Three years of full-time travel in an RV – and living in four different RVs during that time – sure has taught us a lot, as you might expect!
We’ve driven our various homes-on-wheels to 44 states and two Canadian provinces so far. There are some great destinations within easy driving distance that we still haven’t hit, but they required seasonal timing that just hasn’t aligned for us yet. They’re on our list for the future, however. 🙂
Three years on the road, on a map (plus a flight to Spain for work). Northern US, southern Canada, and more of the southwest US are up next!
Thanks to such a dramatic simplification of our lives the last few years – trimming away most of the excess stuff weighing us down, and adapting to living in a tiny space – we learned what really matters most to us. Our version of happiness is quality time spent together: loving on our dogs, being with our friends and family, soaking in the beauty of the world around us, and collecting new experiences instead of things.
Memories in the making: Harvest Host camping at a winery with Joe and Kait Russo of We’re the Russos (https://weretherussos.com/) and Jill Sessa (https://jillsessa.com/)
I love wandering. We learn so much about ourselves when we travel. All the things that went wrong along the way had a purpose too: they made us tougher – even if they really sucked at the time. 😉
However, there’s a time (maybe in every part-time or full-time traveler’s life?) that we may be happier and healthier by taking some time off the traveling, to regroup and rest. For a variety of reasons, even the most hardcore nomads may need to put down some roots – roots that can be as shallow or as deep as you choose. We’re learning to accept that we’re not “failures at travel” for feeling that pull too.
It’s okay to be a wanderer but want a non-public place to call your own sometimes. To yearn for some privacy after years of sharing space with other travelers. To fine-tune your personal balance between downtime and adventure as your situation calls for it. You can still build travel into your life as much or as little as you want it, but “how much travel?” is something only your own instincts can tell you.
A road-weary Chihuahua and his human taking a much needed siesta
Full-time travel, for us at least, was never about how long we could stay on the move at a stretch, how many places we’d go in a fixed amount of time, or proving anything to anyone. It was – and is – an open-ended, purely personal adventure. We know we’ll continue to do extended periods of travel (in some form) for the rest of our lives, or as long as it continues to make us happy. With wanderlust being such a driving force in our hearts and minds, we can’t imagine traveling only a handful of weeks a year, unless circumstances beyond our control require it.
Now that we’ve seen most of our own country and gained a lot of valuable perspective and experiences along the way, we’ve been talking about how we can do this short- or long-term travel thing better. Our lives may look perfect on social media, and it is great fun mostly, but many of us who travel for longer stretches at a time struggle with certain aspects of the experience, even after years of doing it.
Our personal tipping point was having some rather serious medical issues arise recently, during which time we were disheartened by many doctors not accepting new patients – especially those who weren’t from the area – without a referral from a local general practitioner. We waited 4-6 weeks for appointments as new patients at a GP, then a few more weeks for the specialists to see us.
That was a scary, stressful, and physically painful time, and one we hope not to have to go through again. With some minor issues still lingering, though, it’s likely we’ll require more doctor visits, at least in the near future. Having been through that experience now, it feels safer to spend some time in one place for a bit, establishing a relationship with doctors we know and trust, instead of just taking a chance on whoever is willing to see us the quickest in a stop along our route.
A small RV in a crowded campground near the city also wasn’t the most comfortable or stress-free place to rest and recuperate from being ill, as you can probably imagine. That discomfort weighed very heavily on our decision to look not just at slowing down, but at adding an alternative place to live sometimes.
When we first started RVing, and again when we downsized to our van, we planned to occasionally rent a house or apartment for a month or longer in a desirable area, take a travel break, and stretch out. We’ve wished for a bit more living space sometimes, but don’t want to maintain and drive a much bigger RV all the time just to have it. Renting a place now and then seemed like a good middle-ground.
