Getting Motivated to Travel During FIRE

[Midpack]

I guess I misunderstood, I thought the OP was talking about travel to explore relocation - not travel for travel's sake. Now I can't tell, two different questions in my mind...

 

[JakeBrake]

DW and I have no plans to move until it's time to go to the nursing home or the cemetery. Personally, I would prefer to skip the nursing home and go directly to the cemetery.

However, we do love road trips. We like the travelling more than getting anywhere. We do not think about how many hours it takes to get somewhere. We think how many day's journey. We limit our day's journey to maximum of about 400 miles. This leaves time for sight seeing when we are settled for the night. We avoid big cities and interstate highways and tourist traps. We eat in local, non-chain restaurants. We look for motels with exterior entrances where you can park in front of your room. These are usually found in the small towns on the older US highways.

Back in the day we made these roadtrips with no advance lodging reservations. Now, that we're retired I do make advance reservations because I have the time and even the most obscure Motel-By-The-Road offers online reservations. Also, my vision is not as good at night as it used to be and I've discovered that I have no business trying to find a motel in a strange place at night after a full day's drive. And, of course, you can almost always save money by making advance reservation.

We travel to cool places in the summer and warm places in the winter. We rarely stay anywhere longer than a couple of days. We used to have a campiing trailer and we have thought about an RV, but we just can't prove it in.

 

[Ally]

I love to travel, but my husband doesn't. I usually go with other relatives. Sometimes all the travel arrangements are tedious, so that's the part I dread.

 

[sinjin]

I guess I misunderstood, I thought the OP was talking about travel to explore relocation - not travel for travel's sake. Now I can't tell, two different questions in my mind...

I thought this as well.

And to the OP, we were also told that things were not selling in our area. In the past year 3 other homes were listed in our small 28 home subdivision, not a single one has sold yet. We painted, decluttered, fixed stuff and staged our house like mad, goodwill is your friend. When we were ready to sell the house it did not seem like ours anymore (this can be a good thing during negotiations). We listed on July 1 and got an offer from the first people thru on July 6. The inspection resulted in only a $150 improvement to the basement staircase.

Get an aggressive real estate agent*, bargain on the percentage, and be realistic about where the market really is. We did not make a profit on this particular sale but realized that some times you win and some times you lose. Our buyer came in with no home sale contingency, pre-qualified with 25% down. We negotiated and accepted a slightly lower purchase price than we wanted in order to be out free and clear with a bunch of equity and get on with our life. The relief to be out from under a too large house with too much maintenance and high taxes is sublime.

*Make sure your agent takes GOOD pictures of your home and does an excellent virtual tour. We have been in the market for a home and bad, unfocused pictures do not make an appealing prospect.

One other thing that surprised us but really hit home with us was a comment by our agent that most people won't even go look at a house with wall-paper in it. Call me shallow but that resonated with us. We have done the whole remove three layers of wallpaper thing several times in the past but dang it's a lot of work, especially these days if the builder has not properly sized the walls. Removing paper frequently now ends up being replacing dry wall. If you have wall-paper get rid of it. No one else shares your love of garden roses.*

*sinjin, who repainted her beloved navy blue bedroom walls and screaming yellow breakfast room with the hidden Mickey on the top peak of the cathedral ceiling. I recommend Elephant Butt Grey and Wedgewood Grey paint for the walls, worked for us and everyone else loved em.

 

[Corporate ORphan]

However, we do love road trips. We like the travelling more than getting anywhere. We do not think about how many hours it takes to get somewhere. We think how many day's journey. We limit our day's journey to maximum of about 400 miles. This leaves time for sight seeing when we are settled for the night. We avoid big cities and interstate highways and tourist traps. We eat in local, non-chain restaurants. We look for motels with exterior entrances where you can park in front of your room. These are usually found in the small towns on the older US highways.

Back in the day we made these roadtrips with no advance lodging reservations. Now, that we're retired I do make advance reservations because I have the time and even the most obscure Motel-By-The-Road offers online reservations. Also, my vision is not as good at night as it used to be and I've discovered that I have no business trying to find a motel in a strange place at night after a full day's drive. And, of course, you can almost always save money by making advance reservation.

