Hannah and I just wrapped up the first term of the Fall semester last night. We now have a 9 day “break” before our second Fall semester term begins.

And speakng of school, I have an announcement to make about our Adventure… we’re still doing it, but we’re going to ease into it while we finish school. After months of prayer and weeks of planning and more prayer, talking, evaluating, more prayer, more talking, advice-seeking and research, we’ve concluded that yes, we’re still going to travel and be a “Family on the Road.” However, we will not start out full-time as originally planned.

Hannah and I are both not “getting into” the current degree programs we’re working through. The ones we really want to do are on-campus only… so… we’re moving near our college to be able to attend classes on-campus, opening up our options greatly.

We are still going to be traveling and camping every chance we get. We’re moving ahead with our purchase of an RV of some type after the first of the year and will make it part of our lifestyle. I believe we will be on the road full-time one of these days, but until we finish our degrees it will only be part-time.

All this is going to happen rather quickly, since the lease where we are living right now is up at the end of the month. I want to be in a house or apartment in Lynchburg, Virginia, by November 15. That’s my goal. Because its a college town, the rentals are so much cheaper than here in Mount Vernon. We’re paying $675/month right now. Houses in Lynchburg of the same size are $450/month. We just want a 2BR this time and those are $395-$410.

As for our studies, Hannah has had a desire to be an RN or get her BSN for the past 4-5 years, and we’ve always been able to come up with reasons why that would take too long, be too expensive, blah blah blah. But now, looking back, if we had gone in that direction when Hannah first wanted to, she’d have been done for three years now. So no more procrastinating with it. No more excuses. Hannah loves nursing (she’s a CNA right now) and has been told by every single one of her employers that she is one of the best care providers and employees they’ve ever had. And she loves it.

So what about me? I’m going to continue through the distance program, working on low-level prerequisite and foundational classes, and then transfer to the campus next Fall, when I will switch my major to English/Writing. Hannah and I both intend to continue through to our Master’s Degrees.

That’s where we are right now. We’re sorting all our crap, selling stuff and putting things into storage. I hate packing and I hate moving, but I have a gut feeling that we’ll be in Lynchburg for a few years, and its a feeling I haven’t had anywhere else we’ve moved. I finally feel the Holy Spirit giving us both PEACE about something we’re about to do.

Our adventure is truly going to be UNENDING, and for us, it starts in just a couple of weeks!

We finally have power and internet back in our house. It had been out since last Sunday afternoon. It was off for a whole week thanks to weather Hurricane Ike surprisingly brought all the way up to Ohio. At the peak of the power outage, about 1.5 million Ohioans were in the dark.

But the power is back on and I’m back with our Suburban.

I’ll post a more comprehensive update about my epic drive from Las Vegas, NV, to Ohio a little later. We’re about to clean out our fridge and freezer… Yuck!

Well, well… we didn’t get a Class C. We were going to, but we came across a great deal on a 1994 Suburban 2500 with a towing capacity of 10,000 lbs. This thing is sweet and its going to make the perfect starter tow vehicle.

The interior is in great shape. The tires have about 80% tread.

It has a drop-down DVD entertainment system for the kids, which I’m sure will get a lot of use.

Somehow, we’ve ended up being one of those families who inadvertently ended up with more vehicles than they need, so we’re now going to be selling off our three other cars: a ‘97 Saturn SL, a ‘94 Nissan Altima and an ‘05 Pontiac Aztek. Money from those cars and other stuff we’re selling around the house will go towards a small, used travel trailer to use through late February 2009. We have until the end of October when our lease is up.

I am scheduled to start my temporary job at Amazon.com in Kansas on Nov. 2, a day after my birthday. Money from that job will go towards a travel trailer as well. Before we know it, it will be February and we’ll be ready to head out.

