Post Numero Uno: Here we go.

As if having four kids isn’t adventurous enough, my husband and I have decided to raise the stakes and move into an RV for a cross-country tour. We will be “full-timing” it, as they say in RV circles, and right now is our prepping stage.

What does that entail?

Well, for one, it requires us to rid ourselves of a ton of junk and material possessions. It also requires us to mentally prepare for living in cramped quarters and learning to retreat to new places for solace… like the outdoors, for one. Essentially, we have decided that a nice, large home filled to the brim with “stuff” is not what we want out of life. We want to see the world – ideally with our children – and not spend our lives buying, storing, cleaning and moving “things.” This, my friends, is a huge change for us.

Just so you, I’ve started this blog toward the end of our “prep” period, so you will never appreciate the things we have already loosed from our lives. I ask you to just use your imagination. (Picture, if you will, not only a house full of stuff, but a useless garage piled high as well.)

In addition to selling off our stuff, we are putting together our “rig,” meaning the RV we will live in while adventuring across the country. We started off thinking an SUV and trailer, then we went to a Class C, then a diesel pusher Class A, and then a truck and fifth wheel. I do like the fifth wheel for long-term living, but that requires a truck. We have four kids. So, wanting to make it work (without sitting next to a child up front – a horrific thought!), we looked into having a “sleeper cap” installed into a crew cab truck (which would not be a sleeper cap but an extra row of seats in the back). Frankly, it’s a great idea! I talked extensively with a gentleman in Texas who specializes in these customizations, and almost went for it. He had just created one for another family in the same predicament, and the pictures looked great. But, I did ultimately change my mind for two reasons: 1. The seats are smaller and made more for smaller kids. My kids grow and given that, I’m pretty certain that they will grow into large kids and will not be comfortable for long; 2. How does one resell a “not-quite-SUV/van and not-quite-a-truck”?

So, after much deliberation and great input from the community at RV.net, we have decided on a 12-passenger 1-ton diesel van pulling a trailer fifth wheel.

What, you think that a van cannot possibly pull a fifth wheel? Well, that’s what I thought, too.

Tagged as: fulltime RVing preparations