Types of Full-Timing
You may think there’s only one, but I’ve come to realize there are a few. I’m not even sure I know all of them yet. The first type are those that sell everything and make a complete commitment. They downsize and simplify life for many possible reasons. Some people just like living small and mobile. These folks are typically very concerned with keeping expenses down and may not move very much. The easiest way to do that is to take advantage of monthly rates or at least weekly rates. They will also choose to stay at state parks or boondock a lot. They may stay the whole winter at a park and work there for their spot. Those are great options for keeping expenses down but we’re not trying to make our money last as long as possible.
Another type is more what we are doing. Maybe phase is a better term than type actually. We’re in the “go see things” phase of our full-timing experiment. Staying in one place a month or even a week doesn’t necessarily play into our plan very well at least right now.
We are traveling and moving more often to maximize "seeing things" though we have learned from past trips that turning and burning quickly with just one night in a place is tiring. All that set-up and tear-down with little rest in between wears the body down. We are trying to take time to get to our destination and not kill ourselves along the way. We will limit our driving days to 4-5 hours max with breaks along the way so we arrive early enough to set up camp. We also take an extra day here and there to “smell the flowers” or in our most recent case, “see the mountains”. I’m not sure how long the budget and willpower will hold out on this style of travel but we are sure enjoying it! It does mean however that we are paying daily rates everywhere and that stings!
We are talking about getting at least weekly rates and trying to see a lot more on day trips from a central location. We’re looking at a trip to Utah to see the Big 5 National Parks up there and I think we will try to use that technique. We’ll see if we can find some central location for at least two parks at a time and stay a week there while we drive in to the various parks. Still, it doesn’t feel right not staying INSIDE each park and calling it “seen”!
