The Emotional Impact of Fulltime Rving
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Ever since I was a child, I loved to travel. I would imagine myself in that particular place, that particular town, at the moment as a part of the population, living a different life than the one I had in the big city. Small towns were an easy lure as they are described so beautifully on television or the movies. I only traveled in the state I grew up in and that was special, I felt it gave me meaning, a unique way of looking at how others lived. People always smiling, knowing their neighbors, having potluck get togethers, cute homes and a downtown area with the most interest stores, this is something I thought was true. That is something I wanted to be a part of someday. The perfect community in my eyes.
But did I know it would come at a cost? A cost of emotions that spilled out over and over to the point I wanted to give up?
My husband and I planned, prepped, read, attended seminars or watched them online, watched videos to find out how to fulltime rv. My husband was retiring and he was not interested in keeping our house after retirement. Our kids would be grown up and it was time to spend our “golden years” (even though I am not at retirement age yet) traveling and discovering new places together. John and I used to travel in our home state while we dated and even owned a pop-up camper when our kids were young and traveled out of state and had a blast!
So camping was something not new to us and felt we were experienced and ready to handle whatever our way would come. Whether good or bad, we would “weather” it together and keep moving forward (I always say that) and not let anything stop us.
Well, not quite the truth.
Our first stop would be Quartzsite, Arizona, close enough to visit family. If you have not been to Quartzsite, Arizona, you should try it at least once, especially in January, since there is a Quartzsite Sports, Vacation and RV Show each year and lots of people get together during that month. And most importantly, to get our feet wet with this new lifestyle and be with others that in the same lifestyle.
I did feel some twinge of sadness, mostly missing the kids, and things that were familiar, but I kept busy fixing up the travel trailer we purchased, making it a new home for us while in Quartzsite, Arizona. Just the 2 of us. We had these great plans of boondocking, which is dry camping, to save money as we were on a fixed income. Honestly, we did not know much about boondocking and how to travel as we thought we did. Have wheels must travel! And travel we did.
Lights and and brakes not communicating with our trailer.
Soon enough, we had mechanical problems which added to the stress and insecurity I started to feel. After spending money we did not plan to spend, we left Arizona into Utah. Despite the hiccups we started to have, I decided to feel excited going into and take that epic photo of a new state sign, and even eager where we would camp and what adventures we could explore. Yes, things would get better, I thought.
The thrill of going from one state to another!
Yes, we did have some adventures, but a new thing came up: weather. Arizona has boring weather, sunny, sunny, sunny, which I was used to and thought every where else would be similar. Nope! Moab, Utah could produce a lot of wind! And that wind blows red dust everywhere. Yuck! I really started to miss my kids and feel sadness that I could not resolve. This was turning into depression that I had no control over.
Depression when traveling? How could that be, you may ask?
You would be surprised!
Traveling is not the hunky dory lifestyle you see on social media. NOPE! Traveling does not cure sadness, depression, insecurity and you certainly will not become instantly famous on social media, but maybe if you knew a popular celebrity. :) Traveling is enduring the good with the bad. I realized the people on YouTube that were fulltime rvers were not telling the whole truth. It was so disappointing!
Our first Badlands National Park experience!
We moved on, all the way up to South Dakota. Still trying to learn this lifestyle, checking our mail with Americas Mailbox, and discovering what horrible weather they could have in the summer. A terrible thunderstorm came over us as we were boondocking near the Badlands National Park. It produced winds from 60-100 mph that scared me to death! I thought a tornado was coming and this was it for us!
Luckily we only ended up with a tail light off our trailer from the horrible storm, and that tail light was already loose! But my heart was still in Arizona, the boring weather and I missed it and my kids more and more everyday.
At this time we realized it really costs more than we expected to fulltime RV. Gas prices were rising and our income was not matching it. My insecurity really shot up because of this: our financial security was not as secure.
Storm clouds coming, reflecting the mood I was in, northeastern Wyoming.
So I was homesick, realized we needed more money to fund our fulltime RV adventure, depressed, sad and was ready to call it quits.
But wait, this is travel and it is supposed to be a lot of fun, a dream for many, but yet, this was turning into a nightmare! Why?
You will have to find out how we were able to solve our problems, making changes in the way we were fulltime rving!
Here are links to the previous blogs about living the RV adventure (hate for you to miss out!):