RV

WHY WE STOPPED OUR FULL-TIME TRAVELS

December 18, 2018

In case you missed it on Instagram, we have decided to stop our full-time travels earlier than anticipated.

The reasons for this are numerous, and all are (mostly) good. We realized, as time passed, that it will be easier for us to promote our business while stationary than it would be if we are traveling, not only for marketing purposes (having our boots on the ground locally, where we want to focus our initial market, makes more sense to us as we continue down this path) but because now, instead of taking up so much time to set up and take down camp and travel on the road, we can use that time and energy to get our business off the ground.

This also plays into my job: I’ve worked entirely remotely for five months now, and while it’s been so great and I’m thankful for it, there is a lot I can’t do for my blog while on the road. I’ll be honest: the oven in our RV was crappy. It took forever to heat up and the heat circulation in there was so uneven, it would often burn the bottom of our foods (even with a pizza stone and stacked baking sheets). Plus, it was TINY. And while I’d come up with a decent schedule of batch-working on recipes in my parents’ kitchen whenever we were there, working in bulk like that just isn’t my style (I made several recipes that never saw the light of day on my blog because I lost my excitement for them over time). I also had difficulty taking on sponsored work for my blog, as oftentimes sponsored posts come up unexpectedly and to get them done in the RV was a tricky task. In short, I felt limited in my abilities to work and just to bake for funsies living in an RV. This is not to say it was impossible; it was just cumbersome.

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WHY I QUIT MY JOB

September 17, 2018

Hi, Elliott here.

Before we embarked on our full-time RV life, I quit my job. I didn’t “quit” in the sense of “gave up.” Rather, I deliberately chose to resign my position because it wasn’t good for me or my family.

I worked for nearly six years as a physician assistant in the emergency room, primarily in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. I’m sure you can imagine it’s a rather stressful job. It is. There were some times where everything was clicking and the job was truly enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed diagnosing appendicitis. It can be a bit tricky, but when you diagnose you get them to a surgeon and save their life.

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OUR RV RENOVATION & TOUR

August 17, 2018

Here it is, friends! Our home sweet home on wheels.

First, the backstory: We spent several months researching for hours on end, attending RV conventions and watching RV tours on YouTube after the kids went to bed, instead of Netflix (not even kidding, we are very cool), before we decided on a Winnebago Minnie Winnie 26A. Here were our big requirements:

1. A sleeping space for everyone.
2. A separate space for Mom and Dad for privacy (and sanity).
3. I really wanted an oven and a gas range.
4. A shorter length, preferably less than 28 feet, so we could easily stay at national parks should we choose to do so.
5. Decent cargo carrying capacity (aka, the total weight our rig can carry).
6. Decent tank capacities (aka how much fresh water we can hold, and how much our black and grey water tanks can hold before we have to dump them).
7. Good storage space.
8. Adequate seatbelt options for the kids.

There was a whole host of other reasons why we decided on a Class C motorhome, as well, but I’ll save that for another post. In short, we came across the Minnie Winnie sort of by accident, and decided within 48 hours, after being SO SURE we were going to buy a Winnebago View, to purchase a Minnie Winnie instead. So far, we love it. We have appreciated having all the above capabilities, but also being nimble in the way of having a shorter rig with a tow vehicle. All in all, we’re happy with our setup from a technical standpoint (though I’ll be honest: my heart still beats for an Airstream. Maybe someday!).

My biggest setback on the Minnie Winnie, as vain as this sounds, is that… well, it was pretty ugly on the inside coming right out of the factory (you can see some “before” pics in this post on my food blog!). Many RV owners share the lament that RV design is way outdated – for whatever reason, most models still haven’t joined the 21st century. Until they do, we are left to our own devices in terms of updating the space to feel more like home.

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RV

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