Living: Choosing the Road Less Traveled
For the last four-and-a-half years, my wife Julie and I, with our cat Juke and desi dog Alpha, have now been traveling and living off-grid in our RV.
“You’re doing what?!”
That was the reaction from my family when I told them that my wife Julie and I were going to quit our jobs and travel around the U.S. in a recreational vehicle (RV) for a year. I’m pretty sure they thought we were crazy, and at times we did too. But we had been planning our exit for over two years, as we followed other full-time RVers on social media and got tons of tips and information about living on the road.
[Top] Sunset at Flaming Gorge, UT. [Right] Alpha, the desi street dog, wasrescued from Punjab after being found with an injury.
Fast forward four-and-a-half years, and my wife and I (and our cat, Juke and desi dog, Alpha) have now been traveling and living off-grid in our RV since that conversation with our family in June of 2017.
Julie and I both had our corporate careers in Atlanta and we loved our jobs, our organization, and the career progression that it provided us. Life was great. We were learning a lot, challenging ourselves, climbing the corporate ladder, and were surrounded by an amazing group of friends and family in Atlanta.
But, as we grew in our careers, we started noticing subtle signs of unhappiness and regret from people who had been in their careers for a very long time and were getting close to retirement. They would always advise: ‘’Spend more time with your kids’’ or ‘’Have work-life balance.’’ At the same time, we were frustrated by the inefficiencies of a daily commute to work and not being able to work from home, even occasionally.
During this time, a few books such as The 4-Hour Workweek, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, and Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of less; and then a specific Ted Talk by Adam Baker titled “Sell your crap, pay your debt,” started planting the seed in our minds that an alternate way of life exists, and that we had options other than the “script” that we were living. We didn’t want to wait until retirement to really get into the things that we love (mountain biking, backpacking, snowboarding) or to spend more time with our loved ones. There wasn’t even a guarantee we would make it to retirement. I mean, we hoped so, but do we ever really know?
Our first year in the RV was a whirlwind of excitement traveling in our 24-foot 2002 Fleetwood Jamboree. We were moving fast, seeing so many places that we had dreamed of visiting, like Yellowstone National Park, the coast of California, the mountains of Colorado, and the desert landscapes of Arizona. Not only did we get to visit new places, but we also spent extended time visiting our family and staying with them for weeks at a time.
[Left] The author’s first 24’ Class C RV in Montana.
At the same time, we focused on building two online businesses based on our passions—the outdoors and stray dogs. Our businesses soon took shape: TripOutside.com helps people discover and book human-powered outdoor adventures, and SevaStray.com is an e-commerce store we built that sells unique, handmade Indian products to benefit stray dogs in India.
Our initial plan was to do the RV trip for a year and then come back to Atlanta. But just a few months in, neither Julie nor I wanted to ‘’go back’’ and put an end date to something that had been the best adventure we had had in our lives. Once we decided to extend the nomad lifestyle and take away the end date, it allowed us to take a deep breath, slow down our travels and stop making so many plans. This was the best change that we made in the first year of traveling.
[Right] Camped in Alabama Hills, CA.
Now, don’t get me wrong—there are definitely challenges of living and traveling full-time in an RV, and it’s not a lifestyle for everyone. RV life will constantly throw unexpected things at you like flat tires, blown transmissions, getting stuck in the sand, and other interesting adventures that could be another whole article. There is constant repair and maintenance of an ever-moving home on wheels. It has forced me to embrace the unexpected, get better at fixing things myself, and take ownership of things that go wrong. Being able to roll with it has been an important life lesson.
[Left] Snowed in during a snow storm at Taos Ski Valley Ski Resort, NM.
Also, it’s definitely not easy to start a business, to be on the road without a permanent community, to miss birthdays, anniversaries and gatherings of friends back home. But for us, the joy of this life far exceeds the obstacles. We love the spontaneity that this lifestyle allows us, and we love that it allows us to explore some pretty spectacular natural places by foot, pedal and snowboard. We enjoy being able to live a life of intention instead of a playbook of the life we “should’’ live. Since we live completely off-grid, we are able to experience our wild and natural landscapes, and to become more connected with the natural world. We adjust to temperature changes, catch sunrises and sunsets, see the stars and the Milky Way most nights, keep track of the moon cycles, and hear coyotes howling outside more nights than not. There is so much that nature offers that we were blind to for 34 years of life in a city.
