Every so often we see a rash of comments in RVing groups, blogs and forums from folks who hit the road and are now disappointed with their choice.
And they almost always blame all the bloggers, vloggers and Instagrammers out there who seemingly focus on the positives and oversold the lifestyle (as if we earn a commission each time someone hits the road?!?).
The sunsets, nomadic meetups, amazing boondocking, great hikes, abundant bandwidth and just generally non-stop amazing experiences.
As if life on the road is full of unicorns who only fart rainbows.
‘Why don’t the bloggers also share the downsides??’
Fact of the matter is, I know of very few bloggers who only share the positives. What we find, is those in the dreaming stage so often underestimate or pass over the realities that have been shared.
So what are some of the realities that a dreamer might miss amongst all the pretty photos?
We hosted our recent live video chat on this exact topic, and came up with our Top 10 List (one for each year we’ve been on the road!). We had SUPER fun hosting this with over 350 live viewers joining us (thank you!!).
Here’s the hour-long archive of it if you’d like to catch up… or for the bandwidth challenged and video averse, we have it all written out below with lots of links to relevant content (but you will miss Chris barking like a dog, just sayin’).
In celebration of our 10 years on the road – here are our top 10 things that suck about full time RVing:
1) Society’s Perceptions
In this lifestyle, in the same day you can be looked down upon as RVing being your last ditch effort before homelessness… and asked if you’re a trust fund baby living the high life. As many of us as there are on the road these days, there’s still a lot of stereotypes that come with the lifestyle.
You’re either down on your luck, or independently wealthy on permanent vacation. Just an average middle class citizen working 40 hours a week like many of us? Not as much awareness out there of that.
Pro: Fact of the matter is, most of us are somewhere in-between. And this lifestyle is accessible to such a wide variety of budgets.
2) Legal Ambiguity
You might often feel like you’re skirting through grey areas. Well, because you are. Despite there being hundreds of thousands of full timers out here – we’re still a very small percentage of the population. And many laws just don’t keep us in mind.
- In the past couple of months, we’ve seen South Dakota (a popular state for RVers to domicile at) propose taking away the right to vote for those who don’t actually reside in SD. Recently there was also rampant fear mongering being spread in reaction to a small wording change to a HUD document defining manufactured homes (no, this little change won’t render full timing illegal – that’s been disproved even by Snopes.com).
- There are laws that change as we cross state lines, ranging from if you can buy beer in the grocery store, how long your RV can be to when a state considers you a legal resident despite your intentions (and thus owing state income taxes and needing to register vehicles.)
- What can be written off, and what can’t on taxes?
- When does an RV become considered a commercial vehicle and need to be registered as such?
- Will your domicile claim stick if it comes in question?
- Will your bank accept your permanent mail forwarding address, or seize your accounts if you can’t provide a real residential address to satisfy the Patriot Act?
Pro: There’s little legal precedent on this stuff so far, and we have advocacy groups like the Escapee’s helping keep us alerted.
More Reading:
Escapees Advocacy Feed (Worth supporting Escapees for this alone!)
3) Varying Costs
This can be an affordable lifestyle, a cheap lifestyle or it can be very expensive. But it’s certainly not free.
We know people making it work on as little as $500/month to folks with $5000+ monthly budgets. Depending on your stationary cost of living, living on the road CAN be cheaper – but not necessarily.
For those wanting to minimize their costs as much as possible, here’s some of the compromises you’ll find:
- The places you can stay will be limited to cheap/free camping options or camp hosting opportunities.
- To get a quality RV, you’ll likely have to go pretty old.
- The pace you can keep will be slower if you don’t have a big fuel budget.
- There are substantial upfront expenses you’ll need to make to be setup to be off-grid for extended periods of time.
- You’ll need to be resourceful in other ways when life hands you speed bumps
The reality here is.. if you suck at managing money in your sticks & bricks life, you’re going to suck at it on the road too.
The pros: RVing is one of the most flexible lifestyles that allows you to adapt your spending to your budget as needed. Want a cheap month? Stay still, volunteer and boondock. Want to make some miles, budget for the extra fuel expenses.
More Reading:
What Does it Cost to Full Time RV?
4) Healthcare
It sucks if you’re stationary, but it sucks even more on the road.
- Nationwide insurance networks are disappearing, and RVers play domicile whack-a-mole to keep up.
- Getting in to see a new primary care physician or specialist in a new location can be trying.
- Managing chronic conditions has challenges.
- It can be difficult to keep up with routine healthcare on the road unless you return to your home base regularly.
Possible solutions include: Telehealth, concergeice physician networks, urgent care clinics, medical sharing programs, nationwide PPOs, going to a different country.
Pros: If something major does come up, you have the unique flexibility to go where the specialists are, and not just settling for what is local.
More Reading:
5) RVs Themselves
While you might consider your RV your home, that doesn’t mean it has the qualities of a sticks & bricks house.
- RV is short for Recreational Vehicle. Just like any other vehicle, their value tends to go down as you own them. You’ll have to maintain them to keep them operational, and you’ll likely sell it for less than you paid for it… far less. It’s like paying rent in that you’re paying for housing costs but without building equity, but yet have all of the headaches of home ownership.
- Construction build and suitability to full time living vary quite a bit. These are homes that are under constant earthquake conditions and thus subject to more wear and tear through normal use.
