The Retirement Thread

[Drago]

Night Johnboy.

 

[tarric]

So today was a nice stroll along the Monsal trail with the occasional stop to revive and replenish, followed by a very nice Sunday lunch at the Pack Horse inn. Sorry no photo's was to busy chatting.

 

[Mike Ayling]

I think the point most of us are trying to make is that our inane drivel is all contained under one heading and not repeated bizarre headings starting a new thread every single day. Anyway, whatever floats your boat.

Actually Mo some posters provide the same drivel on two threads!

 

[Mo1959]

Morning. A cool 9 degrees here this morning but we are due 19 later.

Start of the European Athletics today and the morning session is at 10.30am so I’ll get out for a decent wander before long, have breakfast and watch that.

 

[Mo1959]

I see there’s a solar eclipse on Wednesday evening. The weather looks good so must remember to try and catch it.

 

[PeteXXX]

Morning campers 👋

 

[PeteXXX]

Fairly lazy day today, probably..
Walk the dog, clean the windows & maybe tidy my less important shed.

It's supposed to be cooler with a maximum of 24°c.

 

[Mo1959]

Off for my wander.

 

[Dave7]

Morning all.
12° here at the moment going to 23° later.
Mo, I dont know how you just get out of bed, have a drink and then you are off out. It takes me ages to come around. About me they used to say I was proof of the resurrection as I have one every morning !!.
Had my coffee, now enjoying a mug of milk.
Will head out sometime before 7 i hope.
Have a good day peeps.

 

[Paulus]

Good morning all.
It's only going to get up to 25⁰ today. Still no rain on the horizon though.
All the usual stuff to do today, and I'll get out on the bike at some point.

 

[Drago]

I have risen!

 

[Tenkaykev]

View attachment 817981

I'm very familiar with that cemetery as it was a cut through on my way back from Physio, and also a short cut up to Eight Arch Brewery. There's also a " Blind Lane " which is a cul de sac for vehicles but not people on foot. 🍺

 

[Drago]

Did not sleep at all well. Feeling tired and very grumpy.

 

[Dirk]

Morning all

 

[BoldonLad]

Best thing I ever did, didn't spend any of my nest egg on it. I decided quite a few years back that it was what I wanted to do. I have always loved to travel and was getting sick of the hassle of flying. I saved the money over a few years and finally convinced Mrs t to give it a go and much to her surprise she loved it probably more than me. We traveled extensively in both the UK and Europe. Unfortunately Mrs t passed suddenly last year and I wish we had bought it earlier there were so many places we still wanted to see and so many we wished to return to. I now spend 8-9 months a year traveling and will do for as long as I can. No they're not for everyone but I would not give mine up. Yes they are expensive and yes they are costly to run, personally I couldn't care the memories I have are worth every penny.
My advice for what it's worth. Give it a go, you may love it you may hate it but if you don't try you'll never know.


If you buy the right van you don't have to and everyone's idea of what is the right one is different.
this is the layout of mine, minus the extra bed above the lounge as we never had any intension of sharing it.

View attachment 817994


Fuel is however much you want to travel, I know people who do less than 2-3000 miles a year and some who do 10x that, maintenance, if looked after and well maintained is not excessive, annual service around £250, insurance £500 hab check £300, tax cheaper than the average Ford Focus £165 a year, camp fees what you want, for me personally I rarely pay more than £20 a night and often pay zero gas a £50 refill lasts about 2 months. Over the last year half with Mrs t and half alone we/I have spent 284 day in the van even at £100 a night for a room that's £28,400 and that doesn't include flights or things like taxi's, car hire. and while I'm sure I've spent a far bit traveling I doubt it's anywhere near £28,000.

Sounds very like the Experience of Mrs B and myself, as outlined above. You van even has similar layout to the Autrotrail we owned as van No3 😊.

I would add, that on such lengthy travels (time wise) as you describe, we found, it is not like being "on holiday", we lived pretty much as if at home, eat out sometimes, eat in sometimes, some. days, laze about, some days "do something", there was never a time when we felt we "had to do something", we just did what we wanted, when we wanted.

But, as you say, it is not for everyone.

The bit of our story I did not tell, I spent a considerable time working in Gibraltar. Most weekends, I used to take myself off to Tarifa area, to escape the place. There used to be lots of people in Campervans/Motorhomes (all nationalities) and it struck me as a good wheeze. `When We retired, a few years later, we went on a "package" holiday, just to "celebrate", it was horrible (in my view), airport procedures, airplane full of obnoxious people and their offspring, hotel, similar. I decided, "never again", and, a few months later, we bought a motorhome.