Our RV

We have been on the road for a little over two weeks now. It has been pretty awesome so far. I always thought part of the fun of going on vacation was staying in a hotel but it is so cool to travel and have your house with you wherever you go. I don't have to pack and I have everything I need right here with me. I love it.

 Today we are in Tallahassee Florida. It is raining and it is supposed to rain for the rest of the day. When it rains in an RV it is LOUD!! My Dad asked if it is like living in a tin can. Pretty  much. haha

Parked in our current spot in Tallahassee (pic prior to the rain!)

I'm going to show you some pictures of the inside of our RV but first I must warn you... it isn't pretty! Not even a little bit but it had the layout we wanted. We know we can always fix up the inside and make it look better. Until then we are just trying to ignore the things we don't like because they are superficial. We still really love the layout and that is what is important.

Here is some pictures of the kitchen/dining area

That's right even got to keep the wine rack. Very important! The washer/dryer combo is in the bottom right cabinet

Kitchen table with storage under the seats

The table folds into another bed

One of the things we wished we had thought of when looking for an RV was a pantry but alas we did not. Duh. So, we just decided to use some cabinets near the front as our pantry.

Near the driver seat

Near the passanger seat

Chris's office/the passenger seat

The living room

Dark couch cover was a bad idea for an already dark room

Couch as a not too comfy bed

The pattern on the chair is so bad but it is comfy

Dogs giant bed takes up the whole living room and they like to lay next to it haha

Bathroom

Can't wait to take down the wallpaper and paint

It's pretty small

Bedroom

My new modcloth comforter (love it)

storage under the bed

The shower is in our bedroom

At least got to take down the little strip of  floral wallpaper

My desk

Closet- I may have taken over this one for my dresses 

Another closet

After looking at those can you believe the RV is a 2006 Fleetwood Bounder and not 1986 RV? I don't know what is up with some of that wall paper and patterns on the furniture. 

We finally hit the road!!

We took the plunge and finally hit the road this past Friday. We didn't quite get everything fixed but we are quickly learning there will always be something to fix. If we had waited for everything to be fixed then we would have never left. We did get the most important issue fixed which was the electrical problem. Now we can use 50 amps and our generator again. We never got the leak in our bedroom fixed and we found another one near the passenger seat. At that point we decided all we could do was laugh about it. Chris is working on sealing those up and hopefully we won't have anymore problems with water coming in.

It's never easy to make a big change but sometimes it is worth it!

We seriously ran out of Houston like our hair was on fire. Sorry, we didn't get to say bye to everyone including some family members. We were just ready! We decided we were leaving on a Wednesday and left on Friday.

Ooops we did!

 I've got to say this is even cooler than we expected. Not because we have seen such amazing things already but because we really have the freedom to go anywhere. I am easily amused and just eating at a new restaurant is fun to me. So, exploring a new city is just awesome.

I can already tell it is going to be a little hard to find the balance between checking out a new place and remembering I'm not on vacation (especially when I am near the beach) ! There are so many things to do and see but we still have the same budget we did before. So, we are eating most of our meals at home but still can go out to eat a couple days a week.

Biloxi Beach has some great sunsets

Too bad I can't sit at the beach all day and drink these. 

This is just a quick update to let everyone know we hit the road and we love it. We are leaving Sunday for Mobile then to Tallahassee. Next week I will post some pictures of the inside of the RV. I just realized I hadn't posted those on the blog. I only posted them on our facebook page: It's a Wanderful RV Life .

It's Wonderful Staying at Your Parent's House?

To say things have not gone as planned would be an understatement. We thought we did everything right by researching  a good place to get our RV and we paid for them do the inspection.  Of course they didn't inspect everything and we knew we would have some problems but we didn't think we would have so many before we hit the road.  So far we have had the following problems:

·         a leak in the bedroom (twice) slide seal was fixed but obviously wasn't the problem

·         Some wires were cut so we couldn't hook up to 50 amps ( could have caused a fire)

·         burning outlet in our bedroom

·          hot water had an onion odor even after cleaning it multiple times

·          the dash A/C was blowing hot air

·         our refrigerator was going up into the 60's

·         Our LP detector kept going off (not a big deal)
·     generator had a leak

Most of these issues have been fixed by the place we purchased it except we are still waiting to get the electrical issues finished up. They also couldn't recreate the issue with the refrigerator so we aren't sure what to do about that. I guess at least it works sometimes. There were recently floods in the area and so the mobile repair man has not been able to come put in our new transfer switch and a new outlet. Right now the RV is back in storage until he can come fix it.

Our RV parked outside my parents house- it barely fit

We were supposed to leave April 15th. Luckily we were able to cancel our RV Park reservations and get most of our money back. We have been staying at my parents house again for almost two weeks. I feel like I should change the blog name to "It's Wonderful Staying at Your Parent's House" . We have lived here more than we have in our RV since we moved out of our apartment.  

