The Dream, The Vision & The Road to the Beginning of full-time RV living

THE DREAM

I always looked at RV travel as something you do when you retire. My family took road trips growing up and when we camped, we tent camped. I knew nothing about RVs at all. The more I saw them out on the road, the more I thought “Hey, that would be a really cool retirement dream. It took awhile for me to ask the question….“Do people do this WITH their children? Do they somehow make a living WHILE traveling?”

It all started in 2016 when I started looking into alternative ways of living (alternative to sticks and bricks that is). My husband works in IT and although at the time he had an office job in Steamboat Springs, CO. I knew that there may be possibilities to work remotely in his field and my mind started spinning with ideas. I started researching blogs and forums of couples and families that travel full time. I focused more on families, because we had 3 kids and 1 on the way at the time. At first, I found families that travel from country to country on one way plane tickets letting Visa laws determine their lengths of stay….very fascinating, but I don’t like to fly that much and although I eventually want to see the world. There is so much to see that you can drive to.

THE VISION 

That’s when it started…the world of RV living. Wow, I had no idea there was such a big community out there living on the road. So I read story after story after story…the more I read, the more I wanted to try it. The more my heart strings were pulled toward the road. I mentioned it to a handful of people, who of course thought I was nuts wanting to live with my big family in a tiny box on wheels. But I am used to people rolling their eyes at me…after all I am known for being a “Jesus Freak” as well.

So much to figure out….rv options, tow vehicles and of course schooling on the road. Not to mention making a living while traveling full time! I have always liked the idea of homeschooling, the freedom of it, the ability to take charge over what my kids are exposed to. However, it always scared me. I never liked or did well in school and I wasn’t at all sure I had the brains or emotional capacity to be with my children 24/7 let alone try to teach them all they are expected to know in their elementary school years and beyond. 

The Road to the Beginning

I’ll spare you the details, but within a year a lot of things changed for our family, and next thing I knew we were in a position to actually make it happen. My husband was on board…actually his response was “If you really want to do that to yourself…I’m in”.

When we ran the numbers of what it would cost, rv payments, gas when moving, general living expenses and campground fees, it was easy to see that it was totally doable. Even if we travel all the time, we wouldn’t have to spend more than we would trying to hold down a rental or mortgaged home in Colorado. So when he landed a job that would allow him to work mostly remotely, we did it! After looking at motorhomes, fifth wheels, travel trailers big and small, we decided the wisest thing to do for us was start small. At the time we drove a Toyota Sequoia, not really meant to pull so much weight, but doable if we went with the smallest unit we could all fit in. We ultimately wanted a fifth wheel toy hauler, but we agreed taking on the expense for such a big unit along with having to purchase a much better tow vehicle, would make our budget tighter than we wanted it. Besides, who knew if we wanted to stay in the lifestyle long term? Hard to say without giving it a try…I for one, had never even taken a trip in an RV before I moved into one! So we agreed to go small, spend 1 year living in it and then decide if we wanted to upgrade to a bigger unit or go back to living in a house.

We purchased the biggest unit we could pull with our Sequoia (quite small) and brought it back to Steamboat Springs,CO in January 2018 and started living in it. Now let me just say, living in a trailer that wasn’t moving around and seeing new things….in fact actually parked in the mountains of Colorado in January…was not what I  had in mind. But we needed to be there for a few months for my husband’s training so that’s where we were. The first few weeks I had a lot of “OMG what have we done moments’‘… that’s for sure. But those quickly dissipated as I slowly figured out how to get organized and downsized enough for us to actually fit. My kids were not as excited about this new lifestyle…they loved our community in small town Colorado, with family nearby and all the familiarity of a small town. Also I made the mistake of bringing them to see so many awesome big RVs that when I brought one of the smallest ones home, they were like…:”uh…Mom, this is really small” I kept telling them that this would allow us to see new things and do lots of adventures that we would never be able to do while trying to juggle school and 2 full time jobs. Flying with a family of 6 was just not likely to happen….too expensive. They liked that idea, but mostly they saw the reality of how many things they were going to keep…which wasn’t much! I stored some of their things, but mostly we drastically downsized. Each big kid started out with 3 containers with lids, 1 for books, 1 for toys, and 1 for legos. Along with 4-5 outfits and 2-3 pairs of shoes. Oh, and 3 stuffed animals…this was maybe the hardest part, although I did store the rest of the favorites so they can periodically switch them out. (*Knowing what I know now, SAY NO TO LEGOS)

We were stationary in Steamboat for 3 months, and I am really thankful we had that time to get organized and set things up the way we wanted while adjusting to our tiny space. I grew to love it more and more…just the simplicity of how little there was to take care of. Everything has to have a place, and it doesn’t take long at all to clean the whole house! Also, I was not used to planning so far in advance and I quickly realized that if you want to ensure campgrounds in the area you want have space in the summer…you must plan ahead! So I spent the 3 months planning out our summer. Which was supposed to consist of bouncing around Colorado state parks near Denver for April and May (due to my husband’s job), camp for the kids in the Boulder area in June and then off to the Northwest US: Idaho, Oregon coast, the Redwoods in Northern California and back to Colorado before beginning our North-East exploration which would start in late summer and go into the fall.

So that is the intro to the “Hagar Family Adventure.” I started out as a total rookie at this rv and travel thing….and homeschool thing! But I’ve learned a lot along the way, my goal is to share those things with you as best as I can. So that those with families thinking about trying out the lifestyle or just getting started can find helpful information based on experience.