“What are you thinking”
I feel like some people, ok most all of our friends and family, want to say this to us.
We want to set out in our RV full-time and see the US. We want to make some crazy memories.
A few years ago I came across some full-time RVers and was in awe. How awesome that would be. So I began dreaming of “when we retire” and buying an RV to see the US! Then a year ago I came across a family doing it. I dug deeper and found that there are MANY Full-Time RV Families out there! I read so many blog posts, and I presented the idea to my husband. He found a few problems with the idea, so I let it go… for awhile.
Then we purchased an old Chevy Van! We named her Rosanante, our old trusty steed. She was an 87 Chevy Conversion Van. My husband converted her to a camper and we set out last fall and made some of the best memories ever. In one 30 day period we camped 26 nights in our van. Some of those nights were in awesome campgrounds and some were in our front yard. We just had too much fun camping to even dream of sleeping in the house. We camped with friends, we camped with bears. We went for a swim in the campground pool and we played with sticks. We hiked, we rode bikes, we sat by the campfire, and the kids made new campground friends. Some nights we thought we would freeze and some nights we wondered how we could get air conditioning. We had no television, no video games, and the kids didn’t really pack any toys… they just played. They played with sticks, rocks, and leaves. And we didn’t miss home (well… except for having my own clean shower and restroom). We spent more time together as a family. We cooked together, we cleaned up together and in our spare time we went on hikes, or read… It felt like we were connecting as a family more. (how can you not when you basically sleep on top of each other!?!?) It never grew old… if anything it caused our love of the outdoors to grow exponentially.
More than once friends and family asked us if we were going to live in a van down by the river. And if we could have added a bathroom with a shower on the van I would have said YES in a heartbeat. Life just felt simpler. We didn’t have less space… we had the whole woods. We just had less stuff, so less work to do. More time for play!!
When camping season came to an end with the colder weather I began dreaming again. Dreaming of not caring what the weather was and being able to camp anyway.
But I was also house shopping. We were considering a move so that we could be closer to my husband’s new job. So that we would have more time together. I was house shopping and dreaming of this home or that home. Then the next day I would look at our photos of the camping memories we had made. And the house I had dreamed of yesterday seemed crazy when what I wanted was more memories in the great outdoors. So… we put off house shopping. Because THIS was the time. THIS is the time to do this crazy thing.
We began looking at RVs while my husband was at work in Mississippi. The kids and I were home in Alabama sending him photos of ones we like and he was finding them at a RV dealership in Mississippi that he liked. Then we both found one we loved. The dealership in Alabama was a pain to deal with from the beginning, so we made the 6 hour drive to Mississippi to pick up our RV from that dealer. We left the dealership and went straight to a campground. And watched countless videos to learn what we were doing. Neither of us having had ANY experience with RVing before.
We have had some awesome camping experiences in our “Wolf” so far, and have a few more planned before we go full-time. It seems the more we camp in it the more we are ensured this is exactly the time and we are getting more and more excited to “hit the road”.
Our Full-Time RV Plans
Our plan changes on the regular and while we are planners we are also a bit spontaneous. I won’t be telling all of our plans in great detail as we will likely change them numerous times.
We will be full-time RV family this fall. We will take our “Wolf” out this fall and visit some spots in Florida for a few months, then we plan to come home for Christmas. After that we plan to leave again for a few months. We are not locking ourselves into any set plans until closer to our departure time as things can change a lot between now and then.
Some will not consider us “Full-time” as we will be keeping our home and we will be coming back randomly and recharging for a few months. So we will be Part-time Full timers.
We are not selling our home. Our home has minimal upkeep, and isn’t going to cost us much to be able to keep it, so there is no point selling it. We do not plan to RV for the rest of our lives so it makes sense to keep most of our belongings as well. We are already fairly minimal in our possessions, so we don’t really have to downsize… we just have to pick out our favorite clothes to take with us.
How long will we be gone? Thats a good question. Our first leg of this journey we are thinking we may be gone 2-3 months. BUT that could change. If at any stage of the trip we just aren’t enjoying ourselves we will come back home. But also if we are having too much fun to leave… we will just stay where we are. Our kids are still young and still like doing the same things we do, so we feel like we need to make the most out of this amazing time in our lives! The beauty of having a home to come back to is that we can stop when we want or rest when we want to just go at our own pace.
My husband’s job is very flexible. We are able to live most anywhere while he works. His new company makes “commuting” far easier than it has ever been in his career, so now we feel that we have the freedom to be a full-time RV family.
We already homeschool and want to continue homeschooling for as long as we possibly can. The kids are very adaptable and are perfectly content doing their school work sitting in the camper or sitting at our home kitchen table. AND I feel like we will have so many more opportunities to see and learn so many more things while we are gone.
Our kids… I already mentioned that they are happy with a stick and a rock. They are such low-maintenance, easy-going kiddos. They are the perfect age for this adventure. They started flying at 6 months old and have seen some amazing things all over the world. The Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House. And we want them to see and experience our great country and the beautiful places we have here at home.
We have been called “weird” and this is a little outside normal. And maybe that is why we feel like we have to do this. Because it is a little weird. It is different. And we want to show our kids that weird and different is the best way to be.
We want to see amazing things and meet the amazing people that we will meet. But more than anything, we want our kids to do “weird” things and to go outside their comfort zone in life. To challenge themselves. To do things that sound fun despite the unknown. We want them to live life as they want… not because it’s what is normal.
Join Us!!
I am so thankful you are on this journey with us. We have had some questions about our upcoming adventure and I want to do a Q&A post. So send me your questions and I will do my best to answer them.
Make sure you subscribe to watch our journey from the beginning stages to wherever this crazy adventure takes us.
My parents became full time RV-ers for several years. They still talk about those adventures fondly. Thanks for sharing your journey with us!
I bet they had some amazing adventures! I am hoping we can do it for several years as well.