- When they break down, you’ll have to attend to fixing them – navigating new mechanics and repair shops all of the time. Not fixing them can mean literally being stuck.
- Even ‘big’ RVs can feel feel small and constrained at times.. especially when multiple people are trying to get stuff done. Tight passage ways, cooking space, smaller appliances, restricted storage, etc.
- Appliances aren’t always the best.. we have a particular dislike of how loud RV roof air conditioners are.
- RVs provide little privacy with thinner walls, and even with stabilizers nearby neighbors or other people in the RV can tell when there are moments of increased physical activity (ummm… playing Dance Dance Revolution, of course, what did you think we were talking about??)
Pros: RVs allow us to be mobile and location independent. We don’t have to pack our bags, we sleep in our own bed every night, we never forget our toothbrush, we know what drawer the wine opener is in and we are always at home while traveling.
More Reading:
6) Resource management
Unlike living in a fixed place where all your amenities are just there and unlimited in usage – with RVing, everything is in buckets and tanks.
- Water tanks need to monitored and kept at their proper levels (filling the fresh, emptying the waste.)
- Fuel costs vary and finding RV accessible stations can be frustrating.
- Propane availability and costs vary widely across the country.
- Power sources will vary, from 20A or 30A availability requiring deciding if you run the A/C or the microwave, various adaptors needed, and managing off-grid power usage if dry camping.
- Mobile internet usually comes in ‘buckets’ of data for cellular & satellite (unless you score a sweet unlimited data plan!), and free WiFi is sometimes not overly usable.
All has to be managed and kept track of, something you just don’t have to deal with in most stationary homes connected to the grid of municipal utilities.
Pro: This makes RVs pretty darn self contained, allowing autonomy to navigate the widely varying camping options – from sites with varying hook-ups and wild camping.
More Reading:
Maximizing Holding Tank Capacity & Usage
Full Timers Perspective on Fuel Costs
7) Lack of Continuity
Each new location you land, it’s like moving into a new neighborhood. Well, because you are.
- From finding the best place to get an awesome gluten free pizza, doing your normal grocery shopping in a new store, finding a hairstylist for a new cut, to locating a reliable dentist to fix that annoying tooth ache.
- There are new roads to navigate, different traffic patterns, different local customs and ways of doing things.
- You’ll be putting far more mental time into adapting to new situations than you’re used to, and less time just living.
Some days, it gets old putting so much effort into these basic things you might take for granted otherwise.
Pros: Exploring new places and variety is part of the joy of travel! It keeps us on our toes, and keeps life from getting routine and boring!
More Reading:
8) Work Life Balance
If you need to still earn an income, it can be hard to find that sweet balance of getting in work hours that produces the income you need to afford your lifestyle, and put away for your future. AND still enjoy the traveling lifestyle you selected.
- You’ll be tempted by constant new things to go explore, people to spend time with and keep putting off the work until ‘tomorrow’.
- Working in a small space, particularly if you have others in the household not working on the same schedule – can be frustrating and distracting.
- Repositioning days and constant setup/take down cut into your life.
Pros: You can have some fricken awesome amazing office views, and your after-work activities are always changing.
More Reading:
9) Community & Maintaining Friendships is Tough
Community on the road is different than a local continuous community.
- You’ll constantly be meeting amazing people and then saying ‘until next time’.
- Next time might be years down the road.
- Your time together may be limited, and thus you don’t want to take it for granted. This can become difficult if you get well connected and can’t be in constant social mode.
- You’ll have to make extra effort to have ‘more than Facebook’ level connections when you’re apart, which can be difficult when most everyone you feel close to is a long distance relationship.
- Meeting new people usually starts with the same old surface levels conversations, and can get old – especially for us introverts who get recharged by deeper connections.
Pros: You meet some of the most awesome like minds on the road.. after all, we’ve all taken similar life paths!
More Reading:
RVing for Introverts (video)
Meeting and Making RVing Friends
10) Campground & RV Park Living
Campgrounds vary so much, and sometimes living in them can be awesome to sucky.
- Logistics vary from how you make reservations, availability, rules (restrictions on age, pets, RV type), location, pricing, upfront deposits required and the type of amenities offered.
- Arrival can be challenging, depending on how easy the spots are to get into. Parking your house isn’t something stationary life prepares you for.
- Spaces can be close together, offering little privacy between neighbors.
- Whatever your pet peeve is, you’ll likely end up parked right next to it at some point disturbing your ideal tranquility – the boisterous family reunion, the non-stop loud air conditioner on a perfectly good open window day, the barking dog who’s owner has left them alone for the day without acclimating them to life on the road, the neighbor who idles their diesel engine for what seems like hours, active & playing children, lawn maintenance day or the couple that likes to dine outdoors listening to loud polka music. (And that’s just THIS week.)
- Campgrounds are transient neighborhoods – there’s a lot of constant motion as people arrive, setup, pack up and leave.
- While you might be living your daily life, your neighbors will include a variety of folks on their well earned vacation or retirement.
Pros: It still amazes me that there’s this network of over 20,000 neighborhoods we can just pull in and be at with relative ease. Certainly easier than buying a house in a new neighborhood or signing a new lease. Don’t like your neighborhood? With an RV – you just put the key in the ignition.
More Reading/Viewing:
Guide to Finding Campgrounds & RV Parking Options
Video: Realities of Living in RV Parks and Campgrounds – Costs, Amenities, Etiquette & Planning
Video: Finding Campgrounds & Planning RV Travel Routing
Video: RV Travel: Planning a Day’s Drive
It is Really This Awful?
