Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1st blog

Well, hello world! I am going to attempt this blog "thing" as a practice session to my lifestyle change in about 18 months, give or take a few months.

You see, I am planning to retire from State Government, am going to sell my stick house, am going to sell everything and am going to hit the road in an RV to see the country.

I know, I know, that sounds exciting and scarey at the same time. I am in the process right now of conducting research on the best RV for me and my wonderful friend, Sedona. (more on Sedona later.) Do you realize how much information is out on the web regarding the RVing lifestyle? I am considered a wannabe right now and then I'll be a full timer. My goodness, there is a whole new language out there for us wannabes and I suppose now is as good a time as any to learn that new language. Oh, and don't forget there is a campground proticol. Just learned about that and now I have to think, Sunshine, you have always been coloring outside the lines, why do you think you want to start into something that has a proticol? Well, it sounds intriguing to me and I can do what I have to do, who knows, it may be fun...no, it will be fun.

You may be asking yourself at this point, what does Sunshine know about RVing? Well, you see when I was a kid; I was the baby of four girls. (more on that later too.) My Mama and Daddy always took us camping. It was a way for us to have a vacation. You see there was not much to do back then and there was little money, but my Daddy always found a way to take us camping...tent camping! Mama and Daddy would have the tent and us girls would be on bales of straw under a plastic cover and sleep outside next to the tent. Then we progressed to a pop-up camper (type of camper) where we could all sleep, we thought we had really arrived! After a few of my older sisters married and moved we did even better. Daddy was a wheeler/dealer. He found a camper that slid into the bed of the truck, okay buddy, we are really living now. This was just super to me but I had begun tiring of going camping, you see, I was becoming the age that it was not cool to be seen with parents, much less go "camping." I found other things to interest me.

BOYS!!

I married at an early age and my Mama and Daddy continued to camp. The one thing I have to tell you is that Mama and Daddy now have an Airstream travel trailer. Oh yes, why is it that when I am gone and they have grandchildren who can travel with them they get a camper that has all the bells & whistles on it? Of course, I know the answer to that question but for a while I couldn't figure it out. Ladies & gentlemen, it all has to do with "they could afford it now that the kids were gone!"

So it's time for me to embark on this journey. I hope you decide to go along on it with me. I am going to use this blog to post my thoughts, energies on research, frustrations, travels, photos and accomplishments. It will all come from the heart. My family & friends will probably know that I have started coloring outside the lines again but that's okay, it's why they love me.

More on Sedona, as promised. Sedona is my 1 year old Chorkie, part chichuaua & part yorkie. She is so named because Sedona, AZ is my most favorite place (more on that later.) Once I saw my little puppy at 3 weeks, she had all this red and she was so happy then that I knew I had to name her Sedona. She was a year old in September and she has brought so much joy to my life and I have her trained to travel with me. She will be my co-pilot. She has her car seat so she can sit beside me and see out to all the wonderful places we will visit. I am sure I will mention Sedona more than once in my blog.

In my quest to become more knowledgable about RV's. I came across a school for RV'ers and wannabes. It is called the Life on Wheels and for more info you can go to http://www.rvlifeonwheels.com/ for detailed info. I chose to attend the one at Bowling Green, KY since it is close to home and I don't have an RV yet. I learned so much and met so many wonderful people. I so encourage each of you who is thinking of RVing, not necessarily full time, to attend a session. They offer these around the country.

RV'ers are great people. I am finding out they really want to help out the community. A super women's forum is http://www.womensrvforum.com/cfforum/index.cfm and it is sponsored by RV America. Another site is http://www.rvsmarter.net/ and has some interesting posts. Now, you may be thinking that this is going to be another blog with links to internet sites, well, it's not. See, I not putting these in here necessarily for you but for me. I want to remember and well, at my age, I'm not taking anything for granted. lol

Ooh, ooh, ooh, my HR person just came into my office and gave me some good news. It looks like I have accured enough leave to depart 1 month earlier than I had thought!!!!! Yippee, yippee. Now just say a prayer that I don't get sick. Reality! sooner than I thought!!??