RV living vs. camping

June 14, 5:15 PMDallas RV Living ExaminerLavonda Pflug

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You can't always pick your neighbors or the view from
your front door.

I bet you've seen or heard the ads--Go RVing! Those words alone make one think of fun, travel, freedom, flexibility, and adventure. Want to experience the mountains, the sea shores, and the great outdoors? Well then get yourself a recreational vehicle--anything from a tiny pop-up tent trailer to a  gigantic motor coach--and hit the road! Go camping for a weekend or a few weeks, and you'll have some stories to tell and probably a few nice photos to show your friends and relatives.

But pack that RV full of your most necessary possessions, close up or sell your home, buy a really good GPS unit and hit the open road, then you are a full-timer. Your RV is your house and almost anywhere you find full hook-ups becomes your home. What a life!

Yes, it sounds romantic and full of adventure. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't--depending upon your circumstance.

As I travel the country, living in our thirty-eight-foot fifth wheel, I've been blessed to meet a variety of other full-timers. Some are retired and living their dreams, while some have lost their "real home" for one reason or another and find an RV to be their most affordable shelter.  Still others, like my husband and me, work and work hard as our careers necessitate frequent travel and relocation.

Having a dumpster just out your front door is convenient but
unsightly.

No matter your reason for choosing to live in a trailer or motor home and no matter what your circumstance, full time RV living is not camping. It is living—living in a small mobile space, usually in an unfamiliar city among unfamiliar people. There are many challenges to successful long term RV living, and there are many joys and rewards as well.

This Examiner intends to inform and entertain all of you who are currently living in, hope or plan to live in, or are just curious about living in an RV and traveling the country. That's not to say that casual campers won't benefit from reading articles posted here. Topics discussed here will be helpful information for anyone interested in camping.

A view like this one (Asheville, NC area) is one of the perks of RV living.

Together we will examine campgrounds, highways, points of interest, tips, secrets, trials, triumphs, you name it--even ourselves as we crisscross this great land or just park it for a while. So, welcome to the community of RVers who work, play, laugh, love and live in their homes on wheels! Come, leave your comments, and come back again.

Now fill your tank, check the air in your tires, and let's go RVing!!!

  The view pictured here was taken at:
Campfire Lodgings
116 Appalachian Village Rd.
Asheville, NC  28804