Our Latest Dream Trailer Idea

As you can see, we have upgraded our dream trailer a little. This is still a Fun Finder X made by Cruiser RV, it's just 21' instead of 18'.

We were attracted to this because it has a walk-around bed, an oven, and additional storage. The bed is a little shorter than the 80" bed in the 18', however, Jeremy says he's willing to live with it in exchange for the benefit of not being crawled over at night. We were also hesitant about having the front door at the bed, but that's the sacrifice for having a 21' trailer with walk around bed. Put the door on the other side, and you're back to crawling over each other or buying a bigger trailer. We also liked that this one has a small bathtub. (You can't see it too well in this video.) I was reading about laundry while living full time in an RV, and one method is to use the bathtub.

Anyway, it's only a couple thousand more and a few feet more, and I think will keep us more comfortable in the long run. Especially when you consider that this 21' comes with 10 gallons more water capacity each for the fresh, grey, and black.

But stay tuned...who knows what we'll become attached to tomorrow. I am really interested to see what happens when we go to our first RV show. :)  In the meantime, enjoy the video - I just love these two ladies and their little dogs and have decided to call them "the aunties."

Cheers!
Miss A

life board update!

...and with a change in plans quickly follows an updated lifeboard. A lighter trailer equals smaller Dodge 1500 (and Janet Munro has switched venues, the tow vehicle will now honorably bestow her name). Leggero, which translates to "go lightly" in Italian, shall be the name of our soon-to-be wheeled abode. We'll need to get a custom door mat that reads: "Welcome, Good Times, and Great Oldies from Fran and Stan Pants". Too long?

Jeremy

Closed Fist Punching

Yesterday morning I did a search to see if a Chalet Takena was for sale in our neighborhood, and managed to track one down in Fife. After Angela’s class, we took a trip down to Tacoma to get her some new wet-resistant shoes at REI, some lunch at Ivar’s (the House Account never ceases to feed us), and see this Takena in the flesh.

Lunch was delicious, the shoes fit nicely (proven at a lakeside park that the GPS took us to in God Knows Where) and our tour of RV’s was educational. We did get to tour a used Takena (as well as many other new and used models and brands), and we were mostly content on settling for it, as it had all the basic features we were looking for. Sadly, I don’t think it was love at first sight. The major nag Angela and I felt touring these new and used units in Fife, was an overall lack of quality and workmanship, and the Takena was no different. Interior features were generally flimsy and cheap. We just figured we were going to have to treat our new home like a scrape that had just scabbed over. Cocktail hour may be out as a careless inebriated step may take out a wall, or a cabinet. Was this our only choice if we wanted small and light? It looked like it wa, and it did make us nervous.

Angela continued reading our RV for Idiots guide as I made my way back to I-5. The book came to a paragraph where the author stressed the importance of touring many units and dealerships, and I thought out loud (as I have a tendency to do) “let’s go tour some more”.

Tacoma traffic is a bowl of oatmeal with half the recommended water during the late afternoon, so we got back over the Narrows Bridge, and back into the quiet of Kitsap Peninsula. I knew of a large RV lot in Gig Harbor that I had been admiring as we passed by…ironically called Fife RV.

Armando (a Latin version of Robin Williams on speed) greeted us promptly, found out precisely what our needs were in a rig, and marched us right up to a covered area to check out the RV Cruiser Fun Finder X 189 FBS (I can’t believe I’ve already memorized that title). With the energy of a young Jack Russell Terrier, he gave us a detailed low down on every aspect of the exterior, showed us every feature, and was so thorough with his descriptions and demonstrations that we were left with few questions.

We were quite smitten and impressed with the unit upon the outside walk around, but now it was time for the great disappointment:  we had to see the inside.

We hung out on the inside for about a half hour or so. We didn’t want to leave. It is perfect. The cabinets are real wood, the upholstery is rugged and attractive, the appliances stainless steel and durable. Armando hooked the unit up to the juice so we could play with all the electrical features (including the one slide-out…yes, we are actually convinced on the one slide out!). The queen bed has an upper bunk that folds up into a beautiful cabinet...so smart!

