Finding Meaningful Work in Our RV Travels

Vanessa and I are often asked the same question whenever we speak of RV travels — how are you going to make money? Valid question. We both had very lucrative jobs before taking the plunge into full-time RV exploration, yet that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to make a living while on the road. As awesome as it would be to just live off savings and travel without regard, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for us just yet.

As a copy/freelance writer, I’m blessed to be able to work from just about anywhere. As long as there is WiFi, of course. I take jobs here and there covering topics that I feel strongly about, or that allow me to broaden my knowledge on a whole slew of varying topics. I’ve learned quite a bit while freelancing, plus it keeps my writing skills sharp.

Aside from writing, Vanessa and I are hoping to find other sources of income while on the road, particularly involving farm work, harvesting, manual labor and the like. We’re looking to get our hands dirty, and invest a little bit of ourselves back into the earth. Maybe it’s hard to imagine a former Miss Teen USA and a published author choosing a life of working with our hands from dawn to dusk, or harvesting apples under the autumn sun, but it’s with good reason.

One of my favorite chapters from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers  is the last, right before the epilogue, called Rice Paddies and Math Tests. (If you haven’t read this book, I urge you to do so. If you want my copy, email me your forwarding address and I’ll send it along. It’s worth the read.)

Gladwell speaks about meaningful work in this chapter and the importance it has on a person and on a community. The Chinese, as a culture, spend so much time building, maintaining, and harvesting from their rice paddies in order to provide for themselves, their community, and their families. There is meaning behind the work they do. There is pride and reward. This ultimately is a contributing factor to why the Chinese are so hardworking and motivated as a whole.

Vanessa and I both worked in offices, without significant personal reward. We were making money for our bosses, while stationary behind a desk for hours at a time. There wasn’t much meaning in the work we were doing. We felt extremely unfulfilled.

To us, working on a farm, or harvesting grapes in a vineyard would facilitate meaning and purpose. Not only would we be helping the smaller farms who need more hands than people are willing to offer, but we also are rewarding the community with the fruits of our labor (pun definitely intended).

Maybe it sounds crazy to some, but one of the main reasons Vanessa and I are taking this leap of faith into full time RV living is so that we can cultivate a stronger sense of purpose and meaning while exploring the country on our own terms. We don’t want a 9-5. We don’t want to sit in traffic every day. We don’t want to earn a paycheck just to buy more “stuff” nor do we want to sell people more “stuff”.

It’s a lifestyle change that we’re hoping to find much more rewarding on a personal level because it speaks to the very core of our being.

Life on our own terms.

That Time We Remodeled Our Class C RV

Gooooooood morning, everybody! We’re writing to you from Sarasota, Florida and it’s an absolutely GORGEOUS day. Vanessa and I are preparing to head north at the end of the month, first stop Ocala National Forest. We want to do some hiking, soak in the springs, and possibly paddle a spring run. Anything to keep us active and in sync with Mother Nature.

We’ve been getting Maude ready for the big launch, although most of the RV remodel was done a few weeks back.

We struggled for a long time to find the right RV, especially because we were particular about the inside. Really particular. Probably obnoxiously so. We found a lot of low mileage rigs with the body shape and size we wanted, but the insides were extremely outdated. With our already tightly-budgeted-resources, we couldn’t justify renovating the inside of something from the sub-floor up.

Thankfully we found Maude, and the inside didn’t need a major overhaul to make it more modern for our taste. The inside just needed a makeover rather than an entire renovation. So let’s talk about that time we decided remodel our Class C RV.

First, let’s look at Maude when we bought her.

 We were really lucky that Maude was in the shape that she was design-wise. There weren’t any major areas that needed to be remodeled ASAP. Everything was clean and in “newish” condition. There were no leaks, holes, or damage of any sort. Huge sigh of relief.

However, we knew there were things we wanted to change right away. Like the wallpaper. I have this huge gripe with RV wallpaper when it comes to design aesthetics. This wallpaper in particular wasn’t hideous by any means, but it still was not what I wanted to look at everyday. It was way too busy with these awkward muted, earthy tones. This was my #1  we-need-to-fix-this-first project.

So, we painted.

After a long debate over the type and color of paint, we chose a very light gray in eggshell. Needless to say, we completely underestimated the time it would take to paint a 24 foot Class C RV. There were SO many nooks and crevices, it took us about 4 days to get everything squared away. Multiple coats and a lot of painting tape later, Maude was so much brighter and cleaner. We were beyond thrilled with how it turned out.

We were on such a high, we decided to take out the RV couch. Hah. Well, actually, we were thinking aloud about how much room it was taking up and if we really would be using a couch. The thing was, Vanessa and I didn’t even have a couch in our beach bungalow. Primarily because we didn’t have cable. So there was no need to plop on a couch and watch TV, because that wasn’t an option. (We didn’t have cable because we decided it distracted us from other things we loved (ie: being outside, longboarding, going to the beach, reading, etc.) We also did all of our hosting outside on the deck. So we thought, “what if we took out the RV couch altogether?”

So we removed it — entirely. The bolts and screws underneath were not complicated to take out, and after doing so, the couch just kinda…slid out. Heavy, to say the least, but it was taken out and left a HUGE amount of space for us to play around with. We’re going to write a post extensively about removing an RV couch, so stayed tuned for a more in depth look at that process.

 There was a ton of carpet that we decided to remove (with our fingers crossed the entire time.)