In reality, it didn’t work so well for us. It’s hard to find pet-friendly accommodations and not pay huge cleaning fees and deposits. Rentals typically don’t have very nice furniture, a comfortable bed, or a kitchen equipped for the kind of cooking we love to do. In addition, the pricing has usually been far more than we want to pay for something we aren’t fully comfortable in. Coupled with weird rules, the inconsistent quality of the properties, and owners/managers sometimes being really difficult to work with, we decided that wasn’t going to cut it.
The idea of having a “vacation-from-full-time-travel-home” near the medical facilities we needed access to started to sound more and more appealing. So we decided to look at buying an affordable little “sometimes” home, centrally located in the US. We wanted a place with very little maintenance and lots of opportunities to walk or bike instead of drive when we’re there.
We weren’t planning to do anything right away, and didn’t even have a location in mind, until an online search turned up the perfect industrial loft condo for sale in one of our favorite little towns from our travels – Springfield, Missouri – which we fell in love with on our Route 66 trip a couple years back.
Springfield, Missouri town square
Springfield, Missouri town square
We drove from Delaware to Missouri that weekend to check it out (1,100 miles in two days, because we’re insane). It was no surprise to us that we totally fell in love with it upon first sight. It’s just so cool.
The loft is 1,080-square-feet, in a 100-year-old commercial building – a totally open-concept living/cooking/eating/sleeping space, other than the separate bath and laundry rooms. With the more affordable cost of living here in the Midwest, we got it at a great price, and it will cost us less per month than most of the RV parks we’ve stayed at, not to mention being half to one-third the monthly price of any of the rental homes or hotels we’ve used.
Living, dining and kitchen areas in our loft. A spiral staircase to the rooftop deck is in the foreground.
Beyond the cook’s kitchen, wine fridge, and private rooftop deck that really sold us on it, we’re a quick walk from most of our favorite things: several microbreweries, a distillery, bars, coffee shops, great restaurants serving locally grown/raised food, art galleries, live music, city parks, a minor-league baseball stadium, college sports, and farmers markets. All that, and only an hour from the lakes and Ozark mountains around Branson, for excellent camping and water activities.
The huge backyard/patio at Mother’s Brewing, a couple blocks from us, is dog-friendly, and a favorite place of ours to hang out.
Growing up in rural areas, we both always dreamed of having a loft in a city, and the option to walk or bike instead of driving everywhere. We love being able step outside our door and be near lots of things to do when we want them, but also able to retreat back to our sanctuary easily, if we feel like being homebodies (which happens a lot of the time). On average, we’ll need to drive only about once a week here, to run errands outside of downtown.
The view of Springfield from the rooftop deck on our loft
We’re keeping our camper van, and plan to be here in Missouri for a few weeks to months at a time in between road trips. Since it’s located almost mid-country, Springfield will be perfect as a central rest stop in our travels. We need to fly for work at least a couple times a year too, so one of our parents or a pet sitter can come to a well-equipped place to doggy-sit, instead of us having to get them a hotel room or worry about their comfort staying in the RV. We’ll also have several major cities within a few hours’ drive (St. Louis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Memphis).
We’re definitely not giving up RV travel – far from it – and still plan to be on the road a good bit of the time.
So after about 100,000 miles of towing our house behind us or driving it, we’ve learned that we need to be happy and healthy, first and foremost, to fully enjoy the journey. We added our new “rest area” to take better care of ourselves, make RV repairs, and plan our next big adventures. We also hope to enjoy the moment more fully while traveling as a result of these breaks, instead of always planning what’s next before we ever leave the previous place.
I plan to get back to doing more blogging and posting of our huge backlog of travel photos, then write about our future travels more consistently. While I always prefer to take some time to process the experience before we’re ready to edit photos and tell the story, taking care of our health had to take priority over blogging for a lot longer than planned. To our patient followers who didn’t give up on us and checked in on what the heck we were up to during our silence, thank you for your love and support!
Whenever we’re here in Springfield, we’d love to meet up with anyone who’s passing through, whether on Route 66, heading to or from Branson, or on a nearby interstate. Springfield is an awesome little city that we’d be happy to show off!
