PCSteve in Plant City, Florida

[PC Steve]

Hi, "PC" as in Plant City, I've never been accused of being politically correct.

My wife, Sandy and I just bought a 2005 17 Liberty Deluxe. I have observed the Sportsmobile and Casita sites for years and we decided to jump in. Initially, I'll be towing with a 1994 Ford F250 that we have laying around. We can almost see retirement on the horizon and feel the need to try some new things. I have spent a lot of time flat water canoeing in solo canoes, tent camping on riverbanks. The whole trailer/campground thing will be new to me. I see myself as more of a traveler than a camper, but given our location in Florida, we'll spend the next year or so "practicing" here in Florida, augmented by the occasional plane/rental car/hotel trip.

I have lurked for a while and have enjoyed your contributions. I look forward to participating.

Regards, Steve

[TomK]

Welcome Steve! Your situation is close to ours. Recent retirement and an urge to explore. You've come to the right place . So much knowledge, and people eager to share will be a big help. My wife and I will be "practicing" in your beautiful state in a few weeks as well.

Tom

[Rattlesnake Joe]

Hi Steve, You may want to think about a sailboat instead of a Casita. You sound like an adventurous guy to me and smart too. The life of a camper is great but the life of a sailor is fantastic. My wife and I have lived in our Casita for over 6 years now and it pales compared to the life of sailing the Bahamas. There are sailboats galore rotting on anchor in Florida now days because of the economy. You can pick up a nice 30 footer for peanuts compared to what they use to cost. For the same price of a used Casita you can get a nice ready to go Catalina sailboat of 30 feet and ten feet wide. It don't take long to learn to sail as there are schools that teach it all over. Living on the hook down in the Bahamas is cheaper than RVing in the USA. Our country is in a deep depression that will only get worse...go live your life of adventure now while you still can.

[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Joe

Hi Steve, You may want to think about a sailboat instead of a Casita. You sound like an adventurous guy to me and smart too. The life of a camper is great but the life of a sailor is fantastic. My wife and I have lived in our Casita for over 6 years now and it pales compared to the life of sailing the Bahamas. There are sailboats galore rotting on anchor in Florida now days because of the economy. You can pick up a nice 30 footer for peanuts compared to what they use to cost. For the same price of a used Casita you can get a nice ready to go Catalina sailboat of 30 feet and ten feet wide. It don't take long to learn to sail as there are schools that teach it all over. Living on the hook down in the Bahamas is cheaper than RVing in the USA. Our country is in a deep depression that will only get worse...go live your life of adventure now while you still can.

Hi: Rattlesnake Joe... Sounds like you'd rather be "Gunkholing" than "Boondocking". To each his own I say!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Steve Outlaw]

Originally Posted by PC Steve

Hi, "PC" as in Plant City, I've never been accused of being politically correct.

We can almost see retirement on the horizon and feel the need to try some new things. I have spent a lot of time flat water canoeing in solo canoes, tent camping on riverbanks.

I have lurked for a while and have enjoyed your contributions. I look forward to participating.

Regards, Steve

I too have never been accused of being politically correct and will be retiring this coming year. We also spent about 30 years canoeing on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas every spring and sleeping on the riverbank. That was fun while we were in our late 20's...30's...40's...50's...now not so much.

My goal is to be able to travel to wherever we want to go and have everything we need with us to be comfortable, dry, warm or cool using the Oliver as our home away from home. I have spent the past 10 years preparing for this future.

Although it sounds like fun and I’m sure there are many who enjoy island hopping on a sailboat, I’m just not convinced many of them hang out on a trailer forum.

[mary and bob]

We also just recently bought a Casita 17 Liberty Deluxe. It's a 1996 in excellent condition and needed nothing. Only things I had time to do before we headed south for the winter was pull the hubs, grease bearings, inspect brakes, install a tail / turn / stop light bar above the rear window, and a coiled 7 wire cord and plug. It's working out real good so far, better than our Uhaul 13 that we used the last two winters. I'm sure you'll enjoy your Casita Steve.

[papa-t]

Welcome Steve to the FGRV family.

[PC Steve]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Joe

Hi Steve, You may want to think about a sailboat instead of a Casita....

Nice idea! I had a small boat sailing phase early-on, owned a sunfish and canoe camped the everglades in a sea-pearl 21.

The wife never warmed up to sleeping on the boats. I also had a small Grady White cuddy cabin.

We'll start out slow to get the hang of trailer camping locally and work our way up from there. The concept is to spend more time compared to the "fly in for a week" you do when still employed.

Thanks for the welcomes!