Whhhhhhhhewwwwwwwww! It’s a done deal. We threw the dice, we are now all in, high stakes, no limit fun seekers. The stick house is SOLD, check in hand, and we are officially full time RVers. It was an interesting transition, about a year’s process, with all the included intrigue, nervous apprehension, headaches, and fun in preparation. We’ve been staying at the Petaluma KOA for about a week now, and will remain here for the rest of the month, then head up to Redding to visit Jeanne’s mom and brothers before we head back here for the big First Birthday for the Gladiator.

We are officially South Dakota residents, thanks to the assistance of Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls. We already find it mind boggling as to how we survived paying high prices for everything in California. We had to adjust our health care because the county wanted some $800 extra per month out of us to keep Jeanne covered by their PPO plan. We found a Coventry policy (the old Mutual of Omaha) out of the SD area to cover her for a bit over $200 per month. And my coverage dropped since it was just on me, so we now pay less than what we were before. Don’t even talk about car and trailer registrations, California is certainly sticking it to their residents. And truck/trailer insurance? Holy smokes, doubled the coverage for less than what we were paying to Allstate in CA. Jeanne has gone all out, reading NUMEROUS blogs by other full time RVers, comparing living styles and posted information regarding budgets, and she has devised our tentative budget. We are excited to see what the budget has in store for us with regards to how far the money will go and how much we will be able to save now that the stick house bills are gone. 

As far as KOA’s go, Petaluma KOA is one of the nicest KOA’s we have stayed at, coast to coast. Yes, it is on the high end $ $ $ wise, but they have a lot of activities for young and old alike. They run tour buses down to The City (San Francisco) where folks can check out the bridge (Golden Gate, that is), Pier 39, Chinatown, ride a cable car, and other points of interest there. The kids can check out the KOA petting zoo, climb the rock wall, swim, ride the banana bikes, and the park tends to have many special weekends throughout the year. We are here in October, and they have trick-or-treating every weekend and two potlucks later in the month. Never a dull moment here. But we are looking forward to heading down to the Gulf coast this December for the winter. Gee, I hope it does not snow there…So long for now… We are officially South Dakota residents, thanks to the assistance of Alternative