Full Timer Travel Patterns...?

[mick]

Well Senor Chef, your comment is about par with what comes from someone who post on the fulltiming forums, yet lives in a S&B and has no idea what it is like out here fulltiming. You , as I see it, envision a lifetime of vacations, and that aint what it is.

[chapdog]

Originally Posted by mick

Well Senor Chef, your comment is about par with what comes from someone who post on the fulltiming forums, yet lives in a S&B and has no idea what it is like out here fulltiming. You , as I see it, envision a lifetime of vacations, and that aint what it is.

Mick,
I too would appreciate what you mean explained a little further.
Please... No reason to get snippy.

[Senior Chief]

Originally Posted by mick

Well Senor Chef, your comment is about par with what comes from someone who post on the fulltiming forums, yet lives in a S&B and has no idea what it is like out here fulltiming. You , as I see it, envision a lifetime of vacations, and that aint what it is.

Well, Mick you are certainly entitled to your opinion, even if you can't spell my user name.

However, we DON'T live in or own a stix and brix, and I guess I DO know what its like "out here". We apparently don't full-time in a way that you approve of, but full-time it certainly is.

Be careful about the assumptions you make; you know what they say about ass-U-me.

[Jackm]

My wife and I have been full-timers since 2004. We travel with 2 cats, 1 big dog, and a three year old girl. Sometimes we travel all the time and other times, we don't. Sometimes we boondock and other times, we stay at campgrounds with full hook-ups. In spite of a few of the opinions rendered here, there are no hard and fast rules about full-timing.

We spent our first two years living around Phoenix. The desert is awesome and the area has endless things to do. Try to hit the road before the end of April because things start to heat up pretty quickly. Our favorite RV park is Usery Mountain Regional Park in Mesa. It doesn't have sewer hook-ups but it makes up for it in beauty, lots of wildlife, great weather, and drop-dead sunsets. Each night, we sat around the fire and listened as the coyotes howled. It was indescribably exquisite.

If you get bored easily, full-timing has the distinct advantage of enabling you to change your environment. If you can learn to make a living on the road (i.e. via the Internet or with contract work), you'll be able to full-time as long as you want. Good vehicle maintenance is crucial since breakdowns can be a real hassle when you live in an RV. After a while, you'll get really good at living on the road. Thanks to online bill paying, mail forwarding services, email, and social media platforms, you'll have no trouble staying in touch and managing your administrative affairs.

Financially, its like everything else. The more you consume, the costlier it gets. Some full-timers get by on less than $1500/month. Other people live on $10,000 a month. In any case, if possible, try to stash away some money each month to handle unexpected expenses. We just had to replace 7 tires on our motorhome. It wasn't easy but we saved for months.

For us, full-timing allows us to retain a sense of adventure, independence, and freedom that isn't normally available when you live in one place. Plus, we get to enjoy great weather 12 months a year. We also have good friends all over the U.S. As with everything else in life, the biggest factor of all will be your attitude. If you can roll with the punches, handle stress maturely, keep an open mind, and take the initiative to meet other people, you'll have a better chance at enjoying the full-timing lifestyle. The rewards are so significant, we often have discussions on ways to make sure that we don't end up living in a house again. And we have a little girl! Best of luck and keep us posted on your plans.

Jack

[MaverickBBD]

I find this all very interesting as we are about to begin our new full timing life. House is scheduled to close on 8/19 but regardless I was told the dog, two cats and myself WILL move into the motor home this Saturday.

Having spent considerable time period on the road previously we discovered that we get "hitch itch" after about two weeks. Now I am looking at month long stays just for the pure economics. Some friends want us to take advantage of "early bird" specials in Arizona. Three months for the price of one. Naw, can't do it just yet. Too many places to go and things to see. So he says now.

[jamesgr81]

Hello, just my 2 cents.

Now for me fulltiming is not in my cards. I love my classic cars, motorcycles and shop way too much to give them up less the wife missing the kids. Plus I just can't hang out in one place too long doing nothin - out for a month or 2 is enough for me.

