We’ve known Pace & Kyeli for a few years now, and when they came to us this past summer with their latest idea to sell most their stuff, buy an RV and hit the road – we were supportive of their enthusiasm while trying our best to set their expectations to realistic.
After just five months on the road they announced they are selling the RV and moving to Portland instead. (Looking for a 5th Wheel with two bedrooms??)
The crux of it is… trying to juggle coming up to speed on RVing, building their online business and finding their stride as nomads was just too much for them to handle all at once.
Their reasons are very valid for them, and their vision of what life on the road would be like didn’t mesh with their reality. Most of us can armchair quarterback each of their reasons and offer different solutions, but the trade-offs just wouldn’t align with creating the happiness they want in life.
And isn’t that the whole point of living a life of conscious intent? Happiness.
Setting Realistic Expectations
This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve heard this story. We get contacted by a lot of aspiring nomads who have big visions of what life on the road will be like. Some of them make the leap. Only a handful find ways to make it sustainable long term (not that longevity is the only measure of success).
The common initial vision goes something like this:
‘I’ll quit my job, sell everything.. find an affordable RV.. travel to and stay in amazing gorgeous places .. and I’ll save tons of money so I can focus on building my income as I go!’
An amazing, sustainable, affordable life on the road is completely possible. But it’s not as easy as just buying the RV and setting off. As with anything in life, there are trade-offs at every corner.
We keep a list of ‘working on the road’ RVing blogs, and check in every few months to see who’s still excitedly on the road and blogging about it. And everytime, it strikes me by how many encountered challenges they just weren’t anticipating. Challenges that many of us already on the road accept as just part of the lifestyle.
Pretty darn often folks settle back down because the realities of life on the road did not mesh with their original vision.
When you’re contemplating a major lifestyle switch, it’s very easy to focus on the positives and downplay the potential challenges. Even as often as we, and our fellow RVing bloggers, try to not sugarcoat things – the image that can come through the loudest is all the amazing stuff.
And yes, overall, it is an amazing lifestyle. We love the technomadic life we’ve created.
But it hasn’t come without a lot of lessons along the way, and learning where the trade-offs are for our freedom. Heck, at 3 months into our initial journey, I was ready to toss the towel in too. (I’m so thankful I didn’t). At four years in, we outgrew our setup and took a break from RVing by temporarily moving to the Virgin Islands. Over our now nearly 7 years on the road, we still continue to tweak our approach.
The video: Realities of a RVing Nomadic Lifestyle
We were already planning a live video chat last week, and Pace & Kyeli’s announcement gave a great topic to focus on – The Realities of a RVing Nomadic Lifestyle.
This isn’t ‘here’s where Pace & Kyeli went wrong’ diatribe (in fact, they joined in the chat room during our talk)… but we did use their post to create talking points. The things they cite are some of the most common places where expectations and realities can become misaligned.
Some of the comments afterwards included ‘a must-see for anyone considering doing this.‘ Well, we don’t know about that… but if you’d like to reduce the odds of making a post like Pace & Kyeli’s a few months after hitting the road, the hour and half spent watching this video is probably worth while.
Here’s the archive of the live video chat (warning, it’s 1.5 hrs long- make sure you have the bandwidth before clicking play!):
If for some reason you can’t access the embedded video above, here’s a direct link to it on YouTube.
Here’s a brief outline of the topics we hit on in the video:
Chat Notes:
Here are some of the resources that we referenced during the chat:
- Pace & Kyeli’s post from 3/7/2013 outlining why they are selling their RV after 5 months of travel: http://paceandkyeli.com/
selling-our-rv-and-moving-to-po rtland/ - Our (Technomadia’s) monthly cost log: Our Monthly Travel Expense Log
And here are some of our past posts relevant to this topic:
- Full Timers Perspective on Fuel Costs
- Selecting an RV for Full Timing
- It’s Not an Extended Vacation
- Finding Camping & Boondocking
Other article that where mentioned in the Q&A session at the end:
- Mobile Internet Options (including a video chat)
- Lithium Ion Batteries for RVs (including a video chat)
- Chapter 14: Feeling Safe while Traveling Full Time
- Our Entire No Excuses: Go Nomadic’ series
- Our Mobile Gear
- Our Campground Reviews on RVParking.Com
We applaud Pace & Kyeli for giving their dreams a voice, giving it a try and having the awareness to put their happiness as a priority.
