We receive emails daily and these are the most common
questions we are asked with our responses. Click on a question for the
response or read the entire page.
What do you like most about the fulltiming lifestyle?
Freedom - Total freedom!!! We get
up when we wake up, eat when we get hungry and go to bed when we get sleepy.
Our travels take us to many parts of the country and we try to stay in
perpetual Springtime weather. Often we change our minds on a moments notice.
Once we were in the Atlanta, Georgia area heading to the Atlantic coast
when we saw storms were hitting the coast so we changed course and went
to southern Alabama. The next year we were in northern Ohio heading to
Pennsylvania and checked the weather forecast. Pennsylvania was going to
have cold rainy weather the next week so we went to Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina. In 2002 it rained on us day after day in the southern U.S. so
we changed directions and went to the desert in Arizona. In 2006 we were
heading to eastern Tennessee where we found bad weather awaited us so I
spread out a map of the USA and told Linda to place her finger where she
wanted to go and she selected a location in the sunny south. With total
freedom we can make those decisions. Even though we have seen many parts
of this beautiful country and Canada, the best part about fulltiming is
the people we meet. Fulltimers and RVers in general are the best people
in the world.
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Do you ever get lonely or bored
living in a motorhome?
Never!!! We stay so busy we never
have a chance to get lonely or bored. Everything we need is in our motorhome
and is close by which is handy. No matter where we are living there is
much to see and do and the entire country is our back yard. We suggest
everyone take a hobby with them. The most important thing is we each brought
along our best friend. If your spouse is not your best friend don't even
think about traveling fulltime.
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What are your hobbies?
My hobbies are computers and our website.
I takes all the pictures for the website and write the travel articles,
short stories and information articles and answer the emails. I also love
to tinker and work on the motorhome. Linda loves crafts - any kind of crafts.
She knits, does crocheting, tatting, makes pine needle baskets and from
Wal*Mart bags she makes rugs, hats and handbags, and jewelry from beads.
She carries a sewing machine and a serger in the motorhome for the times
she wants to sew. Her favorite activity is teaching crafts in campgrounds.
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Did you sell your house and furnishings?
Yes, we sold our house and all furnishings.
We chose to store nothing and we're glad we made that decision. We gave
many of the furnishings to our children, sold most of the rest in two yard
sales and gave the rest to Goodwill. We also sold a Mitsubishi Eclipse,
Ford Thunderbird and a Ford van and we gave a Camaro T-Top to Linda's daughter.
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What did you do with family heirlooms?
We had very few family heirlooms and we
gave them to our children. Before storing family heirlooms for your children
make sure your children actually want them. We have met dozens of fulltiming
couples who paid storage fees to store heirlooms only to find their children
don't want the "junk." So before going fulltime give any heirlooms to family
members so they can enjoy them now or sell them. If you can't part with
family heirlooms you are not going to be a successful fulltimer.
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Are you happy with your decision
to travel fulltime?
We are very happy with our decision. Not
owning any property we have freedom to move when we want and stay as long
as we want. We have seen more of this great country than most people see
in a lifetime. During our travels we have met many nice people and some
will be our friends for life. In 2005 we decided to travel fulltime another
ten years.
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Where are the most interesting
places you have been?
That is hard to answer as there are many
beautiful and interesting places. If we had to pick six they would be (1)
Big Bend National Park in Texas, (2) Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming,
(3) western Montana, (4) the Canadian Rockies from Banff through Lake Louise
to Jasper and (5) the Canadian Maritimes, (6) the National Parks and Monuments
of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.
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What has been your biggest surprise?
When we started traveling fulltime we thought
the highlights would be the places we would see. We soon learned the greatest
thing about fulltiming is the people we meet. RVers are the greatest people
in the world and we have made friendships that will be friendships for
life.
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What was your low point while
traveling?
The hail storm in South Dakota (2000) that
beat our new Dutch Star and new Honda CR-V with hail the size of tennis
balls for ten minutes. We got the motorhome repaired ($3,000) in Indiana
and the car repaired ($5,000) in Arizona. Insurance paid the bills. The
other low point was my cancer (2002) that took us off the road for over
six months.
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What size family do you have?
Was it hard leaving them?
When we hit the road we had four parents,
five children, five grandchildren (added two since then), four brothers
and sisters and a host of kinfolk. It was a difficult decision to leave
those who were still in Kentucky, but my father (age 88 then) said it best.
