How Do You...?

When people discover we are full-timers, they ask very similar questions, with the most common question being "How do you get your mail?" So this section will attempt to answer some of those questions. If you have any questions or would like further clarification on any of the topics I've discussed, please feel free to e-mail me.
1. How do you get your mail?
2. Where do you bank?
3. How do you stay in touch with your family?
4. What did you do with your stuff?
5. How did you choose a home state?
6. Why did you switch to a fifth wheel from a motorhome?
7. Do you have a pet?
8. What's your favorite place?
9. What about the holidays?
10. Do you miss your house?
11. Do you boondock?  Stay in Wal*Mart parking lots?
12. Do you belong to a member campground?
13. What camping organizations do you belong to?
14. How do you decide where to travel?
15. Was it hard to adjust to being a full time rver?

How do you get your mail? This has to be the #1 question full-timers are asked by those curious about the lifestyle. We use the Escapees organization's mail forwarding service. They provide us with a street address and we have all of our mail sent to that address. Every week we notify the folks at the mail forwarding service of the campground's address where we'll be staying and they send out our mail in a large envelope. You can have your mail forwarded whenever you like; daily, weekly, bimonthly, monthly, whatever. Family Motor Coach Association offers the same service, as does the Good Sam organization and many other camping organizations, and there are private individuals and companies that offer the service as well. Many of these companies advertise in magazines that cater to the RVing lifestyle. One thing to remember is that the address you use can be your permanent address for tax purposes so you should take that into consideration also.


Where do you bank? Denny's pension check is direct deposited at our credit union in Ohio and we use our debit card for most of our purchases. We check online to find affiliate credit unions across the country so we can deposit checks and make withdrawals or use their ATMs without being charged a fee. Obtaining extra cash using the debit card is as simple as requesting extra cash back when you shop at Wal*Mart, any local grocery store or even the post office. Maintaining our accounts with our credit union from Ohio allows us the ability to obtain loans easily since we have been dealing with these folks for years and they know and remember us when we call. The Escapees organization is now affiliated with a credit union located in Livingston, Texas.
Certainly it would be possible for you to keep your original bank accounts if you would like or you can go with one of the many national bank chains so to be able to deal with branches across the country.


How do you stay in touch with your family? This has been made much easier with the advent of modern technology. When we first started RVing we had a cell phone in a "bag"-one that was permanently mounted in our motorhome. You paid by the minute and for every long distance call and there were also roaming charges every time you left your "home area". So a single quick phone call could cost $5-8 dollars for five minutes. Now of course, there are many carriers that provide nationwide coverage but we have been very pleased with our Cingular (now AT&T) service.

Our Internet access has changed over the years also. We originally used the phone lines at campgrounds, connecting through Earthlink service. But we found that many small campgrounds often had only one phone line and therefore were reluctant to allow you to tie up the line to download email, so we searched for a better option. Our next method of connecting to the Internet was when we purchased a laptop with a cellular modem card. We purchased a modem cable and connected the cell phone to the laptop and used our minutes to dial up the Earthlink service. After several years of connecting in that manner we discovered the DirecWay satellite system which opened up 24/7 Internet access for us. It is expensive at $59.99 a month, but we were able to switch to a cell phone plan with fewer minutes to lower that cost and we feel the availability of 24 hour a day Internet access is worth it. We use the Yahoo Messenger service that has voice and web cam capabilities to talk to and see our families and friends over the Internet and also to make inexpensive phone calls in areas where the cellular signal may not be strong enough for calls.

Another method of communication that our grandkids love is the personal postcards I create using our digital camera and our printer. These are much more personal than store-bought cards and often I'll set up our little tripod and use the manual timer on the camera to take a picture of "Grandpa and Grandma" at a national park or scenic area for them which they enjoy even more.

There are many methods of staying in touch with today's technology. Many cellular plans allow you to connect to the Internet directly now without connecting to a laptop, although text messaging is a bit cumbersome. Pocketmail is still a popular option; Pocketmail is a palm sized device with a screen and a keyboard that allows you to send and receive emails by holding the device to the handset of a pay phone or regular phone and dialing an 800 number which then transmits your e-mails and downloads any directed to you. It does not allow for surfing the Internet, but it's a quick and easy way to access your e-mail accounts. Of course, almost all libraries now have computers and Internet access which allows you to surf and get your e-mail, but your time is often limited there or you may have to sign up for a time slot to use one. It is rare for libraries to allow you to use your own laptop on their phone lines, so expect to compose your e-mails there.

Edited 11/12/11: Obviously this section was written several years ago—times have changed. While Denny and I still use our DirectWay/Hughes.net satellite dish for Internet access, air phone cards are the most common way for Rvers to have online Internet access these days. The company of choice for best coverage seems to be Verizon, which also gives you the choice of a standard air card or the “mi fi” card, which is also a wireless router so you can connect several devices to one air card. Technology continues to advance and while there is no perfect choice for Internet access (since air cards still have dead spots and satellite coverage depends on whether or not you have a clear shot to the southern skies) it is helpful that many campgrounds now offer wi-fi either at the individual camp sites or near the office or clubhouse. Usually the wi-fi is free near the office and more and more often it is now being offered free at the sites as many Rvers/campers now insist on the availability of Internet access while traveling.

