1 Year Living in a RV FullTime – Our Story
Could you stand 1 year living in a RV Fulltime? Let me tell you, it isn’t always epic campgrounds with sunny skies and beautiful vistas. It is however, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.
QUICK BACKGROUND
Before hearing about all the epic adventures we have had thus far, lets back up a bit to when we ACTUALLY decided that living in a RV wasn’t such a bad idea.
Before Deanna and I even met, we both have always thoroughly enjoyed getting out in nature, hiking, kayaking, and taking in all the amazing views we possible could. However, with our powers combined…our nature loving status went bursting through the roof.
It honestly all started with YouTube and the Minimalist Movement. For me, my primary motivation/inspiration to live this lifestyle was seeing other YouTubers following their dreams and living life the way THEY want to. I know people tend to overuse this word, but “Society” has a way of deeming things either acceptable or non-acceptable. Do I see a ton of other people my age living while traveling around and still keeping their day jobs…not really? But do they exist? Absolutely.
I think it is fair to say, that neither Deanna nor I have ever really fit into what “Society” classifies as “normal.” This leads me into another main influence for choosing this lifestyle, the Minimalist Movement. I won’t go into all the specifics, but it is basically a personal choice to only live with possessions that truly make you happy. Some people get a bit serious on this topic, but really to me it is simply not buying stuff just to be buying stuff.
Over the years, it became quite apparent to Deanna and myself that things, stuff, items that many people call necessary, truly aren’t. Buying more and more may bring a sense of joy for a short period of time, but in order to continue to fill that gap…you must feed it consistently. Living this lifestyle totally takes that thought process away because it simply isn’t possible due to weight restrictions. We still aren’t perfect, but we try to only buy what is truly useful to us and we use quite often.
Becoming Debt Free
In order to pursue this lifestyle there is one thing we absolutely knew we wanted to accomplish in order to have a peace of mind. That is why before we hopped on the fulltime RV lifestyle, we completely paid off all our debt. No truck payments, bought a relatively cheap $9,000 21ft travel trailer to live in, and we had long paid off our student loans as soon as we could after college.
We also made sure we had a nice cushion saved up before jumping in just in case something happened along our travels. There is always that possibility, especially buying used trailers without any true record on their history.
Am I going to write a book and sell it on how to become debt free? No, but here is a start.
- Don’t buy things you don’t absolutely need.
- Live in the smallest place you possibly can to prevent you from accruing useless junk to fill in empty space.
- Save, don’t spend.
- Stop eating out so dang much. (shameless plug to Deanna’s Food Blog – The Harvest Skillet)
- Don’t buy that expensive car unless you absolutely need said expensive car.
- Stop spending so much money on entertainment. Get out in nature and enjoy that for FREE.
- Get rid of all subscription services you don’t absolutely need or use.
- Invest in your health. That won’t just save you money now, but also in your future.
- Try to only buy high quality things with multiple uses.
Does that help everyone, probably not, but I know for a lot of you it will.
OK, But Why RV, Why Not Hotels or Airbnb?
Having a RV would basically mean we would have a portable base camp we could take from state to state. At that base camp we could work, but also have a “launching point” closer to our target destination that doesn’t involve a plane ticket or taking time off from the job. Sure we could hop from hotel to hotel/Airbnb, but that would get incredibly expensive in a hurry. There was no doubt in our mind that this was the most economically feasible way of doing what our hearts desired.
With RVing, the longer you stay in a spot the more money you save. We know if we ever got in a jam and needed to save money, we could just slow down our travels and stay at some locations for a month rather than traveling so often. There is not ONE pace to RV, you can do it however it fits your budget.
Time to Prepare
After researching for at least a year on what RV we would want to buy, we finally made the decision to go with a used 2014 Rockwood Mini-lite 2104S from a very nice couple out of the state of Connecticut. At the time we had the limitations of our Nissan Frontier (turns out this was still a bit too big for the truck) so we stuck with a smaller rig.
After buying the trailer we had to build a work station so both Deanna and I could continue to work remotely while traveling. (No we didn’t win the lottery and retired early!) Then we also installed 200 watts of solar power on the roof just for those in between stays on longer trips without hookups.
All while doing these upgrades we were in the process of downsizing, which might be the hardest part for most folks making the transition to this lifestyle. We sold/got rid of A LOT of possessions, but we do still have some in storage for when we settle down at some point.
Taking the RV out for a couple test trips with the Frontier in 2017, I realized quickly that pulling the trailer full-time with the mid-sized truck just wasn’t going to work out. We ended up opting for a F250 rather than something slightly bigger like a F150 just to give us more room for future decisions. Let me tell you, the F250 towed this small trailer like a dream.