He told us to travel while we were young enough to do it. Every few months
we return to Kentucky and visit family, plus we visit those who moved from
Kentucky. When our parents had health problems we returned to Kentucky
and and did what was needed to help them. Once we met my oldest son's family
at Walt Disney World for a week, another time in Yellowstone National Park
and once at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. Several times we have
traveled with my sister and her husband in their motorhome. It is easier
to visit families in a motorhome than when we lived in a house.
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We have boxes of family pictures.
What did you do with your pictures?
As with most families, we had many picture
albums and boxes of pictures. The Christmas before we started fulltiming
we had engraved albums made for each of our children. In each album we
placed special pictures of that child - first haircut, birthday party pictures,
Little League pictures, family vacations pictures, annual school pictures.
Then we added some family pictures and pictures of their parents and grandparents.
Our children thought the albums were great presents and they can enjoy
them now. When we are dead and gone no one will have to go through our
pictures and divide them up or throw them away because we have already
done it.
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Tell me something about your
motorhome.
Our first motorhome was a 2000 Dutch Star
built by Newmar in Nappanee, Indiana. It was 38 feet long, 8 1/2 feet wide
and had a living/dinette room slideout. It served us well for almost six
years of fulltiming before we decided to upgrade. We now have a a 2005
Dutch Star we special ordered. It is 40' 11" long with a living/dinette
and a bedroom slideout. It is powered by a Cummins ISL diesel engine with
370 horsepower and 1200 foot pound of torque, has an Allison six speed
transmission and rides on a Spartan Mountain Master chassis. Fully loaded
it weighs over 31,000 pounds. The fuel tank holds 150 gallons, fresh water
tank 105 gallons, LP tank 32 gallons and the holding tanks have a combined
capacity of 110 gallons. The exterior has a full paint job, one-piece fiberglass
roof and power patio and entrance door awnings. It has carpeted and ceramic
tile floors and natural cherry wood cabinets. There is a Sony flat screen
TV in the living room and bedroom, a DVD player and VCR in the front and
a 600-watt Sony Home Theater surround sound system. A KVH automatic satellite
done sits on the roof. The kitchen has a double sink, two door refrigerator/freezer,
three burner stove and a combination microwave/convection oven. Our dining
room table seats four and it extends from a computer desk. The living room
has a sofa that converts to a bed and a leather Euro-style swivel recliner
with ottoman in addition to the front leather seats. The bedroom has a
queen size bed, a closet across the rear and more cabinets and drawers
than we can fill. The bathroom has a large glass shower, sink, medicine
cabinet, toilet room, a large capacity Whirlpool washer and dryer. For
cold or hot weather it has two combination air conditioner/heat pumps and
a furnace. A large color rear view monitor lets the driver see what is
behind the motorhome. It has both incandescent and fluorescent lighting.
The motorhome's nose contains a 7.5 kilowatt diesel generator and the entire
underneath (basement) is open for storage. We added four 80-watt solar
panels to the roof and four AGM batteries to go along with our 2000-watt
inverter. The most important thing is it is a comfortable home.
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How did you select your motorhome?
We spent over nearly three years researching
motorhomes before we ordered our first Dutch Star. We attended RV shows,
visited many dealers, took plant tours and talked to many owners. We were
impressed with the quality of Newmar motorhomes and the Dutch Star diesel
pusher. Before ordering we returned to the Newmar plant and got a personal
tour and had our questions answered. Newmar allowed us to pick our fabrics,
color of leather furniture, color of carpet and agreed to remove a bathroom
door and part of an interior wall. We got bids from three dealers and ended
up buying from our local dealer. Before ordering our present Dutch Star
we visited the Newmar factory again and had them make several changes we
wanted. We got extra insulation, four additional 110-volt outlets, a cell
phone antenna and I designed a solar wiring system that Newmar installed.
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Should we buy a motorhome or
a fifthwheel and truck?
Whether you buy a motorhome, fifthwheel
or travel trailer is a personal choice. Any of them can be used for fulltiming
and each has pros and cons. Do a lot of research and ask questions from
RVers before buying. But in the end, no one can tell you which to buy so
you must make the decision yourself.
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Is there anything you would change
in your motorhome if you bought again?
Absolutely nothing. Well, immediately after
we bought it Linda bought new dishes, cups, pans, silverware, place mats,
pictures, sheets, a clock and some other things that made it a home. The
old items did not match the new colors.
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Have you had any problems with
your motorhomes?
