Dino’s Cross Country Trip

A preface to this posting. I actually wrote this about four weeks ago and, obviously, procrastinated in getting it posted. So, here it is now – and Dino, the person you’ll read about in the first paragraph is about a week and a half from returning from her adventure. But, there is still plenty to read on her blog.

First, let me mention that a friend, Dino, a 40-something, single, British woman I know, has just embarked on a month long cross-country road trip in her Ford Escape SUV. She left Falls Church, VA two days ago and is planning to camp along the way as she sees the U.S.A. Dino has been in the U.S. for about 20 years, but not had the opportunity, until this time, to experience the U.S. as I did back in May and June. She was totally excited about her adventure and planned it for at least a couple months. I’m not sure if my adventure inspired her to take her adventure, but I’m sure I provided a bit of motivation. She will be blogging about her adventure at www.dinoscrosscountrytrip.blogspot.com. I’m sure she is going to express some interesting insights as a single woman and as a Brit as she explores this part of the North American continent. I invite you to follow her if you’re so inclined and to make a comment on occasion. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.

I’ve, again, taken a sabbatical from posting on my blog. I’m still enjoying the recent memories of my 6,300 mile adventure driving coast to coast. I’ve been busy on various projects since I returned. Several of them involve “The Dream.” I’m just back from this year’s Veteran Speakers Retreat in Boiling Springs, PA where I had a wonderful time with over 50 of my professional speaker friends and their spouses and significant others. I’ve coordinated this event for the past 9 years (of it’s 23 year history). For eight of those nine years, I shared the responsibility with my very long time and very dear friend and professional colleague, John Jay Daly, who passed away on the first morning of the 2009 retreat. A terrific time was had by all, at this year’s retreat. I came back exhausted, but totally exhilarated and fulfilled.

I’ve finalized my research on the best place to move my residency to and that is South Dakota. South Dakota is, from my perspective and for my requirements, the most nomad friendly state in the country. So, I’m in the process of getting everything changed to South Dakota, Rapid City to be exact. That will transpire over the next week. I’ll have to make a trip to South Dakota to obtain my new drivers license and change my voter registration so I can vote in the upcoming election.

I’ve also purchased another car, a 2002 Ford Focus 5 door hatchback in like new condition with just under 50,000 miles on the odometer. It’s a major downsize from the 1996 Cadillac Seville that I’ve driven for the past seven years. It’s a smaller car, about 1500 pounds lighter and 130 hp with a 4-cylinder engine, compared to 300 hp with a V8 engine and it has a manual 5-speed transmission. But, it’s a much better vehicle for towing behind a motor home. It’s also far more economical in the fuel department, almost doubling the current highway mileage the Seville is currently getting. The Cadillac, a great car for the years I’ve enjoyed driving it, is being retired. It either will be sold, salvaged or donated, as soon as I make my decision as to which is most advantageous to me.

The next project is to empty my main storage unit. There is still a lot of paper storage there – mainly very old files, a batch of books that I need to return to one of my former Oakhill Press authors and other misc. stuff of that nature. I also have old audio and video gear in there that needs new homes. There is just lots of stuff that needs to be eliminated and turned into cash. It’s amazing how easy it is to fall back into a comfort zone as well as to become complacent and to procrastinate. I went through the BIG downsize, but here I am, still paying to store stuff I’ll never, ever use again.

The next move is to acquire the motor home. Boy, this has been a wrenching decision to make. As I began my planning, researching and lifestyle changes, I was sold on the idea of obtaining a 38’ to 40’ Class A, diesel pusher coach. These are the nice luxurious coaches you see cruising up and down the interstates everyday. First, I felt that I needed that much space and second, I felt that I needed all the luxury since this was going to be my condo on wheels. I’m sure glad I didn’t just jump into this full-time RVing lifestyle feet first without checking the depth of the water first. As I’ve progressed through my research, I’ve found that, getting started in this lifestyle, I didn’t need all of that. I considered other types of RVs including various kinds of trailers.

Ultimately, what I’ve decided is that the intelligent way to approach this is to obtain a smaller, yet, well equipped, Class A or Class C (and I tend to be leaning more toward a Class C for various reasons) gas engine coach in the 29’ to 32’ range to start out. First, I don’t want to end up financing something that’s going to take me ten or more years to pay off. That reduces my freedom. So, I want to find a rig that I can pay off in minimally two years and not longer then four years, at about the rate I’d pay rent for a nice, comfortable studio apartment in a lower cost of living, smaller town location. If I were to just pay rent, I’d have nothing to show for it at the end of the three years or so. Obviously, a motor home is a depreciating asset. However, at the end of the two to four years, I’ll still own the motor home. I can keep and continue to use it full or part-time or I can sell it and upgrade to a newer and, perhaps, larger coach if I feel I require more space or I can just sell it and move in new directions. In essence, I’ll still recover some of the investment that would have been unrecoverable if I simply rent an apartment during that same period (and certainly I wouldn’t have the mobility).

The economy is still depressed and is not coming back as fast as people would like it to. The motor home industry has suffered a severe blow and lost quite a number of major RV manufacturers in the last two years to the bankruptcy courts. There are literally tens of thousands of people, perhaps well into the six figures, who own motor homes (and other RV’s) who would love to get out from under them. Some people want to let go of them for the normal reasons including: health, aging, loss of a spouse, changed interests and so on. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of people who have to let go of them for pure economic reasons like losing their job, loss of their retirement funds, forced early retirement when they weren’t financially ready and just plain downsizing to cut their expenses and conserve whatever cash they can. There are a very large number of repossession units on the market. This, of course, makes it more of a buyers’ market Add to this that we’re going into the fall/winter season, which traditionally is a time when RV prices experience seasonally lower sales and prices.

The dream continues. More to come.

Enthusiastically,
Ed