Hi All,
We're planning on "part-timing" in a year or so, not quite ready for full time yet. One of the things that I'm wondering about, maybe a stupid question, but...............
What do you spend your time doing if you're retired?
We don't have TV, though we do watch DVD's and read a lot and walk a lot, play crib, but then what? I'm talking things apart from the obvious like sight-seeing, shopping etc.
Not much room for storing craft items?
Christine

Yours is a serious question and it took me a while to find an answer. That answer has made a big difference in my 13 years of retirement.

FIND A PURPOSE

I have friends who drive folks to the market. Volunteer in libraries. Do maintenance in County Parks. Participate in city or county advisory boards. Run for public office especially for jobs few want. (water district commissioner, town council, homeowner's boards)

Commit to stuff and do it. Find a reason to get up.

Maybe even as a park host.

Ron from Lopez Island

I was thinking more of when you're away for several months in the trailer. I can find volunteer work around my home town, but when we're away, then what? We're actually planning on joining a group of RVers who are assigned different projects with churches etc but what about the rest of the time?
Christine

By any chance are you talking about MMAP? My dad did that and found it very rewarding for over ten years. In his case he went to parts of the US he wanted to see and also where he wanted to visit relatives. Also, he went to Alaska a couple of times which he really enjoyed.

I'm am indeed! What better way to see the USA?
You guys are my heroes. We're (or I) am hoping to go full-time eventually like you. I've been reading your posts and saw you seemed to do it gradually in stages, which is what we plan to do to make sure it fits.

Hello,
Have you tried looking at Workamper.com for ideas. When I visited Yellowstone it seemed like everyone had a name tag with their home state. What a great way to spend retirement - park to park hosting, genaral store or anything to get you off the couch. Bryan

That question never crossed my mind before I started to full time in a small trailer. And there was no way I was going to wait until I was in my sixties to start. I just continued to do what I was doing with my free time while working&#151spending time out in Nature. Now, however, I do even more of it. Also, if you don’t already have an art or a craft that you are interested in, you might think about taking one up. I work with silver. Maybe try geocaching. Possibly go off for a day’s trek where there are not trails. I could not do this lifestyle without a pet. My two felines are priceless. They love to go for walks with me, make fine companions, and are quite entertaining. If you are going to be by water much, get a boat (canoe, kayak, or pontoon). I also don’t live with a TV and read a lot. Take a few paperbacks over to other campers to exchange books or just as a way to meet people. Get a travel blog going to keep friends informed of your travels. You’ll be spending time taking pictures and composing your postings. These are just things that come to mind as I’m sitting here in a library using their wireless. If you want to work a season, using something like workamper.com, there are many more sites for seasonal employment that I can post (although it might be a few days before I have web access again).

On an outside corner of my trailer, I wrote: The more one sees, the less one needs.
One does not need to always be doing something. Slowing down, simplifying, opening one’s eyes, presents a new way of looking at life. Sometimes I have trouble keeping the smile off my face. But then again, I don’t look like, think like, or do, as most people my age. Maybe one should stop acting their age once they get in their fifties. Sure would cut down on medical problems. Oh well, glad to hear you are planning to try it.

Sebastian

Project Habitant? Former teachers teaching ESL? Helping out with community gardens? Find volunteer bureau's in each town.

Are you planning to work part time or volunteer during your year? Or are you looking at taking a break and getting into some new things? Although, volunteering to stack books in little libraries along the way is a lot of fun and gives one a chance to talk to the patrons and staff about what's in the area. Also, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT is always looking for short term volunteers.

Great idea! If you had stopped in the library where I used to work, we would have tied you to the stacks... er... I mean "been most appreciative"

We always had so many more books to shelve than time to do it in!

And I bet it is a great way to find out about things in the community. Libraries are often a hub of small-town activity, and the librarians tend to know about local attractions - or how to find out about them.

Sounds totally win/win.

Raya

You could take some long distance learning courses. There are go-at-your-own-pace curricula offered by some educational institutions. You could get the degree you've always wanted. If you ever wanted...

Yes, libraries are a great place to learn about local events. And yes, they generally always have books to shelve. I walked into one small library once and the librarian looked at me as if thinking, "Are you nuts—no likes to shelve books." It's a nice way to meet people.

