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APENDEX #3 Vehicles
VEHICLES
Arlene says I just didn’t want to spend the money
on something larger. But, over the years we’ve
continued to buy small for our travels. And,
when we look at how quickly and effortlessly we
can set up and take down our rigs. Especially in
the middle of the night when we decide to move
away from a screaming snow storm; it serves us
well.
We really didn’t have any choice about traveling
in our Mercury Van. After 6 months we’d
proved that we could survive and learned how to
put up a tent.
We were just a little too old to crawl around on
the floor board, and count on good weather to
cook on a picnic table with an open stove.
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We knew pretty well what we wanted in an RV,
thanks to several friends and a lot of prowling
around RV shows.
Hal and Gerry Phillips our neighbors in Florida,
made a number of suggestions. The most
important was. ‘Always have a place for
everything. If you don’t; don’t take it with you.’
They also had a small Toyota RV with a door and
kitchen in the rear. Most RV’s have doors right
behind the passenger seat, and the kitchen is in
front.
Shelly and Bernie Waterman, friends we met in
Alaska. (Bernie has since passed away.) They
were wonderful, he had built several RV’s from
large commercial vans. We visited them during
one of his builds.
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You can see how helpful I was. Shelly probably
liked the company.
These friends helped us pick out our RV. It was
small, 23 feet, with a rear door and kitchen.
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Once we bought it, Shelly and Bernie took us for
a maiden camp where they explained what to do
to keep the raccoons away, and how to empty
our grey and black tank before leaving a camp.
We quickly bought enough gear to pull around
our faithful Chevy Nova. That set us up to go
anywhere. We could take the 38 mpg Nova to
far off places. It worked well until gas became
$4.00 a gallon and we were getting 7 ½ MPG
pulling the rig around the country.
That kind of millage put a big dent in our budget
as we might go 12,000 miles a summer, or about
$6,400. We found that after one days drive we’d
have to sit around waiting for our budget to catch
up with us.
Here’s a photo of our RV in Florida, preparing to
go on the road, and on the road in Oregon, with
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our dingy, the Nova, above the Columbia River.
It was time to reconsider how we were traveling.
As luck would have it there was a 13ft Casita
trailer just down the street from us in Georgia.
We stopped one day to look at it. Lorene the
owner was glad to see us, and asked if we wanted
the short or long tour. We answered ‘long’. It
lasted 3 minutes.
She made two suggestions, if we were to buy a
used one, take cash to see it, because they didn’t
stay on the market long. She also recommend
the ‘Casita’, not the ‘Scamp’.
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Two brothers built them, and the Casita had a
higher roof which would allow Richard to stand
inside.
We bought this 17ft Casita which I’m showing to
brother Joe outside his home in Austin TX.
To make the transition from the RV to a trailer
we needed to sell everything, or so it seemed.
The RV went first, to a fellow who crossed the
country back and forth, and was tired of staying
in motels. The Nova went to a fellow near-by
that wanted a second auto. That all worked well,
but we still had some paraphernalia around, like
the Nova’s hitch.
Once we had sold the bulk of the gear we looked
at a couple Casita’s on the internet. Each was a
long way from Georgia. One in Florida, another
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in Virginia. The distance, over 600 miles, was too
far to go on a whim. So we called Texas where
they make Casitas, and ordered one.
It was a good choice as we also got information
about pulling it, hitching, and the kind of car to
use. We settled on a Honda Van and used
Casita’s hitch, stabilizer, and sway bars.
It has every convenience, a double bed, just right
for the two of us, particularly when it’s cold. A
two burner propane stove, a refrigerator and
freezer, a microwave, faucet, shower, and toilet.
A closet, dinette, a built in antenna, electric lights
and plugs everywhere, an air conditioner, and
vinyl floor. We’d learned from the RV, that rugs
are impossible to keep clean, although we quickly
recovered the floor with scatter rugs, I mean our
Orientals. One finish we were surprised about
was the carpet on all the walls. We quickly
established a rule not to cook fish. It turned out
that the carpet plus the rugs added a good deal of
insulation, reducing the outside noise, and both
maintaining cooling and heating inside. All of
this came in a simple package, with alternate
shore power, propane gas, and battery backup.
