I was invited to join you all over here by one of your members, and I'm so thankful we found this site!
My name is Karen and I'm married to my husband Jeff. We have one six year old daughter and we currently live in Alaska (I've been here over 30 years, my hubby almost 15).
Our goal is to have our houses and business sold by next summer and to leave the fall of 11 to fulltime for a couple of years. My daughter is already homeschooled, so we won't have to worry about that.
We are just getting ready to order our "new home". We are ordering the 11 Mountaineer 346LBQ. Does anyone currently have this model? Anything they'd like to share about it? I'm curious about the overall storage, especially in the kitchen. I eat a pretty bizarre diet, so it requires a lot of "stuff" to make my food, so I need to be able to store those away. I know between all the extra bunks, I can always store them there, but in the kitchen would be preferable.
We are ordering it with the onboard propane generator (and a second A/C unit). Our plan is to only stay at RV parks a couple of days a week and do state/nat'l parks the rest of the days, so the generator is a necessity and we liked the idea of just being able to push a button inside the unit to make that happen. We've been told that the propane generators are more efficient than the gas models. Do you all agree? We just didn't really like the idea of having to lug a 5500 unit around (185 pounds) and then also have gas cans for it.
The other thing I'm curious about is the washer/dryer. We are considering adding it, but I'm just not sure. I'd like to hear from other fulltimers if they use them, or if they just use the laundry mats at the RV parks. Our wonderful neighbors fulltimed for 4 years and they said no no no on the washing machine, that the laundry mat is where all the social life happens LOL
At any rate, we are excited to get our unit ordered. Since we live in Alaska and the dealer is in MI (we saved over 35K ordering it there. Here in Alaska... a "deal" is MSRP PLUS 5k delivery charge), they told us they would store it for us till spring, when we can safely take back home (to pack up to leave!!!)
I know there are a number of "discount" camping clubs out there. Does anyone have advice about which ones are the best? Our plan is to hit every state (excluding Hawaii for obvious reasons) and tour much of Canada as well)
Well, I've rambled long enough. My husband and I look forward to getting to know you all