Chris and I have both been busy working on some additional ways to make money while on the road. Chris is starting his own company called Big Red Grafix where he will do some freelance art work and graphics. Here are a couple of things he has made that I love: 

A JJ Watt shirt Chris made when he had his T-Shirt business called Big Red Threads

A logo for our nephews baseball team

A picture Chris painted of our dog Remus and cat Pixie

Some cool graphics Chris worked on for an app

I have been busy making amigurumi (crochet animals) and want to eventually start my own etsy shop and make a facebook page.  In my first two weeks I have already received 15 orders and made over 20 octopi and a couple pigs. 

Yoda

pig

glow in the dark octopi

mini octopi

I have also been harassing all the birds and ducks in Houston the camera I got for my birthday. lol I'm sure my friends are tired of them by now. 

Nibbles the squirrel that is always in my parents back yard

Adorable duckling

Just my attempt at an artsy tree pic :)

Even though we have had a couple set backs we  aren't discouraged and are even more determined and excited to hit the road at this point. We are thinking we might go ahead and install some wood laminate floors and fix up the inside of the RV while we are still here. Once we hit the road maybet he RV will look the way we want. The carpet in the bedroom should probably come up anyway since that is where we had the leak.

This time we decided to not even make concrete plans because last time all it did was stress us out trying to leave by April 15th. We know we want to be in Washington D.C. area in June to visit Chris's aunt so hopefully we can at least make that. Then after that I think the gorgeous west coast is calling!

A picture from last September when we went to visit my sister and her family.

A Few DUMB QUESTIONS About RV Service

(WARNING: this may have turned into a Bitch-Fest by the end, but it truly is an unbelievable story of crappy Customer Service)

So, of course, after we were able to finally get the water flowing odorlessly, it rains and we find the carpet soaked with water. No problem. We bought an extra warranty. We have only had it less than a month. We will just take it back to the dealer and they will fix it right up.

Well, apparently, the RV repair service industry notoriously SUCKS! I really refused to believe it when we read about some of the horror stories on the net. I figured, "It can't be that bad." I thought I would just let them know that we were Full Timers and that we may need to stay in it while they are fixing it. Easy, right?

Errrrrrr!!!! Guess again. Before we took it in, I called to see when they would be able to take a look at it. The guy I talked to said he wouldn't be able to get to it for a week. I explained the whole Full Timer thing and he moved that up to two days. So, we spent all day and night getting everything together to move for the first time with all of our stuff in it. So Fun.

We secure everything and get to the place before they open up. Perfect timing, I thought. We talk to another guy in the Service department and he, of course, didn't know we were coming or that we were Full Timers. He again tried the "Gee, I won't be able to look at it for a week." I looked at him like he was crazy and explained that we called ahead two days ago and brought it today so cause they said they could look at it today. He said ok and that maybe it would be 1 or 2 days until he could get to it.

Dumb Question #1: Why not schedule me to bring my RV in on the day you can actually look at it?

Whatever! I couldn't do anything about it then so I said fine and we left it. Off to the In-Laws to camp out. The RV Guy said he would call us with status.

A few days go past and no word. Shocking. We have to call this 1-800 number that always goes to voice mail and leave a message. Finally, we get a hold of someone and they say the seal of the slide out is leaking and the o-ring of the generator is no good. Great news, they actually know what's wrong. Wooho...not so fast. The labor it takes to replace the slide out seal is ridiculous and the warranty company does not believe the price they are trying to charge. So, now a representative from the Warranty company has to come out and check the validity of the labor charges. That only takes two days to schedule. Go figure. The RV Guy said he would call us with status.

Dumb Question #2: Why the F do you say you are going to call me back with status and seriously have no intention of actually calling anybody back?

So, two days later, no call. We go up there to pick up some items we left (so we can live) and was able to find out it takes a few days for the warranty company to report.

...And guess what The RV Guy said? Yep, he would call us with status.

Monday rolls around and no word. Smh. No, no, don't proactively call me. Please let me use your stupid answering service and get a hold of you. Thanks. The guy tells us that they have approved the price of the seal but have not made a decision about the generator. What? How is this possible?

Dumb Question #3: How does a representative of a warranty company set up an appointment to look at and make a decision about 2 things only make a decision about 1 thing?

So, as I sit here and think about it, a complete week has gone by and no work has been done. We go up there again on the weekend to get more stuff to live and by this time the guys know us as "The Bounder People". Finally, we see that they are actually beginning to remove the slide and prepare to replace the seal. It's a MIRACLE!! Cool some action, but what about the generator? Well, turns out they have to drop the whole thing out of the RV in order for the warranty company to make a decision. The RV Guy said he would call us with status. I swear, if someone tells me that one more time.

Monday rolls around again and guess what...they called us back. NOT! I had to call them on Tuesday in order to here that they are sending information to the warranty company tomorrow in order to make a decision. The RV Guy said he would...yeah yeah you know the rest.

I have now lost track of time. They finally tell us that everything is covered and we are only responsible for a $150 deductible. Oh, thanks. Good thing we didn't have to spend $1000 for a hotel for a month. Oh, wait.

Its Monday again. We were told last week that it would be ready "early this week". I haven't heard anything and its almost time for them to close, maybe I should give them a call. After 10 minutes on hold, I get a hold of the RV Guy. He says the seal they ordered has been damaged OR it's the wrong one.

