One of the best things about RVing, and full-time RVing in particular, is that there are endless different ways to do it!  Common terms you may see are “full-time stationary”, “snowbird”, “weekend warrior” and even “full-time traveling”.  They each describe the approach that camper(s) have taken for their RVing life.  Within each traveling style, there are additional descriptors, such as “retired”, “remote employed”, “work-kamper”, “volunteer RVer” and more!

RVers, including full-time RVers, come in all shapes, sizes and groups!  In our travels, we meet retired folks like my husband, part-time small business operators like me, families with children, young singles and even single travelers of a “certain age”!  There is as much diversity among RVers as there is in all of society!  What is most remarkable to me are the many people we meet that had little or no experience with camping before they launched their travels (like my DH).

My dear husband and I are cautious planners, so we developed our full-time RVing plans over a number of years, researching the perfect rig (there is none!), the right tow vehicle (you don’t wanna get this wrong!) and developing our camping style (boondockers, state and federal parks, membership camping, etc).

All of this camping diversity is important to know about so that if you have ever dreamed about FT RVing, you also know that it can be done in a wide variety of ways!  Just don’t end up with the “shoulda, coulda, wouldas” and fail to ever take those first exploratory steps or set a concrete goal.  If you fail to set a goal and make a plan to get there, you will miss your FT RVing target every time.

We recently celebrated our 2nd FT RVing anniversary, and like last year, we took some time to reflect upon our lifestyle and touched base with each other to see “how we are doing”.  The consensus – two years in and we aren’t yet ready to come in off the road.

So today I thought it might be good to share our “state of the RV union”, so to speak, looking at how our travels seem to have changed from our original vision, and how our traveling life has made its way through different phases, giving us contentment in our nomadic lifestyle.

Phase I – “Pandemic-Modified Plans”

We launched our FT RVing adventure in July of 2020, in the middle of the infamous worldwide pandemic, so whatever plans we had made for travel, needed to be modified before we ever left our driveway.  Our campground membership with Thousand Trails saved us a lot of money and gave us a reliable place to stay that first fall and winter, since sightseeing was highly restricted and many campgrounds had limitations as well.  While we had planned to explore Florida and the southeast during those first months to stay closer to my youngest child, Ella, who had just left our nest after high school, we instead found ourselves “hanging out” in central Florida most of the time with limited sightseeing because of our Covid cautiousness (thankfully, we stayed safe and well!). 

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas campsites were close enough to Ella that she had a holiday place to visit (a goal of mine for those first holidays), and we decided to postpone our first big “kid visit” to Disney that January and instead, made a quieter visit with just the two of us.  As the pandemic took its course, we felt most comfortable remaining in this Phase I hiatus until the vaccine became available.  It was a great time to shake out our nerves and plan for Phase II.

Look here for our months of memories during Phase I:

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2020/07/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2020/09/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2020/10/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2020/11/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2020/12/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/02/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/03/

Phase II – The “Honeymoon”

Phase II began in spring 2021 as we emerged from the worst of the pandemic, drove north and swung by the PA/MD area to visit our family members before heading west on a summer adventure.  It took weeks to make all the reservations and build our itinerary, because as our country re-opened, RVers were ready to move once again!  

This is the romantic side of FT RVing that we all dream about – seeing amazing sights and having tremendous experiences of a lifetime.  We traveled across the midwest through Illinois, Indana, Missouri and Kansas, out to Colorado, and then circled up into Wyoming, Idaho and Montana before making our way back east in October of 2021.  

Throughout the extended summer season, Andrew’s adult children took us up on our invitation to visit, along with his brother and family and his best friend, Steve!  

Phase II continued with a great visit to Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving, where we were blessed to be able to entice five of our six children to visit, followed by a return to Florida where we celebrated a quiet Christmas and ramped up for a big visit to Walt Disney World in January 2022.  We spent ten days preparing for, hosting and recovering from visits from five of our six kids and our future SIL as well.  

