Jump to content

25 Things I Have Learned from Full-Timing


Recommended Posts

WISDOM OF FULL-TIMING

25 Things I Have Learned from Being on the Road

By Michael Babayco

 

Having spent the past year full-timing across the U.S. in our 5th Wheel, my wife and I have discovered that what we thought we knew from years of RV camping wasn’t enough to prepare us for all of the things that we didn’t know nor expected.

 

Here are my observations from this past year:

 

1. Whenever you think everything is fixed, you’re wrong.

 

2. No matter how hard you try, sooner or later you will come to know more than you want to know the ins and outs of your sewer system (and its contents!)

 

3. Water does not taste the same everywhere, let alone be available to you when you need it the most.

 

4. Two people figuring out where to go next is a lot harder than it seems.

 

5. One person’s “perfect” temperature is not the same as the other person who is sharing a small enclosed space with the first person.

 

6. When camping in the woods, there is no better sight that what nature has for you through your own windows.

 

7. Hardware stores do not have the specialized RV parts that you need right now.

 

8. Odors are a much bigger issue when all of the windows and vents have to be closed because of the weather.

 

9. Great plans for cooking a big dinner seem to fade quickly after a long and difficult journey to your next destination (which also include a hard unhooking of the trailer!)

 

10. You might as well quit even trying to find camping spots on a weekly basis that have good satellite reception on those days that you want to see your favorite TV programs.

 

11. You quickly find out how many “butts” can fit into a particular area (e.g. one-butt kitchen).

 

12. All those YouTube videos about fixing things in your RV are great and look so easy to do… except they rarely match what you have for your rig, you never seem to have the tool that is being used, and cannot help if something goes wrong during your repair.

 

13. Mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, and flies are universal.

 

14. There really is a big difference in comfort between the different folding chairs that are sold.

 

15. Magazine articles of destinations always look and sound good until you get there. Some are fantastic places more than any picture or description can show and others just don’t float your boat.

 

16. Sometimes a missed turn or being on the wrong road has you discovering new and fun things you did not plan on seeing or doing.

 

17. You didn’t realize how much fun you would have when you didn’t have to follow the rigors of a work schedule, time lines, and bosses to please.

 

18. Time zones changes can really mess up your clocks and your habits. (What’s with Arizona anyway???)

 

19. “Comfort” is a whole different thing in an RV compared to a sticks-and-bricks house.

 

20. Hidden tree branches like to jump out and hit your RV when you are backing into a tight spot.

 

21. Dogs never seem to learn that everywhere we go there will be people out the window that are walking by and all the barking in the world will change that.

 

22. Getting your personal mail to find you in a timely manner is sometimes a lost cause.

 

23. After traveling around with just the things you can fit in the RV (as opposed to the closets, garages, and backyards of stuff and more stuff), you realize that you really didn’t need all that stuff.

 

24. Being creative with what you have can save you money and a trip to the hardware store which would be the easy thing to do living in a sticks-and-bricks house.

 

25. Always being in the same RV “home” really does mean “Home is where you park it!”

Diane and Michael
The "kids"; Tatonka and Penny (Pomeranian mixes)and Buzz (the cat!)
36 ft Alpenlite Limited 5th Wheel
2011 2500HD Silverado
Fulltime in 2015 - It's gonna happen!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved your list!

Stephen & Karen and our six boys, ages 21, 21, 19, 17, 14, & 11
Stephen - Military retiree (as of summer 2012) & current DOI employee (Big Bend National Park)
Karen - Homeschooling stay-at-home mom & veteran
San Antonio, Texas

Fulltimed May 2013 - July 2014 (yes, all eight of us!)
Open Range "Rolling Thunder" (H396RGR - fifth wheel toy hauler bunkhouse) - SOLD
Ford F-350 diesel dually - for the camper
Ford E-350 fifteen passenger van - for the crew

Our unfinished travel blog: http://coach-and-six.blogspot.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I adored the entire list. It is so true

Ron & Linda

Class of 2007
2000 Monaco Diplomat

2005 Honda Element

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" Theodore Roosevelt

"We can't control the wind, but we can adjust our sail"

"When man gave up his freedom to roam the earth, he gave up his soul for a conditioned ego that is bound by time and the fear of losing its attachments."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18. Time zones changes can really mess up your clocks and your habits. (What’s with Arizona anyway???)

