Ladies, how do I get DW on board?

Our story.....
We are two retired professionals in our near mid 60s. We have settled in our home state in the north of Michigan. It gets cold up here, we new that but as we age it gets colder. We are looking to bug out for 5-6 months.

My wonderful bride would prefer to buy a place in Florida. Not terrible.
My choice is to buy a high end used pusher in a year that we can afford and travel the winters out west.
I would like to do this for 3-5 years eventually deciding on a place to buy our winter home.
Maybe Judy will share my dream to do the rv thing forever and by that I mean until we get too old.
I've been in corporate sales most of my professional life and I cannot close this deal.

I believe if I have the right coach and we start at the most awesome places west she might come around.
My plan is to be off grid, willing to pay for enough solar and battery to keep us out for 6 days then find a cc to dump, refill for a night.

We have looked at hundreds of floor plans. We know what we want. She thinks it's a risk she is not sure she wants to take.

We are not rich but comfortable. I am willing to drop up to $150k on the right coach to keep her comfortable. We also cannot afford a catastrophic mistake.

If you girls have anything to offer please bring it. If she is not happy........

Thanks in advance, Jeff

Alpena Jeff said:

My wonderful bride would prefer to buy a place in Florida. Not terrible.

My choice is to buy a high end used pusher in a year that we can afford and travel the winters out west.

We have looked at hundreds of floor plans. We know what we want. She thinks it's a risk she is not sure she wants to take.

We are not rich but comfortable. I am willing to drop up to $150k on the right coach to keep her comfortable. We also cannot afford a catastrophic mistake.

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Jeff, I'm no lady but perhaps a few perspectives from both sexes may help.
After being together 45 years, compromise is the name of the game.
"She thinks it's a risk she is not sure she wants to take " needs clarification.
What, exactly, is she afraid of?
My wife (fortunately) loves the rig, but it's not ALL the traveling she wants to do. If your wife is stuck on a Florida vacation, perhaps you could occasionally include a month renting a house there. We do this with friends joining us all the time.
It sounds like you both have a floor plan and rig specifically in mind?

Have you looked into renting an rv for a week or two?  That should give her some idea what it's like. 

I guess she needs a desire to see the country and I don't know if you can inspire that.  Does she have any specific concerns about traveling?  Maybe someone here could allay any fears.

Buying a good,used unit is not like taking the risk of a new unit.  Is she willing to commit a year?

Hope you can work something out for both of you!

Jeff,

I have an offer for you.

I traveled for over 35 years and have recently settled down to a beautiful home in Lake Havasu.  I have not taken out my coach since April and I am not going thru withdrawals or really missing the traveling.  I am sure that I will travel some in the future.  It is a 40 foot Country Coach Inspire

I would be willing to lend it to you for free for a couple of weeks or maybe more so that you could do a trial run of what full timing is like. 

It has full solar and could be used without hookups, However I would recommend spending some time in a RV park or resort to ease into boondocking.

This time of year is not the best time to spend in the southwest due to the high temps.

Maybe using it to spend a few weeks in Quartzsite in January would be a good test.

Wow, HueypilotVN, I will there in a couple of days with my dilapidated Class C, which I will leave in your driveway and pick up your motorhome for a short jaunt up to Colorado.  You're a gentleman and a saint!!

Go to Florida and rent a house during the hurricane season. Make sure you are next to a body of water that is filled with alligators.  When the temperature hits 95 and the humidity is 95 maybe she'll see your point.

Have you priced house insurance in Florida?  Mighty high, very few insurers and your doors and windows have to have steel shutters all around the house.

I won't talk about the drivers....

Maybe it is not best idea to start off the grid.  Maybe your dw would enjoy "glamping" better.  Just saying she might need to warm up to the off the grid part.  Good luck!

Arch Hoagland said:

Have you priced house insurance in Florida?  Mighty high, very few insurers and your doors and windows have to have steel shutters all around the house.

I won't talk about the drivers....

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My homeowners insurance in Florida costs $40 per month. I have no steel shutters and very few people in this park do. But you are correct about the drivers.

Wow Bill!  That is an incredibly generous offer!  Very nice of you! 

To the OP - I answered your question the best I could in your other post.  Hope you see it there! 

Agree with PugaPooh on renting one.  Or borrow one.  See how she likes it.  My wife wasn't keen on a camper at first, now she loves it.  We used to tent so it's much better.

We had the opposite problem in our house.  I am the one who had to convince Jim to do this.  I am enjoying it a lot more than he is! 