Most of the time, life on the road IS awesome. But just like any lifestyle choice you might make, there are realities. So please don’t let the above discourage you.
For over 10 years, we have continued to choose this lifestyle. See some of these past posts where we have focused on the rainbows & unicorns:
5 Reasons We Continue to Love Full Time RVing
Eight Years as a Full Time RVer — A Letter Back to Myself Then
My 10th Nomadiversary…. And a Glimpse of What’s Next
When the sucky parts add up, we take a break and try something else for a bit. Such as our winter in the Virgin Islands back in 2010 or last summer’s Alaskan adventure.
We like to shake it up, and think we’ll continue to consider RVing our home base for a good long while.
So, what things SUCK about full time RVing for YOU? We welcome your stories and comments below 🙂
Thanks, Chris and Cherie.
If I mention to an RV park host or owner that the cable TV is not working (we don’t have satellite yet) or the wifi is terrible (we do have boosters, etc.) or suggest they should get more than one washer and dryer for the number of sites, too many times I get a condescending smile as they reply, “I know you’re in a motorhome, but we enjoy REAL camping here.” I dig deep for my nicest self and explain that this is real LIVING for us. We’re not just there for the weekend or for a vacation, but this is our home; and in the 21st century, when a park attracts us by advertising cable TV, wifi, laundry or other amenities, we expect them to be of a highly satisfactory quality (or at least in working order!) We fulltime RVers may not “receive” because we don’t “ask.” We need to actively improve #1 Society’s Perceptions by modeling our educated, intelligent, engaged selves. We must let them know that we are selective, have standards, and make informed choices for living our best lives and spending our dollars with those places that support it. …as an aside, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. It takes more than a mindset–it takes a lot of work to find good places and actually be able to get in. The scarcity of sites is real if you’re not a boondocker.
Dinah and Terry
Been on the road for 2 months in my 40 foot class A. My ex-wife decided that that was not for her and filed for divorce right before I left. So for me right now the suckiest thing about living on the road, it’s not having a partner to share the ups and downs with. I’m not worried about it too much though, because there are a lot of people out there looking for people to share their life with, and I hope to find someone who is interested in this lifestyle as well. Some of the other comments I can certainly agree with. Like people having campfires when it was 78 degrees out humid. But I have to remember that these people are on vacation for the most part, and I am living my life. They’re trying to cram in one or two weeks of vacation, with their kids, well I’m just living my life day to day. I have met some cool people already in the short time that I’ve been doing this, and I know I will meet more. And I know it will really be hard to say see you down the road. But it is what it is. This year has been hard with covid-19, remember everybody in the beginning stayed home and the streets were empty, but that didn’t last long and then everybody rushed out. Now the campgrounds are full. I started on the East coast because I really don’t think I’m going to want to drive these tight narrow roads with lots of people as I get older. Unfortunately it is few opportunities to boondock in the east. But my plan is to move more West in the coming years. I plan on doing this until either the funds run out, or it’s no longer fun to do it. I’m retired so I don’t have to worry about the working part yeah internet or lack of has played a significant part in my overall enjoyment or lack of. Today I drove probably 30 miles searching for a gas station for my Jeep and a grocery store to get milk for my espresso machine. I didn’t have any internet so I couldn’t figure out where those things were. That is something I am working on right now to fix. And thanks to both Chris and Cherie for helping us out on this journey. Hope to see you on the road
Hey Bob, I just wanted to encourage you about making real friends. We met hundreds of people in our 3+ years of fulltiming, and we maintain active, engaged friendships with about a dozen of them. Most are fellow RVers but a couple are campground owners. It’s a unique opportunity. The many temporary friendships were not a waste of time and didn’t cause pain when we said ”See you next time!” I urge you to make those friendships. You never know when you’ll click with someone, or if you’re the person they needed to know even if for a week. As I said: unique. You might even consider being a camp host. Great way to catch your breath while meeting a lot of people and being their helpful new best friend.
Try to leave the heartache and disappointment in your rear view mirror and push forward, one mile at a time.
On a practical note: Get some good apps like Ultimate CG, Allstays, Gas Buddy, and many other RV-specific apps to find not only places to stay but also essentials when traveling. Our fave campground search app besides the membership-based ones is Campendium.
Happy trails.
In my opinion, a well written and very informative article! Lays out factual detail concisely of life on the road that may cause many us to think about navigating the nits and grits reality. Love ur site and I’m not even on-the-road yet!! Just getting educated. Thanks.
Eight years of fulltiming and not one complaint. The struggle is the adventure.
Stumbled across your blog today on Pinterest, I have to say I really enjoyed it! My wife and I are new FullTimers and love it! You are very easy to listen to and fun, your information is well presented, and the best part….. you two look soooooo happy! God bless you both and I hope to follow more of your blogs. Thanks for sharing your insights. Brett and Sharon.
We are in the beginning stages of planning to retire in an RV and therefore are in the process of reading all that we can find (and there is a lot out there!).
Thank you very much for this excellent article; yes there is a lot of positive information, but I really appreciate views concerning the flip side, and what I read here is very useful.
