Joseph was working a lot of overtime in a big company, barely ever seen. I was working on my small business full time while homeschooling 3 kids. Our lives were hectic. We barely spent any time together as a family. Free time was spent just playing catch up with our to-do list.

Joseph started watching full time sailing videos on youtube and decided that’s his dream for retirement. We were barely past 30 years old so it was going to be a while. I would watch videos with him every now and then and get excited about the potential of traveling the world! It was exciting!

Now, if you don’t know me, my personality is go big or go home. Once there’s an idea in my head then I run with it and I want to do it now. Life is too short to assume we get to live a retirement life.

Shortly after binging full time sail videos, I found full time RV life and that was exciting because it was an attainable short term goal. A 100K for freedom in an rv vs 500k in a sailboat just seemed to feel more realistic.

So, after a few months of convincing Joseph we had decided to go for the RV dream! This would mean that he would quit his job and I would focus on my small business. If you need to work remotely, check out our page here. This wasn’t easy for him, after all, he had a retirement plan, cushy, well paid job.

Fast-forward, it took us 4 months to get on the road, including selling our house + everything inside, and buying a truck + RV.

Soooo…. here we are, 3 years later in the middle of Florida getting ready to head down to The Keys for a few weeks. The kids are doing their chores and school as I write a blog, and Joseph is at a scuba diving convention aka DEMA that he’s waited for all year.

Our perception vs reality on what full time rv life was mislead. We are open minded so it’s not bad but I think this is the sole reason people hate rv life. They expected this dreamy lifestyle of vacationing everyday.

You walk out your front door and see the open field with mountains behind it sipping a cup of coffee while you can barely see your breath as you exhale. After your warm cup of coffee, you go out on a hike and then explore the local towns to see the differences of cultures. Everyone is smiling around you and life is stress free for everyone up encounter. In the evening you kick back in the recliner and talk to your spouse about how the day went and then think about what to do tomorrow while sipping a scotch or glass of wine.

REALITY CHECK (insert record skipping here)- here’s how it really goes. You open your eyes and wonder where you are parked, forgetting which state you’re in sometimes. Knowing the day of the week off hand is even harder. After climbing out of bed, you make your coffee and sit down to work (because that’s still a thing…). If your internet is great then you can get your work done in a few hours but if it’s not then you need to head to the rec center or local coffee shop to finish working. By now it’s about mid day and you realize that you haven’t worked out or even eaten! After you prioritize food vs dumbbells, you may have time to get the dishes done, laundry, pay bills, or quickly pick up. Oh shoot… you chose the dishes and now the grey tank is full. On your way out the door to dump the tank, you see a friend walking their dog and 3 hours later you realize that you are still talking and finally say, “see ya later”. Now it’s nearing bedtime but you invited friends over so you stay up until 2am hanging out in the clam tent playing Catan or talking away. You come back inside the RV and realize you haven’t even eaten dinner but you’re too tired. Today was great! You made people a priority and that’s a good feeling. Your house may be a mess, the bills go on tomorrows list and the dishes can wait and that’s okay! The connection you have with your friends out power anything on the to-do list.

Now…. add kids and a dog into the mix! Homeschool, meet ups, meeting other parents, campground activities, keeping the kids occupied and more.

That my friends is the reality of full time rving. Don’t get me wrong, we do go out on adventures but not everyday, sometimes not even every week. We still have bills to pay, laundry, grocery shopping, work, homeschool, and most important, downtime! Sometimes our brains are overstimulated and we go into hibernation mode.

Now, let’s be honest, not everyday is this way and we choose to live this lifestyle because we do love it! So for the next 30 days, I’m going to record our lives so you can really see what the average full time rver experiences.

So what are the biggest things that I misunderstood when dreaming about full time traveling in an rv vs reality?

• Everyday is not and adventure. We still have real life problems that need addressed including maintenance, chores, advanced planning, and other real life problems.

• Our RV is not 100% clean 24/7. Yes it’s smaller so it’s easier to clean and a fast “pick up” so that’s nice. I used to tell myself that if my house was clean then I was a good mother and wife. Now I base my value upon myself, not how clean things are or how others perceive me.

• You don’t see everyones RV inside! It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t go into other rvs. Because so many of us live tiny and our priorities are with human interaction vs a clean house, we hang with people outside of the rig. It’s very rare that you enter someones rig. If you have to use the restroom and you’re at someones rig, excuse yourself and go back to your own rig or the bathhouse! So if you’re looking for inspiration, just keep searching Pinterest.

• Maintenance and repairs are a huge thing! Your house goes through an earthquake every time you move and because you now live in something that’s meant for weekenders, things break a lot! This means there’s a lot of days you can’t go explore.

• Bad campgrounds can be good! There are some campgrounds that you’ll pull into and immediately want to leave, then they’ll turn out to be your favorite campground because of the people who travel through. You’ll quickly find that you want to stay in the same rv resorts due to the people, not the amenities.

• You don’t have as much “free time” as you think. You actually spend your free time hanging out with others. I was on a phone call with someone the other day and it had taken me several days to get back with them. They said, “wow, for someone who’s always on vacation you sure do take a while to return a phone call”. I laughed and understood exactly what their perception was on this lifestyle. They think that we’re just hanging out but we’re super busy too. Our free time is hanging out with friends, not on our phones. Don’t get me wrong, I work on my phone a lot but it’s not just scrolling through social media just for fun.

• Campgrounds are like old nasty trailer parks. Don’t hate me here! This is what I assumed and I was SOOOOOO wrong! Some of these RV’s are more expensive than our 2500 sq ft house with 7 acres! You’ll see that these people want the freedom just like you. They don’t base their value on others opinions and they’re so comfortable in their own skin that they don’t need a giant house or “things” to prove who they are to people.

• Full time rv conversations are much different, they’re better! It’s not chit chat about the latest trends, sports, public school agenda, to-do’s, and such. It’s fun, upbeat, light hearted but deep, meaningful conversations. We can quickly pick out newbies or weekenders strictly on how they carry conversations. This is my favorite part about full timing, the meaningful conversations.

• Full timers are generally upbeat and positive. I assumed that people would keep to themselves but full timers are here to meet new people and crave learning about different lifestyles! Full timers smile more and are happy people overall!

• My biggest worry was that we wouldn’t find “our people” aka a community. Ya know… the people who you want to see over and over again. Those that you connect with as soon as you meet them. I was wrong! The community is amazing and easy to find if you put yourself out there. Don’t expect everyone to come up to you, go up to them!

I could go on and on about full time rv life but I’ll save some more details for later. If you’re interested in seeing what it’s like RVing for 30 days, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you get the details when they roll out!

See ya on the road,

-Amanda