What do you have to do before you go on the road?

Are you like us? Do you have STUFF coming out your ears? Is it possible to stuff 30 years of marriage stuff into a 280 square feet box on wheels and still have room to move around in it? What do you keep and what do you throw away? What will you need after you settle down again? Would it be worth storing some of it or buying it new again in the future? How much will it cost to store this stuff while you are on the road? How do you register for a driver's license or to vote? What about your mail? How can it find you as you race around the country? Will your bills catch up with you so that you can pay them? Do you sell your house or rent it and put off selling it now? When should you pack? Where do you go now that you have all of the time in the world? What do you do to keep your "trip" interesting? Can you be useful to others while you travel? Where can you get the information you need to make these decisions?

There are so many questions and do you have to find the answers before you hit the road or solve them as you go?

All of these questions have been racing through my head day and night. Several nights I have laid awake thinking about this and only 500 more items. As a scientist, I usually analyze everything for six years and then plan for another 4 years. By that time I have found out that I missed a point or two and start the analysis all over again.

The questions can be broken down into different categories. This will help identify what can be accomplished now and what can be done later. So, this leads us to a timeline. Great! All that is needed now is label the different above questions with a time factor.

I grouped the tasks together by association, Downsizing, Selling the home, Preparation to get on the road and On the road items.

Downsizing:

This was the most difficult of all the tasks that we had to face. I believe that most of us have taken years to collect all of the stuff that we now have. Here is where the most cooperation was needed. We are both collectors and really didn’t want to part with our "treasures". At least we saw them as treasures then. After a look through different eyes, they weren’t so special.

I had some electronics that I planned to experiment with … sometime. However, now I knew that I would never get to it and it was history. We had books coming out of our ears and didn’t know from where they came. We kept about 10% and donated the rest. Clothes, for me, wasn’t a big deal. However, my better half did a great job and it hurt her every piece that was tossed. I am proud of her.

Our couches were as old as dirt and there wasn’t a hesitation to get rid of them. Since we have no idea what our next house will be like, the entertainment center can go as well. That was easy. The guest bedroom will be used in the family. So far, so good. Our house is all electric and our next one .. who knows. So, the new washer and dryer will stay with the house.

Since we will be pulling our tow car, we can’t pull two of them. So, there goes the two cars and motorcycle. We bought a new Saturn Vue for our run about.

We found a 10'X15' storage space to put the remaining stuff. This will cost $85 per month. We will use this facility until we find a different location farther south.

Selling the home:

No one in their right mind wants to go through the sale of their home. It involves so much effort. Packing isn’t too bad, but it is the fixing all of the things that were put off until later. Well, later was here. After painting, screening and cleaning we were ready. Now we wait to be called for an appointment. When we get the call, we race around dusting, sweeping, and picking up – even though it was just two days ago we went through this same effort.

We could wait to pack after the house sells, but then we would have so much to do. So, we packed all that we didn’t use on a daily basis. This also made the house look much neater and it will save time when we have to get out.

Results: We put the house on the market to sell on 1 May 06. 1 Oct 06 we put it on the market to rent. Well, we got a renter on the 12th, but they wanted to move in on the 20th. Boy was that a rush. We turned out the lights in the house at 4:00 AM on the 20th.

Preparation to get on the road:

We have taken several road trips and some were a couple months in length. Provisions were made to take care of our responsibilities. However, this was only for a couple months. We will need to setup procedures that will take care of them on a regular basis and from anywhere.

Once we sell the house, we will not have a street address. There are many implications to that. Driver’s license, vehicle registration and most importantly mail all require a unique street address. There are several companies that will provide this service at a price. We chose Escapees. They are located in Texas, an income tax free state. There are several campgrounds associated with them that provide ½ price spaces. Several campgrounds have lots for sale.

We have found the great world of Bill Pay online. We have access to our bill accounts online and don’t have to receive via snail-mail. This is convenient even when we are not on the road. The bank we use has affiliated banks all across the country that we can use.

On the road stuff:

One of the most important things we need to have is a place to store important papers and other things. If they are in the RV, they can be stolen or destroyed. We plan to use a safety deposit box down south where it is centrally located. Important items will be kept there, but copies will be carried with us. This include papers, jewelry, backup CDs and DVDs for the computer.

Normally we write checks to pay our bills, but on the road we would run out of checks often. Now that we are switching over to online bill paying, we can use the credit cards for everything and make one payment to cover the credit card balance. A pack of checks could last a very long time.

We depend on access to the internet. Julia has an online ministry that requires her to be online every day. In the past we had depended on access whenever we could get it. On our upcoming life style we will need a more reliable connection. We now can use our cell phones to connect out computers to the internet. So, as long as we can connect to the Sprint system we can access the internet. This can be done even while we are moving.