Who Are You And What Do You Drive?

[-Gramps-]

Since there is no official introduce yourself thread, I though I would start an unofficial one.

I am Derrick, screen name -Gramps-. My wife Diane and I along with our Cocker Spainel Nickolas, have been rving since Valentines Day 2005. We started out with a slightly used 04 Bounder Gas which was a really good coach. We traded it back in June of last year for a new Holiday Rambler Vacationer 38plt UFO gas pusher. This is the coach of our dreams. I am crazy about the Chassis, and my wife loves the interior. Two seperate bathroom sinks, two easy chairs in the bedroom with a drop down card table, dining table with four chairs, a hutch/coffee bar. The things she had to have before she would let me get the chassis I wanted. This is a coach that will allow us to take the final step to
semi-fulltiming at some point in the not too distant future I hope.

I own my own micro business selling phone systems, voice mail, computer networks and servicing same. I have had this little company for 18 years. It hasn't made me rich, not on paper anyway, but it put one daughter through nursing school and college and one son throught William and Mary.

We have two grown daughters and one grown son.
I have three grandsons, 9, 5 and one ten months old

Well, anyway that may be more info than you wanted to know. I look forward to reading about you.

Gramps


My wife Diane, Nicolas and Rambling Rose our new coach.

[Xplorer]

Finally,,,,made it to Tejas,,,,,been try'n to get here since 1836, when Travis put out the call,,,,,,wow what a trip.

Accidentally full-timed for almost 3 years,,,while hunt'n a town and house in Texas.,,,,,in betwixt family related trips back east.

Retired for 10 years now,,,never looked back,,,,,,

Gramps,,,et. al.,,,,welcome and gotta Go!

13 days to Glory just came on......

John & Connie

[Guest Wayne77590]

Hello Gramps,

I'm Wayne, wife is Earlene. Somehow I have stayed with her for 48 years, or is it the other way around.

Miya, the Husky/Chow is the owner, and we are her pet(ters).

Camping, other than Boy Scouts, since 1974 with several hiatuses in between years since I was in the military.

Retired from the Marine Corps in 1984. Stayed in the civilian sector for 10 years then decided I would like some job security and went to work at NASA, Johnson Space Center as a Civil Servant. Retired in Feb 2007. Earlene retired in October the same year as a Civil Servant from the same place, after 28 years combined longevity. Bought a 5th wheel in August 2007, traded it in 1 year later, August 2008 for a 2008 Winnebago Destination

I call the picture "Destination Sunset.'

Two sons. One returned from Iraq after 5-1/2 years as a project manager distributing supplies to the military in the Norther area, and the oldest is a Colonel in the Marine Corps. He only has one strike against him, he's a lawyer. Only 2 granddaughters that we miss because they are with my Marine Corps son and wife.

Semper Fi!

[travelingsages]

Hi, we are Doug and Sheila. The travelingsages. We have been fulltiming for two years now. I grew up camping as a kid and in the mid 60s we started RVing on our own. We went through a tent trailer, 4 sizes of pull trailers (each getting bigger), a 34' Bounder and now we have an Itasca Suncruiser 38J on a Workhorse chassis. We have been in all but about 6 states so far as well as Canada - no interest in Mexico at this time. We are into genealogy, geocaching and birding. I also have been doing some kayak fishing lately. We spent the first three months of the winter near Apache Junction, AZ and loved the weather and area. We have now moved to the Texas Gulf Coast at Rockport and there is a lot to do here too but it has been awful windy for the last several weeks. We are looking forward to the song bird migration which should start in the next few weeks.

[MuckSavage]

Hello, Muck here. (Actually, Tim & Dar) We're from South Jersey, we still work, so we're weekend warriors. We travel with our 2 black labs, Bear & Buckshot, in our '08 Tiffin Allegro Bay. model 37 QDB, FRED chassis. We tow a '96 Jeep Cherokee. Our previous coach was an '03 Jayco Granite Ridge class C.

Our interests include, Jeeping, hiking, geocaching,....basically anything outdoors.