We travel to cool places in the summer and warm places in the winter. We rarely stay anywhere longer than a couple of days. We used to have a campiing trailer and we have thought about an RV, but we just can't prove it in.

HI, I am the OP. Thanks for allthe feedback! I was talking about trips to figure out where we want to relocate, not traveling in general. We have talked about just going on a trip "for fun" and we decided we would prefer to go somewhere that we might want to live. (Though I really did push Australia but DH does not want to get sidetracked with that for now.) That being said, we have gone on only 2 trips in the past 2.4 years that we have been FIRE. One for three weeks and one for 2 days (it sometimes can be really easy to determine you DON"T want to live somewhere.)

JakeBrake, Thanks for the suggestions . This might be the ticket in getting us moving. If we just travel about 6 hours a day instead 10 -11, it might be more fun. We have done that in the past on these long trips. We were thinking of getting a little pop-up trailer instead of going to the small motels. I have trouble sleeping in a "strange" bed plus we HATE making reservations and being locked into an agenda! Do you find it much different staying in small hotels vs camping when on the road?

We used to camp a lot in our van but it died around the time we FIRE and we now have a HOnda Pilot. WE are trying to avoid buying another vehicle until we decide where to live so that's why we were thinking about a small pop-up that the Pilot could tow.

Anyone else try camping in something small while on the road?

 

[JakeBrake]

We found that many RV "campgrounds" are more like overpriced parking lots. I really don't miss smelling my neighbor's cooking or hearing their conversations and arguments.

I've found that I do better by getting advance reservations because if I don't have reservations I tend to keep driving until I'm exhausted .When making advance reservations I always check the cancellation policy. Most motels that are not in resort areas will allow cancellation right up to the scheduled arrival time.

For our road trips we rent an unlimited free mileage rental car. We usually rent from Hertz Local Edition. We get an AAA discount plus there are always coupon deals for weekly or monthly rentals. Also, Hertz allows AAA members to share driving. Both DW and I can drive the rental car at no extra charge.

Also, when I'm driving a rental car with free unlimited miles I feel obligated to put as many miles on it as I can. That's what you are supposed to do on a road trip. Driving my personal car I tend to worry about the miles and scheduled maintenance.

FYI, we own 3 personal vehicles and we put plenty of miles on them since we live in a rural area without public transportation.

 

[Corporate ORphan]

We found that many RV "campgrounds" are more like overpriced parking lots. I really don't miss smelling my neighbor's cooking or hearing their conversations and arguments.

Good description! We used to camp alot when we were white water kaying and we called those places "RV slums". We try to stay at state and nat'l parks.

For our road trips we rent an unlimited free mileage rental car. We usually rent from Hertz Local Edition. We get an AAA discount plus there are always coupon deals for weekly or monthly rentals. Also, Hertz allows AAA members to share driving. Both DW and I can drive the rental car at no extra charge.

Also, when I'm driving a rental car with free unlimited miles I feel obligated to put as many miles on it as I can. That's what you are supposed to do on a road trip. Driving my personal car I tend to worry about the miles and scheduled maintenance.

THe cost of the hotels and rentals cars isn't that much? We have trouble spending money now that we are FIRE (another reason we haven't traveled much.) We are still saving money! We find it hard to change from that mode after 35 years of LBYM plus we have ten years until medicare and we have a very high deductible health insurance policy.

 

[REWahoo]

We found that many RV "campgrounds" are more like overpriced parking lots. I really don't miss smelling my neighbor's cooking or hearing their conversations and arguments.

Good description! We used to camp alot when we were white water kaying and we called those places "RV slums". We try to stay at state and nat'l parks.

We put up with a lot of less-than-ideal situations camping on weekends and holidays when our kids were young and I was working. Now that we are retired, we can be much more selective in both where we stay and when we go.

We never camp on holiday weekends - ever. 90+% of the less-than-favorable camping experiences I've had were during holidays when too many people try to occupy too small a space. I happily let the working folks have my spot and fight the traffic while we stay home and plan our next trip.

We also take advantage of rvarkreviews.com to get a feel for an RV park we've never visited before we go, which really helps avoid the "RV slum" issue. If we are staying at a new park we usually only pay for one night so we can be sure we like the place before deciding to stay longer.

I do agree most state parks, national parks, and many COE parks are better than commercial RV parks, but there are a ton of nice commercial parks too.

