Full-time Living in Our Diesel RV
We embarked from our home base of Austin, TX at the beginning of January to take our most ambitious RV trip to date. The aptly-named Grand Loop Trip would take us west to California through New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, then north to Seattle before cutting east to North Dakota and going back south to Texas. It would take eleven months and more than 5,700 miles.
Alas, our epic Grand Loop Trip is not to be. [Read more…]
Not knowing how to earn an income on the road is the number one factor that keeps people who want to fulltime RV from doing it.
I actually made that up, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.
If nothing else, it was certainly true for us. If it’s also true for you, let our story be motivation and inspiration. With planning and courage, you can live in an RV and travel fulltime.
RVing is personalized in so many ways, from the RV you choose, to the types of campgrounds you like to stay at, to the way you earn an income. Rather than providing an exhaustive guide to working on the road, my goal is to share what we’ve experienced. I hope you can relate to the pros and cons Eric and I assessed as we prepared to change our lifestyle, and be inspired by what it’s actually like to be a fulltime, working RVer. [Read more…]
We left the day before this picture was taken, but we did have THIS much fun!
There are numerous membership programs for RVers, each with their own perks. Signing up for all of them is budget suicide, but deciding which ones are right for you can save a lot of headaches. To date, we’ve signed up [Read more…]
To be honest, whenever someone tells us about a new online platform, page or group for RVers, we kind of wince and half heartedly agree to take a look. It’s not that we’re too cool for school, believe me. It’s just that we’re already a member of so many, and most of them we hardly ever use.
Hey, it isn’t personal, we just have a life to live and we don’t want to always be online if you know what I mean. After all, we’re supposed to be out exploring the country, right?
But this wasn’t always the case. When we first started full time RVing just over a year ago, we tried to be involved in every group, page and platform we could. [Read more…]
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival.
-C.S. Lewis
As full-time RVers, we’re often asked, “What is the most difficult thing about full-time RVing?”
I could easily make a list of our standard answers. But one that we feel merits discussion, is building friendships when you live in an RV full time.
Our newest RV friends Ryan and Michele Newbrough. We’ve been talking for months and finally met up in Virginia Beach. We’ve already gone out twice and have a third time planned before we leave the area.
We start with the premise that friendship is usually predicated on the fact that you spend time in person with those whom you call friends. [Read more…]
New iPhone 5S
Connectivity is almost always a big deal for full-timers. And it doesn’t only matter for those of us who work online. Our retired next door neighbor here in Arlington was just telling us how crazy she gets when she doesn’t have phone or Internet service! We all want to feel connected to our loved ones, current events, and individual interests.
But connectivity comes at a premium. Before getting on the road, we were extremely concerned about our Internet options and the level of service we would have in different parts of the country. Through extensive research, we chose Millenicom’s wireless device for our Internet service. It runs off Verizon’s network, and we’ve been extremely pleased with it (despite the recent price hike). With some advance planning and use of the Coverage? app, I can’t think of a single work day we’ve lost for lack of Internet service.
On the phone side, we’ve had iPhones through AT&T since about 2009. We love our iPhones, and for the most part we’ve appreciated AT&T because of its reliable coverage across the country. But we hadn’t [Read more…]
I needed a portable gas grill. Heck, everyone who RVs needs a portable gas grill, right? After all, who wants to be “that guy”? You know who I’m talking about – that one guy who shows up to a campsite without the essentials. I mean, would other campers look at me funny if I rolled up in a 40′ diesel and had no grill? That guy on the right is looking at me funny even now.
See how happy they look? (Photo credit: SteveR via FlickrCC)
I envisioned myself looking longingly at other people’s campsites as they enjoyed their evening festivities with the aroma of seared meat filling the air, my stomach grumbling something unintelligible to me…nope, I wasn’t going to let that happen.
It was decided. I wanted the best portable gas grill I could get. [Read more…]
The last few nights have been restless. My stomach is in knots, my mind is running at max capacity, and yet we move forward.
With no practical experience whatsoever, we’re selling most everything we own and moving into a 2003 40’ long Phaeton Class A Diesel Pusher RV by Tiffin Motorhomes.
Truth be told, I really don’t know how the RV starts and there is some random lever on the left of the driver’s seat that when you pull it up makes this whooosh sound, much like the big Greyhound buses. Oh yeah, and there is that ominous cut-off switch near the door that seems rather important. ~shifts eyes~
As you can tell, we’re truly starting in a complete state of ignorance. As of this writing, we literally know nothing but what we’ve read online. (We don’t even have an owners manual as we got a used RV that was missing one.)
Thankfully, we’ve found the RV online community to be beyond helpful. Specifically in the areas of forums and blogs. [Read more…]
The switch to a full-time RV lifestyle has been a long time coming. There was money to save, priorities to order…and we had to come to terms with the fact that we’re crazy to have a home on wheels.
Even though we weren’t ready to pull the trigger and make our purchase, we used the time to research and decide which type of RV was right for us and our unique needs.
The conversation went something like this, over the course of a couple of years:
Brittany: “These Class C’s look nice.”
Eric: “I don’t think Class C’s are big enough for us to live in full-time. We need to look at Class A’s.”
/time passes/
Brittany: “Okay…you’re probably right.”
/time passes/
Eric: “I’ve done some research and diesel Class A’s have more power and can carry more weight. We should get a Class A diesel pusher.”
Brittany: “Okay…”
/time passes/
Brittany: “Newer Class A gas models have more power than they used to. I think a diesel might be overkill, and they sure are expensive! Hey, I think we can afford this new Class A gas.”
Eric: “Okay…”
/time passes/
Brittany: “Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could pay in cash and not have a monthly RV payment?”
Eric: “Okay…I guess we need to buy an older RV.”
/time passes/
Eric: “Diesel Class A’s have more power and can carry more weight. We should get a Class A diesel pusher.”
Brittany: “Okay…you’re probably right.”
(And somewhere in the middle at an RV show)
Brittany: “Look at these fifth wheels!” [Read more…]
Welcome to RV Wanderlust! We're Eric and Brittany Highland and we're on a pretty amazing adventure. As of 2018, we're starting our fifth year as fulltime RVers and we've been transparently documenting the journey all along the way. In December 2016 we … Keep reading
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