Waaaay back in February I began a series entitled “FAQ”. Those Frequently Asked Questions that folks tend to ask about our life on the road and the work we do. I’ve been quite remiss about following through with that series, but I recently received an email chock full of some great questions, so it seemed like a good time to get back on track.
Let’s go!
FAQ #4
Do you miss your house? I KNOW you don’t miss insuring, maintaining, and cleaning it, not to mention paying property taxes on it. But do you miss the whole notion of h-o-u-s-e and h-o-m-e. Not having a place of my own is a daunting thought. I love my husband of 36 years. But I also like curling up in one room with a book at night while he is watching the game in another room.

Ah yes, the house thing. When I would tell my friends about the 5 Year Plan (when the kids are out of college, he said,  let’s sell the house, buy an RV, take a year off and travel around the country) they wouldn’t say – wow, you’re going to take a year off and travel? They would say – you have to sell your HOUSE?????

With a big gulp I would shake my head and say, yep, that’s the plan. This is the house that we lived in for almost 25 years, having moved there when our youngest son was just 6 weeks old. I remember standing in the yard with my mom, looking at that diamond in the rough (and it was very rough, trust me!) and saying that this would be our final house. It would become The Homestead, and my grandbabies would come here to frolic in the big back yard.
Yet, when you ask me today if I miss my house, I would have to say – No.
Maybe.
Sometimes.
As we set off on our adventure (which began as a 1-2 year adventure and is now in its 10th year) I was surprised how easily we both adjusted to less space. Yes, at first we would bump into each other (sometimes intentionally, I confess), but we soon mastered the yin and yang of life in 300 sq. feet. Over the years we’ve settled into our own favorite spaces (mine – here at the computer or stretched out for a nap on the sofa, Gary’s – up in the front at his computer or back in the bedroom reading (and falling asleep!))and I can honestly say that I have rarely felt crowded. As the vacation feeling wore off and we added some little pieces of our “previous life,”

we realized that we did indeed have a house and a h-o-m-e.  It was little, but it was definitely a place to call our own.
So when does the “Maybe and Sometimes” come in? Well, probably the hardest time (emotionally) for me NOT to have that big ol’ house in Pennsylvania is this time of year. The Holidays. Oh, how I would love for my kids and grands to go over the river and through the woods to come to My House. How fun would it be to say to the little ones that ‘this is the room where your Daddy slept” as I tucked them into bed. To pull that big turkey out of the oven and tell the dear DIL’s to go and sit down – I’ve got it covered! But then, as the scent of fresh balsam fades into my memory, I remember the cleaning and the laundry and the fact that probably Mommy and Daddy will be doing any tucking in (since it will be a strange bed and everything!). So the Norman Rockwell holiday begins to fade, and I become content once again with being the holiday guest instead of the holiday host. I still like to tell the DIL’s to go and sit down (bossy MIL that I am!), but I try to respect that these are my children’s homes and their traditions, and now is the time for us to be the (helpful, I hope) guests. “To everything there is a season….”

One more reason that I don’t miss the house –
Tomorrow morning I am going to get up bright and early and thoroughly clean the living room, dining room, kitchen, computer room, TV room, bathroom, and bedroom. And be done by 10AM.
And you gotta love that!

(If you’re interested in the previous FAQ’s, I’ve put them together in a category over on the right column. Just so you know!)

Absolutely the first question folks ask when they learn that we live full time in our motor home and move, on average, monthly is –

What about your mail?  How does THAT work?

The answer is pretty simple – we use a mail forwarding service.  Actually, that mail forwarding service is also our “home address”, and considered our domicile.  Right now we are using a Florida service (though we almost “moved” to South Dakota a couple of years ago). That address is important for taxes, vehicle registrations, drivers licenses, and voting.  It gets a little confusing for folks since we have FL drivers licenses and FL tags on our vehicles, but when asked where we’re from we always say Pennsylvania. Well, unless  it’s a US Customs guy or a state police officer.  Then we’re from FL all the way-we don’t want to confuse THOSE guys!!

(Of course it doesn’t help that we have a Vermont tag on the front of the RV –

It’s an old tag leftover from my grandfather. He and my grandmother were the 781st and 782nd people to register vehicles in Vermont. (This odd picture is from when we were getting new tires on the RV – it was the first picture I could find that showed the VT tag!))

But I digress. We were talking about the mail, right?

I imagine that as recently as 10 years ago keeping up with your mail (and bills) was a big hurdle for full-timers. Today, however, it’s a very different story. We handle everything on-line that we can. Credit card and bank statements, phone and internet bills all arrive in my email in-box. And because life can get pretty busy some months, I also have anything that I can set up for automatic payments. We “order” our mail monthly (although with a mail service you can get it as often as you like), and generally it has some investment statements (and who wants to open them!), an RVing magazine, a receipt or two from a charitable donation and maybe a request for a contribution or two. I know in April to look for vehicle insurance and registration forms, and of course during January and February we keep an eye out for tax stuff. If we’ve been to the doctors then we know to watch for those bills. And it’s true that once I got a notice for jury duty and I was supposed to have called in two days before I got the mail. Oops. It all got straightened out, but that could have been a bit messy!

All that being said – I do LOVE to get mail. You know, the hand addressed kind of mail. :)  The address over on the “contact us” page is good as long as it isn’t a rush message.  And if you ever want to send something that will arrive right away (or at least as “right away” as the USPS can manage!), check the “Where are we now” page – or send me a quick email.  I’d be happy to give you a current address. Well, it will be current for a little bit anyway!

Oh – and to make my banking even a bit easier, on the rare occasions that we get checks I can now use my phone to do the deposit. How cool is that!?!

Have another question? I’d be happy to answer anything about our Life On The Road during my Post Ever Day month of February!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS – this whole “where are you from” question really confuses the US government too!  Here’s an exchange I had with a US Census worker back in 2010!