A home mounted on a complicated vehicle
is bound to have problems. A motorhome traveling down a bumpy road receives
more jolts than a house in an earthquake, a motorhome driving in a rainstorm
receives more flood water than any house every receives and driving a motorhome
in wind produces as much force as a house in a hurricane. Remember a motorhome
has onboard an electric generating plant, a water plant, a sewerage treatment
system and it rides down the road on a truck chassis driven by a high performance
engine. Then after bouncing down the road and stopping in a campground
we want everything to work - the TV, refrigerator, microwave, shower, water
heater, furnace and air conditioners. Yes, we have had problems but no
more than a house on a foundation has. Most of the repairs have been simple
and we have fixed them ourselves. The more complicated problems have been
fixed at repair facilities. Every repair facility has allowed us to camp
on their lot and sleep in our motorhome at night while they do the repairs.
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Can you give me suggestions on
how to select a RV?
Research, research, research!!! We
are surprised by the number of people we meet who bought the wrong RV.
They stopped at a RV dealer, looked at a few rigs, bought one and drove
away only to later find they bought the wrong RV. We researched motorhomes
over three years before buying including RV shows, talking to owners, visiting
dealers, taking plant tours and participating on internet bulletin boards.
One thing we never did during those three years was ask a salesman any
questions. Most people pay too much for their RV. Never ask a salesman
how much he wants for a RV, tell him how much you will give. It is a personal
decision if you want a motorhome, fifth wheel or travel trailer. After
you make that choice do all the research you can including which features
you want, what size you need and gas or diesel. Do you need an inverter,
what size, how many house batteries, an ice maker, dual pane windows, a
generator and what size? Only after you have done your research can you
chose the RV that is right for you. If buying new you can get "exactly"
what you want by ordering and you will get the best price too.
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Why did you choose a Honda CR-V
for your toad vehicle?
Honda makes quality automobiles and we wanted
a vehicle that would give us at least 10 years and 150,000 miles of trouble-free
service. We chose a 1999 CR-V with all-wheel drive and that feature came
in handy in desert driving and touring abandoned mines in Nevada and Montana.
We drove that CR-V 120,000 miles and towed it another 81,000 miles with
nothing more than routine maintenance. In February 2007 we bought a new
2007 Honda CR-V AWD model EX and so far it has not had any problems. The
CR-V can be towed behind the motorhome with all four wheels down and it
gets 27 mpg.
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What tow bar and braking system
do you use?
In 1999 we bought a Blue Ox Aladdin tow
bar and a matching bracket for the Honda CR-V. It is a lightweight tow
bar that weighs about 17 pounds and one person can hitch up and unhitch
the CR-V in less than two minutes. Blue Ox guarantees their products for
life and five times at RV rallies they have replaced parts and made adjustments
free. Great company. We use a Brake Buddy auxiliary brake in the CR-V and
it also takes about two minutes to install. We bought a Blue Ox bracket
for the new 2007 CR-V and use the Brake Buddy in it too.
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How much does it cost to travel
fulltime in a motorhome?
This is really a loaded question. How much
does it cost to live in a house? We know couples who fulltime in an RV
for as little as $1,500 a month and others who spend over $6,000 a month.
Our budget for this year is $3,138 a month. Our motorhome and car are paid
for. For a detailed breakdown click on Budget.
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What do you do about health insurance?
For people without Medicare or a health
plan through an employer this is a big budget item. It is so big many people
travel without health insurance. I retired from IBM and my retirement benefits
include an insurance health package. We have to pay part of the cost and
IBM pays part. Our insurance has a high deductible but we can go to any
doctor or hospital in any city.
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Why did you choose Texas for
your domicile?
Everybody must have a domicile (legal residence)
and we could choose any of the fifty states. Texas has no personal property
tax on vehicles and no state income tax. That appealed to us. We joined
the Escapees RV Club and their mail forwarding service to get an address
in Texas and before going to Texas we registered our Dutch Star motorhome
and Honda CR-V in Texas. When we got to Texas four months later we got
Texas drivers licenses, had our vehicles inspected, registered to vote,
opened a checking account and had a lawyer write new wills and other legal
documents. At that point we became Real Texans. Escapees has a booklet
titled "How To Become A Real Texan" and it can be viewed or printed from
the Escapees website by clicking
here. Some people pick and choose several states to get the advantage
of each - one to register vehicles, one for drivers license, one for mail
forwarding, one as a domicile for income tax advantages. That is frowned
on by states and could get a person in trouble. It is best to choose one
state and make it your state of domicile. When we bought our 2005 Dutch
Star we formed a Montana LLC and registered it in Montana which was perfectly
legal for us. Montana has no sales tax and the total cost of forming a
LLC, paying a lawyer's fee and getting license plates for the motorhome
was $1,247. If we had registered in Texas the tax and fees would have been
$8,101 and had we registered in South Dakota, another popular state for
fulltimers, the cost would have been $3,440. We registered our new 2007
Honda CR-V under our Montana LLC and saved the sales tax.
