Labor Day Weekend.

We had another good week here and a great Labor Day Weekend.  Monday John changed oil in the CRV, we then drove to Chilton where we did some shopping and stopped to see Sandy’s father, KoKo enjoys her visit with grandpa and Mickie.

On Tuesday we were back in Chilton so John could have blood drawn at the lab prior to our annual physicals. We visited the doctor on Thursday and officially noted that John had lost 15 pounds during the past year, John didn’t tell the doctor that he has gained about 5 pounds in the past month since arriving back in Wisconsin but that’s alright as we have had a lot of fun visiting with everyone and going out to eat. After our physicals we met Sandy’s Father and Mickie for lunch at a Mexican Restaurant in Kiel.  

Wednesday was visiting day, we drove to Waupaca to have lunch with John’s uncle Frank and then back to Chilton for supper with Sandy’s brother Mike and wife Pat. It was nice to see uncle Frank, he has called us several times to check on our adventure; after lunch Frank drove us into Hartman Creek State Park for a walk and a visit to a bench that was dedicated in memory of Frank’s late wife Maxine; we had a nice visit and he made a great lunch for us. Back in Chilton we had another good meal and visit with Mike and Pat, we will see them again next weekend.

Friday we visited with Terry who has a site here for his trailer, we have known Terry for a long time as he has taken a number of fall trips to Upper Michigan with a group of mutual friends. Sandy and John also began to gather some things together that we will be putting in our storage unit, mostly these are items that we have not been using so we will get them out of our way and lighten our load a little. Friday evening we went out for a fish fry with friends Oscar & Mary, Todd & Judy, and Todd’s mother Nancy (who is also Oscar’s sister). After the fish fry we stopped at Terry’s site for a campfire, the cool weather here got everyone a little closer to the fire pit.

Saturday we had our weekly cleaning day. In the afternoon there was a crazy hat parade through the campground. The crazy hat parade is made up of people who have seasonal sites and golf carts at the campground, they don their hats and tour the park tossing candy to the kids; one cart also made an occasional stop to dispense shots of adult beverages for those interested parties who were old enough to partake.

Saturday evening we had a nice visit and went out for dinner with John and Heather; John and John worked together at the Sheriff’s Department so it was great to see them and we were so happy to learn that John should be retired by the end of this month, sounds like another celebration is in order! Oscar also stopped to say hello to John, Oscar was Sheriff while John and John were working. John is one of those guys that makes going to work fun, he is a true friend and a great partner who will be missed by the department; most of the stories about the exploits of John and John can only be told to adult audiences.  After John and Heather headed for home we were off to the campfire at Gene and Ann’s site, it was a late end to another great day.

 

Gene and Ann lead the Crazy Hat Parade.

 

Todd and Judy wave while enjoying the parade.

 

Oscar and Mary.

 

Sunday was a busy day here at the park, we put the agility course together and KoKo demonstrated her skills to an appreciative audience, she seemed to enjoy showing off for the other dogs. Later, the bigger boys in the park took their Radio Controlled Boats to the pond and had some fun racing around the water, a couple of lucky young bystanders were able to try their luck at the controls of one of Gene’s boats. During the afternoon we were back at Gene’s site for a Wii Bowling Tournament; we bowled 2 games but John and Sandy finished near the bottom of the group, we need to set some time aside for practice. The evening was quiet, John stayed in to watch the NASCAR race and Sandy went back to Gene and Ann’s site for a campfire, the group at the fire was tired so it broke up early and Sandy was back before the race ended.

 

KoKo takes a spin through the agility course for the group.

 

Oscar was the first boat on the water, Gene watches.

 

Gene makes a tight turn.

 

Oscar and Gene having fun.

 

Todd and Armand join the crowd.

 

Armand’s black boat is pretty sporty.

 

A nice group watched the boats.

 

Gene had a second boat that was pretty fast.

 

We had some periodic rain here today so it was a quiet end to the weekend. There were a number of sites full for the weekend and those people packed up and left during the morning and early afternoon. We got out for a walk this afternoon and said our goodbyes to some of the regulars who were going home for the week. We had a fun weekend and look forward to next weekend but we hope to cut back a little on our new habit of dinning out; as stated above we have really enjoyed getting together with everyone and we are having a blast here, hell, we can work off a little weight when we leave here.

Full Timing Review.

During the past 233 days we have spoken with a number of people about our “full time” RV lifestyle, we talked to other full-timers, work campers, snowbirds, vacationers and people who would like to try this lifestyle at some point. Some people have doubts or reasons why full timing would not be right for them and several promised to read our blog but asked us to review our initial impressions of this new lifestyle. This seems like a good time to do a review as we are currently back in our old hometown to visit family, friends and attend to required doctor visits etc.

People who have an interest in full timing but do not take the step seem to fall into two categories: They don’t want to part with their property and/or possessions, or, They have children, grandchildren, parents, or someone else who “needs” them. There are many other reasons why people don’t take the full time step, including but certainly not limited to, financial issues, a sense of being involved in and belonging to the community, and a fear of loneliness while away from family. We promised that we would address some of these points in our review; we are not qualified to give financial advice so we will not address that issue.