Just to keep us on our toes in Phase II, we managed to stumble upon a new Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel layout that we fell in love with (Solitude 346fls), which we ordered in August while in Montana and picked up in February in Missouri.  Finally, the honeymoon was over, and we slowly headed back east and into what we now call our Phase III of our FT RVing adventure in March 2022.  Look here for our memoirs from our months in the honeymoon phase:

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/06/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/07/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/08/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/09/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2021/10/

https://timetravelsandtribulations.com/2022/03/

Phase III – “Reality Reset”

With many new state stickers on our travel map and a brand new RV in our possession, we initially thought that the time we had in the spring of 2022 would be spent planning our next big summer adventure (who doesn’t want a second honeymoon?!).  But we found that doing too much “go-go-go” may not be the best approach.  As we looked at our calendar, where we had already scheduled a summer exploration of the New England states, it became apparent that it was time to make another adjustment.

Our nephew, Jonathan, was getting married in March.  Andrew’s youngest child, Abby, was graduating from college in May, my brother, Mike, was set to celebrate retirement from a 25 year career in law enforcement (good riddance!) in July,  and our favorite future son-in-law, Chris, was scheduled to become part of the family in early September.  At the same time, we found good reasons to visit our mothers and children for a while, helping where we can and reconnecting in a way that is best done with more regular in-person visits and fewer video calls.  

So we took advantage of our best asset as FT RVers – we can be extremely FLEXIBLE.  The New England plans were canceled and we made reservations for the entire summer via our Thousand Trails Membership and our recently acquired Coast To Coast membership.  As we pass our “two-year mark” and head into the fall, we change campgrounds every two to three weeks, sticking in the Gettysburg/Hershey/Lancaster region of Pennsylvania.  In doing so, we eliminated nearly all campsite fees for the summer (C2C costs us $10 per night, TT is free).

We have used this time that is sort-of stationary, to schedule dental cleanings, wedding-prep shopping, health check-ups and oil changes, dinners with the kids, visits to our moms and day trips to Princeton, NJ, New Hope, PA and every farm market and thrift shop I can shake a stick at (there are soooo many of both in this Amish/Mennonite/tourist parts of the Keystone state).

One part of our FT RVing life that gives us an advantage is our vacation rental business.  We have two properties that can give us some travel downtime if we need it occasionally.  But it wasn’t until this summer that we first came off the road for a week and stayed at our rural Pennsylvania cottage (www.CloversCottage.com), where we hosted Abby’s graduation party with family and friends.  It was nice to have some time to spread out a bit, take care of some property maintenance, and most of all – TAKE A BATH in our antique claw-footed bathtub (perhaps the thing that I miss the most because of life in an RV).

Before our Reality Reset Phase III is complete, we will also visit our Cape May Beach cottage for a combined maintenance and fun stay.  When complete, and as the autumn leaves flutter to the ground, we will wrap up our visit to the area and move on to wherever we decide is next!  In the coming weeks, my stories of our new semi-stationary reality will be posted as well! In the meantime, here are some photos:

Phase IV – To Be Determined

As we look ahead to this fall and winter, we are still deciding where the road will take us.  Where do we want to visit?  How close to Mom should we be?  When is our next medical appointment?  How much cold weather do we want to face?  How will we next be able to see the kids?  Will we finally make it to New England next summer?

No matter our direction or destination, we have learned that the journey will be special and our time together will be treasured.  I have my love by my side and though the plans will vary, and we must be willing to make adjustments for the challenges in life, we know we are blessed to live this life and can make it through to the end of the road, wherever that may be.

POSTSCRIPT

We often get questions about “where or when does it end”.  For us, we went into FT RVing with a general exit strategy in mind, but we had no preconceived notions about how long it may last.  There was always the possibility that we could hastily return to “sticks and bricks” living after only six weeks on the road, but we also knew that it was quite possible that this lifestyle could be open-ended.  

There will come a time when FT RVing is no longer our first choice, but we envision a hybrid in our future, while our health permits it, where we can both travel and have a “sticks and bricks” home base.  We dream of a nice little mountain plot of land out west with RV hookups or a lakeside cottage on the east coast that may be big enough for family to visit.  I would like to once again find a community that we can really feel a part of, with a little church family where we feel like we are a part of something bigger than just our little home on wheels.  We don’t yet know how our story ends, but we welcome the journey every day.

Safe travels, and be sure to make all your RV dreams come true!