Thank you Pace & Kyeli for so honestly sharing your experience, expectations and where the reality did not align for you. Guess we’ll be adding Portland to our list of places to visit often.
Chris & Cherie, I live near Tampa and I know you come to Florida. I have found a BLM near Orlando that is totally free. It is designed for hunters but anyone can use it. Not sure if you ever found it. It’s called Bull Creek. They have a web page so you can check it out. Good location close to Orlando.
Thanks.. that are is actually managed by the WMA (Wildlife Management Area), not the BLM. They have different rules than the BLM for camping that one should definitely be aware of in advance: http://myfwc.com/hunting/wma-brochures/ne/bull-creek/
I have read some cons to RV life style and it has really helped. (1) know what you really want has made us picky on what we buy. (2) Some people are buying these 1 ton and 2 ton trucks, we found an ultralite 27′ camper (4500pds) and a nice 1/2 ton SUV. (3) The transition is often difficult, we will be staying in our house for 6 moths during the transition to learn the RV and prepare. (4) We paid cash of $3500 for camper so we can add spray insulation and a sail boat wood stove to it. We are Northerners at heart. Will have a truck payment but zero camper payment.
Bigger is not always better, we keep hearing, oh you need a 1 ton truck or you’ll regret it. It’s strange how people that have never owned a camper have all this input. Do your research!!
I’m having a hard time being realistic myself, so being able to hear the myths and truths of full time rv-ing is really helpful to be able to wrap my head around all this! Helpful video, and, as always! Thank you!!
Find me at: RedheadedOwl.com
We are embarking on the adventure. The best thing I’ve read is bigger is not always better. Gotta get what is practical.
Hmm my post went zipppp and was gone! I had a very long boring post here but getting to the bottom line, we need to get going before the snow arrives, What we need to know is WHERE ARE WE GOING??? We loved the desert back in the 70’s when we were young, and lived down in El Paso, i was stationed at Fort Bliss. The NW was wonderful but not a good target for this time of the year. We both fell in love with the Smokey Mountains in 75-77 when stationed out in Arlington VA with The Old Guard, 3rd US Infantry Bn REINF The Army’s Official Ceremonial Unit and Escort to the President (official title of the unit back then). but again not a great place to winter. I loved camping at Elephant Butte near Truth or Consequences NM back in the 70’s in fact it was the very first place we ever camped, having bought our very first cabin tent and camping gear in 72, while stationed at Bliss. So I am seeking suggestions, just had the Motor Home throughly checked out by a trusted mechanic so that is done. The hard part, of course is deciding what to pack; what will we need in the line of cloths; cooking ware; toys; cat supplies (Smokey is our guard cat) and just plain things to do. We have been married now for 46 years last Aug so we do get along quite well, our grand kids live way north of us, so a quick trip there will be necessary to say farewell for awhile. So much to do, and so little time. We are sort of being pushed along because of my good wife’s lung problems that the doctors have traced to our house, we must get out of this house soon!
It’s a big wonderful country out there.. follow your heart and desires. Your new home has wheels, so if a place doesn’t suit you, move to the next one that calls you. If you need ideas, follow along the travelogues of RVing bloggers who you resonate with – lots of folks posting about their travels. (You can check ours using the ‘Our Travels’ menu item above.)
Have a great journey!
Thanks for the thoughtful reality check! I just sold my house and bought a Dodge Sprinter to convert into a full-time stealth camper to live mostly in Austin, Texas. I am maintaining a residence in my yurt out near the airport, so I will still have a base of operations for the conversion, and somewhere else go when my RV isn’t available. I’ll be taking the RV on the road sometimes, but may actually make my annual summer Portland pilgrimage in my Metro or in an Elio when they come out. I usually stay in a camping yurt that collapses down easily. My general plan is to do gardening and not-up-to-code experiments on the farm, go back and forth to the RV in town every few days, probably on a motorcycle. I’m visiting Portland now, and just rented, then purchased, a Brompton folding bike to help me get around back in Austin. When I tried bike commuting there before, the limited frequency of buses and the small number of bike racks sometimes meant waiting 45 minutes for a bus, then not being able to board because their bike rack was full. Now I can take my bike onto the bus instead. So far my project seems feasible, the main challenge being finding places to part in town and navigating the laws around doing so. If moving around frequently becomes too much of a pain, I have many friends in town who would be willing to rent me space in their driveway. I’m planning to have substantial solar and a LiFeP04 battery system that can go at least a day or two of cloudy weather as long as I don’t run the AC, which I may not even install. I’m generally out of town for the summer most of the time, anyway, and the rest of the year it’s not necessary. I also found your info on your charging setup really relevant, particularly the feature that lets you boost of a 15 amp circuit without tripping the breaker. The solar system will definitely be the most expensive part of the conversion. I’m also going to check out your resources around mobile internet. My iPhone 4S is dieing and I need to know what carrier to go with before I buy a replacement, since my current carrier, Virgin Mobile, requires that the phone be purchased from then and won’t use unlocked phones.
