newbie

hi everyone 1 IM THE NEWBIE . I HAVE A COUPLE QUESTIONS. MY HUSBAND WHO IS RETIRED AIR FORCE AND MARINE WANTS TO GIVE UP EVERYTHING TO TOUR THE COUNTRY. HAS ANYBODY ELSES HUSBAND OR WIFE ASKED THEIR SPOUSE TO DO THIS ? IM ALL FOR TRAVLEING BUT TO GIVE UP HOUSE AND LIFE TO DO THIS IS SCARY BUT KINDA FUN TO IN A WEIRD WAY. I WOULD WELCOME ALL THE IMPUT I CAN GET ON THIS MATTER IF ANYONE HAS EVER DID THIS. THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE.

There are literally thousands of us out here doing that very same thing. Larry, our site owner, is an excellent example. I am sure that he will direct you to to his personal blog.

There are also some excellent books written by folks who have done this. We sold our house and our stuff(things that we can replace when we decide to come off the road, our children got most of our furniture and things that they wanted. When it came down to it, we only stored the things that had sentimental value to us.

The military has provided a network of reasonably priced campgrounds around the country to make your journey affordable and with other great active duty and retired folks.

This lifestyle is not for everyone, but my wife and I can tell you how liberating it is to travel and not to have to worry about "stuff."

Curt

Curt has said it very well. Traveling full time isn't for everyone, but is FANTASTIC for us (and many others). If you're not sure about this lifestyle but are willing to try, perhaps you should keep your house and "stuff" for a year (if possible). If things don't work out, you can return to the sticks and bricks.

Do your research. Read the books, visit the websites, attend a RV rally, talk to as many full time RV'ers as you can. A GREAT support organization for full time RV'ers is the Escapees RV Club ( www.escapees.com ). They have a very active discussion forum that will answer most of your questions. Retired military does have some advantages as Curt mentioned.

You can read my story from the time we started thinking of doing this, through selling the house and hitting the road, to our seasonal jobs, to what we're doing today at my personal website: www.happy-wanderers.com

Other sites worth looking into are:
www.rv.net
www.hitchitch.com

I had to convince my wife into selling everything and traveling full time in our motor home. After almost 6 years of traveling, I have asked her what she thinks. (since I feel a bit guilty of dragging her into this). She states she has NO regrets! We're not ready to stop and don't see settling down happening for quite awhile.

One of her favorite sayings is "life isn't a dress rehearsal". We now feel like we're ENJOYING life - not just going THROUGH life!

Feel free to ask anything here. I'm sure many of us will have answers (or opinions) for you.

We started "full-timing" the day after we retired 6 years ago. The 1st 5 years on a sailboat and now, since July, the Motorhome. It is nice to get rid of all the accumulated "stuff". Your 1st instinct is to rent a storage place, then you realize that you will be paying more to rent (after a year or so) than the stuff is worth. Of course, there will be some things you can't part with, you'll need to stash them somewhere.

Some friends have kept their homes to use as storage, while renting. Good tenants, no problem... Bad tenants, you can imagine.

Our problem is that we enjoy the outdoors and havnen't found one location to put down for good. This affords the opportunity to keep moving, and we look forward to a new adventure everytime we raise the jacks and start the engine.

Being new to the RV side, I have to say that the benefit of using Military RV Parks and the friendly folks we meet there has added to the pleasure; as well as making this more affordable.

It's a tough decision... Good luck!

curt thank you so much and to the other gentalman that replied. we have been doing research on all this and i have had people tell me that your rv can be made into a home by just doing little things to make it homey. it has taken me a long time to decide on this because we have lived in our current home for 22 years. thats alot to give up and live in a 36 foot 5th wheel. i guess the shock wore off when i finally started telling people what we were doing. our children are all for this but it really sat in when we started selling our things. i cried every time one of our memories went home with a total stranger. but now the excitement has sat in and doing all the research on which campgrounds are good and which not so good. i wwould wecome imput into different military campground expierences and recomendations. thank you again for all the insight and help.

From the lady's point of view here....
Like others when we decided to be full-timers, we sold the house, called the kids to come get their inheritance cause we were going to spend the rest, packed up a couple of boxes of photos and items for the grandkids (hey, labeled them to keep until we were dead and gone... :laugh: )and hit the road 6 years ago come this August....I don't feel like I sold memories....I sold "stuff"...the furniture we bought in Germany, etc. is just that "stuff"....Memories are what I saved and stored in my head and heart...and with the help of photos, I re-live those memories when ever I want....Living in a 26 ft. 5th wheel and traveling with the "love of my life" is worth more to me than the "stuff" we collected...and for 20-some odd years, I spent more time waiting for him to come home from where ever, raising our son by myself while he was away doing his job for Uncle Sam, and spending holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries without him....So now it's time for just the 2 of us, doing what we want to do, seeing this beautiful country that we both served to protect, and making up for lost "couple time".....

Maybe, in about 10 or 15 more years, we'll stop in 1 place to "settle down" again, but until then life with my "honey" on the road is all I need or want....making more memories.....