How do you?
HOW DO YOU...? JUST THE
FAQS
When people discover we are full-timers, they
ask very similar questions, with the most common question being "How
do you get your mail?" So this section will attempt to
answer some of those questions. If you have any questions or
would like further clarification on any of the topics I've discussed,
please feel free to e-mail me.
- How do you get your mail?
- Where do you bank?
- How do you stay in
touch with your family?
- What did you do with
your stuff?
- How did you choose a
home state?
- Why did you
switch to a fifth wheel from a motorhome?
- Do you have a pet?
- What's your favorite place?
- What about the holidays?
- Do you miss your house?
- Do you
boondock? Stay in Wal*Mart parking lots?
- Do you belong to
a member campground?
- What camping
organizations do you belong to?
- How do you decide
where to travel?
- Was it hard to adjust to
being a full time rver?
How do you get your
mail?
This has to be the #1 question full-timers are asked by those curious
about the lifestyle. We use the Escapees organization's mail
forwarding service. They provide us with a street address and we
have all of our mail sent to that address. Every week we notify
the folks at the mail forwarding service of the campground's address
where we'll be staying and they send out our mail in a large
envelope. You can have your mail forwarded whenever you like;
daily, weekly, bimonthly, monthly, whatever. Family Motor Coach
Association offers the same service, as does the Good Sam organization
and many other camping organizations, and there are private individuals
and companies that offer the service as well. Many of these
companies advertise in magazines that cater to the RVing
lifestyle. One thing to remember is that the address you use can
be your permanent address for tax purposes so you should take that into
consideration also.
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Where do you bank? Denny's
pension check is direct deposited at our credit union in Ohio and we
use our debit card for most of our purchases. We check online to
find affiliate credit unions across the country so we can deposit
checks and make withdrawals or use their ATMs without being charged a
fee. Obtaining extra cash using the debit card is as simple as
requesting extra cash back when you shop at Wal*Mart, any local grocery
store or even the post office.
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How do you stay in touch with your family?
This has been made much easier with the advent of modern
technology. When we first started RVing we had a cell phone in a
"bag"-one that was permanently mounted in our motorhome. You paid
by the minute and for every long distance call and there were also
roaming charges every
time you left your "home area". So a single quick phone call
could cost $5-8 dollars for five minutes. Now of course, there
are many carriers
that provide nationwide coverage but we have been very pleased with our
Cingular service.
Our Internet access has changed over the years also. We
originally used the phone lines at campgrounds, connecting through
Earthlink service. But we found that many small campgrounds often had
only one phone line and therefore were reluctant to allow you to tie up
the line to download email, so we searched for a better option. Our
next method of connecting to the Internet was when we purchased a
laptop with a cellular modem card. We purchased a modem
cable and connected the cell phone to the laptop and used our minutes
to dial up the Earthlink service. After several years of
connecting in that manner we discovered the DirecWay satellite system
which opened up 24/7 Internet access for us. It is expensive at
$59.99 a month, but we were able to switch to a cell phone plan
with fewer minutes to lower that cost and we feel the availability of
24 hour a day Internet access is worth it. We use the Yahoo
Messenger service that has voice and web cam capabilities to talk to
and see our families and friends over the Internet and also to make
inexpensive phone calls in areas where the cellular signal may not be
strong enough for calls.
Another method of communication that our grandkids love is the personal
postcards I create using our digital camera and our printer.
These are much more personal than store-bought cards and often I'll set
up our little tripod and use the manual timer on the camera to take a
picture of "Grandpa and Grandma" at a national park or scenic area for
them which they enjoy even more.
There are many methods of staying in touch with today's
technology. Many cellular plans allow you to connect to the
Internet directly now without connecting to a laptop, although text
messaging is a bit cumbersome. Pocketmail is still a popular
option; Pocketmail is a palm sized device with a screen and a keyboard
that allows you to send and receive emails by holding the device to the
handset of a pay phone or regular phone and dialing an 800 number which
then transmits your e-mails and downloads any directed to you. It
does not allow for surfing the Internet, but it's a quick and easy way
to access your e-mail accounts. Of course, almost all libraries
now have computers and Internet access which allows you to surf and get
your e-mail, but your time is often limited there or you may have to
sign up for a time slot to use one. It is rare for libraries to
allow you to use your own laptop on their phone lines, so expect to
compose your e-mails there.
