Interesting perspective! For those of us contemplating full timing, the thought of getting rid of all the stuff that owns us seems liberating. Not having the cost and concerns about ongoing upkeep of a house are certainly attractive. What are the biggest challenges you face and are they enough to want to maintain a home base?
Getting rid of all the unneeded stuff and having a simpler life is very liberating. It has been easier for us than for many people, because we were raised in military families, so every three years we would have to jettison lots of stuff for the next big move. But there was way too much stuff we hung on to because of the "perceived value." My mother lugged around a huge set of sterling silver for decades. It would hardly get used because of the time it took to clean off the tarnish. The insurance appraisal of value was something like $25K. The melt down value was about $2K. If she ever tried to sell it she might get more than the melt down value, but not much. It's more likely she'd get a bit less. But because of the perceived value, it became a family heirloom. Nuts!
We were just as bad. We bought a nice teak dining set that was pretty pricey. I think a month after we got it home, we realized we didn't need it or want it. But we kept it for twenty years because we would only get a fraction of what we paid for it. It looked nice, but we like the way our friends in Seattle do it - they have a folding banquet table under a bed. When it is party time, they throw a tablecloth over it and gather up the teak chairs from their old dining set from various rooms in the house, and they are good to go!
In order to retire as early as we have, we had to become full-timers, as the cost of maintaining our house potentially could have been more than we could afford. And we simply didn't want to worry about the upkeep and maintenance while we were thousands of miles away, especially knowing the roof and water heater were showing their age. Besides, we owned another house with less square footage on a lot 1/3rd the size, and someone else was looking after that for us. And the house is only 11 years old, so it should be a few more years before things starting breaking...
There are a ton of ways to approach full timing. We have friends who spend every winter in the same RV park in Old Town, FL. They do that to get around the hassle of stay limits at public campgrounds, and by staying the full season, it's cheaper than many public campgrounds with full hook ups. But spending the winter in an RV parking lot, looking at the same landscape, eating at the same three local restaurants and hearing the same people tell the same stories doesn't appeal to us. It feels too much like a mobile home park full of retirees, not a campground.
The one way to get around the stay limits at a public campground is to host or volunteer. But we are done working and having schedules, so that is not for us. It's been three years since we've vacuumed a carpet, mopped a floor, mowed a lawn or scrubbed a toilet. Doing that for other people has no appeal.
Another possibility is more like part-timing. Spending the winter in the snow belt, perhaps house sitting for snowbirders. If we didn't have a dog, we might have tried giving that a shot. Though if I'm going to keep up a property, it might as well be my own.
The hassle with doing the winters like we have (moving among public campgrounds) is the holidays and special events (Bike Week, NASCAR, etc). If you are in a warm winter location, everything books up, WAY in advance. And Spring Break is even worse, as it occurs at different times in different places, so trying to plan around that is a challenge. Probably the best option is to just pay more and stay at a private campground. Other options are heading north, where demand is less and temps are colder, but not all campgrounds are open year round, so that, too, takes some planning. Staying at primitive public campgrounds is usually an option, as they rarely fill up, and many aren't reservable, so first come, first served.
Of course, I suspect we could join the crowd at Quartzite, AZ. For all I know, they never run out of space, but that doesn't trip my trigger, and I know how Alea would feel about that.
So, it's a Goldilocks world. The answer to what is "just right" is different for just about all of us.
We're ready to move back to Boise, have a lawn service take care of our postage stamp-sized lawn, and be able to leave whenever we want, for as long as we want. We'll sit out spring break, Memorial Day, the Fourth, Labor Day and all the rest. We'll let the rest of world go camping then, and when the herd/horde has left, we'll go back out to play.
