Preparing to Become Homeless

After taking a break from traveling and blogging, we're about ready to start up again. This time, however, we'll not be traveling for a month or so in our motorhome. This time we're becoming full-time nomads as we join the ranks of the wandering wondering. Yes, Martha and I decided to sell the house, give some of our inheritance to our children, and head out. The plan is to stay out for five to seven years.

In preparation for this major step, we sold our 2000 Airstream Land Yacht XC (35 feet, six inches long) for a 2002 Newmar Dutch Star (39 feet, three inches). The Airstream had a living area slide out that gave us about 22 inches of additional space. The Dutch Star has both living area and bedroom slide outs. The living area expands outwardly by 34 inches. That's a significant difference when one considers starting from a width of 8 feet.

2002 Newmar Dutch Star Diesel Pusher in Anthracite

(from a manufacturer's brochure)

In the process we've managed to keep the same chassis and engine combination we came to enjoy with our first diesel pusher, a 1997 Holiday Rambler we used well for two years. We are comfortable and familiar with the Freightliner XC chassis powered by a Caterpillar 3126 engine. The Holiday Rambler was tuned to 275 hp. The Airstream developed 330. The CAT in the Dutch Star is tuned to 350, the maximum for the 3126 series.

Since Byron has done several motorhome illustrations in the past, including some paint designs for the classic GMC, he had to do an illustration of our new home while on the road. The illustration was done using an iMac running Adobe Illustrator CS4. Such an illustration can take Byron from seven to ten hours to complete, depending on how accurate he wants to make it.

Illustration of our motorhome.

Our first outing, which began on Memorial Day, will take us to the Knoxville area then on to Augusta. From there we'll journey through the Carolinas to visit with one of Martha's uncles before heading to DC area to visit two of her aunts. After that we head to Goshen, Indiana and the Elkhart County 4H Fairgounds where the Great Lakes region of Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) is holding an annual rally. Following the rally in mid June we'll head back to Louisville to finish getting out of the house.

Sunrise near Knoxville after our first night in the Newmar Dutch Star

By the way, while driving to the Knoxville area Byron drove from Louisville to London, KY and Martha from there to Farragut which is west of Knoxville. We had no problem getting over the mountain near Jellico since it was a holiday and there was no road construction on I-75.