Funny What You Appreciate: An RV Story

My husband and I sold everything; our car, our furniture, and most of our belongings. We vacated our apartment and moved into a twenty year old, 22-foot RV that we found on craigslist. Our reasons for undertaking such an endeavor were multiple, which only reinforced that we had made the right decision. For every concerned family member or friend, we had a cheerful and confident answer.

Too small? The outdoors is our living room!

RV is too old? We’ll renovate it to make it look new!

How will you work? We are freelancers and work from home anyway. With the proper internet connection, this will work, no problem!

How will you receive paychecks and mail on the road? PayPal – and an awesome RV mail service that ships your mail to wherever you are.

Where will you stay? In campgrounds and state parks and we will try this off-the-grid-boondocking idea of staying in areas with no hookup to save money.

RV Renovation: Before and After Photos

We had it all figured out. We were embarking on our own little sustainability project. We weren’t trying to prove anything to anyone else, we were just experimenting, having fun and seeing the country.

As anticipated, greater appreciation was found for:

nature.

water resources.

electricity.

cheap hotels when your RV breaks down.

taco bell.

the iphone.

helpful family members.

But here are the areas of appreciation that I had perhaps not given original thought to – areas that were accentuated because of our experience.

Public Resources. City parks, libraries, welcome centers.

Public resources have been around forever – well, forever to me – my entire lifetime, but it was not until I depended on them that I truly grew fond of them. When we had drained our electricity in the RV and the campgrounds were full, we found complete refuge in city parks, public libraries and interstate welcome centers. Several work deadlines were met because each of these public places had electrical hookups AND were available to us. They were there for us to use as needed. Wow. It kind of made me proud to be a tax payer. They truly were crucial to our well-being.

The Internet.

I have been online since the early 90’s and have worked exclusively online since 1999, so the internet is not new to me. However, I have new found appreciation for the internet. We have paper maps and camping and interstate books, but nothing is more immediate, accurate and satisfying as finding what you need online. Grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, campgrounds, auto-stores, important phone numbers, weather reports – all within seconds. Quick email correspondences with family members and clients online was also a huge perk while on the road. I think I was expecting the internet to play a significant role, but I did not realize how much I would appreciate it.

Utilities.

In the RV we closely gauged our 40 gallon water tank and our 250 amp hour house battery. We were highly aware of every drop of water we used, and every minute of electricity we consumed. Now we stay in an apartment where electricity, including cold air conditioning, water and cable are all included in the rent price. It’s a free-for-all! We can use as much as we want with no (personal or short term) financial consequence! And while we have never been “wasteful” people (by egocentric western standards), we find ourselves being quite frugal, despite the “free” utilities. We use the AC sparingly and go the beach to cool off. I find myself unplugging my computer when shutting down – an absolute requirement in the RV. But I guess what I truly appreciate is our utilities system and infrastructure. Plumbing (we no longer have a sewage tank to dump), instant electricity, clean water – all simply wonderful. I do not want to get political, and I realize there are serious issues with our precious resources, but now I feel like helping to find better ways to generate power and smarter ways to source clean water. I am more thankful now for what we have and more eager than ever to take what we have and make it even better.

My Husband’s Resourcefulness.

From buying the RV to renovating the RV to maintaining the RV, my husband KK was a genius. I already knew he was a genius but his sheer resourcefulness during our entire RV experience amazes me even more in hindsight. We had a very tight budget for purchasing, renovating, maintaining and living in the RV. We did all of the renovations ourselves. When something went wrong, which it often did, KK gave it some serious thought and while under pressure, created a solution and then carried it out. Cool and steady – like a pro. Financial restraints, scarce resources, lack of illumination, severe weather conditions – nothing stopped him from getting us to a better place, each and every time. I have never appreciated him more than I do now.

Funny how the end result of my lessons learned are not truly RV related. The RV was simply a catalyst. We did not learn about conservation or roughing it – we thought we would, but because we expected to rough it, we were prepared. These other four areas of appreciation are where I learned my true lessons. They are each something and someone that I have had in my life for a while, but now I appreciate them much more and from a much broader perspective.

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We lived in our RV for one year and sold it in May 2009. For additional highlights of our RV adventures, check out our blog on NoDestination.org