4x4van
California
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valhalla360 wrote:I agree with your choice...if it's not working do something different.
But I would suggest, filing this away as a learning experience and possibly revisiting in a few years.
It sounds like right now both of you are working full time with no travel while hanging out in God's waiting room...of course, you aren't going to get the experience magical full time RV experience.
In a few years when you have more freedom, it can mean traveling the country seeing new and interesting places. With no work, a little puttering around the RV will be a diversion rather than a chore. If you do hang out down south for the winter, it's 3-4 months and the people will be closer your age and more likely to have similar interests...plus you will have the time to fully partake in the activities (assuming that is of interest).
Excellent point. More power to the OP for trying something, and changing lanes when it didn't work out. As valhalla360 says; it might be smart to revisit in a few years. My mom lived by the mantra to try everything in life at least twice! If you didn't like it the first time, it might've been a fluke! That's how I live my life, and that's how I raised my kids to live theirs.
We don't stop playing because we grow old...We grow old because we stop playing!
2004 Itasca Sunrise M-30W
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-'85 ATC250R, '12 Husky TE310, '20 CanAm X3 X rs Turbo RR
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mtrumpet
Hamburg, NY
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It seems that you dove into full timing right off the bat. Many here that eventually went full time were first weekend warriors (for lack of a better term) for many years prior to going full time. By the time the decision was made to go full time, they had a lot of RVing experience and knew what to expect.
While my wife and absolutely love the RV life style and have been RV'ing now for 22 years. However, we too might not be in for FULL timing. However, being only weeks away from retirement at this writing, we will be part-time full-timers, keeping a home base, but hitting the road for weeks and even a couple of months at a time.
(Man, it's been a while since I've visited this forum. Good to be back!)
Mark & Cherie
2002 Newmar Dutch Star DP 3872, Cummins 350 ISC, Spartan Chassis
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Rice
Wandering
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mtrumpet wrote:It seems that you dove into full timing right off the bat. Many here that eventually went full time were first weekend warriors (for lack of a better term) for many years prior to going full time.
Not us! Almost 20 years ago, we decided to start traveling fulltime, put our houses up for sale, and flew halfway across the country to pick up and drive home our first (and still only) RV--a 40-foot motorhome.
But 20 years ago, you had to come up with the idea yourself, and figure out how to get information about the nuts and bolts. Forums like this were invaluable, and there weren't bloggers and youtubers who had a financial interest in promoting the lifestyle.
And by the time that year was over, we'd put together a massive amount of knowledge. It was kind of like going to a library and researching compared to looking at a newsfeed.
These days people just kind of fall into the lifestyle--certainly the idea and very much the execution as well. Back then you had to really want it because figuring out how to make it happen was a lot of work. Nowadays there are very few barriers to entry, which can have bad results.
Plus, there's the terminology issue. Especially after the big recession, a lot of people moved into RVs as a (hopefully) cheaper alternative to a house or apartment, and called it fulltiming. Because they live fulltime in an RV.
And that's what the OP ended up doing--he said he'd paid his site rent through November, with options for two more years. I'd say (and I know people will push back) that that's not fulltiming as most people traditionally understood it.
But it gets lumped in with the fulltime travel lifestyle, when it might more appropriate to be lumped in with living in a trailer park or mobile home park lifestyle--small dwellings that don't move and are cheaper than a house or apartment. And people who aren't steeped in knowledge don't necessarily know the difference.
That's not to say that people who started fulltiming in 2003 didn't get it wrong. But I think a lot more people these days are getting it wrong because they didn't have to put in a lot of work to understand exactly what it is, and to let it marinate in their brains.
* This post was
edited 03/03/22 08:20am by Rice *
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Lantley
Ellicott City, Maryland
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Great post ^^^^^^^ Rice
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Rice
Wandering
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Lantley wrote:Great post ^^^^^^^ Rice Thanks. You prompted me to re-read it, and I noticed a grammar error and fixed it, so it's even better now. ![[emoticon]](https://forums.goodsamclub.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/smile.gif "smile")
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rgatijnet1
Florida
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Joined: 06/22/2009
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Rice wrote:mtrumpet wrote:It seems that you dove into full timing right off the bat. Many here that eventually went full time were first weekend warriors (for lack of a better term) for many years prior to going full time.
Not us! Almost 20 years ago, we decided to start traveling fulltime, put our houses up for sale, and flew halfway across the country to pick up and drive home our first (and still only) RV--a 40-foot motorhome.
But 20 years ago, you had to come up with the idea yourself, and figure out how to get information about the nuts and bolts. Forums like this were invaluable, and there weren't bloggers and youtubers who had a financial interest in promoting the lifestyle.
And by the time that year was over, we'd put together a massive amount of knowledge. It was kind of like going to a library and researching compared to looking at a newsfeed.
These days people just kind of fall into the lifestyle--certainly the idea and very much the execution as well. Back then you had to really want it because figuring out how to make it happen was a lot of work. Nowadays there are very few barriers to entry, which can have bad results.
Plus, there's the terminology issue. Especially after the big recession, a lot of people moved into RVs as a (hopefully) cheaper alternative to a house or apartment, and called it fulltiming. Because they live fulltime in an RV.
And that's what the OP ended up doing--he said he'd paid his site rent through November, with options for two more years. I'd say (and I know people will push back) that that's not fulltiming as most people traditionally understood it.
