Three months to at least a year in motor home

[Mardavclark]

Hi,

June 1, 2019 is the date we plan to get on the road for at least a year. My husband is apprehensive about not having a home base, and has agreed to try it for a year. Hopefully he will decide it's doable as a life style. The purpose of the year is to travel the country and to see as much natural beauty as we can at a leisurely pace. I will be 65 and my husband 67.

We have been dreaming of and or planning this for years. Last fall we sold our house because the market was hot, though we had planned to wait till spring. We are living in an apartment and have gotten rid of or stored 90% of our belongings. The rest will go before June 1. We are set up with a mail service and will travel to FL to establish it as domicile in a couple of weeks. It may not be necessary to travel there but we thought it would be easier.

What do people do about health care. Our prescriptions are all arranged, but we don't want to come back to Ohio for check ups since we only have a year. We'd appreciate tips because we're concerned there is something we have over looked. It's hard to believe that we are just three months from living the dream! We have experienced and expect major issues when traveling, but don't believe they will change our view of this trip.

And hopefully my easy going husband will decide that he can enjoy rving as a lifestyle.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[60sumtin]

Can't help you on the health care question but since you brought it up I'm wondering how you will feel if your easy going husband decides its not for him. Are you as easy going as your husband and be fine with his decision not to continue living a dream? You don't have to answer that but something to consider.

[BillJinOR]

Since your both on Medicare and your changing your domicile to Florida you will need to change your supplement-or advantage plan to a Florida based company. It may in fact be the same company if the also serve your current state.
As far as check ups you will need to discuss with your current drs your travel plans. We go in once per year to renew RX for the next year. and visit clinics for anything that comes up.
If you need regular tests that you can’t get at a walk in clinic or they won’t renew for a year you need to have a frank discussion or find a dr that will consider your lifestyle.

[MSHappyCampers]

Congrats, congrats, congrats! You are doing what we planned to do, but we waited too long and the health issues caught up with us. Now it looks doubtful we will be able to do it!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[rk911]

Originally Posted by Mardavclark

Hi,

June 1, 2019 is the date we plan to get on the road for at least a year. My husband is apprehensive about not having a home base, and has agreed to try it for a year. Hopefully he will decide it's doable as a life style. The purpose of the year is to travel the country and to see as much natural beauty as we can at a leisurely pace. I will be 65 and my husband 67...

...And hopefully my easy going husband will decide that he can enjoy rving as a lifestyle.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

please understand...nobody here is trying to rain on your parade and speaking for myself I really hope everything works out as planned. but just as planning is important before making this lifestyle change so is planning for transitioning out of the FT RV thing and back into a more "traditional" sticks 'n' bricks lifestyle/part time RVing. I hope you've both looked at this and have a plan in place. good luck to you both.

[hohenwald48]

Be aware that establishing FL as your residence is more than a mailing address. It's health insurance, auto insurance, RV insurance, driver's license, CCW permit if you have one, vehicle tags, voter registration and more I'm sure.

We reside in TN and pretty much always have so we have avoided the domicile change. I always schedule all our Dr. appointments for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas since we want to be home for those anyway (our family is in TN). I have a couple Dr visits that are more frequent than annual and we just drive home for those.

Depending on where you are and where you want to be you can generally get just about to anywhere from anywhere in a couple of days in the car. We just leave the RV where it is. Of course if your Dr is in Miami and you happen to be in Anacortes, WA you'll need a little more travel time. It's not real hard, you just make it work. And there's always Southwest Airlines if needed.

Do everything on the internet. Can't remember the last time I got a piece of mail that didn't go straight to the garbage can.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Having a Plan B or Exit Plan is always prudent. Sudden change in health status for either of you, an emergency situation with your kids or grandkids, disaster or problems where your S&B home is... and a bunch of other things... can alter you plans as fast as your phone can ring.


Don't live in fear of the future unknowns, just have a plan for dealing with unexpected changes and go out to have as much fun and adventure as you care for. And remember that above all, having this time with your family is the whole point. If RVing interferes with your family life, stop. If it makes it better, keep going as long as you're able to do it and take care of each other.


Do what you love with the people who matter most to you.

[twogypsies]

If you're on Medicare and have a Medicare supplement you won't have any problem with healthcare while traveling. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan you might have issues. Read your policy. We had the supplement and had surgeries and all other procedures while we traveled and had absolutely no issues.

I foresee a problem with your husband's statement of "trying it" for 3 months to a year. The first year is absolutely not an indication of whether he likes it or not. During the first year you're working out things, you're fine-tuning your travel habits. There are going to be problems - promise you! Don't put a time deadline to this. Go with the flow.

As far as having an 'exit plan'; the money from the sale of your home should be your exit plan. You may decide as you travel that you want to later put down roots in a completely different part of the country. We did! We'd never want to return to the bitter cold winters and snow.

Don't rush and try to see everything the first year. There's no way you can do so in a relaxing way. Full-timing is a new lifestyle. It's living day to day. It's not a vacation where you cram everything in. Don't try to cover as many states as you can. You'll wear yourselves out and it won't be fun. Some seasons we picked one or two states and explored only those states in detail - traveling the backroads. I kept our main road atlas where we highlighted the roads we traveled. Every state had just about all roads highlighted... over a period of 16 years of full-timing. We can truthfully say that we 'saw' this beautiful country.

