Full Time RVers

Several of our fellow campground hosts, including our Warm River maintenance couple, are full time RVers.  They have sold their homes and most of their belongings in favor of traveling across the country in their respective motor homes, trailers, and fifth-wheels. 

All of our full-time RVing coworkers travel to places they are interested in spending time in, and find jobs that, at best, offer a free place to park, free utilities, and a salary.  Campground hosting is ideal for full-time RVers, but there are other opportunities as well, often in the resort areas they want to visit.  Paying jobs are rare in the winter in warmer climates, such as Arizona, but even in Arizona one can obtain a free parking spot with utilities in exchange for a minimal number of hours of work.

One of the fulltime couples we’ve met winters every year in Quartzsite, Arizona – home of the largest 

gathering of RVers in the world.  According to the Arizona highway department, as many as 750,000 to 1,000,000 people, mostly in RV’s, converge on this sleepy little desert town, located just 20 miles east of the California border on Interstate 10.  Quartszite has held an annual Sports, Vacation, and RV Show for the past 40 years.   http://www.quartzsitervshow.com/

There are logistical concerns with full time RVing.  How do they get their mail?  What about prescriptions?  Doctor visits?  No problem.  They find the nearest town, rent a post office box, and have their doctors call their prescriptions in to the local pharmacy or clinic.  All of the couples we’ve met agree that laundry is their biggest problem, but that a weekly trip to the coin-op Laundromat is a small price to pay.

“It’s really quite freeing to realize how little you need to be happy,” one of the women told me. 

When we were planning this adventure, Paul talked about selling everything and living out of our trailer.  I told him, in no uncertain terms, that this would not happen.  Now that we’ve seen the lifestyle in action, he agrees with me that this isn’t a lifestyle we would be interested in.  But I have to admire the people who choose it.  They’re a lot more adventurous than I am.  And that’s OK.