Our First Anniversary

What a difference a year makes.

One year ago this evening, Boris and I were pulling into a KOA near Visalia, CA on the first night of our maiden RV voyage.  We had no idea what we started that day.

We rented a 26-foot Class C for 10 nights.  Our mission: to make it to the Grand Canyon and back in one piece.  Though we had been "tent campers" for years, we had never spent a night in, much less driven, anything on wheels bigger than a car. But with a couple hundred miles under our belt that first night, we pulled in to the KOA and within minutes were enjoying all the comforts of home. Ten trouble free days later (well, except that one incident in the desert), we reluctantly returned that trusty Tioga and gave birth to a new obsession. 

Reflecting on the last 365 days, so much has transpired.  We created one heck of a list of bookmarks of blogs of current and future fulltimers (see right), created our own where we declared our intention to become fulltimers, and another blog to report on our on-the-road adventures.  We shopped for and found our moose, met up with a Winnebago owners group on our first night as Winnie owners, learned how Bullwinkle works (inside and out), discovered online forums, chat rooms and Camping World, found a new Winnie dealer to work with because ours closed, introduced our cats to the moose, hooked our Jeep to it, spent Thanksgiving in the desert and many weekends closer to home falling in love with this lifestyle. We've detached from our jobs, first emotionally and finally physically, and systematically begun a transition from a stationary life to a rolling one.  We've met so many wonderful, helpful and fun people - in person and online (and some both!) - whom we now consider friends. 

As we celebrate this anniversary, we're camped in the California Delta with members of our FMCA chapter. We have nearly half as much stuff in our house as we once did.  And, that's an especially good thing because it's going on the market in a matter of weeks.  The fulltiming lifestyle we discovered just one year ago and have dreamt of for months will be ours very soon. 

What a year!  We're definitely loving the ride.