Where did you land?

[Onthego]

Just asking when you went fulltime then decided to stop where did you land. Was it near where you started? For us we spent the majority of our lives (40+ years) in the Denver, CO. area and landed near San Antonio, TX. We didn't want to do snow anymore and if it gets too cold this next winter it's off to Arizona. We have no family in the area, our kids are 900 miles away. Thanks.

Jeff   😊

 

[LindaH]

We landed in Washington State.  Yes, we get snow during the winter, but we head south then.

[JRP]

When I started fulltiming I was retiring & escaping California with the intention of never returning and I haven't.  Before Ca, I had lived in almost every state west of the Mississippi for some duration. I was a project manager/engineer for major industrial construction projects and lived near each jobsite location for the duration. Now that I'm back to a part-time RV'er, I have a summer home in the mountains of CO and a winter ranch in southern NM and for the last 2 yrs a liveaboard sailboat in FL that I take to the Bahamas for most of the winter. 

 

[sandsys]

We returned to Minnesota because Dave missed his community here too much. I hibernate.

Linda Sand

[dosbeagles]

We fulltime for two years and were forced off the road for health and family issues.   We landed back in the Santa Clarita Valley because that is where the doctors who were familiar with us were.  We went from full timing having a grand old time to back and bought a house in two weeks

[rynosback]

I try to land where it is 70 degrees.  Like storm chasers we are temp chasers.  

[FL-JOE]

We wanted to leave the cold winters behind so once we sold our Illinois home we only went back for summer visits with the kids/grandkids.  In two years of full timing we explored 26 states but each year ended up wintering in SW Florida.  Bought a sticknbrick and settled back in there.

Now that we sold out again and are back on the road I am guessing we will land back in Florida some day when we give up full timing.

[Kirk W]

We were living & working in Ft. Worth, TX when we retired, sold the house and hit the road. We never expected to own another house, but after almost 12 years we did buy because we were unable to locate something that fit people with an RV attitude to rent. We bought into an RV co-op community that is very similar to the Escapee co-op communities but in ours, we do build small houses and some no longer own an RV, due to age and inability to travel. We are now located close to Tyler, TX so we are less than 100 miles from the house that we sold to go on the road. We chose this area partly to get out of the big city that Ft. Worth/Dallas metroplex has become, and partly because it is near to Tyler which has all of the major medical facilities a senior may need. It also happens that even though our sons all grew up in Cheyenne, WY, two of the three now live in the greater Dallas area and so are not that far away. 

I will offer one word of caution to those who are living the fulltime lifestyle. It has been said that "time flies when you are having fun" and we found that to be very true. Old age is coming our way far more rapidly than retirement did!

[sandsys]

6 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

Old age is coming our way far more rapidly that retirement did!

True that!

Linda

[Liberty]

Kirk, it has been some time since we saw each other. We were just winding down to retirement in Wichita and you had just had a volunteer job not work out. We saw that you 2 were at a friends place not far from our rv park. We traded visits and lunch as I recall. I have just sent your Bass Lake info to a friend and they might want to know more. Chuck and Mavis from near Bennington, Kansas north of Salina.

LeRoy Willis

lrwillis45@gmail.com

[Kirk W]

7 hours ago, Liberty said:

We saw that you 2 were at a friends place not far from our rv park. We traded visits and lunch as I recall.

I do remember that and it is good to hear from you! We were doing lawn care and such for friends while they traveled at the time. Our friends are still there and we spent a few days with them as we returned to base just about 2 weeks ago. Sending a PM also.

[theeyres]

Left snowy Eastern OR when started full-time and loved wintering in Tucson. So when we got off the road we bought in Green Valley, about 15 miles south of Tucson. I'll take the summed heat over the winter cold anytime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim & Alice]

We haven't 'landed' yet, but we do have favorite 'go to' spots... that we did not anticipate five years ago when we left for Fulltiming.   We still have our S&B house in Michigan, albeit we are only there for a couple months during the Christmas Holidays... and our children live there and take care of it.   For Winter we have a permanent lot in Wellton, AZ that allows for an RV or home building... that we plan on developing some day.   And for the Summers we workamp in the Black Hills at Hart Ranch.    In between these places, we boondock or just roadtrip in the toad.

So, we haven't landed... but do have 'docks' that we pull in to.   Comfortable, pleasing, and satisfying.

 

[k4rs]

When Toni and I retired we told our son that we were running away from home and that he was getting his inheritance early.  We signed over our house on the east coast of Florida and hit the road.  Nine years later he sold the house and moved to North Carolina.  We used a commercial mail forwarding service for two years while we searched for a new home base.  We looked in New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

In the end we decided that we really wanted to stay Florida residents and limited our search in that state.  We ended up finding the perfect spot just about 100 miles due west of where we started.  We purchased a deeded lot in a RV community that is very similar to an Escapee co-op.  Now, five years later, we still think this was a great decision.

