RE: How to look for RV resorts to stay in during the winter?
We stayed at a golf park last winter, and not being golfers, we did not really feel the welcome mat out for us. I think if you go to an RV golf resort, you had better be a golfer if you want to make friends. Just my opinion....
Also, if you have dogs, as we do, you might look really carefully what the park really means when they say "pet friendly" because, while you may be allowed to have your pet there, Fido might not be truly welcome, and many of the parks have specific areas they allow you to walk on. One park even told us we had to carry our pet out of the park so they wouldn't accidentally pee on the road, requiring someone come out and spray cleanser, (seriously!) and then we would have to walk our dog on the dirt by the side of the road or in the desert. We didn't stay there, but chose to move on down the road. One of the parks had a fenced pet area that was very nice, but it was a very long walk to get there from where they put the "pet area" for RV's. I couldn't quite figure that one out either. We had to wiggle around different blocks to get there in order to avoid walking on a NO PETS ALLOWED street.
Last year was our first year of Snowbirding and we visited several areas in southern CA and from Yuma to Casa Grande. It was quite a learning experience!
RE: It's not a good place for lunch!!
I totally believe the story! We had a guy in a car that was blocking the gas line at a Flying J because after the OREGON attendant pumped his gas, the guy had gone inside to buy his lunch and do some shopping. They had paged him but he wanted to wait for his food and finish up his shopping experience. He had no consideration for the people in the line waiting. Stupidity transcends RVers. :)
Being in Oregon made no difference whatsoever. The attendant just shrugged his shoulders and said the guy went inside and he hadn't seen him in several minutes.
RE: Starting to Snowbird
Last winter hubby wanted to go for several months, but I had a really hard time thinking about being away from family for long. I agreed to stay down south one month and said we could take it from there. We ended up staying 3 months and honestly, I could have probably stayed longer. As we headed back home and into the rain at the end of March I was having regrets about leaving when we did. We are looking forward to doing it again and again, although this year we probably will have to stay home. Going south for the winter is definitely worth the effort and just a lot of fun.
The first couple of weeks were hard to adjust to when we got to our RV resort, and if I had only committed to a couple of weeks we probably would have gone home then, but by the time we had been there a month, we had made friends, and I adjusted to the change in scenery. I hooked up to Skype and kept in touch with the family and it was just fine!
Hub and I probably didn't spend as much time together there as we do at home, stuck inside with the lousy weather. We had different activities we went to, and met back up at "home", just in time for Happy Hour! And when it wasn't at our place, we were off to one of our new friends to enjoy their company.
It sounds like you have a great plan and I'm betting you will love it.