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How do you get your mail?
We use Escapees Mail Forwarding Service.
When we know where we will be for a few days we call Escapees' 800 number
or send them an email and have them forward our mail. It is usually forwarded
% General Delivery to a small town post office near us or if a campground
accepts mail for guests we have it forwarded to the campground instead
of a post office. The mail is sent Priority Mail so we usually get it in
three days. Escapees will also accept UPS and Fed-Ex packages and forward
them to us. They also will check our mail to see if a certain item has
arrived, open it and read it to us. Their mail forwarding service cost
$85 a year, plus postage, which is a bargain. We selected a higher level
of service for $105 a year and they sort our mail and throw away the junk
mail. Many fulltimers use Alternative Resources in South Dakota for their
domicile and mail forwarding.
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How do you pay your bills?
The quick answer is we try to move often
to keep one step ahead of the bill collectors!!! No, we are honest
folks and we do pay our bills. Since we own no property or rent an apartment,
we receive very few bills. We have monthly bills for satellite TV, internet
service and our cell phone - just three monthly bills. Each bill is charged
to our credit card and paid by our bank. We occasionally receive other
bills for insurance, vehicle tags and memberships fees. We pay those bills
by check, credit card or on the internet. Most campgrounds accept credit/debit
cards or checks. In an average month we write two checks.
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How do you get money on the road?
We pay for groceries, restaurants, fuel,
campgrounds and most purchases with credit/debit cards. In an average month
we spend about $200 in cash. Most of our shopping is done at Wal*Marts
and we use a debit card and ask for "cash back." We usually get back $100
so that keeps us in pocket money. By using a debit card at Wal*Mart (or
other stores) we never have to use an ATM and pay ATM fees.
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How do you handle phone calls?
We have a cell phone with Verizon's American
Choice plan. For $39.95 a month we get 450 day time minutes, unlimited
night and weekend minutes and free calls with other Verizon cell phones.
We have a cell phone antenna on the motorhome and a portable magnetic antenna
for the Honda for places with weak signals.
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How do you do e-mail on the road?
We use laptop computers and most campgrounds
have a phone line for guests to do e-mail. For several years we connected
to the internet with our Verizon cell phone using their Mobile Office Kit.
With Verizon's National Access we got a speed about 2 1/2 times as fast
as a landline, but when out in the boonies we usually connected at 14.4K
which is fast enough for doing email. Many campgrounds are installing WiFi
and we often found other campers or business that allow us to connect to
their WiFi systems. In May 2007 we bought a Sprint air card, remote antenna,
3-watt amplifier and a router, so we can be connected to the internet 24/7,
sometimes at DSL speeds and other times at speeds a little faster than
a landline. We pay Sprint $60 a month for the data plan.
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Do you have a satellite TV dish?
We had a manual satellite dish on the roof
of our first motorhome and it took about one minute to lock in on the satellite.
Our present motorhome has an automatic satellite dish and it is a little
slower finding the satellite, but all we have to do is press a button.
We use DirecTV and pay $46.34 a month for over 100 channels and we use
the roof antenna to get local stations and network stations.
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Do you get good haircuts on the
road?
I have got good haircuts a few times and
a terrible haircut once at Charlie's Barber Shop in a cotton field near
Summerdale, Alabama. Finally I decided to cut my hair off so now Linda
gives me a burr cut. Linda has had everything from excellent hair cuts
to unbelievably bad cuts where her sides were almost peeled. This is just
part of the excitement of traveling fulltime. There is one good thing about
a bad haircut - it will always grow back.
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What is the Escapees RV Club?
Escapees RV Club is for the serious RVer.
They are head quartered in Livingston, Texas and have campgrounds in several
states. One of their best benefits is their excellent mail forwarding service.
For those traveling in an RV fulltime Escapees provides a physical address.