[Top] Dispersed, off grid camping in Sawtooth Canyon Campground, CA.
Experiencing new places is great, but being able to share it with others is what makes this life worth living. “Happiness is only real if shared”—a thought from the book (which was also turned into a movie) Into the Wild—is spot on, and this lifestyle allows us to spend more time with the people we love. We can now spend weeks at a time with both of our families, visit India for multiple months at a time, and meet up with extended family across the country frequently. A nomad life can quickly become lonely if you’re not intentional about finding social interactions. Luckily, we have also found an incredible community of full-time RVers, outdoor enthusiasts, and burners (people that attend Burning Man, an annual event for artists and craftsmen in Black Rock City, Nevada) along the way that we continually reconnect with as we travel. We now have friends across the whole world.
For us, it’s not really about travel as much as it is about living an outdoorsy life connected to nature. Being able to step away from the city has opened our eyes to so much. There is not just less air pollution, but also less sound and light pollution. I didn’t even know what sound and light pollution was until I realized what life is without them.
[Right] Mountain biking in Moab, UT. “Mountain biking is our favorite activity and it helps us travel and find new trails.”
We tread lighter on our planet than we used to. We live on 70 gallons of water in a week—that’s more than what the average American uses in a day! We use less gas while traveling now than we did in our commute to work in Atlanta. And we are primarily solar-powered, living off that huge power source in the sky.
Living an off-grid, outdoors life has also made us tougher and more resilient, both physically and mentally. Pushing our boundaries has been a great life lesson and several studies are now showing the benefits of living a life in which you’re not always seeking comfort. The book, The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, highlights many such benefits.
If you have made it this far and find yourself curious about this lifestyle or simply excited about taking an RV trip, here are some of the common questions that we get, and you may find the answers helpful.
[Top] Rock scrambling in Sawtooth Canyon. “There is always some outdoor feature where we camp. We try to get outside and play every day.”
How easy/hard is it for someone with no experience to take an RV trip?
It’s fairly easy nowadays because there are a variety of RV styles, sizes and platforms that make it extremely easy for you to rent an RV than ever before. You can check out TripOutside.com/RV. Our partnership with Outdoorsy allows you to select an RV to rent from someone close to you and take it out for an adventure. Not sure you want to take an RV trip? You can just start with camping!
What should you look for in an RV rental?
The most important things to look for in an RV rental are size (what do you feel comfortable with), the sleeping capacity, and whether you want a motorhome or a tow-behind model. There are benefits of both, and trying them out with an RV rental before you buy is smart.
How do you find the next RV park when you’re on the road?
There are many different apps that can help you find RV parks like RV Parks & Campgrounds, Campendium and The Dyrt, or you can log on to Recreation.gov. There are also some cool innovations happening in
the camping world where you can stay at wineries, breweries, museums or farms (through websites such as HarvestHosts.com) or on other people’s private property (through websites such as HipCamp.com which is like Airbnb for camping).
Freelance writer and blogger Reet Singh is a former Atlanta resident. He is the founder of TripOutside.com and SevaStray.com that revolve around his two passions of RV lifestyle and stray dogs.
[Top] “Camped at Julie’s family’s house in Superior, WI. We make a summer and winter trip to go visit family.”
Some do’s and don’ts about RV life
Do’s”
Be spontaneous. Don’t overschedule your trip.
Be flexible. Challenges can and will happen, these end up making the best memories!
Take the scenic road. Though do check the height requirements on bridges along your route.
Don’ts:
Try not to go too fast and see too much. Try “less but better.”
Let’s not damage or destroy our natural places. Make sure to follow Leave No Trace principles and leave our natural places better than you found them. LNT.org is a great resource for these tips.
Don’t stress it. Allow this time to help you unplug and unwind.
Don’t let your life pass you by. Get out there!
Budgeting and estimates for a full-time RV lifestyle
Gas: $500-$1000. Varies by distance traveled.
Lodging: $300 - $700. Varies by type of RV park and the number of nights you spend. You can get weekly or monthly rates to reduce costs or get different memberships that get you discounts, such as Good Sam.
RV and auto insurance: $200. We recommend getting an older RV for many different reasons, but it also helps with insurance costs.
Other expenses:
$200/year on mail forwarding.
$60/month on propane, laundry and dump stations.
$200/month on mobile hotspots, but we work remotely.
Expenses for dining, shopping, entertainment, etc. are not included, as those can vary by person, and we are extremely frugal.
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