Community Forums

FineProperty · 11-02-2011, 11:04 PM

In the same situation. We take ours to a kart racing track 15 times during the summer and spend the weekend burning fuel. For the family vacations, short trips can be short stays, the farther we travel the longer the jacks are down.

I'm only mid 40's. But I have to ask what I want out of life. If I stayed in town on weekends, I would go and work 'half' days in the office...I know this because that's what happens in the winter if it's not a great ski day for the family.

So I'd ask the question differently, how do you want to spend your weekends? I choose lifelong memories.

Automobilist · 11-03-2011, 12:15 AM

Six or seven vintage race weekends a year. Six or so winter desert dirt bike riding trips. A few summer mountain dirt bike trips. Couple trips to visit family. Couple "away" football games.

I retired once at age 46. Now find running a couple companies far more fun.

sdennislee · 11-03-2011, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1ciderdog

We live very rural and we will take the RV to dinner in a town 40 miles from home for drinks & dinner. We overnight in the restaurant parking lot - with permission of course. That way we are not driving after several drinks and have our own comfortable bed & bath.
Safe Travels
Bob

I like this one. I will be trying this.

bbeane · 11-03-2011, 03:50 AM

We have 4 or 5 years to go before retireing. We take a couple of weekend trips a mo close to the house (50) miles or so, and 3 week long excersions per yr, every now and then we take a week some where within driveing distance to work for a week, and have stayed a month commuting to work while DW camps. The coach is stored at the house with full hookup so any company gets the house and we RV in the yard. Plan in the next year or so is to rent the sticks and bricks and try fulltiming for a year or so before I retire. As we all know a M/H is a costly toy to be "Yard Art", for me the only to get your value out of it is to use it every chance we get.

CurbCrusher · 11-03-2011, 04:38 AM

We pretty much plan one weekend a month (Fri - Sun) at some place (usually state parks) within a three hour drive. If we stay till Monday, then we expand it out to a five - six hour drive. Then we do one or two week long trips over the year. Here in Florida we can camp year round with no problem. However, we rarely leave the state on the weekend trips, because it is more than three hours to the closest border.

In the 4 years we've had the RV we've spent 237 nights in the RV. Note that includes a big loop trip out west last year where I left the wife and DD in a couple of places and came back home and worked for a couple of weeks twice over a two month period.

DGShaffer · 11-03-2011, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbeane

As we all know a M/H is a costly toy to be "Yard Art", for me the only to get your value out of it is to use it every chance we get.

Amen Brother

CharlieTwo · 11-03-2011, 05:28 AM

The weekends are longer when we RV. Friday night (right after work) we just jump in and head out. The rig is packed Thursday night and ready to go. We return by noon Sunday. Really, the weekend seems so much longer when we camp Fri. and Sat. night. Try it. You'll like it.

DGShaffer · 11-03-2011, 05:34 AM

Same here. The weekend before we check the weather and decide which direction to head. Once we make our reservations we load the bike. By thursday night it's packed and brought down off the levelers so Friday I can hop in and roll away. usually we're where we want to be and setup by 6:00.

Jewelsinmo · 11-03-2011, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_D

We ordered our 2000 DSDP as our retirement rig since I retired in 1998. Then we ordered our 2002 DSDP as our retirement rig. Wife still working till SS kicks in, then her daughter died, so now we have two grandkids to raise although the older one moved out last month. Now only have the 11 year old at home. Still waiting for the SS since the wife will be 64 next month.
Now we find that she may have cancer of the liver and pancreas. Still waiting for more tests to know for sure.
Anyway, get out there and use the rig!! Don't wait to retire, you may never make it!!
We try and get out at least once a month even in the fall and winter. Will, hopefully, be headed for Phoenix in March for the Good Sam rally there if her health holds out.

God bless you and your family Mr D! As my Grandmother used to say, it's a great life if you don't weaken! Never made sense when I was young, but get it now! You are in my prayers, and I hope you can get on the road soon!
Jewels

Bay37QSB · 11-03-2011, 07:20 AM

We have a seasonal lot for our motorhome that's about a 21/2 hour drive from home. It works well for us as the wife still is working and I am on total disability. It's a good starting point for the bigger trips. If we just want to get away for a weekend we stay there and our home on wheels is waiting for us!

rcarriere · 11-03-2011, 12:47 PM

My wife and I are in the same situation, many years till retirement. We made a pact that we will take the coach out a minimum of once a month. We have already planned the 12 trips that are around our area. Some are just a couple of hours some are 8-12 hours away. We went online and just found interesting sites that got us excited and put them down. We are actually picking up our coach this weekend so we will have to put our plan into action.

BoogieMan · 11-03-2011, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_D

We ordered our 2000 DSDP as our retirement rig since I retired in 1998. Then we ordered our 2002 DSDP as our retirement rig. Wife still working till SS kicks in, then her daughter died, so now we have two grandkids to raise although the older one moved out last month. Now only have the 11 year old at home. Still waiting for the SS since the wife will be 64 next month.
Now we find that she may have cancer of the liver and pancreas. Still waiting for more tests to know for sure.
Anyway, get out there and use the rig!! Don't wait to retire, you may never make it!!
We try and get out at least once a month even in the fall and winter. Will, hopefully, be headed for Phoenix in March for the Good Sam rally there if her health holds out.

Mr. D.

I will cast a prayer for your DW tonight and hope to see you out there on the roads.

We plan to get out there and enjoy! Spent enough time on my butt all these years.

BoogieMan

PlayItForwrd · 11-03-2011, 04:14 PM

Other than a couple of drives to the lake in the thing, we used our Allegro all of once last year. We have no problem with that...

I watched my parents build, and add-to a very nice cabin for 25 years while working...when they finally could stop working and enjoy the cabin, they "didn't feel like it". They just complained about paying prop taxes and other fees until they sold it.

That's when the wife & I decided to $#!tcan a 'regular retirement plan' and opted to "Play it forward"- (hence my screen name

) --

5 years ago we sold our home of many years to buy our "retirement" houseboat. We live on it whenever possible. We also bought a 1300 sq mobile home, "in case". I inherited (worked very hard for, actually) the family business, which is also our "main" home now. We've nearly always had an RV of some sort, sold our '92 Brave when we got the big boat... Since then we got the big Allegro as our "final" motorhome nearly 2 years ago, and last spring we bought our "last" 'regular' boat, a 26' Chaparral Bowrider...

Since I work, we use what we can when we can. We live on the houseboat whenever we have time, and I commute the whopping 27 miles to work on my Goldwing. We use the motorhome whenever we can. We go boating nearly every weekend.

We only owe money on the Allegro, the Chaparral, and our home. All will be paid off in about 11 years. Which just about exactly correlates with our retirement plans. When that happens, everything we own will be paid for, we'll reverse mortgage the house, and with that and SS we should have enough money to do pretty much whatever we want. I'm my own mechanic for the most part, keeping everything running for 11 more years isn't even an issue.

So, when we finally retire, we can enjoy ourselves. In the meantime, we can enjoy ourselves! And if we happen to be too tired once we retire, we'll just sell everything, buy a stupid condo and veg out till we die...

sdennislee · 11-03-2011, 06:03 PM

I work 3 weeks on then get 2 weeks off. The lucky guys are the ones with 3 weeks on then 3 weeks off. But 3x2 isn't bad either. Enough time off to enjoy it and enough time at work to afford it.

During my 2 weeks R&R we travel in the MH.

My schedule allows me to practice for retirement.