two thingsfirst: we spend a ton of cash for our coach so we can have awesome camping vacations, and then DW wants to take vacations doing everything but camping.second: when we actually do schedule a camping vacation, it ends up being the absolute worst weather of the season. It's been raining all week, with no end in sight!

I feel your pain. I keep planning trips then have to cancel because something major broke at my stick house, or something like that. I always want to believe things happen for a reason. Maybe by being forced to stay home we avoided an unknown. Well, that's what I tell myself ;)

When Mama's not happy no one else is happy!

DW and I talked about traveling before getting the MH, and now that we have it she does nothing but complain. We have boondocked and she dislike that so we stay in parks. We were at our son's place foe the month of Feb, less travel time, so say 3 weeks and she complained about that--too cold, too long, want to go home.So now I am planning our summer trip to go to Oregon to see our granddaughters and the new--currently underway--great granddaughter. Then on to MT, SD, IA, the home. OK she says but only for a max of 2 months, we leave the 25th of May and she says we WILL be home by the 25th of July. A 4-5 month excursion turned into a 2 month shotgun ride. To be quite honest she doesn't even want to go. I suggested that I drive out there and she can fly later and I will pick her up in Portland see the grand daughters and great granddaughter, go to MT with me to see her brother, and then fly home while I drive the rest of the way home. THAT was a mistake!!!So long story short, I totally understand what you are going thru. Her idea of travelling was 1 week to maybe 10 days 3-4 times a year and stay at home the rest of the time. What the hell did we buy it for if it is going to do nothing more than occupy space in the driveway for 325 days out of the year? I hate motel room, but we would have been money ahead to travel that way for what she wants to do with it. You would think we are still working and having to take short vacations instead of retired and able to go with impunity.

Married life is a compromise, sometimes two different ways of seeing the same thing.We got the RV so that she would not have to go camping, rather we could take a house with us when we traveled in the U.S. This is a just a way of looking at it, it can be camping for you, and something else not camping for her. This worked in my case because I had taken her camping (7x7 canvas tent) for many years and thus the RV to her was not camping. You have to do some things you want to do, some things she wants to do. Sometimes a vacation for you is not a vacation for her, particularly if you set it up so that she spends all her time taking care of your needs, as she would at home. This is one of the dark sides of RVing, when it is not done right. I've seen some wives fall right into it, playing servant in the home away from home, but not all will see it this way. Some want it to be a vacation for them too, not just the same old housekeeping thing made more difficult.The weather is what it is. I've been rained on in Rome, Ibeza, Disney World, Alaska, Ireland and the south of France. I've been rained on many times on RV trips, even caught in severe storms, but at least I wasn't in a tent, camping, I was in a RV that I did not have to fold up wet so I could take it home to dry out on a sunnier day.On retirement, I thought wanted to go "camping." She did not, had enough camping when we were younger. But she did want to go traveling. Thus with a RV, we could travel and she would not have to camp. I might pretend that RVing was camping. I could sit outside, build a fire, watch it burn. She could stay inside and watch TV, as if she were at home. This is about managing the point of view. Camping (pretend) for one, not camping for the other.Part of what got her into the RV was joining a RV club, going out 3-5 days a month, 10 months of the year with a group of a dozen or more people of similar age and interests. What makes that work is that "camping" is not the purpose of the trip, rather it is something that provides a setting for, and enables, the group social activity. To help make this work, I am the one who does the housekeeping for these trips, and the RV generally. Otherwise, what you think of as a vacation turns out not to be a vacation for her, rather just another house that she has to take care of for you.Until she got sick, and much of our travel was for cancer treatment, we would make one or two RV road trips a year, in addition to the RV club outings. Two to four weeks was the maximum for road trips, mostly concerns with what might be going on at home, or what might be going on with our children scattered around the world. Time had to be made also for getting together with distant family (might or might not be a RV trip) and for the travel she wanted to do, most of it outside North America, some of it best suited to port intensive cruises, some of it working better with escorted tours or just going to a city and staying there for a while (e.g. Rome and Lisbon three times each).After retirement, before getting the RV, we got some stuff out of the way. We made three trips to England to visit the kids and grandkids, took a 21-day Mediterranean cruise, made a month long road trip down the east coast ending with house hunting in Florida (decided not to live there), and a month in China to visit old friends and travel with adopted "daughters." Then a couple weeks in Alaska to visit one of our Chinese "daughters" who was moving there, and wrapping up the first year of retirement with a cruise on the Mexican Riviera. I think women tend to be anchored to home. Whether it was RV road trips, trips to visit family, bucket list global travel, it mostly got done with time limits. You might have an idea of just dropping everything, leaving it all behind, hitting the road until you get tired of it. Working towards retirement, starting as early as my forties, I did some of these things in my head. Just hit the road with a sleeping bag on the back of a motorcycle, as I got older rolling the bag out in the back of a minivan, traveling until I got tired of it. This often works into the RV road trip dream as we get older, but it is more often a guy thing. Your woman may be anchored to a home, and it may not be easy breaking her away from that to do a full-timer, hobo, homeless thing, different names for differing POVs.

