A summary of 5 years on the road

[hdrider]

We recently completed our 5th year fulltime RVing on the road and we always do a yearly summary so we thought we would share in an effort to pay back a little from what we were able to learn by reading others reports before we hit the road. Here is a link to our summary on our blog. We hope you enjoy it and hope even more it helps someone in some way.

https://daveanddiane.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/our-5th-year-summary/

 

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

Nice wrap up.  Thanks for sharing, it is interesting comparing. Your camping fees are quite a bit higher than ours and other numbers are a bit higher than ours although some of the "living" costs like TV and Internet are pretty much the same as ours.

 

[FL-JOE]

We are just starting our second run at full timing.  Plus I just signed up on this forum.  Hdrider, you blog on expenses was very interesting.  This time around we are set up more for dry camping and our goal is to keep the annual CG fees under $9,000.  Which is one of the reasons I am on this forum plus why we are sending in our Escapees membership app.

Thanks for sharing.

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

We are just starting our second run at full timing. 

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We are glad you came and are here to help so do not hesitate to join in or to ask questions. Let us know what we may be able to do to help. 

To help save money on camping costs you may want to consider joining Passport America, discount camping group. 

[FL-JOE]

Thanks Kirk!  We have been Passport members for awhile.  Each year we generally get our money back in the first month and continue to save throughout the year.  

When we were full time before we averaged around 10,000 to 12,000 miles a year.  When we were visiting attractions we would stay within 20 miles or so of what we wanted to see.  When we were done, usually after a few days, we would move on to the next interesting place.  Sometimes the next place was only 200 miles away.  Even though we used Passport and Good Sams whenever we could our annual CG fees were just too high.

My plan this time around is modified because we are traveling with a car and motorcycle that both get well over 30+mpg, plus our coach is set up nice for some dry camping.  When traveling across county to reach a destination area we will use Walmarts and other free spots whenever available.  We will try to book anywhere from 2 weeks to a month at a CG with good rates that is centrally located in an area we want to explore.  If places we want to visit in that area are 100 miles away than that is fine with us, it will give us a good motorcycle ride and not much gas used to go visit them.   My goal is to try to average closer to $15 per night for longer term stays as opposed to moving around all the time and averaging $35 to $40 a night stays.  

When we were full time before the only expenses we had that were controllable was the diesel fuel and CG fees.   I think this time around with some serious pre-planning we can control those a lot better.

[Webz]

I just signed up so I could comment on your 5 year summary.  First, Thank you for allowing access.

It is very informative and interesting.  My wife and I are new full timers and looking forward to travels when she retires later this year. 

We will be joining Escapees soon.

 

[Kirk W]

20 hours ago, Webz said:

I just signed up .....................

My wife and I are new full timers and looking forward to travels when she retires later this year. 

We will be joining Escapees soon.

1

Welcome to the Escapees forums! We are happy to have you here.

As new fulltimers and also new (soon to be) Escapee members, I invite you to join us in Sedalia, MO the end of May for the annual Escapade. We would like to meet you!

[Webz]

On 1/13/2018 at 7:55 AM, Kirk Wood said:

Welcome to the Escapees forums! We are happy to have you here.

As new fulltimers and also new (soon to be) Escapee members, I invite you to join us in Sedalia, MO the end of May for the annual Escapade. We would like to meet you!

Thank you for the invite.  Most likely we won't make it this year, but look forward to years to come.  We have traveled thru Sedalia in the past and enjoyed it.  With the added incentive of meeting several RVers having a great time is something we are looking forward to enjoying.