Before truly setting off on our full-time journey, we wanted to make sure the F250/trailer setup was good to go. So why not take everything out for a test trip to Maine/Acadia National Park!? During the trip we also worked a bit to make sure our work station and cell plans worked as we had hoped they would.
With everything panning out fairly smoothly thus far, it was time to head to Indiana to set up residency where I am originally from. Why Indiana? We had a home base fairly central-ish to the country, most of my family lives there, and the taxes aren’t so bad compared to the east coast.
Let the Fun Begin – The Midwest
Indiana
Our first real stay as full-time RVers was in central Indiana near Turkey Run State Park and Shades State Park. The BMV (DMV in other states) was still processing our paper work, so we had to make sure that was cleared before we totally left the state to adventure. I grew up in Indiana and I have ALWAYS loved the Turkey Run State Park area. Tons of fun hiking and really proves that Indiana is more than just a bunch of corn fields.
After we got our BMV work back, we decided our very first move as full-time RVers was to go explore the UP of Michigan. We had always heard great things, but neither of us had been there. Along the way we met Sal and Sharon from S&S and the RV Cats. Truly a lovely couple with hearts of gold. So glad we had the opportunity to meet up even if for a short time.
Michigan
Our first stop in Michigan gave us one of our first reality checks. We wanted to stay near Lake Michigan, but all the places were either booked up or super expensive. So our first stay in Michigan was at a really lovely (but also really expensive) RV resort called Hidden Ridge. We knew quickly that this was not what we signed up for and was not our style of RVing. We didn’t sign up to be pampered with amenities, but to get near locations we would have otherwise only dreamed about.
As we headed up through Michigan we hit up places such as Yankee Springs Recreation Area, Nordhouse Dunes, Mackinac Island, Castle Rock, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and various adventures around the awesome town of Munising.
Wisconsin
After heading through the UP we figured we should probably start thinking of a path down south for the winter before it got too cold. We stuck around Lake Michigan for a bit longer just because it is such an amazing body of water, but then headed a bit deeper into Wisconsin to visit an awesome state park called Devil’s Lake State Park.
One thing I have plastered in my mind is how surprisingly beautiful Wisconsin is and how surprisingly bad the roads are haha. We’ve been through a lot of states and Wisconsin had some of the craziest bumpy roads we have encountered thus far.
Illinois
We REALLY wanted to stay near Starved Rock State Park in Illinois because we were going to pass right near it, but unfortunately couldn’t find a campground with decent signal to work from nearby. Instead, we pushed forward through to meet up with some college friends near Peoria, IL.
Although I feel like we had some bad luck and didn’t really do the area justice in our videos, honestly Illinois is very beautiful as well. Especially when you do get past some of the repetitive corn fields and explore the southern sections of it.
One thing I will always remember from Illinois is staying at Mill Point RV Park, where we had the largest ridiculously over-sized spot for our 21ft rig ever. Sure, it may have been built for 2 RVs to be back to back (technically) but we had that entire thing to ourselves and it was amazing and relatively cheap.
Indiana AGAIN!
So turns out we still needed to clean up some logistics and paperwork in Indiana, so part of our plan had to include passing back through the state. It is always a welcome sight to see friends and family though so it really worked out quite well.
After staying at my parent’s house for a week, we then started our trip further south towards Brown County. If you have ever been to Indiana and didn’t get a chance to check out Brown County State Park, you are missing out. Just like Turkey Run and Shades, this is another one of my favorite areas to explore in the state of Indiana.
Not only that, but this was our first experience of mooch docking at a place other than my parent’s. Our friends Ed and Cori have also hit up the RV lifestyle before so it was an amazing experience staying with them for a week and sharing adventure stories.
Heading Down South
Kentucky
Kentucky is another state we definitely did not explore nearly as much as we would have liked. While hitting up the Mammoth Cave National Park area, we saw SO many other attractions that would have been amazing to go see.
Horse Cave KOA, was kind of an interesting RV park and our very first KOA experience. We didn’t get off on the right foot, KOA. The sites were extremely unlevel where we were, it was literally an amphitheater to the interstate noise, and a bit over-prized in my opinion. However, we weren’t too far away from the National Park and the awesome surrounding area. Definitely need to swing through this area again at some point in our lives.
Tennessee
Truly our main goal in Tennessee was to slowly make our way over to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What we didn’t expect to find is all the other amazing things the state has to offer.
We hit up Oktoberfest in Nashville which was absolutely a fantastic experience and then headed east towards the NP. Before we got to the Smokies though, I noticed a state park that had tremendously good reviews that we just had to check out. Let me tell you folks, Fall Creek Falls State Park is like borderline National Park quality. Whether you are into vistas or some awesome hiking trails, this state park has A LOT to offer.
