Oroborus

[l'eau]

though I guess you would have to have some kind of funds - and be in good shape:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/us/18campers.html

[Thomas James Haller]

There’s a campground near here that is now open all year with a permanent host, that I assume is trading campground maintenance for a place to stay. The campground was actually closed for the last couple of years, and in disrepair. It’s nice to see it open again.

[River]

I think it sounds great. I don't have an RV though. Hey Snowhawkwoman, ever think of this?

River

[roygbiv8clubs]

Last time I was in Southern California I checked out campgrounds from Malibu to Avila Beach. So many people, including seniors, live in their campers now because they can't afford high rents or buying a home, that even if the camper is new and lovely, there is a definite "look down your nose" leper attitude from the powers that be, and STRICT rules. The fines are very high for not parking in a campground. There is NO place to park other than a campground. I'm sure those manager spots are coveted. I did see some manager spots open on the Oregon Coast. Security is an issue in some parks.
It's okay if you have an address and are on vacation, but NOT okay if you are living in the camper permanently.
Most campsites in SoCal are $25, 35, 45 a night and that can really add up. One place in Malibu was $75 if I remember correctly. The cheapest was on the beach in Malibu at $15 a night, no showers, and night noise (fires on the beach and the ocean waves). They fill up fast in the Summer.

I think it's best just to enjoy and keep the camping vacation separate, and keep your home in an affordable part of the country. It's a hard, cruel world out there for people who live in their campers full time.

[snowhawkwoman]

Going "fulltime" in an RV is our dream!!

In the RV community you will find a lot of people that sell their "stick and brick home" and give up the headache of property taxes, lawn mowing, and snow shoveling for the open road. And contrary to the belief that they are "poor" and so "forced" to full time live in their RVs....it's actually a choice that they have made, often with many, many years of planning!! And, though it does save money to "camp host" which many do (trading work for electricity, water, sewage and often a paycheck too), most do not....they live off of savings, their social security checks, etc.

Check out the prices of the large fifth wheel trailers these people live in...many of them cost between $75,000 and $125,000....with the large diesel trucks running around $50,000.....and large motorhomes (most full timers opt for diesel motorhomes) run from $180,000 up to a million dollars.

Full time RVers are the gypsies of old....the love of travel...especially heading south to warm weather in the winter, and north to cooler climates in the summer...is what make full timers tick!! There are lots of books in the RV community devoted to full time RV living and also "workkamping" (which is RV language for "working for your rent/utilites/paycheck while living full time in your RV) Full -time RVers also have a choice of 7 states to choose from to use as their "retirement" address..states like South Dakota....where their tax laws are lenient....the RVer gets South Dakota residency by establishing a P.O. box in that state and registering their rigs/tags in South Dakota....then they get "mail forwarding service"....and the companies there ship their mail to them a couple of times a month...Full time RV living is an entire industry in its self!!

Our kids know that we want to "full time" and think we are nuts....but there are about 100,000 folks out there just as nuts as we are!!

And a lot of full-timers are young!! With families!!! They work in construction and travel from place to place, or they work in the high tech industries, and a lot of women travel solo....many of them nurses who travel and work in areas that are in need of nurses for a few months, then they move on. And there are retired women also who travel the roads "solo" (I know of one lady in her late 80's who drives her motorhome all alone, does all her own maintenance, and loves it!!)....they even have a huge club for single RVers...it's called "Loners on Wheels" And there is a large community of RVers called "Escapees"....these folks have a huge network of discounted campgrounds to stay in across the country PLUS in Texas they have a campground for folks who can no longer take to the road because of illness...and this campground has nurses and home health care services!!

A lot of those motorhomes and 5th wheel trailers you see going down the road are owned by people who live in them full time and LOVE IT!!
_________________
Live each day as if it were a work of art.

Favorite quote:
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
Ingrid Bergman

[snowhawkwoman]

roygbiv8clubs: it's not a hard life, but a great life!! and as for the nightly fees.....most full-timers get a discounted rate for opting to stay at least a month.....monthly rates are usually much, much cheaper than nightly rates

also.....folks who are staying in California expect to spend more for campsites than any other state in the USA....they stay because of jobs, or family. In Kansas there are 72 places in the state to stay for FREE (many with free electric and water for up to 10 days)...and with a Golden Age passport....we can stay at state lakes/Corp of Engineers sites with electricity and water and a dump station for $9 a day!!

check out the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.......it's the winter location for thousands and thousands of full time RVers ....and the rates for a month of utilities is often $250 to $275 a month......and no property taxes...if you have your rig paid off...that's pretty cheap living....leaving money left over for hobbies/entertainment....much more than living in a Stick and brick house!! And if the view from your window gets boring, you just start the engine and change the view!!
_________________
Live each day as if it were a work of art.

Favorite quote:
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
Ingrid Bergman

[Missnancy]

If you don't have a camper, you can also become a caretake or house-sitter. I doubt there are many like the hotel in the movie "The Shing". Redrum redrum redrum

http://www.caretaker.org/

[roygbiv8clubs]

snowhawkwoman,

Okay, okay, I won't put my wet blanket on your enthusiasm. lol. Your rose colored glasses look good on you.