[garykd]

Hi All,

I am Gary and the wife is Karen (42 years). Our first coach was in 1978. We took our kids around the lower 48 states before they went to college (it takes about 10 years to do this!). We are now taking our grandkids the same route. With the grandkids, we hope to get Alaska in the tour. We belong to a bunch of different RV and discount clubs. I retired in 04 from IBM (38 years). Best decision I ever made. After retiring, within 6 weeks our house was hit by two hurricanes. I'm not retiring from anything again! The stick house is in South Florida. In the Winter we camp with the club chapters we belong to and go no farther North than Ocala, FL. Spring and Fall are semi long trips to places we've been to and want to return. Summer is 2 months with the grand kids making sure we meet our commitment to show them their country.

I do all routine maintenance myself. Also, I have a habit of adding gagets to the coach. One never knows when these things will come in handy. The Tampa RV Super Show loves to see me arrive.

What we RV in is in the signature. Our primary towed (toad) vehicle is a GMC ENVOY XUV. We carry a Cricket (1/2 size golf cart) inside the ENVOY.

[EaglesNest]

Hi I am Joy and my husband is Rick(37 years). We started camping in a tent and moved up to a pop-up in 1983, followed by two travel trailers and now our HR Admiral SE. We have two dogs, a schnauzer (Heidi) and a Chihuahua (Paco), 3 grown sons and 3 grandchildren by the oldest son who is USAF and stationed in Omaha.

My husband is still a working man (at least for now, with the economy it doesn't look good for the job). We belong to a local Hrrvc club and I am the State Secretary/Treasurer in VA. I am afraid that our camping will be considerably less this year as pay cuts are sure taking there toll. We sure love to RV and look forward to seeing our friends at the gatherings. Two of our boys are still at home but seldom join us in the MH anymore. They all three grew up camping and I am sure that one of these days they will have families and return to the lifestyle.

It is nice to meet you folks and I look forward to reading the posts that are on these forums.

By the way, when we bought our pop-up in 1983 we lived in HOUSTON, TEXAS. We spent 9 years there and love the great state of TEXAS. I would love to go back but can't seem to convince the DH. Family ties are closer here so I guess for now it's here we stay. I would love to see our dear friends there though. Several of whom camped with us. Maybe one day........

[casands2@msn.com]

Hello All, New member here as of today.

I am Craig and along with my wife Denise and our dog Ginger we got our start in 04 with a used 1990 Bounder. We had camped many years ago with my wifes parents and her brother and his wife. Today the whole family still all goes. We have two grown children who have very little interest in the experience but they do join us from time to time.

As of Saturday sadly we will be giving up the Bounder for a newer 05 Southwind so I guess we are in the RV world to stay for awhile! Looking forward to picking up the new rig though.

[mnsprk]

Grumpy and Grandma as our grandchildren affectionatly refer to us. We have been "RV'rs" since 1972 starting out in an Apache tent trailer and we now enjoy our Jayco Seneca.. We have traveled to all but 4 of the continental US and all of Canada except the Yukon Territories and Newfoundland. I have been retired for the last six years and my wife ill retire in June after 28 years in a Private school. We are looking forward to the extra time to spend with our grandchildren.

[bwanasrrs@aol.com]

Hey Everyone,

Bob and Bonita Snodgrass here. We would be considered part timers I guess even though we are on our 6th RV in 17 years ! We live in the deep South in Hurricane Alley and the RVs have always made evacuations much easier on our large family. Plus we own a kennel, breeding purebred dogs for show, therapy and companions. We travel in our RV to many dog shows all over the USA. We aquired our current rig 11/07 , we already have over 22,000 miles on it. It is a 2008 40 ft Forrest River , Georgetown Gas Pusher. We really love this rig!! We have managed to travel with as many as 6 full grown Rhodesian Ridgebacks , or 5 Grand kids! The basement storage makes carrying our gear and the dog ex pens a piece of cake. We will be traveling back to Perry, Ga twice this year. Once for the FMCA Rally and again in April for yet another dog show. Bob is a retired Engineer and I am a retired RN. We love living in the South where we are helping to raise 5 of our 10 grand ghildren.

