Rethinking full time - RV-Dreams Community Forum

mike54 · RV-Dreams Community Member

Rethinking full time

LarryW21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you aren't happy, quit fulltiming. Think about it this winter...but remember it's June now.

Acheron2010 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Get more girl-friends.
Learn to play guitar.
Get a dog.
For work-camp, be a zoo docent. Especially if you get a job in a zoo nursery, you will never be alone.
Get an Amazon Kindle.
Get certified as an RV inspector.
Go back to school.
Learn a new hobby.

solo boondocker · RV-Dreams Family Member

mike54 wrote:

I went full time April 2016 its not what I imagined it would be. I'm single most of the time (I have a girlfriend that meets up with me sometimes) when she's with me its better I get out do stuff but when she goes back to her home I sit in the rv I don't like going places alone (restaurants, site seeing, ect.) I'm finding that I can't find affordable places to park the rv unless I work camp which I don't mind but during the winter down south but during the summer I'm back up north work camping and I miss my rv friends that I went camping with before I retired and went full time. I'll do a lot thinking this winter and see what changes I can make to make full-time work better

Mike,

You gave the lifestyle more than a year and it hasn't panned out. It was an adventure but it might be time to move on. For what its worth I knew full timing was right for me in a few weeks. It just clicked and has gotten better for 8 years.

One of your posts in 2013 mentions "we" and those after say "I"- none of my business why. Some people need to be married- nothing wrong with that. I skip over so many posts by folks (solo AND married) who don't seem to be able to adjust to rv living. Their solution is to try to "live" through the internet. Some are making a dozen posts a day trying to fill some... gap(?). Folks used to say "Get a life!". These people either haven't gotten a life or are unhappy with what they have. Maybe these don't have the money to go back to a stationary lifestyle. I don't know, but contented people live in the real world not in some cyber escape world. They also don't hide in their camper all day. Don't become one of these folks.

What ever you decide, please, don't get a dog. Why make the dog and your neighbors miserable. And trying to find "things" to make up for... whatever, won't work either. You're either content within yourself or not.

I try to be positive and encourage solos whether I encounter them online or in the real world. Anyone can live this life IF it is what you like. You gave it a shot. It doesn't appear this life is for you. Don't be discouraged. So many don't even try.

solo boondocker

carolinakids · RV-Dreams Family Member

Attend an RV-Dreams Rally. It will help.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mike ... happiness is a choice, if you are waiting for someone or something to make you happy, it's a long wait. If you miss your friends, go back home and set up in an RV park near there so you can reconnect with them. Before you went full time, did you go to restaurants alone? If not, then do whatever you did while living in your RV staying near your comfort zone. "Full time" describes where you live, you get to chose HOW you live. If travel isn't your thing, don't travel. I suggest you do what makes you happy.

Rvlegaleagle · RV-Dreams Community Member

Hi Mike:

I just wound up, and signed up, on here today, July 1, 2017, after doing a google search on "formaldehyde" in Rvs, go figure...lol.

Anyway, I am in the process of probably buying a new Newmar Bay Sport 3124 or 3401 for almost "full timing" along with my two Golden Retrievers:) Selling one home and keeping another as a home base, for now.

Been checking out Youtube videos and reading more than I usually do in my occupation over the last 14 months in preparation and for purposes of learning as much as I can. Haven't spent a single night in a RV in my life. Sure I tent camped with friends in Lake George NY and have been an avid boater all my life on Long Island. Sold the boat last September and am going to try RVing which I know, like the boat, is in my blood:)

I have been very, very lucky in that I have had my own business since 1989 which means, for the most part, I decide when to take off, when to work and when to take a break. I have tried my best to mimic college in that regard...lol.

I guess what I am trying to say is it sounds like you may be a tad depressed because you you are now "retired" and don't take those RV vacations with your friends anymore. I remember my Dad saying that the first year or two of retirement was difficult for him because he was so used to getting up everyday, going to work 9-5 plus commuting, then trying to get things done over the weekend to then do the exact same thing again the next week for over 30 YEARS. (Personally, such an existence just sounds exhausting much less doing it). He called it a habit and a feeling of being guilty about not going to work. A sort of emptiness along with a "what am I going to do today"? Most people don't have the luxury of saying "what am I going to do today" and usually complain about not having enough minutes in a day to do all they have to do:).

You are lucky Mike. There comes a time, hopefully sooner than later, in our lives when we just need to be quiet and think, to look inside and connect with our spirit. Oh, it's there you just have to take the time to find it. Most of our lives are unfortunately spent looking on the outside. I think one of the above posters was saying the same thing in a different way. And the one poster who said it was only June had me rolling on the floor:)

So Mike, start looking on the inside of YOU and find your spirit! Get out of your RV EVERYDAY and go for a walk. Hopefully you are in nature when you walk because that is where the spirit also lives outside of you. Meet people, smile, say hello they have spirits too:) Isn't that what RVers are and do? I sure hope so because I will be one too soon:)

PS. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mike, only you can really make you happy. You mention that you miss "going camping" with your friends. Have you considered joining some RV clubs? Escapees has their Birds of a Feather groups. Those are like-minded people who sometimes get together for various activities. You have a Montana, so you are eligible to join the Montana owners group and participate in their activities. Have you considered Habitat For Humanity's RV Care-A-Vanners? Check out their build schedule at www.habitat.org/cd/rv/schedule.aspx and maybe give one a try. Many church denominations have groups that help churches with building. If you are a member of a denomination check to see if yours is one of those.

Do you have family around the country? If so, maybe you can visit them for a bit and do things with them in that area. We tell our kids that they should NOT expect to entertain us every day we are in the area, but to think of us as living a few miles away. Yes, the last six weeks we've seen our daughter and her family nearly every day, but that's because she just had her first child (our third grandson). We went hiking yesterday, all five of us. I can imagine that I may not have enjoyed it as much if I hiked the same trail by myself, but I had my wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson along. Maybe you could get some family members to go with you on some such activities once in a while.

blijil · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hey Mike
Just a suggestion to think about. What will you do when you quit full timing? Why don't you do those things now? What are the things you hoped to do when you went full timings? Are you doing those things? If the answers indicate that you should quit full timing then so be it. Most of us do it different anyhow. Your way has to work for you.
Good luck whatever you decide.
Larry and Jacki

carolinakids · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hopefully your G/F is supporting you. I had to have something to do. Got a camp hosting gig at a SP and it's helped. Of course I am a people person so I enjoy meeting folks. Good Luck in you decision.

jayc · RV-Dreams Family Member

We're sociable people and love to meet new folks. We've been lucky and have found local RV clubs that were near us when we were working so we could make short trips to rallies. Then we found the Heartland Owners club and their rallies that are now all over the country and have made friends from coast to coast by attending different rallies. You meet the nicest people when you RV and the nicest RV'ers seem to love rallies.

Hogladyrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mike, lots of great input here in the responses!

We grow when we are out of our comfort zones.

Hope you can use some of the great input that has been provided here.

Susan & Gary

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Mike,
I've been full time, now RV less, and looking am forward to future RVing. This time we'll keep the house and travel part time.
It's hard to be happy in any situation without a support system. Whether family, girlfriend or fellow RVers, it's i,portent to have others in your life.
What sort of things do you do now while full timing? What do you think you'll do if you give up fulltiming? What's most important I think is to figure out what makes you happy then put things in place that allow you to pursue those things.