We left Mount Gilead on Monday morning May 1st. We had parked in the driveway for the month of April, were able to see our doctors, get our taxes done, attend worship at our church, and have plenty of time to visit with family and good friends.
While we were “home”, we took advantage of the time available to us to sell a lot of what we had left behind when we started this new full-time RV’ing lifestyle last September.
Since our daughter and son-in-law were renting the house from us in our absence, it made our departure much easier as we had literally left nearly everything behind.
But now that we have confirmed that this full-time thing is for us (at least for the next few years), we want to sell the house so that we can be totally debt-free. Selling the house will free up money that will allow us to pay off what little debt we have. Craigslist and Facebook allowed us to sell thousands of dollars worth of household and yard/garden tools & equipment in very short order. I sold Dewalt drills, a Mastertow Tow Dolly, Agrifab lawn sweeper, Cushman golf cart, and a whole lot more. It was amazing how quickly things sold.
We’re not worried about where we might live when the time comes to hang up our keys to the coach. We still own four rental units in Mount Gilead with great renters in each, but if push comes to shove we could ask any of the tenants to leave and we could take their place.
Another alternative is for us to take advantage of the life-time RV Lot lease program at any of the Escapee’s Co-Op Parks around the south, southwest, and northwest parts of the country. Depending on the park and the amenities, lifetime leases are available for anywhere from about $7000 to $25,000 (one time payment). Once the lease is paid, the only on-going costs are electricity and an annual Operating & Maintenance fee that usually runs $600-$1200 yearly. And the really great part is that when we are “done” with the lot, whether it be 1 year later or 20 years down the road, we turn it back over to the Co-Op and get 100% of our lease money invested back!
But that’s on down the road a bit. Right now our plan now is to spend a week here in Southeast Michigan where we can visit friends and family that we’ve known for 40 years or more and then we’ll move on up the road at the end of the week to the Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan areas to see more “old” friends and then up to Baldwin, Michigan (near Ludington) to start our summer workamping job by May 15th.
We are camped at Proud Lake Recreation Area just off Wixom Road in Commerce Twp, MI. This is just north of I-96 about 5 miles. There’s about 4700 acres of wooded wilderness here with miles of trails and the campground offers 130 (electric) sites along with a small beach and boat launch. The shower house was built new in 2016 and offers very attractive and comfortable private bath and shower rooms. Here’s a slide show of a few pictures of the campground facilities.
Today (Tuesday May 2nd) we spent a few hours (and lunch at a great Mexican Restaurant) with Jeff & Sandy (Overmeyer) Houghton. Sandy is the cute little girl with blond curls on the left in the first row (our 2nd grade class picture)
Jeff, Sandy, Kathy, and I all were in High School together and graduated in 1972.
We’ve got more planned for the rest of the week and we’ll fill that in as we go along.
We think you two are surely “vagabonds”. Enjoy!
Sitting here having my morning coffee and watching the bright morning sun crest over the trees, it’s going to be a glorious day. Thanks for the comment. Give our best to Bob
Interesting and kind of jealous.