What surprised you most about RV travels?

[Kirk W]

As we look back over our many years of RV experiences, we frequently discuss things which we discovered that were completely unexpected, either good or bad. Ours have been mostly good and those are the things that we prefer to dwell on so that is what I hope will be the main feature of the replies. I think that what we least anticipated about our years on the road was the number of people that we met and became friends with who were from other countries. While we knew we would meed Canadians and planned to visit there, we didn't even think of those from other countries. We have been fortunate to have counted several Canadians among our friend. I'm thinking of friends in terms of those that we make a point of visiting more than once and sometimes routed in order to cross paths with. In addition to Canadians, there were folks from UK, Israel, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and even a few from places in the USA! 

So what has been your greatest surprise about living on the road either full or part time?

[hemsteadc]

The number of people who call RV parks home, and get up at 5am to go to work.  I found that very depressing.

[Scampers]

That is is addictive and always something new to buy to make life more  enjoyable.  And of course the SKPs we have met along the way!

[2gypsies]

Like, Kirk, we were surprised at how many life-long friends we have met in our travels.  When we began we had never heard of full-timers so we didn't know what to expect.  We did find Escapees and that was a god-send.  It became another family.  Luckily, our families urged us on in the beginning and now our grandchildren are travel explorers, also... even backpacking Europe and getting into North Korea before it closed to visitors.  They credit their experiences to our enthusiasm for travel.  

[sandsys]

How easy it is to take a nap after lunch before traveling on.

Linda

[D&J]

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

How easy it is to take a nap after lunch before traveling on.

Linda

👍

Denny

[Pat & Pete]

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

How easy it is to take a nap after lunch before traveling on.

Linda

And , not feeling the least bit guilty about it .

Amazing stuff , this life we live . 

[fpmtngal]

9 hours ago, hemsteadc said:

The number of people who call RV parks home, and get up at 5am to go to work.  I found that very depressing.

And yet, is that always a depressing thing?  

I was one of those, except I was up at 4am, leaving for work by 5.  My trailer was brand new (and my first RV) and I was living in it during the week - cut my commute in half (when you live 75 miles from your office, every little bit helps).  I loved it.  The guy next to me was a construction guy who went where the jobs were - if I heard his diesel fire up, I knew I was running late.

The couple in a big 5er across the road from me had decided to live in their RV while their son was in college, cheaper to live in the RV at the park than to keep it and a house in Southern California.  I learned about propane fire pits from them and how nice it was to sit around one in the evenings.

On the other side of me was a couple, he was retired and his wife was a nurse.  She had a contract at a local hospital for 6 months, then they would travel for the rest of the year.  She was a shift worker so her hours varied.

Those people around me were wonderful, friendly, hard working people.  I had a great time talking and learning from them and they went a long way toward convincing a scared newbie that RV life could be fun and a good way of life.

I agree with Kirk - I hadn’t expected to meet so many wonderful people as RVers.  It’s those people I’ve met along the way that are a big part of the reason I found it easy to sell the house and take to the road.  I am lousy at keeping up with anyone, but I do with some, and some of them have become like family to me (and we’re still all good friends even after caravanning with together for 3 months and 10,000 miles).

Edited August 23, 2020 by fpmtngal

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

7 hours ago, hemsteadc said:

The number of people who call RV parks home, and get up at 5am to go to work.  I found that very depressing.

There is a HUGE sub-culture of people that live the RV lifestyle because their work moves frequently.  The guy currently living next to us is an electrical lineman who is a "Storm Chaser" for his company.  Lives 300+ days or so on the road while following hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and other power outages.  Many fields are doing this now.  Traveling nurses, ER physicians, Lineman, electricians, pipe fitters, crane operators, railway workers, pipeline workers-welders, mapping survey workers and people like myself that are pipeline survey workers.  Most of us have been declared "Essential" workers during this current crisis, so we're still getting up and keeping your world safe for you....

 

[docj]

11 hours ago, hemsteadc said:

The number of people who call RV parks home, and get up at 5am to go to work.  I found that very depressing.

I don't know why you find that depressing.  Living in RVs as housing that you can "take with you" from job to job has become pretty common in the US.  In fact, I suspect that many more "full-timers" use their RVs n that manner than do full-timers, like ourselves, who use them to travel the continent to see the sights.

IMHO there are at least two major communities of fulltimers.  There are retirees, like ourselves, who live in our RVs so they can explore, and those who live in them so they can go to the next employment opportunity.  We've met plenty of both kinds at RV parks but they are two rather distinct groups.

[2gypsies]

30 minutes ago, docj said:

IMHO there are at least two major communities of fulltimers.  There are retirees, like ourselves, who live in our RVs so they can explore, and those who live in them so they can go to the next employment opportunity.  We've met plenty of both kinds at RV parks but they are two rather distinct groups.

The Petersons, founders of the Escapees RV Club, were workers on the road.

[sandsys]

My dad worked construction all in one region. Until his company got a contract to build a series of nursing homes further away. Then he took our trailer out to park near the sites and we would sometimes join him for weekends.

When Dave and I hit the road I never minded being in parks with workers except once. A foreman with a BIG voice moved in next to us and his crew would come visit him until very late every evening. Hard to go to sleep while hearing him talk. We were there for the summer so I was thankful he didn't move to that site until summer was at least half over.