does this happen to anyone else | Good Sam Community

Sully2
Explorer
Apr 18, 2015
late bloomer wrote:
two things
first: we spend a ton of cash for our coach so we can have awesome camping vacations, and then DW wants to take vacations doing everything but camping.

second: when we actually do schedule a camping vacation, it ends up being the absolute worst weather of the season. It's been raining all week, with no end in sight!

Pull a Nancy Reagan and just say NO!
Cloud_Dancer
Explorer II
Apr 18, 2015
Executive wrote:
When it's raining outside, what would you do in the stix n brix that you can't do in the motor home..:h:h:h. IMO, the motor home is just a small home that you can move around the country. No nasty neighbors and no yard work, plus with the coach you CAN move the house where it ISN'T raining.....just sayin...Dennis

There's several things that come to mind. My wife can have all the space in the house, including her sewing/quilting rooms and the front porch. And, I can have space in our big 3-car garage (which has TV, my tools, workbench, welding equipment, fishing gear and boat). There's plenty for me to do there. Also, I can go into my man cave (a motorhome parked in the backyard).
I love my wife, and I try to only say nice things about her. But, there's times when I need MY space. If she wants to do things with her friend, she jumps in her car and goes.
ct78barnes
Explorer
Apr 18, 2015
I have the same problem with having a payment for 12 months and only getting to use it 6 months.In Ohio it snows and the coach gets stored under grandstand at fair ground for 5 months till spring.We have camped since 1994 so this is our 21 years . We started in a pop up then trailer then a Class C and two Class A .She does not like to cook so we do breakfast and dinner at the camper then eat out every night.I door all the out side set up and help set up on the inside.I have over the years tried to help her out as much as I can . When getting ready to go she is inside and I bring the food to the door so she can pack it. When we get home I help her un load everything and bring in the big bag of clothes that need cleaning.We just got back from a 2,500 mile round trip to Naples and the keys. We still work but we broke up the trip down and back to 400 mile days . Leaving campground at 9.00 am and getting off the road at 5.00 pm.We use to drive 12 hr days to get to Myrtle Beach to visit our daughter but no more 12 hr days for us.It seemed to help her as she gets worked up when going through the big towns. Going through Atlanta was not fun and we used the by pass on the way back. after we get there the coach sat the whole week and we put on 700 miles on the toad going to Key West and even spent a night in a Holiday Inn in Key Largo and that was her high light of the trip .Not mine hate to stay in Holiday Inns and fly. But like the first poster said you have to do things she likes to do .It is hard when one likes to travel and the other just wants to stay home and watch the tv. But if you can make it fun for both of you it will work. I wish I had a wife that loves to travel in a rv like some of you do your are blessed. But for most of us guys it is trying to make her happy and having fun.It is a big challenge but it is possible if you listen to her and try to help her as much as possible.
Dale_Traveling
Explorer II
Apr 16, 2015
I've been really lucky. The Navigator enjoys every moment in the coach. I do most of the manual labor keep it running, camp site set up and such. When we were shopping for a coach the floor planned we searched was such that if weather was a problem we wouldn't go nuts inside for a day or so. Lots of room in the primary living area. I think what really put us over the top with owning a coach was our semi loop of the Great Lakes last year. When you can open the door to the coach in the morning and your view of the world is this -

Pancake Bay Ontario, Lake Superior

all the work, time and effort was worth it. Call it a MasterCard moment, priceless.

