We haven’t had an opportunity to see many of our RV friends for the last several months, so we were thrilled when Kelly and Bill rearranged their travel schedule so they could come and see us. Since they visited on a Tues – Thurs we were able to get them the spot right across from us and they were both pretty excited to see some of the city. Plus Kyrston brought Oliver over one day and Kelly got to see him while Bill and Lee went to visit Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.

I had to work while Kelly and Bill were here, but we did all go out to dinner at Halls Chophouse where my son-in-law is a manager. Bill said it was the best meal he has had since being on the road and he had the best bread pudding he has ever had. It was really fun and so glad we got to be together. Plus since we are all vaccinated we could finally hug!!

That same week I also met my sister in Columbia and got to see my nieces new house. I have never spent any time in Columbia and we got to eat at one of her favorite restaurants and toured the downtown area. Unfortunately it poured rain, but I was still able to see the town.

It is so wonderful having the vaccine and not worrying anymore. I exchanged my first hugs with Wendy and Bailey as well making up for not being able to hug them at the wedding. I am super grateful that my shots are done and I am worrying so much less.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

You are going to see lots of red on the budget this month, in some cases we spent money to try and save money down the road. In other cases we just spent alot of money 🙂 Details are listed below.

Clothing – I have been buying mostly thrift store clothing for seven years, but COVID has thrown a bit of a wrench into that, because most of the dressing rooms are closed. That left me to trying inexpensive items in case they didn’t fit, which eventually led me to Croft & Barrow. This is a Kohl’s brand I have never worn before, but it turns out their clothes fit my new “grandma shape” pretty well. Since I liked them so much and the new versions are relatively inexpensive, I decided to splurge and get several pieces. I made three visits to three different stores over three weeks and by taking advantage of sales and Kohls cash I was able to stock up completely for the $300. It’s nice having new clothes for a change. Haven’t given up on thrift stores, but for an additional $4 a shirt I will also continue buying new once in awhile.

Entertainment – Our friends Kelly and Bill came into town and Lee and Bill spent a day at Patriots Point. We also have been trying to get out a little more and have some fun.

Dining Out – We went over by several hundred dollars this month but that was mainly one meal. We splurged with Kelly and Bill and had a very fancy steak dinner at the restaurant my son-in-law manages. We knew going in we were going to blow the budget, but some things are totally worth it.

Groceries – To be honest not really sure what happened here. Lee is, as I write this, doing a cost comparison between Costco and Sam’s Club. Not sure that will make a difference. I also implemented some changes to reduce the number of K-cups we are buying but that shouldn’t take effect until May.

Home Equipment – Speaking of the K-cups. It was driving me crazy not being able to make a regular pot of coffee so after much discussion we bought a combination Hamilton Beach K-Cup and regular coffee pot. Unfortunately Lee hated the K-cup side (in fairness it exploded the cups quite frequently), so we ended up buying another slim Keurig and this time I got an electric percolator. Turns out this makes me super happy. My Elite Gourmet percolator makes coffee in 5 minutes and has a built in warmer. I just love the way percolated coffee tastes (reminds me of my grandma) and now Lee and I both have a workable solution. We also bought a new Cuisinart Air Fryer. Kelly has one and we absolutely love it. It bakes, broils, air frys, and toasts. Buying this allowed us to get rid of our Air Fryer and our toaster and freed up some space. Highly recommend it, but make sure you buy the right one because they come in multiple sizes.

Truck Fuel – We went over this month but we took a couple of trips including one that I did to see my sister and niece in Columbia. Lee also had to go to Florida twice. It’s the most gas we have spent in a long while.

Speaking of fuel, many of our categories really dont matter so much when you look at them monthly so Lee made a picture of our YTD costs. It will show you how we are trending 33% into the year. We already blew our optional home equipment budget 🙂

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

Seven years ago we attended the RV -Dreams rally and gathered together with a small group of like minded individuals, many of whom we are still in contact with. As a data scientist, I have tried to keep in loose contact with these folks and tracked our journey throughout the years. I should say I am always a little bit hesitant to write this particular post because there were 140 people at that rally (and more in the 2014 fall rally) so I in no way have kept track of everyone we met. I have even lost track of some people in this picture, so over the years the post has turned into more of a series of impressions rather than true hard data about their lives.

Still I feel it is worth the effort, because for those thinking about starting this life if gives a picture (albeit a small slice) of what this life could look like over time. For those in the Class of 2014, as always, please forgive me what I get wrong.

