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Old 07-10-2014, 06:10 AM   #21
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Name: Carl
Trailer: 1994 Scamp 16
Arkansas
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Thom,
Thank for the information on free ebooks! I will check them out!

Carl
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Old 07-10-2014, 06:44 AM   #22
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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Florida
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Thom, The park model does meet our requirements.

The park is small, 127 sites so you can know everyone. Practically everyone in the park is a former RVer, most full timed extensively, and a many still own a rig.

The yearly fees are low, $100 a month and includes all park maintence and includes everything except electricity. Beyond that it's warm in the winter, surrounded by orange groves and in a rural Florida setting, yet relatively close to major airports and not too far from a city (45 miles).

Prices for Park Models are usually less than $15,000 and the price of your lot (about $12,000) is refundable when ever you want to sell. On top of this Florida treats seniors well. There is no state income tax, another benefit.

In fact Florida is Ginny's favorite state though I like Oregon (and of course Newfoundland).

The Park Model is insurance for our older age and allows Ginny's sisters to visit (the sisters just will not fit in the Scamp).

Getting old is not what many of the young imagine, Ginny's mother used to say "the golden years are not so golden". The aches of aging insure that in part. As a result of her words and our own aches we're attempting to prepare for the next 2(?) decades.
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Old 07-10-2014, 07:15 AM   #23
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Name: Carl
Trailer: 1994 Scamp 16
Arkansas
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What do full timers do?

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Originally Posted by honda03842 View Post
Thom, The park model does meet our requirements.

The park is small, 127 sites so you can know everyone. Practically everyone in the park is a former RVer, most full timed extensively, and a many still own a rig.

The yearly fees are low, $100 a month and includes all park maintence and includes everything except electricity. Beyond that it's warm in the winter, surrounded by orange groves and in a rural Florida setting, yet relatively close to major airports and not too far from a city (45 miles).

Prices for Park Models are usually less than $15,000 and the price of your lot (about $12,000) is refundable when ever you want to sell. On top of this Florida treats seniors well. There is no state income tax, another benefit.

In fact Florida is Ginny's favorite state though I like Oregon (and of course Newfoundland).

The Park Model is insurance for our older age and allows Ginny's sisters to visit (the sisters just will not fit in the Scamp).

Getting old is not what many of the young imagine, Ginny's mother used to say "the golden years are not so golden". The aches of aging insure that in part. As a result of her words and our own aches we're attempting to prepare for the next 2(?) decades.
Norm,
I am glad that you and Ginny are making plans for your future! Not many people plan for the future. I believe that a future with no plans, is not much of a future! Thank you for sharing your plans with all of us. You are providing us with a good example! It is never to early to start making plans. As, you know the path of life travels by pretty fast! It seems like just yesterday I was starting in the first grade.
I am thinking about Texas. They do not have a state income tax. They also, have a lot of sun shine. We are planning a trip down to Livingston, Tx. some time this year to see the Escapee Park. (I got that suggestion from you!) Thanks!

Carl
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Old 07-10-2014, 09:18 AM   #24
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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Carl, You know I'm a happy Escapee but be warned that there are two types of Escapee Parks, those owned by the Escapee Corporation named generically named Rainbow Parks and those owned by the people who reside in them called Coops.

Generally the Coops price their lots based upon what they cost to create them plus park and owner improvements. For example our park was created some 25 years ago for about $7,000 per site, they now cost about $12,000. Over those 25 years the park has added park-wide wireless, each site has a shed, and usually a concrete parking spot and patio, hence the price increase. Note inflation and market prices are not involved. Coop parks are totally self governed though you have to be an Escapee to buy in or stay there (though non-Escapee guests are allowed to stay for a week as a test.)

Rainbow parks like Livingston are different, generally they sell lots and people build structures on them. Price is set by the owner. Livingston is an interesting visit and I suspect they will let you camp there, at least as a test.

When you go take both of the tours. One tour is the Care Center. The Care center, assisted RV living, is very interesting, affordable and a great idea of community solution. The second tour is of the mail center and administration. The mail center is extremely well run and supportive of our life style. You get a legal address and excellent mail service; they actually have their own zip code. Be sure that you ask for an Escapee Magazine. You should also check to see if these tours are available on weekends before you go.