I have many acquaintances that got the full time idea, sold their home, tried it, got bored, came home and are now living with the kids while the RV sits in storage. And no you can't store it at my place either.

IMHO it's a huge decision that has big consequences. It's all about reduced expectations. Are you sure you can hack living in a MH every day? With no place to call home?

On the other hand, if you don't have any activities that you will miss, and can live a constrained lifestyle than do it. I'll bet there are 100's of thousands of fulltimers moving around without a care in the world. Reading a book, playing golf, and no more mowing lawns!

Whatever you do - enjoy

[Romeo]

Originally Posted by chapdog

About to make the leap in September. Looking at spending significant time in AZ this winter...

I'm not sure I'm excited to initially stay a month or more packed into one of these places...

I have been contemplating the same thing... want to travel in the winter, but not in winter weather.

[Senior Chief]

IMHO it's a huge decision that has big consequences. It's all about reduced expectations. Are you sure you can hack living in a MH every day? With no place to call home?

Isn't it great how different we all are?

This poster's idea of "reduced expectations" and no place to call home is just absolutely the reverse of how we view our full-timing life.

Staying in one spot and being chained down by house and yard and chores and possessions and the expectations that tomorrow will hold the same views and the same people as today- THAT would be our "second best" kind of life.

No "home"??? We carry our home with us, and it is filled with the people and pets that we love and memories that we cherish. More square footage won't do a thing for our happiness.

Maybe we're just waaaaay outside the mainstream, but all our nearly 4 decades of marriage my husband and I have hoped and prayed for a time when we could be together 24/7, not separated by the Navy or jobs. Togetherness is a blessing for us, not a problem or an issue to be managed.

We spent our years accumulating and upgrading our "stuff", and I thank God that He has given us the opportunity to put that behind us.

As has been stated too many times to count; everyone is different. I agree with the previous poster that RVing full-time is more than just a physical change of residence; that it has huge consequences.

Deciding what your priorities are in life while you contemplate a full-timing life is probably a great idea no matter what you decide.

Allison

[chapdog]

It started as a dream beginning 35 years ago to retire, put our stuff in storage, hit the road for a year or 2, come back and get a condo on the water with a boat.

Allot of "water under the bridge" since then. We owned several boats including living on a classic 1959 42' Chris Craft in Gig Harbor WA for a year. Very memorable with our 7 and 9 year old boys tooling around in a Boston Whaler dingy and me spending most all my spare time working on the boat. When we had icicles hanging from the ceiling inside the boat we finally moved back to the apt. where our stuff was stored. It was also then that the boat part of our retirement dream faded.

Flash forward 30 years and here we are, not quite where I'd like to be financially to fully retire but in a position with our health and a few bucks to explore the continent for a few years.

Remain very excited to try full time RV'g. As Deborah and I have always loved to say... It's an adventure!

Really appreciate all your input. It appears there truly are all kinds of full timers out there and it's all good. We'll see how our travel patterns develop starting real soon.

[Barbaraok]

Allison,

We're with you. We couldn't wait to unload the last house and get rid of the lawn mower, leaf blower, etc.

Our house is always with us, we are never bored with our lifestyle. Those who get bored will be bored no matter where they are because they can't think of things to do. We golf, we geocache, we do museums, etc., but because we move around, we get to see new places all of the time - - hard to be bored doing that.

Barb

[Ed-Sommers]

After 22 years doing the Navy thing, then some years doing the trucking thing, and a couple of years doing the RV full time traveling thing, I finally came to a conclusion about MY method.

I no longer desire to DO, I no longer wish to SEE things, I just want to BE.

So, I winter in the Southwest at an LTVA, then I travel for one to two months in the direction of property I bought in Northern Nevada, and summer there. In other words, Travel is limited to the roads leading between Winter and Summer sitting, but I don't go fast, I go half-fast.