And no matter what park we choose, I know who's been sleeping in my bed.

 

[haha]

And no matter what park we choose, I know who's been sleeping in my bed.

Very good thing to know!


Why does semen glow in the dark? - By Forrest Wickman - Slate Magazine

 

[obgyn65]

You don't have to travel if you don't want to. I travel abroad for medical missions so I have a goal, otherwise I would not travel much.

Anyway, how do the rest of you get motivated to travel?

 

[sinjin]

OP: Based on a cursory glance of the Honda site it seems you vehicle can tow either 3500# if 2wd or 4500# if 4wd. This does not mean you should buy a 3500# or 4500# camper, you have to take into account the options you add and the stuff you pack in it. Think at least 10-25% less.

There are many ultra-lights and pop-ups that would meet your needs. With a camper that small you should be able to park in almost any state, federal or county camp-ground, most of which are not in anyway concrete RV slums.

When we travel we start out with a direction and tentative objective in mind then play it totally by ear. We don't make reservations more than one or two days in advance. We change directions based on suggestions from other campers, folks we meet at restaurants, the weather and sometimes random signs pointing to the left. We ended up in western Colorado once based on the advise of folks we met at the Oshkosh fly-in.

This country is huge and most of us never take but a little bite of it. If you like to camp go for it. It's not that expensive and it's an adventure not a vacation. And in the end you might find your retirement mecca. If not you've at least had an adventure.

 

[Corporate ORphan]

OP:
When we travel we start out with a direction and tentative objective in mind then play it totally by ear. We don't make reservations more than one or two days in advance. We change directions based on suggestions from other campers, folks we meet at restaurants, the weather and sometimes random signs pointing to the left. We ended up in western Colorado once based on the advise of folks we met at the Oshkosh fly-in.

This country is huge and most of us never take but a little bite of it. If you like to camp go for it. It's not that expensive and it's an adventure not a vacation. And in the end you might find your retirement mecca. If not you've at least had an adventure.

You are exactly right, sinjin. We need to look at it as an "adventure" and stop putting pressure on finding a retirement location. Of course, this is exactly what my DH keeps saying, as he pointed out, but for some reason it makes more sense hearing it from someone else!

We have been looking at an ultra-light folding camper. Just trying to decide if we should rent it again or buy it. (We don't have a lot of room to keep it and would prefer not to store it somewhere else.)

 

[TromboneAl]

When we travel we start out with a direction and tentative objective in mind then play it totally by ear. We don't make reservations more than one or two days in advance. We change directions based on suggestions from other campers, folks we meet at restaurants, the weather and sometimes random signs pointing to the left. We ended up in western Colorado once based on the advise of folks we met at the Oshkosh fly-in.

We do this, too, but the tradeoff is the anxiety of finding a campsite. In '09 we ended up traveling to Arches National Park on a Friday. We thought we were early enough to get one of the first-come sites, but we found that they are all taken by 7:15 AM.

 

[TromboneAl]

We found that many RV "campgrounds" are more like overpriced parking lots.

A problem is that if you search for "camping" in googlemaps, it doesn't distinguish between RV parks and true campgrounds, so additional research is needed. I'm dealing with this while planning our drive through Nevada.

I just need one more campground in the middle of this stretch:

 

[Lisa99]

T-Al, there is a campground called Whiskey Flats at Walker Lake on 95. It accepts both tents and RVs. I just looked up the campground using a free iPhone app i have called AllStays Camp & RV. It lists camping spots all over the country. The majority of listings include user rating, contact phone numbers and fees.

 

[Lisa99]

And if you want a tent site closer to Vegas there is a campground in Beatty called Death Valley Inn and RV park. They have 13 tent sites there. Also pulled this one from the AllStays app.

 

[sinjin]

We do this, too, but the tradeoff is the anxiety of finding a campsite. In '09 we ended up traveling to Arches National Park on a Friday. We thought we were early enough to get one of the first-come sites, but we found that they are all taken by 7:15 AM.

Heh, we've flown to Maui at Christmas with a tent in case we didn't get a cheap condo reservation playing timeshare chicken enroute. Boondocking is our friend. I suggest Wainapanapa. Best boondocking ever was the north side of the Grand Canyon. No reservations, nothing available, we ended up camping in the Kaibab for free on the rim. No one else for a mile in each direction. No worries mate.

