How We Ended Up Living Stationary In An RV

We Always Know It’s Coming…

With a confused look that people try to disguise, it never fails we get a “How did you end up living in an RV?”  or “But don’t you still go to your jobs, how do you live in an RV too?”

The short answer is

We fell in LOVE with the RV lifestyle after our first trip. We wanted to experience our glamping lifestyle more than just the football off-season.

The whole story is…

THE JOB OFFER

I can still remember, it was a couple days before our 1-year wedding anniversary and Will told me that he had a job offer to work for the San Francisco 49ers.  I thought he was joking since Cali was as far away as possible from Maryland where we lived at the time.  We had only been living in our newly built house for 10 months! But we eventually decided to move to California in July 2016 and thankfully ended up renting out our house.

Arriving in Cali, we settled on an apartment near Levi’s stadium (49ers stadium) and rent was of course Bay Area expensive for a 1BR/ 700 sq. feet apt (almost $2,500!).

FOOTBALL OFF-SEASON DECISIONS

We made it through the 1st football season and decided we wanted to explore Cali.  The original plan was to take the Wrangler out for trips and use a pop-up tent for sleeping.  Well, it seemed like a good idea at first until I had to remind myself:

I don’t really like bugs, where would I use the bathroom, aren’t there bears in Cali, etc.

That turned into Will saying let’s get a tear drop travel trailer.  We looked online and noticed the tear drops had outdoor kitchens which we really wanted.  After going to look at tear drops, I thought for the price, I couldn’t even stand up in the thing AND still no bathroom! BUT, it would be an upgrade from our tent we planned to use, I guess?

LOOKING LIKE A WINNER!

I still wasn’t convinced so this led to let’s look at RV’s! (Sidenote: When living in MD, Will had taken me to an outdoor show which is the 1st time I had ever been inside an RV).

We ended up visiting an RV dealership a couple times to look around.  Soon the red Winnebago Winnie Drop 170K was looking like a winner.  From February-July 2017, we took it everywhere! We were hooked 4real! In 4 months, we had taken it out at least 10 times.

Shortly after the off-season fun, our lease was renewing for our apartment.  We had now been RVing for about 5 months.  Our rent would be increasing to more than our mortgage on our house we still own – SAY WHAT?! NO SIR, NO MAM!

LET’S TRY SOMETHING NEW

So I began to think. I knew once Will reported to football training camp & during season, we wouldn’t be able to take the RV out. I also knew after season, we would travel a good amount again.

I remembered people we met that were full-time on the road and wondering if we could full-time but be stationary.  I hadn’t met anyone doing that though.

I called around and all the RV places near us were full.  This was in large part due to the astronomical cost of living and people having to resort to RV living to survive.  So we kept calling around to try to get a spot and finally got one at Coyote Valley RV Resort. We took a leap of faith and told our apt we would not be renewing. We were officially on our way to full-time RV living. Wait whaaaaaat?!

TIME FOR AN UPGRADE

We started out in the 18ft Winnie Drop just to see if we would even like the lifestyle full-time. I mean let’s face it, we were going from a house, to an apt now to an RV resort….CRAZY! Going into season, Will wouldn’t be home much except to sleep. After 4 months, we decided we were doing it for the long-run and looked for something bigger.

(Here’s video from the day we traded in the Winnie Drop in Nov. 2017)

We settled on the Keystone Outback 330RL travel trailer. Adding the additional living space was a GAME-CHANGER!

WAIT, WE MOVING AGAIN?

But as fate would have it, 4 months after the upgrade, Will was offered a job with the Detroit Lions.  We loved Cali but figured cheaper cost of living and close to home (Maryland & South Carolina).  Moving this time around would be so different.

All we would need to do is hook up and go!  We found an RV Park in Michigan that even had mailboxes and let’s you use it as a residence. So at the end of March, we moved to our new RV home in Michigan. We will have to see how winter goes but most people at the park stay year-round and are more than willing to show us the ropes.

We are still newbies to the lifestyle (18 months total and 1 year full-time) but it has been more fun than we ever imagined.  It has actually brought us even closer together (literally and figuratively).  RVers have been some of the most friendly and welcoming people we’ve met.

Would you ever live in an RV? What about stationary RV living?

Create. Dope. Adventures.