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What did you do with your
stuff? Making the decision early on to full-time after we
retired allowed us time to get used to the idea that we would have to
divest ourselves of our "stuff". So we were more careful about
buying new items and we told our two sons to make a list of any and all
of those items they wanted from the house with the knowledge that
anything that was left was to be sold in a moving sale and the
remainder after that would be donated to charity. And that's
exactly how it worked when the house was sold and we were ready to
go. I did box up some family Christmas ornaments and my smallish
collection of Bohemian cut glass which are currently being stored in my
mother's basement as well as our huge roll top desk which neither son
had room for in their apartments. If my mother decides to move to
a smaller place I'll probably sell the glass on eBay and give the kids
the ornaments and the desk. After all, I haven't seen or used
them in eight years, so I guess they really aren't that important
anymore, right?
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How did you choose a home
state? When we first started fulltiming we had every
intent of using our Family Motor Coach Association mail forwarding
address in Cincinnati as our home address, but when we purchased our
first fifth wheel we were no longer eligible to be members and had to
find a new mail forwarding service. We decided to use the
Escapees mail forwarding service since Texas has no state income tax
and no tax on intangible property. Other states with no state
income tax are Florida, South Dakota, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee,
Wyoming, Alaska, and New Hampshire. However, some of these states
tax your dividend and interest income (intangible tax) and others may
have private property taxes so you have to do your homework to see
which would work best for you.
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Why did you switch
to a fifth wheel from a motorhome? Our first RV was a
motorhome, purchased very spur-of-the-moment at a RV show with no
research other than we knew the Winnebago brand name was
reliable. Bad mistake. However, when we purchased our
second RV it too, was a motorhome. I liked being able to fix a
meal or sandwich while traveling, or to be able to use the bathroom
without having to stop. Set up was easy and quick and it was no
harder to drive than a our van to my way of thinking. Of course,
back in 1993-94 there were no slides on motorhomes, so we adjusted to
the "one-butt" kitchen and lived with the idea that Denny had to slouch
a bit (he's 6'6") to pass under the ceiling mounted air conditioning
unit. Then one day during a long Thanksgiving weekend we stopped
at a RV dealer outside of Savannah, Georgia and stepped into an Alpha
Gold fifth wheel. Wow! Triple slides and an eight foot
ceiling meant no slouching for Denny and a huge amount of floor space
and room in the kitchen area. The wheels started turning.
Of course, when we fell into our deal on our 1999 King of the Road
Royalite we had to purchase a truck so there was that additional
expense, but we discovered that there was a significant savings on our
insurance since we would have only one motorized vehicle, there would
only be oil changes and engine maintenance on one vehicle instead of
two, it was much easier to find a Ford dealer who could service a Ford
F450 pickup than it was to find one who could service a 38 foot
motorhome (our Bounder was on a Ford chassis so a Ford dealer had to
work on it while under warranty). We lost a lot of storage space
but gained a lot of floor space, a side-by-side refrigerator freezer
with an ice maker and a stacking washer/dryer (which I wouldn't give up
for the world, now). Most, if not all, motorhomes now have
slide-outs, but they still don't have the room for a desk/office area
as we have in our fifth wheel so I'd be hard pressed to change
back. There are certainly advantages to motorhomes too but that
might be the subject of another web page eventually.
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Do
you have a pet? We
traveled with our cat when we first started fulltiming but did not
replaced her after she passed away. We consider a cat the
ideal motorhome pet since a cat does not
need to be walked (especially in the rain) and if need be they can be
left overnight in an emergency and they won't stuff themselves with
their food in the morning and then starve the remainder of the
day. We like dogs, but we've never owned one as a couple and we
probably never will.
Edited 03/03/2007 If you
read my blog at all, you will know that we added a cat to the household
in May of 2006. We obtained Patches at the Baldwin County Animal
Shelter in Robertsdale, AL as a kitten, hoping that by teaching her to
ride in a noisy, diesel fueled pickup truck at a young age she would
adapt to a life of constant travel. And so she has.
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What's your favorite place?
Ah, that's a tough one. We haven't found the perfect spot to
settle down yet, but we've been to many memorable areas. We love
the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Gulf Shores, Alabama area,
the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona and the Olympic Peninsula of
Washington. Michigan's western shoreline amazed us with its clear
waters and sandy beaches (who knew?) and we've grown to love the desert
areas of Arizona and Texas in the springtime. This country is so
amazingly diverse that you can't pick just one area as your favorite.
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What about the holidays?