…just getting back into coach-style RVing with an ’89 Prevost. I doubt I’ll return to a FT RV life, but driving a bus is a HOOT and boondocking is really special for me. Montana has more than enough wonders to explore to keep me busy in retirement 🙂
There is one problem in need of a solution for me caused by parking my rig in remote locations (BLM/Forest Service) and that is security for the rig while unoccupied. Without cell service available, I’d like alerts delivered to my walkie-talkie (SSB); haven’t found anything that can do that yet. There must be a way to do it because conceptually it’s not much different than simply safe and a cellphone.
Not a problem we have to tackle.. as we pretty much don’t go where there’s no internet 🙂
Question. When you say you go live Q &A where are you posting the live videos? Face book and how can I find them
We’re currently hosting them on YouTube Live, you can learn more about them at: https://www.technomadia.com/video
How big are your holding tanks? Want to make sure that I get the two or three weeks size! !
I Thank you so much and I agreed with you in the 10 sucky issues of Full timing RV living video I just watched. I came off the road in October 20016. I traveled as an RN and my mother traveled with me, she just had her 90th birthday btw! Last fall I took a perm job because she was getting tired of all the changes every 13 weeks when I would get a new assignment and we would move to a new location. I loved it and would be on the road still but it was too much for her. Mind you, she did very very well, But she was getting a little confused and she start forgetting where we where. My 5VR is up for sale and so is my truck. Perhaps I will return to the road in the future. All the points you mentioned I experienced or explored such as legal residency and location variances for food shopping or shopping in general. I used Amazon a lot to maintain consistency. If I didn’t have to get off the road to care for my Mom (mind you no regrets to do that) and I found someone to travel with, I would still be out there!! I just loved the lifestyle of full-timing. I met the most wonderful people out on the road… people like you both!! Thanks for your video.
I love you videos. Thank you for your honesty it gave me a lot to consider before retirement on the road. You two are awesome.
Hi Chris & Cherie, I’ve been watching your great videos for a few years now and love your format. I love the connection you have together “like you finish each other’s sentence” chemistry, which feels like you give fuller, richer details. Thank you!
Do you encounter gay & lesbian rvers and if so, do you have an idea how they are accepted or rejected in the community at camp grounds, etc.?
Shawn from Marietta GA
We have many gay & lesbian RVing friends. Actively blogging, check out our buddies Peter & John of The RV Geeks (also on YouTube), and friends Nancy & Betsy of RV-A-Go-Go (they’re interviewed in our Ramblings series – https://www.technomadia.com/ramblings). And they’re just the tip of the ice berg.
I just stumbled upon your blog! Great stuff! We just purchased our 2016 Fleetwood Bounder 35K in May 2016. Yes, I know it’s August 2016 and we have yet to take it out. I am active duty military (23 years) and have been deployed throughout the summer. We are excited about finally taking it out (baby steps) and learning the lifestyle. My wife and I plan to do a lot of traveling soon once I retire. She is a Vet Tech (animal hospitals), so she can work anywhere. I am pretty handy mechanically and also with lawn & garden. Lol … We just need to learn our RV. Thank you for the blogs. I am learning so much from you guys!
Cherie, thank you for this article. I’m retiring next year (my husband is already retired) and we have been researching purchasing an RV for about a year. We don’t anticipate FT RV’ing, at least in the first year, so I can determine if I like it. I’m an introvert (he’s an extravert), we have 4 dogs, he’s lived on a sailboat, I’ve never done that…….I have so many unanswered questions about whether I will enjoy RV’ing but also concerned about the costs of maintaining a home and an RV, as my husband wants us to travel about half the time. Your article helps me to understand a bit better some of the challenges……my husband sees it as adventure because he’s self-sufficient; it seems more adversity to me because I’ve been in the corporate world all my life and paid to have things done…..and always living with conveniences. It will be interesting to see if I can adapt. Of course I’ve read that the difference between adventure and adversity is Attitude! Since my husband is enthusiastic about doing this, hoping I can adapt.
Great article. Its gootd to know the pros and cons when considering this lifestyle. I want to go into it with my eyes wide open and this is helpful stuff.
Thank you for the info; I was planning on living out of a teardrop trailer; but after being made of all the pitfalls………..my cozy apartment looks good; lol.
Great post, Cheri! I don’t think you missed a thing!
We are on the road now (3 weeks into full-timing! yay!) and we have been staying at an RV resort this week. I have really been hit by the strangeness of, “Everyone around you is on vacation.” It’s nice during the day when we are working and it is empty, but at night when everyone around is up late and roasting s’mores, it just feels… odd.
Quick question about Teledoc – does it qualify for Health Insurance coverage under ACA?
No.. Teledoc is not even remotely an insurance plan. It’s just an option for reaching a physician when you have something like an ear ache.
We live full time on a sailboat and the issues are identical. A lot of people go from living aboard boats to RVs and I wonder if they thought the life would be easier. Sounds like they just trade their life on the water for the same life on land.
Deb
SV Kintala
http://www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com
This was my first with you. I enjoyed you and the information very much. I plans to watch many more. Thank you!
We are ‘”most timers” still havs s&b. biggest problem is tags our county wont let license applications be forwarded to another address. Likewise a lot of other official papers. Have to come home to get license tag forms. We are leaving now. No way to get absentee ballots for November.
