Audrey, how do you think the RV lifestyle fits in to this? I can see where the zillions of planning details surrounding itineraries, choice of campgrounds, maintaining the rig and meeting new people all the time might provide a built-in structure to stave off stagnation.
But then again, the difficulty of getting really plugged in to a community (as in setting down roots) when you are full-timing might be unsettling to the newer retiree.
Any observations?
We were already retired for almost 6 years before we went full time RVing, and retired 4.5 years before we even started RVing.
We did several kinds of travel those first few years. On our own, with groups, photography, birdwatching, nature exploration, by land, by boat, by plane. Our lives swapped between bursts of travel and bursts of stay-at-home and do stuff. Although I took full advantage of the benefits of a fixed abode (took local classes, enjoyed a personal trainer for 2.5 years), ultimately the wandering lifestyle won out as the "ideal" for us. But it really took us almost 5 years retired to discover (and refine) what this "ideal" lifestyle was for us.
The fulltime RV lifestyle is actually much less structured than the live-in-a-house and go-on-planned-trips lifestyle. At least the way we do it which is pretty much a continual winging it scenario. It's August, and we're STILL in Oregon - we didn't expect that!
I remember having to do much more research and planning when we were going on the traveling bursts mode - plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, etc. With the RV we tend to just figure out what to do 1 day in advance - or same day even! We make very few advanced reservations. It's very open-ended lifestyle, and we just LOVE the flexibility and serendipity of living this way. But fulltime RVing is definitely a more complex lifestyle than having a fixed abode even though it definitely makes the traveling easier - every time you go grocery shopping it's a new store!, you gotta get your mail to catch up with you now and then, ordering stuff is a challenge (you gotta be somewhere long enough), you gotta swap stuff in and out of storage occasionally, there is always something to deal with on the motorhome.
I think when you retire you kind of have to re-plug-in to a community anyway, so I don't know if it matters that much whether it's a mobile community or not (although you really should gain some RV experience before jumping in with both feet). We've made plenty of friends who like to do the same stuff we did (that's how we meet them!) and as we travel, we have these friends all over the country anyway. Our friends didn't really change when we went fulltime. But we also still keep in touch with friends from 10, 20 years ago, some of whom have moved, and when we pass through their area we reconnect. With email and phones it's so easy to keep in touch no matter where you are.
just some thoughts....
Audrey
). It's easy to get dressed because you don't have to worry about what to wear - because you wear the same thing every day.
