Why the RV life

Lisa has an extensive background of traveling, camping and RVing, she has done it for many years before we met and had traveled to most of the fifty states in the USA, on the back of a bike and truck campers.

I, on the other hand, had never been in an RV and only camped a few times in my life (I can count them on my fingers), in Portugal and in Canada but I always enjoyed driving long distances and actually did it for work for a few years as a computer technician.

We went on several road trips down to the Southwest of the United States and across Canada to Ontario from the beginning of our relationship, we had the travel bug in us and slept in the back of the van in many of those trips to keep it under the budget. Then one day in 2012 we thought it would be nice to have an RV, even if it was a very small one, it would probably be a lot better and more comfortable than sleeping in the back of a van, so we began researching online.

During that time I came across full-time RV living and brought it up with Lisa. We found that we  both had similar interests in that lifestyle. The fact that we did not own a house and the possibility of becoming snowbirds was really appealing. We spent the next two years doing online research, and the weekends or days off going to RV dealerships around southern Ontario. We could not afford anything new on the market but we were looking at them as well to see what options were available for layouts, compared to the older units. We found that there is an insane variety of brands and models, used and new, but our budget only allowed us two options. It was either a very small 16 foot to be pulled by our Kia Sedona van or a class C motorhome with the possibility of towing a small vehicle. We opted for the class C 30 foot motorhome for the space and comfort.

Our friends and family had two types of reaction when we told them  that we were selling everything (which was not much) and living in the RV we had just purchased. Some thought we were crazy while others thought we were brave and cool and wished they could do the same.

Our first long trip, over 18.000 KMs in two and a half months, took us from Ontario to Alberta, down to Nevada, all the way to Florida, back to Ontario and finally back to Alberta, where we are settled now. At the time of writing this post we still don't have a tow car but Lisa drove the van we own, while I drove the motorhome, all the way across from Woodstock to Edmonton. The van is too heavy for our class C to tow so we are still looking into a replacement.

I will update when we have news on that.