Here’s a little gallery of our new “sometimes-home”, which is still being furnished and set up just the way we want it, but feels like a nearly perfect home-away-from-the-road already:
(Click on an image to open a slideshow view)
Looks great! Love the printers type, my husband was a printing pressman for 30 years, I sold all but a small box of printers type when I was getting ready for my RV journey. I think a home base is a good idea, I also plan to downsize to a van and find a little cottage somewhere.
Author
Thank you! The printers tray and letters were from a newspaper that Jason’s family worked with, and his mom had kept it many years until one of us found a good use for it. We loved that we were able to spell both “nomads” and “rum”..haha. 😀 A van and a little home base are seeming to be a great combination so far. Good luck with your journey too, and let us know if you have any questions along the way!
Congratulations on such a major decision!! Enjoy your new home!! It is beautiful!!
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Thank you! We still plan to come visit you sometime – a southwest tour will definitely happen, maybe so the Snows can escape the other kind of snow this winter 😉
Congratulations!!! The place is beautiful and I look forward to continuing to read your blog about stationary and on the road adventures. 🙂
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Thank you! It’s still really weird to us, but we’re loving city life so far. We’ve been in this place only a month and already have a trip planned for next week, so you apparently can’t keep a nomad stationary for long! 😀
So super proud and happy for you guys in figuring out what works uniquely for you! Your new sometimes-home looks AMAZING – it is so you!
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Thank you both! We’re really looking forward to you coming to visit us sometime. We’ll actually be in St. Louis next weekend, and we wish it was to meet up with you again! Such great times were had last time. <3
Congrats! There’s no failure in finding what works best for you, and what’s best for you can change for any number of reasons. Take care of yourselves, enjoy the new home and safe travels!
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Thanks, JT! 😀
We come down from KC all the time to Springfield. Kristin, you and I have had several back & forths on the Travato FB group about various things inside of other “conversations” about B vans etc.
We really enjoy the breweries downtown also. Next time we come down I’ll have to give you a heads up and maybe we can catch a brew or 2 or 3.
We currently own a Winnebago ERA.
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Hi Bob! Yes, we’d love to get together and talk vans, and anything else we can think of over a pint (or few). We’ll let you know when we’re in KC the next time too. It’s our closest Costco, so we’ll make the trip every couple months I’d imagine 😀
95th & I-35? Know it well…
Hello, I apologize in advance as I don’t follow your blog regularly, but does this affect where you are domiciled? Most fulltime RVers pick a state with no state income tax, but I see MO does. Did this play into your decision making for a part time home? My SO and I are 5-6 yrs away from early retirement in our early 40s and she wants to foster dogs 6mo out of the year in a stationary home, then we can travel the other 6mo, so your article really perked my ears. Best of luck!
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Hi Bryce! We’re still domiciled in Tennessee (no income tax) for now, because we own two rental houses there and lived there most recently, but our mailing address when we travel is a Florida mailbox (St. Brendan’s Isle) so we can have items scanned or forwarded. None of the other nomad-friendly states appealed to us, since we wanted to be in the center of the country, but not as far south as Texas or north like South Dakota.
We’ll probably move our residency to Missouri, even with the added income tax, since we’ll be here quite a bit. We need to check with someone to see how many months out of a year we can live here before we need to become residents, but if we need to do it, we’d rather pay that than be audited or charged with tax fraud. 😉 Thanks so much for following us, and let me know if you have any questions! Hope to see you out there on the road someday!
WE so know your pain!! We’ve been on the road for 2 yrs and it’s time for a break…. and some time apart cause living together in such a close space without a community is as I’m sure you know – challenging 🙂
we too are taking a few months out and exploring other areas of the world in one location though – at a time…Have fun – and enjoy.
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Hi Andrea! That’s a great idea. We can’t wait to, say, go spend a month in Europe – in only one city or small region at a time – someday. That’s our plan post-puppies, and this will be a great base-camp for that too! Thanks for reading and happy travels!
