He and my step-mom go RVing now. A lot of RV camps will hire retired folks with their own RV’s to work in the park, in exchange for free hook-up and a small stipend.
So, that’s what my folks do now. It started about three years ago. They worked in a campground in Montana. They were gone for the summer, then worked at a Hickory Farms kiosk in a Las Vegas mall for Christmas, then they came back. They generally work four days a week, so the other days they go sight-seeing.
I told my dad everyone has to visit Alaska once and Hawaii once, so the next year, they worked in a campground in Colorado. My dad headed to another RV park in Nevada for the holidays while my step-mom came home to deal with re-renting her rental house. She flew back to Nevada in February and then they drove to Alaska, where they worked in Skagway, a town that basically exists for the cruise ships. My dad learned how to make walking sticks, story knives, and other woodcraft from a man named Klondike Mike. My step-mom is also very talented, making leather and Indian blanket pillows, picture frames, and purses. She made me an Indian blanket purse that I get loads of compliments on.
This year, done with the west side of the country for now, they’re currently working in a campground in New Hampshire. They’ve made side trips to Maine and Massachussetts, and my father has been able to trace his family roots all the way back to the first member to set foot on American soil, back in 1602. He even found gravesites and a house built by his umpteenth-great-grandfather.
He e-mails us diary entries of their adventures, as well as pictures.
He’ll be 69 this year.
He’s worked hard all his life, and I’m so glad he gets to play now.
My mom and dad have done this kind of thing too since my dad retired a few years ago and they’re having a wonderful time. They bought a humungo-van and first took it up the Canadian west coast to Alaska one summer, eventually camping above the Arctic Circle. They still have a house in Ohio they use as their home base, but have been all over the place since then, camping or visiting family. I’ll get a phone call from mom and find out they’re just about to go off into the Rockies for a couple of weeks, or they’re parked on a beach campsite outside New Orleans. Last summer, I was getting postcards from Nova Scotia.
Sometimes, relatives will ask after them, and I have to admit that I just don’t know where my Mommy and Daddy are.
My folks did the snowbird thing too for a while after they retired. Unfortunately they are not quite as adventurous – they sit in the RV park while my dad talks on his ham radios and my mom sits around knitting, watching TV, and eating. They don’t really interact except to argue, same as at home in the summertime. Once when they were near New Orleans, my mom got brave and took a bus tour of the French Quarter (my dad stayed behind in the RV – not interested). While she was there, she ate at Subway and Taco Bell. :smack:
Last year they bought a park-model trailer in an RV park in Texas, and now they just sit there all winter instead. An exciting day might involve a trip to Wal-Mart or the cheap matinee theater (for my mom by herself – Dad’s not interested in movies). Sometimes they cross the border to the Mexican shops to buy stuff super-cheap and gather observations on why Mexicans are scuzzy and should learn to speak English. :rolleyes: About the only difference between their life in Texas and life in Wisconsin is the weather – but they gripe about that too. All winter long I hear about how it’s only 60 degrees and they have to run the heater. But at least I am now spared the hell that was a family Christmas . . .
Oh, to be old and bitter. I’m glad somebody’s parents are actually having fun.
Damn, Scarlett…if they’re not going to do anything, why don’t they just stay home? Jeesh.
Half the fun my folks have is meeting new people. Hell, most of the time they don’t even cook for just themselves…they have fellow RVers over for drinks and chats around the fire.
I hate to be a wet blanket, but, based on some personal experience, try to convince the oldsters that while it’s perfectly fine to spend your inheritance, they should try not to spend your retirement.
My dad spent all his savings, and had managed to spend most of the “reverse mortgage” he took out on his home, before his demise. When the time came that he was seriously ill and in need of care, there were precious few resources to apply toward decent long term care facilities. My sister and I found out that there is a distinct limit to what Medicare and insurance will cover in that regard. After that you need to apply for Medicaid, which requires a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy, especially when the bank statements, etc. have not been saved. And it limits where you can go, since facilities have a limited number of Medicaid beds. We had been trying for a long time to get him to consider a continuing care or independent living facility, but he would have none of it. It’s heart-wrenching to think of having to choose between abandoning a parent to less than optimal care vs. spending the money you had planned to use for your own retirement and your own children’s inheritance.
That said, hooray for the folks who choose to enjoy life rather than mope around waiting to die.
I can absolutely picture my dad and stop-mom doing what’s described in the OP. And I hope they do! The only difference I could see between their hypothetical travels and those of ivylass’ dad and step-mom is that mine would be starting in Alaska.
My dad has been threatening retirement for a few years now, but despite all the encouragement from friends and family, he’s not been able to bring himself to do it. I just hope he gets out and sees some sights before it’s too late!
Keep at him. Ivylad’s mother retired about three years ago. She and my FIL didn’t get much traveling in before dad fell ill with his final bout with cancer.
