HALFWAY BENCH

8/8/21

Getting Smaller

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al.

Adventure Date: 8/08/2021





The new header picture is a photograph we took last spring near Falcon State Park. We hope you enjoy it.



Mr. Boondork over at Fox Tales blog is agonizing over getting into a much smaller RV these days. The OFM has been relentlessly searching for a smaller RV also. Since RV prices have jumped up higher than the moon lately, our effort at that work has slacked off. However Mr. Boondork's blog tonight reminded the OFM about how much his life has simplified in the last twenty years.

Twenty years ago he lived in a 35 foot motor home pulling a four door Saturn. Then job events brought a major change in lifestyle. When we moved to Washington to a great job in late 2001, the OFM shrank his pile of stuff to fit into an F-150 pickup with a bed shell.

During the five years in Washington, he learned a lot more about how little stuff he needed to carry around and how to carry around what he did have.

In September 2007 he turned in his quitting notice to hit the road full time. The Current Castle was already his home so the transition to the road life was easy. However he did have two bikes and two kayaks and the stuff that goes with them and a couple of other toys.

Over the last 14 years as the OFM has gotten more decrepit, he has been removing things from his life that he cannot safely use any more.

As this blog has reported frequently, the OFM Team is slowly but steadily removing stuff that we cannot or will not use again of just plain do not need now. For example a light backpack for overnight camping was recently given away.

In the last month we have gone through the exercise of determining just how much stuff we have now and what requirements come with it.

We got a surprise on that issue a few days ago. It turns out that ALL the stuff we have now will pack down and easily fit into the CAB of Sierra without need of the bed of Sierra. That also gained us the information that less than 50% of the cabinet space in the Castle is used much less needed.

Mr. Boondork has got us to thinking about our REAL needs as we run the country trying to have tooooo much fun.



9 comments:

  1. I was thinking the other day that you are the longest running full time RV -er I know, and certainly the longest running full-time daily RV blogger I know. That's a lot of work! Thanks for taking us along all these years, Barney!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gumo. The blog started mid-Novmember 2007 in my son and DI:'s living room.

      Delete
  2. I agree. You are a keeper. So dependable. Honesty. Humor. Art. Info rving. And! Don't forget all the soup recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Of all the folks I've talked to in my travels, when someone brings up the size of RVs, most full-timers tell me they want to go smaller, very few tell me they want a bigger RV.

    I think the longer we full-time the more apparent it becomes that we don't actually need all the stuff that we thought we couldn't live without. So it makes no sense for me to drag around a 30 foot Arctic Fox fifth wheel, when everything I actually need would fit in a van.

    You have been at this full-timing stuff for a long time, and it was good to hear a little bit about how this whole full- timing thing started for you.

    I'm sure we don't agree on everything but at least we agree that you're getting decrepit.... Great post today.

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love that photograph!

    So, now you know you can pack into a Class B and have everything you need. Excellent!

    ReplyDelete