Letting Go

[wantobefree]

I'm new to this site, been lurking for a while and I really like the way you guys respond to questions. Now I have a one that I can't find an answer for.

I've been wanting take off and travel full time for a long time. How do you let go? How can you leave the grand kids, house and everything? My wife and I have been dreaming of this for a long time, but we are afraid to let go.

[RVcrazy]

If you can afford to keep the house and snowbird one winter, try that first. You don't want to quickly regret your choice. We have only been FT 2 years. We face time to see each other. The hardest was Christmas... It felt more normal the second year. What we have found is that our kids and grandkids are very busy most of the time. If we were sitting there, we wouldn't see much more of them than we do now. They have met us on the road. We plan a month near them in the summer for visits and Dr appts. Good luck with your decision!

[Ivylog]

Since I live in N GA too, I'll suggest starting by being half timers. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons in N GA. We leave for south Fla Christmas day and come back early April. During the summer we try to do three months out West. Yes it costs more to do it this way but I'm not willing to give up my shop and all the toys and we need to spend some time with the kids and grands that all live locally.

My DW married for better and worst plus lunch as I've always been self employed so having me around 24/7 for three months is not a problem. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth to recently retired... Twice the husband on 1/2 the money, in 1/10th the space if you go FT. Good Luck

[DownTheAvenue]

Before you go fulltime, why don't you go part time? Leave all your stuff and just go an a very extended trip. That will tell you if going full time is in your cards.

[dshinnick]

We're near to completing 5 years on the road. We didn't have grandkids to leave, but we did have a major garage sale, put stuff in storage, sell the house, and head out.

I'm not sure you should try going completely full-time. Not sure what your housing situation is, but how about a 3-4 month trip? And then perhaps a longer one. And, as has been said, with all the technology available, it does change the issue of staying in touch.

We were at a resort park for the winter, and spent some time in the stained glass workshop. There was a lady there who had an iPad propped next to her workstation. She was viewing and chatting with her granddaughter! The granddaughter....wherever she physically was....was sitting at her work table working on some project, and the two just talked and chatted as they worked, as though they were in the same room. It was pretty cool. I even held up my work-in-process to get the girl's opinion of it.

So, there are options and creative ways to minimize the effect of going full-time.

[gonesouth]

Our situation is that we work 24/7 during a 7 month season, and our first year going south for the winter we had three of our four sons come to Christmas dinner......they arrived just after 11 am, dinner was at 12, by 1PM they had all left for their girlfriends' houses. Nowadays we leave when we close for the season, and come back when it's time to open. Before we go we have a family dinner at our house or a restaurant. They have all visited us at various times down south.
This past fall I had a small stroke and our youngest son is being treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma, so we're here this winter, but next year we'll be on the road again if we can.

With skype, email, texting etc. it's pretty easy to stay close, even if you're not.

[gbopp]

Welcome to the forum. I don't fulltime so I can't answer your question.
I can tell you, that if you are able to go, do it while you can. You don't know what life will hand you tomorrow.

Keep in touch with email, Skype, Facebook, etc..

Life is short, enjoy yourselves.

[Old-Biscuit]

Visit the kids and grandkids WHEN you are back in area.

We WANTED to FT so letting go was EASY.

Sold EVERTHING, bought new truck and 5vr and hit the road.
It was SOooooooooooooo amazing and freeing

Only regret is that we didn't go sooner so that we could have done it longer.

[fla-gypsy]

You don't have to become a recluse, just absent most of the time. With all the ways to communicate these days that should not be an issue. Set up a home base at families house if possible( your cost obviously) so you can return and rest and see the family.