Love your honesty…we had a one year full time adventure, sold the house, put stuff in storage and decided to be part timers….we are building a home base in FL and hope to do 3-4 mos trips in the summer..my biggest “aha” was feeling disconnected..I thought that would be a “plus” but turns out, I like the feeling of being “rooted”.. no regrets, and we may rent the house in the future and do another year adventure, with the peace of mind we have a home to come back to….
These things are all so incredibly true, but in the end, it’s definitely worth it. For me, the healthcare thing and the legal issues of residency have been a bit challenging, as has keeping up my RV – there is always *something* broken. But, it’s really all about self-sufficiency in the end. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I have just come across your videos and I LOVE them. Lol yall seem like awesome people! If you are ever in south alabama and need rv repairs let me know! (My husband repairs rvs for a living!) We all need to stick together and help where we can! 🙂
Where are you located in south Alabama, and has he ever worked on a Winnebago Rialta?We are near Eufala ,Alabama. Rbdangler@yahoo.com
Thanks for sharing the good and the bad.
The only thing I would disagree with in this article is, “It’s like paying rent in that you’re paying for housing costs but without building equity,…”. The reason I disagree is we work on the road full time and our choices are a hotel or a 5th wheel. We chose 5th wheel for the following reason. When you buy the 5th wheel you will still have an asset at the end of making your payments. Yes this asset has depreciated (which you can write off on your taxes) but you still have an asset. So we not only gain the tax write off but also have something of value at the end of the note. In a hotel we get nothing 🙂
We love your blog!!! Maybe you could write up an article one day on depreciating your RV/5th wheel and the tax advantages of doing so.
In my mind, there’s a difference between having an asset (yes, your RV will likely still be worth *something* – even if only scrap value) and building equity. When you buy a house, it’s usually presumed that you will likely gain value and you may get more out of what you put in. Whereas the presumption with an RV is that is WILL go down in value. Thus, a decent portion of the money you put into an RV (whether payments or upfront cash or upgrades) will be value lost.
Sure, with rent you end up with no value at the end of the month – so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. It was used more for illustration and making sure folks go in eyes wide open. It’s a cost that us bloggers are often scolded for not bringing up.
Depreciation and tax advise is not a topic we’re even remotely qualified to write or comfortable tackling. We’ll leave that to the CPAs and experts. Anyone contemplating taking such a write-off so should consult with a mobile & full-timer aware tax professional before doing so.
I was inspired by your blog stories, bought your ebooks and did all the research to get started on a dream that, up to that point, was left for our retirement years. You showed me that it can be done while still working, and made me realize that it’s better to start while we are still relatively young and healthy. My husband and I bought our RV a year ago and we’re starting our second season. Hopefully, we’ll get to meet in person in Vermont if you make to Escapade. A heartfelt THANK YOU for all you share with your readers!
Reina
Nomads En Route
Hello. This is my first time commenting 🙂 I have been reading your blog for almost a year. We are in our second month of being full time. Our ultimate goal is to find our next place to live permanently. This gives us an unique advantage to check out the areas that we are interested in. We want to live as inexpensively as possible, and we are frugal people, so that will not be a huge issue for us most times.
Thanks for your insight and honesty.
Take care.
This is a really good topic and I love talking about it. I guess I come from it at a different angle. I’ll try to keep this short(er) LoL! I felt like full-timing for me was taking 5 steps backwards. There I said it! I really thought it would be fun, exciting and something I’d love but found just the opposite. I love where I live in my stick and brick. We live on the outskirts of a city with 250,000 population and yet 5 min down the street we’re in some of the best camping in the Pacific Northwest. We’re not house broke so we can take vacations when we want. I’ve been blessed to be a stay home mom so I don’t have a job I’m running from and hubby loves his job. We don’t have to ask permission nor limit our time to take a vacations because hubby can work remotely (which is why we tried the lifestyle in the first place). So really we weren’t running from the rat race or anything for that matter.
Now a few reasons why we hated the lifestyle… Like Cherie, I too am an introvert. I find people who are the go, go, go personalities over stimulating for me. We had more negative encounters with truck drivers. The roads we travel are terrible. The campgrounds/rv parks are too busy/loud. Everywhere we went was constant people and too many times I wanted to tell everyone to just shut up!! Be quiet! Be still! Shut your dog up! Turn your truck off! Quit opening/closing your car door 10 times to pack/unpack. Put your smoldering fire out because you’re not even sitting by it! And the list goes on. We felt we were dealing with more inconsiderate people on a daily basis and for my personality it was too draining.
So I’ll stay in my house I enjoy, in an area I love, with unlimited water/conveniences & my hobbies and venture out periodically on vacation (anywhere I want to go) when the rare occurrence of being bored hits me, LOL!
No I don’t look down my nose at you full-timers and please don’t tell me I was naive to the lifestyle. I knew the negatives before hitting the road which is why we paid cash for our RV and kept a back door open. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shopping for another vintage sewing machine and finish making quilts to donate to Project Linus. 😉
Ps… may the road you travel bring you happiness in life whichever way you get there! Cheers! ~M
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective about why it didn’t work for you. This lifestyle definitely isn’t for everyone long term.. and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that!
Life is about finding what makes YOU happy, and you won’t know unless you mix it up every so often and try things out. So glad you did, got the experience and won’t have a doubt in your mind that you’ve made the right decisions for yourself.
I totally agree Cherie!! I don’t regret trying. The hard part is that I still find myself dreaming about what I want it to be or how I want it to feel but realize it is what it is. So part time is ok for me and we still hope to meet the folks we follow sometime down the road.
