We now spend our winters in Mesa, AZ in a Park Model and travel in the motorhome in the summer, following 9+ yrs of fulltiming. As long as we can still manage our coach, we will do this and at some future time when the body doesn't want to handle waste holes, electrical cords, water hoses, etc., just spend all year in AZ.

We chose not to have a S&B any more…we snowbird in the rig in North Fort Myers for 5 months then travel the rest of the year. Our long term plan was to eventually get a condo/apartment in Fort Myers area and a smaller rig for some 2-3 month travel sessions. With Connie's recent detached retina and the likelihood that it will never be as good as it was before the detachment…combined with her only having visibility in 1 eye even before the detachment…then we may have to reevaluate.

At this point we're just getting rid of our car and will just have the truck and the New Horizons…will probably get a junker to use in Fort Myers and just store it at the park there while we travel. We'll travel as per our normal routine for summer 2017…and see how her vision holds up on traveling. Not really planning to stop our current travel style at this point…just realizing that it might have to change depending on her ability to see things. She can see to get around the rig and things like that…but can't drive, can't (currently but she hasn't gotten new glasses post detachment yet) read menus in restaurants and can't see much of the view from gorges/waterfalls/whatever at this point.

We're hoping things improve and we'll be able to continue…and won't make any knee jerk permanent changes…but this detachment thing has shown us that (even though we already knew it) health may be fleeting and the ability to do what we do might get affected by circumstances beyond our control.

On the 'home base or not' question…it really comes down to whether you want to do it and can afford it…it's more expensive to maintain a home you only use in the nice weather seasons and travel in the RV during winter…but then as H&L always see…there ain't any wrong way to do this full timer thing (or part time full timer thing or whatever you want to call it). Do what makes sense, what you want to do, and what you can afford. What we like most about it is the ability to go places, see things, drink different beers, and meet different people. Whether that will still be fully possible…or need to be modified…well, we'll figure that out and do what we need to do when we need to do that.

 

 

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Saturday 18th of June 2016 03:26:57 PM

Neil: Sorry to hear about Connie. Eyesight is precious.

For many years we did not "Winter", not settling in one location for more than one month in winter. That has changed.
After many years we have settled on two locations for the winter, the same park as Barbaraok in Mesa and the same park as Neil and Connie in North Fort Myers, since they are good campgrounds and these people are our friends. We find 3 months works well for us, leaving 9 months for travel.

Be careful, our plan was to fulltime for 2 to 5 years and that was in 2003. We are still fulltiming.

Jo and I are different from most everyone else here.  We moved into our RV back in 2011 and have lived in it full time since then.  In 2014, we both retired and moved from Oklahoma City to Colorado, partly to be near her sisters, and partly to be in Colorado in the winter.  20 months there, and now we've moved to Oregon and will be here for at least a year, perhaps longer.  By staying in one place for a longer period of time, two things are happening that helps us financially.  We aren't spending a lot of money for travel expenses with the RV, and we are able to see more of the attractions in the area where we are.

We planned it this way, to spend longer periods of time and once we feel we've seen all we want in a particular area, then we move on to another area and start exploring.

When the time comes that we can't do this, we'll likely just rent something, somewhere...who knows where.  No rush on that part.

Terry