And grandkids love Skype.

What did you do with your stuff? Making the decision early on to full-time after we retired allowed us time to get used to the idea that we would have to divest ourselves of our "stuff". So we were more careful about buying new items and we told our two sons to make a list of any and all of those items they wanted from the house with the knowledge that anything that was left was to be sold in a moving sale and the remainder after that would be donated to charity. And that's exactly how it worked when the house was sold and we were ready to go. I did box up some family Christmas ornaments and my smallish collection of Bohemian cut glass which are currently being stored in my mother's basement as well as our huge roll top desk which neither son had room for in their apartments. If my mother decides to move to a smaller place I'll probably sell the glass on eBay and give the kids the ornaments and the desk. After all, I haven't seen or used them in eight years, so I guess they really aren't that important anymore, right?
Edited 11/12/11: My mother passed away, I sold the art glass, divided the ornaments between the two sons, gave the desk to the youngest son to hang onto for us, stored a couple of boxes of family keepsakes in the basement of the youngest son and now all we own is what we carry in the rig. We hadn't seen the things we had packed away back in 1998 since that time, so obviously they weren't that important to us so we let them go.

How did you choose a home state? When we first started fulltiming we had every intent of using our Family Motor Coach Association mail forwarding address in Cincinnati as our home address, but when we purchased our first fifth wheel we were no longer eligible to be members and had to find a new mail forwarding service. We decided to use the Escapees mail forwarding service since Texas has no state income tax and no tax on intangible property. Other states with no state income tax are Florida, South Dakota, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, Alaska, and New Hampshire. However, some of these states tax your dividend and interest income (intangible tax) and others may have private property taxes so you have to do your homework to see which would work best for you.


Why did you switch to a fifth wheel from a motorhome? Our first RV was a motorhome, purchased very spur-of-the-moment at a RV show with no research other than we knew the Winnebago brand name was reliable. Bad mistake. However, when we purchased our second RV it too, was a motorhome. I liked being able to fix a meal or sandwich while traveling, or to be able to use the bathroom without having to stop. Set up was easy and quick and it was no harder to drive than a our van to my way of thinking. Of course, back in 1993-94 there were no slides on motorhomes, so we adjusted to the "one-butt" kitchen and lived with the idea that Denny had to slouch a bit (he's 6'6") to pass under the ceiling mounted air conditioning unit. Then one day during a long Thanksgiving weekend we stopped at a RV dealer outside of Savannah, Georgia and stepped into an Alpha Gold fifth wheel. Wow! Triple slides and an eight foot ceiling meant no slouching for Denny and a huge amount of floor space and room in the kitchen area. The wheels started turning. Of course, when we fell into our deal on our 1999 King of the Road Royalite we had to purchase a truck so there was that additional expense, but we discovered that there was a significant savings on our insurance since we would have only one motorized vehicle, there would only be oil changes and engine maintenance on one vehicle instead of two, it was much easier to find a Ford dealer who could service a Ford F450 pickup than it was to find one who could service a 38 foot motorhome (our Bounder was on a Ford chassis so a Ford dealer had to work on it while under warranty). We lost a lot of storage space but gained a lot of floor space, a side-by-side refrigerator freezer with an ice maker and a stacking washer/dryer (which I wouldn't give up for the world, now). Most, if not all, motorhomes now have slide-outs, but they still don't have the room for a desk/office area as we have in our fifth wheel so I'd be hard pressed to change back. There are certainly advantages to motorhomes too but that might be the subject of another web page eventually. Denny and I do check out the motorhomes at RV dealers occasionally and have discovered that more of them are coming up with floor plans that include a desk/computer area and a more convenient, comfortable place for the living room televisions (not a fan of looking up towards the ceiling at the front of a motorhome to watch TV while sitting sideways on the couch.) But our reasons for switching to the 5er still stand.


Do you have a pet? We traveled with our cat when we first started fulltiming but did not replaced her after she passed away. We consider a cat the ideal motorhome pet since a cat does not need to be walked (especially in the rain) and if need be they can be left overnight in an emergency and they won't stuff themselves with their food in the morning and then starve the remainder of the day. We like dogs, but we've never owned one as a couple and we probably never will.

Edited 03/03/2007 If you read my blog at all, you will know that we added a cat to the household in May of 2006. We obtained Patches at the Baldwin County Animal Shelter in Robertsdale, AL as a kitten, hoping that by teaching her to ride in a noisy, diesel fueled pickup truck at a young age she would adapt to a life of constant travel. And so she has. However, if something happened to this cat, we would not replace her as having a pet does curtail your activities and freedom to come and go as you please, like wanting to take a cruise. We have discovered that cats do not kennel well. Lesson learned.


