Saskia and Richard's RVing Adventures

Richard and I have transported ourselves into the unknown.  We did it by choice, for a better life during our retirement.  Many thousands make the same choice daily, and many millions have made that same journey before us.  Adam and Eve were lucky in that they didn’t have to go through the bureaucratic morass required to pass through these days in order to set up home in another locality (county, State, or country). Whilst Richard and I were counting the minutes waiting in line for drivers licence and social security number applications, I was transported back to our holiday in Australia and reminded myself that these wasted hours were nothing compared to the days, months and years that the early settlers there (and in other countries) spent setting up their new lives. Not for them a half hour trip in their new truck along tarmac roads to the mall/retail district to shop for the myriad color coordinated accouterments required to fit out their new trailers. My...

I want to introduce you to some very special friends we have just acquired. Richard and I are trusting these to help us fulfill our dream of touring the USA in a most comfortable and safe manner. We met Benny first.  Or rather Richard did.  I wasn’t introduced to him until all the paperwork had been filled out.  I didn’t need to see him beforehand either, as we already knew that there was a limited choice out there, and I was happy to let Richard choose the right one for us both.  Besides, I didn’t fancy any more of that  wheeling dealing  I mentioned in my last blog.  But as soon as I met him on the forecourt of the car dealership I fell in love with him and named him Benny.  He is strong and BIG, yet surprisingly manageable.  He may be a slightly more mature model, but there’s plenty of mileage in him yet and Richard and I were pretty impressed by all the bells and whistles that came with his pulling power.   And so on to Bett...

I keep waking up around 5 and not being able to get back to sleep.  On previous visits to the US, this has been the norm for the first few days, because of jet lag.  Hopefully that is what it is.  However, I have a feeling it might be because there is money in my pocket and it is burning a hole in it. If you know me well or have read my memoir, you will know that spending money is not high on my list of priorities. Being used to frugal living with an occasional splurge for clothing or a meal out (weaknesses inherited from my mother who had an eye for style and whose cooking I still hanker for) has not prepared me for what I am about to embark on. Basically Richard and I are starting from scratch.  We have to buy ourselves a truck and a 5 th wheel trailer which we will have to kit out so that we can live in it full time.  While we are doing this, we are staying with Richard’s cousin and his lovely wife near Austin, Texas.  They are RVers, and we ar...

So it’s done.  Everything sold or given away to charity shops.  Only a few choice pieces of sentimentally imbued furniture and memorabilia passed on to my long suffering eldest son, Scott, although even he agrees they do give his apartment in Glasgow a much more homely, if a little cramped, look. All our farewells have been said, final salaries banked, outstanding bills paid, and the first leg of our passage from Scotland to the USA - a painful 25 hour flight – saw us arrive exhausted but excited (as only newly born retirees will comprehend), in Melbourne, Australia on Thursday 18 th December 2014.   The challenge of setting ourselves up with fifth wheel and truck and embarking on the snow-birding lifestyle has been put on the back-burner until after a very much needed three week holiday spent in the company of my younger son, Drew, his lovely wife, Sarah, and her wonderful and generous parents, Rowena and Michael.  Time for Christmas festivities in th...