Learning the Long Way: Big Adventures, Small Living

We self-designed and built our RV. We wanted a pull vehicle that was small enough to comfortably drive and park in unfamiliar big cities and a trailer small enough to find a spot to park anywhere with limited reservations so that we had ultimate flexibility.

Making Our Tiny Living Mobile

We built and lived in a tiny house long enough to pay off all of our debts and transition our careers to something more passion driven. That happened to also make us location independent. After living in the tiny house for five years and figuring out that it wasn’t that hard to live in a well designed, small space we figured, why not see some sights! We are also kind of looking for a new ‘home-base’.

Being Handy Helps

We both worked in architecture, James as a licensed architect, Macy as an architectural designer. James created an online eCommerce website that creates custom 3D printed branding irons for hobbyists (custombrandshop.com). Macy teaches classes on Udemy.com and runs a tiny house and travel blog (minimotives.com & learningthelongway.com).

How We Do Things On The Road

Kiddos are adaptable and don’t benefit from a lot of the stuff that gets thrown their way. This lifestyle has allowed us to be very intentional with growing our kiddos which we are immensely grateful for!

For our internet we alternate providers, so we usually have access to the internet, I have AT&T, James has Verizon.

 It is important to set a budget, without one it is easy to spend way too much on site fees or eating out. Which is why we are big fans of boondocking whenever possible!

Our advice for renovations, your camper is your home, make it fit you, not the other way around. You are capable, even if you don’t feel like it right away.

We work for ourselves which is the biggest freedom possible BUT,  you still have to cut out work hours. It’s not all fun but we still have downtime, and we spend that downtime in the most beautiful places in the country!

We Still Have The Travel Bug

We planned to travel for a year, we are now in that timeline and we aren’t done. We’re not sure how long we’ll be tooling around but probably at least another year.