First Trip

Saturday we drove to Reading to visit our friends Sam and Courtney. Courtney was throwing a party to celebrate Sam's 40th birthday. We decided to take the RV because it would give us an excuse to spend the night in it.

On the way up we stopped to refuel for the first time. Eighty gallons of diesel and $240 later I was ready to return the RV. Unfortunately, we have lost the receipt to the RV.

The party was a lot of fun with plenty of food, beer, and drinking games by people old enough to know better. Here's a shot of Mick with Sam and Courtney. Nice t-shirt, Courtney!

We slept soundly in the RV our first night, which I attribute to the comfy mattress and not the gallon of beer we each drank.

The next morning we ate breakfast with Sam and Courtney and went for a walk. Then we headed for home with Mick behind the wheel for the first time. Notice the death-grip on the steering wheel.

Other than one really close encounter with a mail box, she did a great job getting us home.

The Journey Begins

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

-Lao-tzu

Welcome to Dennis and Mickey's RV blog. For the next year or so we are going to drive around the U.S. in a motor home, also known as an RV. That is, if one of us doesn't kill the other first.

Some background. I write computer software. I have recently taken a job that allows me to work from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection.

Mickey, my wife, is a retired legal assistant. We call Texas home, but we have been living in Downingtown, PA for the past 13 years. We have two sons: Derek, age 24, and Ryan, age 21.

Inspired by this blog, we began kicking around the idea of selling the house and living in an RV. We have always talked about buying an RV when we retired, but the change of jobs as allows us to accelerate the schedule.

The plan:

1. Sell the house.
2. Buy the RV.
3. Start driving.

Since step one was not progressing as well as hoped (something to do with the economy), we decided to skip it and go straight to step 2. Last month we bought a 38 foot 2010 Four Winds Monticito. Today we picked it up. Here it is in the dealer's lot.

That's me next to it saying "What the hell were we thinking?"

An hour long walk through, a test drive around the block, and 432 signatures later we were pulling out of the dealership in our brand new RV. I should mention that when the day started neither of us had ever driven an RV before.

Now one of us has (me). Somehow we made the hour and a half trip back home without any major incidents. I think we ran over a small cow but the RV is so big we hardly felt a thing so I can't be sure.

Here's the RV parked in the driveway.

The home owners association's really going to love us now!