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Prime Times Life on the road By STEPHANIE EARLS for The Associated Press YAKIMA, Wash. � To bid farewell to fellow campers, Ron Hofmeister likes to blast an electronic version of "On the Road Again" from his Ultimate Horn when he pilots his 400-square-foot RV from a campground and heads for the open highway. The speaker-horn also can play "Whistle While You Work" � extremely fitting for traveling through road work zones � or even tunes from "Oklahoma," which are good through an entire state. The Ultimate Horn is Ron�s toy, one of the few. You don�t have a lot of room for non-essentials when you live in an RV, even if it is roughly the size of an airport hangar. "Everything we own in the world, we have with us. We say when something comes in, something has to go out," says Ron, who�s 67 and has been on the road with his wife, Barb, since 1989. "But the whole outdoors is your living room, so you don�t feel cramped or lacking." The Hofmeisters, who have written several books about living full-time in an RV, are among a growing number of year-round RVers and gypsy pensioners. They recently stayed at Yakima Sportsman State Park several days before continuing on to speak at an RV seminar in Idaho. For 11 years the retired couple have lived the American dream inside an American Dream, a 40-foot-long, $200,000-plus house-on-wheels that gets 10 miles to the gallon and could swallow a SUV whole. Behind it they tow a smaller vehicle, for daily excursions. They didn�t start off quite so swank, though. In 1989, two weeks after Ron retired from his job with the Michigan Department of Transportation, the couple turned over the keys to the 1,200-square-foot townhouse they leased, put their belongings in storage and set out in a 24-foot "baby" motor home. "We always said that when Ron retires, let�s live in this motor home for a year," says Barb, who�s 63. "Eleven years later, that�s history." The Hofmeisters, who married 15 years ago, later traded up to their current ride, which came loaded with very un-camperlike amenities � two televisions, ceramic tile floors and counters, and a convection oven. "I always thought I was going to miss not coming home to a home, but it�s never disorienting now," says Barb. "Now, we don�t know what we�d do in a house. I think I�d get lost." Living full-time in a recreational vehicle is similar to living on a boat. Personalizing your living space takes some creativity. There�s little wall space for artwork. Baubles tend to scatter and slide at stoplights. Computers must be strapped down. If you want to modify your curb appeal, you can�t just put up a picket fence or repaint the trim. You can buy an Ultimate Horn. You can slap on some more bumper stickers. Signals like these are like a wink or a secret hand signal to other full-timers. "We could walk through the campground and spot full-timers based on their license plates and the stickers on the back of their motor homes," says Barb, explaining that certain states are more popular for residency by full-timers because of tax breaks and low tab fees (the Hofmeisters themselves keep Texas plates). The couple usually travels about 200 miles before parking for what averages about a week. They travel from 7,000 to 9,000 miles a year and have logged slightly more than 100,000 miles total � so the gas budget isn�t as deflating as you�d imagine. "I bet some people who live in houses drive more miles than that," says Ron. "When oil prices are high, we travel shorter distances and park longer." Barb says she�s heard that nearly 1 million full-time RVers are trawling the nation�s roads, barnstorming the tourist hubs and the nowhere towns, in search of the best pie, the best restaurant, a good game of bridge. "There�s no way you could see all these beautiful places on vacation," says Barb. "Vacations are expensive. If you have a house, you�ve got a magnet that pulls you home." The Hofmeisters were so enamored with the life they decided to share what they�ve learned in a series of self-published how-to books for boomers and retirees itching to travel and curious about the nuances of maintaining a mobile life, sans property taxes or lawn-mowing. Information on the books and on the Hofmeisters� travels can be found on the couple�s Web site at www.movinon.net "People are very interested in how to live this lifestyle," says Barb. "There�s a great hunger for information on how to do this. It�s a wonderful way to live." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA