In 2016 my husband accepted a job as a solar farm electrician. We had no idea how the RV Lifestyle would take over our lives.
The first job was in Minnesota an hour north of St. Paul. Initially, I was in charge of finding temporary housing. Ergo, I found a wonderful AirBnB in Lino Lakes. We drove Bobby to Minnesota, rented a car and I went back to Colorado alone to scale down our belongings. After selling what I could, I gave away a garage full of stuff and stored things we could not yet bear to part with.

Enter: The Big-Ass Truck
A couple of weeks after he left we decided that I should buy a truck before I left Colorado. We knew we’d eventually buy a camper and we had an awesome mechanic in Colorado. Cody needed to approve any vehicle purchase. I brought him several options and he picked out an excellent truck for us. With two vehicles in Colorado and
After our anniversary celebration, I flew back to the Rockies and finished packing up while searching for larger, pet-friendly, accommodations. Two days before I left Colorado we found the full basement of a house just 10 minutes from the job site. It was the perfect answer for our little family, which includes a dog and a cat.
Committing to the RV Lifestyle
After four months on the Minnesota
We officially joined the RV Lifestyle as an experiment in November of 2016. A 2012 Cougar fifth wheel, shown here, was our first house on wheels. The separate bedroom in a fifth wheel was a huge selling point.
In April 2017 we were sent back to Minnesota where we parked on the same property where we had rented the basement. It’s amazing how many great friends we’ve made on this journey. We quickly realized how much we loved the travel lifestyle and decided that we would need a better-equipped RV to continue. That first fifth wheel served us well and got us through the worst winter in Idaho history. We kept that RV for exactly one year.
Our New Home
From April until November of 2018 I researched our options. We created a list of “must haves” and “would be nice” options. All that research included looking at hundreds of floor plans. Our final decision
Customizing
Due to the time we planned to spend in the unit, we began customizing. We took out the dining table and replaced it with our small elliptical and a fold-down desk. I commissioned a carpenter to build a custom cabinet that houses our cat’s litter and offers quite a bit more storage. For more counter space we added three wooden, fold-down extensions to the island.
To maximize the space, and add a decorative touch, we had custom guitar hangers made for two of my honey’s guitars. On the cargo hauler, which came standard, we built a cat kennel from a wire bookcase so she can get some air. Our Princess loves to climb out the window to her kennel and patiently wait for a silly bird to land on her domain. She’s never caught one but she’s given quite a few the scare of their lives.
Our original plan was to travel for a year and then go back to
Enjoy the Journey!