My girlfriends all think I am nuts.  I think they are more comfortable trying to decide how to rearrange the furniture rather than exploration. Does she have an interest in travel and exploring at all??  If not, you may never get her to agree.  I agree that the boondocking idea might be a bit frightening to her.  Women like electricity and with solar and generators I really don't understand the reluctance many women have.  For me it seems only natural to explore to find the best retirement location out there before buying somewhere.  Also, is she an outgoing personality?  You will meet many many people along the way with different interests.  That might appeal to her.  Good luck to you, I think its a great way of life for a few years anyway.

What are her hobbies and interests?  Maybe if you plan a trip around some of those she will be interested?

You can probably spend half that amount on a gently used DP, and take half the risk right off the bat.    Plus you'll get more of your money back if/when you decide to sell someday down the road.

This IS one of those things that I'd recommend both halves of the couple be on board (or at least mostly so) from the get-go.  Otherwise, you'll be spending half of your effort trying to convince her "Look how great this is!" and she'll spend half of her effort fighting feelings of resentment toward you and/or not really being interested in RV'ing.  You've probably already done this, but spend some serious time talking to her about why you want to RV, and let her tell you why she doesn't want to.  Make a list of pro's and cons.  See how those discussions shake out.

Keep reading around here, and keep us updated! 

During my working years while our kids were growing up, we had a variety of small travel trailers and even a couple of conversion vans, but we never stayed out more than a few days at a time. So my wife laughed at first when I bought a little Toyota based 21' Class C on my way home from my last day of work when I retired. It was cheap and in rough shape, but I think she thought fixing it up would be a good hobby for me, so she was onboard that far. About 6 months later when the little coach was back to usable condition, we took it out to a few local campgrounds for a few days at a time, and she did find that ok now and then, just like when we had our TT's. Then I suggested a 1,000 mile trip to see some sights and even stop and see some people we had met on the Internet over the years and chatted with and talked to on the phone. Now that got her interest! So off we went, and ended up meeting two couples about our own age that became great friends to this day. On the way back home, she mentioned how much she had enjoyed finally meeting our long time Internet friends in person, but she wasn't really happy about being cooped up in the little RV at the campgrounds, especially on rainy days. I immediately thought, "Oh no! Here we go, back to just short trips I guess." Instead, she blew my mind when she said, "What would you say about looking for a Class A so we'd have more room?" The rest is history as they say, and we went from our first Class A to eventually selling our house and living in our motorhome. We did keep our little summer cottage in the Adirondacks though, upgrading it to year round livable. That gives us a place to park the coach near our two daughters, grandkids, and great grandkids, although we usually keep on living in the it while we're there. Since that first long trip, we've made many more, and now have friends and relatives we see fairly regularly scattered around the country. That's our story, and maybe there's some kernel in there somewhere that might be helpful to you.

Jeff, Bills offer is gold and I would jump on it in a heartbeat.  You can't get any closer to the real thing than that. If after you try Bill's rig for a while, if the DW doesn't come around, she never will.  It sounds like it would be your best shot.

Has she experienced the no see um in Florida? If you spend $150,000 on a motor home and dont own it long you may take a pretty big hit on selling it. You could buy a place in Fl and get a van or small rig for you to head out in.  See you in the Q.

SargeW said:

Jeff, Bills offer is gold and I would jump on it in a heartbeat.  You can't get any closer to the real thing than that. If after you try Bill's rig for a while, if the DW doesn't come around, she never will.  It sounds like it would be your best shot.

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Absolutely!  As much as we owners generally say we'd almost never consider lending/renting our RV's... (not because we're mean or selfish, but because RV'ing has a learning curve most people don't understand)... Bill has given you an amazing opportunity in that offer.  Although if you are still in northern MI as your signature states, getting to Bill in western AZ might be an issue. 

Jeff must be thinking it over.

You could fly into Bullhead City and I would pick you up and bring you here.

We have extra guest rooms, guest bath, and a pool.  We are set up for having company.  I would suggest that he spend a day or two getting comfortable with all the systems and specifics of this coach.  If he had a fifth wheel in the past I think that the learning curve would not be that big.  It is in the RV Garage with full hookups so he could even start his test with a night in the RV Garage.

This time of year I would recommend Williams or the Grand Canyon for a destination.  Later in the fall or winter would be better as far as temperatures are concerned for the area around here or in Quartzsite.

This is not a new thing for me, I have given away around 13 vehicles in the past 40 years, 5 of them were RV's.

I do not want or need any money and it would probably cause an issue as far as needing commercial insurance if I rented it instead of simply lending it for a short time.

Jeff, You can use the private message function if you do not want to respond here.

 

You live in Havasu year round?  We were there in December/January and asked someone about the summer temps.  115F (and higher) scared us away.

Other than that we really like it there.

Love Juicy's!

I have a very well insulated home.  It was actually over 120 here several weeks ago.

Nice and cool inside and we have a pool.