Your sometimes home looks incredibly awesome! Hope to visit you two sometime in the next year or so. If our travels align with your time there 🙂
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Thanks, Chrissie! We would love to have you visit! We still plan to get back to NY sometime too. 😀
Whoa! What a gorgeous place! Let me know when you decide to take a trip to Minnesota and we’ll put you up! Pets would need to be sorted (the girls have never been around dogs), but we’d still love to see you!
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Thanks, Carolyn! We’d love to come visit, and are aiming for a MN trip this fall or spring, hopefully! All we need is a parking spot, and our pups are happy to hang out in the van, so no worries there. 🙂
Gorgeous loft! Hope you are getting well and finding answers for health issues. Next time you visit your folks, look us up. We found a few more local craft breweries 😉
Author
Yesss – it’s a deal! We’re going to be in St. Louis next weekend – we’ll have a Schlafly for you guys!
You guys are my heroes! I need to drive up to Springfield and get some Snow time. I haven’t seen Jason in so long, I need to come up and throw a few back. And I need to meet you!!! And … now that you’re in Missouri, I know who to get in contact with if I need a sports stringer! LOL. Seriously, this loft is freakin’ awesome and I think I might be more jealous of your loft life than I was of your RV travels.
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Aw, thank you! We’d love that. Come visit soon, and we’ll have beer and go to a baseball game. 😀
I love everything about it!! Probably worth it just for your own laundry machines! 🙂
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Thank you – we love it too! I still keep forgetting I can do laundry anytime I want to now. 😀
This is so ironic, I want nothing more than to become a full time rv’er and make my escape from Springfield/Branson, hopefully never looking back. Otherwise welcome to the Ozarks!
Author
Understandable! It’s easy to be bored with or dislike a place after a while – we’ve been to nearly all the country, and this area checks most of our boxes, especially for its central location in the US, and still near big cities. We both left our hometowns and never wanted to go back, but after some time away and fresh perspective, we enjoy visiting them again. Best of luck making an escape, even for a while! Hit us up via our contact page if you’re ever nearby and we’ll grab a drink with you 🙂
Our story is so similar, albeit we ended up in Florida. Check out our latest blog, The Rolling Toaster, called Beautiful Arkansas. We plan to visit and stay in the Ozarks again next year.
Author
Awesome! Jason is from Arkansas, and we love visiting. Hot Springs and Little Rock are really fun as well. Next time you cross the country anywhere near here, let us know! We’d love to meet you, and Springfield is really dog-friendly. 🙂
This seems like a perfect next chapter in your adventures! And, I love this place – so stunning. I’m pretty sure that this is Justin’s dream home! 🙂
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Thank you! We’d so love for you to come visit sometime. There are direct flights from Tampa to Springfield! 😉
This space is gorgeous. And I’m so jealous of the kitchen. I love how all of the dogs are just hanging out in a few photos. Take care you guys. Lori .
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Thanks, Lori! If I’d planned ahead a little better, I could have hidden a dog in every photo, like “Where’s Waldo?” 😀
As always, your blogs are so informative and insightful. I really appreciate your experience-based insights. I am glad to hear that you both are healthy and/or on the way to recovery. I had missed your posts in recent months and apologize for not further checking on you guys. Best of luck to you all in your future journeys expanding the meaning of your home.
Springfield looks like a place we need to add to our list of possible next destinations. As much as we have loved Nashville, living in an “it” city gets more cumbersome and less authentic each week. Some place less on the radar sounds really nice.
Your Travato looks like a great all-around vehicle and looks very similar to the Sprinter we had begun considering. So, once again, you have provided great and timely information. I’m so glad I stumbled upon you guys a few years back. There is something to this “law of attraction” thing!
(p.s. Can’t wait for your book–nudge, nudge in case you hadn’t thought about doing that!)
