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LIFE Before RVing


May 22-21, 2018 — Last week a critical family matter brought us back to Wisconsin abruptly and that issue kept us stationary during this week as well. Our hope is that we will be able to wrap things up during the first week of June and be back on the road again. We took one trip in the RV to fill the propane, gasoline and water tanks and to empty the waste tanks. Since we weren’t able to share our usual explorations we thought we would share a glimpse of our past life before becoming full-time RV travelers. 

Mile Driven – RV

Miles Driven – Car

We ordered our motorhome April of 2016 and brought it home June 30 of that year. Since neither of us had any prior RV experience we really didn’t know what to expect or how we would like it. Here’s the RV parked in the driveway of our former home. 

Prior to RV travel cruising was a frequent activity. We took ships to Europe, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada/New England and all over the Caribbean. We met many great friends while cruising and plan to take more trips in the future. Here is a photo of our ship parked at St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.  

We crafted the dice below to represent our retirement from full-time employment – January 2014.

The scrabble letters below spell it out even clearer but you have to read it backwards – We had “nuf” of working on 1/14. Clever, aren’t we??

We were looking to get more out of “LIFE”.

We enjoyed a variety of post-retirement hobbies including wine making. Here’s a photo of just bottled wine waiting to be labeled. 

We loved making wine as depicted by the photo below that shows 26 gallons of wine in various stages of fermentation. TheT-shirts covering the carboys kept the wine shaded from the sun. 

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Motorcycle riding was enjoyed during the warm weather months. Here is our 2014 Honda Goldwing that has now found a new home. We contemplated buying an enclosed trailer to haul it in behind the motorhome but it made more practical sense to tow a car. 

Prior to the Goldwing we had a 2006 Honda VTX. Loved the orange color of this bike. 

Gardening was a big part of our life. Here’s a photo of the raised bed vegetable garden in our backyard. 

Baby romaine lettuce growing in the garden. It was almost too pretty to eat. 

We grew hundreds of sweet onions every year. Since they don’t keep long in storage we would spend a day peeling, chopping and packaging the onions for the freezer. We grew enough to eat until the next season’s crop. 

Raspberries grow like weeds in Wisconsin and many quarts ended up in our freezer every year. We ate them in smoothies, yogurt and muffins during the off season.

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Woodworking occupied a considerable amount of our time and we had a 24′ x 26′ insulated, heated shop. Most wood projects were home decor/art along with furniture and custom cabinetry.  Here’s a photo of one side of the shop.

 

Here’s another photo angle of the shop. The dice, scrabble letters and LIFE wood pieces were made in the shop. 

Flower gardens graced our front, back and side yards. Here is a photo of a Jackmani purple clematis. 

An orange asiatic lily. Our favorite color of lily. So pretty!

Too common of a sight in Wisconsin and one we don’t care to deal with anymore. The biggest reason by far that we decided to become full-time RVers. 

A load of furniture leaving our house and on the way to a new home. Selling almost everything we owned was a daunting task but the rewards were well worth the stress and efforts. We miss very little about owning a house. 

We knew within the first week of owning our RV that we wanted to go full-time but waited until the following spring to list the house as selling in Wisconsin in the winter is tough. We had an accepted offer the same day the house was listed and our closing was June 2017. We’ve had no regrets and continue to love this lifestyle. 

We hope you enjoyed a flashback in time of our life before becoming full-time RVers. Our goal is to get back on the road soon to bring you new and exciting adventures. See you next week!