Road Warriors

As most of you know, Gary and I live in an RV. We've been stationary here in NJ for over a year now for many reasons, but we still live in our lovely Holly (a Holiday Rambler Endeavor LE).

Since I'm on a pic binge, thought I'd post a pic of our home (it just so happens this is on our wedding day after the ceremony!)

Here's our home (although we've added another dish since then):

P.S. - Ghyslaine - and you were worried about people thinking you're vain - I've just inundated the Lounge with my pics!

As someone who live out of a 34 foot motor home for 69 days with 5 cats and 2 dogs- my hat is off to you!

How cool!! It must be great fun, especially with a houseful of furbabies!!

Get your motor running! Head out on the Highway!

Looks like a great place to live. I have told the hubby that one day I want to RV accross Canada.

You should. It is a beautiful country!

If I ever get any spare money then I want to do a trip through Canada - from coast to coast.

But you will have to spend some extra days in the Maritimes. The best people on earth and the most beautiful scenery reside there!

Can you tell I'm a little partial to the east coast? My Dad was from there.

I definetly want to RV across Canada one day too. I took the Greyhound bus once. Here's some advice NEVER DO THIS! 72 hours on a bus is no fun, especially when there are many different drivers and they all refuse to replace the deoderizer in the toilet and you're in the backseat! and uncomfortable! I've definetly learned my lesson!
p.s. quite the family for such small living quarters, however do you do it? I'm impressed!

Laurie - I'm glad you posted that pic. I'd kind of worked out what an RV was, but wasn't sure what one looked like.

Apart from the space issues, I bet it's a great way to live, quite liberating I'd imagine.

When hubbs and I first got together, we came very close to buying a narrow boat - like the really old-fashioned ones on a canal just west of London. We'd both left our respective partners with everything and thought 'why the hell not'!

Sadly we didn't are are now lumbered with a mortgage and everything.

I do envy you and Gary.

Laurie, I've been camping in something like that. Granted it was only for the weekend, but I was amazed at how spacious it really was. It really must be a great feeling of freedom knowing you can pick up whenever you want, not being bothered by landlords (like an apartment) or mortgages.

Heidi you're so cute! You think we don't have a mortgage on this thing? It's our primary residence, so we get to write it off for taxes, but we took out 15-year mortgage on the thing! It cost as much as some homes that are located on ground do! Of course, we also have insurance on it (RV Insurance, like car insurance, but includes the stuff inside, like a home).

Yola - Gary and I left our previous respective partners with most everything, and we DID think why the hell not?! Gary had flown over 250,000 air miles in his high-power mgmt job the year before, and we thought - what a better way to travel AND take your closet with you? We just wired it with some technology so we could work from it too. Now, of course, almost all RV Parks and Resorts (at least in the States) have at the very least a modem hook-up available in the offices - although a lot have phone lines looped out to the sites already, and it's just a matter of calling the phone company to order the service (if you're planning to spend more than a couple of weeks somewhere - we were destination oriented, meaning we'd spend one night here and there until we got where we were going and then we'd spend a couple of months in one area).


Now of course, the earliest we'd leave is Spring. And I can't imagine going anywhere - unless we get the entire outside gang adopted out, which we're working on!!!!!

What I meant was that even though there are payments and such, you don't have to SELL your home and such to move. Your mortgage isn't tied to a location. After all, you can send your payments in from anywhere.

I wish our family could rent one and tour the states! They're too expensive to rent, though. I'm sorry to say I'm envious. And I mean that in a good way. But, would you have to give up all your animals? That would be too sad.

I had never been west of Chicago (-by airplane, saw nothing,) until I went by train to California, with a stop at the Grand Canyon. We came back through Colorado, Utah, etc., a more northern route through the Rockies. I yelled, "Hey Heidi," but no one answered, so we came home. This is a beautiful country. The southwest was impressive, and the weather in California was perfect. Then we toured San Francisco. What a beautiful city. Of course every turn the train made brought an even more beautiful view in the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies.

I've been to Maine by bus, wide awake the whole time and very uncomfortable. Never again, I hope. Eight-10 hours is enough for that kind of trip!

Originally posted by Jeanie G.
We came back through Colorado, Utah, etc., a more northern route through the Rockies. I yelled, "Hey Heidi," but no one answered, so we came home.

Click to expand...

Your too funny Jeanie!

Thanks, Kassandra. I have a strange sense of humor which some people don't understand. But she really didn't answer, you know!

I must have been playing with Trent or Ophelia at the time. You know how demanding those kitties can be! Sorry I didn't answer. Maybe if you had yelled at Jin just on the other side of the moutains she would have answered. I think she's closer to the rail line...

Jeanie!
If you had done that in Toronto- I would have answered you!

Now she tells me! Hey, where is she, anyhow? Hey Jin and Spawn!!

Oh, yeah, right, Adrienne. I was there for my honeymoon --staying with my cousins. I even told you he managed the Loblaw's market around that corner. And I told you his last name is Kerr. No effort on your part at all! Ah, yes, I remember it well.

Laurie! Thanks for showing us the picture! What a beautiful RV!! It is HUGE!!!

This thread disappeared and since I'm at work ( ) on a fast line this morning, I figured I'd roll through to find all the threads with Pictures that I didn't have time to see before.

And sorry Heidi - you are absolutely right!! That was one of the first things Gary LOVED abou the R.V. - if we don't like our neighbors - we move!

And Jeanie - you are so right. This is an incredibly beautiful country. And SO BIG. I love all the different parts of it - but most especially the South in the Winter and the North in the summer! (I'm not so much a Winter person! - I like to visit snow, not live in it! :tounge2: )

Debby - it looks big, but it's pretty standard. It's 35 feet long and six feet wide. We don't have slide-outs (for those who don't know, for about eight or nine years now they've manufactured RVs with "rooms" on hydraulics that "slide out" to widen the inside living space when parked, and "slide in" for driving. It adds an extra 3 - 4 feet to the width -which, when you're talking about living in something 6 feet wide, makes a real difference!). The problem with the slide-outs is that you have to give up the underneath storage space to fit the hydraulic stuff in there, and you have to give up the inside overhead storage space because of the weight. We needed all the space we could get for storing stuff, so no slides.

The longest RVs/bus conversions I'm aware of are 42 feet long, and the bus conversions are usually eight feet wide - which for recreational as opposed to commercial use weren't actually "road legal" in many states until just a few years ago.

If ANY of you are interested in RVs or RVing, just PM me! We have VAST resources at our disposal, and even know lots about renting them for a weekend or a week if you want to see what it's like!

We also have compiled a GREAT list of RV Parks, and can give tips on how to "read" the directories of parks, etc.

GO RVing!!!!!

How much does it cost to rent one for a weekend...and how much would the gas for one weekend cost? I would love to just rent one and go somewhere...anywhere....just to go somewhere different...even if it wasn't very far. I'm not sure where I could rent one around here, though....probably Des Moines. but I imagine it would be way out of our very limited price range at the moment.