What's your favorite place? Ah, that's a tough one. We haven't found the perfect spot to settle down yet, but we've been to many memorable areas. We love the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Gulf Shores, Alabama area, the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Michigan's western shoreline amazed us with its clear waters and sandy beaches (who knew?) and we've grown to love the desert areas of Arizona and Texas in the springtime. This country is so amazingly diverse that you can't pick just one area as your favorite.

What about the holidays? We do return to Ohio for Christmas. Now that we winter out West it's much more expensive to return home as we leave our rig here rather than subject it to the rigors and hazards of winter driving and fly back. We have met many couples who do not return home for various reasons, usually because their children are spread all over the country and therefore they spend the holidays with other Rvers. I wish at times we could do that without guilt but it just won't happen. I would love to create a "Christmas in July" routine with our families which would allow us to return to Ohio and New York in warm weather and then stay in our favorite desert haunts in the winter. I think I'll have to work on that.

Edited 11/12/11: As of 2008, we no longer return to Ohio and New York for the Christmas holidays. It is strange and not the same, but the cold and snow are not our friends so we're sticking to spending the winters in warmer climes for now.

Do you miss your house? Not for a moment. We have almost all the amenities of our house, albeit on a smaller scale. We have the luxury of moving to a new location as often as we like and sometimes we have a lakeside or beachfront property for the cost of one night's camping fee. No, we don't have the big yard (no grass mowing/weeding/cultivating), the deck (no scraping/priming/painting), no gardens (no weeding/replacing flowers and bulbs/killing grubs), no work shop (no major maintenance/remodeling jobs) etc., etc. We've traded our old neighbors for new acquaintances and friends and have expanded our knowledge of geography, history, horticulture, culture and so much more. Miss our house? I don't think so. Okay, maybe the fireplace.



Do you boondock? Do you stay overnight in Wal*Mart parking lots? No and no. Our rig is not set up for solar power and does not have a generator, either or both of which are necessary for boondocking (camping without electric/water and sewer hook ups). Space and weight considerations eliminated the possibility of a generator and also the extra banks of batteries needed for solar power. We are quite content to camp at campgrounds every night and have budgeted for it. It would be nice to pull off some evening along the Pacific Coast Highway and spend the night by the ocean, but we have accepted the fact that we prefer to have hookups and electrical power to operate our computers and TVs. As for staying in Wal*Mart parking lots; we rarely travel more than 250 miles in one day so we're always ready to pull into a campground no later than 3 p.m. There is no reason for us to spend the night at a Wal*Mart as we are never in a rush to get to a particular location.


Do you belong to a member campground? Yes, we do although it took us six years of traveling before we bought into our first private membership campground. We waited until we had spent the winter in Florida, Texas and Arizona before we decided we liked spending the winter in Arizona the best and at that time we visited a private membership campground and decided to purchase a membership for use in the winter. A year later we purchased a membership with a corporation that had a much larger number of sister campgrounds in their organization so we had a larger number of campgrounds to choose from for our travels. They paid for themselves after about eighteen months of use.


What camping organizations do you belong to? Escapees, Good Sam Club, Passport America. We have membership with two private membership campground organizations which also give us access to the Golf Card and Golf Access for golfing discounts up to 50% on greens fees if we rent a golf cart. The Escapees have their own campgrounds and also have made arrangements with other campgrounds for their members to receive a 15% discount on campground fees. Good Sam affiliate campgrounds allow you a 10% discount on camping fees and with Passport America your camping fees can be discounted as much as 50%.


How do you decide where to travel? Our first year out we knew we were going to spend time at Myrtle Beach and then head south to Florida, so I researched what cities had golf courses that accepted the Golf Card and had campgrounds that accepted the Passport American discount. That worked well, so our first full year I used the same method, knowing we had to return to Ohio in the late spring for our youngest son's graduation from college and wanting to head to Maine from that point. Basically each year I pick an area we haven't explored yet and search all the campground books and golf discount courses for areas where we can take advantage of the cheapest rates and yet see places we've never traveled. Of course, life has a habit of getting in the way and our plans have changed due to family illness, death, child birth, graduations and weddings. We accept that none of our plans are written in stone and just go with the flow. So far that has worked for us.



Was it hard to adjust to being a full time rver? Honestly? Kinda. Actually, I personally found it harder to adjust to being newly retired rather than being a full timer. I was used to having a job, used to having my own money, used to having a lot of responsibility. Since I quit well before my retirement age/term of service I don't receive a pension yet so we manage on Denny's pension and his stipend from Social Security. Denny had been retired for six years by the time we hit the road so he had long ago dealt with the work separation issues. We had to learn to live on one income, we had to learn to live together in less than 400 square feet of interior space (spending the first two and a half months at Myrtle Beach after we hit the road helped there--I was outside a lot), we had to learn to live without 24 hour access to the Internet (not a problem these days), and Denny and I learned how to lean on each other more for friendship and emotional support since we no longer had the anchor of close family and friends. We left Ohio in September and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around we were very comfortable with the lifestyle and our decision. And fourteen years later we are still comfortable with that decision and the lifestyle.