They have friendly campgrounds, super rallies, a bi-monthly magazine, and
offer advice and assistance on many concerns for the serious RVer. Their
website is http://www.escapees.com
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You talk about computers, e-mail
and the internet. What kind of computers do you have?
I has a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop, Intel
celeron M 1.5G processor, 1.25 Gig of memory, an 60G hard drive, internal
CD R/W, DVD player and a 15.4 inch display. It has a built-in modem and
WiFi and runs Windows XP. Linda is using a Acer, Celeron M processor, 14.1
inch display, 1 Gig memory, 80 Gig hard drive, CD R/W, DVD player, and
WiFi. She uses it to surf the internet and play games. We have a
H-P Inkjet 5550 printer and a H-P 3 in 1 printer/copier/scanner.
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We want to create a website so
our family and friends can follow our travels. How do you create your website?
Our first few months on the road we sent
long emails to friends and family telling about our travels. Then we decided
to create a website so they could read about our travels and see pictures
at their convenience. In March 2000 we create our website and had 12 visitors
that month and since then our website has gotten larger and we average
over 28,000 visitors and over 180,000 hits a month. I use an old version
of Netscape Composer to create the pages because it is easy to use and
is free. There are many other programs and online Blogs to create web pages
and most are easy to use so there is no need to know HTML coding. Our site
is hosted on Earthlink and since it is large and has many visitors we have
to pay for a commercial site at $19.95 a month. Many ISPs offer free site
(about 10 Meg) to customers so we suggest using a free site to get started.
We try to keep the website simple to navigate and quick to load with no
pop-up spam or dancing graphics. Everything can be reached from our home
page and it takes no more than two clicks to reach anything on our website.
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What kind of camera do you use?
In 1999 we started with a simple auto-focus
Kodak DC210 Plus digital camera with 8 Meg of memory. On the highest resolution
it would take 20 pictures, the lowest resolution would take 87 pictures,
but we used medium resolution for 41 pictures. Then we bought a FijiFilm
FinePix A303 compact camera with 64 Meg of memory and being small in size
it fits in a pocket. It takes 497 pictures on low resolution and we do
not touch up the pictures we put on our website. The thumbnail pictures
are reduced to 25 percent and the large pictures are left original size.
All pictures are made on low resolution (480 x 640 pixels).
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Do you belong to membership campgrounds?
Anyone who travels fulltime needs to join
some membership campgrounds. Regular campground rates run $20 - $40 a night
and membership campgrounds can cut that in half. Escapees' campgrounds
are inexpensive and many private campgrounds give an Escapees discount.
Good Sam Club members get 10% off at member campgrounds. Passport America
gives 50% off at their campgrounds as does Happy Camper. We are members
of Coast to Coast Parks that cost $8 a night and their Good Neighbor Parks
cost $13 a night, but many parks have dropped out of the system so we plan
to drop C2C at the end of 2007. There are other membership park systems
we have not joined - RPI, Thousand Trails, AOR, CCA to name a few. Some
membership campgrounds are mainly in the south, some in the east and others
in the west. Before joining a membership campground system check to see
where their campgrounds are located. Never pay more than a few hundred
dollars to join and make sure there is no charge to drop the membership.
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Why do you stay in Wal*Mart parking
lots overnight?
We own a small amount of Wal*Mart stock
and like to tell people we are staying on our own property and checking
out our business. When we travel from point A to point B, if there is more
than one day of travel we always stop at Wal*Marts for the night. Our motorhome
is self-contained so we don't need hook-ups and certainly don't want to
pay a campground owner $25 just to sleep in his campground. Wal*Marts are
RV friendly and welcome RVers to spend the night. We never "camp" at Wal*Mart,
we just spend the night there. Most have security that keeps an eye on
our motorhome all night. We always go in the store and buy some items,
then ask to overnight in their lot. We have never been turned down.
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Do you ever fear for your safety?
Crime?
We always feel safe in campgrounds and even
leave our bicycles, lawn chairs, table and grill outside. No one would
want to come into a crowded campground to commit a crime and campers watch
out for each other. We have never locked our door at night in campgrounds,
but we do when boondocking. When we overnight at Wal*Marts, truck stops
or church parking lots we always park under a light and never extend the
slideout, the awnings or set anything outside. We keep the shades pulled
and the Honda hitched to the motorhome. If someone knocked on our door
we would not open it, but would talk through a window. So far, no matter
where we have parked, we have always felt safe.
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