In 2012, we were awakened to a life we had unknowingly been building towards for years.  We finally realized what we wanted to do when we grew up. It all started in the spring of 1998 in Tulsa, OK, where we first met.  I, in Tulsa living with a family member after my departure from my home state of Maine.  She, in Tulsa by way of New York to Florida, to Georgia and whatever other states she graced on her journey to meet me. 🙂  – We were drawn together by our Northeastern routes, and as we soon learned, our love of travel.  Our time in Tulsa was spent taking weekend road trips to Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana.  We talked about becoming nomads; work temp jobs for a few months then move on to another city, and so on.  However, we decided to take the more secure/safe route.  Which was to make long road trips around the county as vacations while we did the responsible thing, work full-time jobs.

We moved back to the Northeast, got full-time jobs, bought a home and took our cross country vacations.  As the years went by, we began to have an urge to move.  Both of us were getting tired of the long cold winters of New England and wanted to experience a different region.  The last few years our road trips consisted of visiting places searching for a place we may want to live.  After several trips out west, unsuccessfully finding any place where we could see ourselves living, we decided to take a vacation to North Carolina.  We instantly fell in love!  Being State Government workers, we focused on the Raleigh area, thinking we could find work fairly easy working for the State of North Carolina.  We did extensive research. Should we buy another house? Maybe a condo? Or should we rent first and then decide once we’ve lived in the state for a few months.  With each trip we made to scope out areas, we seemed to be further and further from making a decision.  At times we even considered visiting neighboring states, Virginia & Tennessee, thinking we may want to make our new home elsewhere.  I started thinking maybe we could live some kind of working snowbird life.  Work somewhere in the south during each winter and travel in summer. It occurred to me why we were having so much trouble deciding where to live….WE WANTED TO LIVE EVERYWHERE!!!

I began researching online about working and traveling. That’s when I discovered what we unknowingly wanted to do since 1998, but never put the pieces together.  Online I was able to find a community of young people living and working full time while living in RV’s.  Everything made perfect sense!  We have no debt, no children and are the happiest when we’re out traveling.  So, we spent about a year researching everything we can about living full time in an RV.  From selecting an RV to working on the road to buying health insurance, it’s was a year of immense learning.

We downsized our stuff and our house looked practically empty while it was listed for sale. It was so empty, some of the potential buyers thought no one was living in it during their showings. 

We were ready, as soon as the sale of the house was complete, we planned to depart the cold and crowded northeast and embark on the road less traveled.  I think the most important thing we learned during this process was patience.  SELL HOUSE, SELL!

We closed on the house on September 30, 2014. After gobbling up a large meatball pizza during a final visit with my mom & dad, we struck out to begin our new life. 

After almost 4 years of full-timing, there has never been a second thought of going back to sticks & bricks.  We’ve even downsized along the way to this 22′ travel trailer!