Where are we now?

We now have two blogs. This blog is primarily the one we will use when we are traveling around this great country. You can find our second one at http://blueheron98.wordpress.com  In this blog you can follow us in our new life adventure of gate guarding in the oil and gas fields of south Texas.

Since leaving Moab, Utah in October, we went on to Las Vegas, Nevada. We visited Bob's daughter Julia and her family (hubby Chris, sons Austin & Ben) and Bob's brother, Richard, and our sister-in-law, Carolyn. It was great to see them all. We ate lunch at the Rio, where Carolyn works as a waitress. I've never seen a buffet so large... never seen so much food at one place in my life!

One thing we never get to do with our out of state grandchildren is to attend their sports functions. As luck would have it... we were able to attend one of Ben's baseball practices. What a treat!

One of the things I wanted to do is eat at the Top of the World Restaurant in the Stratosphere. Bob's brother Richard joined us for dinner. I had a hard time deciphering the menu, but the food was good and EXPENSIVE! If you've ever dined in the Reunion Tower restaurant in Dallas, this restaurant operates the same way. In about an hour you rotate and get a breathtaking 360 degree view of the cityscape. At sunset it was quite a site.

Next, we went down the strip and saw the magnificent light show at the Bellagio. The light show is coordinated to music. It's awesome!

We stayed at the Circus Circus KOA because our rig is too big to stay at Julia's or Richard's place. We had a deluxe spot which means that in addition to black top, we had grass, a tree and patio furniture. Capt. Jack & Jesse James were grateful for the grass!

This is not our Silver Bullet in this picture, but it's looks like our lot. A breath of fresh air in the heart of Las Vegas for sure. :D

When we left Las Vegas we traveled across the new bridge at the Hoover Dam. If you plan to go over that bridge, don't count on seeing the dam as all. It is hidden. Fortunately we had already seen Hoover Dam in a previous visit to town.

On the way home we stayed at the Petrified Forest KOA. It was a great park with very friendly people. We find that KOA are among some of the friendliest campgrounds to stay at. I've added seeing the Petrified Forest to my bucket list... next trip out west.

When we got home it was time for annual maintenance on the Silver Bullet, us, and the doggies. No stone was left unturned but everyone and everything checked out okay. The rig still needs some things fixed, but they are on the long list and can wait.

On December 19th, we reported for duty at Gate Guard Services at the Carrizo Springs yard in south Texas. You can read more about our preparations for this job and what it's all about. Our trials & tribulations in this new adventure are included as well.

I'll write more in this blog when we get back on the road again.

Happy Trails!

Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

The Exciting Life-Changing Journey Begins

A few days ago I told you we were going to share insights into how we made the decision to become full-time RVers, how long we planned it, and how we got started. We also want these insights to make it easier for you. Some things along the way could have been planned a bit better. Hopefully our insights will help your transition into the full-timing RVing lifestyle a little easier.

First, there are a lot of good books on this subject. Read them. You can never have too much information when you're making a lifestyle change as substantial as this.

I think I bought about 6 or 7 books. If you don't know what type of rig will be best for you, these books will help guide you in this decision. We already knew we wanted a Class A motorhome. In fact, as I said before -- the purchase of our current motorhome inspired us to make this life change sooner rather than later.

So aside from the type of rig you want, what other things need to be considered?

Bob, my beloved soulmate, is 63-years-old this year. I just turned 54-years-old. With gas prices between $3.50 and $4.00 per gallon, we knew we should plan on working part time to help supplement our expenses. Another factor is we'll soon have to pay for health insurance.

This helped us to make the big decision to sell our house. It went on the market yesterday. We have a lovely and highly skilled realtor named Beverly Pironti. Her website is http://www.beverlypironti.com/. In 2004 she sold two houses across the street for full asking price. One went in eight days, the other in 27 days. We knew we wanted to keep her in mind for when we decided to sell (in 2004 we had no idea when that would be).

Right after she closed these two properties, Beverly sent out a postcard to our neighborhood announcing those house sales and how quickly they sold. I stuck that card away "just in case."

When the time came and we decided to sell the house, we couldn't for the life of us remember her name. We called our former neighbor (the Internet is sure helpful in finding people) to get this realtor's contact information. They could not find it anywhere.

