The mysterious disappearance of wannabe fulltimers

[Sodbust]

Never talked about it here but I have toyed with the idea of doing some full time in our Overlander. When I visit with my DW,,, she gets that "deer in the headlights" look.. Then I hear the 15 minutes of reason that will never happen.. I know her well enough that "(IF)" we ever have the right turn of events, as she loves to travel and meet the right people at the right time her view would change..

Right now we are still tied to the farm full time.. Have a son in law who is making headway but a way to go to handle the work load alone..

But I get the what about the grand kids,, what about my board meetings,,, and on and on right now.. So will coast along and enjoy the time we do spend in our Overlander and keep my eyes open for the right reason to extend a weekend into a week,, then a month,,,

Having the stories here help me look at ways to cross the void we have now,, and feel a lot of wan ta Be's are also dealing with the same issues.. What are we going to give up to seek the rewards other wise..

Sodbust

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bill

1) no matter how any thread starts it eventually seems to end up talking about blackwater tanks and systems. The impression that this gives to Newbys is that most of Airstream life is centered around caca.

You know old people are always interested in being regular. Maybe Airstreams should come with a case of fiber.

It is true that a lot of the Forum is about restoration, but a there is plenty else. If newbies want to buy a truly premium brand, or think Airstreams are invincible, or don't know that buying an old one will be a decision that may mean lots of money and time to get the way they want it, best they know it before they act. Yes, there's a lot of Airstream company bashing, but didn't they ask for it?

You get good and bad info here, just like at a family reunion.

Gene

[prudencepb]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

Thank you.

You are right of course. I've always admired those people who have the native charm to tell you to go to hell in such a nice way that you end up thanking them for the directions. Unfortunately - in that respect I was brought up by wild poodles. Sarcasm is an art form in my family: I get that it's cruel, and strive to use only with self-effacing humor. I've lived in the south for 40 years and am still so lacking in "Southern Charm" that I must refer to myself as a grateful recoverin' Yankee.

I'll have to sit down and do some serious speech writing to make it come out caring and concerned but clear enough for her to understand. The parking lot escapades didn't daunt her! (I however wished I'd had botox injections prior to sitting in the passenger seat!)

Paula

Aw c'mon Sis...we aren't THAT bad! Hmmm, maybe we are...DAMN! LMBO! We ARE!
Duct tape sistah!

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Yes, there's a lot of Airstream company bashing, but didn't they ask for it?

Anyone who gets upset about Airstream bashing, whether we're bashing the company or the product, needs to step back for a moment and consider that the people doing the so-called bashing are still loyal Airstreamers. Like my dear old dad used to say about his work in the military, "Them that's doin' it have a right to complain about it. Them that ain't better shut up." On that basis, I don't mind Airstream bashing from Airstreamers, but I won't stand for it from non-Airstreamers.

[kb0zke]

Interesting thread! I'm one of those who was told about this forum by an Airstreamer who lives full-time in his coach and works as an Airstream salesman. I've really appreciated the answers I've received to my questions. I tend to post when I have a question and lurk the rest of the time. Once in a while I can answer someone else's question, and I'm happy to be able to do so.

While checking the archives can be helpful for some things, all too often the information is outdated. If someone was able to buy a certain item from a company five years ago, and gives the website, will I be able to buy that item from that company today? Maybe, and maybe not. The company may not be in existence anymore, or their website has changed, or the item is no longer available.

[kb0zke]

As others have mentioned, I'd rather ask a thousand questions before writing a big check than ask one question a thousand times afterward. Perhaps some of those who have dropped from sight have decided that an Airstream wasn't for them. There was one such person here last fall, and several of us told that person that an Airstream wasn't the best choice for their proposed purpose.

[Goin camping]

Where do they go?

Some who are lost in the romance of the open road may get a reality check and just fade or lurk.

I'm guessing though a decent percentage just go out and do it after asking their questions and are out there right now living the adventure.

[Air Apparent]

A certain numer of newbies will come, look, ask a few questions and leave. That has always been the case. The question is - Has that percentage increased?

I read other RV forums as well. It seems to me that over the last year the number of new posts and replies has significantly gone down. (This doesn't seem to be the case with Airforums.) Maybe people are getting tired of using forums - maybe it's become passe and now are using twitter and facebook more.

Just pondering.

Because I'm thinking about fulltiming in the future I have been studying this lifestyle for the last ten years. Many look at this lifestyle as it could be the greatest thing to happen to them; it will be a dream lifestyle - like a fantasy. It will solve all probems because when taking two week camping vacations, eveything is so great.

