What made you decide to go full-time RV living?

We are sort of “accidental” full timers.

We didn't intend to full time, just wanted to take a three to six month trip around the country visiting friends and family and then find some warmer, cheaper place to buy or build a house. At the time we had a 96 model year motor home with no slides.

We threw away stuff, gave stuff to places that could make use of it and distributed as much as possible to our kids.
We put all of the rest of our stuff in storage so we wouldn't have to go back to NH if the house sold quickly and it was still cold and yucky there.

The house did sell quickly (in a month) and we found after about a year that we were having so much fun traveling and having no ties to a stick house that we decided to keep on full timing. We traded the 96 motor home in on a new 2004 with a lot more CCC, storage space and two slides.

That was 11 years ago and so far we both love the life style. But Health issues have intervened and we moved all of our stored stuff to our new home in CO. We are now snowbirds.
It was a wonderful eleven years though.

2chiefsRus wrote:
We plan to basically still live in the motorhome but use the port home to spend the day in and to pursue hobbies not well suited to the smaller space of a motorhome.

What is a "port" home? Do you mean a portable home?

Devonm2012 wrote:
I have mentioned this before, that I have a certified pet therapy dog. We have specialized in many fields, one being inpatient hospice. Most patients live on average 2-4 days. From our first week there we encountered patients younger than I am (46 at the time) and in the last few days of their life. It broke my heart and drove home the "there is no time like the present". Blake and I would sit with many a patient and/or their family, as the last breath was taken, and I wondered about the life not lived. We sold everything, hit the road and have never looked back. I will never forget an elderly woman looking at me, as her husband took his last breath with my dog in his arms, and she said "is that it?" Yes, I said, that is it. We have so much control over our destiny and let us not waste one second of it.

Well said!

I have mentioned this before, that I have a certified pet therapy dog. We have specialized in many fields, one being inpatient hospice. Most patients live on average 2-4 days. From our first week there we encountered patients younger than I am (46 at the time) and in the last few days of their life. It broke my heart and drove home the "there is no time like the present". Blake and I would sit with many a patient and/or their family, as the last breath was taken, and I wondered about the life not lived. We sold everything, hit the road and have never looked back. I will never forget an elderly woman looking at me, as her husband took his last breath with my dog in his arms, and she said "is that it?" Yes, I said, that is it. We have so much control over our destiny and let us not waste one second of it.

We did the RV thing when the kids were younger. 3-5 .. working full time, so weekends were our time to camp. Along came high school, busy busy time , cheer leading, sports etc.. The RV set.. sold it.. Then kids were 25,26. Our time, we wern't getting any younger. If we were going to do it, now is the time. My wife has MS an has for 29 years, so before it gets worse this is the time. So 1n 2009, put house in storage, rented house, hit the road. Have seen many great places, met some super people. Have had no regrets. The big ?.. Life is short, wanted to make that (should have list) short as possible. Just got back this week from a week to Florida to see my daughter an grand daughter. I really do
enjoy the things I dont have to do.. lawn, maintenance on the house etc.. And now I sleep in, an get around when Im ready..:)

we were sitting in the backyard with DD and SIL having a cool one. SIL says
"You guys should rent this house out for a year,get a MH and see the USA."
No way! says I! But the seed was planted....thought about it fo a couple of months,talked it over and decided to go "look' at some RVs just to see what was out there that we might be able to afford.
We ended up renting a class A and a class C for a couple of long weekends,you know,just kind of check out the life style. Then we started looking at fifth wheels.That was the turning point.
That was 7 years ago.It took just one 3 month trip for us to become full timers.Been on the road ever since. We are thinking,maybe take a close look at things at the 10 year point. For now all plans are scribed in Jello.
I think that the "wonderlust" that I contacted while serving 20 years in the USAF took over after I had been out of the AF for 30 years. that Restless Wind
just never really died out.
It took me a couple of years to figure out that the SIL just wanted the in laws
out of town (LOL)

Discharged from the Marines totally disabled due to a small country over there that didn't like us.

Had a nice house, wife and two kids. Didn't get enough money to pay our bills, so they took it away from us, with everything in it.

Owned a 64 Ford 1/2 ton truck with a camper on it.

We had no choice but to live in that thing until we got our feet on the ground. Believe me, we learned.

Fast forward a few years, good education from va schooling and we loved living nomadic so we just stuck with living in rvs the rest of our lives.

The feeling of being able to hit the road at our whim, doing what we want , how we want and not having to worry about the tax man, nor the neighbors, and all the maintenance on a home. As the credit card company says.....priceless.....

As the window closes on me, I look back and can say without a doubt. WOW WHAT A RIDE THAT HAS BEEN.

sdianel wrote:
My mom who loved camping used to say you have to "put a stake in the ground" if you want to do something. Just saying "some day" doesn't cut it. Instead, say on Friday at 5pm we're leaving. We still live by that today. Tomorrow at 6am, we're leaving!

Good thought....

We got downsized from our company and therefore, early retirement - VERY early - in our 50's. We bought a 27' TT and took off for Florida for a couple months the first winter. We met many full-timers and talked extensively to them. On our drive home we said, "we lived without all that stuff in that big 3,000 sq. ft. house for months and haven't missed any of it. Let's get rid of it all and go full-time." We had stuff in there that we hadn't seen in many years.

We are travelers and love exploring new things. We just couldn't see keeping that house. So we sold everything within 3 months and 17 years later....we haven't regretted a thing. We have made great full-timing friends while traveling and we meet up with them often. Our kids were all for it and we have great relationships with the grandkids.Our kids didn't even stay in our home town. They didn't lack for long visits from us and visiting us in special places. We've volunteered in scenic places and have experienced some awesome things.

We knew we didn't want to return to Michigan and would never return to a big house. We have fallen in love with the West. A year ago when prices were low we bought a small condo - nicely full furnished - in a 55+ very active community. We don't intend to live there full-time yet. It's now our winter home. We still love traveling. We're now in our 70's and full-timing has been the best thing we've ever done!

We starting talking and researching full-time rv living as we were getting closer to 60. DH was self-employed and my boss would be retiring in 3 years and I would be jobless when that happened. We started saving, planning and purchased a motorhome. We spent weekends in it the first summer and loved it. The following spring when we should have had 2 more years to work, my boss had an accident and passed away 10 days later. I was out of a job and the economy was horrible with few good paying jobs available. We decided to take the leap early and put the house on the market. The house didn't sell, so we ended up renting it out. We have been workamping and volunteering and have been full time for 2 1/2 years. DH is now drawing his SS so we do have some income every month. This winter will be the first we are not workamping, but will try for part-time jobs outside of a campground. We love this life and can't wait until I can draw my SS in 4 years so that we do not have to workamp or work. We look forward to more travel. We will eventually put the house up for sale again, but right now the tenants are paying the mortgage down with every monthly rent payment made. We know that we do not want to own a house again, so will either buy and RV lot in the south, or rent when we are tired of moving around. We cannot see ourselves sitting in 1 place again, but would continue taking trips from a home base.