Author: Jon Arnold

It’s hard to believe it’s May already—our last full month of normal life for a while. Here’s an update of recent accomplishments and setbacks:

Renting the house

Our biggest victory over the last month has been finding tenants for our house (rental income = gas money). I’m grateful to my parents, who have a rental property, for sharing their expertise and legal documents. This was invaluable in helping us get good tenants in place. Side note: while it may be a terrible time to sell a house, it’s apparently a great time to rent one out. We were flooded with calls from prospective tenants from the first day we listed our house for rent.

Rather than waiting to move out of the house all at once, we’ve spent the last few weekends boxing stuff up and moving things into storage a little at a time. We hope this way “moving day” won’t be as strenuous. Speaking of moving day, we have to be out by the end of May, so we’re focusing all of our energy on moving and getting the house ready for the new tenants. We’ll be shacking up with my parents between the time we move out until June 13th when we hit the road, and we’ll use that time to get the RV ready.

Getting a towable car

We want to tow a car along on our trip, but my beloved 2009 Scion xD was not flat-towable due to its automatic transmission (to tow with all 4 wheels on the ground almost always requires a manual transmission).

After hunting high and low and test driving 3 different cars at 2 different dealers, we found exactly what we needed: a 2008 Scion xB with a manual transmission that had NOT been smoked in. It’s great, we love it, and it’s been fun driving a stick again.

Selling stuff on eBay

It’s been nice getting rid of stuff and getting some extra money (~$3000), but eBay is hard work, and I’m tired. I’ve got my last few things listed right now, and after those are sold, I’m done. I may try Craigslist for few remaining things, but I don’t think I can bring myself to box and ship another item.

Buying more stuff

I’ve been disheartened by the seemingly endless stream of purchases that I’ve had (and will have) to make to be able to do this trip. Some examples:

2000 watt inverter ($1200): I have to rewire the RV’s entire electrical system, but once installed, this converts electricity from the batteries to give us 120v AC power without being plugged into a campsite or running the noisy generator.

Supplemental braking system ($600 used on eBay): This is a contraption that sits on the driver’s side floor of the towed car and presses its brake when I press the brake inside the RV. It’s a safety thing, but in most states is required by law. I have no idea how to install this yet.

Tow bar (~$300; not purchased yet): This is what connects the towed car to the back of the RV somehow.

Possible future purchases, as needs dictate and funds allow:

• Solar panels (~$500 – $2000?)
• More batteries (~$1000?)
• Satellite for internet (~$1,000 – $5,000?)

Ok, so now that I type that out I can see that the list is not “endless.” But still, I thought that having the actual RV was the only real requirement and the rest would be minor details. Not the case. In addition to the financial hemorrhage, there’s also the research time up front and the post-purchase installation that each one of these items require. On the positive side, there is an immense amount of satisfaction when these hurdles are overcome and we feel one step closer to hitting the road.

In an upcoming blog I will post a full accounting of our RV trip preparation expenses, from idea to departure. That should be interesting.

This is the scene Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 6:30am to 7:30am where we plan the trip a little piece at a time.