Bhop11156 Here - Wife & I Just Retired - Been FT RVing 2 Months

[bhop56]

Just wanted to do a "newbie" courtesy check in with you all. Been reading your posts for a couple months. Excellent information being provided. My wife and I are currently in "wet" Nashville and headed to hopefully sunny Florida next week. I hope to contribute to the knowledge base of this forum in the near future. Being a newbie, I'm more of a sponge at this point.

[cfowler55]

Welcome aboard. Looking forward to retirement myself. Just gotta decide when.
Charlie

[bhop56]

Thank you for the welcome Charlie. I hope my signature shows on this reply. User error on last post when it did not show.
Benny

[SGT ROC]

Welcome and we look forward to your participation. I retired last year a little early. My new boos and I did not see eye to eye. I had made the statement to my employees for years that everyone has options. If you don't like your current situation you can always move on, hopefully for the better. My move was absolutely for the better. (Although my wife and I are "adjusting" to being around each other all of the time....) Your signature shows, and I really like your Set up!!

[bhop56]

Thanks for the welcome Bob. Retirement is such a unique and personal decision to each person. I see you were in the military. Same here. Air force enlisted and officer (OCS) in the Army Guard/Reserve. Did not retire from the military however. I have 3 brothers. Two went Air Force and one Marine. All of us served during Vietnam years. Only my grunt Marine brother actually went to Vietnam. Mortar/Ambush specialist in the Quang Tri "Dodge City" area around Da Nang. He got there just in time for TET. My son just returned from Iraq a few weeks ago. I put my "RV package" together after many hours of study and review. Not perfect but is working for us. FT Rving is a definite "learn as you go" adventure. Just got snow last night and this morning in Nashville area. Headed to Florida middle next week! We've had many nights in the sub 32 degrees here and down to 17 degrees a few nights. 310GK with weather tech package working well.

[SGT ROC]

Thanks for the welcome Bob. Retirement is such a unique and personal decision to each person. I see you were in the military. Same here. Air force enlisted and officer (OCS) in the Army Guard/Reserve. Did not retire from the military however. I have 3 brothers. Two went Air Force and one Marine. All of us served during Vietnam years. Only my grunt Marine brother actually went to Vietnam. Mortar/Ambush specialist in the Quang Tri "Dodge City" area around Da Nang. He got there just in time for TET. My son just returned from Iraq a few weeks ago. I put my "RV package" together after many hours of study and review. Not perfect but is working for us. FT Rving is a definite "learn as you go" adventure. Just got snow last night and this morning in Nashville area. Headed to Florida middle next week! We've had many nights in the sub 32 degrees here and down to 17 degrees a few nights. 310GK with weather tech package working well.

Yeah, I served all of my time in Germany (4 years) doing border duty. I did a "try one " in the National Guard also. I think my expectations were too high... My Grandfather was in WW1, my Dad was in Korea (twice). One of my sons was a Marine and I have a Bother in law who retired from the Air Force after 25 years, and a Sister in law who also retired from the Air Force. I also have another brother in law who was in Vietnam - Artillery. We got snow here today too. Still snowing a bit, and getting cold tonight. I have thought about FT, but DW is not yet retired. Not sure she would be able to separate from the grandkids... Yet

[Steven@147]

Just wanted to do a "newbie" courtesy check in with you all. Been reading your posts for a couple months. Excellent information being provided. My wife and I are currently in "wet" Nashville and headed to hopefully sunny Florida next week. I hope to contribute to the knowledge base of this forum in the near future. Being a newbie, I'm more of a sponge at this point.

Welcome to the forum and Thank You and to all that replied for your service. Navy veteran on this end.
The wife and I will be going FT RVing October this year. I would like to ask you, what have you found in the short time you have been FTing that is different than your expectations?
We are members of the Escapee's group and our address will be based out of Livingston Texas. It will be a big change for us going full time. We have planned for it going FT but planning is nothing like doing it.
Just wondering what you have learned and experienced so far.

[Dick Noble]

We have been retired about 20 years. I retired before DW which was not the plan-just worked out that way. We have been 1/2 timers for all that time. DW convinced me that she needed her nest so we could not do full time and, as usual, she was right. As to military, I grew up in the Navy and learned early on that the military life was not for me. Both brothers did a few years in the Navy and did OK except for youngest brother who was sprayed by agent orange and has major health problems. We use to travel around a lot but, as we aged, we have settled into doing 5 months in the same place during winter, and a few weeks during the summer. We live in Colorado and the summers are to great to miss much of.

[bhop56]

