Most fulltime RVers and RV snowbirds are either in their winter roosts already, or will be headed for them right after the holidays. Many will be joining us here in Florida, others will be headed to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, or to Arizona or Southern California. Anywhere the sun shines and the snow doesn’t blow.
In the last week or two I have heard from several new fulltimers and snowbirds, asking me if they will still be able to find a place to stay this late in the season. As I wrote in a blog a while back titled More Snowbird Options, there are a lot of places in popular snowbird states where they can enjoy the sunshine, although they may not always be in the places where they thought they were going to go.
Some of our favorite places include central Florida, where we have spent many winters bouncing between the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve and Three Flags RV Resort in Wildwood; along with the Mesa/Apache Junction area near Phoenix, where Terry’s parents and sisters live; and the Foothills area on the east side of Yuma, Arizona. We have also wintered in the Rockport/Aransas Pass, Texas area. And we’ve done Quartzsite a time or two, boondocking in the Arizona desert.
Here’s the thing – it’s not all about location. Sure, you want to be someplace you enjoy, but it’s also about the people you’re with, and having a good time wherever you are. While we have enjoyed spending the holidays with Terry’s family many times over the years, we’ve also had a lot of fun with our extended family of RVing friends.
My dad once said that you can be just about as happy as you want to be, or just as miserable as you set your mind to being, no matter where you are and who you are with. Wherever we are, we choose to be happy.
How about you? Where do you plan to spend this winter, and what will you be doing? If you’re going to be in either Arizona or Florida, you might want to go to Amazon and get a copy of two of my travel books, Overlooked Arizona and Overlooked Florida, for some fun off the beaten path places to explore in both states.
If you are doing any last minute Christmas shopping online, please consider clicking this Amazon link or the Amazon Search box at the top right sidebar of this blog. When you purchase an item on Amazon from our link we earn a small commission, which helps us offset the cost of publishing the blog.
It’s Thursday and time to kick off a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Terry’s cookbook, Miss Terry’s Kitchen. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – My favorite holiday tradtion is blaming my long-term weight gain on the holiday season.
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Nick Russell
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Our winter spot is River Ranch RV resort. Highway 60, 25 miles E of Lake Wales. Beautiful park behind Westgate dude ranch. It’s not about location… It’s the people and we love them. We rent from private owner. Rvers’ plans are always fluid so if you need a spot, there might be room for someone here.
We spend the winter, like you, in our stick and brick home . Ours is in St George, Utah. We have red rock and blue sky and lots of things to do, if we choose. We travel in the spring and summer and fall. This is a good location for us to “hang up the keys” when it is time. I turned 77 this week. We’ve downsized but we’re not done.
Dave
This year we are mostly in the southwest USA. We just spent six weeks on beautiful beaches in Baja California, Mexico. However we are going to try something new in February/March. For two or three weeks we will be in Fairbanks, Alaska to volunteer at the International Ice Carving Festival. We pay our way to get there and they provide all the warm clothing, room and board.
Just downloaded your Overlooked Arizona book for my iPad. Merry Christmas to me, lol. So happy you and Miss Terry will be able to enjoy Christmas in your new home.
TGO (near Titusville) in Florida. Love the weather and people.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone !!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOTS of room in all of the MANY RV Parks in the Rio Grande Valley. Love the “light” traffic and SO many things to do locally and in the Park. Lots of Entertainment and dances too. We’re in our second week of a 3 month stay.
Merry Christmas!
We are in Floridia for family reasons.We live in Az. and love both places.58 degrees presently next week highs of 86.It is brutal here. Gotta love it.Happy holidays.