Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...

Our first day hitting the open road which will lead to 7 months of adventuring.

Like a lot of folks out there, when the malls would have an RV show, we would always make sure to check out ALL of the RVs. We always had in the back of our heads that maybe someday it might be neat to get an RV and travel around the country on our vacations. That is if Mike would ever actually take a vacation that wasn’t during the opening of rifle season for deer down in KY where his family lives. Mike never takes time off. He even struggles to take sick days.

With our pipe dreams of one day going camping in style, it had never really occurred to us over the years that one day we would be actually living in an RV on the road…full time.

A series of circumstances over the last several years is what really helped us to make the crazy leap into this new lifestyle.

Since Mike and I have been married we have moved 7 times. It is a lot to move an entire house that many times. Packing and unpacking, hoping and praying that your family and friends are still willing to help. The idea of downsizing came to us when we were living in a 2700 square foot log cabin on just over 5 acres. While we LOVED the house and the land, we just really wanted something smaller, easier to maintain...so that we could spend more time living life and not so much time doing chores. That and the commute for both of us wasn’t great either.

In 2020, as covid was still in full swing, Mike and I had bought a great little house in Schenectady, NY with a nice yard, and bonus perk…super close to my sister! By 2021, I was settling into a new role with a different real estate company and loving my job again. Mike was made Chief of Engineering at the VA Hospital in Albany, NY and did some amazing things for the Veterans there. 2022 was when things started getting a little, well...interesting for us.

Since Mike was making such wonderful strides in Albany, the powers that be in the VA world had asked him to do a 30 day "detail", as they call it, at the Bronx VA. After some back and forth and weighing all of the pros and cons, Mike went down and started doing what he could for the Veterans in the Bronx. 30 days…turned into 60 days. I was still back at home in Schenectady trying to hold it together with him being gone. After the 60 days, they had asked him to stay long term. Mike and I had some talking to do. We weighed all the pros and cons AGAIN and decided that it made the most sense for Mike to take the job, for us to sell our house in Schenectady and to move to the Bronx as a family.

In some ways we were super excited for this new adventure. It was a really awesome opportunity for Mike to help get the hospital back on track since the Engineering department was struggling. I was able to keep a part time job with my company working remotely, and I was going to be in NYC! I went to school for Theater in NYC and to be that close to Broadway again…dreamy. (Did you catch my theater reference in the title? Bonus points if you can name the show and song!)

Once we got down there, it turned out to not be as great as it was cracked up to be. Our neighborhood left a lot to be desired, and we felt imprisoned. We spent probably close to 95% of our time on the hospital campus which is where our apartment was. I only left alone by car to go get groceries, or to go to the post office or to the park with Loki for walks. Otherwise, Mike and I would occasionally venture out together on weekends…if he didn’t have to work that is. Remember how I said he didn’t take a lot of time off?

We found ourselves watching a lot of Tiny House shows on TV as well as watching a lot of RV related content on YouTube. This is when our conversations about traveling really began to get serious. Could we do what we were seeing these other people do? Was full time RVing an option? I was already working remotely…would or could that be an option for Mike too? What about Loki? Would he do well in a small space (zoomies...#IYKYK)? Would he ride well in the truck (he used to get a little car sick when he was younger)? Would the stress of the changes just wear him out too much?

After a year in the Bronx, and lots of research and planning (that part is for another post), we bought ourselves a bigger truck and a really comfy 5th wheel and got ourselves ready for what would be our 8th move. This time though we had downsized to only what we could fit in our RV, and our 10x10 storage unit. Everything else we sold (with the exception of maybe a couple of items that we had to leave behind with family at home).

Mike ended up leaving his job for a bit of a sabbatical in February of 2023 and by March 6th we hit the road as full time RVers. Our journey and our Fentastic Adventure had begun.