Long timing

[vickir]

Rich ... My goodness, what an awful experience. Thank goodness there was no serious damage to either you and Helen or your trailer. And how wonderful that you were so close to the Hagerstown KOA and that they were able to be of such over-and-above assistance!

By the way ... being a San Diego native, I have to say that as lovely as lake sounds are, nothing comes close to the sound of ocean waves ... IMHO, one of the most pleasing and relaxing sounds there is in nature.

[sreigle]

That's a great story, Rich. I hope the Hagerstown KOA picks up some extra business from those of us who have read how they treated you.

By the way, sounds like it's time to do that trade for a Montana!

[richfaa]

Steve..we are not yet done with this trip but Helen said never again this long and this far in this camper. Don't know how many times she said "wish we had the 3295 now"...We were parked butt up with Ronstan a couple of weeks ago in WVa and Helen got to inspect their 3295 in a "lived in" condition and she is satisfied that the 3295 will handle all her "stuff" The for sale sign will go up on the trusty Terry when we get home and we will have the Montana for the first Spring camping trip. We are going to Goshen in a couple of weeks We need to have a friendly, pleasant conversation with the Montana quality control folks.... I think Montana is the best bang for the buck around for a Rv in the price range.. But?????

[richfaa]

vickir..I hear you, Helen says the same thing.She recorded about 10 mins of Ocean waves.Just downloaded the video and sounds ..she wants to go back..I sort of think that we will be snowbirding in Fla..near the beach???

[richfaa]

We are cutting the trip short by a few days and going home,,The heat is brutal.Thought we would do some history at Gettysburg but they would be putting up a memorial for us here if we walked the fields.We did not climb kill Devil hill either.It was hot but nice in OBX because of the Ocean breeze.Will hit the PA TPk then the Ohio TPK and be home this PM. The humidity is a killer.... Nice trip tho...

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

she is satisfied that the 3295 will handle all her "stuff"

Believe me, Rich, the 3295RK will hold a lot! We are very heavily loaded in ours. I can't recall all the details of the current model but we added additional storage under the bottom drawer of the computer desk and also under the oven. Thanks to this forum it was a snap knocking out the pretty panels and putting doors over the openings. The current 3295RK is different from our old 2003 in several ways but I'm sure there's still lots of storage.

[richfaa]

We are home..over 2700 miles in 24 days. Week in WVA at the FCRV campvention, week in the outer banks,really nice.Some time in the DC area and a little time in Gettysburg.The heat finally got to us in Gettysburg and we came back to Ohio..to a heat index of 105..Nice to be back..there is no place like home. The new truck worked great, smooth ride,Had a couple of problems with the old TT but did not lose any time.Next trip will be in a Montana.Got to sit in on a "full timers" seminar at the FCRV campvention. Got to hear from a group of folks that call themselves full timers.Their definition was anyone who spends 6 month or more in the RV.There were but a handful whose home was the RV. We will be doing the 6 months or so and we call that long timers. The fuel prices were outrages both gas and diesel..Gas prices ranged from 2.13 to 2.45 with diesel being 20 to 40 cents higher. Our fuel bill will be around 600.00-650.00.We did not spend 600.00 on ALL other expenses.Campgrounds, tolls, food, etc..outrages..These oil prices are hurting in all areas as there is a ripple effect in price increases on everything. The outer banks was slow.. vacancies everywhere campgrounds, beach houses, hotels, motels and this is prime vacation time. Don't think we can afford to spend 650.00 or so for fuel for every 2700 miles of travel..a diesel would not help much..if at all. None of this will stop us ..life is to short..but may slow us down..

[Parrothead]

Rich
One thing about full timing (and we are banking on this for when we are ready) is that you are not traveling all the time. You spend a week or two or three in one place. That will cut down on the fuel costs for a period of time. Glad you had a good time. The heat doesn't help the gas mileage either,
Happy trails....................

[sreigle]

We started our fulltiming with a lot of time on the road and a few days here and there while sightseeing. Vacation mode, in other words. Eventually it dawned on us we don't have to be in a hurry. We can take time to enjoy an area, to thoroughly get to know an area, to see and do things the normal tourist doesn't even know is there. Wow, have we enjoyed this slower mode. We sometimes spend a week someplace but sometimes spend a month. Occasionally even two months. Now we can intersperse our sightseeing and exploration with what we call "reality days" when we do cleaning, laundry, etc., and with some days that are for whatever we decide to do that day. That sometimes even means "nothing." This is just our approach and is not necessarily best for anyone else. But we're sure enjoying it. And the serious discounts for monthly stays helps big time to offset fuel costs. Plus, not towing as frequently cuts down on fuel costs as well. I don't know that we could have slowed down our approach when we first started. We had that vacation mentality that we had to hurry up and see everything before we ran out of time. It took us awhile to realize there's a lot of time available so slow down and enjoy things even more. Again, just our approach.

[richfaa]

We heard the same sort of things from the folks at the Full-timing seminar.It was always our plan to spend long periods of time at one place..Example sunbirding in Fla for 3 or 4 months. We will pick a place we want to be and spend a min of a month there then move on or return home for a while.What we picked up on this trip was that the higher cost of fuel and the ripple effect it causes in Campground rates for example are becoming a issue for folks that spend a lot of time on the road..full-timers and long-timers alike.Example a friend of ours who just got rid of his 38 foot gas motor moterhome (4 MPG) for a 1 ton Dodge Diesel and a 3670 Montana. This "trip" was also a fact finding experiment.. we checked monthly rates everywhere we went. For those of us who have not yet started to full-time or long-time the present state of the economy requires us to re-evaluate. What we planed on 2 or 3 years ago no longer applies and who knows what the next 2 or 3 years will bring. We will still do what we planed to do one way or the other..I remember this quote.." If you want something bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen" so be it....