Let's Start at the Beginning

One of the questions an RVer continually gets from those not traveling is “how did you get into this?” As Teresa and I are new to many of the MobileRVing community, we thought we should briefly revisit our humble beginnings. That way, you will better understand how we arrived where we are today.

In July 2009, my wife came home from watering plants at her parents’ home. While there, she saw her brother’s small RV trailer in storage. She came home and asked if I would consider buying a camper. Please remember that we started looking for a “camper.” As we had some budgeted money set aside for a pool we would never build, we decided we would use that $20,000 to buy a “camper.” We didn’t want to leave our puppy, our toy poodle Alli at home but wanted to take her on trips with us. RVing could do that (which is why close to 80% of RVers have pets).

Related Read: RV Travel Tips for Pet Owners

What kind of RV we would get was a topic of discussion for days. As neither of us could back up a lawn sweeper on the riding mower, we decided quickly that we would have a motorized “camper.” But which class?

We soon learned the various classes, the A, B and C. I found the class C cramped for my height. We didn’t really find any class B RVs and I truly thought our budget would not afford a class A…until…we went to visit her parents a few Sundays later. Teresa told them of our plans and that we were not having much success finding something with our budget. Her father then pointed out there was a class A in the paper about 30 miles from us for under $20,000. Long story short, it was owned by a retired pastor who was losing sight in his left eye so he needed to sell it. “It” was a 1999 Hurricane for $18,500. He called it “The Marshmallow.” This RV was a VERY basic class A at 30′ long, no slides, no jacks and it bounced as one drove it down the road. But it was our first venture into RVing.

Related Read: Understand the Differences between Class A, B and C Motorhomes

I can remember driving it for the first time and wondering how in the world we could drive such a large vehicle. Teresa’s 16-year-old son came with us to pick up the Hurricane. Teresa and I were so excited to be picking up our first RV. When we pulled into the lot where the RV was parked, we looked at Hurricane, then at her son who said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Okay, he was not bit by the RV bug. We still bought the Hurricane, named it the Alli One in honor of our puppy who loved to ride in the “camper.”

We pulled into a local campground. They asked if it was our first time there. We told them it was our first night in the camper and was there anyone who could help us? Indeed there was or should I say there WERE many people who offered us help and tidbits of information we could use. The next morning, Teresa used the oven to make biscuits. That night, we had a campfire with smores. Ahhh, the American RV dream. Except for one thing I had not shared yet. My wife has a sickness. It is something our families and friends all know about so this is not talking out of school. My wife is a clean freak. Serious, certified, word-class even, clean freak. She got this from her mother. So what does that have to do with our “camper?”

Well, clean freaks don’t like dirt and grass IN the “camper.” Still, those first three months in the Hurricane were at campgrounds with gravel or grassy sites. That’s right, I said three months. Why? We were blessed more than we deserve, that’s why. We knew quickly that we like traveling in the class A but maybe not the Hurricane. Traveling down the highway, the little Hurricane would be shoved to the right as eighteen-wheelers past on our left. It bounced as we drove down the road. Did I mention that it BOUNCED? Working with a number of RV dealers, we realized that we needed a class A diesel for the weight and power we would need in our travels.

Enter the Alli Two, a 2004 Holiday Rambler Endeavor.

If you’re looking to buy an RV, you can start looking HERE.


We found this steal at a local RV dealership and were quick to jump on it. Two slides, leveling jacks, a 330 hp Cummins engine, full body paint, two A/C units, a full kitchen, oh my gosh, we were in the lap of luxury! We would travel more than ten thousand miles in the Alli Two, even learning to pull a car four down.

Related Read: Know Before You Tow – Dinghy Installation

We also learned that we were not really “campers”. My wife discovered RV resorts with landscaped pads and luxury amenities. We were now “Glampers,” or those seeking Glamorous Camping! The Alli Two was our real introduction into RVing. We had our mentors who helped us get through those stupid mistakes with our RV. Good news is we survived without hurting our Alli Two.

Now we thought we would have the Alli Two for many years, yet, into 2011, while RVing with Teresa’s brother (another afflicted with the Clean Freak disease), we were at a mega dealer and saw a 2011 Winnebago Journey 40U. The floorplan was unlike any we had seen before with a real living room area, a large kitchen counter, BIG shower in the bathroom, over 240 cubic feet of exterior storage and so much more. We did not buy that day but went on line and negotiated with 5 dealerships to drop more than $100K to get the best deal, paying invoice for the RV. NEVER pay MSRP. Let me say that again – NEVER pay MSRP. You should pay about 35% off MSRP and with that, we had the Alli Three.

Related Read: RV Financing – Tips from an RV Dealer

A brand new motor home, one that was modern and ready to run for many years!
We had to really plan when and where we could use our Alli Three. Our professional lives were filled with long days, sometimes 7 days a week. I was the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for a large health care system in Northeast Tennessee. I was often busy in the morning, in the evenings, on weekends, with system issues, media calls, and more. Besides that full time role on the system executive team, running this award winning marketing department for up to 15 hospitals, hundreds of physicians and seven urgent care centers, I was extremely involved in community non-profit organizations and at our church, directing the choir, on the Board, etc. Teresa was our health care systems Sr. Nurse Recruiter hiring over 500 bedside nurses a year. She didn’t do that 9am-5pm but morning, noon and night, calling prospective candidates when they were home. Now, understand that we LOVED our careers, especially the people with whom we interacted on a daily basis. Even with our 70-80 work weeks plus community commitments, we still worked to get out in the Alli Three. We had planned to pull the retirement trigger in 2017 when I turned 60 and run around the country in the Alli Three. But, as it happens so often in life, plans change.
My amazing dad (Edward E. Herbert) was 80 years old when he had a serious fall. Here is Dad with me and my younger brother, Kenny a year after that first fall.

