JANUARY 14

Hello,
A new year and I'm still not retired.

One of the problems I've had with writing is doing exactly the same thing everyday.  How does one write about the same thing everyday?  When I first started the plan was to record my journey to full time rving.  Now a year later I'm still doing the same thing.  My first reaction was to quit blogging but now I've decided to continue in the hope that recording life will benefit me down the road.

My youngest daughter moved in with me in December.  I thought this would benefit both of us financially but so far she has only worked 1 week out of 4.  She did have minor surgery requiring her to be off work for 2 weeks, then she worked a week and had another minor health issue.  She just needs to get back to work so our lives can become somewhat routine.

Last week I checked out driving to Florida for the weekend.  Too many hours driving to overnight in Florida then head back home.  Today I'm going to check on temps and camping around Atlanta or maybe Mississippi.  I need somewhere within a 6 hr drive.  Florida is 10 hrs or more.  It's just too cold for camping anywhere close.

Today's plan:  Research trips within a 6 hr driving range and price and stock all the books on the 2 tables.  Then I can start on the boxes of books under the tables.

I'm going to get off here and do some research.

Have a great day!

THE BEGINNINGS

Everyone starts their rv journey from different places.  This morning I was reading a blog about a woman that had filed bankruptcy and lost everything - her home, her car, her business.  She started over with a truck and used trailer.  I've read many blogs like this and I've read many blogs where people chose to sell their house and go fulltime rving.  Sometimes they are out of work and can no longer afford their house, sometimes they have retirement money available as well as social security.  Some people choose to live in a van or small rv to avoid rent or house payments.  Some people choose to live in a high end rv and pay rent at rv parks and resorts.  Every story is a little different but in the end we all want the freedom to travel and see what is out there.
I know I would be happy keeping a house here near my children and traveling several times a year but I don't see that as an option.  (I think I've written this before.)

It is 11 am and I've only had one customer this morning.  Sales have been declining since the beginning of November.  Sales during September and October were up from the previous year which gave me some hope that maybe I could turn the store around.  I gave myself a goal in August to save $300 a month on average.  (I say "on average" because when you own a business you know that money does not come in on a regular basis so you may be up one month and down the next.)   So far for the months of September, October and November I've saved exactly $300.  In October I did have to pay the business insurance so I knew there would be no saving during that month.  The disappointing part is November sales were so bad I not only didn't save but I couldn't pay one of my bills.  So roll that bill over to December and hope that I have an unusually good month just to keep up with my bills never mind saving.  Then the new year brings taxes and more worry.
I hate being so negative but I'm trying to be honest about where I am with respect to meeting my goals to travel.

Is anyone out there?

I haven't been blogging for the last couple of weeks, I was just wondering if anyone noticed.  If so please leave comments.

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I've ordered a lot of new books for the store and started some new advertising.  Hopefully this will increase income for the end of the year.  If things don't get better I will be closing the store next year. 
Sometimes I just want to give up on the store but then other times I remind myself that it would benefit me to actually make enough profit to sell the store.  When I started this store it was never my intentions to work 6 days a week forever.  I dreamed of taking on a partner so we could each have time off to travel and do the other things we liked.   However, the store has never done well enough to support 2 people so I'm on my own.

Change of subject...
I'll be leaving on Sept 21st for Michigan.  We will drive to Frankenmuth on Sunday then onto Cheboyan, Mi on Monday.  The rest of the week we will travel down the east coast of Michigan visiting lighthouses, state parks and any waterfalls we can find.  I can't wait, this will be my only trip this year and I'm getting very antsy.  It's time to travel!

This is the bed & breakfast we stayed in when we were in Natchez, MS in 2010