WOW!!!!!
I cannot say enough about what I think about your honesty and thoroughness of discussion. I am a US citizen and through my consulting as a software developer I have been able to live in Europe for the last 2-1/2 years and getting to do the traveling and photography that I have always wanted :). My wife and I based ourselves in England, and then I head to a different country every month or so and spend weeks “on the road” doing contract work. I use hotels and typically trains/public transport which is WAY better and WAY cheaper than the US (we are just too large and too dependent on cars). I was giving pretty serious thought to keeping up the nomadic lifestyle in the US when we get back and searched the internet for advice, which is obviously how I found your post. THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!! 🙂 I am such a dreamer at times, and this really would have bit me on the butt in terms of stress, time, and money. I WOULD NOT REALLY HAVE COME UPON THIS REALITY without reading your post because I am such a Pollyanna about how wonderful it would be without really thinking about the truth of day to day life.
I am very lucky in that what I do is very lucrative, BUT it is very demanding and, at times, all consuming. So I kind of need a stress free/pampered lifestyle to perform the work that I do. Sadly, it looks like RV/nomadic is not really in the cards for me. As a person above commented, the logistics would drive me insane. I am 47 years old, INCREDIBLY, happily married and still a moron about a lot of things in life lol.
Living the nomadic lifestyle in Europe DID give me some wisdom though:
1. Possessions typically own YOU!!! 🙁 – usually NOT the other way around. – we moved over here with hardly anything, and I did not miss a thing!!!!
2. 10 most expensive things you purchased in the last 10 years vs. 10 things which mean the most to you, usually these two lists are mutually exclusive.
3. Happiness can be VERY differently pursued for different individuals (Took me FOREVER to learn this!!!!!)
4. LOVE & EXPERIENCES are THE most important things in life.
Thank you again, I wish you all the best, and I will definitely be contributing, this information is worth its weight in GOLD :)!!!!!!!
John
Finally! Honest answers all in one place. I’ve been researching RV living full-time, on a budget, intensely for a month or two, but I’ve daydreamed about it for more than 3 years.
You have wrapped up all the disparate nagging concerns I’ve had into one informative video. Instead of reacting to your video with optimism, and thinking, “Well those are all obstacles I can deal with” I felt, instead, like “Wow, all those things I’ve run across in forums that I thought might be detractors, if not deal-breakers, for me, really are true, and if I am honest with myself, I think I’m one of the ones for whom you made this video. Fulltime RV life is not for me.
The logistics would drive me crazy ;). I’ve moved around a lot in the past decade (and I mean a LOT.). Finding new groceries stores all the time, substandard internet, wasting money at Starbucks to upload a video are all things I’ve done every six months, I intended long commutes to where I want to be, dealing with noisy neighbors, and never having a Trader Joe’s nearby 😉 is something I’ve done every six months, and I really don’t want to do them every few weeks :).
Initially, I had the same starry-eyed ideas of “I’ll blog and travel and finally pick up my Nikon :)” But I already know how hard it is to start a business, and hearing you reiterate the time it takes to get to know your RV, plan routes, travel, deal with size and age restrictions of rigs in parks, the cost of good sites, the alternative cost of being off-grid for cheap/free good sites, and logistics, it isn’t something I want to combine together. While you tell people it’s exhausting to do all at once, it had already sounded exhausting to me just thinking about it :), but I was wondering why I wasn’t reading much about that. I appreciate the validation I found in your video.
I was also worried about the expense. It sounds like you can really do some damage to your budget during the “getting to know life on the road” stage. And buying used means repairs, buying new means working out the kinks, and both those things would probably take more buffer than I have, let alone the depreciation after your first choice of RV. I have been amazed to see how often people trade up and down, and your video helps explain how/why that happens, and that you need to build those changes into your mentality, and budget.
