Those Jello Plans Everyone Talks About

While different full-timers live the life in different ways, all talk about the importance of making plans in Jello. Change is inevitable. The left fork may be a lot more fun than the planned right one. You can always go back and see it later. Flexible is good.



Planning committee

Over the past year I have occasionally gone back and read my blog post from the same week in the previous year. I notice that I have been pretty careful about not saying "never" or "always". I've avoided "will" in most cases, using "plan to" in an attempt to recognize that some stuff just happens in its own time. Or not at all.

Reading the March 14, 2014, post I smiled at what I thought this month might look like. The smile was because we are so much farther along than I ever dreamed! The very best kind of Jello.




Good stuff that Jello

Instead of a few weeks 'til retirement, Bill retires in 6 days. Instead of a storage unit, our saved items fit in three trunks stored already with our son. Instead of starting paperwork on the house, we have been in an apartment for three months because the house sold in December. Instead of a motorhome on hold, we have a motorhome already purchased. Instead of the anticipated jumbled mess, it has all been relatively smooth.

It's interesting to note that we are all talking about how early "summer" came this year. But in that same blog post we were expecting 89 degrees last year at this time as well.

There have been some big detours in the last year, one being the choice of rig. We're both happy with our choice of the Thor over the Tiffin, and glad that we stayed open to finding something better if it came along. Getting an apartment was not something we even talked about a year ago, figuring we wouldn't be selling the house until May. Again, we're very happy to have that well behind us now!

Probably the single biggest inspiration for me to take on this lifestyle has been Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams. For the past couple years I have looked forward to attending one of their week-long educational and fun rallies, and we booked a cabin at the Spring Rally in Tennessee for next month. Everything is paid for and all reservations are confirmed.

We aren't going. Until next Spring. When we can take the rig. There were other considerations as well, and as sad as I am to miss this one, it's the right decision for us now. Still Jello :-)



Not nearly as good, but okay.

We still have plenty on our calendar before we launch, including another wedding tomorrow. With Bill finally retiring we plan to extend our travels around our upcoming family reunion in New Mexico, and our high school reunion in Laughlin, Nevada. There's two more weddings as well, and some California friends we want to hang out with.

Recognizing how important it is, how right everyone has been about it, we're glad that the whole Jello-planning thing is already working for us!




We can do this!