Tag: RV Driving

The Rise Of The Entitled Camper

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In the last few years camping and RVing has surged in popularity as people have grown tired of being trapped in their homes during the great lockdown of the Covid era. RV sales have hit record numbers and some manufacturers are reporting backlogs of over a year for people waiting for their new RV to be built. This is all great news for the industry and particularly for campground owners as there is no shortage of customers waiting to fill open spaces. However, this surge in customers and first time RV owners has given rise to a new phenomenon and one that is not good, the entitled camper.

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April 2021 Financial Update

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The month of April came and went in what seemed to be a flash and we are happy it is over. The month began with us still being stuck camping in a bodyshop parking lot as repairs continued on our RV. Once the wonderful folks at M&M Coach completed the work it was time for us to head to South Dakota so we could complete the process of becoming residents.

Of course everything we hoped to avoid on our journey to and from South Dakota ended up happening. And why not since Murphy’s Law seems to be our copilot and trial by fire is the gauntlet we apparently have to run through in order to live this amazing life.

We hit below freezing temps, snow and heavy winds pretty much every single day in Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota. Just the week before these same places were enjoying sunny 80 degree days but now it’s snowing in the middle of April. We made sure to fill our water tanks every chance we got because several campgrounds were unable to turn on their water due to the risk of the pipes freezing. This also meant we had to ration water because getting more would require breaking down camp and driving the RV somewhere in snowing conditions to refill the tank. No thank you!

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March 2021 Financial Update

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There is not much more that can be said about our current situation than we outlined in our previous blog. The good news is that there is now light at the end of the tunnel and we are taking everything one day at a time.

Financially the month of March was pretty good considering we had a large cash outlay to pay off our son’s first year of college. Due to this expense we expected that we would, at the very least, have a negative month. We were really just hoping it wasn’t too negative. Throughout the month the markets were very choppy due to rising yields, inflation concerns and of course covid-19. In the end some positive news pushed the markets up and much to our surprise we were able to squeak out a small gain. Continue reading “March 2021 Financial Update” →

Living The Dream For 30 Days

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There is a common understanding in the RV community that the full time lifestyle while amazingly liberating, can also be extremely challenging and frustrating. The mantra that you have to take the good with the bad is repeated adnausium in social media groups. There is no going into this way of living without knowing that you will eventually face your share of challenges and adversity. Well, after one month of living the dream, consider us fully christened into the realm of taking the good with the bad! Continue reading “Living The Dream For 30 Days” →

February 2021 Financial Update

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We are one week into living the RV life and to say the last month has been a whirlwind would be a drastic understatement. After getting everything loaded up and driving to our first stop we looked around and saw a giant mess. It looked insurmountable at first, but once we started tackling each area of our storage we became more encouraged as we cleared out bag after bag of our belongings. It turns out we had a lot more stuff left than we realized but after a week of organizing and adjusting to a new routine we feel a lot more at home. Continue reading “February 2021 Financial Update” →

January 2021 Financial Update

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Events are evolving quickly in the RVF household. In January we put our house on the market and it sold in just two days, read about it here. We are now in full blown sell everything mode as we have to be out of the house in just a couple of weeks. It’s looking like we will need every minute of that time to clear out.

Of course when you sell your home and move into a RV you need a place to go. Since we need to stay in the area for a few more weeks we were able to make reservations at a not so local RV park. It’s going to cost more than we planned on spending but options were limited for a monthly space in our area. As my dad would always say “any port in a storm”. We plan to spend the next month tying up loose ends like filing our taxes, winding down our business and getting organized and adjusted to full time RV living. Continue reading “January 2021 Financial Update” →

December 2020 Financial Update

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And exhale! It’s finally here, the end of the month and the end of the most chaotic year of our lives. We referred to 2020 as the year of change as we had big plans and big goals, but we had no idea what was in store.

In 2020 everything that was supposed to change didn’t. We are still living in our house. Our son went off to college, but he came back home and he is still here. Our RV is still sitting in a storage yard. We are still paying for bills that were supposed to be gone with our new and improved nomadic lifestyle.

In the end it feels like nothing changed except the calendar. Like Groundhog Day we are starting 2021 with the same goals and plans we had at the start of 2020. Continue reading “December 2020 Financial Update” →

September 2020 Financial Update

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September was a bitter sweet month. We had an amazing time on our month long road trip but coming back to the old sticks and bricks home has been rough to say the least. While we were forced to make many adjustments to our original plans due to restrictions, fires, hurricanes and something called a derecho we never felt more at home being in our RV. The freedom to choose our direction and change course as we pleased was very liberating. Heck we drove 400 miles out of the way just to check out a resort in Oklahoma because some random people we met in Texas recommended it. Who does that? 🙋🏻‍♂️

Adding to the frustration of returning home is that fact that this was the time where we were supposed to be selling our house and belongings in preparation for moving into our RV full time, but those plans had to be put on hold until at least January. So instead of being weeks away from our dream we are months away at best with a timetable still contingent on other outside factors. It’s hard to be positive when the goal posts keep moving back. Continue reading “September 2020 Financial Update” →

August 2020 Financial Update

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College Road Trip 2020 continues to roll on. We are on the homestretch leg of our trip. As I write this update we are sitting at our campsite in Houston Texas and just enjoying the day. Continue reading “August 2020 Financial Update” →

College Road Trip 2020 – Checking In

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After driving 2,600 miles over 6 days we are now camped out in central Pennsylvania. Aside from having to reroute to go through Wyoming instead of Colorado everything went as planned.

Our first night was spent in Utah visiting with family and getting the RV arranged. When we left home we had too much stuff because of our son’s cross country move so we weren’t able to put everything away. We used our first stop to make sure everything was in it’s place for the long road ahead. After that our family came to visit and gave us a nice send off. Continue reading “College Road Trip 2020 – Checking In” →