Thank god it’s not for everyone or we would have no place to boondock! Somebody’s gotta stay home.
We have followed along your blogs and been fascinated with your bus. After devoting 25 yrs in firefighting career for the safety of a defined pension we are preparing to go FT. One of us procrastinates to much and goals are slower to achieve. (Not to mention years of ‘stuff’ to clear out and house to sell.)
Over the last decade we’ve RV’d nearly 50k miles and going seven months of “FT” in 2014 we know we want to go that route. Thanks for all the info you share, even as some of it rapidly changes – greedy wireless companies! We love you guys and look forward to a physical meeting in our travels.
Safe journey!
Tom & Tammy
Cheers to your upcoming adventures!
Very thoughtful post , and helps to balance the picture. Other key things for us are health issues, personalities and hobbies. Our health is such that long times on the road and distances from our doctors would be a major challenge. We both have hobbies that are hard to transfer to travelling (especially my wife’s sewing studio). As for our personalities, I think if we were living together in that small a space we wouln’t be together long. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love reading RVer stories, or that we don’t enjoy life where we are!
For sure.. some challenges are harder to navigate than others. I know for sure my ex and I would NOT have been good RV-ing companions with our differing personalities and needs for space (we had considered it, and thankfully were wise enough to pass.)
What an amazing blog post. I have always liked how you two have been honest and straight forward about the ups and downs of your life style and that what makes your readers trust you.
Thank you for sharing.
You’re right that most bloggers don’t gloss over the reality of life on the road, readers do. Fortunately we read the lines and in between them, and so far every negative we’ve had has been something we expected could happen. And yes, the positives still greatly out number the negatives 🙂 The reality of the vast numbers of us taking up this life style is that domicile and healthcare are likely to become bigger issues before they are resolved “down the road”. Great post!
I appreciate what you said about surface conversations and the need for recharging via deeper connections. Sometimes my wife and I feel like we should simply keep to ourselves because all the people we meet fulltiming are temporary friends (at best) anyways.
Maybe it will get better with time, but for now that’s one of our sucky sides of fulltiming.
We honestly have to restrain ourselves sometimes. There’s so many amazing people out here to meet, and we can quickly overload ourselves and drain our energy. It’s tough, because we authentically WANT to meet everyone we can, and we know the power of deep connections that have come about from the connections we put effort into years ago.
Just this week we had to take a break from sharing our location publicly so we could minimize social temptations .. we just had to get in some work hours and recharge on our own.
That is one of the cool things about this lifestyle, is you can go off on your own for a bit and recharge, and choose when you want to be social. I can’t say you’ll find your balance, but I do hope you find some harmony in it 🙂
Great video and blog post. I have always appreciated how you two have been honest and straight forward about the ups and downs of your life style. For that matter I think everyone and hit on those topics in the different blogs that I read. You all do a great job. I love following along on your journeys.
Most every blogger we follow keeps a nice balance, we think. It’s a great community, and so many resources to learn and get inspiration from.
I love all your articles! We’ve been full timing for 8 months now. It was only by researching and carefully reading mostly your articles (as well as other RV blogs) that helped us prepare, correctly I feel, for full timing. From what RV supplies to purchase, to which travel clubs to join, boondocking how to’s, how to plan trips, etc., your articles proved so valuable to help us to be successful so far. We’ve been doing fine with very few problems because we were prepared, we’ve traveled over 7000 miles so far, from coast to coast – from Oregon to Florida and 1000’s of amazing places in between. I wouldn’t trade this time in our lives for much! Thank you for helping us “newbies” start our full timing adventure with at lease some knowledge of what we’ve gotten ourselves into. I thank you, I thank you, I thank you!!
Very happy to hear it it, and wishing you many continued adventures!
Wonderful article. Thank you for taking the time to put on the video chats as well. I’m a subscriber but am not always available to participate in the live session. Thank you for making the achieves available. This topic just happened to be very timely for me and wife. I placed a link to this page on my blog.
Glad it was timely and helpful. The live chats are super fun, and what keep us motivated to create this sort of content to share longer term via the archives (knowing we’ve asked folks to show up and put it on a calendar;) ). The combo has worked well for us, and while not everyone appreciates an hour of us just babbling on – there seems to be quite a desire for extended form content.
Thanks so you two. Echoing a post above, one of the best and most balanced articles I’ve seen. And thanks for offering a multi-level tip jar, lovely story lines there. May your all’s good heart come back to you multifold. Cheers.
Awww… thanks 🙂
I’m not sure if someone else already brought this up or not (didn’t read every comment), but one of the suckiest things for me is being away from my kids. Yes, it’s a choice we made, but not being nearby when your kid is going through a bad time is very difficult. We are a phone call/text/message away and if it was really bad a plane ride, but just something else to consider! And we don’t have grandkids yet!
The PRO of this is: our kids can come visit us and see new places when they do (even if we have to buy the ticket!)
Always being far away from most everyone you care about is tough indeed, and one of our constant struggles too (ie. community). But, on the flip side – we have the unique ability to pull in and be local for extended periods of time.
