Another Cold wave is due in Shortly

Life has been pretty laid back and relaxing here at the Hickory Hammock Water Management District park.  We have been here 3 days in what is called an Equestrian campground (RVs are allowed also.)  In that 3 days, we have yet to see a horse.   No complaints, just an observation.

A few days ago, someone asked how we got into the full time life style with the RV?   It was kind of via the back door.   In 1974, we bought a used Airstream so that we could park it on the farm (near my folks) and use it often during the summer.  (Previously,, we had a fold down, but since it seemed to rain every weekend, and the rest of the family wasn't too happy.)

About 1982, with both daughters in or about to be in high school and not wanting to spend the weekends away from the house, the use of the RV declined.  About then a friend leaned on us to join their RV club, which we did.  (He had asked me in 1974.)       My rational for joining was to kind of force us to use the RV a little bit since our daughters didn't want to travel weekends with us.

As years progressed, we became acquainted with numerous retirees and a few full timers.  When it came time for our retirement, we had two options since we wanted a different home to retire in.   Either we buy it before retirement, move in and then travel or we sell our current home, travel and buy our retirement home  in a year or two.  We decided that buying a home and leaving it to   the care of unknown neighbors was not smart.    So we sold our home, banked the money and said we'd buy a new home when we had seen the country  (that was 16 years ago.)

How long will we continue to live the full time life style?  Our general answer is that we'll stick with it as long as our health holds out.  Right now there are a few aches and pains, but no show stoppers.  (A new hip is probably in the not too distant future for me.)

What have we learned in this life style?  There are lots of folks doing it in all kinds of RVs and with the full range of financial  resources.  What I have concluded was that early retirement was a god-send for us.  Changing one's life style is stressful.  Going full-time is stressful initially.   Giving up the neighborhood and moving in to a group of complete strangers is stressful.  The younger one is, the easier it is to handle all of the stress.   It was a move that we have no regrets about.

As I write this, the generator is humming away outside since it is cloudy here in south Florida and my solar panels are not doing the job, plus it is raining.  (If I wasn't doing this, I'd probably have to be cleaning the stuff off of my "flat file" table even tho I know where it is!)

Gene