Travel Safely Everyone !!

Bonita and Bob

www.bwanakennel.com

[ladyrvr66]

Donna Hansel Hatten,

I have a 2005 35' Holiday Rambler Vacationer on Workhorse Chassis with Allison transmission. I have two co-pilots, a toy poodle and toy pom. I pull 2001 Dodge Dakota 4x4 and depending on where I am going, I may put my Honda Rancher in the back of pickup.

I am full timing now, but thinking about down sizing, but have had no trouble to speak of with this new motor home, I almost hesitate to think of selling it. Only reason for down sizing is I am 70 years old and find it hard to get down and do work on coach.

But I still love the RV living style!!!!

[F364382]

Hi

We are Pete and Maribel from New Port Richey, Fl. We have been members of FMCA since 2005, we are not full timing at this time. We did however fulltime on a sailboat for 3 years since retirement. We are presently at home, sold the boat. We drive a Roadtrek 190 Popular, which we have owned for several years. We love the fact we can park anywhere, and in the deed restricted community we live, it is acceptable. We may do a jump to a coach next year. Let's wait and see what the market going to do. Meanwhile we may see you out there, love to boondock. We are both in our 60's.

[-Gramps-]

To: FromTheDoghouse

Nice to hear from another UFO owner. We will be at Perry ourselves. I have not met another UFOer in person yet. Maybe we can say hello sometime while we are there.

Gramps

[super_rep]

Hi All,

I'm Chet, my spouse is Laurie and we travel in a '91 Beaver Marquis which we have had for 14 years. The old beast runs so good that we just can't bare to part with it. It's been in 49 states and all the provinces of Canada, but one. We live near the Delaware Water Gap in the Pocono Mts of eastern PA.

I'm a retired mechanical engineer/manufacturer's rep. My principal retirement activities are photography, woodworking and travel in the motorhome. We do enjoy exploring back roads in our Dekota 4x4.

If you ever see us on the road honk and say Hi. There's a large US flag and a USMC emblem on the back of our coach.

Semper Fi

Chet

[Guest Wayne77590]

AAhhrruugghhaa! I want the emblem!!!

Semper Fi!

[johnfv2]

Hello my name is John and my other 1/2 is Therese. We've been partiming (2,3,5 Months) now for 3 years. Full timeing in a few more years. We started out with a leaker. My fault not knowing what I was getting into. At a Rally in 2007 we picked up our 2007 Jayco Seneca which was the best move we've made. 3 slides 37' desiel Duramax 300hp. We love it and it loves the mountians. We tow a 2005 Chev. Colorado pickup using a roadmaster tow bar syatem. We're both retired and we love it. We use Passport America mostly on our traveles around the States. We also love camping in state and federal parks. We have camp hosted in Colorado in 2008. Nothing this year, but next year we'll host in either Louisiana, Texas, or New Mexico.

[jeffbec51@aol.com]

Gramps - Many thanks for the info! Live near Ft. Myers, Florida and enjoy our 27' Coach House dual slide Class C with E450 Ford power. We've had 6 RV's, and like the present one the best. Our biggest was a new Country Coach, but after traveling out West to Calif. and Washington and Oregon, we decided it was too big. Pacific Coast Hwy, Sequoia Nat'l Park, and many other wonderful places just couldn't handle the larger rigs. So, we downsized and it fits us just right.

Planning a trip to Arkansas and then to either California or Alaska end April. Why such a difference with destinations? Fuel! Alaska has the most expensive fuel prices in the U. S. We'll know which way we're gonna go next month.

Where is YOUR next trip?

Regards,

jeffbec51

[-Gramps-]

Where is YOUR next trip?

Regards,

jeffbec51

Maybe from Perry we will continue down to Florida to see my daughter. We were at Ft Wilderness back in January and may make it down there again this year I hope. During the Summer, my business usually does not let me get away for long so we camp with our Good Sams Chapter members or Holiday Rambler club in places like Williamsburg, Hatteras Island. We always try to get out to the mountains of North Carolina or Virginia in the fall if not sooner. I would like to take a long trip to Niagra Falls, but we will have to wait and see if we get an opportunity for that. I did manage to take a whole month off in May of 2007 and we visited Tarpon Springs, Stone Mountain, one of our favorite spots, Gatlinburg, Asheville NC with our final stop in Seagrove NC, with its interesting arts community .

