Woman's Dream of Fulltiming Yields Hints on Unloading Stuff

"Nearly all her life, [she] has compulsively collected the odd and unusual. Some things are beautiful, such as a porcelain encased French clock built in 1870 that still works. Other things, such as a 1950s crabby-looking black poodle sculpture that doubles as a pin cushion, might fall into the so-ugly-it's-cute category. Or just ugly."

She is Becky Jones, a St. Petersburg, Florida woman who's made the decision to pack it up, sell it, and move to the fulltimer lifestyle. But she has a lot of "packing it up" to do in order to make that dream come true. Decades of collecting, including 65 pairs of shoes (eat your heart out, Imelda), a over two dozen silver place settings.

What may interest many aspiring fulltimers is how Jones is unloading it. One word: eBay. Jones is parlaying her collection into money to buy a fifth wheel and tow rig through an eBay "shop." This is a fair warning: If you're trying to get ready to hit the road, you may want to avoid the site, lest you be tempted to pick up that Victorian era pickle jar.

For the full story, check out the St. Petersburg Times.

Photo: St. Petersburg Times

Shopping for the Fulltime Rig: Bathroom or Badroom?

It may be the room where you spend the least amount of time in your RV, but if you're living with a bathroom that doesn't work for you, it'll seem like you spend a lifetime there.

RV bathrooms are a necessary evil, sometimes they can be real evil. How do you sort out the good from the bad? When shopping for that new rig, make it your business to go about your bathroom business. No, we're not suggesting leaving a calling card behind, but work your way through the bathroom area as if you were going to be living with it.

Take off your shoes, step into the shower--is there enough headroom and elbowroom? Are there places to put that necessary "stuff" like shampoo, conditioners, and razors? When you step out, is safety a concern--might you need to add grab bars to enchance mobility?

What about (as the Brits call it) the Loo? Some RV toilets are stuck away in a "closet" for privacy. Sit down on the pot with the door closed. Is there enough room for you feet to rest comfortably, or will your knees be in your chin while you fish for the paper? For that matter, where is the toilet paper--is it in easy reach? When you try to get back up off the throne, will you need help from a strong man?

Now in front of the mirror--how's the lighting? How about the medicine cabinet storage space--enough room for that, and all the other things you "must have" while in the powder room? If there isn't enough room for linens, is there a close and usable place for them? Are there shore power outlets in easy reach--and are they guarded by safety enhanced ground-fault-interrupter circuits?

Heating and ventilation, too, are important in the John. Back to the "toilet closet." Are there air conditioning and heating ducts? If you or your traveling companions spend a lot of time on the throne, it can get might uncomfortable if there is sufficient "environmental regulation." How about ventilation? Ceiling vents? Openable windows?

How about the bathroom layout and doorway arrangements? Is the bathroom sufficiently hidden away from other parts of the living area? When you take a shower, will you emerge "buck nek-ed" into the bedroom? Is that a problem?

By acting like you live there, you'll quickly discover whether the bathroom in your prospective RV will work for you, or whether you'd better take a powder and look for something else.

RVing couple discusses their full-time life

We recently posted an video interview on RVvideos.com with Jim and Jan Waytashek, who sold their Wisconsin farm in 1993 to live and travel full-time in a recreational vehicle. In the four-minute video they talk about their decision to go full-time and the creative way they got rid of a lifetime of belongings. They were interviewed in Quartzsite, Arizona in their fifth wheel trailer, and they talk about their interesting lives there as well. See the video.

How Many Fulltime RVers? How Many RVs?

In a broad-ranging article on RVing, a Baltimore Sun journalist suggests the number of fulltime RVers in the United States is around one million. While the writer doesn't say where his information comes from, it's an interesting thought. That would mean that a little over 3/10ths of 1% of the US population calls an RV home. As an interesting excercise, we started tallying up the folks that we know who are fulltimers to compare to those who weren't. We had to finally give it up, because we know too many people to keep it all straight.

If our experiences with readers of various blogs and articles that we publish is any indicator, there are a whole lot of folks who want to mushroom out that one million fulltimers estimate. Just take a look at any Internet forum directed to the fulltime lifestyle. Yes, there's a lot of fulltimers who participate, and lots more who have intelligent, meaningful questions about the lifestyle, those who want to get out and do it. Almost universally the advice that's given by fulltimers boils down to: "Don't let the grass grow under your feet--get out there!"

Other statistics from the Balty story: Averaging it all out, the typical RVer is married, 49-years old, owns a home (we presume landlocked), and lives in a household with a $68,000 annual income. In terms of age groups, if you own an RV and you're between 35 and 54, you're in the biggest group of RV owners. Across the US, over 7% of households have at least one RV--8 million homes with RVs.

Check out the full story in the Baltimore Sun.

Photo: FEMA

Don't Ignore Health Danger Signs

When we got into the fulltime lifestyle, we spent more and more time away from our "usual haunts," including the doctors we'd developed relationships with over years of "land locked" living. When you're on the road, it's sometimes easy to lose track of regular health maintenance. For those without any ties to the medical docs, health care "issues" can plain get away from you.

No matter who you are, or where you are, though, problems can come up. Here's a list of 10 health issues you should NOT ignore, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. This might be a good list to print and post inside the bathroom cabinet door--assuming you have one.

