Planning with a very large serving of flexibility!

One of the "ah ha" moments of being a full timer is realizing that the best laid plans often have to be changed.  

When we purchased the camper in April of 2021, we planned to begin our full time living and traveling in July right after I retired, but that plan had to be put on hold.  When James' sister was diagnosed with cancer and was to begin treatment in July, we knew that we wanted to be with them to help and support in anyway we could.  We moved the camper up to their place and James spent July and August there helping out.  I stayed back and took care of the house sale things driving back and forth on the weekends when I could.  We wouldn't have had it any other way.  

The house sale finally closed the end of September.  

"Let's hit the road now and be out of NY before it gets cold!"

Sounds like a good plan, but as we have learned, flexibility is key.  Originally we planned to head South and then find a place to leave the camper while we drove up to NY for Christmas.  We made reservations in Tennessee and then Florida.  The dilemma was finding a place to leave the camper that wasn't too expensive.  The thought of paying for a campsite just to park seemed like a waste of money to us.  I looked into storage facilities, asked for suggestions on RV forums, tried to think of someone who had property in the South where we could leave it, but none of that seemed to work.  Finally we made the decision to change things around.  

We drove back to NY with the camper and spent Thanksgiving there and then made plans to travel to Virginia for the month of December so that we could spend the Christmas holiday with family.  Our NY kids will be coming to VA for the week after Christmas and we are so looking forward to it!

We made plans to travel beginning on 1/2/2022 to see family in Georgia for a week before heading to Florida where we had made two week reservations at two different campgrounds.  Then James' mom's health took a turn and we knew we needed to spend as much time as we could in Georgia.  So, we canceled our Florida reservations and booked a month at a campground in GA.  Time will tell when we ultimately make it to Florida, but we will.

The lesson learned is, plan, but be flexible.  (And also do not use a pen when writing on your calendar!)


Joni

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