Meet George & Lisa
December 2018 we will celebrate
our 30 year wedding anniversary. Some days it feels like we have been a
part of each other's life forever…other days it seems like just yesterday we
said, “I Do”.
We have had a camper since early in our marriage. We both love traveling--specifically, we love Road Trips.
Who
we are…
Lisa has an outgoing
personality. She loves meeting people and sees people not as strangers,
but as friends she hasn’t met yet. She loves to giggle and laugh.
She would tell you without apology that her address changed, her personality
didn’t and she does not want to “rough it”. Bling is her favorite color
and her personality matches!
George has a very laid back personality and gets along with most people. He has really come out of his shell since retirement and loves to talk about anything RV related. He enjoys cycling and is willing to stretch his physical limits to try something new. He uses his handyman skills keeping our equipment in tip-top shape.
We both love to see and explore new places and see the sights that make each location special. We love 4-Wheeling and exploring the back roads of America.
Our
family…
We have 3 amazing daughters,
2 very nice Son-in-Laws, 5 grandkids and 2 great-grand babies. One daughter,
Catrina and son-in-law, Paul, live in Colorado Springs; as do their 3 adult
children. Our oldest grandson, Christian is married to a wonderful, Godly
woman, Amber. They have 2 beautiful babies--Trenton and Analiese.
Justin is our second grandson and he married his true love, Shannon.
Our granddaughter, Amber has become a spunky young woman. We have
two daughters that live in Seattle. Monica and her husband Michael have 2
great kids, Margot and Sebastian--both are energetic and love life. Our
youngest daughter, Sonja also makes her home in Seattle. Sonja loves a challenge and finding new
adventures in our country and across the globe.
Where
we want our life to go…
Throughout our
marriage, we remained true to the idea that we wanted to retire young enough to
have a life that didn’t require a “daily grind” job.
When others purchased bigger and newer houses, we stayed in our original house until it was paid off.
We reminded ourselves regularly about our dreams. Over the years the dream began to solidify into one that involved an RV and significant travel. We set goals to help us chase our dreams. We kept our goals and dreams in the back of our minds whenever we made major decisions.
We
definitely are not money rich …
We both come from
hard working families, who taught us the importance of working hard and being
good stewards of our money. Although it would have been easier if we had
come from wealth or developed wealth over the years, that just isn’t the case
for us.
So now we have established that we are NOT rich—or even Upper-middle class by todays’ standards. We have made choices that have allowed us to have this fabulous vagabond life together. One financial decision that we are committed to is the choice to remain completely debt free. We are able to live with a much smaller income, when we make no monthly debt payments.
It is important to us to be open about our finances, because we believe anyone can reach their dreams. We made a decision to Chase Life and stop chasing a Lifestyle.
Why
now???
We had several life
events that changed our timeline and caused us to think more aggressively about
our dream to retire younger and travel in an RV around the USA.
- Lisa’s parents
both died at relatively young ages
- In the past 10
years, we have each been laid off from long term jobs that we had believed
were “safe”. Now we see the end of those jobs as blessings.
- Lisa contracted
a serious virus and within a matter of hours she was not able to walk or
use her hands. As she began healing, it was easy to see that her
health would never fully be the same. The result of this virus is a
Fibromyalgia diagnosis, which has changed our lives.
- Our grandson,
Christian, was trying to determine his future and we encouraged him to
follow his dreams with full gusto—do not be discouraged by anyone or
anything. We realized… we were being such hypocrites… we had a
dream; but we had let fear and life put our dream on a back burner.
We did not want to be
the couple that looked back and said “I wish we had traveled
more.”, “I wish we had retired while we were still able to walk.”,
“If only we had more money, we would quit these jobs.”, “Why did we
wait?” And so on, and so on and so on…
We
asked for it, we got it--FAST…
In March 2013 we
began seriously talking about the possibility of a full-time
RV life. We went to an RV-Dreams rally (which we
recommend to anyone thinking about full-timing). At the rally we were
given great tools for living a full-time RV life and the confidence that we
could make this life changing leap.
We came home from the rally and began getting our house of 26 years ready to sell. We met with a realtor and decided it could take months to sell the house. June 1, 2013 we put the house on the market, and we were ready to “sit back and wait”. Well… there was NO sitting back… the first people that walked through made a cash offer. 30 days later we were living in our 5th wheel! Are you kidding! Within a matter of months we went from talking about living in an RV to actually moving into our 5th wheel! Were we adventurous or just plain crazy? (The jury is still out.)
We spent the next 6 months at a campground near Colorado Springs putting things in order and getting ready for our new chapter of life. We left Colorado in January 2014 and have traveled around the country. We are able to visit family, meet new friends and see sights beyond our wildest dreams.
We believe that Life
should not only be Lived; it should be Celebrated! We are celebrating Life one mile at a
time.
Join us in our current and future adventures… see you on the road.
George and Lisa