Another interesting Escapee Park is in Summerdale, AL, not far from the coast. It is also a Rainbow park but better organized than Livingston. They sell lots there and lease lots there.

Another park maybe even closer to you is in Hollister, MO adjacent to Branson. They may lease sites there but it's main purpose is a campground for traveling Escapees.

If you PM me your address I'll send you an Escapee magazine or you can call Escapees and they will send you a trial issue and a membership kit. 888.757.2582.
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Old 07-10-2014, 09:26 AM   #25
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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Cari's treasure chest

Cari has a curio case with some of her favorite rock-hounding finds and other trinkets. Now i will state that Cari plans to give all this to our two kids at some future point when downsizing even further into a future RV rig

Thom and Cari,
I collect rocks as we travel about, not that I know their source but they attract my eye. For years we had plastic bags of them about the house, separated typically by color.

Finally we decided to use them and scattered them among our white quartz walkway and garden. They are being passed onto the next generation and others by chance. People walk up to our door noticing them. particularly the young, and ask to be able to take one. Our trips replenish them and all are satisfied. maybe sparking a little stone curiosity.

Small things...
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Old 07-10-2014, 09:51 AM   #26
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Name: Carl
Trailer: 1994 Scamp 16
Arkansas
Posts: 239
What do full timers do?

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Originally Posted by honda03842 View Post
Carl, You know I'm a happy Escapee but be warned that there are two types of Escapee Parks, those owned by the Escapee Corporation named generically named Rainbow Parks and those owned by the people who reside in them called Coops.

Generally the Coops price their lots based upon what they cost to create them plus park and owner improvements. For example our park was created some 25 years ago for about $7,000 per site, they now cost about $12,000. Over those 25 years the park has added park-wide wireless, each site has a shed, and usually a concrete parking spot and patio, hence the price increase. Note inflation and market prices are not involved. Coop parks are totally self governed though you have to be an Escapee to buy in or stay there (though non-Escapee guests are allowed to stay for a week as a test.)

Rainbow parks like Livingston are different, generally they sell lots and people build structures on them. Price is set by the owner. Livingston is an interesting visit and I suspect they will let you camp there, at least as a test.

When you go take both of the tours. One tour is the Care Center. The Care center, assisted RV living, is very interesting, affordable and a great idea of community solution. The second tour is of the mail center and administration. The mail center is extremely well run and supportive of our life style. You get a legal address and excellent mail service; they actually have their own zip code. Be sure that you ask for an Escapee Magazine. You should also check to see if these tours are available on weekends before you go.

Another interesting Escapee Park is in Summerdale, AL, not far from the coast. It is also a Rainbow park but better organized than Livingston. They sell lots there and lease lots there.

Another park maybe even closer to you is in Hollister, MO adjacent to Branson. They may lease sites there but it's main purpose is a campground for traveling Escapees.

If you PM me your address I'll send you an Escapee magazine or you can call Escapees and they will send you a trial issue and a membership kit. 888.757.2582.
Norm,
Thank you for explaining the difference between the two groups! Thanks for the offer for a magazine, but I have all ready joined and they have stared sending me the Escapee Magazines. I will be sure to check out Hollister, MO.
I will take the tours that you recommended, when we are in Livingston!

For your information, since your are a rock hound of sort! Arkansas has a diamond mine that people can go and dig for diamonds! I have been there once, but I did not find any thing. But, we want to go back and do some more digging. Every so often they plow the field and new diamonds show up.
You can file this information away for future use? HA!

Carl
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Old 07-11-2014, 04:48 PM   #27
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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A Lesson

Fourth of July is always a big week at our place, one of Ginny's sisters was born on July 3rd and we always host her birthday party. This means lots of guests for most of the week. I can honestly say we enjoy the week. As well, I have noticed with passing time that the effort is becoming large, age is reducing our abilities.

My July 3rd sister in law in a quiet moment commented how much she likes being away at their southern condo where their time is tailored to just each other, how much easier that is for them.

Ginny and I had recognized that same ease in the first few years of this 14 year RV adventure. There is an ease, a simplicity, when it's just us on the road, Really our commitment is just to each other.

So much our previous standard life wass tied to the schedule of others, to business, to membership, .... not necessarily bad but demanding, yet accepted as the natural.

