An Introduction

I'm starting this blog to document our countdown to retirement and so that our friends and family can keep track of us as we travel the country in our RV once our retirement date arrives.

This will be our second venture into fulltime RVing.  We sold our house in 2003 and purchased a new Holiday Rambler 36ft 5th wheel.  I won't bore you with all the details between then and now, but in a nutshell, we spend on winter in the Phoenix, AZ area, then 6 months in Visalia, CA, a few months on the coast in Fort Bragg, CA and then back to Sacramento.  We lived in the RV for another 2 years and then purchased a manufactured home and kept the RV for vacations and weekend travel. 

So, why did we not continue traveling....well...poor financial planning and health issues forced us to rethink our plans.  I had thought I could work as a travel nurse but found the work grueling and too much for my 50+ year old body.  We needed steady income beyond John's military retirement, and so one or both of us needed to find jobs...not that easy when you're traveling.  Once we both had jobs we (well, really, just me) found living in the 5th wheel too confining.  It's a lot different when you are able to be outside and in a campground verses living in a crowded park and living through extremes in weather. 

As fate would have it, shortly after moving into our house, I was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and had to undergo 4 months of chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid and radioactive iodine treatment for that.  That was followed by a heart attack (me), a broken foot (me) and two total knee replacements (John).   All in all, we felt blessed to have a larger place to live while navigating our health issues.

The good news is that we are both healthy now; I was unable to continue working at my fulltime job due to back and neck problems and the fatigue of chemotherapy treatment. 

Now, we are ready to retire FOR REAL!!  John has a retirement date of May 31, 2014.  He picked that date because it is also the date he retired from the Navy after 20 years of service, in 1991. 

The next year will be busy as we get ready to once again live in the 5th wheel, this time with a sound financial plan and hopes that we will spend many years traveling and seeing this beautiful country.  We will be traveling with our two French Bulldogs, Lola & Ava, who like nothing better than being with us no matter where we are living.