At what age do you feel like staying home?

[biggoolies]

I am part of the camperized FG140 club waiting to hit 55 so I can pack it in (work I mean)and explore parts of the world. I am wondering at what age I will say to myself, enough of this travelling, I want to stay in one spot. That is considering if I maintain good health into my golden years. I am sure on the most part it would be according to each individual but there must be a certain age when the majority would like to stick to "home". What are other thoughts on this matter?
Darcy

 

[blackduck]

This is a trick question right?
The way i look at it you can stay home forever when your dead
Life is for living - you can open the door of your camper and see a new part of the world every day if you choose
You dont get that in a house
I retired at 45 and sold up to hit the road, im now almost 50 (ARGHH) I figure ill stop travelling somewhere between senility and death

Stu
Life - its an adventure - not a race

 

[4x4x4doors]

My only experience with that you describe is the desire to sleep in my own bed (which happened in my 30s) but I realized I could take that with me.

For others, my MIL decided at 84 it was time to limit the travel to domestic only. At 82, mom went on the trip they shipped her home from and I suspect she would have been pissed she was in the cargo hold and unable to see where she was going.

Using them as reference points, the answer is 80+. At which time, you'll likely need to consider some serious refurb on the FG140 anyway so it would be a good time to evalutate.

 

[lowenbrau]

I notice that people who have lots of time to travel start taking more time to travel less miles. I used to think that a long weekend trip to San Fransisco from Vancouver was fun and reasonable but I see the Schmids only put on about 100km/day on average. A lot of us commute that far. They've been on the road since Reagan was president.

 

[cnynrat]

I notice that people who have lots of time to travel start taking more time to travel less miles.

I definitely see this trend happening to me already. I'm only 56, but would find some of the short 2 day weekend trips I used to take in my 20's and 30's to be intolerable now. Partly that's because I'm lucky enough to have more vacation time available to me now, but there is also the feeling that the balance between traveling time and being there time needs to be right in order to make the trip worthwhile. I can see I'll move even further in that direction once I'm no longer working.

 

[Photomike]

For my mother it happened in her 30's - she is now just about 90 and has stayed home for just about 60 years (we live 4 blocks from her and she has visited once in 5 years). She is waiting to die has been for 60 years, every few months she says that she won't be around next week or next month.

For my dad he was 75 last year, found out September 2010 he had months to live (had extremely aggressive ALS) in the 10 months after his diagnoses he moved to Florida, learned how to kayak and sail, got to see dolphins and manatees, met dozens of new people and died in his sleep July 25 this year. I wish he lived longer, but in 10 months he did more than many people do in 20 years.

A lot depends on you. If you want to get out - get out. If you cannot sleep in a tent anymore by a RV, if the bed is hard buy a mattress. My neighbor is in his 80's, has several boats, two trailers on different RV parks and is either golfing, fishing, ice fishing or buying things at auctions so he can do the above.

All will die, but few will live!

 

[gait]

I retired about 55 and am now about 62. Live in Aus, currently in UK after taking 7 months to drive the Canter here. We don't know how long it will be before we return to Aus. Our constraints are bureaucratic (visas etc.). Average around 150 km/day but would like it to be much slower. Since we didn't have too much rest (only 20% of days with no driving) we are enjoying a rest now.

We are not as fit as we once were (though that's all relative and we still walk up steep mountains relatively quickly) and have noticeably less energy. Whereas we used to drive and sight see in the same day now we are more likely to drive one day and sight see the next. We also rely a bit more on the comforts we take with us.

As we've grown older our confidence has diminished a bit. We are much less likely to take some of the risks we did when younger. Not to say we are risk averse, perhaps just more careful. We describe the 4wd and recovery gear as there to get us out of trouble not into trouble. Having said that perhaps we hang on to the thought that what distinguishes us is what we do when we have problems rather than avoiding them. If we ever lose the sense that all problems are solvable it will probably be time to stop.

Our travel experiences are such that we are generally aware of feelings of insecurity in alien (to us) cultures and have a sense when to remove ourselves. Just a bit more cautious than we used to be. We are unlikely to enter war zones as I've done a couple of times in the past.

The stresses of independent travel with own vehicle can be quite high at times. As we've become older (that's older, not old) we perhaps notice them a bit more. Just a case of recognising that and working with it. Its really a matter of choice whether or not to worry about what may happen when camped in the middle of (say) Mongolia. We chose not to worry.

There are lots of excuses available for those who decide not to travel as we are. All valid for the people who make them. At the end of the day we simply decided it would be nice to visit countries outside Aus in the truck and set about making it happen.

We (wife and I) are very fortunate that we both wanted to travel. Everything else is just a matter of planning and doing. And we are still talking to each other.

I don't know if it answers the question but I enjoyed writing it! There's a blog (isn't there always) at http://www.epicycles.com

 

[Abitibi]

Gait, I really enjoyed what you wrote. Thanks.

David