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Thank you, Jane! Yes, definitely do come to Springfield. We still have a lot of fun things to do, minus the traffic and congestion of a really big city, and it’s so much more affordable. Parking is free downtown, and they converted their parking meters into “Giving meters” that you can donate your spare change to, to help feed people in need of a meal.
We love the Travato, and if you have any questions about vans just let us know. We’ve done a lot of research on them and are really happy we landed on this one. And I’ll definitely consider a book, but not anytime soon. We have a lot more exploring and relaxing to do first! 😉
I grew up in MO, and still visit my grandparents often to go fishing! I’ll be sure to ping you guys anytime I head through Springfield.
Congrats. 🙂
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Awesome, Ryan – we’d love to see you! We’d be excited for some fishing lessons too (we don’t do it often enough to be much good at it), so if you ever want to take a boat out, we’d gladly chip in. We have an extra tent if you want to set up camp near the water too 😉
Your new place is gorgeous! I had missed seeing your posts here and was wondering what was up. So glad to hear you two are getting the medical issues addressed and you were able to find such a wonderful place to do it in. Noticed you mentioned that parking is free downtown. Do you just parallel park the Travato near your new place? Would be pretty cool if the town is ok with that so you could use it as your daily driver. We’ll be heading off on our first big Travato trip up through New York state and points north soon. Will always have the house here in Virginia, so let us know if you’re ever headed back toward the Virginia Beach area!
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Thanks, Roger! The public garages are free, but they’re low clearance. Thankfully, there’s a private, $5/day lot one building down from us that allows monthly parking for $40, so we grabbed a spot there. The van’s in partial sun, so it charges every day off the solar, and really easy to hop in to run around town. We can see it from our window in the loft, and pull up right at the bottom of the stairs to our loft in a loading zone when we’re moving in or out of it, or have groceries or anything bulky to move up here.
Have fun on your trip! We loved traveling in that area, and we’ll be sure to let you know when we’re back in VA Beach. 🙂
Nice digs, looks like it should fit you both just fine! Glad all is working out for you. Springfield sounds like an interesting place and just what you are looking for in your life right now, wonderful how things just seem to work out for the best! Have fun!
Author
Thank you! It’s true – serendipity is often the best guide. We hope to see you on your next migration south. We were bummed to miss you this year! Enjoy summer at your home base – yours was one of the loveliest places we’ve stayed in our years of travel, and part of our inspiration to try the part-time thing! 🙂
We were bummed to miss you guys, too! Hopefully our paths will cross this winter. Thanks for the nice words about our place. At this time in our life we sure enjoy splitting our travel on the road and also having time at home. We so look forward to winter travel time, then when we start heading north in the spring we are excited to get home and spend our summer in Alaska. Yep, finding what works for you is what it is all about. Take care Snowmads!
Very cool! I’m fascinated to see what the roll up door covers. Entry to a balcony? And does it have two bathrooms? Looks like a fantastic use of space!
Author
Hi Allie! It’s less exciting than you would think: there used to be a big opening in the brick wall there, where it was open to the space next door to us, and they used the door to cover the drywall they added there. There’s another one hidden behind drywall in the bedroom where the TV is. But we decided, since the void between the door and the drywall behind it is several inches deep, we’ll install shelves and make it a prohibition-style bar. We’ll be able to roll up or down the door to expose “the goods”! Hopefully that makes it a lot more fun, rather than just decorative 😉 Thanks for reading!
Great update, Kristin! You already know how happy we are for you guys, and how we completely und erstand the desire be a traveler, but still have a base camp to hide, when we wish. Life truly is ‘to each his/her own’. Nobody else has to ‘get’ any of us. As long as we’re all happy with our choices, that’s what matters. Happiness and good health are what matter most. Contentment and comfort rank close behind.
We’ve learned much from you guys, should we ever go the Travato or otherwise route in our pup travels. We look forward to finally catching up, either at our base camp, yours, or wherever else our wandering ways find all of us.
Hugs and poochie smoochies all around!
