Tag: lifestyle

To RV Life or Not to RV Life

Published on by Ashley TaylorLeave a comment

It’s very strange coming back to Utah after being gone for so long. I had been missing it since we left in June, but I didn’t expect to miss it even more once we were back.

Part of the reason we started RV life was to travel and see where we would like to settle down eventually. It’s not that we didn’t think Utah was that place, but we wanted to make sure we weren’t just trying to buy a house to check it off the list and end up realizing a year or two in that we wanted to be somewhere else. After full timing for almost a year and being in the east since June, we have definitely decided we missed the west. Well …. I don’t think we ever stopped missing the west. But we definitely were able to determine our forever home location would be in the west.

It’s weird though still wanting to travel but wanting to look for a house at the same time. So we’re focusing on paying down some debt first and casually looking in the area to see what we might be interested in. This definitely is not a goodbye RV life!!! Just a look into the next step. We’re in our mid-20s, and RV life was a nice way to get out of the apartment rent increase cycle. We definitely don’t regret RV life, but now I feel like it’s becoming more intentional. Travel slower, enjoy new places, check off more states. The timeline has become more finite.

Sometimes I do miss the apartment, but mainly for three reasons:

  1. Bathtubs
  2. Decorating
  3. Lounging on the balcony

I’ve always loved baths, and I realize if I really want to take a bath I can book a hotel room. This was something I knowingly gave up and accepted, but I still miss it.

Decorating the camper was extremely intentional as I only have so much space to store seasonal decor and so much space to display things. Of course, I kept a few things from the apartment like pillows, blankets, and a few wall decor items that are out and about, but buying new decor is very uncommon. Especially new seasonal decor.

The balcony was a huge reason we got the apartment we did because it faced the mountains. We had lounge chairs, and I had a plant ladder with tons of plants. The plants oddly were a way I delt with anxiety. Caring for the plants felt like I was caring for myself. But I couldn’t take the plants with me into the camper. The pots were ceramic, we had no flat spots to put them, we had no where to keep them when we moved, and the cats could NOT eat them. I love sitting outside the camper in our camp chairs when the weather is nice or at night next to a fire, but there’s something about a balcony (or a porch I suppose) that I miss.

I cannot thank RV life enough for what it’s done, and I realize we never would have done what we did this year without it. I couldn’t imagine leaving the camper now, but somewhere in the future … It would be nice to have a house to come back to when we’re stationary.

Travel Day Checklist

Published on by Ashley TaylorLeave a comment

Have you ever ran around your camper the morning of a travel day trying to get things in order? Or are you researching the best way to prevent problems when prepping for travel days i.e. accidentally leaving the fridge unlocked and arriving to the destination with an empty fridge and floor full of food?

I have been both of those people. After our first few travel days, I wrote up a checklist to follow each time we move to make sure setting up and tearing down goes as smoothly as possible. Some of the items can be done the day before like taking out trash, moving loose items into cabinets, and clearing off countertops or tables. Other things are best done right before moving like checking the roof, putting up hoses, and checking travel conditions.

I’ve created a FREE PDF of my checklist which you can access here! I hope you can use it as is or to create your own checklist tailored to your floorplan and type of RV.

travel-day-checklistDownload

I’ve also learned the hard way that planning your route for the day should be done no later than the night before you travel. My personal preference is the evening before because I have a better idea of weather conditions. Weather is always changing which is totally annoying when you’re traveling, especially when random snow showers are popping up!

Our general rule for planning routes is travel less than 350 miles in a day, plan a stop for lunch, and plan gas stations with truck lanes every 100 miles. It’s a lot easier to work in the stops on Google maps beforehand than to be frantically looking for somewhere to stop. Especially traveling out west in reservation land or if you only stop at truck stops.

How do your travel days usually go?