We've always had the ability to park our camper where we live and it's never been in storage. (We did have to move the camper once and store it at the in-laws farm about 60 miles from where we lived for about 6 months once, but that's a different story). So in the last 15ish years or so, we've always had the camper at home. We've never put it on a seasonal site. We have always parked the camper at home in such a position that we could use the camper at home for driveway camps, sleep in it at night on a whim, use it as a portable office, a guest bedroom, and sometimes just for a change of atmosphere. So it's always home. It's always ready to hit the road.
Especially now, since we live in the country, and our country living is so much more peaceful than any campground we've ever been to, we don't mind using it right at home. We do use it a lot. Especially in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, and even throughout the winter snowy months, we driveway camp as much as possible. We love our camper and want to use it as much as possible.
Our first years with an RV (pop-up), we went out camping every chance we had. When we got our first travel trailer, we camped (away from the house), several years in a row, over 30 week-ends through the year.
For about a 4 year period our camping slowed way down. We actually owned 2 homes, were making mortgage payments on 2 homes, and were paying dearly for attempting to sell our old home on a land contract that went horribly wrong, which resulted in our lives being on 100% hold and over $100,000 loss and cash money out of our pockets! (I am not kidding). It was a total nightmare.
But even then we had the opportunity to driveway camp. And we did. The camper was our escape from all our headaches. Thank goodness we had it. Thank goodness we lived in the country. Thank goodness I could hook up water and electric, and could dump in my septic tank. I think it really was the ONLY thing that held our sanity together.
We have overcome the stressful years now. It's been a slow road to financial recovery, but we are once again single house home owners and are now once again in a position where we can book campgrounds, pretty much at a whim, (as long as it does not interfere with our work schedules. My wife and I both work in Information Technology, and sometimes the hours are insane!)
So for us, our original plans for our camper has never changed. We keep it at home, do driveway camps as much as we can, and do campground camping as much as possible. We have all the holiday weeks scheduled already for 2015, and am working to schedule short weekend camps too. We do reserve campground campsites now around our work, but for 2015, we're getting quite a schedule going.
IF.... IF.... you do not have the ability to store your camper at home ... I think you should do the seasonal site camping the first year, the second year, forever, as long as you live where you do, and pull the camper out as much as you can for trips. After all, you have to pay storage somewhere. Why not keep the camper where you can use it any time, all the time! Storage is never a good thing!