Nearing the smokies, it was the first time in our travels we actually booked a campground for 2 weeks rather than just 1. Why? We were starting to get burnt out a bit with traveling and there is just simply so much to see around Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We could have stayed for months and still not have seen everything we wanted to.
South Carolina
South Carolina? What happened to North Carolina!? Well folks, winter was sneaking up on us fairly fast at this point. It was already November and we were trying our best to avoid winterizing the RV in any form. Luckily for us, our awesome friends Dan and Kayleigh were in the state so we could once again see some familiar faces along the road (a rarity).
They recommended a TON of awesome hikes in the area, but we only had a week so we picked a slightly less epic hike through Cedar Falls…but still an extremely beautiful area. Oh, and we also managed to book a campground in a retirement community on accident (whoops), but luckily they didn’t get us out.
Alabama
Dang it guys, why did you skip Georgia!? Unfortunately the RV life isn’t always on your own timeline and the holidays tend to catch up quickly. We picked Alabama because we found a spot we could camp at for 3 weeks around Thanksgiving (one week just leaving it there by its lonesome). Our goal was to find a park south enough that the pipes wouldn’t freeze while we left it by itself…and was closer driving distance to home.
All strategy aside, this is also where we first saw the next rig we wanted. A 5th wheel, not a travel trailer, in the nearby area. Before we decided that was the RV for us, we shopped around looking at other brands, but NONE of the brands had the layout we wanted. I guess you could call it love at first sight.
We did get to explore a couple areas around northern Alabama including Cathedral Caverns State Park. (So much more of a personal tour than anything we experienced at Mammoth Cave National Park).
Back to the 5th wheel….well crap, now if we are really going to do this…we need to get the truck prepped for a 5th wheel hitch. We didn’t have the mounting brackets or anything installed in the truck yet, nor did we have spray in liner to cover all the chipped paint areas from the previous owner.
Although exploring Alabama would have been more favorable, the truth is we were sick half the time we were in the state with some nasty colds…and I was trying my best to get the truck fitted for everything it needed to haul a 5th wheel.
Georgia
By the time we got to Georgia, we had brand new spray in liner and also brackets in order to mount a 5th wheel hitch in the bed of the truck. Our campground in Georgia was right next to a Camping World where we were able to tour some “half-ton towable” 5th wheels. At the time, we pretty much had made up our mind on the Grand Design…but always trying to see if there are other options out there that made more sense.
BUT, we also got to explore a little bit in southern Georgia and got ourselves into our first swamp of the journey. Grand Bay Wildlife Refuge was an awesome experience not just because of the scenery, but neither of us had been hiking since northern Alabama. We were really itching for an adventure and this was the perfect medicine.
The Super Extended Stay
Florida
When first heading to Florida, we had no idea how long we were going to end up staying there. We ended up booking an entire month at Clerbrook Golf & RV Resort because once again a semi-big holiday was around the corner…Christmas. In order to get flight plans and logistics worked out, it was really safest to just get an entire month booked to relax a bit and not have to worry about moving from place to place.
This was also the campground we decided it was time to transition to our new 5th wheel. FYI, I really dislike having to deal with BMVs/DMVs…because getting all of that sorted out was ridiculous. I will not turn this into a 30 page blog post rant though, no worries.
To try and quickly summarize our stay in the state of Florida we hit up multiple state parks, including Lake Louisa State Park, Hillsborough River State Park, Werner-Boyce State Park, Paynes Prairie Preserve, and Alfred B Maclay Gardens State Park.
Florida was also my very first experience at Disney World (yes in my 30s) but I totally loved it. Disney is a place you can really enjoy at any age and although ridiculously expensive…it was our time to splurge and enjoy.
Southern Alabama
We loved the state of Florida, but it was time to get the heck out of there and start our slow but surely journey westwards. Heading back into the state of Alabama we found a freaking awesome area called Dauphin Island. I had been looking for a place for quite a while that really was unique and this place checked the boxes.
This was the first time the 5th wheel headed out of the state of Florida under our ownership and really from here the adventures kept getting cooler and cooler.
Mississippi
Just like Illinois and Kentucky, I don’t feel like we did Mississippi justice documenting our adventures. When we headed to the state it was pretty much super saturated in rain and mud.
Buccanneer State Park was our very first state park we actually camped in while traveling. We had wanted to at so many other state parks previously, but they were always either booked or the cellphone signal looked questionable at best.
We also finally got to see the Gulf of Mexico with our own eyes. A lot of the west side of Florida we found out is covered in swamp, not much as far as beaches go. So getting back to the Gulf for the first time since I was in college was awesome.
