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I live on the road in an RV with my family... any questions (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lombardi
- Start date
lombardi
Footballguy
I was raised by quasi-hippies, my dad is still a 60's liberal.
I guess I rebelled and went full conservative on him, quite the disappointment
My wife and I tried to be hippies when we were younger but it didn't work out.
lombardi
Footballguy
gianmarco
Footballguy
This is fascinating. Really.
1) Who does most/all of the driving?
2) How long do you stay in one spot?
3) How do you choose your next spot? Any consideration for weather/time of year?
4) What time do you wake up? What time do you go to sleep?
5) Do you have a TV? Do you watch movies in the RV? Does everyone have internet access?
6) Would you consider doing an FBG tour and just start meeting FBGs all over the country?
7) How do you get mail?
I'll think of more later.
1) Who does most/all of the driving?
2) How long do you stay in one spot?
3) How do you choose your next spot? Any consideration for weather/time of year?
4) What time do you wake up? What time do you go to sleep?
5) Do you have a TV? Do you watch movies in the RV? Does everyone have internet access?
6) Would you consider doing an FBG tour and just start meeting FBGs all over the country?
7) How do you get mail?
I'll think of more later.
lombardi
Footballguy
Nope, that's one of my 3.
Hawaii, North Dakota, and believe it or not Kentucky (should knock that one off in the spring).
lombardi
Footballguy
Really impossible to say. Some of my favorite things have been hiking the Narrows in Zion (lifelong dream) with my boys. They were a bit young for it but really gutted it out and ended up having an amazing, character building and memorable experience. We loved Mardis Gras nad every single thing we ate in New Orelans, plus had the best night of music I think I've ever experienced seeing New Birth Brass Brand at Preservation Hall. On the spiritual side I've gotten to visit some of my favorite pastors churches and that's been really cool. Snorkeling with Manatee was pretty special. My favorite places are the national parks. Seeing the milky way, bears, hiking these amazing places. I just finally got to Olympic last month, another life goal, and it was everything I hoped. If I had to pick I would definitely pick National Parks.
McGarnicle
Footballguy
Wife and I talk often about renting an RV and going to games in all 32 NFL stadiums in one season. With the Thursday and Monday night games and the right planning, it should be possible. Topping it all off with playoff games and the SB would be the ultimate dream.
McGarnicle
Footballguy
lombardi
Footballguy
Budget really varies depending on what we're doing. In Utah where we spent all month visiting national parks it was really low. Weeks or months spent near cities can be pricey going to restaurants, paying for parking, etc.. So it depends on what you're doing.
As for fixed costs we budge a high of $50/night for accomodations. That's $1500/mo which is what our mortgage was or rent for a small house where I live. That's our MAX budget. But we never hit that. We have a coast to coast membership I got on Ebay for $400 and pay $125 a year for. It allows me to stay at their resorts for $10/night. So if I can do resort for one week, coast to coast for a week or two, another middle of the road RV park another week I can keep a low averate for the month. We probably average about $30-$35 a night over an average month. This is about $900-$1050 a month.
This pays our rent, our electric, our cable bill, for the pool. We stay where it's warm so heating is very low, just filling propane every couple weeks for $30, every month if we're in Florida or it's summer time. We don't have to buy presents for kids classroom birthday parties, soccer and basketball fees, dance class lessons, and a million other little things. I just pay for my mifi and cell phone which is close to what I pay at home for DSl and cell service. We spend more on gas than at home and we spend money on entertainment.
WE try to do a lot of hiking, we have a museum pass and national park pass so science museums and all national parks are free. We go on walking tours and look for free family events or cheap family events in city newspapers. Then we splurge on things we really like to do.
This last few months we've slowed down and started spending a month at a time in places. Rent drops signifiantly when you stay the month. I just stayed in Portland for $450 for the entire month. Although in Newport beach I have to pay $1200 this month plus electric, by far the most expensive RV park we've stayed in for this long of a time (we stayed here once before).
So budge is variable but things we like to do are often cheap or free and we try to keep expenses down.
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Insoxicated
"In our first year we drove 27,863 total miles"
Ballpark cumulative at 14mpg
Call it 2000 gallons of diesel at $4.00/gallon (high end) puts ya at $8000 on gas in a year.
EDIT: If you guys are staying for month at a time then I'm guessing much more of your driving is around town and your avg MPG goes up. Might drop that fuel cost down a grand-ish then.