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Thank you, Karen! It was time for a change for us, and you inspired us, as well as some other part-time travelers, to try the small home/travel life. We cannot wait to cross paths with you again! Hugs and love to all of you from us as well 🙂
You picked a good city in Springfield Missouri. My daughter goes too Evangel College in Springfield Missouri
Hey there, Springfield is a very good choice. I lived there for 4 years while attending university. That place have a special place in my heart. It is one of the least expensive places to live in US. And you sure get bang for your bucks in real estate there. Don’t forget to visit Bass Pro 🙂 and Hammond’s field for some baseball. Also spend some weekends down by Branson on Table Rock lake, usually half of Springfield goes there for weekends or if you want an excellent adventure on the river go even further down south to Arkansas float the Buffalo River which is part of National Park. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
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Thanks, JJ! We camped at Table Rock for a week before we moved here and we love it – can’t wait to get back down there again when it cools off a little bit. We’ll check out the river too. That sounds awesome! Thanks for all the recommendations. 🙂
My husband and I just hit our one year mark living and traveling in our pop up camper. We travelled pretty quickly in the last year and we likely won’t travel as fast we did again. We also want to be close to the midwest (family and friends in Iowa and Kansas) so we’re kind of planning on traveling mostly in the summer/winter and sticking around the midwest in the spring and fall (for the nice weather!)
I love traveling and exploring but there’s still a big part of me that wants a home so I totally get wanting the vacation from the vacation 😉
The flexibility of determining what our life looks like is a beautiful thing. 🙂
Was oohing-and-ahhing on Instagram earlier over how gorgeous your new loft is. I’m always interested in hearing how people evolve and figure out what they need in regard to space and home to be comfortable, healthy, and happy. Lovely post — I’ll share it on Discover.
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Thanks, and thank you for sharing this, Cheri! I’ve loved watching your tiny house journey as well, and hearing about the differences between that and nomadic small space living. 🙂
Wow. Just got here. The house is beautiful.
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Thank you! We can’t take any credit for its coolness since we didn’t design it (the owner of the barber shop downstairs had it built for himself originally, with the help of a pretty notorious, modern design architect from this area), but we fell in love with it, and it’s the perfect amount of space and layout for us. Thanks for reading!
What a small world! I stumbled upon this post, and was intrigued by the post! I was shocked going through and finding that Springfield, MO is where you settled! I have grown up in Springfield, moved away, and am now back here with my husband for the next year or so before taking off for some full time travel! I would love to hear what made you fall in love with Springfield, more about your travels and maybe even meet up for coffee or something! (I don’t have many travel-blogger connections in Springfield, like I did in Asheville) ha
My blog is http://fortheloveofwanderlust.com . I hope you’re settling in well and finding all of the treasures here! I’d love to hear from you – fortheloveofwanderlust@aol.com
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Wow, Paige – small world indeed! We just love it in Springfield, it embodies a lot of the things we learned that we really enjoy as we’ve traveled: a strong sense of community, affordable and easy mid-size city living but with the things you want nearby, access to healthy local food, and really friendly people. I’ll shoot you an email, and we’d love to get a coffee sometime. 🙂
I love how you refer to your wandering as “your version of happiness.” It is so inspiring to me to see others embracing life by the horns and taking advantage of what brings you the greatest joy! Good for you guys!!!
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Thank you! We’re not here to tell anyone else whether travel, or living in one place, or some combination of both is a better choice for them. It’s so personal, and your lifestyle should be an evolution, not something you choose once and live out the same way forever. Thank you for reading, and I hope your journey is equally satisfying! 🙂
Hi your loft looks amazing. I read now and then and was pleased to see you back wishing you health and happiness. We have toyed with just travelling in the motor home (R.v. in USA) and each journey we return from we talk about wandeering perminently; but I wear a sensible head and say rent the house out for six months and my husband says ‘we will see’. For now we go for twelve weeks at a time with less and less time at home. Who knows what we will do but as long as we do it together and safely i am sure we will be fine.
