Hubby so into this, Wife unsure a hotel kinda girl

When I was working I spent way too many miles on airplanes (over 1,000,000 miles) and way too many nights in hotel rooms (hundreds and hundreds). Never again unless forced. Airplanes are nothing more than cattle cats, and hotels require packing and unpacking each day. I prefer staying in my own space. I pack clothes and some food, and everything else is left in the rig. I can eat what I want and not have to depend on a hotel breakfast. I have my own clean bathroom, and a bed that is just mine. You can customize your rig as you want. Most of mine in the past we changed the mattress because it was either too hard or too soft, but that is easy. Oh, and we did this in hard sided trailers before our current motorhome. I say we don?t camp, we live.

If it's any comfort at all (it might not be), you're not alone in your fears and apprehensions, and we're EAGER to get on the road as soon as possible! We're still transitioning our business toward being on the road for a year or two, but there are times when I want to leave tomorrow, and times when I feel like I'm going to cry at the very thought of leaving my home, my neighbors and friends, and my comfort zone, and do something you can only really know you like/love by doing it. We've done a week in an RV and loved it, but that's not the same as going into a full-time situation.

I agree with renting, just to get a feel for it, but please do know that even for some of us who are absolutely going to do it and can't wait to do it, there are still fears. There are still times when I question the sanity of it, and worry about the work, the logistics, and a million other things. Sometimes you just have to plunge into it and see where it takes you. If nothing else, you come away from it with an experience you didn't have before, and (hopefully) some wonderful memories.

I hadn?t realized the OP was thinking of going full-time since she mentioned a R-Pod. My comments are not related to long-terming for 3-4 months at a time but keeping our house.

I don?t recall the OP mentioning full timing. I would full time again in a heart beat. I took her post to mean vacationing in an RV rather than a hotel.

Nadinenurse said:

:-[. Well as title says, I am willing to try but now after reading posts , finances, cost , black water smells, pumping out tanks, etc... I am getting nervous.  I love being w my two Golden?s miss them terribly  adore the thought of never having to deal w a plane ride and TSA ,  have been researching for a year . We actually had a R pod for 4 months and then it was STOLEN yup. Lost 10,000 as it was not insured.  Never even used it . That makes me sick thinking about it,  I even read all the great and I mean great info on this website.  I am a quiet person we don't drink or smoke I also work from home for a EHR so we can travel endlessly.  I really want to try, but now I am scared.  Convince me this is great. I , we don?t fish hike bike but really want to see the beauty of the country... am I insane to try ?????????? This seems like a great idea ,  no hotel no packing no bad restaurants  just set ups and driving.  But now I am nervous .. tell me not to be and try........ )

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My wife accepts than I am going to see our great country and she is always invited to come along. So far she has. We take our 2 cats and we have enjoyed winters in Arizona and Florida.  Nothing better than sleeping in "our bed" every night.

I sold my wife on the idea by showing her Harvesthosts Lavender farm. Yes, we get some toilet smells, but some motels smell pretty funky too!

With Havesthosts we have stayed overnight at wineries, berry farms, and museums.

One value of this type of forum is that it's a place for members to discuss problems and problem solving. Not many members start a thread post saying that they don't any issues. Consequently, a person reading RV Forum posts could get the false impression that RVing is nothing but a bunch of problems. Similarly, reading the posts on a home repair forum might make a novice think that owning a sticks and bricks is fraught with endless problems.  ;D

I am full timing in a 23 year old travel trailer. It had been well maintained before I purchased. So let me report, that I don't have any problems with my RV home. I've never had any toilet smells. The a/c runs cold. And, I don't have any water leaks. I do plan to gradually make some improvements, but that was true when I had a sticks and bricks.

In addition, I've never had any problems with other RVers. In fact, I've found them to be friendly and always eager to be helpful.

My wife and I had travel trailers for years before we retired and she was ok with weekend camping now and then and the occasional full week, but that was about it. When we retired, she was fine with me buying a small project Class C that needed some serious overhauling. 6 months later we started taking it out for a week or so at a time. After the first year of doing that, she finally told me how much she liked having everything on board in one vehicle and the comfort of knowing she could walk to the back and use the bathroom while underway. Then she really surprised me when she said her only complaints were that the cooking area and refrigerator were too small for the longer trips she'd like to take, and she didn't like that we had to pack up our site just to run to the store, so would I consider buying a bigger motorhome?! It took another year to find the right floor plan at the right price, but we upgraded to a 33' Class A and haven't looked back. Now we've been fulltiming for almost 10 years, and she was the one that found our current motorhome and negotiated the deal.