Dumb Question #4 and #5 and #6: Are they working on a million RV's at once? Is it too much trouble to actually figure out what is really going on with my house that you have had for a month? How have you been working on it for a week and find out today that there is something wrong with the seal?

I give up. Apparently, they are over-nighting the seal and the RV will be ready on Friday.

I'll believe it when I see it. I'm done.

The Adventure Begins

We still can't believe we really did it. We sold everything we have accumulated in 30+ years to fit into a 35 ft. RV. At times the process of selling everything was pretty stressful but at the end getting rid of all that "stuff" was oddly freeing.  I can't say I miss any of it and it brought us one step closer to our dream of traveling the U.S.

Our final garage sale

I wish I could say everything was sunshine and roses so far but once we got the RV out of storage we had a lot of issues with our water. It smelled like rotten onions.  It took us three weeks of cleaning out the hot water heater, the fresh water tank and lines to get it smelling normal.  We really learned a lot during those first three weeks. Of course once we got the water problem fixed we found a leak in the bedroom and a leak in the generator.  We had only been living in the RV for 3 short weeks  and getting all settled in when it ended up in the shop.  It has now been in the shop almost 3 weeks (the same amount of time we lived in it).  It took 2 or 3 days before they even looked at it.  I've heard from other friends and family that this is how the process normally goes. They take their time.  I will be sharing a blog next week by Chris on this subject.  One thing is for sure I am very glad this happened while we are still in Houston and are able to stay with my parents.  We are also getting some extra family time before we leave.

Chris cleaning out the hot water heater for the third time

We  have been busy planning our trip and  we decided we will be hitting the road on April 15th. That will give Chris at least two weeks to work from home before we leave. We will be heading to Florida for about a month and then we will move up the East Coast.  Some of the things we are really excited about so far are Universal Studios (Wizarding World of Harry Potter??!!), swimming with the manatees in Crystal River, we will be staying at Florida Caverns State Park a week, then I am really excited to go to the Everglades National Park and hopefully Biscayne as well. Plus I can't wait for beautiful BEACHES!!

 I think the first month will be a good test for us to decide how fast or slow we plan on moving. Chris will still be working an 8 to 5 job so our moving will be on the weekends.  Plus we will still have to do all the normal things like grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. 

We also finally got rid of my Toyota and got our tow vehicle. We bought a 2015 Ford C-Max Hybrid. We love it so far. It gets really good gas mileage which will be awesome because our RV will get around 7 miles per gallon. Ouch. Now we are in the process of paying off and selling Chris's Mazda. We think we found a home for it which is exciting. Every change gets us one step closer to hitting the road!

Goodbye Toyota

Hello C-Max

If anyone has any recommendations of places to visit in Florida or the East Coast please let us know. 

Baumann's On the Road in 2016

So, where do I begin?

Multnomah Falls

In September of 2014 Chris and I took a trip to Portland. We hiked up to the top of Multnomah Falls, visited the beautiful Hood River, took a train ride to Mount Hood, visited the awesome Kennedy School,  stood in at two hour line for VooDoo Doughnuts (it was worth it), and stayed at the adorable Caravan Tiny House Hotel.

Mt. Hood

The Tandem house at
Caravan Tiny House Hotel

Thumbs down for arriving back in 

Texas.

We were really sad to come home to the concrete jungle and kept asking ourselves, "Why are we still living in Houston?"This wasn't the first time we felt this way.

In 2012 we took a long road trip up to California, and we had so much fun, that we really wanted to do one again. We felt like half of the fun was just being in the car together and singing stupid songs at the top of our lungs. Of course, we also loved visiting new places.
I will also never forget the ride home, and seeing that gorgeous New Mexico sunset.

New Mexico sunset

At the end of 2014 we had a big change, I quit my job.  

We knew it wouldn’t be easy to live on one income, but figured we could make it work. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew it wasn’t insurance. I started trying to focus my energy on some of my interests and hoped I would figure out what I wanted to do. I stayed busy fostering animals from a local animal shelter, starting an organic potted  vegetable and herb garden, taking care/training of our crazy pups, cooking healthy vegetarian meals to prevent us from eating out, crocheting and trying to minimize our belongings.  We have already gone from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom apartment. Chris has also been really busy this year working long hours to complete a new computer system for his company.




We really didn’t know where all these changes were heading, but we thought maybe we would buy a tiny house and move to Portland. Then we started thinking of all the other places around the U.S. we would love to visit and explore. We knew at the rate we were going it might take a while to visit them all since Chris only gets three weeks off a year. So, we started thinking about how cool it would be if we could buy an RV and travel the U.S. while still working. After researching we found out there are tons of young full time RV'ers, and they have all different kinds of jobs. My Sister and her husband are also full time RV'ers. He is a nurse and I guess we just never really thought this would be an option for us due to our office jobs. Chris really likes his job, and has a great boss, so he decided to talk to him about possibly allowing him to work remotely next year. We got lucky and he agreed that they would work something out. It may not be the exact position he currently has or the same income but we think we can make it work. I can also do some workamping to make extra money and help with rent. We are very excited and it looks we will be hitting the road sometime in April of 2016!