'24/#26 Rainy Day Musings

 Yep, the Pacific Northwest and it is raining. We are staying in today and relaxing. Watch a movie, take a nap, and who know what else? It's also a good time to think and reflect. That makes it a good time to blog.

First I want to give a shout out to Debbie, Linda, Jacquie, and Jeanette. I know many read the blog and I get feedback second and third hand through my and Mary's Facebook page. It is nicer to see the comments show up in the commment section of the blog. Think of it as instant gratificaton. It's simple to do and I get notified when the comments appear. Thanks to all who follow us and a special thanks to those who let us know.

We have been asked several questions about our lifestyle (remember it is NOT a vacation!) and I thought this would be a good time to respond. I'm going to answer two questions at the same time. How can we afford to travel so much and why do we work? Everyone's situation is different as are their priorities. This lifestyle is what we wanted to do and we focus our finances to living it the best we can. Our pensions take care of us very well as does our retirement health insurance. That being said, like everyone else we want to do a bit more and a little bit better. 

There therein lies the other part of the answer. Someone once told me he knew exactly how much money everybody needed. His answer was "a little bit more". No matter how well off someone is a little bit more makes things nicer, easier, and more enjoyable. Yes we work but it is different than the jobs we had all our lives. These are temporary seasonal gigs that are never more than six months. A career is something you settle into for year after year after year with an end goal. These jobs are just that...jobs not careers. Usually part time hours, a couple days a week, and over in a few months. Unless it is totally intolerant we can put up with the job for a short period of time. And if not, my house is on wheels and I can move on down the road.

Now the perks of "workcamping", and yes that is what it is called. The jobs are not rocket science. Usually it is menial office work, some light maintenance, or on site security. Not heavy and not complicated. The jobs we do always include our rent and electric. That means that in the past fifteen plus years of workcamping we haven't paid for rent or electric except when we are traveling. At the most that adds up to two months a year and often less. This puts quite a bit of money back into our pocket for the travel and exploring that appeals to us. It helps fund our fuel costs for the extra travel and we can bank some for times when we aren't working. I am refering to our current Bucket List Tour.

Another perk, and you retirees out there can back me on this, is the calendar. Once I retired, more often than I care to admit, I had no idea what day it was. With no schedule and no daily comitments it didn't really matter until something in the non-retired world came up. Birthdays, graduations, holidays, and get togethers with friends and family would pop up and it would take a while to sort out days, weeks, and even hours to plug into my nonexistant schedule. With an easy part time job I was getting paid to know what day it was. How cool is that?

 Seriously though I didn't want to sit in rocking chair for my retirement. And these jobs are all around the country where we get to meet some of the neatest people and get to make friends with the kind of people we would never meet or know existed. Our friends are from all over the country and beyond. RVers from every state, work visa students from all over the world and the best part is we all share our experiences and really get to know each other. Our friends are from almost all fifty states, China, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Romania, Peru, and others that I can't say or spell. And on top of all that our new friends are diverse in age from nineteen to ninety. With the internet we have been able to keep in touch with many of them over the years.

My life is better and fuller because of all this and workcamping is the icing on the cake of the RV lifestyle. It's still raining so I will take a nap here in the soggy Pacific Northwest in our home in Everett because....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary