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 …
Thank you for reading. Your support means the world to us. We hope you and your families have a happy and safe winter season, and that the new year brings many happy memories. With love, Jennifer, David, Miss Kitty, Lillian, Tycho, and Kepler
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 …
Our first hurricane warning as RVers!
We entered Florida shortly before the warnings for Hurricane Dorian, and decided to turn north to wait it out until we knew what Dorian would be doing. (Our hearts break for the Bahamas, who will be recovering from this for a long time.)
While we still lived in a sticks-and-bricks home and I had my wood shop, I did some last-minute cabinetry for our RV. Above the windows on each side of the bed was a space that had the potential for a small cabinet. The existing cabinets above the headboard had vertically-opening doors that were several inches away from the wall on each side. If I kept the cabinets shallow enough, they should fit. First, I drew up a plan for two cabinets, and then I made a wood cut plan. I chose poplar for the cabinets to keep the weight down, and to better match the other cabinets. There would be a single door and room for two shelves inside each cabinet, and a water bottle shelf. The shelves are large enough for things like average-sized pill bottles, small packs of tissues, eye drops, and lip balm. Rather than a plain …
Those of you who’ve followed our Instagram might’ve seen that we’ve officially left Arizona (for now) and are on the road. We have a schedule to keep to get to our Florida destination on time (more about that in a future post!), but not such a tight schedule that we can’t stay 2-3 nights in each spot, and we’ve limited our travel to 200 miles per day. So here is what happened when we landed in El Paso: The truck wouldn’t start! At least it waited until we were settled into an RV park, rather than the middle of nowhere. And in Texas, there’s a LOT of “nowhere.” We bought our 2016 Ram 2500 a year ago and it’s in great shape. It even came with brand new tires, but we suspected the battery was original from the factory. Anyone who has spent any time in the Arizona heat knows …
Apps come and go all the time, and I think “favorite apps” lists are always like a snapshot in time. So here is a snapshot of our 10 favorite apps for August 2019, in no particular order:
Finding gluten-free food on the road can be tough. This is not a post about finding gluten-free restaurants, or about all the magical gluten-free dining experiences a traveler with celiac disease might find if only they were brave enough or bold enough. I am a super sensitive celiac. I am more sensitive than the average celiac, and it takes me longer to bounce back than many of my celiac peers. Once, I was glutened so badly by a careless restaurant that it took me over a year to feel “normal” again. Consequently, we don’t eat out much. So this is a post about where to find gluten-free groceries while traveling. Even before RV life, when we traveled, we brought a suitcase for our clothes and a suitcase for our food. (The food suitcase was usually bigger.) RV travel has made eating on the road MUCH easier and simpler, but there’s …
The basic concept of calculating towing capacity isn’t exactly complicated: your vehicle needs to be capable of towing whatever it is you’re trying to tow, and you should never go over that limit because it’s dangerous (and potentially deadly). But actually calculating towing capacity and understanding the details to be sure you’re within safety limits gets a bit complex. It’s important to remember you can never have too much truck, when it comes to towing. Doing the calculations for towing capacity involves math, but it’s straightforward: some addition and subtraction and comparing two numbers. The tricky part is finding the data you need because there’s no single source for all things weight-related, and the only way to be sure you’re under capacity is by visiting a weigh station to have your vehicle and RV weighed separately. Here are the important terms and definitions: Vehicle curb weight, or dry weight: The …