We're lucky if we top 50 trips a year in the coach so you don't need long adventures every time you go out. We do lots of Friday thru Sunday 200 or 300 mile round trip weekends. Sometimes the weather is great other times not so much. Nature of the beast. What really helped us was we teamed up with a local group of fellow RV'ers that we enjoy time with. About 2/3 of out weekend outings are now more or less group camping a few hours from home on weekends. A pot luck Saturday breakfast and dinner, a lot of fish stories around the camp fire, and good company.
xctraveler
Explorer
Apr 16, 2015
I'm a lucky full timer. Dw and I share the joy of the road and of traveling out of the country as well. In 2013 we were out of the country with the coach in storage for 3 months. 2014 was "only" 5 weeks out of the country and 2015 will be 4 weeks again. Next year we will RV in New Zealand and Australia with Fantasy for 5 or 6 weeks and then stop in Hawaii for a week or two.

In the mean time the coach is home. The apartment in the northeast is to store the few things we couldn't part with- yet and provide us a place to stay when we return to visit our friends. Our boys are east coast/west coast so we cross the country watching the weather to spend time with both and the grandkids. We generally do not consider what we do as camping, unless we are boondocking on gov't land.

We don't eat out a lot because DW much prefers her own cooking - with my assistance - to most any restaurant, can you say SALT. All in all the balance is something we have worked out over more than 50 years of marriage. Years ago I gave up Scuba, because she doesn't like beaches or boats. She has given up some things she enjoys that don't fit in with the RV lifestyle.

We have been traveling extended times, more than 6 weeks, since 2001 and full time since 2012. WE will have to stop some day, but that is just acknowledging reality not preparing to change our life style -yet.
Passin_Thru
Explorer
Apr 16, 2015
My wife will go, if it rains she and I have a great time watching movies and reading. We have camped in Ohio in a blizzard for 3 days, in Branson Mo in 4 degree weather so we don't let weather interfere with our lives. We once spent 4 days in Fl with a tropical storm and water coming under the Condo windows and watched movies the whole time. We enjoyed every minute except when we blew a tire and no one would even swerve on the Pa Turnpike. If you see anyone on the berm slow down and move over.
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Apr 16, 2015
Wow! Sorry to hear that many of you don't share the love of RVing.

It was DW's idea to sell the big house and everything in it and travel. We full-timed for 16+ years, volunteered along the way, and loved every minute of it. She helped drive and could do all the connections involved. We both shared cooking and cleaning. It was a great lifestyle!
cvbdsl
Explorer
Apr 16, 2015
I can feel your frustration about the rain. Last year I was ready to advertise in drought areas - if you want rain I'll plan to come to your area:B
It seems whenever we pulled in or got ready to leave it would rain and rain hard and then rain at least every second day.

However it did balance out, last fall in early October we had a week and a half of perfect weather, warmer than normal and no rain - fire every night.:B

Remember, it beats a tent.

Chris
Just_Cruzzin
Explorer
Apr 15, 2015
sharibartling wrote:
Maybe by being forced to stay home we avoided an unknown. Well, that's what I tell myself ;)

+2

In my case my DW was the big push for getting into RVing I really
was not into doing this type of camping or camping at all. But all
"us boys like our toys" after had driven tractor trailer on the east
coast, before being a heavy equipment operator for 26 years I could
see the fun in driving the motorhome if not anything else it would be
fun to be the chauffeur. Next time I am getting the DP, love that sound.

Good luck
holstein13
Explorer
Apr 15, 2015
My wife is not a huge fan of RVing. Which is tough because we are full timers. Her biggest complaints are 1) Road schooling the kids (because you can't send them to a fixed school while traveling) and 2) Moving too often. We share all tasks including the road schooling but it seems to bother her more than the benefits suit her.

The other issue is that she loves to buy stuff and there's no room in the coach for her to continuously buy things.

The rain is a bigger problem in a small coach than in a home because you simply feel more imprisoned in a small space.