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Thanks, Ellen! Our part-time home is perfect for where we want to be right now. Three years ago, it wouldn’t have been. It’s an evolution, for sure. Finding balance is hard with full-time travel, and after the newness wears off, you have to take a lot of time to look at your happiness and if it’s still working for you and your family.
Everyone usually has something major they have to give up to travel and end up missing on the road, whether it’s family and community, a big bath tub, a garden, space for their hobbies, or something else they enjoy but can’t take along. Sometimes an unexpected event, like health issues, can change your plans a bit too. Balance is so crucial for enjoying the journey to its fullest. Happy travels, and thanks for reading! 🙂
There really is nothing quite like a place to recuperate and call home…and this loft looks like a perfect place. Very much admire the lifestyle you two have create and all the discoveries made. Very cool.
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Thank you! It is indeed a lot of fun to travel away, then come back to the things you missed, like a big shower you can use without wearing shower shoes, your own laundry machines, a big kitchen, and some knowledge of the local area and connections to its people. Unfamiliarity is so great for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and for personal growth, but sometimes your soul craves a little dose of comfort now and then to recover. Thanks so much for reading! 🙂
Congratulations on making a great decision for yourself! My wife and I have been talking about the no man lifestyle, but in our hearts know that we do need to have some place to call home, a central location even if we only stopped in there once in a while. Your part-time nomad lifestyle seems just perfect. We have moved to Napa Valley in California, and have a small house here large enough for us and the occasional guest. Anyway, we are now thinking about setting on a long adventure across parts of Europe that we have never been to. In the meantime, check out our wine country blog: http://www.topochinesvino.com.
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Ooh how big is your driveway? We’ll come visit. 😉 We’ll definitely be out your way again sometime and may hit you up for some information – we’re huge wine fans. Last time we were there, we stayed in Clear Lake and went to a lot of the little up-and-coming wineries there, but didn’t have time to do Napa too. We were on our way to Alaska at the time, and our window of nice weather there was small!
A Europe-by-train adventure and caravanning around Australia are both on our list for someday, when we don’t have our dogs anymore. We fell in love with Barcelona on a trip there, and would love to explore Spain in more depth someday. For now, we’re seeing as much of North America as we can. Happy travels and thanks for reading! 🙂
Welcome to our great state! While we live north in Kansas City, we love Springfield and hope that you will be happy making it your semi-permanent home.
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Thank you! We love Kansas City too and will be up there quite a bit to go to Costco 😉 Let us know if you’re ever in Springfield!
Love it. Life is but a dream!
Flexibility and adaptability are important, and it looks like you have that in spades! 🙂
Kristin- you and your husband are living the kind of life my husband and I hope to have. We have been to over 40 states and we also have some provinces in Canada under our respective belts. I agree with you, it’s nice to have a place to come home to if only for a little while. Love your blog! Happy travels!
Nice read! Really loved your site…https://creativomaticmedia.wordpress.com/
What a good read, you have a great blog. Just wanted to say I noticed you were in my home town of Amarillo 🙂 hard to miss the Cadillacs budding out of the ground.
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Thanks, Nicole! Yes, we had a great time in Amarillo – the dogs were just a bit confused by cars sticking out of the ground. 😉
Awesome have a great time wherever u go life is beautiful
Really interesting to hear your thoughts. I hope that you enjoy your new home!
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Thank you! Happy travels to you!
Great post, great blog and great adventure! I wish you all the best in your new adventure of part-time travel, that’s the way I have gone as well and I’m loving it. You can have roots and wings!
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Thank you – that’s a great way to put it: roots and wings! Happy travels to you as well! 😀
Take extra care of the medical issues, regardless of what your philosophy of life is.
Also, congratulations on the absolutely BEAUTIFUL loft. I so love the look of it. I loved this post was realistic as well, as I know no one can really keep traveling all the time.
