Hi Howard, for some strange reason a few days ogo I started wondering how Howard and Linda would cope and react if one could wave a magic wand and all of a sudden you were both teleported back from your idyllic lifestyle to a normal life, house, job, commute and all the other stresses.

Have you ever given any thought to that?

Also, have any forum members (former non-working full-timers) been in the position of suddenly having to leave full timing to return to a normal life and if so what impact did it have on them?

Frankly, and not quite what you are asking, it is that very THOUGHT of going back (I won't even call it "normal") that makes me consinder every possible way NOT to!

We would simply cope with the reality of our new circumstances, but be much less happy. A similar situation to what you might experience if you discovered you were sudenly very sick, or lost all your assets, or to be more current, had a house in the California fires. In the end, you have to deal with reality, but you don't have to enjoy it. Very happy and content with our reality now, Fred

I am still working and this cannot be N O R M A L.

We are former fulltimers. We stopped traveling in 2005 after 10 months on the road. There were several reasons we stopped fulltime travel, the most importamt one was that I couldn't afford to travel the way we wanted to. So we stopped traveling, bought a house and returned to my former job. Not much if anything has changed from before we fulltimed. We know what needs to be done to return to the road and we are on tract for a 2009 return.

RV Dreams has been my form of travel for the past couple years.  I never miss a days journal. I have learned from RV Dreams that you don't have to spend a lot of money to enjoy this life style. I have used Howard and Linda's ideas and suggestions to formulate a workable plan for our return. 

What will be different this time? Same motor home,  smaller toad, some less items in the storage bays, but number one, we will slow down and stay longer when we stop. We will find the campground with the "it factor" and stay out of the RV resorts.

My hat is off to Howard and Linda,

Safe Travels Everyone,
Dave & Pat

That actually did happen to us about 3 years ago. We did what we had to do at the time and coped with the circumstances the best that we knew how. In all aspects of life, you do what you have to do. Just as Fred said, you have to deal with reality but you might not always like it.

Guess we have been abnormal from the beginning.  Stuff does happen and we have to adjust to whatever the current major influence to our lifestyle whether it be a new life, a death, a marriage, an injury or medical event, legal issues, technical problems, maintenance, and anything else you can think of that happens during this life.  Working in a scheduled driven pressure cooker many years could have been debilitating and it certainly wasn't normal but coping (adjusting) with the current crisis is more about our attitude and less about what is happening.  A recent best seller says Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ,,, and it's all small stuff.  The hard part is identifying exactly what we are sweating about and why.  Then we can deal with it.  Obviously a marital argument about how you squeeze the toothpaste tube isn't really what the argument is about.  The same with our lifestyles, likes and dislikes.  We choose to do what we are doing and can most likely choose to handle it however you want.  Most miserable times in our life have been self generated by failure to accept responsibility for what comes our way and what we will do about it.  Love to travel then travel, want to part time then part time, want to weekend then weekend, other choices do it, take responsibility and enjoy it.  Even the most horrible experiences seem to have a lot of positives when dealt with.

Ok off the soap box.
Larry and Jacki

Happy Trails