Congrats Bill and Diane!! Both on the new home and 15 years on the road. Enjoy the extra space, one of the few things we miss about not having a house is not having room to leave projects that are a work in process out for very long.

Congrats on your 15 years of fulltime!!! That's a mark we will probably not achieve but we are over 5 now and still going strong. And congrats also on the new winter home, a new chapter.

Congratulations...enjoy

There are definitely expenses to owning a "house" that has to survive the Arizona summer. Yesterday we made arrangements with a company that closes up places for summer, checks on them once a month and then opens them up. We didn't have time to figure this all our ourselves and price was actually quite reasonable. Especially with all the advice and experience, since the company has been doing this for 19 years. We learned that with a newer place like ours, it is best to leave the electricity on and set the thermostat to 90 degrees. This preserves the drywall and wood. The resort was already going to bill us for sewer, water and garbage monthly (yes, that is a money maker for them) and electricity is added to that bill. We also bought some supplies they will use, like buckets they will fill and leave water in, a tarp to cover the outdoor carpet to protect it and bricks to keep the tarp in place. We also learned the dishwashers are the most frequently broken appliances due to not being used over the summer and due to the hard water. Plus there will be storage expenses for the motorhome next winter.

It has taken us 15 years to figure out where we would settle during winter. We have not figured that out the rest of the year. Eventually we will probably end up with a winter and summer home and drive a car between them, but that could be decades away. Our biggest worry is medical, since medical issues have affected our travels multiple years. We might look in good shape, but medical issues are what caused us to retire early. Though at the time we did not know we were truly retiring. We figured 2 to 5 years of fulltiming and here we are at almost 15.

I still tell people to move around and try different areas and places their first few winters. You might not be able to get your first choice of campgrounds, especially in February in the best places (south Florida, Palm Springs, San Diego), but many places have one or two week openings December, January and March, sometimes with discounts (Passport America can be helpful). Even if the campground is not your favorite, a week or two is doable and you can explore the other campgrounds and area. If we had only listened to friends we would have ended up places that did not fit us as well as our friends and might have left the road without realizing our friends choices are not gospel. We spent 1 to 2 weeks at various places in Florida, the Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas, south Texas, low elevation areas of Arizona and southern California. What worked for us (Fort Myers FL and Mesa AZ) others we know did not like, and that is fine. For us there is a big difference between what we like for a short stay and what we want for a stay of many months. We have many places we enjoy a few week stay in summer, that we have little interest in staying for months at a time. Boondocking is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. Being in nature and away from it all is an occasional thing for us, it is the lifestyle for others. For many the campground activities are very important, for others they do not matter. For many years we did not care about most campground activities, now some are important. We don't mind a bit of city traffic when we go out to do things, including shopping. Others will do anything to avoid driving in traffic. For many having a Super Wal-Mart is all they need for shopping, we need more. We are able to sometimes spend more in a month than many, though I admit the this winter camping costs in Fort Myers were a bit much ($1700 a month including electricity). (The Florida Keys are worse). I have met people who got off the road because of a conflict between what they could or would afford and the expenses of camping or doing things where they wanted to visit. If you budget for $400 a month in camping, but want to visit places where it costs $400 a week, you have a problem. Don't let peer pressure force you to go somewhere you don't want or to do things you don't enjoy. Find other peers and only see those people outside of winter.

Sorry about the ramble.

Best wishes to you both. Bill, thanks for that 'ramble', it is extremely helpful to me as I wrap up my first winter full time. I ventured to the southwest and it was very surprising, both full of delights and adventures, and mis-steps and missed opportunities. I have lots of exploring to do. My next mission is to do some recon in Florida before the summer season starts, and to switch to a 4-season unit so I don't have to work so hard to stay south of the frost line for so many months. Because I don't know if this winter was a freaky cold one or will be the new typical. Anyway, thanks for the sage words about finding the right places.

Thanks, Barb. I did stay south of I-10 this winter, but that didn't stop the freezes! Who knew....

C'mon, Folks...

...there's beauty in those "cool" spells.  Southern Utah, specifically Kanab, UT and our rig.

Terry

silver bullet: We will have to get together next winter.