Declining interest in RVing?
Wonder if anyone else experiences this from time to time. I am 73, still healthy and active and we have RV'd 1 way or the other for 44 years; now in a 30 ft. Class C. Like the RV just fine but I find ...
Forum Discussion
Like Homer, I found that I lost interest after my wife died, it was one of the things we did together. We traveled a lot as a couple, and for seven years went out a few days each month with a RV club.
The club membership was dying off, and after my wife died, most of the people just kind of stopped camping (though the survivors meet for breakfast once a month). I tried joining another group after my wife was gone, had difficulty connecting with some of the people in that group, and they didn't much get along with each other, so eventually that group just dissolved.
I still road trip, but not in the RV, it is a lot less expensive for one person to use hotels, and it is a lot less work. My van gets around a lot better than my 30 foot class C.
I tried two seasons of going out to the lake alone, at busy times and quiet times, and while I still liked being there, I didn't feel much like I was camping, alone in a big motorhome. I've also tent camped (something my wife no longer enjoyed after age 60) a couple of times in the cooler weather of late fall, and while that was a better experience than sitting in the RV, I learned it is a lot more struggle getting up off the ground at 70 than it was in my 20s and 30s.
I'm looking at tent trailers and smaller campers, for the camping experience, conversion of my van (or buying a B) for travel in the U.S.
We had been doing a lot of travel in addition to the RV: cruises, escorted tours, flying to another continent and renting a place for a month while we explored the city or country. While I haven't gotten back into cruising since being alone, except for a couple river cruises on a line that accommodates singles (the industry is not generally good about this), I've started taking more escorted tours with a seniors travel club.
I still have the motorhome, long ago paid for, as there is potential to use it with my kids and grandkids if we can get everybody settled within a few hundred miles of each other. Or, it might be traded on something more suitable to my traveling alone, or camping alone.
I suggest if the RV is paid for, keep it and take care of it, for the times you might want to use it. The big costs are financing and depreciation, and you aren't really going to get much back by selling it, if more than 7-10 years old. If you have other things you want to do, don't worry too much about the RV sitting unused for a while.
The club membership was dying off, and after my wife died, most of the people just kind of stopped camping (though the survivors meet for breakfast once a month). I tried joining another group after my wife was gone, had difficulty connecting with some of the people in that group, and they didn't much get along with each other, so eventually that group just dissolved.
I still road trip, but not in the RV, it is a lot less expensive for one person to use hotels, and it is a lot less work. My van gets around a lot better than my 30 foot class C.
I tried two seasons of going out to the lake alone, at busy times and quiet times, and while I still liked being there, I didn't feel much like I was camping, alone in a big motorhome. I've also tent camped (something my wife no longer enjoyed after age 60) a couple of times in the cooler weather of late fall, and while that was a better experience than sitting in the RV, I learned it is a lot more struggle getting up off the ground at 70 than it was in my 20s and 30s.
I'm looking at tent trailers and smaller campers, for the camping experience, conversion of my van (or buying a B) for travel in the U.S.
We had been doing a lot of travel in addition to the RV: cruises, escorted tours, flying to another continent and renting a place for a month while we explored the city or country. While I haven't gotten back into cruising since being alone, except for a couple river cruises on a line that accommodates singles (the industry is not generally good about this), I've started taking more escorted tours with a seniors travel club.
I still have the motorhome, long ago paid for, as there is potential to use it with my kids and grandkids if we can get everybody settled within a few hundred miles of each other. Or, it might be traded on something more suitable to my traveling alone, or camping alone.
I suggest if the RV is paid for, keep it and take care of it, for the times you might want to use it. The big costs are financing and depreciation, and you aren't really going to get much back by selling it, if more than 7-10 years old. If you have other things you want to do, don't worry too much about the RV sitting unused for a while.
