We recently decided to buy a 5th wheel and a truck and try something new. Here’s why:
Charity & I have a weird mix of cautiousness and impulsiveness. I’m generally the more cautious one when it comes to finances, major life choices, etc. I have more attachment to things and am generally more sentimental. Charity is more impulsive and willing to give up or risk more to try something new or possibly achieve something better even at the risk of it not working out. She’s also less averse to change than I am and less attached to stuff. On the flip side when it comes to simple things like hiking in the backcountry for a long time with no way to communicate, scaling a cliff, giving 110% to a meaningless backyard football game at the risk of broken bones or concussion, or anything adventurous – I throw caution to the wind and am all in while Charity becomes the conservative one.
Charity and I both love to travel and have long wished we could travel to more places more often. We have actually been blessed to be able to travel quite a bit, mostly visiting family or for work, and our kids have learned to love traveling too. We love the mountains, the rivers, hiking opportunities…………and really don’t like cold weather. If not for family, friends, and our church we would likely be living somewhere like Arizona, Colorado, Utah, or Texas.
we’ve wanted to find a way to experience the Western parts of the country that keep calling and also avoid, to the extent possible, the cold weather months of Indiana that you just sort of put up with. We felt impressed to find a way to do this while our kids are still at home and we are still young. Our oldest will turn 10 this year and it feels like the next several years of our life are some of the most important to make sure we take full advantage of and not let them just slip by.
Over the last several months both Charity and I would jokingly make comments about just up and moving out west or buying an RV, selling everything, and touring the country. Our kids actually travel really well but it’s so expensive and takes so much time to travel that far that we rarely have the opportunity to go further west than Kansas. A good road trip…….driving across country I’ve never seen before on a beautiful sunny day and watching the terrain change……..there’s nothing quite like that!
In February, 2016 I mentioned to Charity that we needed a lifestyle change. She must have taken it to heart because the next day she got on a kick to sell everything (including our house), buy an RV and do full time RVing. It would drastically reduce our expenses, we would be instantly debt free, and could likely afford for me to even go to a part time work schedule allowing lots of extra time to do things together as a family. That sounds fun! I was excited about many aspects of this but hesitant at the same time (remember I’m the cautious one in this area). We ultimately decided not to go so drastic at least not until we could “test drive” the idea. Two days later we found a 5th wheel for sale by owner on Craigslist that had just been listed that day. It matched all our requirements (except price) and was only 3 miles from our house. We live out in the country without many people around us so it’s unusual to find anything that close. That seems like more than a coincidence. It was a nicer and more expensive RV than we had in mind but everything else fit. After lots of thought and prayer we decided to go for it and bought it. Now we have committed to the “test drive”.