The question came up on an RVing forum I belong to as to why members of the group became full-timers and how our expectations have changed. Here is an expanded version of my reply:

I decided to become a full-timer because life as I was expected to live it did not work for me. I had tried to have a house and a career and a family and none of that fulfilled me completely. The richer I became materially, the more I felt convinced that something was seriously missing in my life and I finally accepted that the absolute only time that I’m happy is when I’m traveling.

However, I do like to have a ‘home’, so RVing seemed like the natural choice for combining both needs and also allowed me to have my cats with me. Moreover, I wanted to see my country, and eventually more of the US, at my own pace, as a local rather than a tourist.

A year into full-timing, I’ve discovered that I don’t like being on the go every day. I’m very happy to spend three or four months in one location, then spend two to four weeks traveling to another location. I figured this out very early on, actually, so I haven’t done nearly as much exploring in the past year as I would have expected. That said, I know some towns better than I ever expected I would and I would never in a million years have fallen in love with Vancouver had I not spent four months there.

Also, working on the road isn’t easy. Oh, work can be found for the willing just about anywhere, but it’s very hard to generate a stable source of income. Until I do, I will have to spend long periods of time in one place before I can move on to another. For a few months in late 2008 and early 2009 I thought that the blog was going to become a steady source of income, enough to make a dent in my budget, but that well has dried up completely. I’ve made the decision that I can no longer afford to treat the blog as a business and that I need to put my energy elsewhere for the time being. This won’t affect readers as I will continue to post as I always have, but there will be a lot less going on behind the scenes. (update on July 22, 2010: it’s amazing how quickly things can change if you’re persistent!)

Besides that, I think that the biggest expectation I’ve had to let go of is that I will roam freely. This won’t happen for several years. Right now, I need the security of a ‘homebase’ with a good job to return to for a good chunk of the year and to winter some place warmer where I can work. So, that means that I will spend the next few years learning every route between Dawson City and southern BC. But I’m okay with that, at least my home has wheels and I decide when I pull up the stakes.

Becoming a full-timer was without a doubt the only good decision I ever made in my life even if it was planned poorly and it has enabled me to fulfill many other dreams. It is the life I’m meant to lead.