Many living this lifestyle like to project it as being the greatest thing since beer because they are so enthusiastic about it. When it is sunny, 75 degrees, in a beautiful vista, everybody will love it. But there will be days on end when it rains, etc. In reading blogs of fulltimers I seen several of them say they will do fulltiming forever. I'm sure at that time they believed it. Then several years later they give it up and go back to living in a sticks and bricks. Life is a journey, one's perspective today may be different tomorrow. It's easy to say - I want to fulltime; it's a much more difficult decision to actually execute as it is a major lifestyle decision. I'm still trying to determine if I want to fulltime or extend time. Whatever I do it will be in an Airstream.

If the OP posts pertains only about newbies who want to fulltime, then I can undestand why there would not be many who actually do it and stay on the forums. If it is about all newbies to AirForums, I can still understand it as Airstreams are different than other RV's and aluminum needs to be in your blood.

[DreamStreamr]

We first looked here and at escapees.com discussion forums for full timing info. More, much more, in skp forums about full timing but the info here is so great about adapting to airstreams and adapting the airstreams to our needs. Nothing else matches airforums for us.

We drank the kool-aid seven years ago and five years ago committed to try full-timing. Because we sold the house and the contents we have fortunately been able to live on savings. Therefore we can hitch and haul if it is going to be raining for days on end, or going to remain unseasonably hot, or stay too cold. We really are lucky we can chase 75 degrees although it can be an elusive target.

This isnt for everyone, but almost anyone can try it. We like to think they will find a responsive and supportive forum and are likely to return for more info. I agree it is difficult at first to know we should search thread topics before asking questions. And it often is much easier to ask the question on a related post instead of finding the answer already crafted. The least helpful thing is when someone says, you should search that because it is exhaustively addressed somewhere else. Helpful would be to tell the newbie where it is addressed. More helpful is often just to answer the question. Some of the exhaustive answers are really exhausting to pore thru.

I wonder if the volume or rate of newbie questions on full timing is probably cyclical, and maybe in a down cycle now.

[dznf0g]

Hey, I just realized.....I'm a wanna be fulltimer....but I just can't yet. But I am still here!

[slowmover]

I agree it is difficult at first to know we should search thread topics before asking questions. And it often is much easier to ask the question on a related post instead of finding the answer already crafted. The least helpful thing is when someone says, you should search that because it is exhaustively addressed somewhere else. Helpful would be to tell the newbie where it is addressed.

We keep circling round this. May I ask a question: The last time you (anyone) did an exhaustive search, how many threads did you have to reject since they contained virtually nothing or were repetitive? The sheer number of threads makes searches difficult. There's a limit to politeness for it's own sake. These are adults making adult decisions. One can reasonably expect that a high school graduate has been introduced to rudimentary skills around information gathering. Abstract thinking.

It's an old saw that the question presupposes the answer. Yet what we a little too often have are unchoate, unasked formulations of "what it is to be a fulltimer" (to keep on topic). I can't define that for you nor you for me. Some idea of what that means for the OP is required and is not the responsibility of the rest of us. Reading is an obligation . . for if I cannot be of help, then of what us am I that I only arrive here to take from others and never otherwise contribute.

An Internet forum is not a popularity contest (though it may be treated that way). These are machines composed of systems, first. How they are used is to be defined by the owner (potential owner),

and he can define them in terms others can understand by making himself familiar to the best initial extent with the manner in which others have done so.

This type of subject comes up on plenty of other forums. But folks don't too often sleep in their '47 Stinson. A level of abstraction here which would (one would think) call up the most sober level of humility (when that word is understood properly).

The information others need may be here . . . yet it is incumbent on that OP to help the rest of us to help them.

Otherwise we wind up with a forum that becomes impossible to search. The level of usefulness declines, then plummets.

.

[xrvr]

Well stated, jim

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by zigzagguzzi

Well stated, jim

Yes.

Some are more skilled and patient at this search thing than others, and also know exactly what they are looking for.

Others just want real-time help! Fortunately for those of us, there are always forum members here who will readily offer it.


Maggie

[wheel interested]

Alien abduction!



Alien abduction. If we have tried to emphasis one thing to newbies here on Air Forums it is to caution people to NEVER be trapped outside your Airstream without your thought screen helmet on to protect yourself! That kind of risk is totally avoidable. Be responsible and do the right thing folks. You will thank us for it in the long run. Happy Airstreaming and by all means please stay safe.


FYI, you can make a thought screen helmet for less than $30 if you purchase Velostat by the yard. Here are the directions. Some people will never learn...

Stop Alien Abductions

[Gene]

Telling people, especially newbies, to search for something can be done different ways. A member, now absent for 14 months, used to post numerous links (some wrong) and then criticise the OP for not finding them himself. That seemed counterproductive to me.

Newbies may not even know the search function exists. They are excited about the prospect of buying an Airstream and just found this Forum and are learning. Giving them some info and then suggesting they search for more is educating them to do it on their own.