 

We are patiently waiting for the rest of you to come to your senses and end the farce of Daylight Saving Time. :-)

 

Arizona's reasons: http://www.abc15.com/news/state/daylight-saving-time-spring-2016-why-arizona-doesnt-observe-daylight-saving

 

Reasons for the rest of you: https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#safe=off&q=daylight+savings+time+cost+benefit+analysis

 

 

Maybe dump time zones or at least go to just two?

 

No zones: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_undercover_economist/2006/10/est_cst_mst_pst_not.html

 

No zones: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/should-we-get-rid-of-time-zones/2012/03/16/gIQAtGJpIS_blog.html

 

 

Two zones: http://qz.com/142199/the-us-needs-to-retire-daylight-savings-and-just-have-two-time-zones-one-hour-apart/

 

 

The suggestion that we dump all time zones world-wide has merit too, it would save much confusion and cost with no real downside aside from confused, grumpy old geezers having to adjust to the change!

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We can relate to that list very easily.

 

Time zones bug me. I never know when there is an advertisement for something on TV what time zone they are talking about.

 

AZ isn't bad, years ago there were changes in time zones in Indiana by county. Talk about confused!!!! As a visitor one didn't know this so dinner at 5 so you could see a movie at 7, especially if they were in two different counties with different time zones was mass confusion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

We are patiently waiting for the rest of you to come to your senses and end the farce of Daylight Saving Time. :-)

The daylight savings thing is something that I've wondered about also. TimeDate.com states the following:

1)Daylight Saving Time (DST) is used to save energy and make better use of daylight. It was first used in 1908 in Thunder Bay, Canada.

 

2)Germany became the first country to introduce DST when clocks were turned ahead 1 hour on April 30, 1916. The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting in order to save fuel for the war effort during World War I.

The idea was quickly followed by the United Kingdom and many other countries, including France. Many countries reverted back to standard time after World War I, and it wasn’t until the next World War that DST made its return in most of Europe.

 

It does seem to be rather a waste of effort. If a community wants to get up an hour earlier in summer than winter, why change to clocks, since they could just change the standard start and end to the workday?

The suggestion that we dump all time zones world-wide has merit too, it would save much confusion and cost with no real downside aside from confused, grumpy old geezers having to adjust to the change!

I looked at those links and see none that are recent, so it must not be a very hot topic. What does cross my mind is that I wonder if the people who need daylight for the work that they do would be likely to support such an idea? Would the farmers in California and the west coast go to work using lights on the tractor to work by while those in Virginia and the east wait for mid-morning to go to the fields and then use lights to finish their day? Even farmers need their business day to match the day of those who the buy from and sell to. This might create an entire new industry to install lighting on horses for the cowboy! And maybe science could develop cattle with reflective hair in order to make them easier to locate in poor lighting conditions?

 

With the growth of international business, perhaps we should only have one time zone for the entire earth and all start at the very same time and end our business day at the same hour also? :lol: Just think how much easier it would be for bankers to coordinate the transfer of money.........

 

 

Diane, I do think that your list is kinda neat and interesting. Sorry to have helped to hijack the thread on to one single aspect of the subject. We found that if we traveled slowly enough, the time changes were less a problem and we didn't need to change the clocks so often! My favorite is #23 as we live in a community of former fulltimers and most of us do collect a bit more once we have a house again, but nowhere even close to what we did previous to our fulltime experience and we do far more lending/borrowing of the things we need occasionally in place of going to the store and buying one. We were on the road nearly 12 years and the effects of the lifestyle never really go away.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, daylight savings time ain't a big deal to me ... sometimes the extra daylight at the end of the day works to my advantage ... and sometimes the later sunrise is a concern. The change weekends ("spring" ahead, "fall" back) give me something to either celebrate or bitch about depending on how I'm feeling at the moment. I can easily empathize with both supporters and opponents of the practice.