And then, out of nowhere, the crazed Armando punches with full force and closed fists the insides of the unit, to zero damage. Shock and awe. I am sure this is clever sales antics, but it is quite telling at the same time. This unit is built well and Angela and I have (I think…I’m pretty darn sure) found our home. And yes, it is well within our budget…just a few more shekels than the Takena.

And we can even (as Armando advised) have Corona’s and margaritas without concern.

If we weren't always changing our minds...

...you wouldn't recognize us!

  

Here is a portion of my journal entry from 9/22/10:

  

Big news! Jeremy has started listening to a podcast about RV life. It's an older couple who started in tents and worked their way up to a Class A Motorhome. In one of their pod casts, they talked about the dangers of a single axle - standard on the 19' Airstream - and so Jeremy and I have decided to go with a larger trailer in order to have the double axle. We've settled (I think) on a 25' International. We've changed our minds so much! But I think this is it. We've found our home.

 I love how sure I am when I say, "We've found our home." For pictures of the "home" in question, go here.

Over the next 24 hours our conversations sounded like this:

Me: "Here we go again! This happened last time we started

RV dreaming. We got into bigger and bigger trailers!"

Jeremy: "It's still smaller than most people will live out of."

Me: "True. But we've gone from 16 to 25 feet!"

Jeremy: "It's hard not to doubt the Airstream idea when you see the same

size white box for sale at a fraction - a fraction - of the price. And they're

more what we wanted in the first place!"

And here is my journal entry from today, 9/23/10:

We'll we've changed our minds again.

To cut a long story short, we've changed our allegiance to Chalet, a company out of Oregon. They take their time building their RVs, only producing a small quantity per year. You have to sign up to buy one, they are in such high demand and short supply. The reviews are incredible.

What it boiled down to was listing what we want and realizing we can't meet those needs in an Airstream.

Wish List

• 
  
  16-20 feet (however nutty that makes us, it's what we want).
• 
  
  Dual axle (evidently this is a huge safety precaution).
• 
  
  More nest egg left over after the purchase of the truck, trailer, and accessories.
• 
  
  Simplicity.
• 
  
  Decent holding tanks for dry camping and boondocking.
• 
  
  A queen sized bed.
• 
  
  An oven and a microwave.
• 
  
  A dry shower.
• 
  
  A dinette instead of a couch.
• 
  
  No slide-outs.

The Airstream meets a lot of these wishes, but the Chalet meets all of them. If the 19' Airstream came with a dual axle, we might not have changed our minds. And I'm glad it doesn't come with a dual axle, because this new development forced us to really think about what it is we want. If you're going to spend a lot of money on something you plan to live in, and which depreciates, hadn't you better love every square inch of it?

We will be updating our Life Board to reflect our newest dream trailer, the Chalet Takena 1860. Check it out here.

Instead of spending at least $50,000 on the Airstream dream, we are now looking to spend $20,000 on the new, Chalet dream. And there are other benefits to this new plan.

Benefits

• 
  
  Smaller truck needed for towing.
• 
  
  Lower fuel costs.
• 
  
  Eco-friendly.
• 
  
  Easier to camp anywhere.
• 
  
  Easier and safer to tow.
• 
  
  More money leftover in the nest-egg (which is currently an imaginary nest-egg).

No, it isn't as stylish. No, we won't be able to join elite Airstream only clubs and camp in elite Airstream only parks or go on elite Airstream only caravan trips. But we can live without these things. 

We will always admire Airstreams. But the Chalet feels more like us. 

Stay tuned, though...Who knows what tomorrow may bring!

maybe this time...

