foot 5th wheel, but they are painting their portrait as they see fit, and that is what it is all about. They were delightful.

As you can see, this past year was a life-changing experience for us. The adventure of 2015 has begun, and we are excited to explore the vistas of this next chapter. The wonderful thing is our ability to move and adapt, so we are hoping to roll with the punches, rejoice in the victories, and savor the sweetness that our adventure brings us.

Winter RVing

Baby, it’s cold outside!

January 8, 2015 exploRVistas 8 Comments

“There’s just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you’re special.”
Carol Rifka Brunt

Today was a special day in so many ways. Sure, it had it’s challenges (as so many days do), but it was one that will stand out and sustain us through the remainder of the winter.

Take a look at that sky and that snow! That is the kind of powder that crunches under your feet. Outside temperature at noon was a balmy 7 degrees, and the wind chill was well below that. Of all days to have our satellite TV installed! So the first task at hand this morning was to shovel out the parking area and clean off Diana’s Escape, so she could get over to her mom’s place to take care of her needs. I also wanted to make sure there was room for the installer to pull in. I am a tad O/C when it comes to shoveling, as I like to make sure there aren’t any straggler piles left behind. My Fitbit Flex let me know that fact when it announced to me that I had achieved 10,000 steps without my normal 4 mile walk at the YMCA.

With that sunshine, it was not too tough of a chore.

I did make sure to shovel a path to the fence row, as I knew the installer was going to have to find a clear shot at the satellite. Most of the row is covered with trees, but he did manage to find one spot.

By late afternoon, we were good to go! The pole is a temporary setup, as we will have to get a tripod to make our dish truly portable. It is good to have a nice, clear HD picture again. Thank you to Gilbert for a great installation experience.

With the temperatures getting into the single digits, we were finally putting our winter preparations to the test. Our first surprise came the other night when Diana turned on the faucet to find that we didn’t have any water. This was truly a surprise, as the campground had installed new heated faucets in the fall, and we had invested in a heated hose that was rated to 40 below.

The culprit ended up being the cheap pressure regulator that we had been using. Once I removed it, we were back in business. Our campground’s water pressure is reasonable, so we feel comfortable running without the regulator for now.

As you can see, the hose melts the snow around it and has performed as advertised. Richard’s investment in the heated faucets has also provided our row with trouble-free service. Again, our gratitude for his efforts and the service he provides in keeping Woodchip open in the winter.

Our temperature under the rig at noon was 41 degrees. We are running the electric heater under there, resulting in a slightly higher electric bill. We feel that expenditure to be cheap insurance against frozen waste tanks.

Our interior humidity issues have improved dramatically. In the fall, we had purchased an EvaDry Petite humidifier and a larger EvaDry dehumidifier. The bigger unit’s transformer became extremely warm, and we ended up not using it. Dissatisfied, we sent it back to Amazon and purchased a second Petite. Once that was in place, our humidity levels dropped immediately. We also have keep the bathroom window and vent cracked open, as was recommended to us by Glyn Carson at the RV-Dreams rally. We can’t explain why it works, as it seems to defy all logic…but it does.

So, with our TV up and running and our daily tasks behind us, we decided to celebrate! One of our favorite spots to go for a special night out has always been the Carrabba’s in Grandville, MIchigan. Granted, Carrabba’s is part of a chain, but they are consistantly good…no matter what town we find ourselves in. They also do a great job of taking my gluten allergy into account, and they have one of the better gluten free menus available.

The Grandville Carrabba’s has something that no other one has: Bob; seen here with Diana. We always call ahead to see if he is working and request him to be our server. He is head and shoulders above any waiter we have ever had serve us, and we have been to a lot of restaurants during our working years. Bob is a recommendation we feel rock solid in making, short of the fact we feel we are letting our little secret out.

So, what could have been a mundane Wednesday, ended up being a pretty nice day. We were able to spend a great afternoon and evening together, and we managed to complete our entertainment system in our rig. It ended up being a little sweeter, given the fact it all took place on the coldest day of the winter so far!

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

A New Chapter Begins…

September 26, 2014 exploRVistas 4 Comments

Today, after 30 years of home ownership, we closed on the sale of our home and have moved forward into a new chapter of our lives. We are now officially full time RVers! This past week has been a flurry of packing, sorting, storing and cleaning. For a while, it seemed as if our stuff was appearing out of nowhere in our home, and progress was increasingly harder to come by. One dear friend likened it to sweeping the dust in a circle and not quite being able to get it into the dust pan. But Thursday evening came, and we knew we were headed to the finish line.

Mom Belisle used to paint landscapes, and we knew she was panting the Thursday evening sky from Heaven to assure us all was well. We were able to get everything done, shy of sweeping the garage floor. That was done this morning, and the circle of dust was in the pan.