House Hunting In An RV

A recent Wall Street Journal article on retirees featured the story of Ray Campbell, a 69-year old Army veteran who hitched a camper to his pickup truck and spent two years exploring the country in search of a permanent home. He camped in the Florida Keys, the Nevada desert, and the mountains of Colorado and Vermont until settling in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Campbell is like many RVers who want to remain physically active in retirement and are attracted to outdoor activities – whether on the road or near their homes.

Nancy and Bruce Stover, also lovers of the great outdoors, thought they’d pursue the same path to finding a permanent home for their eventual retirement. After selling their home in Northern Virginia, they chose Greenville, South Carolina as a new base city with the goal of downsizing and purchasing an RV. They bought a house online, sight unseen and then purchased a Fleetwood Providence with a Freightliner chassis and began exploring Georgia and the Carolinas.

“For the first time in our married lives, we could be proactive about where we chose to live, rather than letting our careers dictate it,” said Nancy. The couple, who met in the entertainment media industry in 1981, had lived in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia. Now, as consultants, they can work remote or be dropped off at any airport to fly to meetings.

Bruce had been an avid RV fan since accompanying a friend in his rig to the Daytona Rolex 24-hour Sportscar races years earlier, but Nancy had never shown any interest in the RV lifestyle. But all it took was one trip in a rented motorhome while their house was on the market to change her mind.

“It’s not the same experience as I assumed it was. I realized that you can’t know it until you do it,” she said. “The trip turbocharged my interest in RVing and in staying in a town long enough to explore and see if it felt like home, or at least, like a hub for travel. If not, we could move on.”  

Downsizing and hitting the road was the couple’s intention, but 30 years of accumulated “stuff” and premium storage costs that, according to Bruce, “would have been equal to a mortgage,” resulted in the couple purchasing a temporary home in Greenville, South Carolina. This has now become their travel hub as they continue to explore eventual retirement communities in their RV and to plan cross-country excursions.

“We learned a lot about base cities,” said Bruce, who spearheaded the home and RV searches. “There were several things to evaluate in terms of where we bought our RV and could get it serviced, and where we could rent enclosed garage space.”

The door height requirement for a motorhome eliminated many of the garage options in the area. The Stovers eventually found a suitable facility 45 minutes from their home after being informed that there was a 27-person waiting list at a closer garage.

But now that they’re settled and their RV is “outfitted just like a home,” Bruce and Nancy have enjoyed several long weekend trips to RV resorts in the North Carolina mountains, at South Carolina beaches, and at popular Lake Lanier in Georgia.

“All we have to do is buy groceries – it’s very easy and stress-free,” said Nancy, who far prefers the convenience of RVing to the tent camping that she, Bruce, and their now-grown daughter used to enjoy. “When we arrive at our destination, we can do something or nothing. Tent camping is way more work!”

The very social couple has sometimes reserved “buddy lots” at resorts when traveling with friends, but they’ve also made more than a few new friends on their travels.

“We’re meeting so many fun and interesting RVers at these resorts: entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, military members. All kinds of people and families,” said Nancy.

Typically, Bruce drives the RV while Nancy follows him in their car. This allows them to park the RV in the campground, then to use the car to explore neighborhoods, shops, and restaurants in nearby towns.

“It’s a very pleasurable method for testing the waters,” said Bruce. “I’d recommend it for anyone who’s trying to decide where to move. You can travel and stay for a while to get to know the area.”

The couple is contemplating several extended trips in the coming months, beginning with a visit to Colorado and New Mexico to see family. They plan to overnight in a combination of campgrounds, Harvest Host properties, and state parks, but are also prepared to try boondocking. It is Bruce’s hope that they can do a perimeter trip along the Western or Eastern half of the county in the fall. Then, in anticipation of the busy winter months down south, they are already making reservations at campgrounds in Florida.

“After each trip, we say that we wish we could have gone farther and stayed longer,” said Nancy. “We just don’t feel like we’re ready to get out of the RV when we get back to the house."