Steve, I'm a newbie FT but here are a few mentions from what I know in a couple months FTing. Overall no major surprises, I'm happy to say.
- Best advice I can give you is to read as many different forums as possible, watch many many You Tube Videos and take many notes on RV to buy, gear to buy,
tow vehicle if needed, major medical and dental if under 65, state carry permits, mail service (as you mentioned), budgeting, RV park organizations to join
(and not join), RV insurance, tools you will need, 6 month plan of where the heck you want to be, satellite TV or other, 5th wheel hitch or other.
- Biggest challenge for me right now is getting the best RV parks for the money in the areas I want to be. I want to mix boondocking and RV parks but so far
have not got a handle on that one. I need to learn my RV more and boondocking sites. I've used KOA a lot, I'm a member and save 10%. So far the KOAs
have been OK. I have the basic $450 Thousand Trails membership but have yet to use. I have not Escapees or Good Sams so far. I am a member.
- We changed state of domicile from Tennessee to Florida for various reasons (tax, Florida Blue, etc) went well, no surprises.
- Register all vehicles at Florida County Clerk/DMV and changed state of domicile at same time, practically same place. No surprises.
- Major medical PPO out of Florida Blue (no surprises) using Obama Care Silver Plan.
- Using Delta Dental AARP. Meets needs.
- If you plan on being in cold weather get an RV with a REAL weather package. The Weather Tech with my 310GK Solitude is nice. Get the Double pane
windows. The electric fireplace actually provides a nice amount of heat. Heated hose a must also. An RV that heats the basement and using heat blankets for
your black, fresh and gray water is a must. We like the Res frig and gas heat. I really have not used my 300W solar and Onan Gen yet.
- Supplement your propane heat with electric space heaters, just use with care. You can tell the level of propane in your tank by just pouring warm water on it
and feeling for when it goes from warm to cold.
- Make sure your RV is 50 AMP.
- The Hughes Autoformer/Surge Protector is working well. No surprises.
- Valterra water pressure regulator working well. No surprises.
- Splendide stacked washer/ dryer very convenient for my wife. No surprises.
- Torgue wrenches a must, need to cover 20 lbs to 200 lbs is a good range (1 1/2 inch and 1 3/8 should do the job).
- A computer is a must. Good internet connection is a must. I use Verizon wireless modem and so far great. Cell phones are a must. I use Verizon, no
surprises.

Sorry for the long reply. I didn't mention of course many other topics. Got to go. Good luck and safe travels when you do hit the road.
Benny

[Steven@147]

We use to travel around a lot but, as we aged, we have settled into doing 5 months in the same place during winter, and a few weeks during the summer. We live in Colorado and the summers are to great to miss much of.

Steve, I'm a newbie FT but here are a few mentions from what I know in a couple months FTing. Overall no major surprises, I'm happy to say.

Sorry for the long reply. I didn't mention of course many other topics. Got to go. Good luck and safe travels when you do hit the road.
Benny

Thank you for your observations and experiences. Its great to gather advice from RVers that are actually doing it.
The wife and I are celebrating our 42nd year together come Feb 11th. We have been planning our transition to FT since last year. Its going to take us a long time to get there and get rid of everything. Anyway beginning this year we are really nailing things down timeline wise, getting ready for FTing. The wife set Oct 6th as her retirement date. If we sell the house before then we'll FT in a campground near here until Oct 6th when we will really cut the ties and hit the road. First trip will start end of October 2020 from Texas up to Indiana (family) , down to Orlando, over to Pensacola (family) and end up at Escapees Livingston TX and or Galveston Island starting March 2021.

Planning is such a big and critical part of going FT. We hope we are doing it right and will not get smacked up side the head by a surprise!
We have the rig we want (see in sig). We wont really spend a lot of time in cold weather, spending most of the really cold months down here in South Texas, so one of the things we did not get was dual pain windows. Have most everything else like the heated tanks if needed - do they work - don't know, I assume so, they turn on and off ok, never needed or used them so far. We don't have the desire to boondock except for maybe staying a night unplugged while traveling if we have to, otherwise spending a night in campgrounds while traveling getting to our final destination.
Had a list of things for the rig (priority and nice to have) we wanted to do to the Solitude and Truck to get them ready for FTing and have that done. Things like truck bed box, upgraded RV suspension, heated hose, standard water hoses, power monitor, extension cable, cord reel, pressure regulators on and on. We have tried the rig out all last year so I think that part is ready.

Monthly living - the more difficult to plan for - Current memberships we have and plan to use FTing are Escapees National & Texas Chapter, KOA, RV Net Trip Wizard, Good Sam, Garmin and the GD Forum. Wife also uses the GD FB sites. We will add or remove memberships and forums as things progress. So far these are the ones we like the best and provide some discounts we use. The cost for these memberships or subscriptions so far is $35.85 / month. We try to keep the costs down on these type of things and will use what seems to suit us best.
Watched a lot of Utube, reading a lot off the Escapees site, gathering info from a lot of different sources. The wife subscribes to a specific FB and Utube channel from a FT couple in the Escapees Texas chapter we know, Tom and Stacey Langland. Really good people.

Found an excel template for monthly budgeting (planned Vs actual) which we modified to fit our needs. We are both excel and access trained. Plugging in income versus cost factors. This includes setting aside monthly funds in a savings account for things like Truck and RV maintenance and repairs, licensing, registrations, vehicle insurance and the like so when these costs come up some quarterly, semi-annual and yearly, there are finds set aside just for those items. Of course for repairs you never know when these things might come up. We budgeted $ 447 a month for these items.
Included in the monthly budget we set a planned full hook up camping site cost of $500 / month. Moving as little as possible, staying places a month or more. There maybe some for a couple weeks. Utilizing the Escapees camp grounds around the US as much as possible. Already booked a month at Escapee's Rainbow Plantation in AL. Some site fees will be higher, some lower. In preparation for FTing we already have some reservations made as far out as Jan, Feb next year. Many more items in the budget but you get the idea of our planning. Also found an excel template we modified for grading Campgrounds we stay at and may use in the future if passing through that area again.

Sorry I have rambled on. Well I guess once we dive in, we will know if our planning was good enough!! Thanks for your input.