IBTripping said:

...In addition, I've never had any problems with other RVers. In fact, I've found them to be friendly and always eager to be helpful.

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In general I agree with this. My wife is more nervous about fellow campers.  The only issue we had was with a local "full timer" who smoked dope around our small children. It was the same campsite where someone stole our wave heater.  Other than that, our campsite neighbours have been great. Most campsites have a separate area for locals. (Most local full timers are really nice too. )

We haven?t had much trouble with fellow campers. Just the occasional noisy, maybe drank too much or the folks that take short cuts through other campers sites.

On the topic of having problems with your camper and/or S&B, it?s the rare occasion when you find some that hasn?t had some problems with either. We?ve owned, well us and the banks have owned, several homes since 1979. Had problems with all of them. Had problems with all of them. Owned two RV?s. Had problems with both of them. Nature of the beast.

As for RVing. I like it. Most of the time. We fulltimed for 5 years and I liked it. Most of the time. But I also like to stay in a nice hotel. We also like to take cruises. Would I try to convince someone else to embrace the RV lifestyle? No. Just like I won?t try to convince folks to stay in hotels, take cruises or travel by plane. I do what I do because I found out what I like by trial and error. The thing is if try a hotel and don?t like it you?re out $100 or $200. If try flying you?re out maybe $300-$400. If try cruising, well you could be out several thousand dollars, but at least you had all you can eat and got to see some neat places. If you try RVing and don?t like it you could be out ten of thousands of dollars. Like I said, we like camping, most of the time. But just because we like it doesn?t mean you will.

Oldgator73 said:

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As for RVing. I like it. Most of the time. We fulltimed for 5 years and I liked it. Most of the time. But I also like to stay in a nice hotel. We also like to take cruises. Would I try to convince someone else to embrace the RV lifestyle? No. Just like I won?t try to convince folks to stay in hotels, take cruises or travel by plane. I do what I do because I found out what I like by trial and error. The thing is if try a hotel and don?t like it you?re out $100 or $200. If try flying you?re out maybe $300-$400. If try cruising, well you could be out several thousand dollars, but at least you had all you can eat and got to see some neat places. If you try RVing and don?t like it you could be out ten of thousands of dollars. Like I said, we like camping, most of the time. But just because we like it doesn?t mean you will.

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It really depends on what your ambitions are. We didn't have to spend tens of thousands because I was happy to buy a used trailer. Financially it helps a lot if you can do maintenance yourself.  We knew we could sell cour trailer and perhaps make money ( Trailmanors are rare in my area and usually sell quickly). 

But, there are some people who wouldn't be able to stand the sight of hooking up a sewer pipe. I would not try to convince those kinds of people. 

larryjb said:

It really depends on what your ambitions are. We didn't have to spend tens of thousands because I was happy to buy a used trailer. Financially it helps a lot if you can do maintenance yourself.  We knew we could sell cour trailer and perhaps make money ( Trailmanors are rare in my area and usually sell quickly). 

But, there are some people who wouldn't be able to stand the sight of hooking up a sewer pipe. I would not try to convince those kinds of people.

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I look at RVing the same way as I look at eating raw oysters. I love raw oysters but I?m not going to try to convince you to eat one.

There?s two ways it can go if you convince someone to do something. They can love it and be your best friend for life. Or they can hate it and hate you the rest of your life. I already have enough friends and I already have enough folks that hate me.

I can count on one hand the times I have experienced issues with campground neighbors, most of which were minor or were to be expected to a degree.  For example when boondock camping at a festival one sort of expects a higher level of rowdiness, so one should adjust ones expectations.  Having said that the one incident that stands out in my mind was a stop at the Cabella's full hookup campground at their headquarters store in Sidney Nebraska where my neighbors  (a group of 6 in an travel trailer) 15 feet away setup their awning, outdoor entertainment center and outdoor kitchen and proceeded to watch some sporting event until almost 11 pm.