We do return to Ohio for Christmas. Now that we winter out West
it's much more expensive to return home as we leave our rig here rather
than subject it to the rigors and hazards of winter driving and fly
back. We have met many couples who do not return home for various
reasons, usually because their children are spread all over the country
and therefore they spend the holidays with other RVers. I wish at
times we could do that without guilt but it just won't happen. I
would love to create a "Christmas in July" routine with our families
which would allow us to return to Ohio and New York in warm weather and
then stay in our favorite desert haunts in the winter. I think I'll
have to work on that.
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Do you miss your house?
Not for a moment. We have almost all the amenities of our house,
albeit on a smaller scale. We have the luxury of moving to a new
location as often as we like and sometimes we have a lakeside or
beachfront property for the cost of one night's camping fee. No,
we don't have the big yard (no grass mowing/weeding/cultivating), the
deck (no scraping/priming/painting), no gardens (no weeding/replacing
flowers and bulbs/killing grubs), no work shop (no major
maintenance/remodeling jobs) etc., etc. We've traded our old
neighbors for new acquaintances and friends and have expanded our
knowledge of geography, history, horticulture, culture and so much
more. Miss our house? I don't think so.
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Do you
boondock? Do you stay overnight in Wal*Mart parking lots?
No and no. Our rig is not set up for solar power and does not
have a generator, either or both of which are necessary for boondocking
(camping without electric/water and sewer hook ups). Space and
weight considerations eliminated the possibility of a generator
and also the extra banks of batteries needed for solar power. We
are quite content to camp at campgrounds every night and have budgeted
for it. It would be nice to pull off some evening along the
Pacific Coast Highway and spend the night by the ocean, but we have
accepted the fact that we prefer to have hookups and electrical power
to operate our computers and TVs. As for staying in
Wal*Mart parking lots; we rarely travel more than 250 miles in one day
so we're always ready to pull into a campground no later than 3
p.m. There is no reason for us to spend the night at a Wal*Mart
as we are never in a rush to get to a particular location.
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Do you belong to a
member campground? Yes, we do although it took us six
years of traveling before we bought into our first private membership
campground. We waited until we had spent the winter in Florida,
Texas and Arizona before we decided we liked spending the winter in
Arizona the best and at that time we visited a private membership
campground and decided to purchase a membership for use in the
winter. A year later we purchased a membership with a corporation
that had a much larger number of sister campgrounds in their
organization so we had a larger number of campgrounds to choose from
for our travels. They paid for themselves after about eighteen
months of use.
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What camping
organizations do you belong to? Escapees, Good Sam Club,
Passport America. We have membership with two private membership
campground organizations which also give us access to the Golf Card and
Golf Access for golfing discounts up to 50% on greens fees if we rent a
golf cart. The Escapees have their own campgrounds and also have
made arrangements with other campgrounds for their members to receive a
15% discount on campground fees. Good Sam affiliate campgrounds
allow you a 10% discount on camping fees and with Passport America your
camping fees can be discounted as much as 50%.
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How do you decide where
to travel? Our first year out we knew we were going to
spend time at Myrtle Beach and then head south to Florida, so I
researched what cities had golf courses that accepted the Golf Card and
had campgrounds that accepted the Passport American discount.
That worked well, so our first full year I used the same method,
knowing we had to return to Ohio in the late spring for our youngest
son's graduation from college and wanting to head to Maine from that
point. Basically each year I pick an area we haven't explored yet
and search all the campground books and golf discount courses for areas
where we can take advantage of the cheapest rates and yet see places
we've never traveled. Of course, life has a habit of getting in
the way and our plans have changed due to family illness, death, child
birth, graduations and weddings. We accept that none of our plans
are written in stone and just go with the flow. So far that has
worked for us.
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Was it hard to adjust
to being a full time rver? Honestly?
Kinda. Actually, I personally found it harder to adjust to being
newly retired rather than being a full timer. I was used to
having a job, used to having my own money, used to having a lot of
responsibility. Since I quit well before my retirement age/term
of service I don't receive a pension yet so we manage on Denny's
pension and his stipend from Social Security. Denny had been retired
for six years by the time we hit the road so he had long ago dealt with
the separation issues. We had to learn to live on one income, we
had to learn to live together in less than 400 square feet of interior
space (spending the first two and a half months at Myrtle Beach after
we hit the road helped there--I was outside a lot), we
had to learn to live without 24 hour access to the Internet (not a
problem these days), and Denny and I learned how to lean on each other
more for friendship and emotional support since we no longer had the
anchor of close family and friends. We left Ohio in September and
by the time Thanksgiving rolled around we were very comfortable with
the lifestyle and our decision.
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