Our RV'ing story

We have a lot of new readers, and not all of you know how we got into this Rv'ing thing. So for a change of pace we thought we'd tell you all the story.

It was July of 2007. We were living in a four bedroom house in the east end of Ottawa, Ontario, where we had brought up our children for the last 12 years or so.

But three of the bedrooms were empty. Our daughter was living with her boyfriend in Nova Scotia, and our son was going to college in the States. I was feeling like I needed a change...maybe sell the house and move into a condo downtown or something. Ruth wasn't working at the time, but I had a job that I loved...doing contract lease return inspections for GMAC.

A few years before, we had signed up to a website called http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/ where travelers stay in other peoples houses for free. Since then, a similar but better website has come along http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Anyhow, we received an email requesting accomodation. It was from a British couple who said that they were traveling North America in their small motorhome and they were looking to park in our driveway while they took the local bus to explore Ottawa. Glen and Steve stayed with us for four days, and by the end of their stay I was ready to sell the house and buy a motorhome.

It took a little while to talk Ruth into the idea because she was pretty happy with the house and had spent a lot of time on her garden. Also, her mother was entering the later stages of Alzheimers disease and she was hesitant about taking off during that period. But by the beginning of August 2007, we made the decision. Sell the house, and buy a motorhome!

So that's what we did. We spent the month of August 2007 getting the house ready for sale and started to sell most of our belongings. The day after labour day weekend in early September, we listed the house. We listed it privately because I don't like using real estate agents. Two weeks later, we had a firm offer, with a closing date of October 5, 2007.

Towards the end of September we had a big ass garage sale, and sold just about everything we owned. Of course in the meantime, we shopped for and purchased Sherman. Bought him in New York State and did all the importation paperwork with the government. What a busy two months we had! From the time we made the commitment until the time we took off in the motorhome was almost exactly two months!

Three years and three months later, sitting in Huatulco, Mexico, we have absolutely no regrets. It's funny to think that prior to October 2007, I had never been in a motorhome in my life. Now I live in one, and have driven it all over Mexico. I've also worked two summers at an RV dealership. Had you told me four years ago that I would be doing this I would have said you were crazy. But here we are!

You never know what the future holds, and we are proof of that. Take hold of your life and do the things that you want to do!