Getting Back to the Open Road Chronicles in an RV
3 years ago, we decided to take a step towards a more simple life. I had my townhouse, office, car and motorcycle. Joelle had her apartment and car.
Update before reading! We’re pregnant and looking forward to having a beautiful baby girl come February 2018! This doesn’t necessarily change our plans for the future, but we have moved from Oregon to Florida! We still want to travel and experience the rest of the country and other countries, so let’s see where life takes us :) Oh and we recently purchased a 2011 Ford F-150, so that’s a small but big step for us.
Our journey began with getting rid of all of our belongings excluding clothing, electronics, kitchenware and my motorcycle. We bought a 2005 Coachmen Chapparel 271RBS and a 2008 Ford F-250 Superduty Crewcab, renovated the interior of the RV and hit the road.
Given that I had never lived anywhere other than Virginia, this was a huge transition for me. It was a bit overwhelming at times and the concept was very new to both of us.
But boy, did we explore.
In only 2 years we lived in the following cities, if for only a few days or weeks at times..
- Chesapeake, VA on the side of a friends house
- Four Oaks, NC at Raleigh Oaks RV Park
- Asheville, NC at Bear Creek RV Park
- Dandridge, TN at Anchor Down RV Resort
- Dickson, TN at a Ford dealership
- Little Rock, AR at Downtown Riverside RV Park
- Amarillo, TX at Amarillo Ranch RV Park
- Mora, NM with my aunt and cousins for Thanksgiving
- Flagstaff, AZ at Flagstaff KOA
- Rio Vista, CA with Joelles parents for Christmas
- Vacaville, CA at Vineyard RV Park
- Fairfield, CA on a friend of ours land
And shortly after we were on our friends land in California, we met Matthew Herich at a Starbucks and decided to move into an apartment together. Only a few months later we moved up to a townhouse in Hillsboro, OR (right outside of Portland).
Life has been… crazy since 2014. We’ve grown so much as individuals and in our relationship (I proposed to Joelle Phillips in 2016!)
We have to go back!
It’s now 2017 and we’ve come to the conclusion that the RV lifestyle was so absolutely amazing, even with it’s occasional struggles that we have to go back!
Our goal for the rest of 2017 will be to build ourselves back up to the point where we can get a nicer RV and venture back into the lifestyle, but this time with the understanding of how absolutely amazing it is.
We look forward to sharing with you our experiences and hope to see you on the open road!