Anyway, I really appreciate that you created an informative and REALISTIC video, without the fluff and bunnies found on most personal RVer websites (which may not exist in a year 😉 ). To assure you, I didn’t feel anything negative or complaining from your video, just a balanced viewpoint of “these are the benefits, and these are the associated drawbacks” which was very helpful for me to determine how I felt about each concern.
You may have just saved me a LOT of money! :). Thank you!
Wow. Your video gave a lot to think about. What’s more it didn’t discourage me at all, it did what I think you intended and that is to make people think before jumping. I’m so excited, I want to try the rv life! But now I am certain that first I have to finish transitioning into my business that I run from home. Thank you so much for putting this up.
Ready to retire in 1 1/2 years and soooo ready to hit the road. About to give birth to a life long dream. Love reading your comments. They keep my vision alive.
I’m Single – looking for your experience to guide me in my search for the optimal size rig. Not interested in super long, super lux but I’m not a minimalist either. Class A or C and towing a small vehicle? Fifth wheel? Open to the voices of wisdom.
Looking forward to the next chapter in my life.
RR
Hi RR – best quick recommendation I can give is to go spend time looking at lots of RVs and find what feels right for you. Best wishes!
Have very much enjoyed all of the info I have gleemed from your videos and website. We are just about a month away from full time rv living. We close on the sale of the house, have one final garage sale and pack up the fifth wheel very soon. We have been dreaming of this for the past two plus years. My husband and I started in a Holiday Rambled 26 years ago. Once babies were born we settled down. Now that our 2 boys are grown it is time for us to ramble again. One son out east another out west. What better way to spend more than a few weeks a year with each of them. My husband works for the National Parks seasonally and we plan to travel between parks. Currently purging items now but most worried about storage space. Just what we will need and what I can live without. I am pretty much down to the necessities. (So I think…hubby has other ideas 🙂 Just wait til he starts clearing out the shop. Bet his attitude will change! I am spending every free minute online reading and watching rv tips and info. Loving it. Plan to become a follower of your blogs. Thanks for allowing me to share our dream. Yes, most of our friends think we are crazy!
opps, just realized its a problem on my end, even though I have the most recent version of firefox indicating I should be able to view WebM/HTML5 apparently I can’t. Darn. I wanted to see that video.
Hmm… don’t know what’s up with Firefox. But here’s a direct link to the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtIGMpcXrU&feature=share&list=UUgMpNBkUc7tTsk_gr06d17g
Is it on DVD so I could buy as computer wont last that long. Thanks, Jan
Sorry.. the video is available online only. We’re not selling anything, just an archive of one of our free chats.
personally, i have always been a freebird in the soul. always taking off on a whim and leaving good paying jobs to explore on a tandem across the country. it took years for my friends to get me to settle down in one spot and force me to sign a lease for an apartment. 4 years ago i met my husband. he talked about living in an rv. i always said no, mainly because it was put into my head i can’t live like that and also because his daughter was in public school. we moved last year from illinois to florida, against everyones dismay. life style changes have happened. i can no longer work a “real” job and i now unschool our teenaged daughter. nothing is holding us back. we got to talking about homesteading, but reality set in that my body will not allow me to do much and we will be in our 50’s by the time we can get a homestead and get it going. then the idea of rv’ing was brought up again. that free spirit deep inside started to wake up and flutter again. we are now looking at 5th wheel homes with bunks for our daughter to have her own room and maybe take on a passenger now and then to travel with us (friends we know for a mini vaca). we know we will travel to all the states in the USA we can get to by wheels (sorry hawaii lol) as this is a bucket list i have had for years. i have hit half the states, need to get the rest. i know it will not be easy, but, i know for me and my family, this is certainly what we want to do. we are in our happy place as we call it here in florida. but, something is still just not straight for us. and revisiting the rv life again has awakened something in us that was shut down for a long time. we are hoping to have an rv life in the next 2 to 5 years. plenty of time to research and learn what we need to. i think the hardest part was figuring out living quarters that will work for us. sure we would LOVE to have that 45′ Newmar, but, the 5th wheel is much more practical for us. if anything, we can say we at least tried it. i think everyone with any type of free spirit should try it, for at least a season.
There are some great layouts in 5th Wheels for families. The one that Pace & Kyeli is selling is one such.