[ehrlej@sbcglobal.net]

Hello I'm John Ehrle and my wife of 33 years is Marty (Martha) we are working hard toward fulltiming. She will retire in September from her job as a Real Estate Escrow Manager. Me, well early retirement in 1996 from USF&G (adjuster,etc.) and now I have a shop that does electronic engine tuning and also work for a large auto parts distributor handling their performance parts division sales in 4 states. As soon as Marty says do it, the boys get the business and I on the road. We recently purchased our 9th RV, a 2006 Beaver 40'. We have two great sons, one awesome daughter-in-law and a Grandson 2yrs. old. My oldest went from the maternity ward to the campground, uh and the young son was uh concieved? in a campground. Well, it's the truth! The grandson says camping everytime he sees the Motorcoach and you Grandpa never says no. We are new to FMCA, but have been members of GS for almost 20 years. We are devoted to NASCAR Racing and try to go to every event we can. We also did some Workkamping as a trial this winter while using up some excess vacation. Next year fulltimers we hope!

[Guest ShesHappyHesLucky]

Hi Gramps and everyone,

I'm lucky and she's happy....Dave and Terri from Western Massachusetts. I have been camping on and off for 47 years. I've been through all different styles of campers from tenting, pop-ups, trailers, truck slide-in, and presently on my fourth, and final dream coach purchased from Campers Barn of Kingston, NY. It is a 2008 Allegro Phaeton, model 40QSH diesel pusher with 360HP Cummins, Freightliner chassis, and we will flat tow a 2008 Chevy Equinox. http://www.tiffinmotorhomes.com/pdf/2008phaetonSpecs.pdf

2009 will be the first year that Happy and I will have the benefit of full timing. We will be sticking around the New England area during the summer while we get our homestead and everything ready for our first long trip to South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee for 4-5 months starting in Nov. Dreams do come true.

Terri and I have five children and five grandchildren and it will be hard leaving them for any length of time but we are ready to fledge the nest and leave the young ones behind for awhile. We have paid our dues and now it's our turn to play...we've eaned it. We enjoy birding, wildlife, reading, eating out, playing cards with friends and RED SOX baseball.

Terri and I have been married for 16 years (second marriage for both). Because of the economy, Terri was laided off from a major company in 2008 where she worked as an IT manager. It was a blessing because she was going to retire in a few months anyway. My career was broken into thirds. The first third of my working years, I was a truck mechanic. The next third I was a machinist, and the last third as a home builder/rehab carpenter/ construction supervisor... retiring in 1990. I also dabbled in the electric and plumbing field. I was one of those who was known as "the jack of all trades and the master of none".

We will be at the Willow Tree Resort Camping & Cottages, Longs, SC (Myrtle Beach area) in Nov-Dec and then move on to Wilderness Park Estates in Silver Springs, FL for January. No firm plans after that but we know we will be in the Clearwater area in February and travel south to Fort Myers to the Red Sox spring training before going to TN. Then back home around April/May 2010.

Hope to meet up with FMCA members while on our first full-timing jaunt.

Happy Trails

Dave and Terri

Hapy1Luky2@yahoo.com

[Roodriver]

Greetings all. I'm Ward (Roodriver) and my bride is Pat. We are retired science teachers and started out backpacking and sleeping on the ground in a small tent. We were married on the Appalachian Trail and graduated from tent camping to a slide in truck camper, then to a 25' Georgie Boy Class A, and now to a 35' Bounder gasser.

We like to workcamp for three to five months and prefer National Wildlife Refuges. We have made a lot of friends in our workcamping and keep in touch with many of them.

The way we like to travel is kind of foreign to a lot of RVers, since we prefer to stay off the Interstates and stick to local and US highways. We are headed to Oregon this summer and will take US2 from Michigan to Washington, with many side trips. The trip is planned to take six to seven weeks.