 

Professionally speaking, daylight savings time is a pain in the keister. Large, complex distributed computers systems (think of a roomful of computers filling an area roughly the size of a medium sized supermarket) - often rely on being synch with one another via a single time source. Although the "spring" ahead and "fall" back changes are initially made on one or two devices (often automatically!) and propogated out to the thousands of other devices via something called NTP (Network Time Protocol) - most organizations (mine included) check virually all of the servers in their environments to confirm that each server did in fact get the message and has updated it's time appropriately. That means long days of effort, twice each year - spent checking the time on a data center full of computers.

The Spacenorman

2012 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 43' DFT

2012 Jeep Liberty

Our Travel Website: www.penquinhead.com​

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SpaceNorman, Don't forget the fun you have if a server should serve up an unacceptable time to an area where the international border and time zone are in dispute! That can be a huge issue for folks doing business in some less than stable areas of the globe. I get a lot of timezone updates to my server, the zone info seems to always be changing somewhere requiring the servers to update and start using the new data. I stay with GMT or GMT-7 (aka MST) and skip the zone stuff to avoid the aggravation.

 

Kirk, I'm thinking most folks would just get up when they want and go to bed when they want, many studies show that what is on TV and when has more impact on bedtimes than the sun. Farmers deem to get up to milk the cows when they expect it or to start working the field as soon as it is light, don't think they much care what the clock says.

 

Most folks that have looked at daylight savings time agree that it isn't saving anything today and has significant costs associated with it but it isn't a hot topic as you found. Maybe when we can take a break from all the crazy stuff going on in the world we can get back to solving minor problems.

 

-----

 

Looking at the list again, I'd add:

 

- The spare part you bought and put in the basement months ago (because of #1 and 7) isn't the right part and it won't fix what just broke.

 

- Mud and sand are ALWAYS deeper and softer than they looked before you drove into them.

 

- Your aging, iffy looking sewer hose IS NOT good for one more use. Maybe put this one down as 2-a on the list?

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not a fan of DST either, awhile back I ran across a business that had summer/winter hours that corresponded to DST/Standard time. I have emulated that in my business.

 

Steve

2005 Peterbilt 387-112 Baby Cat 9 speed U-shift

1996/2016 remod Teton Royal Atlanta

1996 Kentucky 48 single drop stacker garage project

 catdiesellogo.jpg.e96e571c41096ef39b447f78b9c2027c.jpg Pulls like a train, sounds like a plane....faster than a Cheetah sniffin cocaine.   

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL... like they say "Hindsight's 20/20"! Personally I think it's those rose colored glasses we all start off looking through.

 

I especially like the following...[#12 All those YouTube videos about fixing things in your RV are great and look so easy to do… except they rarely match what you have for your rig, you never seem to have the tool that is being used, and cannot help if something goes wrong during your repair.]...HOWEVER, unlike the home improvement shows (for regular homes) those RV YouTube videos DO NOT encourage us to NOR move us to tear our RV down to the studs only to find how ill equipped we are to deal with the results!

 

... [#15 Magazine articles of destinations always look and sound good until you get there. Some are fantastic places more than any picture or description can show and others just don’t float your boat.]... We have also found the term "RESORT" is GREATLY overused!

 

... [#16 Sometimes a missed turn or being on the wrong road has you discovering new and fun things you did not plan on seeing or doing.]... We have also found this to be true... AFTER the initial PANIC and tears.

 

I do however DISAGREE with ... [#20 Hidden tree branches like to jump out and hit your RV when you are backing into a tight spot.]... Tree branches do this at EVERY given opportunity! We were once rerouted due to construction down a VERY beautiful tree lined DOWNTOWN area. I thought how lovely... then we parked only to see a lovely scratch from the front to the back of our coach. Easily fixed, but very unexpected since we had both commented we were soooo happy those trees were set back from the road (thus a safe distance between us and any scratching that MIGHT occur)!

 

... [#21 Dogs never seem to learn that everywhere we go there will be people out the window that are walking by and all the barking in the world will change that.]... Ours (at the time) also thought she owned THE WHOLE PARK!

 

... [#22 Getting your personal mail to find you in a timely manner is sometimes a lost cause.]... Some things truly DON'T change!

