RVLife – Where do you Live?

Brianna and I have been traveling full time in our RV since December of 2017. Nearly a year now. Before, I used to travel to the race track, wherever it may be, then turn around and come home when the event was over. Lather, rinse, repeat. 80+ times a year. “Home” back then was Reno for me. I spent as long or longer driving to and from events than the actual event some times. It’s a lot of driving. A lot of fuel. A lot of time basically wasted on travel where I could be doing something else. 1000 miles round trip to Utah. 1000 to Chuckwalla. 500 to Thunderhill. 1500 to The Ridge. Etc, etc, etc.

I’ve stayed here more than once in the Element.
honda element

Sometimes I’d just drive out into the middle of the desert…because why the hell not?
honda element mojave desert

The great part about it is that I really do enjoy being on the road. I can’t fucking stand being stuck in one spot. Part of the appeal of owning a street bike was the fact that for no reason whatsoever, I could jump on it and ride up to the mountains for no other reason than it’s awesome being in the mountains. With all those back and forth trips to events, I’d sometimes take different routes just to see different stuff. I got to know a LOT of the countryside. I know places to hang out for the night and be safe. Where I can wake up to the most beautiful scenes imaginable. Where I can stop and do some target shooting and no one bothers me. Where I can poop in the woods. Traveling like that in a Honda Element ain’t all that bad, either. Plenty of room for sleeping. AWD and high ground clearance for getting into the gnar-gnar spots where I know no one else will bother me. It was great, sure!

I woke up here one morning.
honda element versa hauler

You really can’t beat this kinda view
honda element

Now we have a 30ft RV with a 6×10 trailer on the back. We’re 46ft from tip to tail. It’s not nearly as easy as it was in the Element. Hell, I’ve incognito-camped in the Element in the middle of Los Angeles many times before. There’s no more doing stuff like that with the new rig, that’s for sure. That being said, I also couldn’t take a shit in my Element. Nor could I wash my hands afterwards. I didn’t have a TV, or a dining room table, or a refrigerator, or a stove to cook on. I had no real creature comforts to speak of. Now I have all of those. My dog can run around doing laps if she wants. Now I take our HOME with us wherever we go. No more money wasted on hotel rooms. No more stopping at gas stations for expensive and terrible food/snacks. And almost no more strict travel schedules either!

Sometimes we live here…
thor four winds karma drone

It’s really difficult to put what that means into words. People ask me often “where are you based out of?” I reply, “we’re on the road full time.” The reply is always the same, “Oh! That’s cool! But where do you live?” 99% of the time, people will ask me a second time where we live. I try and explain it like this: You have your house, right? It’s where you get your mail and where to sleep and your dungeon for BDSM is and where you do “normal things” that “normal people” do, right? So do we! But ours is on wheels! We take it with us everywhere we go! I even affectionately refer to the trailer as “the garage.” Granted, it took a few months before the feeling truly sank in; this is our HOUSE. Society has really instilled it in humanity that you need to have something more concrete (see what I did there?) to call a home. I think society is wrong though. Nomadic life is where it’s really at.

Sometimes we live here…
thor four winds lake view

And sometimes here…
thor rv

We don’t have the standard stick and brick house. We don’t have a house mortgage, home owners insurance, internet, electricity, water/sewer/garbage. We don’t have to pay property tax or a gardener or HOA fees. Fuck all that. Granted, I still pay for insurance and car payment, so it’s not like we’re living for FREE. I have to pay to dump septic tanks and such sometimes (but there are a lot of free resources out there that we take advantage of). If we want a “night of luxury” where we’re plugged into power and sewer and water and wifi, the cost is usually less than $20 per night. But I’m a simple man with simple needs and we rarely pay to sleep somewhere…plus, I prefer to be in the middle of no where anyways. Installing solar really went a long way to making life easier. There’s a few tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way to increase our quality of life in the RV. Sadly, I no longer have high ground clearance or the ability to do any serious off roading…I’m pretty much relegated to being on flat land…but there’s always pros and cons to everything. Maybe one day I’ll get a Unimog with a box-house on the back! :D

Life goals.
unimog camper van

Luckily for me, Brianna is very similar to me in the way we think and live. We get along great. We’re basically stuck together in roughly 100sq ft of living space pretttttty much 24/7 (unless we don’t open up the pop-outs, then it’s more like 20sq ft). If you’re gonna have a go at small living with a partner, you’d better be damned happy with em. I don’t think I could live this way with anyone else but her. She picks up the slack in all the right places and we’re like a well oiled [love] machine. Bow chicka wow wow. ;)

Or we live here…
thor bisbee arizona

Anyways, to answer the second most asked question: “Where DO you get your mail?” I’ll sometimes have stuff shipped to the next track that I’m going to be at. Or my mom’s house if I know we’ll be in the area. Or Kevin’s house. You just sorta make do. And then I poop without having to get out of “the car.” :)

This past weekend, we lived here.
thunderhill raceway

“But I have a job!” That’s what I always hear. “Sorry about your life,” pretty much rounds off my answer. Hehe. I created the position I’m at. It’s not easy. I’m not rich. I don’t have a trust fund. We scrape by at times and sometimes it’s my friends that help me through it. But life is rich. LIFE. Live it!

Facebook Comments

1 Comment

  1. great article. thanks for writing this.

Leave a Reply to Cam Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *