I can’t remember when Garland, who I call “G” first told me his idea of traveling and working in an RV, seeing parts of the country we have not seen. At first I thought it was crazy, but after the past year of working remotely most of the time, we are all in! We’ve seen too many examples of family and friends waiting to do what they want, live the life they want and the opportunity passes them by, because of illness, money, family obligations and the list goes on. We both want to enjoy life, before we are not able.
So, in preparing for this new life, we decided to have some trial runs- this was our 2020 trial run:
My Cousin’s daughter, got married in September 2020 and we took the camper to Lake Wylie, SC for the weekend, to be closer to the wedding venue. After the weekend we camped a little closer to home for the next week, with both of us working every day. G turned the bunk room of the camper into his office – with a desk big enough for his multiple monitors. He was able to shut his door, when on conference calls and training sessions. We set up a folding table in the bedroom for me. I also could shut the sliding door for even more distance – when needed to concentrate. It was a great week, and we were able to visit some local wineries on the weekend, before returning home.
During the week, it was nice change of pace, to be able to take the pups walking in the campground and we met some nice people. Even sat outside one evening by a fire.
With our Thousand Trails campground pass, we were able to stay the second week at no additional cost – which was fantastic. You do pay a yearly fee but we re-cooped our money after just a couple weeks of camping.
All in all – it was a very successful first run of working together in the camper. No major hiccups and we enjoyed ourselves. We figured if we could live for a week in our current camper and not kill each other, we’re on the right track.
Some thoughts:
We have had many, many conversations about when we will be able to do this full time. We’ve both decided we don’t want to start in the colder months, and we feel it will take a while to get things settled…so we came up with a tentative “Go Full Time date” of Spring 2022. We have a lot, I mean a TON of downsizing to do in every aspect of our lives.
Over the 2020 Holiday’s we went to dinner with our friends who retired and were in their RV full time for over two years. After talking to them we are even more sure of doing this. And this is not our only research into this new lifestyle. We constantly watch YouTube channels of people who live on the road full time. We have some favorites to watch and have learned a TON of things to do AND not to do. G has done most of the research on campers, Wi-Fi, places to visit, camping passes, etc. and I also love watching videos too, except the boring ones. The most important aspect of planning where you go, is Wi-Fi coverage. Most campgrounds have terrible coverage, so you need to rely on your own cellular coverage and have the right tools to do so. We don’t plan on doing much Boondocking, which is camping without hookups, but G is purchasing a very good generator from his brother, to help if we don’t have hookups.
There is so much to consider about “Life on the Road”. You need a place for your mail to be delivered and some folks set up residency in FL or South Dakato – locations with preferred tax benefits. Some states only require you to reside in the state one night and you can register to become a resident.
We need to figure out when and how often we would come back to NC – for things like Dr. appointments, Vet care for the pups, getting DL’s renewed, etc. We also need to research the pups’ food. Currently, we have it delivered to our home, but when we’re on the road…we’ll have to see. Our friends have told us don’t worry about getting your needed prescriptions around the county, since there are multiple drug store chain locations nationwide.
One hot topic we have debated is if we should rent out either our permanent residence or the rental we currently own. Our friends said this was the one thing they wish – they had kept their residence and rented it out. Seems like sound advice…but neither G or I wish to have another rental and we have long wanted to sell our current rental, it being a good distance from where we live.