What we found underneath the couch….and after we ripped up the carpet….was this beautiful slab of wood in the slide out. Really we had no idea what we’d find under there, but it was a breath of fresh air to see this perfect wood floor. So, no need to re-carpet. We stained the wood a rich mahogany and added a silver metal edging to finish it off. Currently, our slide-out serves as a little reading/meditation area complete with our favorite Buddha statue. More decor to come.

Next, we wanted to cover up the dinette fabric and make the dinner table more our feel. Ultimately we would like to reupholster the seating and replace the dining table, but we’d rather hit the road first then spend all of our money on aesthetics. Vanessa used her design prowess to fancy up our table and turn it into something we’d love sitting at meal-after-meal.

Yes, we are boho-hippies at heart.

From there, we wanted to make the bunk as comfortable as possible. We knew that we’d spend a majority of our downtime, after long hikes and physically demanding days, unwinding in our bunk and needed it to be as welcoming, warm, and soft as possible. We bought a faux-down mattress pad online which was an amazing addition. We already had the 1800 thread count sheets and the faux-fur blanket. We turned our sleeping quarters into heaven on Earth.

We wanted to spruce up the kitchen a bit, but didn’t know where to start. We love love love the white subway tile-look, but didn’t have the resources or time to put up tile-by-tile. Not to mention the cutting that would be involved to fit the tiles around the kitchen fixtures and windows. So, we found the next best thing: Peel & Stick Mosaic tiles from Smart Tiles. These tiles were a Godsend and so extremely easy to apply. It made a world of difference in our tiny kitchen.

We added some succulents and called it a day.

Now, our RV renovation is by all means unfinished. There are still a few necessary things we want to tweak along the way. But we also want to get on the road. This first initial remodel of the RV was with the sole purpose of making Maude feel like home. So far, home is exactly what she feels like.

Why Choosing the Right RV is Important

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve written, so our apologies in advance. We’ve been going through some huge life changes and making all the right moves in order to get our RV adventure underway.

Vanessa and I had some difficulty deciding on what we should be traveling in for the duration of the trip (still unknown might we add). There are so many different types of motor homes and recreational vehicles to choose from, you really need to take time to navigate your needs. So, we decided to write a post about the different types of RVs out there, so that if anybody finds themselves at a crossroads like we were, they can navigate more easily their needs and wants.

We started first looking at travel trailers. Here’s why:

1. They are modern

One of our primary criteria in finding a road home was a more modern decor. We kept coming across these RVs that had a very outdated style — older fabrics, wood everywhere, hideous fixtures. Brand new travel trailers have more modernity on the inside, which made it a plus in our book.

2. They are affordable

We found some brand new 2016 travel trailers for $16k-17k. That was EXACTLY what we needed. We didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on this trip because we were trying to downgrade our expenses. Finding something brand new, with a warranty, at such a low cost was ideal.

3. They are spacious

Travel trailers have more space on the inside because they aren’t attached to a cab or motor. This means they’re more lightweight, and usually longer. With two humans and two dogs we figured the more space the better.

So, with these three criteria, we started our journey by falling in love with the Airstream. *Sigh* The new Airstream Serenity was right up our alley.

The decor was very modern, it was clean and new, and seemed to have everything we needed to get on the road. We found one we loved and filled out the loan paperwork…….

Only to be rejected. Turns out, we naively were trying for a 70k loan for a TRAVEL TRAILER when we have never had a loan that big for either one of us. See, the thing is that financial companies are looking for you to have had a loan of considerable size already when you are trying to finance an RV so that they know you can handle it. Primarily because RVs are not considered necessary — they are are luxury. They are an add-on to someone who already has a full-time home.

To this day though, it was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t get the Airstream. We would’ve been 70k in debt without a truck to even tow it.

But besides the price, we also weren’t so keen to the idea of having our home detached from our “getaway” vehicle. Unfortunately, this was something we had to consider since we are two girls traveling the country alone. If anything were to happen, and there was trouble on the road, in a travel trailer we would be trapped. So, since travel trailers were ruled out, then certainly fifth wheels were ruled out as well for the same reason. So this ultimately led us to Class B vehicles. Why we considered Class B RVs:

1. Cab is attached

2. Very small body

3. We could take it free-camping

Number 3 was huge for us, because we really want to explore the country and nature without having a huge hassle of finding a campground and parking. Free-camping is VERY much on our agenda.

Yet, we soon found out that the affordable Class B motorhomes in our price range were VERY outdated with high mileage.  There also were few and far between to consider. So, that brought us to our next option which were Class A RVs. Why Class A’s were appealing:

1. HUGE space inside

2. Cab was attached

3. It’s really like a small apartment on wheels

4. Within our price range for used

5. The open-space feel of the interior

However, we did find one major drawback which ultimately dissuaded us from choosing a Class A. They were just too big for what we needed. Since we wanted to free camp, or just pull over and sleep on the road, Class A motorhomes would definitely not be the right choice.

So this really narrowed us down to the Class C RV variety.

Why we LOVED Class C motorhomes:

1. Easy to park

2. Affordable for a used one

3. Exactly the amount of space we needed

4. Cab was attached

5. More Ideal layout for two humans and two dogs

5. Better gas mileage

The Class C’s seemed to fulfill everything we were looking for. The above bunk was perfect to get away from the dogs, the space was just right, and if ever we were in a dangerous situation, we could hop in the cab and take off.

After months of going back-and-forth, we narrowed down our search to Class C motorhomes and eventually, after much duress and coming quite close to giving up, we finally found Maude, our 2007 Itasca Navion.