Ed

[Glassalley52]

I find this thread particularly relevant as we plan to play it by ear until we know for sure when we can hit the road in 18 months. I spent the majority of my adult life moving every 2-3 years and would get the itch to see new people and places. If we find it is not for us, we'll make that decision if it should happen. I spend all week working and look forward to my weekends at our "Funstead" in Indian Acres Club. Only you can know what you will find works for you. just have an adventure along the journey.

[bigmichael]

Interesting topic. Its very clear that all the FT'ers have a little different style, and perhaps many different motivations.

If I were you, I wouldn't commit to a long stay at one place on your first entry into the lifestyle. Its easy to extend your stay if you decide to. Not so easy to get a refund if you paid up and then want to move on.

We have just completed four years of FTing. Our first year out, we knew we wanted to be somewhere warm in the winter, so decided we would book two months in Mesa at one of the big parks. Essentially saving some $ by getting the monthly rate. For us it turned out to be a mistake in many ways. The "Good Life" wasn't so good for us.

It was a nice park--but wasn't a fit for us. First, it was a very large number of snowbirds, many who had been coming there for years and years. As a result, cliques were very solidly established, and they were not particularly welcoming to "transients".

Second, the average age seemed to be about 20 years older than us. We get along pretty well with folks of all ages, but finding nearly no one in our age group meant many of the activities were just not things we were interested in.

That was the last time we sat still for longer than 6 weeks in the next 3 years. Most of the time, we stayed somewhere for a week or two, sometimes a month, but then we had "hitch up" fever.

To the extent we settled into a pattern, it was staying in the southern regions in the winter, and then spring, summer, fall on a specific touring adventure, (Maritimes, Alaska, South and Western National Parks etc).

And be open to the fact that you can change how you want to proceed when ever you decide you want to.

Last winter, for the first time since our first year experience in Mesa, we sat still for 3 1/2 months at a newer park in the desert. It wasn't in our plan, we just liked it and stayed. Partly because it was newer, everyone was looking to meet each other as they hadn't been coming for years. It was geared to our age group, with tons of live entertainment, no polka bands, but lots of classic rock groups and cover groups, some counry acts, and some comedy. And a poolside beer and burger bash with live music every weekend.

This wouldn't fit everyone's style--it fit ours-we loved it-so we stayed.

Bottom line-you'll find the style that fits you. But don't lock in to something at first until you have got your "FTing legs".

[chapdog]

Our first fall and winter plan is evolving. With my desire to spend some quality time getting to know Carter David, our new grandson, in Tempe + Thanksgiving and X-Mas there combined with our yearning for adventure we may have found the best of both worlds.

Deborah has visited 6+ different Parks in the E/W Mesa corridor. Her very generalised findings are:

• They are all very simular
• Huge
• Flat
• Old facilities and older People
• Freindly staff
• Little landscape
• No views
• High percentage of park models
• High percentage of Snow Birds (very empty now)
• Lots of activities at least at peak season
• Great amenities with pools, health club, club house, etc.
• Close to lots of stuff to do, shopping, and, of course, our grandson
• Not dog freindly or relegated to edges of park (we have 2 little ones)
• Decent rates at $575-$900/Mo. depending on uniformally added extras or whether one opts for larger sites
• Wi-Fi sketchy

Over all, none of these fit what I had imagined for our first stop on our adventure. As some have suggested, I too may not want to be anchored down to something we won't be happy with. We love all people but at 58 we sound a little younger than average and despite wanting to spend time with our grandson, we'd like the ability to take off for a week or 10 days through the fall and winter without wasting money.

May have found an answer. At Val Vista they offer what appears to be a screaming deal at 3 Mo's in a "standard" site for under $700 total. The person who knows all the details including whether our 41 footer will fit, etc. is not in 'till Monday.


However, if it's possible...

• There's nothing worth 3x more around
• It would work for our needs as a home base
• We wouldn't be there that much with the kids nearby
• I wouldn't feel the least bit reluctant affording side trips when ever we want to.

We'll see what all the restrictions are but this may be the ticket! Will keep you posted.

David, Deborah, Sophie, and Ozzie