The One Year Update
We set out on November 5, 2018 to travel the country for a year in an RV. We knew nothing about RVing.
We just knew we loved travel and wanted something different for our family. We had a good life before, and were very happy! We were just also very busy and tired of the distractions that kept pulling us away from the things we were passionate about- quality family time and exploring the great outdoors.
After just a couple of months in the RV, we were completely enamored with the lifestyle. We decided a year was not nearly long enough to see the US and we wanted to do it longer! We made the decision to remove the one year timeline and continue traveling as long as it’s working for us and enjoyable!
Many people ask what was difficult about transitioning from a 2500 sq. ft. house to a 400 sq. ft. RV. For me, adjusting to a tiny kitchen was tough at first. I had to figure out a few ways to make using the small area easier. I got some items to help organize the space and made a rule that when I’m cooking dinner, the kids have to either be outside or in their room with the door shut!
(Read my kitchen organization article HERE)
It was tough with them being loud and running around in my space when I was trying to cook, so we eliminated that distraction! Now, I’m completely comfortable in my tiny kitchen and have totally gotten used to it.
When someone asks what we miss most about living in a house….
…My first response is always “nothing!” But if I have to come up with something, I could say our shower water pressure is lacking a bit and it’s always nice to utilize the campground showers now and then, or to shower in a house when we’re visiting family!
The few things that aren’t ideal such as lower water pressure and less room to cook really don’t bother us. We’ve gotten used to them and the daily adventures we now get to take part in together as a family far outweigh the small inconveniences.
The biggest challenge to full time travel for us…
…has been finding balance. Balancing work and fun is tough. We are always visiting new and exciting places and it can be hard to be disciplined enough to stay in a work when we really would just love to play outside all day!
(If you want to know what we do for work, click HERE)
We often travel with awesome friends we’ve met along the way, which results in nightly campfires which many times go laaattee into the night! Many amazing conversations have taken place around those campfires, and we’re so thankful we don’t have to wake up early and can set our own work schedules! We do have to be disciplined though and make sure we work enough to pay the bills! (Gas ain’t cheap in California and we spent about 6 months there!!)
We have learned that we like to balance staying at RV Parks with boondocking. Both are great, and we’re happiest when we can have a mixture of full hookups and wide open spaces. As much as we love people and traveling with our friends (we joke that we never see the kids), we also like the balance of staying places where we don’t know anyone and can really reconnect with each other in a deeper way.
In the past year we’ve changed and learned a lot.
The first change we noticed almost immediately was the bond between Casen and Calista. They were very close when they were younger, but after starting school, had started to drift apart and play with their own friends more and each other less.
Our first 6 weeks on the road we didn’t meet hardly any other kids, so they mainly had only each other to play with. They loved it and I loved seeing it. They share a bedroom and I love hearing them giggle at night from time to time or even sing together quietly before falling asleep.
We’ve all grown closer as a family. Experiencing so many new things together and living in such a small space together has been wonderful. Has it eliminated all fighting and sibling squabbles?? Absolutely not! But we are closer than we’ve ever been and I love it so much.
How do we feel about the RV we chose after a year?
Really good. We know a lot of people who realize after a while that the model they chose isn’t a good fit for them. This hasn’t been the case for us. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. We have a 2016 Coachman Chaparrel 390 QSMB. We chose it because it had a really big living room, two decent sized bedrooms with doors and a place for a washer/dryer. Those were our biggest wants. It has been wonderful.
Moving forward we would like to extend the time we stay at each stop. We averaged moving every 7 days the first year and we’d like to move toward en average of moving every 14 days. That will help us with the work/play balance! Moving days take up a lot of time as well, so the less we move, the more time we have for other things!
Not every family transitions into full time RV travel as easily as we did. Our family loves change, loves adventure and it was a really positive change for us. We can’t wait to see what lies in store for us as we continue to travel.
We don’t know what the future holds, and maybe we will travel for one more year, or maybe ten more! We’re up for anything. We’ve become more relaxed and enjoy having a more “go with the flow” attitude. It’s so fun not really knowing what’s next and having the flexibility to change plans at the drop of a hat!
Thanks for following along on this exciting journey with us! We will continue to keep posting updates, if you’ll keep reading them! We really appreciate all of you who engage with us as we travel and encourage us along the way.