Fulltiming? What Regrets do/did you have?

[Kirk W]

24 minutes ago, mickeyblueyes said:

The second involved following a trail that visits all national parks on the main land US.both sound pretty cool to me. 

Visiting at least 2 national parks we had never been to each year was another of the goals we started with.

[sandsys]

1 hour ago, mickeyblueyes said:

The second involved following a trail that visits all national parks on the main land US.both sound pretty cool to me. 

If you do that be sure to get a parks passport at the first park you visit. They have places where you can stamp your passport to help you remember where you've been. Don't do like we did and visit a dozen parks before deciding the passport would have been nice to have.

Linda

[kb0zke]

"Basically, without a fixed location or long-term schedule, volunteering as a fulltimer is a lot harder than you think." How so? We are full-timers and spend about half of our time volunteering. We've had three straight months as campground hosts at two Missouri State parks, as well as about six weeks earlier this year at a State park in Tennessee. We volunteer with Habitat For Humanity's RV Care-A-Vanners. Both types of volunteering pretty much require that we be mobile. We also do some paid work with our church's Laborers For Christ program.

[2gypsies]

46 minutes ago, kb0zke said:

"Basically, without a fixed location or long-term schedule, volunteering as a fulltimer is a lot harder than you think." How so? We are full-timers and spend about half of our time volunteering. We've had three straight months as campground hosts at two Missouri State parks, as well as about six weeks earlier this year at a State park in Tennessee. We volunteer with Habitat For Humanity's RV Care-A-Vanners. Both types of volunteering pretty much require that we be mobile. We also do some paid work with our church's Laborers For Christ program.

We would only accept volunteer positions that last for 6 weeks. By then, we're ready to move on.  We did one gig for Lake Powell Nat'l Rec Area that only lasted one week.  It was the Trash Tracker program where we lived on a houseboat cleaning up the shoreline towing a trash 'barge'.  We also had a pleasure boat along for siteseeing around the lake after our short hours were done for the day.  There are many different types of volunteer positions out there.  We also volunteered in the local school system helping out with the early reading program.  This was short time.  Also, as we were traveling in Alaska we stopped at a glacier viewing area on the way to Valdez.  We asked if we could spend the night there and were told "only if you volunteer for the night". We did!  Had the glacier to ourselves.

[remoandiris]

I regret having to sell so much stuff.  Stuff I'd rather keep, but there isn't room and if they get put into storage, I won't see them for years and they'll likely be damaged from non-use.  So, there will be bargains for some people and a bit of sadness for me.  

[JimK]

" My plan is to layup in a nice resort for the winter months and see National Parks in the warmer time. One can wash and wax a RV just so many times!"

This plan would indeed bore me quickly. 

I remember years and years ago driving to Yuma.  In the distance I saw a big concrete block fence in the middle of nowhere.  As I got closer I could see the RVs jammed in with barely a few feet of space between them.  I suppose there was a game room and maybe a swimming pool.  Yuma was pretty small back then....not a place you would want to visit.  All I could imagine is that the residents played card games and talked about RV parts and repairs.  No way to live as far as I am concerned.

I never forgot that experience.  When I planned to go full time, I realized my goal was to travel, do photography and see great scenic and special places.  Rather than get an RV as big as a mobile home, I opted for a small RV geared to travel, with solar panels and able to get by without hook ups and major parking spaces.  In the winter months, I still found great places to visit:  Death Valley, Mojave Preserve, Slab City, Amboy Crater, countless other places, and even the Salton Sea (not so great).

My full timing got cut short after a couple of years due to family considerations.  I never got close to running out of places I wanted to visit even in the Winter months.   I never waxed the RV.  I did not even check to see if the TV worked. 

Before you take off as a full timer, you might want to access what really appeals to you about this lifestyle.