RVing iso retirement locale

When its right you will not want to leave.That is exactly what happened to us. We only planned to stay a month at Fiesta Grande in Arizona but the park was perfect for us so we stay here. 2 years now
If we tire of the place someday the motor will start and we will go somewhere else

I would stay a week (weekly rate) and explore the area, ask around and check into shopping, medical facilities, etc. You may decide to stay 6 months in one location and 6 months in another or traveling. Winter in SW or South Texas and summers farther north or in mountains. Since we aren't desert people, we liked Crossville TN and Hot Springs AR. We have full timed for 5 years and still don't have a home. We use our daughter's address as our home base for doctors, etc and travel the rest of the year. We stay as long as a month in one location that we love. I agree that you will know it when you arrive. Since you are retired Navy you can take advantage of the wonderful Military Famcamps out there. www.militarycampgrounds.us Happy Travels!!

Retired SCPO.

We've camp hosted a few times and it always amazes me to see people come in and rush around for two or five days trying to see everything in the area. Including some long-time full-timers.

We try to stay a minimum of one week if we are interested in seeing the area. We don't want to HAVE to go do something every day.

One reason we enjoy volunteering is that we can take our time exploring.

Yes, we do have trips where we have to travel faster. Fixing to start on one Sunday from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale to near Hartford, CT. We have a father's 90th birthday in Arkansas - 14 days after that a granddaughter's wedding in Fort Lauderdale, and we have five weeks to get to CT.

We've also found so places where we want to go back and stay longer - and will certainly find some more in the future.

While being near a military medical facility has some advantages for now remember when you hit 65 you go on medicare like everyone else and there is almost no advantage to being near a military facility. That said you cannot beat Port Hueneme's facilities and Point Mugu's location combination in Ventura County, CA. Ocean front military RV parks, golf courses, BX/Commissary, Harbor Freight HQ, fresh fruit & veg, shorts and t-shirt year round weather, indoor and year round outdoor pools, BUT owning property there is expensive. Own in Texas and visit CA.

We are doing the same thing. We have no real agenda or plan so we can stay or go any time we want. But, we want to make sure to cover the US in two years, so we don't stay too long.

We have a general idea of what we want and a general idea of what we don't want. Honestly, sometimes in less than ten minutes we can make a pretty accurate assessment. For example, we pulled into Alamogordo, NM today. It was almost rush hour. There is no amount of money you could pay me to live here. So, another town off our list and it took 10 minutes.

Sometimes, we fall in love with a place. One such place is Hunting Island and the area around Beaufort, SC. We returned to spend more time three times in six weeks. We didn't want to leave and plan on returning next winter.

Spend some time wandering. The more you know what you don't want, the easier it will be to find what you do want. We still have the entire west coast (Oregon!) to check out and don't want to make a decision before seeing them all...

You might like the Puget Sound area of western Washington, lots of Navy facilities (and some Army and USAF) in the area, and even though you'll might be on Medicare some day, the commissaries would be handy for your shopping. Weather is good, not hot or cold, no state income tax, population density is reasonable, close to Canada, economy is better than CA, clean air and clean water, etc. etc.

Selecting a location to stay and play in is very personal. When we were looking for a place to retire, we created a spreadsheet with all the things we wanted to evaluate. We then spent at least a week in the places that seemed to fit the bill. In the end, we are in a place we did not think about until very late in the process but when we spent a week here, we knew this was where we wanted to be. We have been here for 1-1/2 years and we chose well!

For permanent retirement, take a look at the Verde Valley area in Arizona.

Not too hot and not too cold, with pristine air quality and superb scenery all around. A very nice area.

To all whom replied, THANK YOU! Excellent suggestions and advice. We are getting a spreadsheet going and listing/researching all places mentioned :) At a time when we're down (house totaled, insurance fight from flood), it's refreshing to know that life will go on! Lots of beautiful places to research... thanks again!!! Keep em coming! Happy memory making!!!

We searched for 9 years....finally landed in the mountains of Idaho. We LOVE it here. Summers we fish, boat, hike, explore, camp....winters? We snowshoe, ice fish, there is skiing, hunting... a sportsman's paradise