rv culture

A generic update!

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It’s been awhile, friends. Work has been keeping us both busy, and there just hasn’t been a lot of energy leftover for blogging. Which is great in some ways— David loves his job as an RV tech! And tiring in others— I’m a tax preparer, and I haven’t had much of a break thanks to covid. Living with chronic illness and disability means I’ve got time to work or time to take care of myself, but not both. (Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks full-time RV life means full-time vacation!) We are still in Crescent City, California. We absolutely love this area, and hope to explore more of the Pacific Northwest when we are able. We’ve decided to spend the winter here in Crescent City, and experience a PNW winter firsthand. One of the reasons we’re sticking close to our current favorite city is Covid-19. It had …

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Home on Wheels Alliance

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Want to help out a good cause and have a chance at winning a nice trailer? I just donated to the Home on Wheels Alliance through one of their fundraiser programs with a chance to win a 6×10′ Nomad Trailer by WeeRoll. They are helping senior citizens, the working poor, and people with disabilities from becoming truly homeless by providing safe vehicles to live in. This fundraiser program ends on 11/12/2020 and they are still a bit short of their goal. Please help them out. Thank you. Follow this link to help donate with a chance to win the trailer  

Top 10 Reasons Why Traveling in an RV is the Best Way to Travel

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We’ve traveled a lot over the years, and we haven’t enjoyed any mode of transportation as much as we’ve enjoyed RVing. In light of COVID-19 and the recent surge of RV sales, which some are calling “covid campers,” here are 10 reasons why we prefer traveling by RV: Our own bed: We have our own bed, our own sheets and blankets, our own pillows, and we know they’re clean and washed without detergent that’ll cause allergic reactions. Traveling pre-RV was fun, but it was always so satisfying to get home to our own bed. Not we get to do that every single day we travel. Our own kitchen: This is especially important when traveling with celiac and food allergies. All the research, questions, and restaurant managers’ promises in the world can’t prevent the one food prep incident that ruins our whole trip. I do miss the days of discovering new …

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Happy Pride Month! And a PSA.

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Here’s a rainbow we saw on our travels this week, directly overhead! Despite more people than ever staying home, police violence against Black people continues just as it has since the country was founded. People have reached a tipping point and are collectively standing up for justice because black lives matter. Remember the campsite rule: leave your site better than you found it. What can you do to leave this world better than you found it? The RV community (especially the RV community online) has a whiteness problem, and we need to change that. Find outdoorsy accounts/blogs/channels run by Black folks and follow them. Challenge 10-year age limits at RV parks (which disproportionately affects lower income RVers, and lower income people are more likely to be people of color). Reconsider your RV park reviews complaining about “long term residents” which is often code for “poor people” (who are more likely …

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The Unfortunately Racist Origins of One of RVers’ Favorite Words

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Content warning: this post contains racial slurs in the context of educating the audience about these slurs. For those already aware of what I’m going to talk about, this could be jarring and upsetting. For those unaware, I hope it will become jarring and upsetting by the end of this post, in order to encourage everyone to remove this word from their vocabularies. For International Romani Day (April 8), I want to challenge my fellow RVers to remove the following word from your lives: Gypsy. We’ve all seen it: Romanticizing what RVers refer to as “gypsy” culture and lifestyle. The idea of traveling wherever the wind blows, an irresistible wanderlust, your home is wherever you park it, the freedom to live life on your own terms. But here’s the hard truth: the original “gypsies” are the Romani people, and that word is a racial slur loaded with prejudices and bigoted …

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Heading in my new direction

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I am officially an RVSA Certified RV Technician! We’ve been full-time RVers since September 2018, but only on the road since July 2019. Jen and I have been planning and working to fulfill our dream of full-time RV travel. Making this transition meant letting go of the career that had sustained me up to this point. I spent much of the last 20+ years working as a operations and equipment maintenance supervisor in the manufacturing industry. I was very good at my job but I was fed up and burned out. The politics, dehumanizing management, and frustrating environments meant each day was a soul-sucking blender. We budgeted, scrimped, and saved in order to help make the transition possible. I have always been a hands-on person and enjoy fixing and making things. My favorite job was the three years I spent working as a residential electrician before going back to school …

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Holiday gifts for RVers

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It’s that time of the year! We have many favorite items since we moved into our RV, and we think a lot of these ideas would be good for ANYONE, but of course, we’re posting these first and foremost as RVers. We’d love to know what you think, and if you have any “must have” items in your rig, gift ideas, or favorite gifts. Homemade Gifts When we chose to downsize, we developed an even greater appreciation for homemade items, because they’re that much more special when they’re among our few possessions. We love afghans, hats and scarves (although those of you who chase the 72-degree weather may not have a need for those!), tea towels, table cloths, pillow cases…. Really, there’s no end to the charm of homemade gifts. Do note, however, if your loved ones have food allergies or food-related illnesses, make sure to find out if your …

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Thanksgiving History

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This Thanksgiving we are thankful we are not sleeping on the side of I-95 in near-freezing temperatures (and that’s a blog post for another day). And in honor of Thanksgiving, we’d like to take some time to talk a little about the real history of Thanksgiving that many of us never learned in school. Content warning: this post contains descriptions of violence and racism. It is presented in a way that we hope will be educational, but understand not everyone is in a place where they can safely read this material. We also mean no offense and any errors, omissions, or misspoken words are due to our own ignorance and welcome corrections by Native, indigenous, and non-white readers. Thank you. We recognize and respect that Thanksgiving has become a holiday where we celebrate the abundance and gratitude for the things we have in our lives. We’re certainly grateful and thankful …

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The RV Archives

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There’s such a wealth of information about RVing and long-term camping online. We are constantly researching. To my fellow RVers, I encourage you to do what you can to keep your sites online, even after you lose interest in blogging, quit RVing, or switch to posting solely on YouTube or other “siloed” service. (A siloed service is one which can only be used or accessed through a specific app or other limiting factor, like Facebook, Twitter, and yes, even YouTube, where posts can vanish at the whims of the services’ owners.) Many sites fade away. There are still some decades-old gems out there though. One of my favorites is Two Penny Travels’s computer setup from 1999. As I write this post from a 4-pound laptop tethered to a smartphone hotspot (at speeds of 45mbps up and 23mbps down), I think about Sam and Alice (of Two Penny Travels) and the …

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