Taking web classes is one of the things I miss with this lifestyle. I've taken a number of stellar classes from www.ed2go.com (I accessed it through www.ed2go.com/sky). I know I could get access through a cell phone but by keeping my monthly expenses down, I did not have to wait until I was 62 to get into this roaming lifestyle. Also many of the places I camp have weak or no coverage. Pluses and minuses. It's sure nice not going to work everyday. But if you have web access, taking classes was a great suggestion. A roll model, who is in her eighties, believes that if one does not learn something new from time to time, one might as well be dead. She's a hoot, and a very active one at that.

Sebastian

What some great ideas!
I was just imagining staying in the same trailer park for about 3 months or so and wondering how on earth I was going to spend my time. Now I'll go to the local volunteer place, go to church, take a course, do photography, start a journal, etc etc
Thanks people, I love this web-site.

We were wondering the same thing, we get bored tooooo easily.
Thanks for all the great ideas.

I don't have any experience with this myself (and being thirty-plus years away from retirement...), but I've been hearing my parents' plans for retirement and maybe the ideas might be relevant. Their first idea is to get hooked up with disaster relief and whenever a disaster hits somewhere, they'd pack up their camper and go help out for as long as they were needed. Cleaning up and rebuilding after Katrina, helping out in Greensburg, Kansas--or even disasters closer to home. What usually happens with those kind of disasters is that there's a lot of help right away, but people can't stay, so the help disappears after a couple of weeks. They also were looking into long-term Habitat for Humanity as well. My father's current idea (he's a pastor) is that he'd like to be involved in helping other pastors take sabbaticals (almost unheard of in rural areas) and so he'd go to a place for three months (or however long the term was) and he'd do his work (not sure what Mom plans to do), living in their camper. Then they'd move on to the next place.

-k

I can't even imagine staying in a "trailer park" for months on end... but, that's just me. I bought a travel trailer for the travel aspect. And, I plan to do exactly that for five years. At least that's the current plan. In a nutshell, I'm looking at a map of continental U.S That's 48 states. Divide 48 (states) by 60 months (five years), I get about 5-1/2 weeks per state. That may be way too long for some states ;-) and not enough for some others. So, by planning ahead... traveling around inside one state (with trailer in tow or parked here and there), I hope to become reacquainted with my home country. However, I'm also planning ahead by working my way across the country... gotta eat! Right now, I'm planning that future by completing school and networking. The hope is to change careers upon retirement and become a contractor working basically online. But if not, I'll take up residence in whatever town I need to and use my free time to travel within that state. As I've said, this is the nutshell and I'm certainly willing to adapt as the economy, my health and finances dictate. But I truly do believe in setting goals and making plans. Otherwise you have to accept whatever life dishes out and for me that's not acceptable.

Your mileage may vary and that's what makes us each unique!

Hi: Donna...
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

Hi ya'll,

Sebastian said it all. We too left work early. I was 58.

We are in South Carolina now. I cannot add too much more to this thread except that we have never been bored. For the first 14 months we did travel a lot. Spent December through February in San Marcos Texas though. Since May we have stayed in Upstate NY for 5 months, campground hosted for two, and are here now, planning on staying til June.

We had our kayak with us. Have been in many lakes, the San Marcos River and the Rio Grande (in Big Bend). When we travel, we never even get to do our planned things. For example we were going to stay three days in Big Bend. Left after seven, wishing we did not have plans which made us leave.

We hike often. Even when we are staying a long while. While in NY this summer for 5 months a daily hike brought back berries for breakfast.

Melanie has two bins of art/craft materials. She has knitted, made quilts, and recently started beading. We are currently making jewelry out of old silverplate forks, spoons, and knives. Have Dremel and lots of tools. Too much weight in art/craft stuff, but Melanie is an artist and when we lived in NYC showed in galleries and went to many Art Fairs in NY, Conn, and even RI.

We have two laptops now. Only because I actually work online at present and our old laptop is not dependable. So we correspond a lot (sorry, we are not that active on the listserv here).

We read. A lot. No TV now although we did have direct tv for the first 14 months.

WE were campground hosts in Sesquicentennial State Park for December and Lake Norman (NC) for November. As many have said, hosting is great, even if sometimes you have to clean the shower house.