How fast things changed for him, for all of us. We realized he would never be the same man again. His incredible wife would work tirelessly to help him recover some of his abilities to speak, to understand, to even walk. As Teresa was a nurse and I was familiar with hospitals systems, Teresa and I decided to pull the retirement trigger in 2012, when I was 55, so we could be available to help with my dad. But how does one go from super busy, 80+ hours a week, helping so many groups, down to traveling in an RV?

Thank goodness we found a way to travel, cut our expenses and earn some serious money. That way was working with Southeast Publications. With Southeast, we began to visit RV resorts that needed a new Guest Guide for their visitors. We did the first few resorts during my final six months in the health care system, working those mainly on the weekends and all were in our local area. That was c-r-a-z-y!

But we liked the overall premise. After retiring from my corporate role in December 2012, we hit the road in our 2011 Journey. While at the RV Resorts, we visited local businesses and sold them an ad in the Guide to help connect them to the visiting RVers. The Resort receives the Guide for free, promotes the businesses in the Guide to the RVers, who in turn become customers of those businesses. A win-win. It is even better because we receive a complimentary site while working for the Resort which saves us money. When we exceed production costs, we receive a generous commission.

Related Read: Making Money While RVing-- Here Is One Way It Can Be Done

We worked RV resorts after my retirement that kept us close to my dad’s area. We made enough money that we did not have to touch our savings or retirement accounts. But we were doing the RV resorts very part-time. When my dad would have another fall, this one leading to his death, we knew we did not want to go back to our corporate roles of the past. Instead, we decided that the Guest Guide industry was a great choice for us. In 2013, we attended the company annual meeting and achieved what the company called the Achiever Club. Teresa and I said, “there are levels and Clubs?” As we are overachievers, we planned our ascension in the sales Clubs. We tripled our sales in 2014 ranking 8th (out of 128 teams) in the company and in 2015, ranked 4th in the company. Here was the 2016 annual company meeting with our Vice President of Sales, Carlene Morris, Teresa, me, our CEO Wally Warrick and Business Development Manager Brian McGuinn. We really enjoy working part time with Southeast Publications. And by part time, we mean we work RV resorts in the Winter months in Florida, July-November in Tennessee, New Jersey and South Carolina. About 7 months a year and no 80 hour work weeks but well planned, targeted calls to produce lucrative results.

In addition, our compensation allowed us to travel, to purchase an RV site at one of the country’s leading motorcoach resorts and still not touch our savings or retirement accounts. And with another mouth to feed as we added another toy poodle, Noah (get it, Alli and Noah, the names of the characters from the movie “The Notebook”?), the money was great to have! So now we travel with Alli and her brother (same parents, different litter) in our RV. Here they are as you will hear a lot about them in the coming posts. Alli is on the left, Noah on the right.

Okay, back to the RVs! Now we put 47,000 miles on our Alli Three, the RV in which we would be buried in one day. Yet, in April 2015, while we were selling ads to an RV dealer in southern Florida, we spent seven hours after which we paid more for an RV, a motorcoach, than our 3700 sf home back in Northeast Tennessee. We bought a tag axle motorcoach. We bought a 2015 Itasca Ellipse Ultra from Winnebago, the top of their line.

Why? We were well entrenched in our RV “Glamping” Lifestyle. Of our RV resorts in which we worked, all have paved sites, landscaped sites, full hookups, luxury amenities. How does the new RV. the Alli Four compare to the others?

Well, it is 42’10” long and weighs 45,660 pounds. The Alli One, the Hurricane? 30′ and 18,000 pounds. Other comparisons?
ALLI FOUR (Alli One)
450 hp Cummins Engine (Ford V10 gas engine)
10K Onan Generator (None)
Three Slides, one being a SUPER slide (None)
Automatic Leveling (None)
Stacked Washer and Dryer (None)
46″ HDTV (19″ Color TV)
HD satellite (None)
Dishwasher (None)
King-Sized Sleep Number Bed (Full Sized Bed)
Fireplace (None)
Residential 19.7 Cubic Foot Refrigerator (Norcold Propane/Electric Refrigerator)
So, today, we are far removed from “camping” and do much more RVing, traveling and “Glamping.” And that is what Ed and Teresa’s Journey will be about. Join us on this amazing Journey. Even better, dream and then get your journey going!

What we will be sharing with you in the coming months are our travels, where we go, what we do as we travel, what we see from Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey, South Carolina and beyond. We will share information on the areas, the attractions, the history and our RV lifestyle. For example, here is our white water rafting trip (Rafting in the Smokies, an advertiser of ours) from last year.

We have learned one has many options to earn a generous living in an RV and as we find others, besides our work with Southeast Publications, we will share that as well. With our information, we hope you too might get on the road one day soon where you too will say, “Loving the Lifestyle!”