Are We Crazy?

Yes, I think we must be...

The year 2012 proved to be a difficult year for our family with many hard setbacks and emotional trauma.  As a result, Steve and I considered running away.  Well, not really.  But the idea did come to us to sell everything, buy a coach RV, and hit the open road with our six boys for as long as our finances would allow.  So we threw caution to the wind and started putting our plan into motion. 

Crazy, huh?

First, we bought this 2012 Ford F-350 diesel "dually" 4x4 with enough power to pull nearly anything:

Then, we bought this 2011 Open Range H396RGR which has enough dedicated sleeping space for all eight of us:

As you can see from the floorplan, it is a "toy hauler" fifth wheel coach. The "garage" has elevating/lowering queen bunk beds, which is where the four older boys will sleep. There is also a half-bath in the garage.

Above the garage (but in the main cabin) is a queen loft bed, which is where the younger two boys will sleep.

There is a double-refrigerator which will (hopefully) hold enough food for our family for a few days. In addition, there is a side-by-side washer and dryer upstairs in the hallway of the main bedroom where my husband and I will sleep.

I think this might work!



The next thing on our to-do list is to sell this:

We have lived in this house only since 2010, but we bought it for a steal and put in several improvements.  Hopefully we will make some money from the sale, but it's not going to be easy to sell.  This house is the lynch-pin in our plan; as soon as this house sells, we can hit the road. 

We have already been thinning out our excess.  (It's amazing how much JUNK we own!)  What remains will go into storage while we are gone.  We are considering using Cool Box storage (like PODS).

At this point, I'm sure most folks are wondering about finances.  Without going into a lot of detail, I'll just say that Steve is an expert number-cruncher.  He has the budget all laid out.  We will have some income while on the road due to his military retirement and his veteran disability, plus we have been putting money aside for a while for this trip.  We figure we can make this happen for at least a year.  When we come back, we plan to move our renters out of our rental property and reclaim it as our own.

Andrew and Ben are going to be graduating in 2014, so our time is limited.  It's now or never!  If all goes well, we will be on the road for the 2013-2014 school year.

See you on the road!