Hannah and I have been talking a lot lately about our upcoming RV plans. Our lease is up where we are right now October 31, so we recognize the need to have something lined up by then. Tonight I think we might have settled on a tentative plan that will increase the money we have in our RV fund and get us on the road sooner than anticipated.

I will most likely be working for Amazon.com through the end of October, all of November and most of December. It’s a temporary job through the holiday season, and the money is great. We will not, however, be in a position to buy our full-time RV in October. But, that’s okay, because we’re going to start small, with a used Class C.

In the next couple weeks, we will be purchasing a used Class C motorhome to start our little adventure in. We will use it while I’m working at Amazon.com (they’ll be paying our campground fees), and then bring it back to Ohio for Christmas and the New Year. We will be in it until the end of February when we’ll have enough saved to buy a nice tow truck and 30-31′ Travel Trailer.

Yes, we finally decided on going with a Travel Trailer. Since we will be docked more than we are on the road driving, it just makes sense to make sure our time in campgrounds is as comfortable and livable as we can afford to make it. In February, we’ll be able to afford a nice used tow truck and brand new travel trailer big enough for all of us. Then we’ll start saving up on the road to buy a Class A with bunks, like the Georgetown 350, which we’ve been able to find brand new in the upper 60’s. Which, If we workamp and I keep up my freelance work, pinch pennies and don’t splurge all the time, we could save up and actually buy a lot sooner than we originally thought possible.

But, we’ll be starting off in a 27′ Class C it looks like right now. I hope to be able to report something on that soon. So until then, keep us in your prayers!

So, like I said, the RV show was a bit of a letdown. Local media was reporting that this year’s show was about half the size as previous ones. Overall, however, it was a beneficial trip that gave us a lot to think and pray about. Even though the show was smaller in scope than we were expecting, we were able to poke around several models of RVs we hadn’t seen before, including several Class C’s and smaller Class A’s.

The more time we spent in the Class C’s and small Class A’s, the more Hannah and I began to realize that with our family, the two of us and two toddlers, we didn’t NEED a large travel trailer to begin our journey. In fact, starting out smaller would actually beneficial because part of our reason for embarking on this journey is to reprogram our way of thinking regarding possessions and living space requirements. Buying a used Class C or small Class A would also let us get going with less money up-front, vs. buying a truck and trailer.

So when we got home I started surfing the net and found HUNDREDS of used Class A and Class C motorhomes that would cost us about HALF the expense of buying a truck and trailer would. With one of these, we would be able to pull a car behind us, and we happen to have a 1997 Saturn SL2 that gets 29MPG that would be the perfect “toad” car.

So right now, I’d say we are leaning 80% towards finding a used Class A or Class C motorhome and pulling our Saturn behind it.

There are several advantages to a motorhome over a travel trailer. For starters, the girls would be able to work on schoolwork, watch TV, or play games while we’re driving. While actual traveling on the road will be something we do only once a month or so, the girls will have more freedom when we do so. Boondocking would be easier because we just park, pull the curtains and sleep.

We already have a few Class A’s in mind that are in excellent shape that just need a little “decorating update” with their interiors. We’ll keep you updated!

If we can find the right RV at the right price, we’ll be able to hit the road in November, when our lease is up on our house!

Tomorrow morning we are heading to the Midwest RV Supershow and Rally in Goshen, Indiana. This is our first RV show and we are very excited. The local dealerships we’ve visited so far have had a handful of RVs to look at and browse, so this is the first time we’ll get to see a wide range of floor models and features.

We decided not to “rough it” by staying in a tent at a local campground, mainly because we’re only staying one night. Just too much work to stay the night somewhere. And rather than stay in a hotel for $80-90, we got a cabin at an “Amish campground” in a nearby town for $45. The girls are looking forward to it because the cabin has a bunk bed for them. Hannah and I are looking forward to it because it has central air and we won’t have to mess with setting up and tearing down a campsite.

