First Trip. Loving it !!

[katielee31313]

We joined a couple of weeks ago. After months of researching the forums, reading others guidance, opinions,and just plain old fashioned help, we collected all the things first timers need. Packed and checked the TT several times and drove off.

Great trip and fantastic little RV campsite. Small, family run, enough people to get a good cross section of travelers.

Arrived, set up without a hitch. Well almost :-)

Actually we had brought everything we needed. Only problem was the water hose was 1 foot too short. No room to adjust so we made a quick trip to a local camping store. Finished setting up and it has been fantastic. In half a day we have seen and met more super nice people than one can imagine.

We did find that we had brought a cable for the cable service that was too short but since we have great over the air signal, no big deal.

Internet working flawlessly using our verizon cell system with unlimited data so no issues there.

The more people we meet who have made the full time RV'ing transition, the more we look forward to joining them.

For now we are gonna stick with our plan of making trips 2-3 times a month for 3-5 days with a month trip to the Georgia mountains after the first of the year. Then we plan on getting rid of the TT and going to a class A.

[dalford]

Welcome to The forum. Glad to hear you are enjoying your first trip and finding some of the same issues many of have found on our first forays.

There are a lot of nice people you meet camping as there are a lot of nice people in general. Camping gives us the opportunity to actually meet them. In our daily lives we don’t tend to start up conversations with strangers but the RV gives us something in common to start from.

I have one question though. Since this is your first trip I’m assuming you just got your travel trailer but you are going to a class A after the first of the year, only a few months. Why didn’t you go with a class A to begin with? Were you not sure you would enjoy it?

Keep camping and have fun..

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by katielee31313

For now we are gonna stick with our plan of making trips 2-3 times a month for 3-5 days with a month trip to the Georgia mountains after the first of the year. Then we plan on getting rid of the TT and going to a class A.

Glad you're having a good time. Most of us have had the 'too short' hose and cable experience.

While you're camping, notice the size of the sites you can fit in and prefer. We've noticed that in the Northeast and East, sites are smaller and driving and camping with a larger rig can be a challenge. That's a problem with some larger rigs. We were talking to someone in NY at a private park who complained that he'd kept 'upsizing' his 5er until he was no longer able to camp at state parks.

Your idea is a good one and you'll figure out what you like and need in a 'full time' rig.

[wabakami]

Welcome aboard from Canada



Geoff

[valleyduo]

Welcome from PA. Coming up short just adds to the story telling later on. There will be all kinds of stories, good and bad along the way. Odds are you'll smile when telling all of them. Have fun out there.

[youroo]

Welcome! Youroo! ! Alabama

[rjshiflet]

Welcome to the wonderful world of camping - hope you love your unit as much as we do. We are far from full-timers (I tell people we are "quarter-timers" since we spend at least one week of each month on the road. And actually lately seems like we may be getting closer to "one-third timers" having already reached 110 days this year and more outings planned.

[NJKris]

Welcome Kaitelee. Glad everything is going well, but some detail in your account would useful to the readers; Things like:

What kind of RV did you settle on as a first timer?
Where is this park you found so enjoyable?
How short is too short when it comes to packing a coaxial cable and hose (helps us shop for right size).

[geeman53]

Welcome from SW Ohio .

[katielee31313]

When we decided to start our RV life, we spent months looking, researching, going to RV parks and talking to people. We basically decided it was what we wanted to do. My wife traveled for 20 years following me in the Army. After my first retirement, we stayed put for 20 years at a second career. I then started working again in the same general location, and we both got restless and seemed to think we both missed the travelling. Having settled into a brick and stick permanent home, neither of us were 100% sure we could go back to moving around. After all our research, we decided to buy a less expensive TT we liked and go travelling for days, then a week, then a month. If we see we enjoy it, then we will sell the truck and trailer and go into the Class A, and then sell the house and go full time.

It's kind of like a test period for us. Still researching good medical plans, homestead states, and such as we are no longer spring chickens.

From the first trip alone, it feels good to be traveling :-)

[HappyCamper1962]

Originally Posted by katielee31313

When we decided to start our RV life, we spent months looking, researching, going to RV parks and talking to people. We basically decided it was what we wanted to do. My wife traveled for 20 years following me in the Army. After my first retirement, we stayed put for 20 years at a second career. I then started working again in the same general location, and we both got restless and seemed to think we both missed the travelling. Having settled into a brick and stick permanent home, neither of us were 100% sure we could go back to moving around. After all our research, we decided to buy a less expensive TT we liked and go travelling for days, then a week, then a month. If we see we enjoy it, then we will sell the truck and trailer and go into the Class A, and then sell the house and go full time.

It's kind of like a test period for us. Still researching good medical plans, homestead states, and such as we are no longer spring chickens.

From the first trip alone, it feels good to be traveling :-)

Sounds like a good plan We are soon going to have to decide if we want to go Class A when we retire soon, but the more I research it the more I am leaning toward keeping a towable. Much lower cost to own, and not having to bring a toad along. I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but I am expecting to find that if we full-timed in towables, for the money we saved not owning and maintaining a Class A, we could probably buy 3 or 4 new ones in the years to come since they are not designed for full timing. I think that's where we are headed...

[katielee31313]

I am still trying to add stuff to our profile. Most of this will be added but for intro purposes, we purchased a 2017 Forest River Shasta Oasis 25RK. It has room for both of us and our Sheltie who goes everywhere with us. Being a little less than 30 feet, it is easy to maneuver and State parks should be no issue.

We are currently in a small campground named Inland Harbor RV Park in the small town of Darien Georgia. It is right off interstate 95 north of the Florida line. It is a gated park with lots of shade trees, paved slots, and southern moss hanging from the trees. There are a number of full timers living here that have been super to talk to.

Our water hose was short, less than 20 feet. Don't know why I did that. Replaced it with a 50 foot so the other can be utility hose.

The cable line was an after thought when I realized the campground had cable. I grabbed it from some spares at home and it turned out to be 15 feet. Since the water and cable were close to each other, you see the problem :-)

Not a big TV watcher but I wanted to have it available in the event my significant other missed it. Hasn't happened so far though. At it turns out the over the air signal is great so the short cable was not an issue.

We have decided to document all our trips with photos. As suggested one of the things we are doing is looking at the sites for preferences on future stops here.

Gonna stop for now and go walking through the park.

[NJKris]

Great! Got the 25 foot hose. Figure that will meet most needs. Love that area you are staying in, used to hunt in S. Georgia across the line from Jax where I was stationed.