But it gets lumped in with the fulltime travel lifestyle, when it might more appropriate to be lumped in with living in a trailer park or mobile home park lifestyle--small dwellings that don't move and are cheaper than a house or apartment. And people who aren't steeped in knowledge don't necessarily know the difference.
That's not to say that people who started fulltiming in 2003 didn't get it wrong. But I think a lot more people these days are getting it wrong because they didn't have to put in a lot of work to understand exactly what it is, and to let it marinate in their brains.
How many miles have you logged in those 20 years?
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mtrumpet
Hamburg, NY
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Rice wrote:mtrumpet wrote:It seems that you dove into full timing right off the bat. Many here that eventually went full time were first weekend warriors (for lack of a better term) for many years prior to going full time.
Not us! Almost 20 years ago, we decided to start traveling fulltime, put our houses up for sale, and flew halfway across the country to pick up and drive home our first (and still only) RV--a 40-foot motorhome.
But 20 years ago, you had to come up with the idea yourself, and figure out how to get information about the nuts and bolts. Forums like this were invaluable, and there weren't bloggers and youtubers who had a financial interest in promoting the lifestyle.
And by the time that year was over, we'd put together a massive amount of knowledge. It was kind of like going to a library and researching compared to looking at a newsfeed.
These days people just kind of fall into the lifestyle--certainly the idea and very much the execution as well. Back then you had to really want it because figuring out how to make it happen was a lot of work. Nowadays there are very few barriers to entry, which can have bad results.
Plus, there's the terminology issue. Especially after the big recession, a lot of people moved into RVs as a (hopefully) cheaper alternative to a house or apartment, and called it fulltiming. Because they live fulltime in an RV.
And that's what the OP ended up doing--he said he'd paid his site rent through November, with options for two more years. I'd say (and I know people will push back) that that's not fulltiming as most people traditionally understood it.
But it gets lumped in with the fulltime travel lifestyle, when it might more appropriate to be lumped in with living in a trailer park or mobile home park lifestyle--small dwellings that don't move and are cheaper than a house or apartment. And people who aren't steeped in knowledge don't necessarily know the difference.
That's not to say that people who started fulltiming in 2003 didn't get it wrong. But I think a lot more people these days are getting it wrong because they didn't have to put in a lot of work to understand exactly what it is, and to let it marinate in their brains.
Very interesting insight. Question: Are you still full-timing today?
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LouLawrence
Traveling the US fulltime since 2000.
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Joined: 03/16/2021
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rgatijnet1 wrote:Rice wrote:mtrumpet wrote:It seems that you dove into full timing right off the bat. Many here that eventually went full time were first weekend warriors (for lack of a better term) for many years prior to going full time.
Not us! Almost 20 years ago, we decided to start traveling fulltime, put our houses up for sale, and flew halfway across the country to pick up and drive home our first (and still only) RV--a 40-foot motorhome.
But 20 years ago, you had to come up with the idea yourself, and figure out how to get information about the nuts and bolts. Forums like this were invaluable, and there weren't bloggers and youtubers who had a financial interest in promoting the lifestyle.
And by the time that year was over, we'd put together a massive amount of knowledge. It was kind of like going to a library and researching compared to looking at a newsfeed.
These days people just kind of fall into the lifestyle--certainly the idea and very much the execution as well. Back then you had to really want it because figuring out how to make it happen was a lot of work. Nowadays there are very few barriers to entry, which can have bad results.
Plus, there's the terminology issue. Especially after the big recession, a lot of people moved into RVs as a (hopefully) cheaper alternative to a house or apartment, and called it fulltiming. Because they live fulltime in an RV.
And that's what the OP ended up doing--he said he'd paid his site rent through November, with options for two more years. I'd say (and I know people will push back) that that's not fulltiming as most people traditionally understood it.
But it gets lumped in with the fulltime travel lifestyle, when it might more appropriate to be lumped in with living in a trailer park or mobile home park lifestyle--small dwellings that don't move and are cheaper than a house or apartment. And people who aren't steeped in knowledge don't necessarily know the difference.
That's not to say that people who started fulltiming in 2003 didn't get it wrong. But I think a lot more people these days are getting it wrong because they didn't have to put in a lot of work to understand exactly what it is, and to let it marinate in their brains.
How many miles have you logged in those 20 years?
Can't answer for Rice, but we have been full timing since 1997 and traveling full time since 2000. We have logged over 300,000 miles but stopped counting a few years back. We now average 10,000-15,000 miles per year.
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Rice
Wandering
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mtrumpet wrote: Very interesting insight. Question: Are you still full-timing today? Yes. I say I'd be willing to stop if I found a place to live, but wonder if I'd waver if it really happened. Having things breaking on a 20-year-old motorhome is beyond annoying, but I find a lot of psychological comfort in knowing that if I can't stand my neighbor's barking dog any more, I can just move.
And I still really like going to places I wouldn't bother to go to on purpose, like if I had two or three weeks to travel somewhere and had to prioritize. I would really miss that.
rgatijnet1 wrote:How many miles have you logged in those 20 years? I just checked the odometer. About 100,000. The last two years were only 2,000 each because of Covid, but otherwise, the miles per year ranged from 3,000 to 8,000.
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rgatijnet1
Florida
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20 years and 100,000 miles with the same coach is great.
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