 

... [#24 Being creative with what you have can save you money and a trip to the hardware store which would be the easy thing to do living in a sticks-and-bricks house.] I TRULY believe RV'ERS are the most creative people! If you RV and are NOT able to think "out of the box" so to speak... you are setting yourself up for trouble! If by some freak of nature you are NOT creative... odds are your traveling companion is. If by some bizarre celestial occurrence NEITHER of you are creative make friends QUICKLY in your travels with those that are. If you are NEITHER creative NOR make friends quickly... I truly believe YOUR RV adventure will be just that! (Only you may eventually refer to it as the WORST mistake of your life)

 

Thanks for a great post we can ALL relate to in one way or another!

 

Debbie

2000 Volvo 770 Auto Shift/ 2L Custom Hauler Body with Smart Car Air Loader
2011 Smart Passion

2012 New Horizons 42' Custom 5th wheel (New Horizons Ambassadors)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great list. We've been full timing in our first ever RV for 15 months. My number 26 is "It can cost between $300 and $900 to learn something about your RV that you could have prevented with maintenance."

 

Can't wait for the Escapees Boot Camp in November.

2019 Jayco 5th Wheel 28.5RSTS  2017 Ford F250 Super Duty 6.2L

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I went to full timing, I immediately grew about 2 inches taller?

 

In the sticks & bricks there were my long dead wife's 1957 tax records, a room full of Christmas ornaments that hadn't been used for 40 years, slightly to nearly broken appliances (you know, the ones that are failing so badly you replace them, but save the old ones because they still work a little, or maybe we can repair them at some point?), boxes from previous moves that weren't opened between moves, just put on the truck and moved again, and all those kinds of things.

 

I had to work extra to earn money to pay the taxes on a place large enough to hold all that stuff. That much house took a lot of maintenance, the huge roof seemed to need a lot of repair. Multiple bathrooms so it seemed like there was always a plumbing problem some place. That huge floor has to be vacuumed or mopped frequently. All that space has to be cleaned and stuff frequently moved to clean behind. And every time I need one of those things, I have to search through all the other things for it. And although I know I have at least 1 of them, since I can't find it, I get another one, use it and add it to the other 5.

 

One day I realized I was owned by all that stuff. It demanded I work from dawn to dusk working for it. I was a slave! However crazy the concept of one human being owning another, how much more ridiculous to be owned by things.

 

When I hitched up to my 5th wheel and was ready to drive away, with all that weight off my back, I straightened up leaned back and was at least 2 inches taller, although it felt like a lot more than that.

F-250 SCREW 4X4 Gas, 5th NuWa Premier 35FKTG, Full Time, Engineer Ret.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That was a great list and sooo true.

 

ON the DST sidetrack, you should try being stationed in Europe for seven years and fly home for two to four weeks leave and see how different it is moving forward and back six hours.

 

OK, for 27 years in the military I got up at "OMG! It's still dark outside thirty." During exercises and ORIs (Operational Readiness Inspections) we got up two hours after we went to sleep and stayed up for 48-72 hours with snatches of naps taken when in discussions with generals on our feet. Of course we drove planes and assault vehicles, handled guns and shoot some, and in general handled WMDs in a sleep deprived state of adrenaline depleting focus on elapsed times.

 

I had an electronic leash the rest of the time so that I could be awakened at any time of the day or night to scramble in because my weapons and/or munitions vault alarms had a hiccup and just wanted to see if we still loved it by having us come in to reset it. Not once were VC/Cubans/Communists/Chinese/Russians/Terrorists/Organized crime/Disorganized gangs or other ne'er do wells infiltrating our facilities for nefarious purposes. As soon as I became the Combat Arms "Manager" (read MIFWIC or Boss), I assigned my Assistant the duty to respond as unit point of contact for whatever the LE desk decided we must go out and check with them, which involved getting armed with guns from the main Armory before we went and then having to process them back to that armory. So even a quick reset took hours.

 

DST was, and has always been, a non-starter in my list of annoyances or pride in its absence. It is just not on my radar.

 

Why? BECAUSE I AM RE-TIRED! It appears that there are people that think getting up early makes them superior to their acquaintances and cannot be happy with deciding what they will do today, today.