Best wishes on your journey to the road. Free spirits definitely have good odds of thriving with this lifesyle.
Bob, there is an aptitude test, which could easily be tweaked for nomadic life on wheels. It is in a book called “Sell up and Sail” by Bill & Laurel Cooper; ISBN 0-7136-4786-8. Designed specifically for testing aptitude for a cruising yacht lifestyle.
I may even tweak it myself and put it online, some time.
Thanks for the info Stuart. I have some credit over at Amazon and I’ll have to look for it. Bob
Thanks Stuart.. .let us know if you do put something online, we’d totally love to share that out!
I’m a 64 widower from New Jersey (buried my soul mate Sept 2010) and scheduled to retire in 6 months. I settle on my house April 30 and plan to purchase a used MH. I was just thinking it would be interesting if someone put together an aptitude test for the Nomadic lifestyle. Even as a child I had the bug. I would ride my bicycle to see where a road went or follow a creek to its source. As an adult I traded the bicycle for a motorcycle and still ride. I’ve taken numerous long distance trips over the years. I also backpacked and did some long distance canoe trips. I like to travel and I’m curious about everything. I agree with the statement ”life happens when we are busy doing other things” so unstructured is better. I applaud your friends for giving it a go. After my wife died I was depressed and took another month long trip out West on my Harley. Several days in I felt like quitting and had nagging doubts. You’re too old for this, it’s too hot just go home and sit in the air conditioning and pet your dog. I said to myself you have to put a month in. You can stay in a hotel somewhere and you never have to do it again but you have to go the distance. I logged about 8000 miles and had an awesome time and met many wonderful people and I plan to keep doing it. Trying new things is scary and mistakes will be made but people who have never failed or struggled are hard to be around. Thanks for providing a forum – Bob
Chris and I are definitely followers of serendipity, and totally agree that adaptability is a trait that can serve nomads well. While there were several times in our journey I was ready to ‘go home’ because it would be easier, we stuck to it.. and here we are, 7 years later still at it.
Best wishes to you in your upcoming journeys, and sorry that your soul mate is no longer there to walk it with you.
Trying new things is scary and mistakes will be made but people who have never failed or struggled are hard to be around.
That is an amazing observation.
I feel the same as lostAnnfound (love that) on both counts. Kudos to P&K for taking the leap. Perhaps it is just not the right time. But they went for it. I too feel I have to make the leap and see if it is for me. It’s not an irrevocable choice so go for it (talking to self). Taking time to learn as much about the reality of road mode and what set up is best for me before I fledge. I have the wanderlust gene for sure. I am fortunate to have supportive friends and family who see me living a nomadic life. Some even ‘wish’ they could do it too. When their kids have left the nest I’ll work on them, LOL.
Absolutely… it’s not an irrevocable choice. And there are things you can do to make it easier to change the course if you find it’s not working (such as not overspending on the RV to a point it would be difficult to sell without taking a loss).
I say good for them for at least giving it a try@ My husband & I want to hit the road when the kids are gone (at least 5 more years) and do work-camping at state/national parks and Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds. Some of our friends are not as supportive as we thought they might be, wondering why on earth we would want to do it! I would be disappointed if we didn’t attempt it and it would be something I would regret not doing. I would rather try it and come to the conclusion that it’s “not for us” than never do it and wonder “what if”.
Yes.. absolutely!
Chris and I didn’t over analyze things too much ourselves before we hit the road, and learned much of it as we went. We’ve tweaked a lot of things as we’ve gone along, and alway made choices that would make it easy switch and try other things. We absolutely applaud Pace & Kyeli for trying it out and not have a lingering ‘what if’.
Best wishes on getting out there and giving it a try 🙂 I bet some of those friends will be envious when you actually do it.
In may 2012 we sold everything and are just coming to the end of our first year of living full in a motorhome. Half travelling, half staying in one place. We are fortunate enough to not be trying to run a business on the road as we have a sticks and bricks business making and selling hammocks in Nova Scotia each summer.
The two biggest challenges we faced were realizing we could do it and survive. And convincing our friend that we are not crazy. You are right – it is not for everyone. But it is for us.
We are having a blast. Seeing new sites, meeting new people and exploring North America. And being unencumbered by possessions. This year the east coast – next year we will head west.
Nothing wrong with being a little crazy 🙂 Congrats for finding your stride in your first year on the road.