I love you guys and appreciate all your advice and tips ! We are newbies …we haven’t went anywhere yet but we live full time in our class A rv at a campground …we are hoping to hit the road this summer ! We can’t wait ! Thank you so much for everything !â£â£â£
Yes that was a big issue for me and I do have grandkids. For some of us the positive doesn’t out weigh the negative. I’ve come to the conclusion I’m a vacationer and maybe a snowbird but definitely not a full-timer. Cheers! ~M
Fulltiming over 5 years, I’m constantly challenged to find new balances in how I spend time, but that’s the GOOD part. I know from experience that in a sticks and bricks lifestyle, I’d always know what I’d be doing every part of every day- exercise classes, volunteer schedule, chores. Perfectly balanced, but ultimately boring… A life on the road, continually in motion, keeps me continuously open to new possibilities.
The constant new just speaks to some of us 🙂 I have never liked routine in my day/week, and love that most days out here on the road are so different.
Interesting! I love routine. Guess that’s why I loved the Navy. I don’t find a stick and brick boring and when I do then it’s time for a vacation to regroup. Cheers! ~M
I’ve been full-timing in a class B for almost a year and I’m not ready to give it up yet! I do miss baths tho.
I personally miss regular access to hot tubs. Would love more RV Parks that had hot tubs, hot springs and bath tubs available 🙂 It’s a luxury we love when we find them.
This is by far my absolute favorite post you have ever done. Comprehensive, balanced, and somehow you managed not to be overly negative. Outstanding! I will say though that I fall into the camp of thwhose who wish they would have read more about the negative aspects prior to going live. You certainly have a point that I may have glossed right over what I didn’t want to hear, but there certainly was less of it. I do think that’s changing though as more folks to open up to the story behind the pretty pictures. You guys have always been at the forefront of telling it like it is though and I am grateful for it. Again, great job and thanks so much.
Awww… thanks guys. It’s so difficult when you’re in the planning stages to really soak in just what you’re getting yourself into.
Love it!
Tell me more about this great 2-stroke shop in Chattanooga. 8V92TA, hopefully I won’t ever need it, but….
They’re Choo Choo Express Garage – http://www.choochoogarage.com
Buying the perfect RV for fulltiming only to find the not so perfect things about it making you want to trade it in VERY SOON. Our first one lasted 4 months. Because you don’t know what you don’t know.
Exactly… you just don’t know what is perfect for you until you’ve been out there a while. If we had one tip for first time buyers, is don’t get in over your head financially or emotionally on the first RV. Leave yourself wiggle room to change out the RV.
When we went mobile, we thought it would be a year to find somewhere we wanted to live FT. 3 years later, including 2 major mechanical failures that ironically left us stuck in the same location twice in 6 months, continuing to deal with an intermittent problem, and yet we still can’t imagine having a house again.
This adventure has its challenges, you learn to manage and overcome logistical nightmares and then there’s that magical sunset, awesome hike, new bike path, super fun convergence, unexpected site seeing opportunity or just a quiet night around the fire with your partner and you realize just how good this life is and how blessed we are to experience so many little moments that some of us used to only experience on vacation.
It’s not easy, but it is so worth it to have so much more LIFE☺
That’s a strong endorsement for the lifestyle and that it’s working for you! You guys endured more than your fair share of bumps getting out there. Cheers to many more adventures!
I’ve had bad days on the road over the last three years. I also had bad days at home. I chose the road buy far.
Exactly… life has challenges no matter how you choose to go about it. 🙂
Been full time since January. Working full-time on the road we have bounced through your blog’s and videos constantly. Life on the road has its up and downs but we love it! 365camper .
Sometimes the ups and downs are quite literal along the road 🙂 We continue to love the lifestyle, challenges and all.
When we went on the road, our eyes were wide open, Cherie. There was never a doubt that we would have cruddy days. But the good always seem to outweigh the bad, and the bad are never as bad as if they weren’t expected. Thanks for the great post!
Hooray for eyes wide open! We look at it this way, we’d have cruddy days in almost any lifestyle we’d embark upon. As long as our general joy in life is high, we’re doing what is right for us 🙂 Glad you are too.
This month marks our first anniversary of full time RVing. We followed your blog and WheelingIt for about a year before we started and you guys both provide awesome and insightful information, so we haven’t been too surprised or disappointed by the items you mentioned above, which, in some form or another, we’ve experienced them all in our first year. One that I would add is family emergencies, when you have to figure out how at least one of you is going to manage to travel to someplace far away from where you are now. What to do with the RV, your camping reservations, pet care in an unknown place, an unusual airport, etc. That was a tough challenge for us recently, but all part of the wonderful opportunity to live this nomadic lifestyle:) Thank you guys for all you do!
Congrats on your upcoming one-year Nomadiversary! 🙂
And true indeed, juggling traveling away from your mobile home base has its challenges, especially when needed at the last minute.
The pro side of the coin, is that this lifestyle gives us a lot of freedom to really be there for our loved ones when they need us. Our lives are already mobile designed to be able to adapt, and we have the option of driving to their location and making our basecamp there for as long as needed. I will always cherish being able to do that when my father was ill.
Thanks for your contributions to the RV community. We have learned a lot from your video chats. Hope to meet you guys on the road,
Thanks Jaime, we’re thrilled we’re able to share and hopefully help others navigate some of the paths we’ve taken.
If you use a Schedule II drug like a lot of pain killers, the refill rules can be a real game changer. Check out the rules so you know what you’re up against.
You may well have to revisit your prescribing doctor monthly.
“How will the new rules about pain medications going to affect me?
