David and Kathy Dewez, formerly of Glens Falls, N.Y., bought their lot here early last year, shortly after selling their insurance brokerage firm. To persuade his wife, Mr. Dewez, 65, upgraded from a 36-footer to a 44-foot Dutch Star, a customized vehicle with two bathrooms, full-size closets, a double sink, and a washer and dryer. It cost $485,000, they said.
“We had a large private yard that backed up to woods, and I miss that, but I do not miss the big house, all the bedrooms, the stairs and the maintenance,” said Mrs. Dewez, 63, who along with her husband was spending the summer driving to see the couple’s children in California, New York and Ohio. “This can be cleaned in 30 minutes. And when we found this community, it made the whole full-time thing much more palatable.”
Many owners here also have traditional homes, or travel and rent their pads for much of the year. Donald G. Jones, who built his fortune in radio and cable networks in the Midwest, sold his homes in Wisconsin and his condo in Scottsdale, Ariz., to spend much of the year visiting his eight children and 12 grandchildren around the country.
“We have a high-rise condo in central Mexico, but we have no home in the U.S.,” Mr. Jones said, on a leather couch in a 45-foot Newell motor home he owns with his wife, Nieves, who was born in Mexico. “I love to say that. I’m free of the burden. And I’ll tell you something else we don’t have — and it’s just wonderful — you don’t have a mailbox.”
But what the residents here do have is a haven, offering the same kinds of luxuries and standards they would hope to find in an upscale community while letting them maintain the freedom of movement they hold dear.
Ms. Stites said that created an exclusive environment for residents when they returned home, driving their homes.
“The only way I would be able to do what I do is because of this kind of community,” she said.
