March 5, 2009

Full Time Security in an RV
©Copyright by Dale Prohaska, March 2009

Yesterday I wrote my official “retirement letter” to the human resources department of Rogue Community College, my employer for the last ten years. That brings me as close as ever to the realization that my position will be ending the end of June at the college. It’s just another chapter of life beginning for me.

Each step of this process has caused me to think ahead and question what I’m doing. I’m actually finding this decision more difficult than the one I made when I was 29 and quitting my tenured fifth grade teaching position to become a business owner. The national and state recession along with knowing that there will likely never be another “traditional” position open to me, has made this a difficult decision to leave this life to become a full-time RVer.  It seems so much like a final choice.

If you’ve been following my Website, you know that Gwen and I intend to “Workamp” for another three years before I begin actually drawing on pension and retirement funds. This will allow us to travel to places we have not lived before, working from 4 – 6 months and then spending winter months camped in the southwest deserts. I didn’t arrive at this place quickly or able to make this decision, overnight. It has been a step by step process, growing in self-confidence and sacrifice of those things which have always helped me to feel secure. I think security is a lot like fog, it’s all around you but impossible to grasp it in a physical way.

I’ve learned that security comes from a lot of little things. Here are some examples. When I owned a “stick-house”, I subscribed to the local newspaper. I could depend upon that paper being delivered and ready to read at a certain time each day. The postman would arrive each day at a specific time. Each month I would get an electric bill and natural gas bill making me a customer of the local utility companies. If you paid your bills on time, they treated you as a valuable customer and you could move from one location to another with few questions and your utilities would follow you. The routines of receiving a newspaper and mail were comforting and being “approved” by the local utility companies was gratifying. After all, I was a homeowner.  Of course, our house was in a neighborhood. We pretty much knew everyone in the neighborhood and knew when others were on vacation or having company visit. There was always one person in the neighborhood that knew all the “business” of all the other neighbors and was ready to spill all to a listening ear. Even this gave me security.

Owning a home became more than a “security blanket”. As it turned out, I quickly learned that owning one-half acre made me responsible for everything ON that half acre. When the well’s pump, quit, I had to replace it. Every blade of grass, bushes and trees depended upon me to feed, water and trim and they never stopped growing. The same was happening with the house. As a house ages, things wear out, so need repair or replacement. Again, I’m responsible and must tend to the demands of the house. I began wondering if I was becoming a slave to the property since there were many days I preferred to be doing something else other than caring for all the growing things on the property or repairing old siding.

I do have a few friends who long to travel but can’t imagine not owning dirt. They try to get to another state or experience another geographic area. They rush to the distant location, take three days to see the sights then feel the need to return to the “dirt” back home to be sure the growing things are still healthy and the house isn’t falling into disrepair. I was very fortunate discovering how I was becoming a slave to my property in 2006 and did not want it limiting my ability to retire and travel. I sold all dirt in October, 2006.

So how do I get security now that I live in a fifth wheel full time. I own no dirt, don’t have a mortgage, I’m not a homeowner and the electric company has no idea who I am and can’t vouch for my credibility. Obviously, all the things which made me feel secure as a homeowner were in my imagination anyway. Just look at the number of newspapers going out of business. I wonder how their subscribers cope with security problems. I’ve learned the way I live is always changing. Much of the change is coming from the advances in communication. I once believed it was driven by the Internet but more people are using cell phones for tasks unimagined even two years ago. Instant communication – always-on – and instant information – always-available – is convenient and mind expanding but threatening at the same time. Threatening because nothing is “for-sure” any more, it’s always changing at an ever increasing pace. Just try to talk to any ten year old about text messaging.

I think security is “feeling connected”. I can certainly feel connected to my relatives because we use email and blogs on Facebook to know what’s happening in each other’s lives. I feel connected to others who have made the same choices I am making. The Escapees RV Club has made this easy. There is always someone in the club who has an answer to a question and ready to share. In the Robin Williams movie, RV, one line I found funny. When Robin brings home the RV for their vacation, the rest of the family can’t believe it. “Why an RV, Dad? You know we aren’t friendly people.” Perhaps you must be an RVer and have been to an RV rally or an Escapees park to understand the joke.
Most of all, I think security comes from gaining self-confidence. Gwen has been working at Howard Prairie Resort for five years. It has been that five years which has slowly given me the self-confidence to know we can get Workamper positions around the country. I have been subscribing to Workamper News for more than two years. Each day I receive an email telling of the new Workamper positions available. I’ve been saving select announcements as 8 point type in a Word document. The list has grown to more than 28 pages. My idea is to be proactive and apply for positions early rather than wait for a resort to discover a need and then make an announcement. It should also allow us to choose where we want to spend the summer months. Living at the resort was also a slow realization that happiness doesn’t come from owning dirt and having a mortgage payment plus utility bills. It also doesn’t come from commuting nearly two hours each day to a good paying job to meet that mortgage and other homeowner obligations. It still takes courage and self-confidence to believe you can work for minimum wage plus an FHU (full hook up) at a resort and be happy.

So this retirement letter has taken a long time to write. I had to learn where security really comes from, it comes from within. It’s almost time for life’s next chapter to begin.