1. Unexplained weight loss — Experiencing a 5 percent weight loss in a month or a 10 percent weight loss within six to 12 months could signal a number of different conditions such as an overactive thyroid, depression, liver disease, cancer or other noncancerous disorders that interfere with how well your body absorbs nutrients.

2. Persistent fever — A persistent low-grade fever — over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit — should be evaluated if it lasts for a week or more. Fever can signal underlying infections. Some underlying cancers and other medical conditions can cause prolonged, persistent fever. A fever accompanied by violent chills or greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit should be evaluated right away.

3. Shortness of breath — Gasping for air or wheezing are medical emergencies. Causes vary widely and can include asthma, heart problems, anxiety, panic attacks, or a blood clot in the lungs.

4. Unexplained changes in bowel habits — Bowel habit changes may signal a bacterial infection, a viral infection, inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer. Seek care for any of the following:
-- Severe diarrhea lasting more than two days -- Mild diarrhea lasting a week
-- Constipation that lasts for more than two weeks

-- Unexplained urges to have a bowel movement -- Bloody diarrhea
-- Black or tarry-colored stools

5. Mental status changes — Changes in behavior or thinking may be due to infection, head injury, stroke, low blood sugar or medications. Immediate medical care is warranted for any of the following:
-- Sudden or gradual confused thinking -- Disorientation -- Sudden aggressive behavior
-- Hallucinations in someone who has never had them

6. New or more-severe headaches (especially for those over age 50) — Medical attention is needed right away for:
-- A sudden and severe headache, often called a thunderclap headache, because it comes on suddenly like a clap of thunder.
-- A headache accompanied by a fever, stiff neck, rash, mental confusion, seizure, vision changes, weakness, numbness, speaking difficulties, scalp tenderness or pain with chewing.

Causes vary for headaches that are considered medical emergencies and may include stroke, blood vessel inflammation, meningitis, brain tumor, aneurysm or bleeding on the brain after head trauma.

7. Short-term loss of vision, speaking, movement or control — Minutes count because these are symptoms of a possible stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Seek immediate emergency care for any of the following:
-- Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, leg on one side of the body
-- Sudden dimness, blurring or loss of vision

-- Loss of speech, or trouble talking or understanding speech
-- A sudden or severe headache -- Sudden dizziness, unsteadiness or a fall

8. Flashes of light — The sudden sensation of flashing lights may signal the beginning of retinal detachment. For that condition, immediate care is needed to save vision in the affected eye.

9. Feeling full after eating very little — Feeling full sooner than normal after eating or having persistent nausea or vomiting for a week might indicate possible gastrointestinal disorders, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer or ovarian cancer.

10. Hot, red or swollen joints — These warning signs may occur with a joint infection, which requires emergency care to save the joint and prevent the spread of bacteria. Other causes could include gout or certain types of arthritis.

Photo: New York City Fire Department

Shopping the Fulltime Rig: In the Galley

Not everyone already has an RV when the begin their "fulltime career." Well, I guess we did--it was a large truck camper, but it didn't take long to figure out that fulltiming in a slide-in camper just wasn't going to cut it. So we started shopping for a "new" home. Maybe you're in the same position. There are many areas of concern when evaluating an RV for fulltime-ability, and we'll touch on them now and then. To get started, let's talk about the galley:

Weekend RV users don't need to worry much about their galley--after all, it is just a weekend, or an occasional week or two. But when fulltiming, you can't always rely on hitting Burger Doodle, when the cook has had enough of cramped cooking spaces. One of the first things to examine is counter space. If there isn't enough of it, your cook will soon go batty. Where will you put those little appliances? Toaster, coffee maker, (for us, bread maker), et al? And once they're in place, will there be enough space left over to work in the kitchen? Since most fulltimers go without a dishwasher, where will you put the dishes to dry?

Sure, RV builders are clever: "See this neat sink cover? Need more room, just toss the cover on!" Fine, as long as you don't need the other half of the sink. We don't find the need of a "residential" size kitchen sink in our galley, we'd rather have those extra inches of space in counter tops. And speaking of that, what material is best for an RV counter top? Granite and Corian looks great! But my, oh my, consider the weight--it all adds up, and you've got to drag that weight around. Consider those two little big words: fuel economy. We eventually added a "dog leg" counter top extension that folds down beside a kitchen cabinet when not in use. It helped a lot.

When evaluating rigs, end kitchens usually have more counter space by virtue of the design. Some rigs with slide out kitchens have tacked on "islands" in the kitchen. Whenever you evaluate, make sure she (or he) who does the cooking spends a few minutes really looking the place over. Is there sufficient (and handy) cabinet space for what you keep in your kitchen? Getting down on your "prayer bones" to get supplies out gets old in a hurry.

While you're on those bones, consider the galley floor covering. Our "new" old rig came with carpet throughout, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It didn't take long for us to give most of that carpet the heave-ho, and replace it with something we could really live with: Laminate flooring, light weight, durable, and good looking. Ever broken an egg on carpet?

Finally, consider the galley appliances: Some cooks really want four-burner stoves--and they're hard to find. Some motorhome builders apparently figure you don't need an oven--they give you a microwave oven and a 3-burner stove top (if you're fortunate). Again, is that really going to satisfy the real roving cook? And carefully consider the RV refrigerator--make sure it's big enough and configured to meet your needs.