Because We Can - Fulltime RV'ing

Let Us Introduce Ourselves!

We are Linda and Bob, who are in our late 50’s (she) and early 60’s (he). Not only are we of that age, the 50's and 60's, but we are also children of that time, the late 50's and early 60's Just as the late 1950’s and early 1960’s were the best years of our youth, the time before we met, we also now find that our late 50’s and early 60’s are the best times of our lives together. Speaking of our lives together, we have been married for almost 40 years, not bad for meeting on a blind date while attending college.

Bob was originally from northeastern Ohio, and is a product of the values instilled by mid century rural America. His HS class was the largest in the history of the school, 26 kids, 24 of whom graduated. Remember, this was a time when what you did was more important than how you felt. Linda was born and raised on a small farm in southeastern Ohio, which probably explains her love of the outdoors, flowers, and animals.

After meeting on that fateful blind date and getting married less than a year later, we lived first in Ohio, then North Carolina, back to Ohio once again, then finally ending up in California, which we have called home since 1982. We have been blessed with two daughters, a son, two grandsons and two granddaughters. They all live in Northern California about 30 minutes from where we still, temporarily, own our “stick home”. We keep in touch via email, our digital camera, our cell phone and our website, all the modern conveniences of home on the road.

We had always loved to camp, starting with a canvas 9x9’ umbrella tent that our dog chewed a hole in the first day we owned it (it wasn't funny at the time), next a pop up camper when we had little ones, then back to a big tent for our growing family, next was a small Class C, and now we live in our 38’ Class A. From those early days we have many enjoyable memories of weekend camping trips with the kids, grand kids and also our friends. All of our vacations were spent driving somewhere and camping, so the fact we chose to start our travels in a 38' motor home while not a departure from our days of camping and RVing, it is certainly a step up from what we were used too. It almost seems like an extended and unending vacation. And we hope it goes on forever.

After being what they now call a “stay at home mom” Linda pursued a career in accounting and thoroughly enjoyed both the type of work and the people with whom she worked. In the meantime Bob had spent much of his life on an airplane traveling all over the country while working for a major oil company. Consolidations, spin-offs and downsizing finally caught up to him and he finished his career working for a major distributor of those same products he had become so familiar with.

Many were the times when we would return from a weekend trip or vacation and talk about going back to work, not with the excitement we had in past years, but rather with a sense of longing for the life we had lived for the past few days. Then came a fateful Thanksgiving trip where where we were given a glimpse of what might be. As we returned to our home, we reflected on the fact Bob's father had died at an age Bob was fast approaching, and never got to do many wonderful things he wanted to when he finally retired. The next morning we woke up and decided to quite our jobs, being too young to receive any retirement income and benefits, and live our life on the road. Today we are far healthier than we were before gave up the stressful life we used to live and now, at last, we have finally come to understand the concept of, “home is where you park it”. Now, when we shut down the engine, lower the shades, and pull the front curtains at night we are in the comfort of our own home, sleeping in our own bed and in control of our lives.

We got to this point, not because we planned for it our whole lives, but rather, simply, because we planned and saved for “something”, and this life turned out to be the something. That morning we woke up and decided to just do it, that was the moment we committed ourselves to changing our lives. Thus began our new adventure, and sure we had doubts, but we constantly told ourselves we can do it, Because We Can. We worked out a budget, looked at our finances and decided we could do it our way, Because We Can. You too can look at your finances, work out a budget and do it your way, Because You Can.

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