I love a good mystery. I love watching a good mystery on TV or at the movies. I love reading a good mystery. I even love being in the middle of a good mystery. When we made the decision to become full time RVers we had no idea what we were doing. To be honest since we won’t actually begin until the end of October 2019 we still are in the middle of a mystery. In the beginning we didn’t even know what we didn’t know. Now we have a better idea of what we don’t know but still we have a lot to learn. We are not experts. The following are some questions we have asked to try and figure out what kind of full time RVers we will be. These questions are in random order.
WHAT KIND OF RV DO WE NEED? Answered in a previous post. (Pete!)
WHAT KIND OF TOW VEHICLE DO WE NEED? In February 2013 we acquired Valentine a cherry red RAM 1500 5.7-liter hemi. She did a good job towing Pete. But Pete’s weight was close to Valentine’s limits. We decided that when we began driving though mountains it might be too much for Valentine. So, we decided to go bigger. Now we have Penelope. She is a Black RAM 3500 6.4-liter hemi with a much greater tow capacity and greater peace of mind.
HOW WILL WE GET OUR MAIL? It turns out a lot of stuff hinges on where your address is. Your drivers License and vehicle registration are tied to your address. Your health and vehicle insurance are tied to your address. There are tax considerations related to your address. There are probably other issues I’m not aware of yet.
We first thought we would just use one of our children’s address as our home address. But that would put a bit of responsibility and take up time for some extremely busy people. When we considered all the issues listed above, we decided this was not a good plan.
The “experts” say that three states are the best option for domicile (domicile = permanent legal residence), Texas, Florida, and South Dakota. We have decided on South Dakota. Primarily since Sioux Falls is only about four hours from one of our daughters and it will be easy to get there if necessary. Secondly, I have always wanted to be a cowboy and living is South Dakota will allow me to sort of fulfill that dream. Yippee ki-yay, get along little doggie. We will use a mail service in Sioux Falls which will give us an address and handle our mail.
WHAT KIND OF CAMPING WILL WE DO? The truth is we don’t know for sure. But we are thinking we will do a variety of styles. We really want to spend a lot of time in the National Parks. We also have equipped Pete so that we can camp on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land which is usually free and can be quite beautiful. We also want to visit as many State Parks as we can. But we will also be staying at some private RV parks along the way. Invite us and we’ll camp in your driveway, also known as mooch-docking.
WHERE WILL WE GO? Our first really big trip will be to go to Alaska next spring (2020). Our plan is to spend the entire summer up there. Watch for our future You Tube channel to see my plunge in the Artic Ocean. Beyond that our hope is to see all of the 49 states in addition to Canada and Mexico. Top of the list destinations are the Northeast, Northwest, and Utah.
WHAT WILL WE DO? First what I’m not doing, there’ll be no rock climbing, mountain climbing, sky diving, or anything else involving heights. I look forward to some hiking, a lot of bicycling, site seeing, and things I’ve yet to think of. I look forward to meeting new people. I hope to cross paths with some of our RV mentors we’ve watched, read, and listened to. We hope to do some volunteering along the way. I also hope to do a little more stand up comedy. Most of all we plan to have many adventures and a whole lot of fun.
WILL WE STILL BE IN MINISTRY? When I retire, I will be one week short of 45 years in ministry. It has been and always will be a big part of my life, our lives. So yes, there will be ministry in our future. Interim pastors are needed in a lot of places. We are actually hoping that we might do some interim work in England. Mission work in China is a possibly. There may opportunities to do some chaplain work in RV parks. We’re not retiring from ministry. We are retiring from full time pastoring.
There is still a lot of mystery to all of this for us but we sure look forward to solving them. Keep following us as we continue our discovery.
2nd Chance Vagabonds 