Chris and I are both from Houston, TX, which is where we met in 2008. We later found out we went to the same high school but Chris was a freshmen when I was a senior. He loves to rub that in. Ever since our first date, we have pretty much been inseparable. Never the traditionalists, we married in Las Vegas on 10/10/10 and had a big Halloween reception with our family and friends back in Houston to celebrate.
By 2013 Chris was busy developing a new ERP system for his employer and I was working at an insurance agency. We were renting a three bedroom house and looking to buy one of our own. It was a buyer’s market and house hunting was becoming too stressful, so we put the idea on hold and moved into a two bedroom apartment. This ended up being a great thing. We started to love our smaller space and it was less expensive. So, when our lease was up, we went even smaller and moved into a one bedroom apartment.
We were becoming really interested in the tiny house movement and decided to stay in one during our trip to Portland, Oregon in 2014. We loved it and the Portland/Hood River area.
When we got back home we realized we wanted more than just the normal 9 to 5 office jobs and wanted to get out and see more of our beautiful country while we were young and healthy. Chris, like most people only had two or three weeks vacation a year. Which really doesn’t leave much time for travelling.
By the end of 2014, I had been working in the insurance industry for almost 10 years. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. With the money we were saving living in a one bedroom, I was able to quit my job to try and figure out what I wanted to do. I’ve since started an Etsy shop where I sell crochet animals.
We were thinking of possibly moving to Portland and getting a tiny house. So, I started reading up on tiny houses and watching youtube videos. The videos led me to a lot of vlogs of younger digital nomads who were living in RV’s and working remotely.
Its funny because my Brother-in-law was actually a travel nurse and him and my sister were full time RVers for 6 years. For some reason, this had never occurred to us that we could be Fulltimers too. They had lots of great adventures, and some of our favorite vacations were visiting and staying with them during their travels. Since only Chris was working, we decided to take a risk and ask his boss if he would let Chris work remotely. We are forever grateful that he said yes.
From there we started researching the different types of RV’s. We have two dogs, Remus and Samson and thought travelling in motorhome would be an easier transition for them. Plus, we didn’t want a large truck as our main vehicle. Once we had our type of rig figured out going RV shopping was becoming more and more fun. Now, we were just looking for the perfect layout. When we came across a 2006 35’ Fleetwood Bounder motorhome, with a washer/dryer combo, separate bathroom and shower, large bedroom and great work space (the dash and passenger seat) we knew it was “the one”. It really was quite spacious and had all the things we really needed. We purchased the motorhome at the end of 2015 and put it in storage until our apartment lease was up.
Our plan was to hit the road in April of 2016 but once we took the RV out of storage in February, it was one problem after the next. The water had a terrible odor, our roof was leaking and so was our generator, and to top it off we had electrical problems. We were very happy we got the warranty because the RV kept ending up back in the shop.
We finally hit the road in May of 2016. The first 3 months were rough. We were loving staying in new places but our RV problems continued. We were missing family and friends and we were also moving too fast. Chris still works 8 to 5 Monday through Friday and we were moving on Saturday and Sunday, which left us both feeling exhausted. Now we try to stay somewhere at least a full week and normally move on Sundays.
It’s hard to believe we are quickly approaching our 1 year anniversary of this nomadic lifestyle. Over time we have found a lot more of what works for us and we have gotten most of our rig problems taken care of. The ups of this lifestyle have far outweighed the downs. Seeing and experiencing living in new places has been more amazing than we could have imaged. We have stayed in 14 states and fallen in love with our National Parks. We have already been to 9, and have a lot more on our list to see this year. We love the RV community and have met some great friends. We are also big foodies and love trying to local restaurants, wineries and breweries. It’s rough but someone has got to do it. We can’t wait to start our 2nd year on the road and share our adventures with you.