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lombardi
Footballguy
I usually pick the guy who is nicest to us when we meet him. It's always him, saves time. But I never get tired of hearing how he would get away with it if it wasn't for these meddling kids. Make me feel young again.
lombardi
Footballguy
I've had to replace the inverter in my RV, I just rebuilt our toilet (good times), and I had to fix the bed once, frame was falling apart. I've had some things I've had to take care of but nothing too major. A leak in a water line too.
Our biggest problem was last year when we got stuck in Gallup, NM. Our injectors went in our truck, huge expense. We also had a string of bad luck which included an illegal non-english speaker spraying our FICM with a water hose while cleaning our truck and the water pump. All said and done, after being stranded for two weeks with no truck in the middle of nowhere and breaking down again on the way to Vegas we ended up paying $8k and blowing our entire trip emergency fund. That was really bad. I can fix stuff around RV but am not terribly competent with cars/engines.
lombardi
Footballguy
Until high school, next September. We want them to go to high school.Awesomeness.
Your eldest is 14- freshman high school age. How long do you plan to do this? I can see home schooling to a point, but what they get out of high school is hard to replicate at home.
Edited to add: Okay, neverrmiind.
lombardi
Footballguy
1. I do ALL of the driving while towing, my wife drives around town. She has driven twice but just gets too nervous. I know she is capable but honestly the attention I would have to pay to her driving is just as much as driving myself.
2. Sometimes we stop somewhere for a night or two to see something. Other times we stay a week or a month. It depends on where we're at. We used to live in SoCal so we are spending a month here to be with friends and enjoy Thanksgiving together. Our first year we sprinted, seeing as much as possible. This second year we've slowed down and spent longer amounts of time in places we really liked. This seems to be normal for full timers after talking to people who have done it a long time. They all tlak about the break neck pace their first year or two.
3. We stay where it is warm and try to get up North in summer. I really wanted Alaska this year but we started too late and it got too late in the year (someday). So we definitely follow the weather. Other than that it's normally driven by things we want to see and people we want to see. We have a general direction (NW in July/Aug, CA in fall, across gulf in early winter, FL, winter, South in spring) but the actual destinations we figure them out a place at a time. "So where do you want to go next?"
4. I work a normal 9-5 day right now. Last year I had a travel schedule with a bunch of half days but we are working on a larger project now. So 9-5 is EST so I get up at 6 on east coast nad work until about 3. Once project is done I'll go back to working a couple 10 hour days and a couple 6 hour days so I can knock off early and see stuff during the week.
5. We have tv but some campgrounds have it and others dont. Streaming is almost impossible on campground networks, streaming has actually killed campgorund networks, and I have a 20GB/mo max on my mifi so we can't stream much. Maybe an eagles game once or twice a month. So if the place has tv we watch, if it doesn't we don't. We got to watch all of Breaking BAD!!!!
6. I am planning on checking out McClures when we get to NO this winter. Also, I just hung out with tdoss, we're analog friends. I don't think I can do a tour, i already know so many people we have to see as it is as we move from place to place. But if I happen to be somewhere we'll hang out with almost anyone if they'll feed us
7. I get my mail sent to my dad's house, our last and legal residence. He forwards it to me in a box about once a month. I pay all my bills online.
glumpy
breeze
My sister lived in an RV for a few years, being single and working contracts across the country for periods of time, weeks to months. She finally had issues finding convenient support services in New Jersey and decided to get back into a brick & mortar home but overall really enjoyed the experience. My son and I stayed with her once when she was parked oceanside in VB and that was a beautiful setup!
lombardi
Footballguy
That would be awesome! Don't have the cash for 5 NFL tickets every weekend
I almost bought kids to the Raiders vs Eagles game in Oakland, had a thread about it and was wisely warned away.
After Foles through 7 TD's I probably would have been killed.
We've gone to a few baseball stadiums. Finally went to Fenway, went to SF Giants game, and to a Mariners game.
Evilgrin 72
Distributor of Pain
I picture you folding yourself like a contortionist into some little dry goods storage cabinet under the sink to snap one off. Every 4-5 strokes, your elbow hits the back wall. Your wife and kids keep going to the door of the RV, thinking someone's knocking. You're cursing under your breath and sweating profusely as you attempt to power through.