The search tool is better than it once was, but it is not all that easy for some people. I wish everyone could do research, but not everyone is good at it.

There is a lot of redundant and good and bad info on threads. There are duplicative threads. Since the Forum does not have an official librarian to organize things, and the mods can only do so much, partially controlled chaos is what we have.

Perhaps this thread is moving toward a death by natural causes now that we know alien abductions are the real cause of the disappearance of wannabe fulltimers.

Gene

[Air Apparent]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

Alien abduction!



Alien abduction. If we have tried to emphasis one thing to newbies here on Air Forums it is to caution people to NEVER be trapped outside your Airstream without your thought screen helmet on to protect yourself! That kind of risk is totally avoidable. Be responsible and do the right thing folks. You will thank us for it in the long run. Happy Airstreaming and by all means please stay safe.


FYI, you can make a thought screen helmet for less than $30 if you purchase Velostat by the yard. Here are the directions. Some people will never learn...

Stop Alien Abductions

Carol:

If you are inside your Airstream, aren't you protected because of the aluminum? I sure hope so because I don't wear mine inside.

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

Alien abduction!



Alien abduction. If we have tried to emphasis one thing to newbies here on Air Forums it is to caution people to NEVER be trapped outside your Airstream without your thought screen helmet on to protect yourself! That kind of risk is totally avoidable. Be responsible and do the right thing folks. You will thank us for it in the long run. Happy Airstreaming and by all means please stay safe.


FYI, you can make a thought screen helmet for less than $30 if you purchase Velostat by the yard. Here are the directions. Some people will never learn...

Stop Alien Abductions

My feeling has always been that RVing is all about adventure and discovery.

I want to be abducted by Aliens (as long as they bring me back)

I want to gaze into the eyes of a Sasquatch and see its soul.

I want to see what's around the next corner and over the next hill.

I want to stand on top of a peak and see the wonders of the valley below.

So, I poop in your silly tin hat.

Now on to the subject of the thread ( at least as I understand it.)

Some of the questions asked by new members are pretty cut and dry.
However the majority are ones that involve opinions (which some members easily confuse with facts). There have been more than one example lately of of a simple question starting a verbal fist fight.

Imagine walking down the street in a strange town trying to find a particular point of interest. You see a friendly little café with people engaged in pleasant conversation. You think this looks like a good place to ask for directions. So, you walk in and ask politely. This quiet café quickly erupts into a furious brawl over which of many ways to get there is in fact the only one true way. Or perhaps, one guy says, "I think maybe it's down that way" and then the whole discussion turns to what is the neatest feature about the point of interest. I doubt that you would stop for lunch on your way back.

So, until all of us find a way to offer our own suggestions while still respecting the suggestions of other posters and also respecting the OP's right to make their own decision about the various suggestions, and their right to not have to wade through a bunch of side discussions in the thread THEY started, we will lose some new members (and perhaps a few old ones also).

Ken

[wheel interested]

Originally Posted by Bluebird

Carol:

If you are inside your Airstream, aren't you protected because of the aluminum? I sure hope so because I don't wear mine inside.

Dave, you sir are correct. Inside the Airstream the aluminum skin shields the brain from electromagnetic fields and prevents mind control or mind reading and successfully limits the transmission of voices to the brain. So just grab your hat when you go out the door. BUT BE SURE that Ken didn't get to your hat first.

Originally Posted by W7ts

I want to be abducted by Aliens (as long as they bring me back)

I want to gaze into the eyes of a Sasquatch and see its soul.

I want to see what's around the next corner and over the next hill.

I want to stand on top of a peak and see the wonders of the valley below.

So, I poop in your silly tin hat.

Ken, I want to caravan with you!

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

Dave, you sir are correct. Inside the Airstream the aluminum skin shields the brain from electromagnetic fields and prevents mind control or mind reading and successfully limits the transmission of voices to the brain. So just grab your hat when you go out the door. BUT BE SURE that Ken didn't get to your hat first.

Ken, I want to caravan with you!

I talk big, but I am guessing I would scream like a liitle girl if I came face to face with an alien or a sasquatch.

I do have one of these for the back window of the TV

BIGFOOT / SASQUATCH I BELIEVE VINYL DECAL / STICKER | eBay

Ken

[Air Apparent]

Carol:

After reading your post and going back to the title of this thread I believe that your post correctly answer the question posed in the thread title - mysterious disappearance of wannabe fulltimers better than the other posts. I laughed my &&& off. Question answered.

How long will it take for this topic to be on the history channel's "Ancient Alliens"? How long has this been going on? Why are we only now catching on to this phenomena ?

Are they coming to take our Airstreams away? The end of the world in December 2012 is one thing but aliens taking our Airsteams is completely another. I'm sure glad we have you with your brilliant insights and instincts on our Airstream side.