what is it like to live in an rv park
RV Advice
Learn how a 6-month road trip turned into total-time RVing for i family of RV owners.
It began the mode most just-so-crazy-it-might-work ideas practice. Jennifer and Deas Nealy were dog owners and frequent travelers who kept running into the same problem. Every time they went out of town—which was frequently—they would either have to lath their Australian Shepherd, German Shepherd, and corgi or tailor their vacation so that they were only staying at dog-friendly hotels. So they had a idea: What if they bought an RV, lived in it with their dogs full-time, and went on holiday forever?
The couple spent the next twelvemonth researching RVs and attending RV shows before finding a 2010 Tiffin Allegro Ruddy on eBay and ownership information technology sight unseen. They decided to test the water with a six-calendar month trip. Shortly later renting out their home in Grayton Embankment, Florida, they hit the road and headed west.
"I think nosotros collection ix hours that first day. Nosotros wanted to head west as fast as nosotros could," says Jennifer. "We had no idea what nosotros were doing. We didn't make real reservations. We went really, really fast. We'd stop in places for two or three days and then move on."
What she describes is typical of new full-time RVers who often try to see as many places as quickly as possible.
"You simply get, get, go. Information technology'due south exhausting. Now we go slower and stay places for a week at a fourth dimension."
On that initial 6-calendar month trip, the Nealys drove from Florida to Oregon. The couple expected their three dogs to stretch out in the RV and slumber, merely the dogs instead chose to stay up front, taking in the changing landscape aslope Jennifer and Deas. The v of them traveled through xi states, only really lingering along the Oregon coast, where they fell in dear with the surprisingly sunny summer weather and crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean.
After that, they headed dorsum to Florida for the winter, just it wasn't long before they were gear up to load up the RV once more. This time, they sold their house and embarked on a more permanent road trip of full-fourth dimension RV living.
For income, the pair relies on occasional real estate investments, though they are currently out of the real estate game and filling in every bit campground hosts in Florida in exchange for free rent. Their job entails greeting and assisting boyfriend RVers, keeping an middle on the campground and driving a tram that runs to the beach. They notwithstanding look at potential real estate opportunities as they travel, but they're not as well eager to invest.
"We don't consider ourselves retired," says Jennifer. "We're practicing retirement."
Many full-time RVers—especially millennials—piece of work from the road, thanks to the rise in job opportunities that allow employees to accept their careers with them.
"We have a ton of full-time RV friends, and the majority are still working. There are so many jobs available where people work remotely," says Jennifer.
For total-fourth dimension RVers who are planning on working remotely, she recommends investing in a skilful hotspot from a jail cell service provider, since WiFi isn't always equally reliable every bit you lot might hope. Staying at KOA campgrounds that offer internet is also helpful.
Of grade, full-fourth dimension RVing is in large office about spending less time staring at screens and more than fourth dimension exploring the coastlines, mountains, deserts, cities and small towns that ascertain America. When the Nealys first started out as full-fourth dimension RVers, they took an idealistic arroyo to travel.
"We'd wake up and say 'which direction are we going to go?" Jennifer remembers.
Eventually, they learned to make campground reservations in areas that booked upward quickly, similar Yosemite National Park and Grand Teton National Park. One summertime, while traveling the land of Maine, they booked everything months in advance.
"Information technology was stressful doing that," says Jennifer. "Now we don't really plan out that much, but I run into the advantage in doing it. I don't take anything planned out in advance for this year."
The Nealys aren't quite sure where they'll head once they go out their campground host position in Florida, but they know what they'll do when they get at that place.
"The offset thing we do when getting to a new place is go on Yelp and encounter if at that place'south a local brewery, and and so we get to boondocks, meet local people and potable beer."
A self-described lifelong Southerner, Jennifer is ever surprised by how welcoming people are in every land.
"Information technology's not just the South that has the marketplace on being friendly," she says. "Nosotros've met then many squeamish people that we keep in touch with. It'south similar we accept friends all over the land."
Life on the road can often get lonely, even for couples or families who travel together. Committing to the total-fourth dimension RV lifestyle ofttimes means forgoing a sense of customs, missing out on family events and waking up every 24-hour interval in a new, unfamiliar place. For the Nealys, this is the greatest challenge of full-time RVing. To cope, they've built a network of friends on the road, most of whom they met through the growing community of full-time RV lifestyle bloggers. Jennifer started the couple'south weblog Nealys on Wheels to join this sort of makeshift social network. The pair began to brand connections with other full-time RVers through their blog and through Instagram.