 

[TromboneAl]

Thanks Lisa, it looks like it may be Lassen National Park to Whiskey Flats to Beatty to Hilltop.

AllStays.com looks good.

This place is one we will avoid:

We have been in quite a variety of RV parks over the last four years - some exquisitely nice, and some quite the opposite. Well, Joy Land RV Park in Tonopah dropped the bottom end of that range somewhat lower!

First off, it is set out of town on a side road and the whole park consists of three separate parcels scattered along the road. The other properties along the road have, for the most part, the worst collection of junk and trash that I have ever seen. Not just one property, but one after the other!

​

I'm also considering what we'll do if we arrive at a a desert campground at 1 PM, with the temperature at 100 degrees, and nothing but this in all directions:

 

[Lisa99]

"I'm also considering what we'll do if we arrive at a a desert campground at 1 PM, with the temperature at 100 degrees, and nothing but this in all directions"

That is a real concern. Right now we're forecasted for 108 every day next week, which is high for this time of year but not unheard of. The campgrounds that I looked up were all within a short drive of a town so if you get there in the high heat of the day you might want to find the local library and chill until closer to evening.

 

[sinjin]

Thanks Lisa, it looks like it may be Lassen National Park to Whiskey Flats to Beatty to Hilltop.

AllStays.com looks good.

This place is one we will avoid:

We have been in quite a variety of RV parks over the last four years - some exquisitely nice, and some quite the opposite. Well, Joy Land RV Park in Tonopah dropped the bottom end of that range somewhat lower!

First off, it is set out of town on a side road and the whole park consists of three separate parcels scattered along the road. The other properties along the road have, for the most part, the worst collection of junk and trash that I have ever seen. Not just one property, but one after the other!

​

I'm also considering what we'll do if we arrive at a a desert campground at 1 PM, with the temperature at 100 degrees, and nothing but this in all directions:

Wow Al, sorry for the snark. There's no way I would go there with no reservations! 108 F is freaking dangerous with no ac not to mention no shade. Good luck

 

[haha]

Thanks Lisa, it looks like it may be Lassen National Park to Whiskey Flats to Beatty to Hilltop.

AllStays.com looks good.

This place is one we will avoid:

We have been in quite a variety of RV parks over the last four years - some exquisitely nice, and some quite the opposite. Well, Joy Land RV Park in Tonopah dropped the bottom end of that range somewhat lower!

First off, it is set out of town on a side road and the whole park consists of three separate parcels scattered along the road. The other properties along the road have, for the most part, the worst collection of junk and trash that I have ever seen. Not just one property, but one after the other!

​

I'm also considering what we'll do if we arrive at a a desert campground at 1 PM, with the temperature at 100 degrees, and nothing but this in all directions:

Earth to Al-MOTEL?

 

[TromboneAl]

Wow Al, sorry for the snark. There's no way I would go there with no reservations! 108 F is freaking dangerous with no ac not to mention no shade. Good luck

Earth to Al-MOTEL?

I'm not too worried as long as the AC in the car continues to work OK. We can always keep driving, and we will probably call ahead to make reservations. Yes, a motel is a fine fall-back plan, or may turn out to be the main plan once we get to the desert.

In about 1968, my mom, sister and I drove through the desert with no AC, 120 degrees. One of the worst days of my life.

 

[kramer]

One thing that has motivated me to travel is that I have no home base. I generally stay with friends and relatives in the USA. So I already have the next destination planned before I even get back to the USA.

Another thing that helps is that I am going to any place for a fair amount of time and actually living there. I am not going for a short 2 week visit where I will be moving every few days. This is less exhausting and more fun than too much travel.

I traveled around a lot my first year of FIRE (which I don't regret one bit). After that, I fell more into this long term living thing which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I also learned what countries and cultures that I liked and more about myself and what I wanted.

As an example, my next destination is Mexico. I am going with a friend to a Spanish school for 3 weeks (direct flight from USA, apartment in a beautiful city will be waiting for us there). Then we will visit a couple of other cities before ending in Mazatlan where I plan to stay a minimum of two months and longer if I really like it. I may do some other trips from that base when other friends come to visit.