Try out different ways of staying at places.... resorts, if that's for you, regular RV parks, public parks and boondocking on public lands. You may be surprised at what you find that you really like. There's no need to use WalMarts or other parking lots. Don't drive long days. Stop at 3pm or earlier and you'll find it more enjoyable to relax and possibly explore the area a little if it's only for a night. You wouldn't want to stop at a WalMart at 3pm!

Think positively and be resigned that things will happen. Don't get out of shape when they do. Everything is manageable from the road.

Best of luck to you and enjoy those travels. It's an awesome lifestyle!

[momdoc]

A few thoughts for you.
1. Trying it for 3 months is NOT a viable plan for FT. It takes at least 6 months or more just to see if you can run a RV efficiently, especially if a new to you rig. Just learning how to adjust to life in small quarters takes time. Also make sure you do not try to do too much. This is your life not a vacation, live in that mode
2. If changing domicile to Florida do it in person and make sure you have all the paperwork and document procurement before going to FL. You will need to get your driver's license, register your cars and RV, pay taxes due on the vehicles, register to vote and change your medicare coverage. If you switch to a supplement (we have plan F) you will be covered nationwide with no problem. Also some (ours does) covers us if traveling out of the country up to 90 days at a time.

3 Prescriptions also are not a problem unless controlled substance prescriptions which will require doctor's visits. Our Plan uses CVS nationwide. I just call a few days before meds are needed and just go pick the up no matter where we are.

Hope this all works out for you........Enjoy the adventure

[rk911]

Originally Posted by momdoc

...3 Prescriptions also are not a problem unless controlled substance prescriptions which will require doctor's visits. Our Plan uses CVS nationwide. I just call a few days before meds are needed and just go pick the up no matter where we are.

depends on the meds and the doc. my wife and i need to see our docs every 6-mos in order to get our diabetic meds renewed. we don't full time but we also rarely travel in the summer so we make all our med appointments in june and december.

prior to being forced onto medicare we investigated our options and learned that traditional medicare, any of the *supplement* and *part d* plans cover us anywhere the US flag flies and allow access to any doc that accepts medicare without referrals. the part d plans had prefered and non-prefered pharmacies each group with different co-pays.

medicare advantage plans (MAP) are different. they replace and combine all aspects of traditional medicare into a single plan (you still pay your Part B premium in sime cases plus a MAP premium) that acts like like an HMO so you're assiged a primary care doc in your home area. we looked at the Blue Cross MAP since we had been with BC for nearly 30-yrs and wanted to stay with them. we found that when we traveled outside our home area we needed to give BC 2-weeks notice in order to be transfered to a new "home" PCP. otherwise the plan's benefits were reduced and revert to more like a PPO. we sometimes don't know where we'll be tomorrow much less in 2-weeks so we went with traditional medicare, a supplement (plan f) and a part d plan.

to the OP: other MAPs, even the BC MAP, may be and are likely different since we investigated several years ago so if a MAP is on your radar be sure to shop around and ask lots of questions. assume nothing.

[Mardavclark]

Thanks for your replies. The title of my post was written incorrectly. It should have read "in three months we leave for a year long trip." (Hopefully longer). We have been on several 1-2 month trips and despite adversity both of us were pleased with the experiences. Since we live in Ohio and our adult children are in Florida and New Mexico, we will have more opportunities to spend time with them.

Your frank and supportive comments were all appreciated. It's important to look at this from all angles.

Happy trails to you all when you are on the road.

[ThePowells]

Originally Posted by Solo_RV_Guy

Having a Plan B or Exit Plan is always prudent. Sudden change in health status for either of you, an emergency situation with your kids or grandkids, disaster or problems where your S&B home is... and a bunch of other things... can alter you plans as fast as your phone can ring.


Don't live in fear of the future unknowns, just have a plan for dealing with unexpected changes and go out to have as much fun and adventure as you care for. And remember that above all, having this time with your family is the whole point. If RVing interferes with your family life, stop. If it makes it better, keep going as long as you're able to do it and take care of each other.


Do what you love with the people who matter most to you.

I will expand the opening statement a little bit. It doesn't take a phone call about a loved one, but a teenage girl texting and driving and LOLing instead of stopping for that red light. Then you don't have a home to live in and may not for months. Her insurance may balk at cutting a check for what you need to establish a temp residence, or becoming a long term resident at Comfort Suites, especially if no witnesses and her denying fault.

Our three (or four) requirements for our adventure will be additional income streams, a solid and comfortable coach, a place ready to come back to, and our journey is together.

We are working to re-establish a rental and convert another from ours to a rental and buy another small property to build our RV port with about 1000SF living space, plus working on a few rentals after that. We already have the help to manage what we have planned for here. Maybe I'm a little "risk adverse" with my back ground in law enforcement/emergency management/disaster prep, but at least the plan will be there and worst case Kelly has what she will need.

[momdoc]

[QUOTE=rk911;4656755]depends on the meds and the doc. my wife and i need to see our docs every 6-mos in order to get our diabetic meds renewed. we don't full time but we also rarely travel in the summer so we make all our med appointments in june and december.

My Doc gives me a RX good for a year for my diabetic meds and supplies (original + 3 refills for 3months). Maybe you need to talk to your Doc

[rk911]

[QUOTE=momdoc;4657110]

Originally Posted by rk911

depends on the meds and the doc. my wife and i need to see our docs every 6-mos in order to get our diabetic meds renewed. we don't full time but we also rarely travel in the summer so we make all our med appointments in june and december.

My Doc gives me a RX good for a year for my diabetic meds and supplies (original + 3 refills for 3months). Maybe you need to talk to your Doc

as i said...depends on your doc and the meds involved