"I wanted our proper name out at that place then we could make connections with other people who are blogging," Jennifer says. "Yous start following people back and forth and you notice you're in the same area."
This past summer, those online friendships led to a group of 15 full-time RVers meeting upwards in Stanley, Idaho to watch the eclipse. They camped within view of the jagged Sawtooth Mountains, awaiting that moment when the moon lined upwards with the lord's day along the path of totality.
"For three weeks, information technology was only us," says Jennifer. "That was awesome."
When asked what advice she'd give to anyone considering RVing full-time, she mentions the word balance. In the life of a full-time RVer, balance means a number of things. Information technology means researching and planning, but it also ways driving due west with no other goal than to encounter the surf of the Pacific. It ways camping ground in cities and drinking beer in crowded breweries, but information technology also means spending weeks alone in Montana, camping ground on the outskirts of Glacier National Park amongst the fields of beargrass and turquoise lakes. Mostly, it means embracing a life defined past travel, even if other existent-world issues like finding a doctor and sticking to a upkeep do ascend.
For the Nealys, the pros—ever-changing scenery, freedom and the feeling of being a citizen of everywhere rather than one place—far outweigh the challenges of full-fourth dimension RVing.
"You don't realize how big this land is until yous start driving it," says Jennifer. "I don't think we'll ever stop completely. Even if nosotros don't do information technology forever, travel volition always be a part of our lives."
6 Good Tips for Living in an RV Full-Fourth dimension
At present that y'all accept read almost the Nealys' experience on the open up road, you may be inspired to give full-fourth dimension RV living a attempt. If you have a sense of wanderlust and a thirst for adventure, this may be the lifestyle for you. Even so, there are challenges that come along with living in a camper or RV full time. Thankfully, couples like the Nealys have paved the way then that you lot tin can glean a little wisdom from their first-hand experience.
Before you lot start your engines, hither are six pro tips on how to live in an RV full fourth dimension.
1. RV Life Is Slower Paced
As you lot set out to pursue the RV life, you lot may be tempted to get non stop and see as much as you tin as before long as you lot can. The RV lifestyle, all the same, requires a different mindset. Being go, go, get all the time is not salubrious or fun. It is exhausting.
Allow yourself the liberty to stay in one identify for a calendar week or longer at a time. Not merely will this recharge your batteries, but you volition exist able to truly capeesh the places and people y'all run across.
ii. Discover a Job That Suits the Lifestyle
Many seasoned RVers are retired couples enjoying their gold years between America's ii coasts. However, more and more than millennials and other younger folks have heard the siren call of the open up route. If you lot do not take a retirement income to live off of, find a job that is conducive to the RV lifestyle. You could effort your hand at existent estate or play host at a campground, similar the Nealys.
Today, many jobs are online or remote. That means there are lots of career options you lot tin have with you on the road. Be aware, though, that y'all probably should invest in a practiced hot spot for some portable WiFi.
3. Diversify Your Experiences
RV life is not all weeks solitary in the great outdoors. Be sure to try a sampling of lots of different experiences — from camping in crowded cities to spending time in untouched nature.
4. Find the Residuum Betwixt Planning Alee and Going With the Flow
When it comes to full-time travel, at that place is a fine balance between structure and flexibility. If you want to go to a popular destination at the meridian of tourist season, these locales book up chop-chop.
Too much planning, though, can be stressful and defeats the purpose of the RV lifestyle. When necessary, practise your planning and research, but practise not be afraid to caput out with no real agenda in mind.
v. Build a Community
Life on the road can get solitary, even if you lot are traveling with your nearest and dearest. Have a tip from the Nealys. Build a network of friends on the route. Whether it is a few locals you run into at a boondocks's restaurant or other total-time RVers, connecting with others volition give you lot a sense of community and allow y'all to make friends all over the state.
6. Embrace a Life Divers by Travel
If y'all decide to commit to full-time RV living, sympathise that travel is now a huge part of your life. While the e'er-changing landscapes and freedom of the open road offering a lot of advantages, at that place volition also be challenges along the mode. Embracing a life defined by travel ways these problems pale when compared to the thrill and excitement of being a citizen of everywhere.
Experience the Open Road With Kampgrounds of America
With over 500 locations across North America, you volition notice KOA Campgrounds in both more populated destinations as well as in quieter areas that let you exist one with nature. Whether y'all make traveling a full-time run a risk or an excursion yous take one time in a while, count on KOA to provide a comfortable place to stay. Reserve your site today.
Written by Krista Diamond for RootsRated in partnership with Kampgrounds of America.
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Source: https://koa.com/blog/live-in-an-rv-full-time/
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