Our only experience in an RV was a one week rental to see it we could handle the small space.

We jumped into full timing with zero experience, and it's been an amazing, fun adventure that just keeps getting better as we approach 4 years in February.

That's us though. Follow your heart. If you feel you're rushing things, slow down.

Good luck,

Never camped or RV'd before buying a 5th wheel and F-450. Its been over 2 years and we'd never go back.

I camped a lot when I was a kid. My father was a teacher so every summer we would go on trips. We started out with a borrowed truck camper, then he bought his own truck camper. From there they bought a real small TT then moved up to a 20 foot TT. Then mom wanted more comforts so they sold the camper and after the kids grew up they now stay in motels. I lived in 24 foot TT for about a year and a large dome tent for 3 months in Yuma when husband was in the service. My hubby himself has never lived in a camper but he is mister neat and tidy, so we are going for it. I know I can do it. And we are best friends besides being husband and wife. Living in such a confined space together won't be difficult. We even worked together at two different places. He was my boss for awhile and I was his boss for awhile. Liking the other person helps a lot. Ann

We talked about going full-time, and in the beginning it seemed more like a dream than a reality. We decided to buy a used class-c and take a few trips to see how we liked it. Every trip we took it became harder and harder to return home. We took a trip to Lassen in northern California, then up to Oregon to see Roseburg, then over to the coast to see the ocean. The whole trip we kept seeing places we wanted to visit and explore. We actually dreaded going home. And that's when we decided we wanted to leave the rat race of jobs, our expensive home and all it's responsibilities. We sold the class-c, bought our class-a, sold everything, and hit the road and never looked back...from when we first started talking about full-timing to actually doing it took about 2 years.  We had no previous experience with rv'ing.


-- Edited by NorCal Dan on Wednesday 19th of August 2009 02:56:33 PM

We rented a 28' Class A for a week one summer, bought our own 34' Class A the next summer and within two years had decided we couldn't get far enough away from home on weekends or a one week vacation, sold it all and were on the road.  That was almost 9 years ago, and the wheels are still rolling along!

Mary
currently at Glacier National Park

We did a lot of tent camping when I was young and even had a small trailer for a while. But once I was an adult I didn't have any experience camping. Diane grew up camping in a truck camper and her parents were full-timers before we were, so she had some idea what we were getting into. We part-timed for a year and a half before going full-time so by the time we were full-timers we were experienced.

I grew up camping. First tent camping in Dad's old canvas army tents. Heavy and held up with 4x4's. When it rained my brother would touch his finger to the tent just over us girl's heads while we were sleeping so it would leak in that spot all night long. There were 7 of us counting my parents. We camped and hiked all over New York state.

It wasn't long until we were into a 21' Frolic RV (all of us)  talk about a tight knit family. We would caravan with other familes up to Maine and Nova Scotia and come all the way to Texas from Upstate New York to visit with family. The best memories of my life were camping, discovering the nature and living among it, even if it was only for the weekend sometimes.

My husband and I carried on the tradition with our daughter and now, our grandkiddos.

Each year my daughter and her husband take the kids to either Cozumel, San Diego, Florida or some place expensive and extravagant for spring break. Last year I talked them all into going camping for the week with us. The kids didn't want to leave, they had a blast and the best part of it, we never left the campgrounds. They biked, learned about birds, deer, racoons and other critters and talked around the campfire.

We're not FT'rs yet, but will be in another year and a half and plan on keeping the family involved. We plan on taking the kids with us for a month in the summer and if they want to come during other school breaks, all they have to do is call and we will pick them up at the nearest airport.

-Connie