Full Time RVing: What is your dream?

Mark and I have always enjoyed being outdoors in nature so we could experience Minnesota’s seasons. When our girls were younger, we started out with tents until one day one of them declared they would no longer sleep on the ground! We purchased a pop-up camper and continued to camp using it until they were teenagers and then, believe it or not, all of us switched to backpacking! Since I didn’t want to carry 40+ pounds on my back, we found that we could reduce the weight we carried by moving to ultra-light backpacks and gear. One of the most enjoyable trips we took together as a family was in Yellowstone National Park’s backcountry. It was an adventure we will never forget, mostly because we took a wrong turn and ended up hiking until after dark in grizzly country, but that’s a story for another time.

As you can see, we love adventure! When people ask us where we live, Mark loves to reply everywhere! When we tell them we live and travel in an RV full time, we get two answers. Either “That’s my dream too” or “I couldn’t do that, what would I do with all my stuff?” Mark has always dreamed of living in an RV when he retires. His brother has been doing this for over 20 years and Mark loves hearing about their adventures. For me, retirement was buying a cabin in northern Minnesota and my free time would be spent quilting, not traveling across the US in an RV. I imagined overcrowded campgrounds where all the RVs were lined up in rows.

In the summer of 2016…

In the summer of 2016, Mark found the YouTube channels of “Gone with the Wynns” and “The RV Geeks” which depicted there was another way of RVing – boondocking. Whether you call it dispersed camping, boondocking, dry camping, or wild camping, they all mean the same thing: a place to enjoy the outdoors for free. Options include areas in National Forests and Grasslands, Bureau of Land Management and Army Corps of Engineers lakeshore sites. I didn’t even know boondocking was a thing! We talked about it and Mark’s dream became my dream too! Now, two years later, we are embarking on that dream and are full-time RV nomads. And, yes my quilting came with me! But only better, with constant changing views to quilt by!

We are learning as we go and want to use this blog to help our family and friends know what we are doing. We also hope to introduce ourselves to new friends we meet along the way too!

I want to leave you with the “Tape Measure Parable” I came across recently:

• Grab a tape measure with at least 100” on it.
• Put your finger on the one-inch mark and go to the inch mark that is closest to your age. This span represents your life and how much has passed.
• Now, with the one finger holding your age mark, ask yourself how long you think you’ll live.  90? 95? Put your other finger on that mark, though there’s no guarantee you will live those years. But say you do live that long. Of those 90 or 95 years, how long do you think you will be strong and healthy enough to live your dream. 85? 87?
• Now, look at the tape measure between your current age and the number you settled on for the upper limits of your health. That’s how much time is left for you to achieve your dreams.
• You don’t have a lot of time to waste thinking about making your dreams come true. What are you going to do?

From “The Tape Measure to Your RVDreams” by Mike Wendland – January 7, 2017.

So, what is stopping you?

Whether you have your entire life ahead of you or if you are 60 and still wondering what you want to do when you retire, time is running out if we keep putting off our dreams. Seek out someone you trust and sit down and explore the dreams you want to pursue. Then set aside some time for “one thing” to move you forward towards that dream. For me, it was calling my realtor friend to find out what the steps were to sell our house of 30 years! It was a scary step, but it was the best step I could have taken!

In the comments section below, tell me what your dream is and what the first step is towards making it a reality?`