We’ve been living in the RV full time for 89 days! Time sure is flying by. I thought it would be fun to update you all on what we’re loving and not so much enjoying about living in our RV full-time. It’s taken some adjustment, and we’re still learning, so here goes!
Since September 30, we’ve been staying in Kelowna before heading back to the US. Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have booked the same place for 30 days without having visited it first, and probably should have just skipped Kelowna all together. It hasn’t been the most enjoyable stay. Kelowna, a lake town located in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, is great in the summer, but boring as all get out in October. And, the place we’re staying isn’t the best. It’s clean and all, but the neighbors and managers are nothing but chatty. No one wants to connect, and it’s FREEZING here!
Leanne is on her way back to Kelowna after spending a few days in Calgary for a book event, some meetings, and catching up with friends and family. Once Leanne is back we are going to make our way down to Portland and then head down toward New Mexico and Texas after passing through a few places in California that we want to see. Now, we’re only planning about 1 month ahead of time and staying in places for a maximum of 8 days.
Lexy, Pebbles, Coconut and I sat down to figure out the pros of living in an RV full time and the cons of living in an RV full time. Let’s do it!
3 Pros
Let’s start with the 3 things we really like.
Our cost of living is much lower. We don’t have a mortgage and property taxes. We don’t have to pay for utilities, cable TV, or internet. Yes, we still have cell phone bills and have to pay rent for the spots we stop at, and diesel fuel, but overall the cost of living is much lower.
We get to see and experience different places. Being able to just pick-up and go has been very cool and we are still getting used to the flexibility. If we want to see the ocean, we plan a route to the ocean. If we want to be in the mountains, we plan a route to the mountains (after checking the weather forecast and road conditions). Oh, and Coconut loves all the new dog parks, while Lexy and Pebbles enjoy the different smells and watch Coconut run around like a crazy chicken.
We get to make new connections and meet people. This one is two-sided, but I’ll talk more about the other side later on. There is literally not a single day on which we don’t meet a new person and have a conversation about something. We would not have had all these opportunities to meet others if we would have kept the house and stayed put. The most interesting conversation so far, at least for me, was with Officer Fox at the border crossing heading into the US from Canada.
3 Cons
Now to the 3 things we are still trying to figure out, aside from our constant struggle to keep Exlorker2 clutter-free and clean.
We have been doing quite a lot of planning. We can just pack up and drive, but without a plan, it usually means we’ll have to stay in a parking lot for the night until we figure out where we want to go. Many places are full, it’s hard to get into boon-docking sites with our size, so it limits our options. If we want to check out a place, we have to plan, which mostly involves finding a campground that can accommodate a 40-foot motor coach and allows 3 dogs. The planning goes beyond campgrounds. With each place we visit, because we’re running a company, we need to be close to an airport and major hotels so that Leanne can travel for work and book hotels to record podcasts when needed. Oh, and then there is weather, avoiding the snow and ice.
Receiving packages has been hard for us. There are companies who have made it really easy for us with fast shipping, good tracking, and awesome customer service. Big shout out to vention.io from which we ordered parts for an enclosure for our CNC machine (oh yea – computerized super-cutting machine). Canada Post offers a service called Flex Delivery, which gives us an address at the nearest Canada Post office that we can use for online orders. FedEx has been amazing as well, while UPS has been difficult to deal with. It has been a challenge, but we’re slowly starting to figure out what works for us.
Making actual friends has been hard. We often joke about this, because it has never been easy to make actual new friends even when we had a house. We’ve met a lot of people on the road, yes, but we don’t stay in a place long enough to build a friendship. There have been a few people who we really connected with, but maintaining a friendship is really difficult when you’re back on the road in a couple of days or weeks. We’re working on problem-solving this one and will let you know when we have come up with a magic formula.
We love problem solving and enjoy the process of learning new ways of doing things; so we will do just that – figure it out and have a good time doing it, with the occasional argument and misbehaving dog moment.
Here are a couple of pictures of where we’ve been lately and what we’ve been up to…
Explorker2 and GeBe hanging out in the sun at Orchard Hill RV.
Parts from vention.io for our CNC machine enclosure arrived!
The enclosure for our CNC machine is done, after 4 hours of work.
Coconut wants to go back to the dog park! Pretty please.
I am going to get back to my CNC project, trying to get the issues worked out with our Shapeoko 3 XL, right after the girls and I go to the dog park. Anyhow, we would love to know what is stopping you from hitting the road to explore the word – explorking style, let us know in the comments below!