As luck would have it, as I was cleaning out clutter and getting rid of "stuff," I found that postcard.

Now before I tell you why her houses sell so quickly, I'm going to share some of our mistakes with you.

1. Interview more than one realtor and ask good questions about how you need to prepare your house and how they will market your house for the quickest sale at the best price. We almost went with a realtor who was a lot less experienced. She was a lovely person, but she was not as knowledgeable about how to really move houses. She told us some brief things to do.

When I found Beverly's card I thought we were about to sign on the dotted line and list with the first lady we interviewed.

Boy -- was I wrong!

Which brings me to our next mistake...

2. Allow plenty of time to get your house in tip-top condition for showing. If you scrimp here it will cost you later.

Beverly came in and said to get out a paper and pencil and take notes. I'm going to tell you what you need to do specifically to get your house ready. She said right now "you're not ready."

Before she became a realtor, Beverly was an interior designer. And it showed! She told us to do things I never would have known to do -- or even thought of. I can't tell you specifically since these are her secrets to success. But suffice it to say, she gave us a week and a half to get our to-do list completed. It went well beyond touch up painting and cleaning off the countertops in the kitchen (de-cluttering).

All summer I told family members that we were putting the house on the market September 1st. Well... we did not start doing anything until mid August. Big mistake!

It takes time to sort through and decide what to dispose of, what to give to kids (if they want it), and what can and will go in the RV. Basically, our challenge was how to go from over 1900 sq. ft. of space down to 444 sq. ft. This includes when all three slide out rooms are extended. A lot has to go. Of course, there are certain things that must go in storage.

For example, I have my own copywriting and marketing business. So I have client files and lots of stuff I've accumulated over the years. When we decided to full-time it, we decided we'd enjoy doing work we could do on the road. Something we could work on together. Something that would take us to new places and help pay our expenses. We found it!

So I tossed (shredded) all of my old client stuff, our old tax stuff and about anything else I could get my hands on. Just kidding. We went through closets and cleaned them out. I finally got it through my thick head that I will not be a size 4 again, or size 6, or size 8. But that's okay, the Salvation Army got two big loads of really good items. It was alot easier than getting ready for a garage sale. Now all we have to do is give a value to all of the donated items and deduct it from our taxes.

If we would have started getting the house ready earlier, we wouldn't have been so rushed and exhausted. I'm happy to say that now we are enjoying our beautifully staged and uncluttered home. Why didn't we do this sooner? (Beverly says she hears that a lot :-))

Stay tuned for my next post as I share with you how I found the "perfect fit" for us job wise.

Please feel free to comment on these posts. I'll be looking at each one. If you have specific questions I'll be happy to answer them. Soon I'll get Bob to join in and share some important information about how to get your rig ready to go. He's working on a project right now that will potentially give us a couple of miles per gallon in mileage which will be a big help in that behemoth. We'll be testing it next weekend. I'll have him give you all the details, I promise.

So keep watching, better yet -- click on the link to follow this blog as it is updated.

Vicky & Bob Heron (& Capt. Jack)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

Welcome to our new "on the road" blog!

It all started with trading in our RV for a newer, larger one last fall.

Let me start at the beginning...

I've [Vicky] been an AVID RVer all of my life. It all started in the late 60's when my parents turned the bed of our pick up truck into a makeshift camper (of sorts).

You see, my Uncle Bob had recently purchased a brand new truck camper and from then on, my parents had the fever.

After a miserable, rainy weekend in the back of a pick up truck with a tarp over our heads (talk about primitive) my parents decided we needed a few more ammenities.

So, they bought a used Tour-A-Home truck camper. It looked okay, but the first rainfall had it leaking like a seive. Plus, Dad had to reinforce the upper bunk (you know, the one that hangs over the truck cab and kids love to ride in -- this was before seat belts were a law) because it was about to form its own entity.

We spent several good years in that RV. Went to Escondido, California to visit my great Aunt Ethel and Uncle Paul. I remember on the trip home we went through Las Vegas. The outdoor thermometer registered 120 degrees. That's as high as it went!

In those days, a farm truck from Illinois did not, as a rule, have air-conditioning. Neither did the camper. So we were hot!

But we did manage to have fun.

