A Women's RV Forum run by Women RVer's!

Hello all! We don't have our RV yet, but the planning stage is sure a lot of fun.

My honey and I (ages 52 and 50 respectively) are loooong time tent campers who have finally decided to call it quits, just got home from a camping trip to Michigan and we are DONE, no more rickety cots, no more nylon walls between us and the loud folks one site over, no more sitting huddled in the rain staring at the tent wall, no more walking forever to use a gross porta pot!! Onward to a private bathroom, solid walls, and a real bed!!

However, our segue to RV life will be interrupted by a stint in Key West next Spring and Summer, we are putting our house on the market and heading South for a few months R&R. My honey's job is ending an I'm taking a leave of absence to go see if we want to relocate to KW, so we're looking at two scenarios after the house sells:

1. Move to Key West long term, settle in and live the island life while working until we drop (we could never afford to retire there). Buy and RV and head out workamping as long as our health holds out.

2. Enjoy our 3-6 month escape to KW, decide it's not for us long term, come back to IL and work while buying the RV in 2012 and hit the road. Workamp as needed and enjoy life on the road.

Anyhoo, great forum you have here, hope I can contribute in some small way.

Welcome!

You have some great choices there. I was 52 when I quit and headed out. Will be 59 (where do the years go) in a couple months. My intentions were to take a year off. Had never heard of workamping, etc when I started out. Enjoy your time in Key West and decide what's best for you. For 6 years now I keep telling myself I'm going to find the place I want to stay at (even if just either winter or summer) but haven't done so yet. Too many great choices and I keep finding more.

Glad to have you with us.

Welcome to our forum. You certainly sound like you have some adventurous decision making ahead of you. Don't worry about fitting in here, your love of RVing and future adventures will make it so. Linda

Welcome to the forum!

Wow, welcome Queen. I love your plans. I spent 3 months in KW my first yr of retirement and absolutely loved it. www.bluewaterkey.net always looks for work camper couples and the place is fabulous. You may want to check it out. That's the place I stayed and it was paradise but way expensive.

Best of luck to you.

Wow, thanks for the wonderful welcome!! It's so nice to find a place by and for women, nothing against guys but sometimes I'd rather hear from gals when it comes to learning something new or sharing adventures.

Where are my manners?? sunshinecruiserTN - thanks so much for the link, what a beautiful place!! And not as expensive as Boyds!

Welcome from a native Floridian (well close, moved to Miami at 3 months). Love KW and the other keys as well. Carolyn stayed at a great place (took a look once as we drove by). We still winter in FL (Sarasota) and others are around the state as well. Possibly a GTG in the makings???? carold

Welcome Queen! Sounds like you guys have a lot of life choices in the near future...best of luck!

Hi Queen,

Welcome to the forum.

welcome aboard. Look forward to meeting you down the road. Will be following your adventures!

Welcome to the forum, Queen! I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures.

Thank you again everyone, what a lovely group. My partner and I are known amongst our friends as alternately adventurous or crazy. We tend to pack up and move off on occasion, trying out new places and scenery.

Mary (my partner) is an academic here at the University of Illinois, since she is contract faculty rather than tenure track her position is being cut in November. We anticipated this and planned extensively for it, we achieved "debt free" status in June and have been banking as much as we can in order to finance our Escape. We're hedging our bet slightly by me taking a leave of absence (it also allows us to keep out health insurance for the duration of the leave), but neither of us really see coming back to Central IL permanently. Life is too short to spend it planning for a retirement that may never come.

....and many say that the biggest "regret" issue is not to have tried! GO for it!