Myth #5 - Fulltime RVing is Your Exit Strategy

We’ve saved the last for last.

It happens to all of us. At some point down the road it’s time to stop traveling down the road. Then, whatcha’ gonna’ do?

For realists in the fulltiming world, you move on to whatever’s next. You get to put a great big checkmark next to “Go Fulltiming” on your list of life’s to-dos. You hang up your keys and use the money you saved for your post-fulltiming life to move on to your next spot, whatever and wherever it may be. Whether you’ve traveled fulltime for six months or sixteen years, you’ve done what most people don’t do. And, you’ve done what you wanted. Yeah for you!

But, if you follow the advice of so-called experts selling RV dreamsicles, “fulltiming is your exit strategy”.

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Myth #4 - Fulltime RVing is a Carefree Way of Life

That’s right! Every day is paradise...Not a worry in the world...Everyone you meet is friendly....There’s a gorgeous sunset at the end of every day. And, if anything about the place where you're parked isn't perfect, you just move on down the road.

Now, stop right there!

Utopia is a very small town in Texas. And, despite what you may have heard, fulltiming isn’t Utopia. As we’ve said, there is a lot to like about this lifestyle. In fact, we love it. But, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the parts of fulltiming that aren’t exactly carefree.

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Myth #3 - Fulltime RVing is The Only Way to Go

There’s a lot to like about traveling the country fulltime in an RV. So, it’s easy for folks considering the lifestyle - and those who are living it - to think that fulltime RVing is good for everybody. And, anything short of selling the house and most of your stuff, loading up a big RV and hitting the road fulltime somehow doesn’t “count”.

It reminds me a bit of when we were single. As our friends got married, they started a chorus of telling us how great married life was and that we should do it. Heck, they thought everybody should do it! After we were married, it seemed like everyone we knew was having a baby or two. And, like married life, we heard an endless chorus of the joys of parenthood. It was as if once they crossed that point of no return they

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Myth #2 - Fulltime RVing is the Ticket to an Early Retirement

To toasty workaholics, nothing sounds better than leaving the rat race for a permanent vacation. And, the earlier the better. Right now, you are just clicks away from countless stories of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s who have made the break and hit the road. Some are working, but many others have decided to eliminate that four-letter word from their vocabulary.

As enticing as these stories are, fulltime RVing isn't the ticket to an early retirement. The real solution is

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Myth #1 - Fulltime RVing is a Cheap Way to Live

You could buy a 15-year-old trailer, park it down by the river and sit. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Chances are you would reduce your expenses. But, that’s not exactly living. That’s existing. After all, RVs have wheels. They are designed to move. And, people are meant to live. Moving and living both cost money.

How much fulltime RVing costs depends on many factors. The biggest is the answer to this question: “Why do you want to fulltime?” If your objective is to visit 49 states and Canada, you’re going to have to move. And, that will cost money. If you want to experience local cuisine across the continent, that’ll cost you. If the reason you want to fulltime is to save money, chances are you’re going to sit. If you want to visit 49 states and save money,

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Special Report: Analyzing the Dream

We received a comment the other day from fellow blogger I.M. Vayne. Curious about this new visitor, we checked out his profile and found his blog, RV-Dreamers :) :) :). This shiny new blog had us rolling on the floor laughing. We happily added this tongue-in-cheek journal to our blogroll. We look forward to reading more about I.M. and Nilda’s mostly mobile adventures.

What we love most about this blog, besides its disdain for smiley face emoticons, is how it pokes fun at the notion that fulltime RVing is like living a dream. And, speaking as a couple of tried and true fulltime RVers, sure it is.

Except for when it’s not!

Truth is. We are, first and foremost, living. There are those dream-like days that are filled with amazing adventures. There are days that are calm and quiet. There are days where it seems nothing goes right. And, there are days when everything goes our way.

That’s life, right?

We love this lifestyle. Right now, it fits perfectly with who we are and what we’re up to. And, we’re not “giddy teenager in love” with it. We’re more like “25 years of marriage in love” with it. And, while we love the lifestyle, we’re the first to say it’s not right for everybody. Heck, it’s not right for most people. We’ll even go out on a limb and say it’s not right for a lot of people who dream of doing it one day.

Seriously. Any way you look at it, selling a perfectly good house and most of your stuff, leaving your job, family and friends and packing yourself into a 300-square foot fiberglass box on wheels is a crazy idea!

But, that’s the thing about dreams. Once you have your heart set on one it’s hard to see things any other way. You’ll go out of your way to find information that supports your dream. And, there are folks out here in fulltiming land that will happily serve up a great big helping of dream candy on a stick. Some will ask you for money, because it turns out they need to make a living on the road and can’t find any other way to do it besides seducing folks into this dreamy lifestyle.

Everyone means well, probably. But, just as it’s easy to think your hometown, neighborhood, school or place of employment is the best thing ever and everyone else should be there, it’s easy to sing the praises of this amazing lifestyle and forget that’s it not for everybody.

With all this singing and dream candy, some myths have developed. The purpose of this “special report” is to spend the next few days taking a realistic look at these common misconceptions. Our intention is to inform and inspire folks who are dreaming about life as fulltimers to pause and take a good hard look.

The Myths

Fulltime RVing is...
... a cheap way to live.
... the ticket to an early retirement.
... the only way to go.
... a carefree way of life.
... your exit strategy.

We hope you’ll stick around this week as we analyze the fulltime RVing dream. It should be interesting to see what our new commenter I.M. Vayne will have to say!

(Meanwhile, I.M., we're wondering: Do we know you???)

The Best Laid Plans...

...are subject to change!

Our plans to escape from Kerrville have gone through the wringer today. And, we're blaming it all on a bunch of cowboy poets.

With plans to leave Kerrville on Friday, our first destination was a week in Alpine, TX. I looked up the RV park we planned to stay in there and gave them a buzz. I asked for a week starting Friday.

"Uh, we're not going to be able to do that," said the voice from Alpine on the other end of the line. "Everybody needs to be out by Wednesday."

Why?

The 25th Annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering! That's why!

Apparently, this is Alpine's big gig. And, as a result, all the parks are booked for an extended weekend. No problem, I thought, we'll just flip Alpine and Big Bend and everything should work out just fine. Well, no. Not really. We can't get back to Alpine until Monday, which would mean 10 days in Big Bend and.... Suddenly, this was feeling like work!

So, we went back to the drawing board. The result was a completely re-worked plan that has us in Santa Fe when the weather is pleasant and Zion when things might be a bit too warm but definitely better than we originally planned. And, of course, we'll still make our date with John and Sandy in Moab.

The net result is an itinerary that has us enjoying some of our favorite parts of the Southwest when the temperatures are much more to our liking. And, what's the price of this new, improved plan?

A couple more weeks in Kerrville!

We were told our site would be occupied by another lucky Buckhorn camper on Friday the 18th. So, I went to the office to see if there was a spot we could move to and accommodate our new, improved travel plans. Much to my surprise, it seems the future residents of our site had cancelled their reservation. So, this cozy space is ours for the duration.

We thought we'd be leaving March 1st. After further discussion, it looks more like March 8th. We are oh so relieved that we've given ourselves the gift of more time to get the stuff done that we need to do before we hit the road. Besides, the weather is getting pretty darn nice around here. After the cold we've endured, we're ready for some well-deserved payoff!

So, it looks like our stay here in Kerrville, which was originally planned to be one month, will somehow extend to three. Is that magic, or what?

Ya know what? We think we're finally getting the hang of this fantastic lifestyle. To be able to go when we want, or kick back when we don't is simply fantastic.

More soon from Kerrville.