Because of this, I went on to get a truck camper of my own when my kids were little. Once we outgrew it, we bought a 22' Viking pop-up camper with two dinnettes. It was perfect for us!

Our youngest daughter, 1-year-old Bobbi Jean, needed a crib like structure to sleep in. So we took the table portion and propped it up between the seats to form a make-shift type of crib on the floor. We also bought an expanding play yard for outdoor play so she could toddle around and not get out of our sight (or into trouble).

Of course, we should have put then 3-year-old James in there. He was a mischievous child who could have put "Dennis-the-Menace" to shame. We have many memories of camping with my sister and her family in their pop-up, and with my parents in their truck camper. What fun family memories!

When we relocated from Illinois to Texas for job reasons, we sold the pop-up camper. Oh that was hard.

Finally, years later I was finally able to buy a "cream-puff" used Class C motorhome... a 28 1/2 foot Jamboree Rallye. I was living in Houston at the time. I joined Coast to Coast Resorts with my home resort in Canyon Lake -- The Summit. It's a beauty! If you ever get the chance to visit there and you're a Coast to Coast member, you gotta stay there and go tubing on the Guadalupe River.

My daughter, Bobbi Jean, and I spent many lazy days tubing down that river. Since it was only three hours from our home in Houston, we stored our rig at the resort and went up 2-3 times per month to savor all the "Hill Country" had to offer. It was delightful.

Next I sold the Class C and bought a brand new Coleman pop-up at an RV show. It came with a screen room and a built-in shower, two stoves and a gas refrigerator, and air-conditioner/heat-pump. Heavenly!

Before I continue, even though there were periods when I did not own an RV, I always had camping fever.

After I sold the Coleman, I met a wonderful man on the Internet... my husband Bob. In his bio he said he worked for an RV dealer. As you can imagine, I answered his ad ASAP!

We corresponded for several months. Flew between Denton/Dallas & Houston and visited each other. Then I quit my job and moved to Denton and we got married shortly thereafter. Turns out he was a manager at McClain's RV and one of his perks was theuse of an RV off the lot for vacations. Not bad - eh?

After he changed jobs a couple of years later, we were again without an RV. I was in withdrawal.

Last spring we decided to sell our conversion van and get a Class A motorhome. Once we made the decision to go for it, we found a 2004 31-foot Gulf Stream Ultra with two slides and hardly any miles on it. Now my Class C did not have slides so this was a whole new dimension in comfort for me.

While I was doing my thing over the years, my parents had found Yuma, Arizona. Since about 1985 or so they have been winter snowbirds. Just like the Canadian honkers, as the weather turns colder up north, they flock south to a warmer climate for the winter.

Last year, we decided to take a 2-week vacation (our first actually) and join them on the trip to Yuma and stay about a week and a half and come home. We had absolutely NO intentions of trading our newly acquired motorhome (even though you could barely walk around the bed even when the slide was out.

Now you must understand, RVers love looking -- window shopping -- at other RVs. Have you ever been to a deserted RV show? Didn't think so.

So one day Mom and I suggested we go "just looking" at RV dealers to see what the newer ones were like. Just to look... right...

Of course I fell in love with a Monaco diesel pusher that could accommodate a heavy load with ease. But the thing I really loved was it had an office area in the bedroom. And being a writer and copywriter I had to have something like this so I could work whenever and wherever we traveled.

There was one little wrinkle -- THE PRICE! It was $250,000. Unless I win the lotto, that's out of my range. Just as we were ready to call it a day and go home, the salesman said, "Do you have to have a diesel?"

When we replied no, he said I may have just the thing for you in a gasoline model. So we all piled into the golf cart and high-tailed it to the other end of the lot. And there it was, our new home. We just didn't know it yet. We knew it had great possibilities!

We spent Thanksgiving Day moving into our new gem -- a 2006 37.2 ft. Damon Challenger. It had only 6300 miles on it. The more we were in it, the more we got the "full-timer" bug.

Well, this is enough for today. Tomorrow I'll take you through our journey of deciding to actually make the transition to full-timing. How we prepared and what we suggest you do differently to be better prepared. And how we prepared our coach for our personal lifestyle.

There is so much I want to tell you... check back often as we embark on our journey. Step by step.

Vicky & Bob Heron (& Capt. Jack)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!