Linda

[folivier]

The only workers that ever bothered me were the ones who had to start up their diesel trucks and let them idle for a half hour or more in the early morning.  Other than that most of these guys worked hard and were tired at night.  Except for the weekends when they bbq'ed and visited with others.  But not as bad or loud as weekend campers.

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

The Petersons, founders of the Escapees RV Club, were workers on the road.

As were all of the charter members. When Escapees was begun it was only a loose organization that stayed in touch by a mailed newsletter that Kay wrote and published with a mimeograph in their RV. Most of the members were in the construction industry and followed the jobs. The co-op parks were first and were begun to make a place for those working folks to stay as they slowed and moved to retirement. The rest of the club organization grew out of that effort.

1 hour ago, folivier said:

The only workers that ever bothered me were the ones who had to start up their diesel trucks and let them idle for a half hour or more in the early morning.

I have found our fellow RV folks to be worse about that than working people. They may have a noisy diesel, but once it starts they soon go off to work and it is quiet again. 

To get back to the best surprises, for us we like the people best and today we are still in contact with some resident volunteers from our first volunteer duty, in the fall/winter of 2000. We also visited friends at their home base in Canada and the biggest adventure transpiring from our adventure was the month we spent in Australia with our friend Bruce T, who still occasionally posts to these forums. I do have to attribute most of the new friends from other parts of the world to our activities with Escapees as all but one of them were met due to Escapees.

Another positive that has come out of our RV life that we didn't anticipate at all is our love of the volunteer experiences. We have been able to have a wide range of experiences through that lifestyle that would never have happened to us in any other way. Things like taking part in a black bear study in Maine, banding songbirds in Montana, rearing orphaned alligators in Louisiana, and a host of other experiences that are not available to us in any other way. In most of those locations we also worked with volunteers who lived in that location and made new friends at nearly all of them. We have also gone into parts of several national parks & wildlife refuges that are not open to the public. We have lived for a month or longer in 39 states, while I once read that most Americans only see 9 states, and we have traveled through all states but Hawaii. Without question, the highlight of our RV experience has been the people we got to meet that would never have happened if we had not traveled by RV. 

[D&J]

I guess the one thing that stands out from our 14 years of retired traveling is we kept our payed for house but was always thinking we would find that special place that where would settle when our traveling days are done. But after 49 states, 9 Canadian province's and two month long ventures into Mexico we haven't found it and now started slowly upgraded things at our house so it will be ready when we stop traveling but we have no plays to stop wondering around in the near future. 

Denny

[Jinx & Wayne]

We retired two years ago and went full time.  We sold everything except what we have in the RV - house, cars, contents, etc. Everything went.  What surprised us most is how little we miss those things.  To be precise, we were surprised to find we don't miss them at all.  We lived in Maine.  We are there now, enjoying late summer and early fall before heading to Florida for the winter.  We won't miss the Maine winter.  We are looking at maps and deciding where we might like to visit going south.  This is fun.  Yes, it would be better without COVID, but it is still fun.

The other thing that surprised us is how well we adapted to living in a 37 foot fiver without strife. I thought it might be too close quarters for prolonged living.  Last week my wife's younger sister asked, "Don't you get on each others nerves?"  We thought about it and the answer was a resounding, NO.

[rpsinc]

15 minutes ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

The other thing that surprised us is how well we adapted to living in a 37 foot fiver without strife. I thought it might be too close quarters for prolonged living.  Last week my wife's younger sister asked, "Don't you get on each others nerves?"  We thought about it and the answer was a resounding, NO.

Sure you do, just not in a negative way.  Thats what love is about.  And in these changing life times, we could all practice more of it, because "staying home" is safer for those around us.

 

On 8/22/2020 at 5:01 PM, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

There is a HUGE sub-culture of people that live the RV lifestyle because their work moves frequently.  The guy currently living next to us is an electrical lineman who is a "Storm Chaser" for his company.  Lives 300+ days or so on the road while following hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and other power outages.  Many fields are doing this now.  Traveling nurses, ER physicians, Lineman, electricians, pipe fitters, crane operators, railway workers, pipeline workers-welders, mapping survey workers and people like myself that are pipeline survey workers.  Most of us have been declared "Essential" workers during this current crisis, so we're still getting up and keeping your world safe for you....

 

I'm a contractor working in warehouse distribution centers and am deemed essential.  I only wish my commutes allowed for using my RV to stay in after work days, but sadly I commute in every different direction sometimes daily with 75 mile 1 way commutes common.  I am getting very ready to change this phenominum.  75 miles to work, work 7-10 hours, 75 miles home and this time of year in 100+ temps.  Looking forward to the time where I can stop this for a more simple existence.  "SERENITY NOW!"

[Kirk W]

What of the places you have visited? Which ones stand out most as being better than you expected and why?

[Mr. Camper]

Whether or not folks are visiting the RV park for recreational reasons or work related reasons makes absolutely no difference to us.  It's just what you have to deal with when you travel for any reason in an RV so we don't have an issue with that.  What we have issues with are the RV parks that don't enforce the rules they post.  Yes, I understand that some of them have only a few rules and others have a couple of pages worth of them. ENFORCE THEM for everyone staying there!  We've been traveling part-time in our RV for about 27 years and some of the biggest rule-breakers that we have seen have been employees of the park.  Perhaps folks who full-time don't see this but it has been our observation.  Anyway, we still enjoy the time we travel and when we do we only use the park for the utilities including cable, and then usually the evenings and overnight.  The rest of the time we are visiting the area.