A: New prescriptions written on and after Oct. 6, 2014, will require a written prescription in accordance with the federal and state laws around Schedule II drug dispensing. Prescriptions may not be for longer than 30 days. No refills will be allowed on new prescriptions from Oct. 6, 2014, and after. For many prescriptions written before Oct. 6, the refills will be invalid. Talk to your pharmacy and your prescriber about the best way to address your pain medicine prescription needs.”
Ah.. yes great point about one of those healthcare hassles of managing a chronic condition.
Got some good use out of that $500 link….through there found a way to convert my Pontiac Safari Van for less than 400! and feeling dumb because I didn’t think of it myself! LOL
Awesome. The CheapRVLiving community has a lot of fantastic stuff to share.
First off, let me start by saying that your blog/site is what inspired us to finally take the leap and go nomadic full time. We’ve been on the road for almost two years now and haven’t regretted it…well, more than maybe a couple of times. HA! That being said, in response to your query above about what sucks the most about being nomadic, we (hubs, son, and I) agree that there are two things: poop and internet. In a sticks and bricks you’ll still have your broken furnace or a leaky pipe, just like in an RV. But in a house one rarely has to give much thought to what happens after the lever is pushed and the bowl empties. We just recently moved from a camper van to a motor home and had our first “stinky baptism”. We were commiserated with by others at the resort where we’re staying, and everyone was very nice, but Oh. Emm. Gee.
The second sucky thing is lack of data. We’re on a pretty tight budget and can’t really afford any of the “big bucket” data plans. We homeschool our 11 year old so that requires a certain amount of data, and hubs works part time online. Add in a movie or two and WOW that data adds up fast! In a sticks and bricks it’s all high speed and unlimited and CHEAP! But, we adapt and overcome and sally forth into our next adventure. Time enough for sewer systems and cable internet when we retire….IF we retire. 😉 Thanks again for everything, both of you!
Sounds like pursing an unlimited data plan might be worthwhile in your case. For folks who regularly desire more than about 15-20GB of data a month, usually it’s cost effective (and oh so freeing to not have to micro manage usage). You can learn more about the unlimited plan options in our article at: http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/unlimited
I totally agree Cherie!! The unlimited plan is the way to go! Internet was first and foremost for us. It wasn’t lack of income or permission from Corporate that decided if we went mobile it was the internet. The grandfathered plan sure made it easier and how we obtained ours was with info from your MIA group. Cheers! ~M
Thank you so much for this insight. On our ( actually my) first rv adventure & it has been an adjustment, since himself has done this many times before, I am the main issue!! Learning
as we/I go. Wish you well on your cruise & when in NH be sure to check out the nh state liquor site for special coupons.
All the best
Mae
It is indeed an adjustment with moments of pure joy and pure frustration. Keep on learning, and do your best to find the positives whenever you can. 🙂
We loved your video chat and you were so ‘spot-on’ with your list.
Thanks Patricia … and thanks for joining in on the live cast!
Very enjoyable. LIke the concept of being somewhere between trailer trash homeless and Trustifarian (trust baby). Have enjoyed the term “semi-affluent homeless”. Do try to go through your blog every few weeks
Trustifarian.. awesome word!
We personally don’t consider ourselves homeless… just that our home has wheels. We have taken sometimes to using ‘Mobile Middle Class’.
WORST thing is the amount of time you spend dealing with poop. From hooking/unhooking sewer hoses, building tramways out of blocks and gutters, stopping at dump stations, rinsing tanks, fixing leaks, smelling strange smells, experimenting with random “deodorizers”, and guiltily cleaning up actual hazardous waste spills caused by fluids.
When you put it that way… it sounds like we’re missing out on a lot of ‘fun’ 🙂 We’ve really been appreciating our new huge holding tanks which has made the minor chore even less of one for us – something we only need to do once every 2 or 3 weeks.
BTW, we’ve been using ‘Happy Camper’ for many years, and find it works quite well in minimizing smells.
Glad you’re so successful. It’s the worst part of my trip, hands down. Tiny tanks, long runs to the drain, etc.
One of the things that I have always appreciated about you both is your ability to say things as they are. You do not hold back if something is not good – or if it is really nice. Largely because of this you have become a trusted source of truth & realism – which seems to be lacking more and more in many areas of life ( advertising? politics? the media?). I like that you do not sugar-coat anything, but at the same time your life outlook is very positive, and your blog certainly has not over-sold full time RVing as the perfect lifestyle. But you have clearly explained that it is a great one for you – and could be for us as long as we are aware of how it is so different from the traditional one that many of us have with a groundhog day job, commute to/from the burbs, and little change or excitement in our lives. So yes – you are explaining how you have managed to escape that rut – but with a realistic and practical explanation of your journey. Thanks for continuing to do this – I find it fascinating to follow you adventures, your lifestyle and your observations, and hope to join you on the road sometime soon.
Awww…. blush.. thanks Richard. Your comment really warms our hearts, and we love that our intentions with this space are coming through. Thanks for joining us here!
Thanks for this! I’m not on the road yet — still in the planning stages — but I’m relieved that there’s nothing on your list that hasn’t already occurred to me. I’m pretty sure the first few nights and months will be a solid mix of “Horrors, what have I done?” and “Wow, how lucky am I?”
Oh how I remember those first days.. all part of the excitement, I think. Happy to hear we didn’t scare ya away from your upcoming plans!