September 19, 2012

River Bend RV Resort, Harrisburg, OR

We hadn’t set an alarm because we have been waking up early without one but of course because we had to be up by 7 for our first seminar beginning at 8 we slept until 7:30.  We rushed around getting ready and made our way over to the conference center.  The coffee was ready and donuts and muffins were available, provided by Bruce & Pauline Pokallus, our seminar presenters from SkyMed.  SkyMed is a premier emergency air transportation membership service.  For a fee, you can enroll into the membership that would provide travel services in the case of an emergency that could include transportation home and RV stranded vehicle return if the driver becomes incapacitated.  There are many more services included in the membership and if money were no object we would enroll in the membership.  But being on a fixed income means living on a budget and there just isn’t anything left over for extras like the SkyMed membership.

The next seminar was entitled No Right Way to Full-time-Evaluating the Options.  This seminar explored the different ways people live the full-time lifestyle.   Although interesting, I didn’t really learn anything new that could benefit us.  The seminar could benefit someone who isn’t a full-timer but is considering becoming one.

No Right Way to Full-time was followed by Emotional Aspects of the Full-timing Decision.  I didn’t learn anything new at this seminar either but it was nice to hear that some of the emotions that Monte and I experienced during the very stressful pre-departure time were commonly felt by other people who have decided to embrace this lifestyle. 

The last seminar before the lunch break was entitled, What Does It Cost to Full-time?  Our seminar hosts, Howard & Linda Payne have been very open about their budget.  Their average yearly expenses over the past seven years they have been full-timing is $36,000.  They have had to work camp five out of the seven years they have been on the road because they started out when they were in their early 40’s and did not have any income.  They did have investments and the profit from the sale of their house to fall back on but some of the investments cannot be touched until they are much older.  It was interesting to see the wide range of budgets that people have.  Some have commented to Howard & Linda that they think a $36,000 year expense budget is extravagant while others can’t imagine existing on only $36,000 per year. 

After lunch, we attended back to back seminars entitled, RVing Basics, Part I and Part II.  Part I included discussion on driving, parking, towing hitching & unhitching a RV.  Part II covered hooking up utilities, dumping tanks, RV systems overview, safety & checklists.  I wish that we had attended the seminars prior to going on the road.  Almost everything covered Monte & I have already experienced first-hand.  We had “On the Job Training.” 

I had just enough time between the last seminar and dinner to drive the 5 miles to Safeway to pick up some milk for Monte.  He likes having his cookies & milk in the evening.  At 6pm we went to the banquet hall for a catered salad & pizza dinner.  It was delicious.  We sat with a different group of people than we had the night before so that we could get to know some of the other people attending the rally.  They were all very nice and had interesting and amusing stories of their travels.  The group included, one gentleman solo RVer from IL, another solo gentleman RVer from Seattle, a couple from Salem, OR and another couple from AZ.

The rally attendees provided the entertainment for the evening in the form of Show & Tell.  Some of the items were silly but most were very practical items that may end up on my future purchase list.  Monte, affectingly known as Mr. Gadget, brought an entire bagful of things.  He did his Show & Tell last, which was a very good way to end the evening as his presentation was hilarious. 

 

Back home I watched some TV while Monte worked on editing the video he had taken of the seminars.