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.