What do you do with your time?

[Wanabe]

We are planning to full time on the road and have plans to travel both USA & Canada. However, given that we will have lots of time on our hands I wonder what to do on the rest days and evenings? Reading books, talking on the net, playing tiddly winks or chess etc are probably on the cards.

But when there's no lawns to mow, no grandkids to tend, no house to fix , what do you do with your time?? And what does your spouse do? Perhaps cabin fever sets in? Perhaps you need some space....or they do? What if its raining or snowing? Would be keen to hear from the full timers or long termers.

Wanabe

[77newell]

We are part-timers but even over the coarse of a couple weeks on the road the issues you describe have been problematical. First, we try to limit touring and "vacationing" to no more than 2 of three days, otherwise we end up so worn out we don't have fun. We are considering lowering that target to one out of two days, which then makes the other problems you identified bigger.

Yes we have found we need time apart and the thing we needed to get past is that if one of us goes out alone that the other doesn't feel abandoned. Surprisingly, once we identified our sense that we were abandoning the other and started actually checking with each other we quickly discovered that the "abandoned" one was more relieved to be left alone than anything else.

We try to spend some time regularly in places where we might meet others for conversation. Coffee shops and religious centers have proven helpful. The other is to wander the campground saying "Hi" to people and see who is willing to strike up a conversation. Another thing we do is try to spend time sitting outside and making ourselves seem available to others wandering around. None of the people we have met in these circumstances have become long time friends but we have cherished our time with them.

At home I spend a lot of time using the computer to create art and my wife does mosaics and fitness workouts. We now spend at least some of our "free" days doing these things. What we've gradually arrived at is to do some of the enjoyable things done at our permanent home in our portable home.

Since grandkids are important we try to regularly stay in touch by phone and Skype. It is awesome to be able to show them places we go when we are actually there.

What we have yet to learn is how to just chill and recover when we have worn ourselves out. The first step is to recognize that we need a break and then to figure out how to actually break the pattern of intense activity.

The hard part for us is to find a rhythm when we know that all too soon, or is it, we will be back to our "home" routines.

[bigcatwally]

Jon I appreciate your statements. :thumbsup:

Wanabe you ask what do you do with your time? when there's no lawns to mow, no grandkids to tend, no house to fix. I don't have a full answer to this as of yet but when I get there I will be sure to let you know. ;) Is one ever really retired? I no longer have a day job. Thank God! But the honey do list never ends. :laugh: