Break up extended trip with flights home?

Get the RV and just go on local trips fo now - meaning not more than a days worth of driving from home. Then, when you are ready, you can hit the road for longer trips.

toedtoes wrote:

chrisn wrote:
Thanks again for good thoughts.

Pets include a 100+ pound Lab, a small dog that can't be trusted off leash, and two cats that I would constantly worry about escaping into the wild.

I am clearly coming at this from the perspective of NOT being a full timer-- but still wanting to see far-away places without committing to multi-month trips away from home. Part of it is the pets, but perhaps a larger component is my wife's (and perhaps my own) fear of effectively abandoning our traditional home.

I am a "gadget guy" and admit to liking the "idea" of a self-contained rolling apartment (cool toy!) more than wanting to escape foundation-based living.

Maybe we're simply not ready to commit to an RV and we should stick to (car-based) road trips and fly-and-drive trips, as several of you have directly or indirectly suggested. We love road trips-- which is part of the traction of an RV, but maybe car+hotel is better for us. Food for thought.

Thanks again.

There's no reason you can't fly to X, rent an RV and drive for 3 weeks in that area, and then fly home. You may not want to do it for every trip, but give it a try and see if you even enjoy the RVing. Then you can start considering the RV purchase. You may find that a once-a-year rental gives you the gadget-fix.

Almost all my family lives near me. I'd be interested in visiting them during long trips (my mother is in her '90's) and it appears that despite closing down one business, another is starting for me.

If I already owned an RV and car I guess I could see leaving them at an airport for short times. Now if I was renting one..opens up a whole new vista.

chrisn wrote:
Thanks again for good thoughts.

Pets include a 100+ pound Lab, a small dog that can't be trusted off leash, and two cats that I would constantly worry about escaping into the wild.

I am clearly coming at this from the perspective of NOT being a full timer-- but still wanting to see far-away places without committing to multi-month trips away from home. Part of it is the pets, but perhaps a larger component is my wife's (and perhaps my own) fear of effectively abandoning our traditional home.

I am a "gadget guy" and admit to liking the "idea" of a self-contained rolling apartment (cool toy!) more than wanting to escape foundation-based living.

Maybe we're simply not ready to commit to an RV and we should stick to (car-based) road trips and fly-and-drive trips, as several of you have directly or indirectly suggested. We love road trips-- which is part of the traction of an RV, but maybe car+hotel is better for us. Food for thought.

Thanks again.

There's no reason you can't fly to X, rent an RV and drive for 3 weeks in that area, and then fly home. You may not want to do it for every trip, but give it a try and see if you even enjoy the RVing. Then you can start considering the RV purchase. You may find that a once-a-year rental gives you the gadget-fix.

Thanks again for good thoughts.

Pets include a 100+ pound Lab, a small dog that can't be trusted off leash, and two cats that I would constantly worry about escaping into the wild.

I am clearly coming at this from the perspective of NOT being a full timer-- but still wanting to see far-away places without committing to multi-month trips away from home. Part of it is the pets, but perhaps a larger component is my wife's (and perhaps my own) fear of effectively abandoning our traditional home.

I am a "gadget guy" and admit to liking the "idea" of a self-contained rolling apartment (cool toy!) more than wanting to escape foundation-based living.

Maybe we're simply not ready to commit to an RV and we should stick to (car-based) road trips and fly-and-drive trips, as several of you have directly or indirectly suggested. We love road trips-- which is part of the traction of an RV, but maybe car+hotel is better for us. Food for thought.

Thanks again.

Hard to believe that you would spend $500+ to go back and visit the animals. It would be so easy just to take them with you!

2chiefsRus wrote:

chrisn wrote:
Thanks for replies so far.

I understand that this would be expensive/inefficient, but the issue is that we are not looking to be "full timers" and we have two cats and two dogs that my wife worries will forget us if we are gone for several months at a time. We know from other long vacations that around three weeks away from "home" is about our limit.

At some point, perhaps the RV becomes "home," but we are not there yet.

Have you considered taking the dogs and cats with you?

It seems to me that this would take care of your worries, we always take our long haired Dachshund with us, he is small, but then we only have a 29' class C, a 42' class A should be enough room for 2 dogs (as long as they aren't Great Danes)& 2 cats, as long as they get along, together.

Another point- putting an RV in storage once a month woukd require that you empty and clean out the freezer and refrigerator each time, a huge pain and expense.
I also agree, if you take the pets with you, you will feel less anxious about getting back home.

Sue

Here's my thinking:

You only want to be gone 2-3 weeks at a time.
You want to go long distances away from your home.
You want to spend enough time in between outings to reassure your pets that you haven't abandoned them.

With all that, I think I'd prefer to fly to a location, rent a car, travel and stay at hotels for 2-3 weeks, fly back home, stay home for 2-6 weeks, then repeat to a different location. You could even rent an RV for some of those trips.

Think about it this way. If you do the RV and flights home, for every trip you take you will have to do the "closing up the house" and the "closing up the RV". With flights, you only do the "closing up the house". With the RV, you will worry about the house when you're on the trip and you will worry about the RV when you're home. With flights, you will only have to worry about the house when you're away.

Bringing the pets with you is another option, but that depends on your pets and your comfort levels.

Take animals with you. Part why we have one so we can vacation with the dog.

This thread is making me think what a good idea flying would be for regular visits back home. Thanks for making the obvious well obvious:D.