Dean (the husband)
Shalane (the wife :O)
Welcome to our blog. My wife and I will be writing this together. I (the husband) will be writing in regular type. My wife (the wild one) will be writing in
italics with color. I have had many friends ask me questions about why I choose to live in an RV when both my wife and I have good full time jobs.
They think we're nuts! When I explain it to them, often times I've heard, "Why don't you do a blog on it?" Well, I have finally decided to take their advice. Over the next few months I hope to describe what we're doing and how it is going.
I will edit and add my 2 cents worth.
First of all, I will start with what type of RV we chose. That's not a good place to start. We should tell you a little about ourselves first. My name is Shalane, and my husband is Dean. We met at a church dance, were engaged to be married within 48 hours, got married a month later and have been HAPPILY married for 20 plus years. We have three gorgeous children, Hannah age 18, DJ age 20 and Maresa age 22. We LOVE the outdoors! We like to camp, fish, hike and paint the beauty we discover. Dean is super smart, handsome, and conservative, and I am goofy, outgoing and spontaneous. Dean was born in 1960 and I in 1970. We were made for each other and are excited to share our adventures with you. Ok, now Dean can continue.
We started with a 25 year old 30' Class A motorhome with no slideouts, that we found on a Craigslist ad. It had been completely remodeled on the inside and had a quirky kind of style to it.
It was adorable! The engine had been rebuilt about 20,000 miles before, and it was priced well. We decided on an older motorhome because we didn't want to invest a lot of money into something only to find out 3 months later that it wasn't the lifestyle that we thought it was. As it turned out, it was exactly what we hoped it would be. We had a great time in that motorhome.
That's an understatement. We LOVED Beatrice, as we named her. I cried when she drove away. I still question whether it was a good idea to let her go, and wherever she is now, I hope that she is being loved and cared for. I remember the very first night we got Beatrice. We parked overnight at Terrible's Casino RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. It was SO pretty. We walked around the little lake and shared how excited we were that we were embarking on an adventure that we had dreamed about for many years. There wasn't much in the RV. We hadn't even gotten her home yet, bet we loved her anyway. In the morning, ducks came right up to our door for some breakfast. Dean said I shouldn't feed them Pop Tarts because it wasn't good for them. He always wants to be so sensible. I fed them anyway. :O) (That's my smile. You will see it a lot in my blogs. I like to smile. :O)
After we had lived in the Class A for about 6 months, we decided to get something with a slideout.
There are pros and cons to this. Yes, there is more room, but now Dean is always complaining that, when he had the closer quarters he could more readily reach out and pinch my bum. He' so inappropriate. :O) We eventually decided to go with a 26 foot Fleetwood Mallard Travel Trailer with a custom made Toy Hauler added to the front hitch.
It also has a heavy duty tool box mounted on the back. We bought a 1996 Chevy 3500 dually diesel truck to pull it. Both of which I thought we got for a very good deal.
Good deal?! This man price shops and haggles like nobody's business! Now, 6 months later, we are seeing a few things that we would like to have in our next RV. Still, I think that we will be in this one for at least another year.
We are saving our pennies to get a bunk-house. DJ will be coming home from his mission in Brazil next June, and we need a place for him to lay his head until he's ready to move on. I don't think he'll be here long, but I still want a bunk house where our guests can stay when they come to visit. I don't want anything too big and fancy. I wouldn't want any of them thinking that we have PLENTY of room and that they're welcome to stay as long as they want. hehe :O)
My wife and I are both school teachers with summers off. We hope to start a day-to-day blog toward the end of the school year as we start our summer on the road. Hope you enjoy it!
That's it? That's all you wrote? Ok, but I'm shocked. Really! This blog makes it look like I'M the wordy one, but usually Dean is the one that takes half an hour to tell a two minute story. :O) I'm teasing him. WELL, I guess that means we're done with our first blog entry. I echo my husband, I really do hope you enjoy it, and I hope that we get to meet on the road sometime. Happy trails!