At their Southern condo, on the road with Ginny, is another place, a space just ours. Certainly we've been to some wonderful places but even the non-wonderful places we're in OUR space. It's obvious I'm in love with our life. Our time on the road provides a different opportunity from the pressure of our younger life, the sometimes an unseen pressure of the younger life.

Just a thought about life away from the norm....
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Old 07-11-2014, 05:39 PM   #28
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Not many people plan for the future. I believe that a future with no plans, is not much of a future!
As I was reading that it hit home pretty hard. As I have heard about the Military, most Armies fight a war prepared for the last one, not the current one. I certainly have tended toward that and have a several sheds full of tools & equipment to prove that I have put that theory into practice. Moving forward I am going to try and break my streak of poor or substandard investments. At least that is my excuse for pouring money into my Scamp.
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Old 08-12-2014, 12:47 PM   #29
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We are also seasonal, 6 months out of the Great White North. All we are allowed with the medical system in Canada. And 6 months the US will allow us to be there. Our summer is in our home on a lake in Ontario. Winters in the south. Been doing this for 19 years. And we are looking for an egg camper. We also have a home in a park east of Lake Wales, a similar co-op park, in the orange groves. A gated community on a lake. Saddlebag Lake Resort, we are all part owners, own the land and home. It's a bigger park, 800+ lots, some without anything on it, some older trailers, some single and some double wide. There are always 10% for sale, the nature of a retirement community. Prices range all over the place, under $20K to over $100K. We have been in the park for 15+ years.
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Old 08-19-2014, 07:36 PM   #30
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I think semi-full timing is a dream for a lot of us. I have family obligations that keep me tethered close to home (single child of an elderly parent). So, I live vicariously through others... not necessarily jealous... just thinking about how my life MAY be different "some" months/years from now...

Enjoy every single moment!
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Old 08-19-2014, 07:43 PM   #31
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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Certainly wishing you the opportunity you seek in everything. Certainly Ten Forward is part of the process.

Wishing you well
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Old 08-19-2014, 09:09 PM   #32
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Certainly wishing you the opportunity you seek in everything. Certainly Ten Forward is part of the process.

Wishing you well
Norm, that's EXACTLY why I bought Ten Forward.. not about my past.. but my future.

Thanks for the kind words, truly.
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Old 10-19-2014, 06:00 AM   #33
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Name: Christian
Trailer: 2014 EggCamper
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I live more or less full time (1-3 months in a trailer vs. a week or 2 at home) in an RV for work (disclaimer - not a FGRV quite yet, being built as I type this). I work as a well testing operator in the oil field in very remote areas of Texas and New Mexico primarily. Needless to say, it's not much of a vacation lifestyle, but certainly is an adventure with a lot of crossover in the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities that go along with full time leisure traveling in a trailer. Differences are, of course, that I am usually parked on a well location and get up and go to work every night instead of enjoying nature in the way most of you do. That and the terrible roads...
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Old 10-19-2014, 06:55 AM   #34
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Name: Ron
Trailer: 2015 Oliver Legacy Elite II - Hull #69
South Carolina
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Right now I work and live in my RV. I return home on the weekends to this huge house I foolishly bought thinking it was the deal of a lifetime. I'm seriously considering downsizing to a small cottage and plot of land. I joke with my brother in law that the only jobs in the future will probably be growing weed, so we'll be set as gentlemen farmers.

It's curious that I've found at this stage in my life I can afford just about any of the consumer goods out there, but I really don't want any of them. Just about anything that brings you joy can be stored digitally, and there really is no need for all this stuff, or at least not much of it.

When I get my Oliver, my plans are to use it for work and then transition to retirement traveling - most likely in long tours, but keeping a home base to return periodically.
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Old 10-19-2014, 08:21 AM   #35
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Name: Norm and Ginny
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Ron,

We've been traveling for 14 years, 7+ months a year. We kept our home base fpr the entire period, primarily for some relatively sub-conscious reason. In our case it was not a wise decision, costing us about $10,000 a year.

It is only recently 'we' have come to the conscious position that we should sell it.

The too much stuff thing rather quickly became obvious and we have pursued less over the years. Still the stuff of the pass haunts us.

As to the weed phenomena, there's humor in what you say but it's definitely an indicator of a national weakness. Some days I'm really happy to be an old short timer.

Wishing you well in your new adventures.
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