Author
So true! It is our number one priority: without our health, the rest is not enjoyable. Knowing when to take a break is so important. Thanks for taking the time to read! 🙂
Okay I’m officially jealous. It’s been five years on the road for us, and we housesit whenever we go back to Vancouver, our home base. It almost feels like it might be getting to the time to have a home again, but there’s no way we could afford to buy anything – not in Vancouver’s inflated market anyway. We keep going back there because all our longtime friends are there, and we have to be in province five months of every year to maintain provincial health coverage. Hmmmmm . . . . . . . first world problems 🙂
Your new home looks gorgeous! I hope you’ll be very happy there.
Alison
Author
Hi Alison! We have no ties here, so it’s a bit weird to think of it as ‘home’, but we also chose it for affordability: the sticker shock of looking at real estate in other cities drove home the point that we’d just be house poor, and miss a lot of life experiences as a result. Maybe a little place in the country would work for a sometimes-home for you? You could always rent it out when you aren’t there to people wanting an escape from the big city. Let us know if you’re ever in our area in your travels, and thanks for reading 🙂
What a beautiful journey ya’ll are on! First time visiting Snowmads but we will be back for more 🙂
Author
Thanks for reading! Love the premise of your site – you sound just like us, except we have four feet and twelve paws! 😀
Wow…the place looks perfect!! I too grew up in the rural(ish) Midwest and often dream of a city loft. Figured once I was 60 (this year) that I should accept that will never happen. You make me realize anything is possible!
Just discovered your blog, and great post! My partner and I have dreams of becoming nomads, and are in the early planning stages. We own a modest, low maintenance condo, and will definitely now consider holding onto it after this post. Thanks!!
Your loft looks fabulous. Good plan! We are doing a similar plan. We rented a small apartment as “home base” and travel whenever we get a chance.
Just found your site. An amazing amount of information and thank you for your insight it is very much appreciated.
GREAT article … we love to follow your blog and read more about your adventures. Its very inspiring 🙂
We are also planing a long term trip with our camper van through Scandinavia, Scotland, England, and Eastern Europe in 2017 and 2018.
Sorry for your medical issues. Wishing you the best. Am a lover of Motel 6 as they’re clean, cheap & take dogs.
Wow! Congratulations! My feeling is there is no “right way” to live or travel or part-time or full-time. Being happy, healthy and having adventures is all I can ask for in my life. Do it your way and enjoy!
Hey your blog is really cool – love the photography too!! I have just started my new blog – http://www.thehopefulhitchhiker.com. Will be tracking all my travels in Bali in two weeks – check it out xxx
Just discovered your blog, sounds like an amazing adventure!
Consider getting a small diesel pusher, 32′ or so. You can fulltime in it and “Keep” your small space sanity and if you have a Cummins or CAT with an Allison Tranny ytou will do less work and more play. And you have a full basement with kots of storage. I own the Safaricoaches group and I have owned every type of RV. There are too many advantages to a diesel with an Allison to list! Pull behinds, gassers, pullers, 5th wheels and just about anything else are something DP owners would never go back to and the economy of operation is much better. Diesels (except the crummy GMs are made to go a million miles. Thanks for your VLOG etc. Slim
Love your blog! It is good doggie travel etiquette to bring your own large sheet and completely cover the top of the bed if you let your dogs up on the bed. (And of course, pick up every piece of poo in a baggie and dispose of it in an outdoor trash can or dumpster.) Being clean and polite with our dogs helps keep hotels available for dog people. It would make me very happy if you would promote this as “professional travelers”.
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Hi Rosamund! Thanks for the comment. We are always careful to clean up after our dogs everywhere we go so they continue to be allowed to visit places. 🙂 In this case, we live in a very small camper-van and don’t have the extra room for sheets to bring into a hotel, but we know La Quinta is always extremely dog-friendly, and puts an extra sheet on the bed over the duvet in their rooms, so we try to stay at them whenever possible. We don’t let the pups up on upholstered furniture without putting down a towel or something first. Happy travels!