The Best Way to Enjoy Retirement

Willie Nelson had it right when you are on the road with your RV. An RV covers all modes of traveling in a motor home, a trailor, a fth wheel and a SUV on steroids. Motor homes come in different sizes from 45 feet long to about 18 feet, some may be even smaller. Motor homes are classified as Class A, Class B and Class C.

Trailors also go from 12 feet to 45 feet and have to be towed by another vehicle usually a heavy duty pick-up.

5th Wheels are also towed by a pick-up or a semi-cab. 5th wheels can be small, maybe 16 feet and as large as 45 feet.

I know that you have seen all of them at one time or another and perhaps have even owned one. Let's go back to motor homes. A motor home is totally self contained. You can get up and walk back to the bathroom as you are going down the road. It is a lot safer when you do this to have your spouse or friend driving.

Motor homes quite often pull another vehicle behind them, usully a car. Sometimes a small flat-bed trailer is behind with one or two motorcycles on it and sometimes they have a car up on a flat-bed trailor. There is also a "caddy" that is pulled behind with the front wheels of a car up on the caddie. One of the requirements to join the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) is to have a motor home that you can walk from the "cockpit", the driver's area, to the rear of the motor home. You have to have a motor home to join the FMCA. You can google FMCA and get lots of information on motor homes, chapters, trips, rallys and other things like insurance. Motor homes can range in price from about $50,000 to $1,400,000.00.

Trailors are not as expensive but are well up into the tens of thousands of dollars. Then there is the cost of the vehicle to pull it and you could easily be looking at $25,000 to over $30,000 . So you could be looking at an investment of $60,000 or more. The one disadvantage I found with trailors and 5th wheels, if your wife has to go to the bathroom, you have to pull off the road somewhere so she can get out and walk back to the trailor or 5th wheel.

The 5th wheels can be as big or bigger than a trailor and go up to 45 feet. They have a lot of room inside of them. All three of these RVs have slide outs nowadays which add lots of living space to the unit. A trailor or 5th wheel that is, say, 34 feet long has much more room in it than a 34 foot motor home because part of the room is taken up by the engine.

Next are the Pick-ups with a camper on the back. These little add-on campers are pretty neat and have most of the comforts of the other RVs except for a shower and a lot less privacy. The cost of these units are usually much less that any of the other three. The Good Sam is a larger group of RV'ers because you can join The Good Sam club no matter what kind of RV you drive. Google Good Sam and see what comes up.

My wife, Joan, and I have been RVing since 1984, We gave visited 49 of the 50 states. Some of those years where spent in a Class C motor home. Class C motor homes are generally smaller than Class A motor homes and often have a sleeping compartment over the cab. You have to crawl up to the bed on a small ladder. Class C's are getting bigger nowadays with some about 30 feet long. All Class C units have kitchens, bathrooms with shower, TV, furnace and Air Conditioners.

No matter what kind of unit you have, RVing is a great way to spend part of your retirement. There are many RVers who no longer have a home but spend thier time travelling around the US, Canada and Mexico. These Full-timers; as they are called, almost always have a special campground or spot where they can spend a lot of time off the road. There are organizations that provide mail service so you can get your mail while you are on the road. The Escapee (google) group provide these services as well as Good Sam and the FMCA.

The gas prices during the summer put a damper on a lot of RV traveling but many hit the road anyhow. This past summer and fall (2008) Joan and I attended 4 motor home rally's and spent a month or more in Ludington, Michigan. We left there shortly after the blue berry season.

Some RVers volunteer at state or national parks as helpers and get to spend the summer there with no cost for their parking space. Joan and I volunteered at the Portage Glacier visiter center about 50 miles south of Anchorage, AK. It was a great experience. We know of another couple who spent a summer as volunteers at Yellowstone Natonal Park. It's a great way to spend your retirement years.

We started out with a small, used Class C motor home. We went from Michigan to California, to some of the Canadian Provences. After a few years we traded that one in for a used 34 foot motor home, a Georgia Boy. We used that for several years and decided we would get a smaller motor home and ended up with one that was 34 feet,10 inches long. It had bigger storage compartments and that meant that we could haul more stuff around. Stuff that quite ofen we never used.

Well, finally we decided to get another motor home, this time we wanted a new one. I think it was right after I had my second knee replaced. It was a 34 foot, 1998 Bounder. We still have it and it has given us pretty good service. We took this one back to Alaska where we just bummed around for a month or so. We really like Alaska. The way to go there is by using wheels. Tours are nice but you don't get a chance to go off by yourself very often to explore interesting places. We worked there in '97 and went back in '99. We would like to go back one more time. Maybe.

In the mean time if you have any questions about motor homing, campgrounds, etc., just ask. In the mean time, keep the shiney side up.

Take care of yourself,

Jim