Hi. I’m Anne Louise. I’m 83 and single, living alone in Minnesota. My goal is to be living full-time in a van by the end of summer 2027, but hopefully sooner. Right now Im just camping in my small SUV with my dog and researching and learning what I need to know. .
Welcome!
Pushing 80 myself, and have been a nomad my entire adult life.
I’ve had many rigs over the years, DIY’d many, and also had many factory camper vans & motorhomes.
Today we’re in a 40’ converted bus because there’s 3 of us. But when I was traveling alone, my favorites were mid 1970’s motorhomes, and they can still be bought very cheap and in excellent condition. They were built in an era when quality still meant something.
We’re currently in S. Florida, but will be heading North as the weather dictates. My female travel mates are 23 & 87, and we’re all living out our dream lives, working a few hours each morning from the comfort of our home on wheels, then we’ll jump into our towed mini-van and go exploring for the rest of the day.
We’re now doing a Thousand Trails package, hundreds full hookups campgrounds across the country for only $1500 a year, all utilities included!!! That comes out to under $150 a month!!! We’re pretty new to it, but wish I’d known about it much sooner.
Good luck, and we’re here to help.
Fulltimer, I thought you said you were in older motorhome, not a converted bus?
It is a converted bus, but I often refer to it as a motorhome, because that’s it’s purpose.
Well the body of buses is much sturdier built than for RVs, good for collisions may be even for rollovers where RV would get pulverized. Isn’t it metal throughout… And they have more ground clearance on average I think, like 10 inches on some. Plus you build them exactly the way you want it
I call them schoolies not motorhomes because of very different construction.
Mine is actually an old Trailways bus that I converted for retirement in an RV park. When I gained a family living with me, my van was too small, so I switched to my bus.
I’ve had many motorhomes though, both Class A & Class C. Aluminum framed ones can be pretty sturdy, but the wood framed ones are usually poor quality. I’ve had a lot of vans, buses, boats, and trailers too. Even done a few bicycle campers for both myself & others. Did both of the Mississippi loops by boat, and the Columbia, Snake, & Colorado rivers. Many lakes too.
Back in the 70’s, 80’s. & 90’s. I traded rigs often, because there was good money to be made when selling them. I still worked full time, but I could have lived on the profits from buying & selling.
Not sure about ground clearance, but I’d never try to take it off road. We’re mainly doing Thousand Trails RV parks right now, and it’s been a pleasant experience. I bought the most expensive one that covers the whole country and over 300 campgrounds for about $1500 for a year. It includes full hookups, and comes out to about $125 a month. Talk about cheap rent!!! I love it!
We’ve been totally happy with everywhere we’ve stayed so far, and some are even very fancy resorts that non members would probably be paying over $100 a night for. There’s a 2-3 week time limit per campground, but we’ve been rotating between two of them that are only about 20 minutes apart all winter. South Florida sure beats the frozen North, and we’ve been having a blast!
We’re towing an AWD minivan camper for a grocery getter and exploration vehicle. I will be building a hard sided roof top tent for it, and we can use it and tents for places we can’t take the bus. With my new family, I have a whole renewed outlook on life.