Fact or Myth (Three)

Before I continue on with any more stories of living Full Time in an RV, let’s talk openly about the subject of Full Timing for a moment. If you have ever been curious about this lifestyle, or know someone who lives it, you have probably rolled your eyes a few times thinking silently to yourself, crazy! You laugh at the very thought, immediately picturing “Cousin Eddie” standing outside in his underwear, dumping his black tank into the sewer, verbalizing “shitter’s full!” from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation! Trust me, I still laugh at the thought of it! All things concerning the black tank are open for RV discussion no matter where you go, no matter who you talk to, because that shits just funny!

Since the tiny house ideology started back in 2012, it has become more and more popular for people to downsize their entire life’s possessions enough to fit into about 400 Sq Ft with the ability to move their entire house from place to place, therefore, never becoming bored with the scenery. Owning a motorhome or RV is the equivalent of the tiny house movement, only more convenient for moving around the country on wheels towing a car behind or pulling it with a truck. Some people are intrigued by the idea of it, and others, simply put, believe dementia has set in and you are slipping off your rocker! So let’s talk about a few things.

If you Google the top ten reasons why people live in tiny houses or RV’s, you’ll come up with something like this: 10) Save tons of money, 9) your pets love it as much as you do, 8) Save tons of time with less to clean, 7) Liberate yourself from too much stuff, 6) Make room for nature with more to see, 5) Take your home on the road and escape bad weather or neighbors, 4) Inspire your creativity, 3) Have it all your own way, 2) Kiss the mortgage scam goodbye, and the number 1 reason is; 1) Connect with your loved ones. So, lets look at each one of these and break it down to my version of playing Fact or Myth. I love this game, because I’m never wrong. These are just my opinions, therefore, I can’t be wrong!

10) Saving tons of money. There is a wide variety of makes, models, classes and so on when it comes to Recreational Vehicles. In RV lingo: TT = Tow Trailer (aka pull-behind), 5er = Fifth Wheel (trailer pin drops into a center hole in a truck and pivots), Class A = Bus or Truck chassis (flat front powered by gas or diesel), Class B = Conversion or Camper Van, Class C = Truck/Van chassis with box truck-like cabin with cab-over sleeping area above front seats. (For the purpose of this conversation, I did not include pop-up campers, as I would put them in the tent category, and I think you would have to be nuts to live in one long-term). Class A is the category we are in and you will find them to be the most expensive. Our Tiffin Allegro RED model in 2018- MSRP was $278,197.00. That is cheap compared to the Luxury brands that often run into the millions and that is NO joke! Google a Newmar King Aire 4553, Newell, Prevost or Marathon Coaches, and you will not believe your eyes. If you have that kind of petty cash lying around, you might not have a so-called house payment. If not, be prepared to fork out a down payment or have a trade vehicle to get the cost of financing to an acceptable amount. Banks don’t give you as generous of an income-to-debt ratio when approving a loan, and many banks won’t loan more than 10, 15 or 20 yrs. Then you have to insure it for replacement value and full-time occupancy! So it costs as much as a house, but the same rules don’t apply. Then there is the constant maintenance/upkeep, repairs, diesel/gas fuel costs, etc. I am not sure about everyone else, but speaking for myself, NO, IT’s NOT saving us tons of money. It is trading one form of house and responsibility for another. MYTH!

9) Your pets love it as much as you do. Well, we don’t live with or travel with any pets or children, so I can only guess they would enjoy it, as long as you provide properly for them. However, I can speak to dealing with everyone else’s pets. PLEASE be RESPONSIBLE pet owners! I get so tired of dogs barking, peeing and pooping in our immediate area (especially on our tires) and I don’t want to have to confront people on this issue. It’s non-negotiable. I love pets, but I don’t travel with them for several reasons. You would not permit your neighbor in a regular house living next door to you to let their dog out to do their business in your yard all day/every day. It’s no different. FACT!