I will be working full-time for the next 5 months.

And we do travel with our "two felines", Ani and Lola, who bring hours of fun (especially when we walk them on a leash) and relaxation. A cat can teach you how to relax.


Hey, Sebastian. Another two cat family.

Full-timing would be a ways off for us since the kids are 10+ years from finishing High School. We are considering heading that way starting with part-timing. This last year we began by going for the entire month of July and are going to try and do that every year going forward.

Like Joseph said, we've not found any shortage of feeling like we had nothing to do, or being bored. Life on the road is exciting even more so for the kids. One theme we seemed to have noticed talking to all the full-timers that we've encountered in our two years of travels with the egg, is that the first year they are like what Donna said, traveling all the time. After about a year or so most have told us that they start looking for opportunities for more extended stays. Will be interesting to follow everyone's travels and adventures as we evolve to part or full timing.

When I get there, NOTHING! 5 years to go, and I am wishing my life away. So far 30 years as a power company lineman, and I have had enough of corporate america, snow storms, ice storms, wind storms, lighting storms, and cats on poles!

LOL, you reminded me of a club we started when I was in high school. (Amazing I can still remember that far back)

We called it the Lazy Bast**** club. We never had a meeting because we were too lazy. But the argument used to always happen that we were disqualified since we had not been lazy enough that we had actually started the club.

So what reminded me of all of this from your post is a similar argument. In doing "nothing" are you actually doing something therefore in actuality not doing "nothing"??

Oh well, not sure if Socrates could even come up with an answer for that. We never resolved the LB club answer and it's been 34 years.....

you could "adopt a trail" in whatever areas you are playing in.
it feels nice to give back to the places that give you such a great feeling to visit.
many of us in the off roading community log in countless hours preserving the trails in which we play in an effort to keep them open for future generations.

in doing this maintenance it puts us in the places we enjoy being. it could be from things as simple as picking up trash that less responsible travelers left behind to larger duties of repairing sections of the trail that have become too dangerous from wash outs.

something to think about.

i'm sure you could get information from the forest service in the area you will be recreating in.

in the san bernadino area we have one of the strongest "adopt-a-trail" programs in the country.

Reminds me of the joke. A retired guy is sitting in the living room, his wife asks what are you doing? He says nothing. She says thats what you did yesterday. The guy says I'm not finished yet.

When I was FullTiming, I was asked numerous times what I did all day -- I replied that I did the same things I would do in an anchored home -- I would then ask them what THEY did all day and didn't they get bored wasting their lives on insane pursuits like fertilizing grass, mowing it and then having to dispose of the cuttings? Didn't they get bored with the same views and the same people living around them.

BTW, here is the video on thegeneral difference between male and female brain organization and the concept of the male's Nothing Box:

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=GuMZ73mT5zM

Christine,

Is your Part-time just the 3 months that you mentioned?? 3 months isn't that much.

So, it all depends on where you are from and where you are going. Are you just relocating from your house to your trailer at a trailer park or are you traveling and sightseeing???

3 months, hum....it took me 3 months to go from California to the 3 Great Lakes States and back. I basically stayed in each of those states for 3 1/2 weeks, the remainder of the time was cross country to and fro. I travel solo and was not the least bit bored. There are lots of campers to talk to, walking the dog, seeing the sights and then some days just chilling. I do carry a TV but really only use it late at night when everyone is in or it's too cold to sit out. I don't find I have much free time to get bored.

I'm contemplating full timing it for 5 or 6 years and I know there's lots out there to see. I'm inquisitive and not shy so I can't imagine ever being bored. I'm not a desert person so going south in the winter like most folks do doesn't appeal to me. I figure the first couple of years I'd most likely spend the winter in Florida having never been there, must be lots to see and do. When I tire of Florida I'd simply come back West for the winter. My golf buddies would probably like that.

Speaking of golf, I'll carry my golf clubs & bowling ball in addition to the kayak and bike that I generally have with me. Just those 4 toys can take quite a bit of time out of your day.

I'd like to be a camp host but most places want couples, that could be something you might think about. Get your campsite free. Also, like some said, disaster relief. Being more mobile full timing it, I'd make the effort to go help out where ever.


Good Luck to you.