By the way, our home base is in Suches, Georgia.

[barry-kim]

Hello All,

My wife Kim and I just started RVing in August 2008. We bought a 2008 Four Winds 31' Hurricane Class A with a Ford V10 Triton chassis.

Kim and I met a few years ago and married in Jan 2007. I retired from the Navy in 1997 and went to work for the DoD shortly thereafter. I have a few more years until I can go into full retirement mode. She is currently in the job search mode after being a casualty of this current economic downturn! She is a fraud investigator (CFE) by trade.

This is my first experience with RVing while Kim has prior RVing with pull campers. We live in Mount Airy, MD and are looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing a bit of the US along the way.

Regards,

Barry & Kim

guckman@hotmail.com

[-Gramps-]

Well, this thread is moving right along.

I guess I can add a bit to my original post. My wife Diane and I have been married since 10/7/72. It's funny but when we decided to get married we thought about living in a camper, a fifth wheel because we thought it would be cheaper than a house. So we went looking at rvs and based on sticker price decided it was a nice dream but that was all. A few years later we were convinced by friends that we worked with to take up tent camping so we used our Jerry Ford recession tax rebates bought a Winchester single wall umbrella tent, a cooler, a stove, a lantern, two sleeping bags, made our own pads and headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We kept tent camping for the next thirty years unitl my wife started to have major back problems, no longer liked sleeping on the ground, and said she wanted a potty that wasn't hundreds of yards away when she needed to get up in the middle of a cold night. I agrued with her and said they cost too much money. We knocked it around for awhile until one day she was mauled by a pit bull while walking the dog in our neighborhood.

That beast almost killed her. It missed an artery in her arm by a millemeter, took out her Achilles' tendon along with a bunch of other damage. She called me from the hospital, as soon as she was taken out of the ambulance that took her there. While I was driving and praying my way to the emergency room, I swore I would provide her any wish as long as they could fix her up. We filed a law suit, settled out of court, and I suggested we save the money or use it for college tuition for our son. She said I want to use this settlement as collateral for an rv loan.

I kept my promise and on Valentines day 05 I found myself driving an 04 Bounder 36 foot long coach home from a dealer lot. I had never driven one before or even been a passenger in a coach at anytime in my life. I was scared to death but I made it to our street where I discovered it would not fit in the driveway until I took down a tree, which I did. I mean, I hired someone to take it down for me. I work from home and everytime I looked out the window at our shiny new coach sitting in our driveway, I thought I must have gone out of my mind. However, my wife and I love coach camping and if I did loose my senses, I have not tried to find them since.

My non Rving friends and family, when we first bought the coach, thought we were nuts. Money should be saved and invested not put into some great big hole in the driveway you put money into. Well, I am not sure where the biggest hole is, investments or a motor home. At least we have fun with the coach!

With very few regrets about being an RVer

Gramps.

[Roodriver]

Gramps my money was much better spent on the motorhome than on the AIG retirement account we HAD. I no longer call my Bounder a hole in the driveway. In fact with this economy, it is our fall back for comfortable living. Heck, I'm happiest on the road anyway.

[ttt1953@gmail.com]

Hi all. I'm Tom and my Bride of 36 years is Carol. We tent camped for many years and then went through one pop-up and 4 5th wheels before buying our first motor home in March of 08. I wanted to stay in the 5th wheel but I've developed heart trouble and my bride insisted that a motorhome would be much easier on me. She was right!! After fighting her for 2 years I caved in and I'm glad I did. We love everything about our Monarch, (except the fact that Monaco may not be around to support it).

Carol retired from her job as a wedding planner and party consultant 5 years ago. She now works at a small grocery store in our little town. I think her official job to to make sure that all the news around town gets spread from one central location and to dance with and sing for all the elderly men that shop there.

As of today I have 692 days until retirement. That will give me 33 years working in the same industrial powerplant for Pfizer. We do plan to spend a lot of time traveling the first few years, but have no plans to give up the stick house at this time.

Hope to get to meet some of you on the road.