Then, just as the moment of truth is barreling down on you like an 18 wheeler going 75 miles an hour in the wrong direction on the freeway, little Suzie decides she needs a big honkin' bowl of Apple Jacks. The cabinet door swings open, and there's Dad, his red face contorted in a rictus of ecstacy and spinal distress. All she can see is head and feet, you're so folded in there. For her, it's like seeing "Dorf on Golf" for the first time, only instead of Tim Conway and golf, it's her dad beating his pecker like it killed his parents.
Cut to : overhead shot of the RV with sound of daughter's tortured scream of horror played over it.
Cut to : overhead shot of RV park with sound of daughter's tortured scream of horror played over it.
Cut to : overhead shot of Newport Beach with sound of daughter's tortured scream of horror played over it.
Cut to : picture of Earth taken from the moon with sound of daughter's tortured scream of horror played over it.
-End-
St. Louis Bob
Footballguy
This sounds awesome.
ETA
Will you be in Milwaukee in July? Little beerhole going down.
ETA
Will you be in Milwaukee in July? Little beerhole going down.
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Premier
Footballguy
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
I live just down the road from where you are now. Can I come visit??
Jutz
Footballguy
Oh my... I have tears in my eyes and snot about to drip out my nose from laughing so hard at this.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
How do you get mail? Mundane stuff, such as replacements for expiring credit cards or vehicle registration renewals.
=Smackdown=
Footballguy
Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?
The Hank
Footballguy
lombardi
Footballguy
We pulled into an RV park straight out of the movies last year near San Antonio. There was actually some kind of carcass in our site, I honestly don't know what it was. Everyone in the park could have been extras in the walking dead, it really was a place where I think people went to hide. Super creepy, very, very weird.
In Oatman, NV there was a biker show nearby. Thousands of bikers and bikes driving through the town, could barely find space on the sidewalk. Right down the middle of the road a guy with the biggest smile you could imagine comes strolling down the street. He was wearing that smile and crocks, that was it. "Kids! Look over there right now, look in that store window!" He had to be 70, it scarred me for life, can't imagine what it would have done to their young minds.
You just run into a lot of really weird people. Most people are nice, I rarely ever feel like we're in any danger, no more than real life visting large cities. But you just run into some extremely odd birds.
We saw one buy on a pretty rigorous hike in Zion, He was hiking barefoot and in his underwear, talking to himself alot. It was all rock and sharp edges but he went strolling buy, must have had feet like leather.
lombardi
Footballguy
moleculo
Footballguy
lombardi
Footballguy
I know, my year of travel was probably like a tenth of one of his private jet flights out to tell me how evil I am. That's a lot of carbon!
Actually I drove less that year than some of the years when I had to commute for a living many long years ago. For my friends living in centeral jersey driving up to NY every day, 30k miles is probably a drop in the bucket.
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lombardi
Footballguy
I will probably be south of the mason dixon come July. The search for a new home commences in May and hopefully by July we'll be looking at schools.
lombardi
Footballguy
lombardi
Footballguy
My dad forwards my mail to me. He also puts in rent checks from my tenant every month.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
what is your job?
lombardi
Footballguy
I'm a programmer. My friend started a company about 14 years ago, been working with him for 13. WE have a web app for the sales industry.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
lombardi
Footballguy
This is actually difficult. We have Blue Cross HMO and when we're travelling we can't really see doctors. If we have an emergency we can go to ER and it's covered after co-pay. But we can't go to a doctor out of our network which is only in NJ. So follow up and stuff you can't do. Although my prescription card works throughout the U.S..
If we had a real problem we may need to go home to handle or pay out of pocket for tests and stuff.
I once had to bring my kid in for a strep throat, ended up an ER and they told me it was strep. My other kid gets it a couple days later. I called the insurance company and asked if I could just go to quick care or walk in clinic or something and they refused. I told them that the co-pay is going to be the same it doesnt' matter to me but it's going to save your company thousands of dollars, they said no. So off to the ER i went, kind of stupid.
So we're covered in emergencies and prescriptions. If we need ongoing care we can't get it, so far we haven't needed it but that's just luck. When we went home for those few months I had knee surgery to repair a meniscus.
lombardi
Footballguy
I still have residency in NJ. It's where my house, my business LLC, my insurance is all through. If I was going to do this long term I would switch my residency but for 2 years I decided to stand pat.
There are actually some cools services out of the escapees club in Texas that handle mail, car registrations, residency stuff for you when you full time RV. A lot of retirees use them. But yeah, lots of people set up residency in states with no income tax.