Angela and I have been married for nine years, and throughout our time “maybe we’ll…” has been the start of too-numerous-to-count conversations. Maybe we’ll live on a boat? Maybe we’ll live in the city, in the country, on an island? Maybe we’ll just keep trying somewhere new. Maybe we’ll end up staying here, or maybe we'll end up there. Maybe we’ll try dancing. Maybe we’ll learn Spanish. Maybe we’ll just armchair travel. We've spent a lot of effort brainstorming and trying out our many maybe's but most of our maybe's turn into short lived babies. We've moved all over, made many memories, and many mistakes, and learned from them all.

Now it's time to put one of our oldest maybe's into action, and it's never felt like a better choice. It's time to take the final steps into our happiness. It's time to shed it all and live our life long dream of full time rv'ing.

So we’re going to do it. We’re going to live in an travel trailer…and the serious research has begun, as has the sweet joy of getting rid of all our unneeded possessions, which even after shedding our stuff over the last five years to an uncluttered 620 square foot house of belongings, I still look around and 90% of these “things” are just excess unnecessary useless baggage. Dead weight.

So this is an open invitation to you for our Estate Sale, be ready…your invitation is coming.

Friday we took our first grand tour of a 16 foot Airstream International. It was an experience that we mutually have not felt walking into any standing structure, any house, or apartment. I can’t describe the excitement stepping into that aluminum tube gave me…and to think we’ll have a 19 foot International in just a few years!

It’s nice to finally have a direction, and even nicer to share it with someone.

right right, what what, and hey hey to the future!

Jeremy

Getting Started

At the end of 2009, Jeremy and I realized that our dream in life was to live full time out of an RV. When we rang in 2010 we weren't sure what that meant. Jeremy was pushing for an Airstream, but I wasn't convinced. As I researched the hundreds of RV options, I found again and again full time RVers insisting that the 5th wheel travel trailer was the ideal full time RVer's home. A 5th wheel afforded more living space, something my fearful side seemed to cling to. It was one thing for us to move into a 620 sq ft home, but a whole other bag of waffles to move into something small enough to tow with a truck.

It wasn't long before we had thrown the entire dream out the window and settled down for a short pout.

But some dreams will not be cast aside so easily, and before we knew it we had come to the realization that not only did this dream deserve action, but somehow our minds had wrapped around minimal living to a new extreme. We took two week-long camping trips over the course of the summer, came home to discover we hadn't missed a single object in our house, and knew the trailer life was the life for us. It didn't take much for Jeremy to convince me that the Airstream was the right rig.

The dream now renewed, we have set about focusing on moving into that life. It isn't something we'll be able to do for a number of years, but when we think of all there is to do in the meantime to prepare for such a dramatic transition, those few years don't seem like such a stretch.

In order to inspire ourselves we decided to create a Life Board. Also known as a Vision Board or Dream Board, the Life Board is a collage of all things you would like to manifest in your life. Ours would be a collection of words and images that represent the life we will enjoy in our Airstream. You can make your own Life Board using magazines or do like we did and print images and words from the Internet and Word. Really, you can let your imagination guide you.

We cut out all our images and words, arranged and rearranged them on an old thriftstore painting, then used glue sticks to stick everything in place.

As we learn more and come up with destinations of interest, we'll add to our Life Board. It might sound silly, but it was surprisingly fun, and I recommend all couples make one together. It's a great bonding experience, and it gave more focus to our joined lives than we've ever felt.

In case you were wondering, that woman at the top of the frame looking down over our dream is the lovely and short-lived Janet Munro, who starred in such delightful films as Swiss Family Robinson, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and Third Man on the Mountain. Since we are fans and we think more people should know about her, we have decided to name our Airstream The Janet Munro. Call us corny...we can take it! :)

Anyway, we plan to use this blog as a virtual diary as well as a way to share this process with all our family and friends. We plan to take turns blogging in order to maximize our recorded memories and organize our research. Eventually, we'll be sharing photos and stories of our travels. So, sign up to follow our blog! We'd love to hear your thoughts (unless they're nasty, mean thoughts, in which case you can keep them to yourself). And some of you who live far away from us now...we'll be coming your way in the next few years!

Cheers!

Angela T.