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Seven years have seen a lot of changes for this group, but a surprising (at least for me) amount of folks are still RVing fulltime. The biggest trend I have seen over the last couple of years has been folks buying a piece of land and creating a home base to travel from. Some have downsized their bigger rigs into smaller models for their travel, but most (if not all) still own some sort of RV and continue to travel in some way. It’s hard to give it up once you have caught the bug 🙂

Another sadder trend has been the illness of a parent. Many people in this group have dealt with the serious illness of a parent and this has changed (at least temporarily) how they travel. For some the creation of a home base is partially in response to a parent’s needs and for others they found the place they wanted to settle. In general though this tends to be a restless group, and many of those who have “settled” for awhile talk about changing that location again sometime in the future. Others though are perfectly content in their settled space and are creating really cool home bases.

That leads me to one other trend that also has impacted travel. At least six of us have become first time grandparents in the last couple of years. Balancing seeing our grandchildren and travel have definitely slowed down the miles the six of us are putting on our RVs, but oddly (or maybe not) these three couples are all still 100% traveling without a permanent home base. What that looks like in future I have no idea, but personally since we are about to have grandchildren in two different states the traveling lifestyle is actually more appealing as a way to spend more equitably distributed time with the grandkids.

Which leads me to working. Yeah I know I am all over the place…its early 🙂 The reason this group of people appealed to me so much was several people intended to keep their corporate jobs while on the road. Seven years later this is not such a shocking idea, but back then for most of us it was uncharted territory. Two of the three people I knew have kept their same corporate jobs through all the twists and turns of the lifestyle and I actually left my corporate job and then 5 years later went back to the same company in an almost identical position. That I think is a good story because it tells people there is opportunity for some people to work from the road. It is certainly not without its unique challenges, but it is possible.

So where does that leave us? As best as I can cobble together of the original 11 couples:

• One couple has sold their RV and solely live in traditional sticks and bricks housing
• Three couples live in sticks and bricks but have an RV for traveling
• Four couples live in an RV but have a home base
• Three couples live in an RV and have no home base (as a side note these three couples are the only three that are still in their original RV. That’s probably a coincidence but its interesting.)

Overall, I think its a fair sample of how things have evolved for the larger group, but again it is just my very small sample. Still after talking to Kelly and Bill (who are with us right now) to make sure I got my facts straight they agree. We have made many friends over the last several years who also went on the road in 2014 and the trends seem similar.

Speaking of that I would like to mention an outlier, and I say that in the most wonderful way. Two of our extended RV-Dreams family have moved to Europe and are full timing there. I have been completely fascinated by their journey and if you would like to read about how they did it their blog is here. In addition here are the blogs of Kelly and Bill and Deb and Steve who have been with us from the beginning.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

Seven years ago Lee and I attended our first RV rally, and that experience literally changed our lives and our life. Not a year goes by that we don’t honor that experience, and this year it is particularly poignant because the last RV Dreams educational rally is happening as I write this. I have been thinking about how to write this post, because the last thing I want to do is offend anyone, so let me just say this post is about our thoughts and experiences only.

First and foremost, Howard and Linda have every right to do whatever they want. After many, many years on the road they have sold their RV and have settled into The Villages. We had a chance to have dinner with them recently and they are moving onto a new chapter in their life and I am happy for them.

But, and its a big but, I am saddened by losing RV-Dreams. In some respects it is like the high school you graduated from closing down. The people still exist, but the institution that originally bonded you together is gone. Not sure Linda would want to think of herself as an institution, but for me at least it was. Maybe not so much an institution but a really cool club. The kind of club I could never have been a part of in high school, I was way too socially awkward, even though this group of people as they exist today accepts everyone.

If you are relatively new to this blog and not sure what the heck I am talking about, let me back up a little bit. Eight years ago, Lee started talking about living full time on the road and I was a tough sell. That’s an understatement, I was an extremely tough sell. I liked the concept in theory, but I am definitely a person who needs “proof” and without knowing anyone our age who was doing something like this it felt like a pipe dream.

Lee, unwilling to give up, scoured the internet for real life examples. In that search, he found RV-Dreams and more importantly, Howard’s budgets. There was years of data that proved it was somewhat possible, but I was still very skeptical. Howard and Linda started out with around $250K in the bank and Lee and I had nowhere near that. But their consistently low monthly costs convinced me I shouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, and when Lee learned they had an educational rally twice a year I wanted to go.

Simultaneously I also joined their forum (a first for me) and started talking to people in the same situation we were in. They were our age, had jobs they needed to let go of or maintain on the road, and were 100% committed to full timing. Many of them were coming to the rally, and the chance to meet these “internet people” and see if they were for real was too much to pass up.

