On Friday afternoon, we arrived to Melbourne, Florida. We happily pre-paid our monthly rate at our campground and setup. Knowing – we don’t have to move anywhere for a month.
A whole month!!
We are actually parked so that the campsite we were at nearly 7 months ago when we agreed to sell our Oliver trailer is directly out our view. It’s a nice reminder of the crazy adventure we’ve been on since. We sold our trailer, borrowed a small motorhome, hopped on a train to search for a bus, bought a bus and did a bunch of work on our bus! Whew.
It’s good to be back.
We seem to go in phases where we don’t know where we’ll be tonight, let alone next month. And then time periods where we just need to plan to be still for a while. They’re different mindsets, and we love that we have flexibility to accommodate what we’re feeling most.
Having plans to be still allows us to engage in the local community differently. We have time to search out events to attend – such as shows, concerts and parties. We have time to look forward to multiple visits with people we love. And we have time to focus on work, writing (more blog posts forthcoming.. wheee!), each other, exploring our location, fitness and more.
And it gives us time to plan to do crazy stuff – such as this morning, we signed up to participate in our first half marathon! This coming Sunday morning, we’ll be walk/running in the Space Coast Marathon. It sounds uber fun and full of space themed goodies.
And we’ll still be hosting our ‘Open Bus’ later that afternoon – please do RSVP if you’re able to join us.
Great job on the race! I think the extent of my training was walking twice around my neighborhood, I passed Chris as my wife was dragging me to the finish line, my first time with anything longer than a 5k, pretty cool starting with all of those people in the dark, and I was still able to walk on Monday.
Ah-hah!!! Thanks so much for writing guys!
After I crossed the finish line, Chris told me this cute couple in matching outfits holding hands (awwww) passed him and turned around to him and said ‘Hey, Technomadia!’. He had cross referenced the results page for anticipated finishing time of a male and female with similar times, and had actually narrowed it down to your name! Woohoo!
We could not figure out who on earth in the race would know us and recognize us!
Great job to you both!! Nice to know we’re not the only crazy ones who went in without training 🙂 Sorry we didn’t get to stop and say hi afterwards, or have you over later for the ‘Open Bus’.
Congrats on signing up for your first half marathon.
I’m heading to FL next week myself. I’ll be leaving New Orleans and making the move for some sunnier climate.
How’s the training going so far?
We actually rocked the 1/2 marathon yesterday.. after a full week of ‘training’ 🙂
Dont forget to turn on the engine from time to time. specially when its cold outside, and you want your bus to work, after 30 days.
Thank you Mr. President…
Davy
On the battery question unfortunately I have recent personal experience with that. I also live in a converted bus and we usually move once a week. I turn off the voltage on the bus batteries to insure they are not run down by inadvertently leaving or turning something on.
If I am parked some where longer I start it and let it run for an hour or so about every two weeks.
I was recently away from the bus for four weeks with the voltage turned off and when I returned it would not start. Thankfully after a 10 hour charge from the built in trickle charger it cranked right up. I guess that demonstrates that at least in my case two weeks sitting is OK but four is too many….
Davy
Hi Cherie,
Since you’re settled for the month. I have a dear friend who is a chiropractor in Melbourne if you need an adjustment. Her name is Dr Robin Pace and if you’re interested just email me and I’ll send you her contact info.
Happy Thanksgiving. My partner Rob and I are RVing in Vancouver today. You both are an inspiration to us!
Hi Cherie, I just envy your freedom going around like this exploring toghether… and the marathon – so cool! this was possible to me and it’s so much fun – enjoy 🙂
A half marathon, wow. I started jogging at the end of August with the couch to 5K running program which prepares you to go from no running at all to 3 miles in 9 weeks. At the end of October I ran a 4 mile race (and finished near last for my age group, but I at least finished!), but I’m sure not going to be ready for 13 miles anytime soon. 😉
Have a good time in Florida! The blue Christmas lights on your bus made me grin – your so color coordinated. 🙂
C25K is awesome! We both used it to get back into running. Chris has totally rocked it, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s able to run 8+ miles of the 1/2 marathon this weekend. Me? Nah. I’ll be walking most of it 🙂
Congrats on your success with it!
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to the day when I can go jogging on trails while full-timing. 😛
As a cookie to keep us motivated, my roommate and I (we did it together) allowed ourselves to buy these crazy fun barefoot running shoes (Vibram five fingers), but only after completing the whole 9 week program. Well it worked, and those shoes sure are fun for trail jogging. 🙂
VFFs… great choice! We both run in them as well. It was actually because of the Vibrams that I was even able to run at all – I have very weak ankles, and the shoes helped rebuild muscles that allow me to run again.
We love exploring trails for hiking, walking and running while we travel. Especially when we can camp right by them, which is one reason we favor public campgrounds and boondocking on public grounds.
Your excitement for going full time is inspiring 😉 Can’t wait to cross paths with you.
How exciting! I can’t wait until I’m on the road. I love that you can pick up and move when you want, or stay somewhere a month if you choose. A month in one spot is plenty for me; I’m looking so forward to this lifestyle.
Thanks for a great blog.
–Jool
Just a “curiosity killed the cat” kind of question: do you have to start the bus up every now & then when you’re parked for a month or so to keep the battery “topped up” like you do most old cars? I know your bus is re-furbed & more sophisticated than any car I’ve ever had, but most of the cars I’ve owned would’ve been dead as a doornail had I tried to start them up after sitting for a month unused. Of course, we have an ’89 Ford F-250 we don’t drive except to pull our trailer & it roars right up after sitting for a while. Just curious (never having HAD a cool bus or even a moho) what the protocol is on stuff like that….
Unlike a lot of more modern vehicles, there’s nothing currently attached to our starter batteries but the engine start and things like headlights, blinkers, etc. We have an entirely separate battery system for the house stuff. Eventually we’ll connect them so that the house system can trickle charge the starter batteries. But for now, if we’re parked for a long time (longer than a month), we’d need to start the bus up to top them off the alternator to compensate for normal lead acid battery loss.
For our month here, we’re not anticipating any problems, providing we can keep Kiki from walking over the control panel and turning on the headlights (ahem… darn cat!). And, at this particular campground – we’ll have to start up the bus and move a few feet every 1.5 – 2 weeks to dump our tanks (we don’t have sewer at our site, just a campground dump station).
Cool …. pretty much what I figured. I DID wonder about the situation with the tanks …. how stationary full-timers deal with that. I imagine if you place your rig somewhere permanently you probably want to make sure there’s sewer there. And on an unrelated yet very ADHD note … I noticed when I typed the word “sewer” how weird it looks …. like I spelled it wrong … guess I don’t spell or type that word very often!
Yeah.. it would be more ideal to have a campground with true full hook-ups. But, that wasn’t an option for us here. We do tend to like public campgrounds (as opposed to commercial), which don’t tend to have sewer. But, they do give more scenic views and privacy.
However, we did just find out this morning that the campground provides honey-wagon service! For $8/wk, they come around on Wednesday mornings and pump our tanks out for us! Sweet. (It’s the little joys ).