So anywya, right now, instead of sleeping like I should be, I’m up going through my pre-trip routine: making sure all my gadgets are charged. I really, really need to get a charging station. Right now I have two iPods, a cell phone, a Bluetooth headset, two cameras and a laptop charging. I’m such a nerd.

Today I collected three bags of junk from our aptly named “junk closet.” I don’t even know why we’ve held on to most of this stuff.

I put my Mac Pro up for sale on Craigslist to see if I can sell it there before taking it to eBay, where I’ll have to deal with shipping three boxes weighing more than 80 pounds total. It’s not going to be cheap. Not to mention the eBay AND PayPal feels which will total about $100. I really hope I can sell this locally.

I also posted an ad on Craigslist to start looking for temporary housing after our lease is up where we live now. We are kind of thinking it would be best to leave on our adventure the first week of March 2009, after we receive our federal tax return, which is usually pretty sizable thanks to Earned Income Credit we receive for having kids and being middle-income. With our tax return, school refunds and money we can save from now until February, we should have close to $20,000 to spend on a decent truck and trailer or used motorhome. It all depends on the market at the time.

Most of the money we are making from the stuff we are selling now is going into a savings account to pay for our diesel/SVO engine conversion. I kicked around the idea of using biodiesel but there’s no real safe way to make it on the road and getting into biodiesel co-ops is difficult, especially for people who won’t be in the co-op’s area long-term. Still, even with a converted engine we can use biodiesel if we can get it or make it somewhere along the way.

Madeline and I sat down with Microsoft Streets and Trips yesterday and talked about all the places we could go and all the things we’re going to see. I’m not sure she completely understands the whole concept quite yet, but she’s processing it and knows we’ll be on the road staying at campgrounds and such. I don’t think she understands that when we come back to the area we are now, we will have to stay with grandmas and grandpas because we won’t have a house of our own here any more.

Madeline’s also very excited to start school. I’ve been working with her from an incredible book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She is doing great! Every day she is gaining confidence and learning more and more words, actually teaching them to herself. At first I was skeptical of the book because it is a method of teaching children to read that is so different than anything I’ve seen before. But Madeline caught on instantly and is progessing through the 100 lessons right on track. 100 lessons in 100 days for 20 minutes a day. At the end of the 100 lessons, she’ll be reading a 2nd grade level. Amazing!

Hannah and I have started a major cleaning project of our house. This is step 1 of who knows how many in the downsizing process.

Earlier this evening, my wife and I had one of those moments when you’re reading something, think about what you just read for a second or two and then your brain goes into overdrive with new ideas and realizations.

See, the spreadsheet I’ve been working on to crunch the numbers for the lifestyle we’re about to embark on checks out. With our current income, we can afford it, but just barely. There’s one column that dwarfs all the others combined.

Fuel.

Whether we go gas or diesel, it’s going to be expensive. Really expensive. I’ve read other traveler’s blogs and a lot of people are spending $1,500, $2,000, even $3,000 a month on fuel. That we simply cannot afford.

That was until I once again hit the ole’ Internet to do some more research. One of the blogs I subscibed to last week when I started planning all this was the Live Lightly Tour. Well, the light bulb went off for my wife and I when we read about their rig.

We’re still trying to decide on whether or not to buy an older RV that needs some TLC in October (when the lease on our house is up) or find out some other kind of creative living arrangement through February when we’ll be able to buy a $15-$20k RV. If we stay in our current house after our lease is up, we’ll be esentially throwing away $1,000 a month on the increase rent (month-to-month costs more) and utilities.

If we have to buy in October, we’ll have about $7,000. In February we can do a lot better. We’d like to wait until February to buy, but need some suggestions about where to live from November until we can buy the RV. Anyone have an RV or trailer we can live in at a park somewhere? We’ll take real good care of it for you!

I just posted a rather lengthy tale about how we arrived at our decision to become a family on the road. Be sure to check it out, as it fills in a lot of gaps that aren’t obvious in the blog posts.