The Plan as it Stands

One question we’re frequently asked these days is when we plan to hit the road.  The answer is we simply don’t know.  While we have certain parts of our long term timetable figured out, at this point, we can’t say with any certainty when we’ll be able to get started.  We just have to remain flexible and see what happens.

As of now, our RV is scheduled to go into production on April 25 at Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, Alabama.

If the timing were better, we’d be able to go to the plant and actually watch our rig being built. A particularly cool part of buying from Tiffin is they encourage buyers to come to the factory to watch their new homes being built from the chassis up.  Our friends Mike and Kathie, who are also from Northern Virginia and who have the same model RV we’re buying, posted about the experience 2 years ago.  We really wish we could go because we know it would help us understand how the systems work together and it would make it easier to fix things down the line, but unfortunately, our work schedules are mucking up the works (as usual) and we won’t be able to steal away. Total bummer.

Anyway, once our RV is built, the next most important thing we have to do is name it.  That’s right, RV’s have names.  It’s a thing. Just go with it.

Our original plan was to go with a color scheme in which black was a primary color.  But, as we talked to folks who owned RV’s, we quickly realized that a lot of black paint means lots of heat. Therefore, we decided to go with an alternate color scheme.

We ended up choosing what Tiffin calls “white mahogany.”

However, I don’t know where they came up with a name like “white mahogany” cuz that is clearly a purple RV!

And if we are gonna have a purple RV, you know what his name has to be, right???

Right!!!

So, from now on, our RV will be known as “Barney”!

Once Barney makes his way to the dealership, he’ll spend a couple weeks being outfitted, primped, and gussied up. Then we’ll make our way to Mississippi to pick him up.

On account of our complete incompetence with all things RV’ing, we’ll then spend several days at the dealership attending what our salesman referred to as “Motor Home School.” I’m pretty sure “Motor Home School” is just a euphemism for “Wow.  You really don’t know anything about this stuff, do you?”  Whatever the case may be, we will be there with our number 2 pencils sharpened and ready to soak up some know-how!

Once we can semi-competently handle the RV’s systems, we’ll spend a couple days with a professional RV driving teacher who will do his best to keep us from causing havoc on the roads.

We’ll then drive Barney back home and put him in storage until we get everything else done.

“Everything else” consists of selling our house, selling or donating our stuff, moving the leftovers to the homes of friends and family willing to take care of our stuff for us (thanks guys!!), and then, finally, hitting the road.

We’re expecting to at least make it up to Connecticut and Massachusetts to see family for a couple weeks in August and September.  If we’re feeling really ambitious, we’ll shoot up to Maine for a couple weeks, but that will just depend on how things go.  We plan to be back in the Metro DC area in late October/early November to see our sister-in-law run the Marine Corps Marathon, and get some appointments taken care of.

Then we’ll head south toward Florida.  The Christmas and New Years holidays will be spent in the St. Augustine area visiting Kevin’s family. Then we’ll shoot across the panhandle, spending a week at gorgeous Grayton Beach, before making our way to New Orleans by the first week of February. We’ll need to be back here next May for our friends’ wedding, then we’ll head north again.

In between these points on the map, we’ll have to figure out what else we’re doing and where we’re staying.  We’re trying to not over-plan because if things go sideways, we don’t want to have to re-book a ton of reservations.  On the other hand, we don’t want to end up stuck in the middle of nowhere with no place to stay.

It’s pretty clear this whole lifestyle will require a good sense of humor and a lot of flexibility.  The next few months will undoubtedly give us a solid preview of what’s to come.