dvfreelancer
Member
Hard to believe it was only January when we started thinking about full timing. When we started we had a house, two small cars, and an old Class C that was way too small for anything but overnight trips and too expensive to drive for those.
And here we are. Sold the house, traded the cars for an F-350 and the Class C for a Heartland Big Horn and still full time for five months already.
It was a little rocky at first. We were doing a lot of traveling and, in a 5th wheel, that gets to be a bit stressful. We call our camper The Whale and it's a chore to haul that beast around.
Tried work-camping in the Florida park system, but that was not a good experience. The park we were at was disorganized, the campground was old, cramped and run down. And the staff didn't really value their volunteers. We were frequently lumped in with the people working off their community service time. The cherry on top was a mandatory evacuation for a tropical depression that came in the middle of the storm. Throwing us out of the park in the middle of a storm with 30 minutes notice. We didn't go back.
Instead we landed in a nice commercial RV resort in central FL and just decided to winter here. Then I got a job, so now it looks like we may be here a while.
Once we got settled I started work on the documentary. Here are some clips from the test shots I ran last week:
http://www.dangercollie.com/interviewTest/interview_test.html
My video buddies have given me suggestions for getting the video and audio up to commercial standards and the real shooting starts this week.
What we discovered is once you find the right park with the right people, RV living rocks. It suits us very well. There are adjustments but, overall, quite manageable. When my coworkers complain about doing yard work all weekend I can tell them about splashing around in the pool, playing cards, and having a cookout with the neighbors.
We may yet build our off-grid concrete dome dream house, but we're not in any hurry. This lifestyle is low maintenance. Our RV gets dirty fast but it's easy to keep a small space clean. There are things to think about like UV treatments for the roof, buffing out water and black marks and maintenance, but it's a lot less work than a house. Things are going to break, it's inevitable. We put a new converter in this one already. But, like I said, manageable. My mobile repair guy is a fellow firefighter and good buddy. Relationships like that help a lot.
Few of the bad things I was worried about developed. You get bad neighbors once in a while, but they are usually weeded out pretty fast. This park is gated, plus we all look out for one another. The wife feels perfectly comfortable here alone.
I think in many ways, RV living may be the housing of the future. The housing market may be in the toilet many more years and may never be like it was. This is just so much easier and less stress. And liberating in many ways. If the neighborhood goes downhill, if the park gets sold to new owners we don't like, we can be on our way in a couple hours. It's really quite nice.
If you're a full timer in FL and want to be considered for the documentary, just drop me a PM here or chris (at) dangercollie (dot) com.
And here we are. Sold the house, traded the cars for an F-350 and the Class C for a Heartland Big Horn and still full time for five months already.
It was a little rocky at first. We were doing a lot of traveling and, in a 5th wheel, that gets to be a bit stressful. We call our camper The Whale and it's a chore to haul that beast around.
Tried work-camping in the Florida park system, but that was not a good experience. The park we were at was disorganized, the campground was old, cramped and run down. And the staff didn't really value their volunteers. We were frequently lumped in with the people working off their community service time. The cherry on top was a mandatory evacuation for a tropical depression that came in the middle of the storm. Throwing us out of the park in the middle of a storm with 30 minutes notice. We didn't go back.
Instead we landed in a nice commercial RV resort in central FL and just decided to winter here. Then I got a job, so now it looks like we may be here a while.
Once we got settled I started work on the documentary. Here are some clips from the test shots I ran last week:
http://www.dangercollie.com/interviewTest/interview_test.html
My video buddies have given me suggestions for getting the video and audio up to commercial standards and the real shooting starts this week.
What we discovered is once you find the right park with the right people, RV living rocks. It suits us very well. There are adjustments but, overall, quite manageable. When my coworkers complain about doing yard work all weekend I can tell them about splashing around in the pool, playing cards, and having a cookout with the neighbors.
We may yet build our off-grid concrete dome dream house, but we're not in any hurry. This lifestyle is low maintenance. Our RV gets dirty fast but it's easy to keep a small space clean. There are things to think about like UV treatments for the roof, buffing out water and black marks and maintenance, but it's a lot less work than a house. Things are going to break, it's inevitable. We put a new converter in this one already. But, like I said, manageable. My mobile repair guy is a fellow firefighter and good buddy. Relationships like that help a lot.
Few of the bad things I was worried about developed. You get bad neighbors once in a while, but they are usually weeded out pretty fast. This park is gated, plus we all look out for one another. The wife feels perfectly comfortable here alone.
I think in many ways, RV living may be the housing of the future. The housing market may be in the toilet many more years and may never be like it was. This is just so much easier and less stress. And liberating in many ways. If the neighborhood goes downhill, if the park gets sold to new owners we don't like, we can be on our way in a couple hours. It's really quite nice.
If you're a full timer in FL and want to be considered for the documentary, just drop me a PM here or chris (at) dangercollie (dot) com.