My Craigslist Angel (and a few more)

So far, my experiences with selling nearly all of my worldly possessions on Craigslist have been better than expected.  In the past few weeks, I’ve sold 16 items for a net total just of over $3,000 in cash!  Now, mind you, I’m not thinking about how much I actually paid for all these items new—much too depressing to go there!   What I’ve not anticipated, though, is how interesting and varied each and every buyer has been.  

My very first sales transaction is this Thule bike rack, sold (after just one day!) to a guy named Lou with a long, unpronounceable last name who is driving out from the city to get it.

 

My mind races with thoughts of all those well-worn Craigslist horror stories—He could be a mad rapist!  A burglar! A serial killer!!! 

How to Eat an Elephant (Making the Transition to Full-Time RVing)

Selling a house and moving is, no doubt, one of the biggest personal projects one can ever undertake.  No one likes to do it, but when the reward (moving) still seems to outweigh all of these monumental drawbacks, one pushes forward and does it.

My last house move was 12 years ago, and I remember it taking about 4 months to look for and buy the desired new house, get my current house spruced up, listed, and sold, and then get all my household “stuff” packed up, moved, and unpacked.

When I started planning my move to full-time RVing a few years ago,  I spent an eternity trying to find and buy the right new home (RV), and also had multiple major projects to do to the house to get it ready to sell – new roof, new driveway, new kitchen, etc.  Transitioning to full-time RVing was definitely going to take a lot longer than simply moving from one house to another!

Rock Creek Revisited

If it’s June, it must be time to head back out to Iowa to reunite with my old camping buddies at the Midwest T@B Rally at Rock Creek State Park near Grinnell, IA.  Since selling my T@B in 2011, I think I’ve brought a different RV every time I’ve attended!

7 Ways To Lower Your RV Fuel Costs

I’m getting ready to hit the road tomorrow to attend a camping rally.  Even though diesel prices are finally (delightfully) lower than gas, fuel is perhaps the largest item of any full-time RVer’s budget.  Now that I’m a retired penny-pincher, finding the best deal on fuel is increasingly important to me, so I thought I’d share some ways I’ve discovered to lower my fuel costs.

My New Folding Bike

My inflatable kayak wasn’t the only thing to get upgraded lately—I’ve been on quite an “upgrade shopping spree” this past month!  Every item in the Winnie (yes, everything!) has been evaluated—have I used it enough to warrant keeping it? Is it the lightest, smallest, and/or best-quality item I can get?

Then, as I’ve been going through my house and garage, similar questions are being asked on a daily basis about those things—do I love it enough to keep it? If it’s small enough to bring in the Winnie, is it durable enough to withstand the highway rattles and rolls inside a “rolling home”?  If not, should I upgrade to something better?

So, after the kayak, the next area of focus was the bike.  My garage had a big, heavy hitch-mounted bike rack and 2 bikes—a small 20” folding Dahon, and a full-sized, heavy electric bike (which also had a big bike cargo trailer).

Took my new kayak for a spin!

It was warm and sunny this morning—a perfect day to try out my new Sea Eagle!  A couple weeks ago, I decided to go ahead and upgrade my original 2011 FastTrack with the newer, lighter, slimmer FastTrack 385.

First, the unwrapping…