 

I stayed up until 3 AM last night and watched Season 3 of Orphan Black, and arose today at the sunny hour of 10 AM. My friends know to never call or come by before 10 AM.

 

It took me two to three years full timing to learn how to take life as it comes and live in the moment. I'm retired, get over it if you are too. Yes I am busier than I ever seemed to be in my active duty and working life.

 

Being re-tired means I can ignore the DST debacle. Hard to do? Nahh for all appointments I just ask them what time it is there and then adjust the time I put on my calendar to "their time," as I can be my own time zone - DST (Derek's Standard Time) But I play their silly little game just so I know if they called me too early. Besides, I am with the majority of physicists who believe time is not real but just an illusion. Then some one will hear about Lee Smolin's book, which I disagree with, and say time is real. But it is hard to get people to click on a link and read a page, let alone find the time to read a 319 page book on time. (pun int.)

 

And that brings us back to the topic. Another thing you will learn RVing Fulltime eventually is that:

 

You never, ever, promise to be at a working friend's or family member's town on a certain day for a visit. You don't even hint at it. You just detour to their town whenever you are able to after stopping to marvel at wonders and people and events en route. Then if you were shooting for mid June and made it in early August instead, no one took vacation time or set up things to do a month early.

 

Because sure as shooting if you do, a tire will fail, or another week long "stoppage" will happen. Tornadoes, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, ice storms, floods, and regional power outages that prevent fuel pumps that need electricity from working will surely happen if you do. I have proven that for every major disaster, there is an RVr who made a visit appointment or a reservation six months in advance.I like to just set up in an RV park or other campground, and give them a call like we aren't in town and then just have them over for dinner explaining that we are on the way to another place, and only have a day or two at most to "hang" with them. It avoids their assuming their hosting mantles and whipping up a two week schedule of "things to do" while getting out of that cramped RV and sleeping in their guest room, and leaves open the option to violate the Benjamin Franklin wisdom that: "Fish and visitors stink after three days."

 

In time, the time to time your time becomes time consuming until your time becomes your own. ;)

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the subject of DST, there is an old politically very incorrect story that when it first began in the U.S., an old Native American grumbled, "Only a white man would believe that cutting a foot off the top of his blanket and sewing it on the bottom, will keep his feet warm at night."

F-250 SCREW 4X4 Gas, 5th NuWa Premier 35FKTG, Full Time, Engineer Ret.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the subject of DST, there is an old politically very incorrect story that when it first began in the U.S., an old Native American grumbled, "Only a white man would believe that cutting a foot off the top of his blanket and sewing it on the bottom, will keep his feet warm at night."

 

Wise and funny! :lol:

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the subject of DST, there is an old politically very incorrect story that when it first began in the U.S., an old Native American grumbled, "Only a white man would believe that cutting a foot off the top of his blanket and sewing it on the bottom, will keep his feet warm at night."

I have heard that as well, but have never found any documentation of it. If they didn't say it, they probably should have.

 

A History of Daylight Saving Time

 

f2d4472472bfbc5d5d4526b602041b8a.jpg

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I do however DISAGREE with ... [#20 Hidden tree branches like to jump out and hit your RV when you are backing into a tight spot.]... Tree branches do this at EVERY given opportunity! We were once rerouted due to construction down a VERY beautiful tree lined DOWNTOWN area. I thought how lovely... then we parked only to see a lovely scratch from the front to the back of our coach. Easily fixed, but very unexpected since we had both commented we were soooo happy those trees were set back from the road (thus a safe distance between us and any scratching that MIGHT occur)!

Ha ha. As I mentioned before, I've been restoring a Class B since 2009 (reason for so long has to do with disability issues and surgeries). One of the things I started last year was painting the B (had to quit when the Colorado snow came and picked it up again this year - it's almost done). This came about because when I pulled into the auto paint place hoping to get an estimate the old man who owned it came out and said "hell no" before I even got out of the van. It actually looks pretty awesome now. But one of the things I really liked about the idea of doing this was we could always bring a pint of each of the two colors used so when the tree branch writes its signature on the van exterior we could touch it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...