Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
The original Happy Hobo's were my parents, Armand & Fran. Dad was a life long camper having started with his mom and dad at Rocky Neck in Connecticut when he was a baby, Mom became a camper while dating dad prior to WWII. My sister and I were raised camping from infancy. Many weekend trips mom & dad slept under a pick nick table with a tarp draped over the top, sis on the back seat of the car and me in the trunk. Colman pump up gas stove and old wooden milk box with a chunk of ice in it. We graduated to a borrowed tent for week long vacations along the rivers of Vermont. Both sis and I learned to swim in the West River, Townsend VT from a rocky shore 100 yrds. below the Old Scotts covered bridge. We had to be able to swim up stream from the 'beach' to the bridge before we were allowed to swing from the rope hanging from the bridge. As time went buy the equipment got better and once my sister and I were off starting our own families mom & dad graduated to a Minnie Motorhome a Mobile Traveler that mom used to commute to work during the week. They spent many weekends on the Rode Island shore at Georges & Charlestown Breach Way forming lasting friendships with the crew. It was during this time they acquired the CB handle 'Happy Hobos' from the truckers they met at roadside stops where mom would host the drivers to iced tea and the shade of their awning while waiting for rush hour traffic to subside. In 1980 at 62 years of age they sold their modest home, traded the Mobile Traveler for a Pace Arrow and became true full time Hobo's for about 12 years. Now we take our next step in our transition from frequent campers towards constant wanderers with the sale of our 28 ft. 5th wheel and purchase of a 2004 Newar Dutchstar disele pusher and a 2013 Jeep Compass. We were able to rescuer the handle Happy Hobo's and dad's member number 52319 with our Family Motor Coach membership. I don't think we will become true full timers but operate from two base properties, one in New England and one In Southern FL. Our base properties will give us dependable places to stay when the pressure for camp sites hits seasonal peaks. Dad & Mom didn't worry about this until the very end of their time on the road. In season Florida became very hard to find stays beyond their 14 days at a time at Thousand Adventures / Trails parks. Up north they had little trouble finding good places to stay and both my sister and I had room for them on our property. But those were different times.
Looking forward to learning this new life style and meeting new friends. First stop after picking up the Bus in Ft Meyers FL. will be Bowling Green FL County Park or something in Arcadia FL for a few weeks shaking out the rig before traveling to Bahia Honda St Park in the Keys for a two week stay then drift north with the warmer weather, who knows where till we reach home base in Monson MA.
Wow, sounds like you will be able to teach us a few things with all that traveling history in the family! It does seem like it's going to increasingly hard to spend much time in Florida in winter without having your own lot, or planning way way ahead. Good to have you, and please chime in with your thoughts on the other forum topics when you can.
You have brought memories of when I grew up.we always had a tent which was upgraded through the years. I remember right before bedtime, my 3 sisters and I would truck down the dirt path in our pj's to the bathroom. Now I wouldn't dream of that but we were kids!! Happy Hobo Second Generation on the Road!
I was born in Vermont way back when. Raised on a Dairy Farm in a little town called Danby. went to high school in Wallingford, graduated in 1964. Went right into the USAF, spent the whole 4 years at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. Married a young lady from Texas. After I got out we moved back to Vermont because the wife thought it was the most beautiful place she'd ever been. I remembered all the good times/friends I had during those years. But after being gone for 4 years everything changed. My old friends had moved on with there lives. The job market at that time sucked, so we packed up our belongings and moved back to Texas where our new lives had been. I've been back there a few times during the years, but "You can never really go home".
Winnebago TT 2101DS & 2020 Silverado LTZ Z71. 300 watts WindyNation solar w/MPPT, 2 Trojan T-125s. TALL flag pole. Prefer USFS, COE, BLM, USF&WS, NPS, TVA, state/county camps. 14 year Army vet-11B40 then 11A - old MOS 1542 & 1560.
