Why are you living in an RV? We believe that God has made an amazing world and we want to see it all! An RV is a great way to have a “home base”, give our dog a comfortable and somewhat stable environment and still be able to travel.
How did you choose your RV? We contemplated the RV lifestyle for years. We talked to friends who had all different types of RV’s and asked them a million questions about the pros and cons of their particular model (5th wheel vs travel trailer vs class A etc.). We went to several RV shows and dealerships and walked through hundreds of models to determine what we liked and didn’t like. We made a list of non-negotiable features that we wanted in our RV including a residential fridge, large shower and a stackable washer and dryer. We thoroughly researched the financial aspects of full time RVing in order to best match the type of RV with what we could afford. When we walked into our Heartland BigHorn we knew it was our unicorn.
What does it cost to be a full time RVer? I’m glad you asked! Check out my book with spreadsheet examples on all the different types of full time RV living! The short answer is that it really depends on what you are doing and how often you move spots.
How do you decide where to go? For years I have been adding places that we want to go to our google maps. Most of our travel revolves around seeing all of the places that we have pinned to our maps. Here is a link to how we do that! This year we have also been trying to see as many National Parks as we can.
How do you get your mail? Our family near our home base gets ours. If we ever did anything different we would probably use Escapees mail service.
What state do you use for residency? We use Florida since we own property there.
How do you use your oven? We have a Furrion oven and it fits my regular 11 inch baking dish or large round pizza stone. Our oven is gas with an electric start. It is fairly true to temperature however I typically turn my dish halfway through cooking. We cook in it all the time and don’t feel that it is any more difficult that a regular oven in our sticks and bricks home.
How do you do laundry? We have a Splendide washer and dryer stackable unit. We do regular loads just like in our sticks and bricks. When we wash anything heavy duty like thick blankets we use the laundry facility at the campground.
What is your shower like? A large shower was on our non-negotiable list. Ours is big and has amazing water pressure. Occasionally we are at a state park or campground without sewer connections. In this case we take “camp showers”. For us this means that we turn the water on, rinse, turn the water off, soap up, etc, then turn the water back on to rinse. It’s not our ideal situation but it totally works for us if we are trying not to fill the tanks too fast.
What did you do with all your stuff? We decided that our best financial move was to keep a rental properties. This meant that we didn’t have to sell or donate quite as much stuff as someone who might decide to liquidate all of their real estate. We also kept a small climate controlled storage unit for files, photo albums and a few other things that we didn’t want our renters to access.This can also be accomplished with an owners closet in a rental property. The rest we sold or donated over a period of about 4 months while we prepped for the road.
How do you make money and support yourself? We have always worked hard and spent many years building a business that we were then able to sell. This has helped finance part of our adventure. We also have rental properties that we manage remotely. Jonathan went to school and got an RV Tech license and works as we travel. We are both certified Life Coaches and can take appointments remotely. Kelly started a blog and website and was able to monetize that through affiliate marketing. Kelly has also published a book about the cost of full time RVing.
What do you do all day and aren’t you bored? We are rarely bored. There is so much to see! We do a ton of hiking! We did adopt some new hobbies and work projects when we decided to go full time. Jonathan got an RV Tech license which gives him something to do and make some extra money to cover those crazy gas prices! Kelly started writing more often and has published one book so far and started our website and blog to chronicle our adventures. We also love to read and watch our tv shows!
How do you get along in such a tiny space? We really enjoy each other’s company and practice gratefulness. As we have each taken on a lot of new responsibilities and jobs in order to make our full time RV adventure work, we verbally express our appreciate for what the other person is doing. We also have a one butt in the kitchen and bathroom rule! It’s just too small to both be in those spaces at the same time.
What do you do for Internet? A lot of people these days have Starlink. We don’t have to have an internet connection and so we bought a mobile hotspot from Verizon and get plenty of internet to be able to surf and manage our website and blog. For streaming we either use the RV park’s internet or we use our phones to stream to our tv using an Apple to HDMI adapter.
Don’t you miss your family? Absolutely! Even if we were in a sticks and bricks, a lot of our people are spread out over multiple states and its hard to see them under “normal” circumstances. Our RV has made it easier to visit them when we are in their area! We also try and fly our adult kids and parents out to visit us on the road which has been a lot of fun for them and for us!
When are you coming home? We get this question A LOT! HaHa! We love our family and friends and miss them like crazy! Because our family is in the south, the late fall, holidays, winter seems like a great time to be back in Florida.
How is your dog handling RV life? Like a champ! We worked with her before we left and trained her along the way. Here is a link to a blog article about how we acclimated her to full time RV living.
How do you find campsites? This has been a tough one! We really prefer state park camping and those get snagged very quickly! Some of our favorite apps for searching for spots are RV Trip Wizard and RV Life, Google Maps and Recreation.gov
How does the convection microwave oven work? Super simple! A convention oven circulates the air so you have to be sure and use the racks to allow the air to circulate around your food. On our convention microwave, we simply push the convection button and then the temperature we want. Once the convection microwave has reached the desired temp, we put the food in enter the desired bake time. It’s that easy! Please note- everything inside the microwave will be super hot when it’s done so be careful taking your food out and let the oven take time to cool down before removing the racks.
How do you handle medical and prescriptions while on the road? The same as at home. We’ve had to go to the doctor twice so far and both times it was no big deal. We are planning on some other dental, vet, and other doctor appointments when we go back to our home base this winter.
What is your favorite thing you have seen so far? It seems like it changes daily! There are so many amazing things in our country. Jonathan's top 3 are Lemmon Mountain in Arizona, Valle Caldera in New Mexico and Provo, Utah. Kelly's top 3 are Rocky Mountain National Park, Provo, Utah and Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. However, at the time of this writing we haven't been to Glacier, Yellowstone, Tetons or the Washington and Oregon coastline and National Parks- we have high hopes that they will be amazing!
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