I like the Entertainer coaches the best$$:
http://www.staleycoach.com/
http://www.staleycoach.com/ENTSALESLIST.htm
http://www.staleycoach.com/48819.htm

Here's Loretta's for only 45,000
http://www.pingroup.com/id79.html

"Many argue that a properly built and maintained entertainer bus does not depreciate much if any after its 10th year. This is due to the prices for new ones being so extravagantly high. Buy a 10 year old conversion, use it for 5 years, and probably sell it for what you paid for it."
http://www.busforsaleguide.com/entertainer-bus-for-sale.htm

The commandments:
http://www.busforsaleguide.com/commandments.htm
http://www.rvforsaleguide.com/

[Thomas James Haller]

Texas is loaded with inexpensive snowbird campgrounds down near Brownsville.

roygbiv8clubs is right about California being unfriendly to full time RVers. Most states are, except the ones that cater to the snowbirds. It’s all about maintaining property values.

I wish I had picked up some acreage here in Oregon back in the 1980s. Then I could just put in a well and septic and a RV pad, leave the property undeveloped, and take off whenever I want.

[snowhawkwoman]

yea....those "entertainer" buses are "extreme".....I saw one that was bright turquoise thru out the interior! I wouldn't want one myself .....most have the Detroit Diesel Series 60 engines which crap out a lot faster than other engines and tend to have problems.

My preference would be a Winnebago Adventurer with triple slides and a gas engine. Maybe a 2005 model with around 20,000 miles on it.

And yeah....you can buy those big buses used for what you pay for a new larger gas motorhome!!

That's what I want Thomas....a few acres, with a nice storage building/shop, and an RV pad....just someplace simple to land back home to spend time with the kids and grandkids a few times a year.....
_________________
Live each day as if it were a work of art.

Favorite quote:
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
Ingrid Bergman

[deerscribe]

Today I saw a two-tone brown Fleetwood RV pulling a mini-Cooper car behind it, painted the same two-tone brown colors. What a great way to travel. I thought, "there goes snowhawkwoman!"

[snowhawkwoman]

LOL....boy I wish !!! It will be me someday (we currently own a fleetwood.....but I really want a Winnebago or a Newmar)

saw a motorhome parked at walmart a while back...and this is what they were toting behind their big RV

[/img]
_________________
Live each day as if it were a work of art.

Favorite quote:
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
Ingrid Bergman

[roygbiv8clubs]

Just keep in mind that there is a division between RV'ers. The people who own a home (socially acceptable) and those that live in their RV's.

Even for people with plenty of income and new coaches, how long do they want to camp in campgrounds all jammed up close to neighbors? If you're a joiner/very social person and have the same friends every year to connect with or are in some annual group meeting/festivities (bluegrass, police, elks, etc etc). Most parks have a time limit (2 weeks aprox) on how long you can stay.

I have friends and family who love it but they also have homes to return to or rent out when they are gone ($5000+ a month). My sister and hubby always buy a big new trailer (5th wheel?) and they tow it with their huge truck (15 miles to the gallon which is very good). She says the trailers cost less than RVs. They own a vacation home also.

Another consideration is that an RV is a vehicle and can be impounded if the driver has had a beer or even open container (in Calif). A fifth wheel doesn't have that possibility.

Wet blanket aside, some of the pros are that in a natural disaster, a mission ready RV comes in real handy for sure!!

[snowhawkwoman]

Having a "self contained" RV (which we currently do....inverters, solar panel, generator) means that if I want I can boondock (park where there are no hookups or even campgrounds)....so I don't worry about "neighbors"....but we use RV parks also (KOA, etc).... we are there to "explore" so we don't normally hang out in the RV park....unless we are at the COE campground behind the Kanopolis Resevoir (on the back flow river)...then we stay there for a week or more because it's very relaxing. And the "neighbors" in general are very friendly, helpful, and quiet during "quiet hours".

I've been a part of the RV community for quite a while....I've never run into a single person who thought "full timers" were somehow "less than". In fact, most people we know wish they could "full time" or are planning it in the future. I know several people who have been full time living for over 10 years...one is 17 years and still loving it! (now if you are talking about the "rich" looking down their noses at anyone with an RV less expensive than theirs...than yes, I've run into a few of those over the years...and like in my every day "non rving" life....I don't associate with those people...it's a waste of energy...you can't "make people nice".)

And I've researched every thing I could get my hands on (there are about 20 books just on "full time RV living"), talked and talked to other full-timers, and put the pen to paper on a budget for us so we can get to our goal. The hubby has done a 3 month test run (he lived in the RV full time for 3 months while building a new Wendy's)...and he loved it!

Right now the hubby and I are working on our health....we are both losing weight, excercising, changing our eating habits, etc so that we can be in good shape to enjoy being on the road. and I've been working on the RV, learning everything I can about doing as much of the maintenance myself that I can....I learned how to remove the anode rod in the water heater and replace it just last fall !! I get up on the roof 4 times a year and have learned how to use eternabond in the proper way to keep all roof areas caulked and "water intrusion" free.

for us....it's less than 2 years to our goal of being "on the road"!!

in a past life I must have been a gypsy.....hooking my horse up to my caravan and moving along the back byways....that's my favorite way to travel....we don't go to "big attractions"....we travel the blue highways and explore small towns.
_________________
Live each day as if it were a work of art.

Favorite quote:
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
Ingrid Bergman