Louisiana
Deanna had never been to New Orleans before so while heading through the state of Louisiana it was one of our goals. The biggest issue trying to stay around New Orleans is finding a decently priced campground. Well folks, check out St Bernard State Park just south of the park along the Gulf of Mexico. Fairly cheap place to stay and the sites are actually pretty spacious.
After New Orleans, we already had an end goal of Dallas, TX to meet up with some friends and family at some point. So we really just had to find some places in between to connect the dots and not have ridiculously long travel days.
We decided to hit up Cajun Palms RV Resort to explore Cypress Preserve/Martin Lake and then near Alexandria to see Valentine Lake Recreation area in the Kisatchie National Forest.
Westward!
Texas
Both Deanna and I had been to Texas previously, but had never really gotten to truly explore it. Although Texas is an extremely large state and we just brushed a small portion of it, we really liked Tyler State Park and Tyler Rose Garden near Tyler, TX.
After exploring that state park we headed up to another 2 week stay at Lake Tawakoni RV Park that just so happened to be a Thousands Trail RV park. You know what that means! “Free” stay for 2 weeks! At this park we were able to meet up with some family and I also took a bit of a trip over to Dallas to meet up with some co-workers.
No worries Texas, we like you, and we will be back.
Oklahoma
At first the plan was just to drive all the way across Texas, but while I was researching places to stay…I saw the word MOUNTAIN associated to the state of Oklahoma. I was like wait, there aren’t any mountains in Oklahoma are there, that is just weird. Turns out, there are.
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is a must see area if you are ever in southwestern Oklahoma. I realize this is just a small portion of Oklahoma and we didn’t get to see much else of it…but to me, this makes Oklahoma a place to visit just by itself.
There are a ton of other neat little attractions around in the area as well, but we were only here for a week so we prioritized on the wildlife refuge.
BACK To Texas
Told you not to worry Texas, we didn’t forget about you. On our way west, Texas got in the way again (just kidding we love Texas). I had literally never heard of Palo Duro Canyon State Park until researching our next stop. If we had driven by this area and not stopped, I would have been so upset. This was one of our most unique stops on our journey thus far as neither of us had been in a desert like terrain before.
We also got to experience some pretty ridiculous winds in the great plains around this area of Texas pushing the RV back and forth, but we did survive.
New Mexico
We knew we really wanted to get back to Colorado because is where Deanna and I had our honeymoon, but what about New Mexico? It was starting to get a lot warmer in Texas and we also knew we wanted to start following the cooler weather up north…so that kind of set us on a short route through the northeast tip of New Mexico.
What could possibly be in that northeast tip of New Mexico worth stopping at? Another unique visit I couldn’t imagine missing out on called Capulin Volcano National Monument. Even if you don’t stay long, the drive itself was incredibly beautiful and vast. I highly recommend this area of New Mexico.
Plus, if you want a cheap place to stay that surprisingly had good cell signal, check out Capulin RV Park. Really nice couple running the joint and it has a lovely small town vibe.
Colorado
Epic Colorado. So this catches us up to our adventures thus far on YouTube. We absolutely love the Rocky Mountains and could seriously picture ourselves living in the state someday in the future. Part of this trip is also to determine where we want to set up our future home base. Will Colorado be it? Still a lot of states to explore yet. 🙂
Adventures thus far documented have been Great Sand Dunes National Park, Alamosa Wildlife Refuge, and Zapata Falls. Spoiler alert, that just brushes the surface of what we have done in the state of Colorado. I can’t wait to share all of the adventures, sights, sounds, and our experience in the state.
What Does the Future Hold?
Well, without going into too many details…traveling. The future holds more traveling and RVing. At the very least I imagine we will probably be doing this for a couple more years, possibly more, or less. I can tell you we are no longer in the state of Colorado and have since had even more epic adventures.
This country has so much to offer, so although international travel maybe on our list to do…we have so much more to see in our very own country. I hope our adventures continue to inspire you all to get out into nature and live the way YOU want to live. Don’t let others hold you back from your dreams. If we let all the warnings, the risks, or SOCIETY run our lives…we wouldn’t be living our dream today. It is perfectly natural to be afraid to live your dream, but don’t let that fear keep you from becoming who you really want to be.
NOTE FROM WRITER
If you enjoyed this blog post or the video to go along with it, feel free to share it with your friends. You can find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also subscribe to our channel’s RSS feed via the subscribe button on the sidebar. If you have any questions or comments go ahead and leave them below and we will try our best to get back to you! Thanks for reading/watching!
Also be sure to check out Deanna’s food blog, The Harvest Skillet, when you get the chance! A lot of awesome and healthy recipes to use there!
Adventure On!
