Does the vacation ever end? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

KellyVA · RV-Dreams Family Member

Does the vacation ever end?

Ann-Hank · RV-Dreams Family Member

God, I hope not!!!

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

If we were on vacation we would be getting out on day trips a lot more. The last few days I have been fixing things and some of them are plumbing. I really don't like plumbing. Plus when we took vacations we spent more money per day than we are now, often a lot more money. No way could we keep that up.

We definitely do not feel we are on an endless vacation, but I think that is one of the reasons people quit full-timing. Those people do think it is an endless vacation and once it stops feeling that way, they stop.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

To me it is just one big happy neighborhood.......Im always at home just a different view out the windows.....my work is always the same , just a new set of customers.

Vacation is when I alter how Im living now to take a break.......which like Bill says cost more money to relax more and see more things.......Hard to picture trying to take a vacation from my leisure lifestyle!!!!

Raytronx · RV-Dreams Family Member

Rather than vacation, it seems like an endless adventure to me.

Ray

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

We don't view it as endless vacation either, we just live a mobile lifestyle. We're still working, keeping up with house chores, have social engagements, etc. Just instead of living in a fixed location where our 'off hours' can be spent meandering around our local area - we have new places to constantly explore.

We couldn't sustain an endless vacation of expensive tourist attractions, eating out all the time and not earning an income.

For us, it's better than vacation :)

- Cherie

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

In the words of one of the greatest and well known travelers of the worlds.........

To In-finity and Beyond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buzz Lightyear & his Sidekick Woody

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill is right. if you stay in a vacation mode after you start full-timing, you'll probably burn out in a couple years, or even sooner.

Jim

Rob_Fla · RV-Dreams Family Member

When I send a email out to our Field Techs that I am taking some vacation time, I get responses back asking, how do you tell the difference?

Ann-Hank · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the head knock Bill. I know it's not a vacation, just a different mind set. Still have chores & upkeep to do, we just get to have our "home" and comfort zone with us, no matter where we are.
Ann

Dog Folks · RV-Dreams Family Member

KellyVA wrote:
We were talking about this so thought I'd post and see what you all think.
Does the feeling that you are on an endless vacation ever end?

Most full timers that I have talked with said that the "vacation mode", changed at 12-18 months in. It did for us also. After the vacation mode ends, the lifestyle is just different, not worse.

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Again, such an interesting thread, we're all so different but I find you all so interesting. Ever since I retired I've been on vacation -chores or not - on the road or not. It's all vacation to us.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I got A chance to think about it!!!!...................

Once the novelty wears off and the reality sets in.........I think a vacation is not necessary. You start living in the comfort level and doing the things in a life you always wanted..........and as Ray stated it becomes an adventure , this is something we all dreamed with from childhood....

Adventure:
To glean the beaches of lost treasures and look out on the seas for pirate ships

To climb the peaks of majestic mountains and leave our flags behind

to travel across great deserts in search of beautiful oasis'

to search for wild animals never seen before except in our minds

And most of all we do it out our own back door and this time, We are doing it for real and our imagination only leads the way!!!!!!!!!

KellyVA · RV-Dreams Family Member

I love all of the responses here too, you are all fun, can't imagine what it must be like at a rally! :) I can imagine retirement in general feels like a vacation for quite some time to a person who has worked at the same job day after day for 30+ years and being able to travel, explore and live on the road is the bonus that keeps on giving...:)

PIEERE · RV-Dreams Family Member

It's a Vacation; but remember just like the ordinary lifestyle....stuff happens. My favorite time is when I am on the road.....stopping and visiting attractions or finding a place to drop my fishing line. Not setting in a campground trying to mend from a health problem that reared its' ugly head. It seems to be getting better; at least I hope or it could be what we call "hitch-itch, figure it will be better to go back to work camping then sitting here gaining pounds and becoming complacent.

soos · RV-Dreams Family Member

We're in our 4th year of fulltiming. When we started out everyone said we'd be in vacation mode for about a year, then our pace would slow down. For us, that hasn't happened, yet. We still move every week or so, 12 months out of the year. Why? We want to. We could stay longer but we choose not to. Some would say the fact that we move so often means we are still in vacation mode, but to us, we move when we are ready to investigate and explore another area. Eventually we WILL slow down, but not yet.
Whether fulltimers feel like they are on vacation may be influenced by whether they are retired or not. We are retired, so we don't have the day to day structure you might feel if you are working. We still have household chores of course, and learned a long time ago that we need "down" days where we just putter around, clean out cabinets and do paperwork.
We also feel more, or less, vacationy, depending on where we are, where we are staying, and what we are doing. Every once in a while we'll book a Resort type place to stay, so that will feel more like a vacation. If we are someplace like Savannah, GA, we are there to learn about the area and it's history. That type of destination is a Learning or Exploring destination, and has a different feel than say, a Florida Keys or Quartzsite AZ stay.
We are spending this winter in the keys because we've never been here before, but I had to sit my husband down and remind him that although there will be new things to see and explore, its mostly just a warm place to wait out the winter before heading north, so he is not allowed to get Hitch Itch!

Sue

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sue: Even after 9 years we still do a lot of moving around and travel 9,000 to 12,000 miles each year . I don't think of it as "vacation mode", but others do. Those people were not with us when we were really on vacation, since we would be traveling over 25,000 miles a year at that pace.

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think because we thought and researched this fulltime lifestyle for so long before actually doing it we had our minds pretty well set that it was going to be at a slower pace than we would have done during our vacation's. Our vacations had us doing things every day from morning til night.

We are very new to this life style but so far we have done what we said by going slow and still have seen many things. Like mentioned before,, it depends on wherer we are on how active and vacationy we feel. And a week to 2 weeks seems to be our normal stay in a area so far. Just enough time to do day trips and sight see yet have down days for chores or,,, well just to be lazy.

So to answer your question,, we have only been on the road 3 months and it does not feel like a vacation but a lifestyle.