View Comments (9)
We'd need to totally re-invent ourselves career-wise, which would take some doing, but I'm still open to it. The other thing is as a mom of grown kids I still feel some responsibility to be the warehouse for family stuff, and to be available to visit. I don't feel like an RV has a whole lot of spare bedroom space and there's definitely no room to warehouse nearly 30 years of family treasures. Still, I would definitely give it a try, but I'd rather do it for part of a year, which means I'd still need a house which means more money than I have! Clearly I haven't figured everything out yet. :) I'm really enjoying reading about your adventures in the meantime. I was already a Leanne fan!
Girlfriend, you rock. Can't wait till you get to Pennsylvania so I can show you the AMish. There is a campsite not far from me called Muddy Run Campground in Lancaster County. If you get this way I will show you around and take you to meet Amish. I have followed you for so long...
We just moved in to a 32' Fleetwood Southwind 2000. Our son and his wife and 3 kids lost their home in the Tubb's Fire in Sonoma County CA. We gave them our home to move into until they are finished rebuilding... 18 m or so. Pretty soon the cost of living should go down. Setting us up in here cost us in the first week but we are hanging in there. Thank you for this particular video because down the road we will probably start traveling and the things you mentioned will be important to us. We only have one dog because we are keeping him for our oldest son..... about the same time that our Son and his family finish their home our oldest will be getting his dog back so we will be totally free of the pet responsibility as well.
As far as new friends for long time..... I think you will be surprised at how many friends you will make simply through this video blogging you are doing. I have a soft spot for you already and if an when you make your way to Northern CA .... Wine country Sonoma County .... you are welcome to come park your rig here for a week or so..... Haze
Hi Haze,
Sorry to hear about the fire. We always found the hard times to be the most rewarding periods in our lives, in hindsight of course. They have forced change - and we have always been fortunate enough to make things work out.
The slide out on the Fleetwood Southwind looks really deep, that must be nice. I also see that the storage comes out with the slide out, do you like that?
We're glad that you found some useful bits of information in our posts and videos. We didn't make the move into our motorhome to lower our cost of living, but now that we have made the move, it would be difficult going back and seeing the mortgage, property tax, and utility payments come out again.
Being able to work from anywhere really is the best! I better get our rig ready for travel; we are leaving Netarts today.
Take care,
Kevin
It looks like a beautiful fall day where you are. ???. I don’t really understand what the CNC machine except that it cuts metal but I’m blonde and not really crafty so there’s that. Have fun and don’t forget some scenery shots! ????????
Hey Tracy,
It's been amazing experiencing the season in different places. The CNC machine just lets Kevin build stuff - it's something he can't stop doing (build, code, design, cut, glue...). We'll make sure to share more shots of our scenery. We are JUST getting ready to leave Netarts, OR - heading South a bit and will have a new living room view in a few hours.
Leanne (and Kevin)
OK, yep, I could internet search it but WHAT THE HECK IS A "CNC" printer?????? ARGH !!! To all those in media who use undefined acronyms - ARGH ?!!!!!! What the heck does CNC stand for, why on earth would anyone on the road 100% of the time need one, etc. ...... PLEASE explain. And if I missed a posted explanation of this whole CNC thing, please direct me to where you previously posted it. Other than undefined acronyms, LOVE what you’re doing & sharing. ??
Hi Danielle,
Think of a CNC machine as a three dimensional cutting machine that can cut wood and some soft metals, like aluminum. Why would we "need" a CNC machine in our motor coach? I don't think we need a CNC machine, but it allows Kevin to build things much quicker and with less waste. Kevin used to have a garage full of tools, the CNC machine kind of replaces most of them.
CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control - which is even more confusing than calling it a CNC machine.
I'm sure we'll share more about the CNC machine soon. Kevin is just working pull-out trays for our mugs and bowls. He's also planning on building a plate rack, so our plates have a safe place while we drive.
Stay tuned!!
Leanne (and Kevin)
The post is great, thank you. We have just begun alternating staying in our RV and mom-in-law's (it's vacant?) until God leads us on our next step. We're Christian but not weird...ok, I'm weird, but that goes with the territory.? I love everyone getting caught up on the CNC cause that's what grabbed me! Lol, I was scanning comments looking for explanation! Thanks for elaborating on it. Sounds cool & interesting! Build, Kevin, build!??