about us

about us rv lifestyle

we're actually doing it?

Our Full-time RV Journey

We’re Jean and Larry – a full-time couple from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. As our children were growing up, we’d joke with them that one day we would buy an RV and not tell them where we were going.

Guess what?! We are actually doing it!

That joke began to take on a life of its own in the past few years. As the kids left for college – and a change in jobs that allowed for weekend travel – we took off for extended weekend getaways around the Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t uncommon to put 500 miles or more on our little SUV over a weekend. No itinerary, no schedule, and we rarely packed anything more than contact solution and a change of clothes. Each evening, we’d get a hotel for the night wherever we ended up for the night. Treks to Port Townsend and Forks. Weekends driving the Cascade Loop or out to see the Coulee Dam, Walla Walla and the Palouse. Neskowin and Netarts down on the Oregon coast. All these places were accessible and we loved the trip as much as the destination.

Wouldn't Be Great If We Could Do This All The Time?

At the start of summer, 2019, we spent time researching boats and drones to add to our weekend toy collection. One day we kidded about buying an RV. The idea came up every now and again. Then in August, it took on a life of its own.

Could we — in fact — live full-time in an RV, and travel the region we love as well as the rest of the country and Canada? We asked again and again, and the answer each time was: YES!

Even though my career kept me based in the city, Jean’s career gave her full mobility options. Jean is an adjunct college professor and grant writer. She has worked remotely throughout her career. If we could grow her grant-writing business enough to offset the loss of Larry’s income, we would be able to do this.

At this point, our “joke” all of a sudden took on a bit of seriousness. We’re we going to actually do this?

What Type Of RV Would We Get?

From these initial questions we began to formulate our vision of what we liked and what we were comfortable with. Regarding the type of RVing that suited our wishes, we both agreed that we were not interested in travel trailers or fifth-wheelers. Early on we thought we’d be love something small like a Class B van, but stepping inside one for the first time cured us of that notion! We were also in agreement that we weren’t interested in too big.

Our RV of choice was narrowed down to a gasoline-powered Class A or Class C motorhome. We further narrowed our selection by trying to keep the overall length of the vehicle under 30′. This limited us to a certain number of Class A models, and a bunch of Class C’s.

Now we started looking at two more issues: The floorplan and the discussion of towing a vehicle.

Take a look at our RV Selection page where we go over all the things that went into our RV decision making process. We’ll discuss floorplans features, Classes, sizes and why we chose the Thor Tiburon 24RW for our full time rig.

What Will You Find Here?

Information, experiences, trips, reviews and our photos, videos and memories. Hopefully someone reading this will be able to make a better informed decision on their rig. If we can help out, Great!

RV Types

We put together a RV 101 on a couple of pages explaining the different types of RV’s. We cover travel trailers and fifth wheels on one page and motorhomes on the second page. This helped us immensely when we first started out on our RV education.

Our RV Selection

Why and how did we end up selecting a Class C Mercedes Sprinter as our full-time RV. Are we crazy? Will that even work?
In Part One, we take everything we learned about RV and ask questions and come up with answers about what will work for us and what won’t work for us. We look at things that we like (separate bedrooms and a ‘great room’ living area), and what we don’t like (trailers, bedrooms that share space with the refrigerator).

In Part Two, we narrow the search and decide on the Thor Tiburon 24RW. Find out about the challenges and roadblocks that hit us as we tried to buy a new RV in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outfitting and Purchases

Buying an RV was the first step. While waiting for it’s construction, we researched and inquired about everything that goes into RV Outfitting. Here we run the gamut, from spice jar racks, drills, e-bikes and kayaks to solar power inverters and sewer tank additives and cellular internet. If it’s an RV must, we’ve done the research and have it listed here.

Modifications and Upgrades

Our Modifications and Upgrades Section.
The single 100ah lead-acid battery that came with the RV is woefully inadequate. We’ show you what went into our decision to buy two 200ah Lithium Ion batteries.

WIFI – This is a big topic. So many options. Most of them have a catch. We show you how we found the cellular package offered by Visible is the best solution for Cellular WIFI data packages.

There is much more here including a review of disposable AA batteries and our take on shore power EMS systems.

Photos and Trips

Our photo page.

In the future, trip reports and photo albums.

We hope you get something useful out of this.

Our Full-time RV Journey