Safe Travels…
  

[RV_]

We full timed for seven years after a 27 year USAF career, which followed us both being USAF brats, her dad 20years my dad 4. So far we've individually lived with our parents in Denver, Wheeling WV, Steubenville Ohio, Miami Beach FL, and Bogota Colombia S.A. for me, and  Barksdale AFB LA, France, Seymour Johnson North Carolina, Salina Kansas, Eglin AFB FL, Barksdale LA for her. Together for my military we met and lived in Barksdale AFB area in Bossier City, Lackland in San Antonio, USAF Academy Colorado Springs CO, Barksdale again, then seven years at Spangdahlem AB Germany, Lackland again from where we retired and started RVing full time. We did everything West of the Mississippi, and from Mexico up to and including Alaska for seven years. Then my wife wanted off the road and to be here for her aging parents and our grandkids locally. So we got here when I was 52, and we buried them and took care of the succession and sold our property and it took longer than we'd thought. So we leave at my now 66.  We hope to be landing in Colorado/Utah/Montana/Wyoming as soon as we find a town with high speed Internet and the right feel. We need our hobbies not work. We ski and Dive, but don't want the coast with the increasingly violent weather patterns, nor the heat and humidity of this and similar areas as they get hotter by the year. So the wheel's still in spin, and there's no telling where it is naming, to paraphrase Dylan's anthem for this age. We'll keep a small rig for now.

[Jim & Alice]

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

 We hope to be landing in Colorado/Utah/Montana/Wyoming 

Hi, Derek - for Summers, we're in the Black Hills.   Where you are looking is not too far away... Lets stay in touch!

[RV_]

Will do Jim. 

[kb0zke]

We haven't landed yet. We tend to go to Nacogdoches, TX each winter for coach serviice (that's where Foretravels are made), and then spend the rest of the year spoiling grandkids and doing various volunteer things as we see the country.

 

[Barbaraok]

About 4 years ago we decided that we needed somewhere to 'stretch out' during the winter, so we bought a park model at a park we like in Mesa, AZ.  Should something happen to either one of us, we have somewhere to go and regroup and decide what is next.  We do about 6 months there and six months on the road.   By the end of each 6 month stint, we are welcoming the upcoming change - gets us out of ruts.   

 

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

We do about 6 months there and six months on the road.

We aren't a lot different much of the time. When we bought our current base we spent only 3 months before leaving for 7 months before we really moved in. But due to a series of medical issues, we were at our base with no RV travels for almost two years due to Pam's medical issues and we even sold the motorhome and bought our small travel trailer, thinking out long trips were over. But events smiled somewhat so we are back to several months of travel between stops at home.

[Big Greg]

We've been on the road for 11+ years and started to think abut settling down 2 years ago.  I wanted to have a plan to settle down and not wait until health forced us to unexpectedly.  We have wintered in Gulf Shores, AL for the past several years but there are limited 55+ communities in that area.  Other than that we really like the Gulf Shores area, being from MI we like green trees and blue water so the southwest wasn't for us.  We wanted to checkout the St Augustine, FL area as we have relatives in that vicinity.  We went to Florida's east coast the last 2 falls but both times were chased out by hurricanes.  This past April we wanted to give Florida another chance but had trouble finding a campground (I thought there would be some openings in April as the snowbirds should be starting to leave).  We even tried motels for 3 or 4 days but didn't want to pay $150/night.  We gave up on Florida, it didn't want us.

Before we left for our summer travels in late March we started the process to purchase a new manufactured home in a nice 55+ community called The Grove in Foley, AL.  We returned from TX and KS in June and finalized the order before heading to GA and NC for this summer.  We'll return to Gulf Shores in October and expect to move into the home by the end of the year and sell the HitchHiker and downsize the F350 to a golf cart.  We are both looking forward to the change and can use motels for future travel.  We considered parking the HitchHiker somewhere for cooler summer use but have decided we don't want two places.        Greg   

      

[sandsys]

I think the RVing life must run in cycles. Many of the people who were active on this forum when we were actively RVing are now settling down at least part time. I think it's good that the Xcapers are becoming active to replace us old folks as we gradually disappear. As long as the Peterson/Carr family continues to produce family members active in the Escapees business the future of this lifestyle looks good. Keep on RVing, folks.

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

15 hours ago, sandsys said:

As long as the Peterson/Carr family continues to produce family members active in the Escapees business the future of this lifestyle looks good.

The Peterson name for Escapees is gone but Carr looks bright as Travis now has two boys! 

[Velos]

On 8/20/2018 at 3:56 PM, Onthego said:

Just asking when you went fulltime then decided to stop where did you land. Was it near where you started? For us we spent the majority of our lives (40+ years) in the Denver, CO. area and landed near San Antonio, TX. We didn't want to do snow anymore and if it gets too cold this next winter it's off to Arizona. We have no family in the area, our kids are 900 miles away. Thanks.

Jeff   😊

 

You mentioned Arizona you may want to check out Juniper Ridge RV Resort in Show Low Arizona for a summer get away.  We stayed there last summer.  It is close to Phoenix so a lot of retirees winter in Phoenix (the valley) and summer in Show Low/Pinetop area (the mountains at 6300 feet). It is a small (500 deeded lots) but very active community. The HOA approved RV Ports last year so you could keep your RV under cover all year round. Several of the lots and park models line the private Executive Golf course which has league play 7 mornings a week during the summer.    There is a nice blend of park models and developed as well as undeveloped RV sites for rent by owner: https://www.juniperridgerealestate.com/rental/  

 

[accrete]

My wife and I have been stationary full timers since 2011 as we began planning our exit strategy from the workplace. We relocated to the PNW over 30 years ago from Nevada and will be heading back to that state which we always thought of as hone this Fall. It will be green to head out and explore the SW unencumbered by a calendar that includes responsibilities to a workplace.