After calling it “home, sweet home” for six years, Tom and I spent Sunday moving out of our New Horizons 5th wheel and into our house.  It was a little bit sad, but we have good reasons for moving out of the 5th wheel and moving into a house at this time.

The two biggest factors in our decision made moving out of the 5th wheel less sad.  The first is wanting to be closer to family in Ohio more of the time.  My dad will be 86 next week and Mom isn’t far behind him.  We never know what the future holds, and right now we would like to spend more time with them while we can enjoy being together.  We also want to be close by if they need more help or support.  My parents are a lot of fun and John and Jackie are two of our favorite people.  So it makes sense to be closer to them more of the time.

The second factor is wanting to see more when we travel.  We bought the 5th wheel with the intention of living in it full-time and carrying everything with us everywhere we go.  Unfortunately that is very cumbersome.  We have to be careful about the roads we travel and make plans and reservations far in advance.  Although we have loved working in the national parks, we basically “park and play” while we are there.  We don’t see much beyond a two or three hour drive from the park.  We would never pack up the 5th wheel for a weekend and take off because it is just too big.

And being big and heavy has its drawbacks.  Our giant truck was necessary to pull the 5th wheel so going to a city was always a challenge.  And Tom was finding the driving increasingly stressful.  Even though I went to RV driving school, I haven’t really driven much when we were towing the RV.  I’m a great navigator, but Tom is the much better driver.  And he is fantastic at backing the 5th wheel into tight spaces.

We went so many places in the last six years.  But there are even more places we didn’t go because of restrictions with the 5th wheel.  And we want to see those places too.  We want to travel on little twisty turny roads without worrying that the 5th wheel won’t make it around the curve.

So, out of the 5th wheel and into the house.  Having a house means we won’t have to carry everything we own with us when we do venture out in the RV.  We can live and volunteer in a much smaller RV, knowing that we get to come back to a more spacious house.

Before the move:

It took us six hours to empty the truck and the 5th wheel.  Even though we weren’t moving any furniture, the 5th wheel had a ton of storage and we had it packed full.  We unpacked as we moved, which is why it took six hours.  The 5th wheel was parked outside the garage, and we carried things in the house and put them away as we carried them in.  Of course, figuring out where things go and getting them in the spot that you can remember can take a little longer.

After the move:

Fortunately there is plenty of room in the house for everything that was in the RV.  We are going to miss some of that wonderful storage space that was built into the RV.

Moving out ourselves was easier than moving John or Jackie last week or moving my parents last year.  We have a lot less stuff.  We also have no furniture, but that is a story for tomorrow.