Introduction

"I envy your lifestyle, but I could never sell my house."

I've heard that from hundreds of people over the past decade as I've traveled the country in my motor home. I truly understand how they feel. Before my husband, Dan, and I became full-timers, I was sure I could never part with our home of twenty years. It was true that our house was too large for a retired couple, but the property was filled with memories.We'd raised our children there. I'd planted trees in the backyard in memory of my parents, and those trees stood large and sturdy now. Could I ever leave them and the memories that were such a part of this house? All our married life, as we worked and struggled to raise our seven children, Dan and I had talked about things we would do "someday." Well, the kids were grown, we were retired, and "someday" was now.

Throughout the years, our dreams had centered around travel. Our retirement income, however, while not marginal, isn't lavish - and travel can be expensive. The logical solution for us was to sell the house and buy a motor home. We placed our home on the market, and it sold in a month. Eight years into the full-timing lifestyle, do I regret burning my bridges? The answer is an emphatic no. It was what we had to do at the time to break from the conventional lifestyle that kept us from our travel dreams. But over these past eight years, I've learned there is more than one way to reach cherished travel goals.

I know people who rent out their homes, planning to return to them when they've finished traveling. In fact, Dan and I have bought a second home and we've done exactly that. I've met other travelers who adopt the "snowbird" lifestyle - people who live in their homes for six months and spend the rest of the year in their RVs. Of course, there are also RVers who take to the road just a few months or even a few weeks a year. But for us, selling the house when we did bought us the freedom we enjoy now.

Over these years, snug in my 38-foot motor home, I've been to wonderful places and seen wonderful things. I've lain in bed at midnight with the blinds up while lightning turned the sky a brilliant white and thunder rocked my bed. I've visited with hummingbirds, pelicans, squirrels, deer, ducks, and even alligators. I've been to the Alamo to see a reenactment of that historic battle, to Cape Canaveral to see the space-shuttle launch sites, to the French Quarter of New Orleans, to a half-dozen historic forts that dot the Gulf of Mexico, and to Washington, D.C. I've gambled in Biloxi and gamboled in Florida. I've lived the champagne life on a beer budget.

In a journal entry from our first week on the road, I wrote:

"I have always believed, that one should not allow the material things of this world to have possession of one's soul. That the lighter we can travel through life, the better. I'm traveling light, and I'm going to travel far."

And so we have.

But selling the home and setting yourself free is not without obstacles. Before all this became a reality for us, Dan and I had to find creative solutions to problems that never confronted us as homeowners. We discovered that there are dependable ways to get mail while never being in one place for more than a week or two, and similarly simple ways to handle the monthly bills. Keeping in touch with children, grandchildren, and friends is easier than you might imagine. You have a variety of options for getting online as you travel, and those options are getting better every day. If you intend to travel a long distance or be gone for a long time, you may have to wrestle with the problem of finding a medical plan that will provide coverage to fit your itinerary, but it can be done. RVers can now have television and Internet access, and nationwide cellular service.

To receive each of these services - taken for granted by people who live in a fixed location - you may need to bend some rules and regulations of the providers, some of whom are not interested in serving RVers.

If you want to know how to accomplish all these things, read on!