When people first start out as full-time RVer’s there are several ways to do it. Some travel as quickly as possible and see as much as they can in the first few months. Others take it slower and stay at a place from two weeks to a month or more to really get the feel of an area. We had watched enough vloggers on YouTube to know that we were not the “travel like crazy and see as much as possible” type. We were tired after our whirlwind house sell and the Christmas/New Year’s holiday season which all fell in the same month! We knew we wanted to be somewhere for more than 3-7 days, but were not sure if 14 days was too short or if a month was too long… Although full-time RVing sounds like fun, there are a lot of decisions and arrangements to make in this lifestyle and it was time for our first major decision – where were we going to get out of the zero-degree weather!
The First Month
Well, we decided to check out San Antonio, TX for our first “long” stay because this area was supposed to be at or slightly below the “frost line” to help keep us out of the cold. Plus, we decided a month-long stay was the way to go so that we had time to transition to our new lifestyle. We didn’t want to be in the city but close enough to it that driving in wasn’t a hassle. We ended up in the Texas Hill Country, at a little place called Lake Medina RV Resort in Pipe Creek, TX. It’s located about 35 minutes northwest of San Antonio and nestles itself on a point at the North end of Lake Medina. More about the resort in our blog titled Lake Medina RV Resort – a Winter Texan Wonderland.
The month’s stay had its pluses and minuses. One of the minuses was that being on the frost line we were not completely out of cold weather! We had some freezing temperatures, ice storms and “stay inside the camper” days when it was drizzly/rainy. However, we also enjoyed sunny, mid-60s – 70’s weather on many days and it felt strange being outside in shorts in January/February. It didn’t take long for us to understand why people move to warmer climates! We occasionally miss the snow now but surprisingly, not that much!
The first week or two at the RV resort we spent resting and settling into the realization that we were officially full-time RVers. We were also trying to figure out how to research and book our next destinations, how to live and cook in a small space, how often the dogs needed to be walked, and what we wanted our new daily schedule to look like. One of the best parts of our new daily schedule was sleeping in! We had both been getting up between 5 and 6 am for most of our working lives so being able to wake up naturally without an alarm clock was wonderful! We finally started to recover from years of sleep deprivation! Our brains also needed this time of rest. We really didn’t think about the “future” or the work we would be starting after our sabbatical was over. Our brains were recuperating from years of burnout and so we enjoyed the relaxed lifestyle while our bodies/brains gave a huge sigh of relief!
We thought we would do quite a bit of sightseeing while staying at Lake Medina, but between needing to rest and being so far outside of San Antonio we found that we didn’t have the energy to do a lot of tourism. The resort also had enough activities and group events that we didn’t feel like we needed to go somewhere all the time. We did visit the Alamo, the River Walk, Fredericksburg (a famous German town in the Hill Country) and the Hill Country Natural Area (state park) which had some amazing hiking. Our other outings consisted of our weekly treks to a San Antonio suburb for groceries.
By the 3rd week we were mostly caught up on physical rest and were starting to get excited about our next series of travel destinations. We were more than a little antsy during the 3rd week as we anticipated traveling to our next destinations, including a bucket-list destination, over the next couple of months! During the final week we were definitely ready to go but since we had also just started to connect with some other “Winter Texans” we had mixed feelings. We left the resort looking forward to our next adventures but also with some sadness at leaving behind new acquaintances.
In the end, a month’s stay was what we needed to feel rested and adjusted to RV life. We also made a few connections with people that we know we will see in the same spots next winter. A month-long initial stay for the start out may not be for everyone and we did get a little restless during the month, but it ended up being about the right amount of time for us to transition to our new life and be ready for our next adventure!
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