Why do you Fulltime RV?

As we approach the anniversary of our 4^th year on the road I could not help but reflect on our journey so far and if other's were similar or vastly different. There are a number of reasons why people hit the road and live fulltime in their RV’s. The sense of adventure, financial, to be closer to children, grandchildren and other loved ones….the list could go on and on. For us, the answer to that question is all of the above. We have always been ones to live on the more adventurous  side of life…. hunting, fishing, horseback riding, ATV’ing, really anything that will allow us to be outside. There is no doubt that living in your RV can be cheaper than living in permanent structure. We have not always found this to be the case but for the most part for us, it is cheaper than living in a sticks and bricks and our ability of visiting our kids, grandkids and other loved ones is certainly a huge benefit of being on the road fulltime. These are all great reasons to hit the road but for us, none were our main reason. 

If we were to be honest with ourselves Barb and I would both agree we went on the road to escape. Like many, we more or less lived for our jobs, lived to pay our mortgage and basically get by week to week, month to month. We both had careers that we liked, but personally for me, I did not like who I was doing what it took to be good at it. Priorities were wrong, thinking was selfish and I took way too many things in life for granted.

I will never forget the picture below taken by good friends of ours in Wisconsin. It was taken March 9th 2014, two days after Barb’s last day of work and the first day of our new adventure. So many unknowns lay ahead of us……

Look at all that snow!

Hitting the road was a chance to start over again and it is probably the best thing we could have done for ourselves personally and as a couple. Today, almost 4 years later we have absolutely no regrets, we are happier than we have been for years, have seen some incredible places and met some great people. We would do it over again in a heartbeat.

What started out as seeing as much as we could as fast as we could has evolved over the past couple of years. One of the best things was seeing something different every week and the ability to move on a whim....If you didn't like your view, pack up and move! If your neighbor has a noisy generator, pack up and move! The reverse was the same, if you loved the area you were in, stay a few days longer. Then without even really realizing it we found ourselves planning return trips to the places that we enjoyed the most rather than looking for new places and experiences. It is a Catch 22 really as we have had some incredible experiences and developed great relationships with people that we want to do it every year. More than once I have told Barb that if it wasn’t for this thing called winter I don’t think we would ever leave North Dakota and Ontario. So now our travels have evolved to visiting these two locations and exploring other places until winter passes and we can get back north. With the purchase of our property in South Dakota we have another place that we love and cannot wait to return to.  I am not sure if this is good or bad, typical or something unusual but it is where we are at right now.

So what will the next 4 years bring? I am sure that we will find ourselves spending more and more time in South Dakota as we build our house and explore more of that area but we still plan on getting up to North Dakota, Ontario, visiting our kids as well. That’s the great thing about this lifestyle, you are pretty much in control of your own destiny.  If we were able to mirror the highlight adventures of the past year again and again we would be very happy. We would like to do those while adding a few new ones to our list and we will probably try to do just that. 

But back to 2018….

The day after the kids left we headed up to Bouse to watch the Parker 425 with friends Tracy and DeLano. We had never been to Bouse let alone the race. From Quartzsite we drove east on Plamosa Road for about 20 miles into Bouse then another 6 or so miles to our viewing area. Tracy and DeLano had brought their rig out to one of the spectator areas several days before the race to save a good viewing spot about 100 feet off the course. The course itself is over 140 miles long and the racers make several laps over 6 or more hours.

The wind cooperated so the dust was being blown away from us which offered a great view of the racers as they went by. Just as cool as the racers were the helicopters following them and filming the event. They would fly by less than 100’ over the racers and wave as they went by.

Harry and I were also able to get out to play a round of disc golf and attend the Fun Fly Day at the local RC Airport. Did you know they have multiple discs for disc golf? Vicki and Harry's son is on the disc golf tour and uses 12-20 different discs in a round. We each used three; a driver, a midrange disc and a putter for the closer shots.  

Harry teeing off

The "Holes" were old washer tubs

A soft crash landing

With its inverted wings this one looked like it was flying backwards

Unfortunately, those were the highlights of the past 2 weeks as we put ourselves on a self-imposed quarantine. We started not feeling well Superbowl weekend with sore throats and congestion. I was able to fend off this round but Barb was down for the week. Soon after she started feeling better, I got worse. Looking back I can definitely say that my bout was much worse than hers as she was still able to make dinner and other things around the rig while mine was so bad I could barely get out off the couch and needed to be waited on hand and foot. I slept in the living room all week so she could try and get some sleep but when you are sick like that the rig seems to shrink…..

We spent both our anniversary (32^nd) and Valentines Day not feeling well so we took rain checks on those and will celebrate them later.

When Barb started feeling better, she would sneak over to happy hour in the afternoons. I would sit it the rig and watch everyone over there laughing and having fun, every once in a while they would wave over towards the rig and laugh some more. That tells you how compassionate they are!

How dare they have fun without me!

I finally got out of the rig last night as Vicki and Harry made Tri-Tips for everyone so I snuck over to join the group only to find my chair well outside "germ range" of everyone!

Ya, that is my chair away from everyone else!

Dinner was great and it felt really good to get out into the real world. Now that we I am starting to feel better Barb is taking a vacation. What warm weather destination is better than Arizona this time of year you ask? Well, Minnesota of course! Actually, I don’t think she cares where it is as long as she can get away from my hacking for a week! But in reality she is heading up there to do some training for her former employer as they are rolling out a new system. It was a lot of work but I think I played the pathetic card perfectly as everyone has volunteered to invite me to various meals throughout the week. Maybe they are compassionate after all.......