We hate to say it but…’We’re snug as a bug in a
carpet.’
Here’s a picture of the unit in Wyoming, just
before a strong hail storm hit.
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Vehicles play a big roll in traveling. Storage and
comfort are key for us. When we bought the
Honda, we had the dealer remove the back seats.
rd
So the 3 row, has never been used.
The trailer is small, but very comfortable. We
spend most of our daylight hours outside.
Seldom with more than two days of rain in a row.
If we exceeded three days it becomes a challenge.
Instead we have a huge storage area for sports
equipment, fishing rods, golf clubs, kayak
paddles, sails, and life preservers. The space also
is used for tools, and camping gear allowing us an
extraordinary amount of space inside the trailer.
Despite noticing how many fellow travelers buy
and travel in larger and larger vehicles as they
grow older. Often the more debilitated they are
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the larger the unit they drive. Many wheelchair
campers drive 48 foot RV cruisers.
It has not spoiled us however, as we’ve gone
from small to small while traveling and camping,
and would probably do it again if given the
chance.
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APENDEX #4
HOMES:
CHANGES OVER TIME
During this decade we’ve not only changed our
method of travel by adding an RV and a dingy to
it, and now we own a small trailer. We have also
changed homes, Green to Pink, Yellow, to Red.
Starting with our homes as we’ve really enjoyed
them, but as our life has changed so have they.
This is our living room in the Green House.
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We could have stayed in our Green Connecticut
home. We liked the state, and our proximity to
the coast where we owned and sailed our
‘Citizen’ sloops for years. And the mountains
which were just over the hill. It was a great place
for us. That home and our lives were altered
when Richard’s mother deeded her home in
Florida to us, the Pink House.
It turned out that it was much cheaper to live in
Florida than Connecticut. Our discretionary
spending funds grew by 8%-10%.
This move changed our lives, and with the help
of our pre-retirement planning we set off on
another journey.
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After a couple of years we had sold all of our
northern stakes, ‘Citizen’ our sail boat, our time
share in Bermuda, and our Connecticut home in
East Granby.
We had such a great time traveling across the
United States to Alaska that we up-graded to an
RV. It gave us a little more room and a great
deal more comfort.
During that time a friend suggested we look at a
building lot near him. It was on a golf course and
just too good to turn down. So in the next
couple of months we built and moved into our
new Yellow House. Our builder was very
accommodating and not only helped us decide on
many things, but seemed to be scrupulously
honest. Our cement tile roof was laid incorrectly
and he tore it off, and replaced it.
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Arlene loved the color. She had seen it on a
house nearby and she liked it. That was funny as
we remembered the other one when it was a
spec house on display. When we returned to see
it it had been sold and people were living in it.
While I tested colors on the outside, Arlene
walked in and scared the new owners. All turned
out okay as we explained how much we liked
their yellow house.
Years later we were returning from a long
summer when Florida was threatened with
several hurricanes. Our friends George and Ilse
had closed up their home, packed up, and were
headed for Georgia to duck one of them. They
invited us to go along. Which we did.
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It was perfect timing. We loved Athens Georgia,
the home of the University, with hills and the
twisting roads. At the time the countries
financial condition was spiraling out of control,
and the owners of the golf course were making
plans to build condos on it.
We went home and sold our Yellow Home.
We’re sure it was the last house sold in Florida
for the next 5 years, as just afterward the housing
market collapsed.
It didn’t take long to find a new home in
Watkinsville. It was in a quiet neighborhood, on
the eastern side of town. Most new
developments were on the westside.
We like this home, but it’s hard to say if we will
always be able to climb the stairs. It’s four
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bedrooms and wide open spaces are just great
when we come home from a long trip in our little
travel trailer.
But, we’ve continued to buy small for our travels.
Arlene says Richard just didn’t want to spend the
money for something larger. However, when we
look at how quickly and effortlessly we can set up
and take down our rig. That’s especially helpful
when in the middle of the night we decide to
move quickly; when there’s a screaming snow
storm.
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