Last year my wife and I made a decision that we were going to relocate from the beautiful surfing community of Newport Beach to move to the east coast to be closer to family. I had the adventure bug and somehow convinced her that before we relocate we should put our life on hold and go on an adventure in an RV for 6 months.

Now 9 months into traveling America while working remotely in epic locations in our Class C RV, we have decided to say Goodbye to our Class C (The Suhiclad) and say hello to a much larger Class A or a 5^th Wheel!

Originally, once we made the decision to travel, the next step was to figure out what type of RV we were going to travel in. Neither one of us had gone RVing before so the entire experience was new to us. We thought the first step would be to figure out our RV budget.  We didn’t know what should be the price point for us so I wanted to get my feet wet and started looking online for RVs in the 5-15k range. When I shared my results with Danielle she said there were a few things that were deal breakers for her if we were going to do this fulltime. We decided should figure out what is important to us in an RV and then look at how much that would cost. We made a list of what was important to each of us in purchasing an RV.

Danielle:

• A full size RV kitchen with all the features of a home kitchen
• The bathroom had to be large enough to be comfortable and able to take a long shower
• It had to feel like a home on wheels
• An RV lounge area to relax in the evenings and watch movies

Eric

• The RV must have enough power to charge up a mountain without straining
• The RV should be largest enough to comfortably live in but small enough to fit into most campsites
• I needed a work space to work remotely in the RV
• The RV had to have enough storage space for adventure gear like wetsuits, snorkeling stuff, bodyboards, etc
• We were going to be pulling our Mazda 3i behind the RV and needed something that could pull a car dolly

After searching online we found some RV Dealerships near us and headed over one Saturday. We knew exactly what we wanted, then looked through the inventory on the lot until we found the one that fit our wants/needs and purchased it. When we found the perfect RV for us we realized the price tag said 75k. What surprised us is that an RV is considered a home loan. This meant that our “rent/mortgage” was about to decrease significantly. The cost of living is very high in Orange County and we were renting a place that overlooked the beach. The financing made it so that after our down payment the monthly payments are just $480 per month. I’ve had rent in an apartment for more than 4x that! So we were lowering our costs by doing this adventure.

So June 1 2014 we started full time RVing. We enjoyed the ride so much, that after just 9 months we have decided to RV Full Time indefinitely. We absolutely love our Forest River Sunseeker RV but now that we are going to make this more permanent we are looking at 5th wheels or a large Class A Motorhome. It’s interesting looking at how our wants/needs have changes slightly with a different purpose (long term living rather than long term vacationing).

Our list now looks like this:

Danielle:

• A kitchen island with more space for storing appliances in the RV
• The water heater has to be significantly larger so we can take much longer showers
• Something that is as large as we would need for a home
• A fireplace in the main living area of the RV
• A separate living room from our dining room with a couch and big screen

Eric:

• Much larger space with a separate office with huge windows to work with epic views. We both currently work at our table and need separate work stations for better focus. We spend most of days at the table because it’s where we work, eat, and relax to watch tv. We would like separate areas
• Preferably diesel for more power in the big mountains
• We are going to sell our car and get something with 4WD to go off the beaten path. Our car dolly worked fine but is a little bit of a hassle to load each time we move locations, so I would like to pull our next vehicle from the RV.
• Ideally an area in the back that will be my office/man cave that extends into a screened off area with an RV deck that is large enough to also haul adventure toys such as a 4 wheeler and a kayak.

It’s sad to see the Suhiclad go away but we are excited as we search for our new Open Road Home. Be sure to follow us on facebook to stay updated on this crazy adventure!