It was a dark and stormy night.

No, really. That’s how this story begins …

It’s June 1980. An event for amateur radio operators is taking place behind the Byron, Ohio, cemetery.

A woman in her early thirties backs her raised-roof, fully self-contained van into a parking spot and plugs into a generator. She takes out a blender and makes a frozen daiquiri. Outside, the wind begins to swirl.

In an area next to her van, a man is trying to pitch a tent. The lady comes out and sits on the van steps, sipping her drink and watching the man, amusedly.

Later that evening, a storm rages. The man has not given up on the tent, but it is no challenge for the wind-backed torrent.

The woman, an avid RVer since the early 1970s, tells the man about RVing. Soon he becomes hooked on the lifestyle. And on the woman.

Paula Petty and Nelson DiGennaro married 17 months later.

Closing in on a dream

Paula, now 58, will never forget watching Nelson’s futile attempts at setting up shelter that fateful night in 1980. “It was then that he threw away his tent and came on board for an exciting future of travel and adventure,” she said.

The DiGennaros, FMCA members from Huber Heights, Ohio, have come a long way from tents and customized vans. “By their late 40s they had traveled by motorhome in 49 states and all of Canada except Labrador and Newfoundland. “Hey, we had to keep something for retirement!” Paula said.

Now, after 26 years of planning, they’re on the brink of their dream: motorhoming full-time.

You see, after they married, they immediately began planning for their future retirement, which included full-timing in a diesel motor coach. Along with traditional retirement planning, they always kept full-time RVing plans in the picture.

“There’s a phase in our lives where we said I love my job and I can’t imagine not having it, not doing it,” Paula said. “But on the other hand, full-timing gave us something to look forward to.”

Best-laid plans

Their full-timing plans included buying into membership-based campground clubs while still in the income-producing age.

“When we retired we knew that we were going to have to go on a budget and that’s not the time to be going out and buying membership/ownership type things,” Nelson explained.

In 1983 they joined Thousand Trails, a private camping club that operates more than 50 membership-based campgrounds. Around the same time, they purchased deeded interests in Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump, Nev.

They also “invested” in Resort Parks International and Coast to Coast Resorts, all with the intent of retiring in 2008, though they retired in 2007. “We felt it was good to spend the money on these items while we still had jobs rather than after retirement,” Paula said. “Then we could enjoy the fruits of the memberships when we could during our working years and even more at retirement.”

The DiGennaros’ farsightedness created a legion of doubters. Even their financial consultant raised an eyebrow when he heard their plans, Paula said.

“We had friends who were older who said to us, ‘Don’t make plans so far in advance. You’re probably going to change your mind. You have a lot of time ahead of you to do it.’ But I got news for you, by the time we were said and done, we really used that time well.”

During their travels they encountered many full-timers who seemed to love the lifestyle. “We took it to heart when they said do it early, don’t wait, do it as early as you can,” Nelson said. “So that’s what we planned to do.”

On track

In late November 2005 they purchased their retirement home in Florida — a 36-foot Itasca Meridian diesel-powered home on wheels — and drove it back to Ohio. They were delighted their future retirement plans were coming together.

Three weeks later, though, Nelson was in a Dayton, Ohio, hospital undergoing heart bypass surgery. At age 52, it was quite a shock to everyone who knew him, but fortunately he heeded the warning signs and recovered quickly.  [see related story]

“With a lot of people, that probably would have been a stopper from them going any further,” Paula said. “But instead for us it was more like, ah, we’re doing the right thing. We’re getting out of the work force and we’re going to have a great time.”

So two years later, when retirement was a viable option, there was no hesitation. In October 2007 Paula ended her 33-year career as a real estate agent. “I enjoyed it. It was wonderful,” she said of the job. “But it was time to do what I wanted to do. The great wild blue yonder was beckoning.”

On Nov. 3, 2007, Nelson retired as a civilian electrical engineer with the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He had worked in the F-16 System Program Office, which supports the F-16 fighter aircraft, for the last nine of his 30 years there.

“It was kind of hard leaving work, but it was time,” he said. “And it’s been fun getting the motorhome, remodeling it … I had a ball doing the electrical stuff as well.”

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