Below is part of a talk I gave to our church on the mountain in February of 2008. It pretty well covers what happened that led to my full-time RVing life.

In my first life I was married to a gentle giant for twenty-six years. I was a wife, mother, homemaker, Girl Scout leader, and sang in the Presbyterian Church choir. I wrote a Girl Scout column for the local paper, “The Troop Snoop by Kelly Green.” God didn’t let me in on the fact that Friday morning deadlines were a training ground to a future writing life. Jack and I and our kids camped all over the country in a 9 X 9 tent, making wonderful memories. 

The girls left our cozy nest in Niles, Michigan, and went off to college and marriage. As Jack and I settled into our empty nest, he became ill and went on to that perfect Campground in the Sky at the tender age of forty-seven. I felt like a blackened match stick. Before it is lit, there is promise. When it is lit, there is purpose. When it goes out, it has no value. 

That 60-member church choir and our blessed director helped me hang on to my sanity. If not for them, I wouldn’t have made it. Jack and I had dreamed of full-time RVing “some day.” As time went on, I decided I would follow that dream. It was a way of proving I was still alive when I wasn’t sure I wanted to be. If God had a plan for me, I had no clue what it was. 

The door to my life as I knew it had definitely closed when Jack died but we all know that where one door closes, another opens. It took me a while to venture through that door but when I did, I didn’t walk through it, I sold everything we owned and drove through that door in a RV at 55 miles an hour straight into a “second life” of unparalleled adventure that took me through all fifty United States, nineteen Mexican States, and all the Provinces and Territories of Canada.

When I left Michigan on September 4, 1986, the motorhome was overloaded with the best wishes and prayers of all those Girl Scouts, camping buddies, and the church choir riding on my bumper. But they didn’t just ride on that bumper; they gave me God’s Hugs, His hope, His encouragement and His push to start a new life.

That was the beginning to an absolutely magnificent lifestyle. Because nobody told me I couldn’t do it, I did. I started writing articles almost immediately and with a little encouragement was soon writing books. I wrote Freedom Unlimited with Bill Farlow but almost immediately wrote this book on my own. Although some of the communications have changed, the rest of it is just as current as it was the day I wrote it.

book that I wrote from my experiences of being on the move most of the time. I discovered full-timing is easier than part-timing. It is amazing how much easier it is to back in, hook up, and be done with it than it is to carry everything (or what you haven’t duplicated) into a permanent structure.

I loved those carefree full-time RVing years. Sometimes I question my sanity at having the headaches of property ownership again, but at this time of my life, I also like having a place to call my own. I fully believe that if I found someone compatible to travel with, I would be gone in a flash, at least for a few months at a time.

It has been interesting to see that many of my compadres who felt they would never give up the lifestyle until their last breath dictated it, are now finding a little bit o land to settle on, too. I feel badly for those who are just starting the lifestyle because expenses have gone up so much over the years, but it doesn’t seem to stop anybody. They are just following different dictates and that is the key. Take more time to get wherever you are going and when you get there, stay put and see and experience everything within a reasonable driving distance around you.

DON’T TRY TO SEE IT ALL IN ONE WEEKEND! On that 4 week fly/RV rental Alaska trip last September, I didn’t follow my own advice We (made the trip with friends) drove 3,000 miles. I have had people say, “Well, that isn’t all that much, we drove 6,000 miles in three weeks or 10,000 miles in six weeks” or whatever, more or less bragging about the number of miles they traveled. But that isn’t the point. Take your time. Breath it in, enjoy it, hug yourself in excitement and experience wherever you are instead of dashing away to somewhere else so quickly.

It took me a while to learn this, too, but if you get into an area that you really like, find someplace to land and take side trips in your tow car. At one time I wouldn’t have recommended a tow car because I went years without one and it worked well for me, but now with fuel prices so high, it is nice to have something else to drive.

"How do you decide where to go?" I just recently did an interview of two singles who were caravanning together and one of their things was genealogy. As a first generation American, his history was in Europe but he enjoyed following her around researching her relatives. Others love museums or Civil War History, or God forbid, the guy who wanted to visit every county in his home state and go from there. I personally can’t imagine that as exciting but you know what, that is the whole point of this lifestyle, doing what interests you!

The book will take you through relationships, safety concerns, expenses, GVWR, insurance, getting your mail, licenses, etc. It is practical, easy to understand, and full of suggestions and ideas. It will cover campgrounds, boondocking, solar, and where to look for help when you have problems you can’t handle.