8) Save tons of time with less to clean. I definitely laughed out loud when I read this! MYTH, MYTH, MYTH! It is constant work and sometimes harder to do, so size is not the issue, it just gets dirty quicker. Clutter 24/7, 365, if you don’t deal with it on a daily basis. Almost ALWAYS harder to change the bed or even make the bed daily. And, don’t even get me started about cooking! Every single thing you do is a process of taking everything out to get the one thing you need, then put everything away to use that one thing, and after you cook and wash it, you take everything out again to replace that one thing, and then put everything back the way it was. This goes on every single day that you need something that is not sitting right out in front of you, no matter how organized you are. If it takes you 20 minutes to clean your RV, Momma didn’t teach you how to clean! Period, the end of discussion.

7) Liberate yourself from too much stuff. FACT. You simply have to get rid of it all because it’s not going with you. It’s liberating until the day you decide this life may not be right for you. Then you will spend the rest of your life wondering why you did it, because you won’t live long enough to acquire that much stuff ever again! But you find out you really don’t need as much as you once had, and that is a good thing for your children when you die. They will thank you. You’re welcome.

6) Make room for Nature with more to see. FACT. BUT, Mother Nature can be extremely cruel and threatening to RVer’s! Just watch the news when they discuss tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding or severe storms of any kind, and picture yourself in an RV anywhere near it. This is where you learn to take the bad with the good and hope you live to tell the story when it’s over. I’ll share Hurricane Irma in a later blog.

5) Take your home on the road. Great to get away from crappy neighbors or bad weather. BUT, if you paid for a week or a month? Easier said than done. Once you’re assigned a spot, you may find there is no changing it, so I am on the fence here. But what I think they are trying to say is, you pick the view you want in a state that suits you and find a place to park where you have that beautiful view. Therefore, I say FACT on this one. The travel is incredible as long as your RV gets you safely from point A to B, it is a dream-come-true! Honestly, we have experienced some incredible views!

4) Inspire your creativity. FACT. You will find yourself challenged every single day that you travel, so it keeps you on your toes! You come up with all sorts of ideas to deal with whatever the road throws at you. You also come up with ways to earn extra money, or new hobbies to keep you occupied when the weather traps you inside. This is definitely an upside to the RV life. I believe you find ways to have more fun than the average aging adult and challenge your brain with multi-tasking daily. You push yourself harder and it keeps you healthy and young.

3) Have it all your own way. Not sure what this means, but I believe the word is freedom. Well, personally, I’m not sure you can ever have things your own way, especially if you’re married (LOL). But in my experience, you have to abide by rules and regulations, even if you are out in the middle of BLM (Bureau of Land Management or Public Land) there are do’s and don’ts. Campgrounds have them, resorts have them, Wal-Mart has them, etc. I often hear folks talk about freedoms when you live on the road (You know them, the ones that say “peace out” no matter what’s going on around them), and I don’t understand any of it. You have no more freedom traveling than you do in a neighborhood. We have laws, and we abide by them. We have bills and we have to pay them. MYTH.

2) Kiss the mortgage scam goodbye. Again, unless you buy a cheap recreational vehicle or have a lot of cash lying around to buy an RV outright, you still will have a payment. This is only a downsize when you are considering the size of the space you occupy, not necessarily what you spend on it. If you sold your house, as we did, and then you spend the money all on an RV (NOT recommended), maybe you have no payment. But we put that money aside and into a safe investment to have when we settle down (when we’re ready to sit still or have to). This is not a death till we part arrangement for us, but for some Full Timers, an exit plan is not in their vocabulary. I always need a Plan B. So I call MYTH.

And the number one reason: 1) Connect with your loved ones? We are in a slightly larger than 400 Sq Ft space nearly every day. Do I need to say more on this issue? I am definitely laughing! Every noise you make, every breath you take, the other person hears it! Every move you make, the other person feels it! Think about that every time you sneeze, blow your nose, cough, belch, fart, poop, etc. EVERY single bodily function does not go unnoticed. You are about as connected as two human beings can be! FACT! You have to love this lifestyle for a marriage to survive. It’s all good for just a vacation, or even snow-birding for 5 months a year (because you’re so damn excited about the great weather, you’ll do anything!) But living in an RV is not for everyone. The people who say differently, just stop! Quit telling everyone “You’ll LOVE it! Just DO it!” Nonsense! How can you be so sure? Not everyone is going to like it! I talk truth and I don’t love it every day. But I am the person that needs a Plan B. The day I no longer FT in my RV. Not sure where we’ll settle down yet and when, but one day, an RV will only be for short trips or vacations and that’s a FACT.