“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal.” – Albert Einstein
RVing is a lifestyle, whether you’re a weekend warrior, full-time, or somewhere in between. But what is the ultimate goal? Being immersed in nature? The freedom of the road? Practicing minimalism and shrinking our footprint? All great reasons, but what’s the end game and how long do full-timers stay on the road? For some it’s an easier way to survive until the current high rent and home prices become feasible. For others, it’s a way to escape the rat race indefinitely or retire among like-minded outdoor enthusiasts. For us? Well, that’s a good question.
Our journey has been a bit different from most. We stumbled into this way of life all the while thinking we’d see the country and find a place that felt like “home” to put down roots again. We started thinking about where we’d like to retire and made a list of all the places we thought we would like. We realized that may not be the way to go, so we decided to mark off all of the places we knew we didn’t want to be. Hot places, places that get 20 feet of snow, the desert. We were currently living on the beach and knew we wouldn’t make it through another hurricane or tourist season so we took away the southern coastal areas. It helped, but not much.
We thought about flying to certain locations we had dreamed about and quickly figured out that airfare, hotel, kennel, rental car, and eating out equaled several thousand dollars per trip. That was out. We had far too many places to visit without a Powerball win to subsidize our trips.
This is how we landed on RVing. We could visit those places and stay inexpensively for a while and see if the place felt right. We’ve realized on our travels that we’re both mountain people. I’ve lived at the beach several times over my life and that wasn’t what I saw when I pictured my golden years. It was always a mountain view with evergreens, a light snowfall in the winter, a cool summer, and colorful foliage in the fall. It was basically a Hallmark movie set complete with a cute walkable town where everyone knew everyone and went all out for Christmas. Know what I’m talking about? The town with the Christmas tree lot and partially renovated BnB. I think Lacey Chabert bought it.
So that’s why we RV. We wanted to find a place to land, It was never our goal to do this indefinitely. It was a means to an end. Don’t get me wrong, we love seeing new places and meeting new people. We’re basically ready to stop and stay at any time because we have 99% of our belongings with us. We just haven’t found that perfect place yet.
I’m honestly not sure how many other RVers are doing the same thing. Most people we meet have a 3 year rule. They see everything they want to see and do all the things before giving it up and either returning to their home base (those that never sold it all to travel full-time) or finding a new one within 3 years. A few have no plans and are letting the universe make that decision for them while another small handful have already been on the road for 10+ years and are perfectly happy.
So far, we’ve visited 29 states and there are a few others we’ve marked as a hard pass. It hasn’t been a fruitful journey as far as finding our new home base, but we’re still looking. Fingers crossed it’s not another 2 years before we do. The 3 year rule seems a little long to me.
Excellent post, as ever. It does seem up to 3 years is often the amount of time needed for big decisions.