Thinking ahead...

Well, it is now March 22nd. Just over three more weeks here in Canada and I will be flying 'home' to North Charleston, SC.

There are reasons to look forward to going back, it will be nice to be back in my comfort zone, sleep in my own bed, stay in my PJ's all day if I want too :-) Do my own thing and not have to consider anyone else while doing it. I am ready to go back now, it has been great being able to visit the In Laws in California for 3 weeks, and definitely feel very welcome here in Canada with Chris and Tina and family. They have really helped me get through the tough times and my "Matthew moments'.

I think that is the only reason that I may wish I were staying here longer, or at least until Jay is going to be back home too, I haven't spent any time in the house by myself, since we lost our Matthew, I know I will be fine and if I need too I can always call a friend to come over and visit for a while, I think Jay is more worried about me than I am, after all I am a grown up, well I try:-) Hopefully it will only be about three weeks until Jay gets there, he still doesn't know and probably won't until the end of April.

I have been doing a lot of reading online, especially the RV forums and a lot of blogs written by full timers. There are some really good ones out there, I will eventually put links to some on here, maybe even some photos, just have to wait for Jay the tech' guy to help me with that! Anyway, as I was saying, I am learning a lot about workcamping, I hadn't realised that there are so many opportunities to earn some extra money whilst travelling, it all sounds very cool, we could volunteer our time at a State park etc, where our 'payment' would be a full hook up (FHU) that would include water/electric/sewer, the volunteer hours are usually around 20 per week per couple, so that would give us plenty of time to explore the areas outside the park and to do whatever we needed to do outside of those hours, that sounds ideal to me, it would cut out the biggest cost of RVing, which is the campground fees, perfect!

Then there is the other kind of workcamping, this is a bit more like a 'real' job, you have to commit to more hours actually working, most of these jobs are in RV camp grounds (CG) during the busy seasons, depending on which area in the US they are would dictate when they are busy. You would work on different areas in the CG, in the office taking reservations etc, in the grounds keeping it tidy, showing campers to their site, or cleaning buildings, working in the store etc. Most CG's would give you a FHU for a certain amount of hours per week, and then pay $$ for any extra hours they need you. This sounds good if you need the money and they usually need you from either April to September, or September to March, obviously you can chose jobs in areas you want to be, there is a website that you can put a resume stating what you are willing to do, when/where etc. and any experience you have. Jay says that he would prefer to be in the position where he doesn't have to take a job because he 'needs' extra money, but where he would take one because he 'wants' too, well yeah, that would be ideal, but I am willing to accept that we may have to earn some extra cash occasionally, especially if we have any unplanned maintenance that crops up on the RV, that is not unheard of :-)

Every time I talk to Jay now, he is starting to sound more excited about starting this adventure! He was saying tonight that he just wants to get home and start looking at RV dealerships in SC and having a look at what is out there that will work for us, I have my 'list' of must haves, and would likes, also a few of the not necessary, but would be nice! I think I have written half a notepad full of things I am learning about on the RV forums, Jay will laugh when he sees it! He always laughs at my lists :-) It will be fun though, I am excited about finding our 'new home'.

Take care of you, huggs Kim x