Not for us

Alex and Tee wrote:
This $12,000 is basically the same as if we rented an apartment for 6 months so, in my mind, we spent $2000 a month “renting” our motor home instead of renting the house we were in and learning a life lesson about what we thought we might like and didn’t.

It appears you rode the wave of increasing RV prices perfectly. You really lucked out.

We've been fulltiming for 18 years, happily until the last couple of years. We sat still for Covid, and for that period dealt only with the hassles of living in an RV and didn't derive any of the benefits of travel that make up for it. It was eye opening.

It sounds like your experience is pretty much the same as our Covid experience--living in the confined space and dealing with the hassles of an RV, with no benefit that you wouldn't have in an apartment or house. So I completely understand why you'd be dissatisfied.

Also, when we began fulltiming, I was 41 and my boyfriend was 31, so I very much understand your not feeling like you have a lot in common with the majority of residents in a Casa Grande RV park. Even now, the most I can come up with is that older people tend to be quieter than younger people, and I like that. But that's merely coexistence, and most people want something deeper.

Perhaps you could have done more research, but I'm not sure that would have helped because so much of the information these days has an agenda. Back in 2002, anything on the internet was there just because someone wanted to share, and not to make money. There was a lot less information, but it was more transparent and reliable.

Shoot--we had to come up with even the idea of selling our houses and traveling around in an RV, and then go looking for information about it. Had never heard of such a thing. Is there anybody these days who's not at least aware that the lifestyle exists? And since that awareness comes from lifestyle blogs and youtube channels, it comes with a curated portrayal of the lifestyle.

Are you going to make a bunch of youtube videos about how and why it didn't work out for you? I doubt it. They'd probably be really useful information, but they wouldn't be popular because people gravitate to upbeat aspirational content, with maybe an occasional (and no doubt portrayed as ultimately amusing) setback.

And sure, you could have done a deep dive into workcamping and found out that it very often involves cleaning toilets, but that's certainly not how it's pimped. Instead, the focus is on getting a full hookup site for free in exchange for a few hours of work around the campground. Details, details. And details aren't what draw eyes to websites.

Again, I'm glad you were able to get out of this relatively unscathed. And perhaps in the future, when your wife doesn't need or want to be working any more, you can experience fulltiming in what I consider the "classic" way--traveling all around in a way that you can't really do as standalone vacations. Maybe by then, the pressure on campgrounds will have alleviated, and you could experience the gold standard of fulltiming that is increasingly hard these days--traveling around without making reservations or even having an agenda. (Assuming that would even appeal to you, of course.)

Regardless, thanks for sharing your story. It's a useful counterpoint to all the rah rah rah-ing that's out there.