So we picked up our brand new fifth wheel and drove it to Tennessee. To give you an idea of how uncomfortable we were with the entire experience we intentionally booked a campsite outside of the rally footprint. We wanted some separation just in case it was a horrible experience (true story) which is pretty funny in retrospect because these people turned out to be some of the best friends I have ever had.

I won’t try to recreate that experience, but you can read about it here if you would like. Suffice it to say the experience more than proved full timing was possible for us, but also gave us mentors and a community of people who would support us through every stage of that transition. That was the magic of RV-Dreams for me. Not the information, which was good but could be found in other places, but rather the support. It truly was the gift that kept on giving and (for us at least) made this possible.

Seven years later we now know there are other groups of like minded people out there, and although we have tried a few of them, none have had the same impact on us. I’ll admit it is very possible that is because we already found our tribe early on, but I also think RV-Dreams was a unique combination of education and community. In my mind at least, a hole will be left by them leaving the community, and I hope at some point some other group will take its place. I am not very hopeful about that though.

What those of us who were impacted by RV-Dreams can do though is try to be good ambassadors. Our #1 piece of advice for many years to people interested in the full time lifestyle has been to attend a rally. Now that it isn’t an option we will need to find other ways to help people feel comfortable in pursuing their dreams. One thing we do try to do is be as honest as we can about our experience. This blog does that, sharing our budgets does that, and one-on-one conversations we have had with people over the years have done that as well.

Somehow, someway we have found ourselves experienced full time RVers. I hesitate to even say that because I still feel like we are learning every day. But we have been doing this awhile and we definitely know without a doubt that there is no one true way. Leaving that rally 7 years ago I held us up to the ideal of the fulltime lifestyle. Not surprisingly we often fell short of the ideal which led to a lot of unnecessary frustration. There is no perfect way to do this, just as there is no perfect way to live your life. The best thing to do is stay open to possibilities, live your life the best way you know how, and don’t be surprised when life throws you curve balls. Things change, life changes, and that really is ok.

Anyway, I wanted to take a moment and say thank you to Howard and Linda. We will miss you and wish you all the best. You truly did change our lives and many others like us, and that is an amazing accomplishment you should be very proud of. Much love, Trace and Lee.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update that we received our second shot, but decided to stay an additional month. Our monthly rate here is very reasonable but the daily rate is $40 and if we lose our monthly slot there is no getting it back. Since the second shot was on Saturday and we would have to move Sunday we ultimately decided to play it safe and stay another month.

Thankfully we didn’t have any symptoms at all after the second shot, but based on what we have heard from others it could have gone a different way. At this point our plan is to leave May 20th and head diagonally to Minneapolis. I would love to stop for a couple of weeks in Nashville (never been) and a weekend in Kansas City along the way, but we will have to play it by ear.

As full timers we often say our plans are made in Jello, but with COVID our plans (and many others ) are like melted ice cream. MESSY!! I have lost count of how many times our plans have changed this year, but I would guess more than all the other years we have been on the road combined. Well maybe no that many but a lot. The good news is Kelly and Bill are going out of their way to come see us for a few days and of course more baby time. Oliver seems to change every day and I love being here to see that happen.

Well like I said just a quick update, wish I had more exciting things to write about. Work is going very well, if you were wondering, and Jack continues to be a joy. Here’s a couple of pictures I wanted to share of Oliver that capture how staying in one place can be fun once in awhile.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

One of the downsides of working a regular job is you are fighting the crowds to see popular places. Magnolia Gardens is a place we have been wanting to see and since we were here during peak bloom this was the time to see it. Unfortunately tons of other people felt the same way, so we decided to go at 9am on Easter Sunday. This turned out to be a great decision as it was very nice during the morning hours and around noon when we left the line was crazy long to get in. If you do decided to go I recommend early morning mid-week if you can choose that time, if not get there as early as you can. It’s worth it.

All of the flowers were really pretty and the house, but those weren’t what was truly special. There were several bridges with ponds and they were absolutely gorgeous. Spread throughout the area, I have never seen that many beautiful venues for pictures in so many places. More than worth the $20 entrance fee.

As we were heading out, we noticed that their greenhouse was open and both of us gravitated to a freestanding bird bath. WE have been looking for a lightweight, collapsible birdbath for awhile and we found one!! The legs collapse and the dish was absolutely beautiful. Lee bought it for me on the spot. Perfect way to end the day.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

• You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
• You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.