Community Forums

Dejus · 06-19-2021, 08:02 PM

My wife and I are in the process of selling our house, with a plan to buy a DP and full-time (see this thread for my story). It's a stressful process, as you can probably imagine; not only selling the house, but worrying about availability of suitable RVs, and what we'll do once we get one.

I keep reading stories about how super busy campgrounds are this year. Will we be able to find places to stay? Will we be able to visit interesting attractions?

I know that less popular campgrounds aren't so busy, and boondocking can sometimes be feasible, so maybe we should plan on spending the rest of this year and maybe some of next year in exploring out-of-the-way places, and save the national parks and other popular places for the future, when things have settled down, and/or infrastructure has adapted.

Sometimes I think we're crazy to be adding to the crowding by choosing this lifestyle.

I guess that's more of a comment than a question... perhaps hoping for some reassurance. Or warnings.

Old-Biscuit · 06-19-2021, 08:58 PM

We FTd for 7 yrs traveling weekly/bi-monthly
Travel was via secondary/back roads..........LOTS of Small Town USA which was very enjoyable and fun

Lots of interesting things to do/see/explore

YES the National Parks etc are great but so is Small Town USA

Try it.........

As for prepping, selling, getting ready to hit the road
WE found it very 'FREEING'
WE had an Estate Auction and FREED ourselves of all that stuff you tend to accumulate and hardly use
Our Moto while FTng was '1 bag IN/2 bags OUT'

Make the most of your new life adventure

Things to see and do have been there for years and will still be there when you get around to seeing them

Relax......don't make it complicated

happy2rv · 06-19-2021, 09:18 PM

Welcome to the forums and RV life. Unfortunately we haven't been out in the RV a lot this year, but I believe that you will find lots of places with availability as long as you're flexible. You probably can't get into Disney's Fort Wilderness anytime soon, but even with the increased popularity, I suspect most places, even many of the more popular locations have availability outside of "peak demand". Peak demand being summer and early fall weekends and holidays.

What do you want to see? How long do you want to stay in one location? What's your budget for camp sites? These are questions you will need to answer. There are lots of off the beaten path places all over the country that are worth visiting. The more popular the destination, the more likely you'll have problems finding accommodations and the more it will cost you.

I really like Old-Biscuits advice. Seek out small town America and see what you can find far off the Interstate. Plan out any "major attractions" well in advance and make reservations. We watch the YouTube channel Keep Your Daydream, and they have some tips for full timers. One of their tips, paraphrasing here, was to plan your major milestones and let the stuff in the middle work itself out.

You will probably want to have a plan/reservations for major holidays like 4th of July, but I'd venture to say in about 85% of parks across the country you can still get campsites Monday through Thursday, non-holidays, without a reservation even in the summer time.

Dejus · 06-20-2021, 09:24 PM

Thank you both. Yes, exploring small towns, and avoiding the crowds of popular destinations, does have some appeal, at least to start.

We will be working remotely while living the RV life, so will need to stick to places with cell signal or wi-fi; I know there are sites to help with that. We plan to stay in one place for two to four weeks at a time.

And yes, we are looking forward to shedding our stuff. As we've been decluttering the house in preparation for it going on sale (photos tomorrow, listing Wednesday!), we've been taking stock of how much junk we have. We'll have a professional estate sale after we've sold the house and got the RV (better to judge what will be useful).

My wife trusts that it'll all work out. I want to do research and have a plan. These forums are a valuable resource and reassurance.

Old-Biscuit · 06-20-2021, 09:42 PM

Stuff for RV

Basic Essentials
Things you Know you need
Things you Think you need
Things you Want to have
Things you Keep

6 months later
Gone are some of the:
Things you Knew you needed
Things you Thought you needed
Things you Wanted

If you have NOT used it in 6 months....gone
If you have NOT seen it n 6 months.....gone

Basics.....LESS is MORE

twogypsies · 06-21-2021, 05:55 PM

Quit worrying!

Full-timers can be so much more flexible than weekenders and vacationers.

Don't go for the 'best' RV park. There are plenty of basic ones out there to give you a good night's rest while you're out siteseeing.

Go to popular national parks on the shoulder seasons, for sure.

We always traveled secondary highways.... so much more pleasant.

Many times we'd spend a month or two just in one state exploring every road.

For important dates, yes, make reservations but there's no need to do it for every single day.

Getting rid of all that 'stuff' accumulated for 40 yr. or so is truly liberating.

Explore the full-time section of this forum for lots of good information.

Here's an excellent site to learn about internet technology while traveling. This couple started out RVing and has added a boat. Interesting.

https://www.technomadia.com/

The Escapees RV Club has an excellent mail forwarding service. Also, here is a subgroup called Xscapers and many of them work on the road. They may be of help with technology, also.

https://xscapers.com/

Trust your wife intuition..... it'll work out if you let it. You'll have some bumps but they'll be laughable after a while. We certainly had our share!!