First, do we miss our sticks and bricks house and all the “stuff” that was inside it? At this time our answer would be no; we are comfortable living in the mothership and for the most part do not miss the things we sold or left behind. When we purchased this motor home we had already decided to try full timing and had a list of items we needed or wanted to take along, a big part of our motor home selection process involved determining if it could carry the things we wanted to take with us. Our selection process was documented in two previous blogs (No Checkbook allowed &   The Price is Right).

There are a couple things we do miss about our old hometown and the sticks and bricks house; at times John misses his workshop while Sandy misses the familiar surroundings of Chilton. When something needs repair or improvement John misses his workshop where he had access to his woodworking tools and a nice environment to work in but the need for the shop has been very limited and he has managed without it. The extra room we had in the house might be nice at times but overall we are comfortable in the mothership. Sandy enjoys walking early in the morning; before he retired John would be at work by 6:00AM and Sandy would have an hour or so to walk in Chilton before she got ready for work, she has not always felt comfortable walking outside of the campgrounds in the unfamiliar areas we have stayed in. Some of the parks have been large enough to have several miles of roads or trails to walk without venturing outside of the property into a city or rural area.

It is difficult for us to address the statement that someone can’t full time because a family member needs them at home. Several people indicate that they see their children or grandchildren everyday and that the kids “need” them; it appears to us that the kids rely on the parent or grandparent too much.

Depending on the situation it would seem that the needs of an elderly parent could be difficult for a full timer; in Sandy’s case she has three brothers who live in Chilton and they were able to assist their father when he was ill earlier this year; this is not always the case and depending on the situation and available resources it may be a difficult situation for a full timer to deal with. It was not easy for Sandy to be a thousand miles away while her father was ill and this resulted in our return to Wisconsin a month earlier than we had planned.

Full time RVing is not for everyone and if family bonds make it difficult for someone to be away for long periods of time they may be much happier as trip takers or extended travelers than as full timers. John spent a lot of time helping his parents before they passed, if they were still alive it is apparent to us that full timing would be difficult or impossible for us to enjoy as he was their only child living in state.

Overall we have enjoyed our first 233 days of full timing, but we have had our moments. The majority of campgrounds we have stayed in were great but at times there are noisy neighbors or other situations that we did not enjoy; for the most part these were cases of inconsiderate people and we simply moved on.

For us the positives of this lifestyle outweigh the negatives by a bunch. We have enjoyed the travel and experiences we have had in the first eight months and we would miss the freedom to travel to places we have dreamed about and our ability to stay as long as we like. We have met so many interesting and nice people and we are making friendships with others (both full timers and trippers), who have the same interests and appreciation for the freedom that an RV provides.  We have rough plans for next year and have discussed possible routes for the year after that so we do not plan to change our lifestyle in the near future but we will never say never. It is hard to predict the future and we may find a situation where a home base may appeal to us, for now we are very comfortable and happy with our mobile existence.

Flying Time.

Where does time go, we have been enjoying ourselves here but a couple of weeks have slipped away again; we had originally planned to spend one month in Wisconsin and we have been here nearly that long already. We have made some progress on our “to do” list but the majority of our time has been spent relaxing and visiting with family and friends; we have added some new followers to the blog and we feel the need to apologize for the lack of adventure and entries.

Last week there was a pizza party at the campground followed by Bingo and the Packer game. The pizza was good and everyone seemed to be having a good time, this is a fun group. Sandy and John have made appointments to have both vehicles serviced and made some calls in reference to upcoming appointments with our doctors so we continue to chip away at our list.

 

It took a few pizza ovens to feed everyone.

 

There was a large assortment of pizza and bread sticks.

 

Everyone chipped in for pizza or gas or something, it had nothing to do with the Packer Game.

 

John looks hungry or cranky.

 

Norm takes pictures for his office display.

 

This week we took Sandy’s Father (Leo), out for lunch and we stopped at Rainbow’s End so he could see the campground and watch Sandy put KoKo through some agility work. The following evening Sandy’s brother Mike and his wife Pat stopped to visit; it was nice to spend a little time alone with them.  We drove to Fond du Lac on Thursday for John’s dental appointment and to have lunch with his Uncle Ed, Aunt Joyce, Aunt Rita and Cousin Joan; we last saw Ed and Joyce last March in Mesa so it was good to see them and visit with Rita and Joan. Thursday evening there was another get together at Oscar’s trailer for the Packer game. Friday was cleaning day and John completed a project on some cabinet doors in the mothership; there will be a separate entry on that project.

 

KoKo was wore out after an agility display for Leo.

 

Yesterday we had a visit from Deb and Dave, we hate to call them old friends but Deb, Dave and John went to high-school together and worked at Saint Agnes Hospital for our after school jobs; we aren’t old, we have just known each other for a long time! Deb and Dave own an RV and follow our blog; they asked some good questions about our experiences and methods we use while traveling. Dave also reminded us that we haven’t posted anything for a while, we heard that comment a couple of times yesterday so we got busy on this entry. It was great to see them and visit but the afternoon flew by far to quickly.

 

It was great to visit with Deb and Dave.