Why short vacations don’t change your life — but this will.

When Marissa and I go back to Tennessee, her accent becomes thicker within days.

“Boil” becomes “Bull”

“Oil” becomes “Oeyoll”

And “well” becomes “whale”

If any of those words collide in one sentence, prepare to be COMPLETELY confused.

But it proves something important:

Your environment changes you faster than you think.

Most of us spend almost all year in the same environment — same routines, same people, same scenery. We don’t realize how much that shapes who we are until we leave it.

To think, live, and feel differently, you have to step out of the environment that built your habits.

A weekend trip won’t do it. Even a one-week vacation barely scratches the surface.

It wasn’t until we’d been RVing for two or three weeks straight that something shifted — a deep reset I didn’t know I needed.

That’s the power of SLOW RV travel: it doesn’t just change your view; it changes you.

SLOW RV Travel…

1. Sends You Outside

Before RVing extended periods of time, vacations rarely involved being outside. And when we only had a weekend, this was the breakdown:25% traveling to and from the location25% figuring out the plan25% arguing about the plan

25% actually doing the thing

Bonus: 2-3 days recovering from “vacation”Slow, longer term travel works differently. Marissa and I go on walks. The kids explore outside.

We didn’t know it, but we now LOVE hiking. RVing changed our relationship with the outdoors — and the outdoors changed us.

2. Leverages Who (and What) Matters Most

When we had a basement, we filled it — not because we needed more, but because we could.

In an RV, every item has to earn its place.

If something comes in, something else goes out.

Before buying, we ask:

Do I love this? Does it make life better?

That tiny question doesn’t stay in the closet.

It creeps into everything — your habits, your schedule, your priorities.

Weekend RV trips never push you that far — you can tolerate clutter for 48 hours.

But live in a small space for 3+ weeks, and the truth shows up fast:

What you carry, physically or mentally, either helps you or drains you.

Let go of what doesn’t matter, and something opens up:

You finally have space to invest in the people who do.

Less clutter → more clarity.

Less noise → more connection.

Less pressure → more presence.

That’s the gift of SLOW RV travel — it strips away the extra so you can see who’s right in front of you.

3. Orients You to the Present

Before RV life, our schedules were jam-packed. We were home, but rarely there.Conversations were more like pleasantries.

This sums up 95% of our evening conversations after an exhausted day:Me: “How was your day?”Marissa: “Great”Me: “Cool”Then we’d grab the remote, veg out for two hours, and repeat the next day.

Long-term RVing breaks that cycle.Every morning now, Marissa and I sit down with coffee and actually talk.

We take long walks.

We sit around campfires for hours with friends.

Those things DID NOT happen in a house.

RVing puts boundaries around your attention. The kind that pull you back into the moment and back to the people right next to you.

Boredom gets a bad reputation, but it’s where reflection and creativity live.

RVing helped me trade constant busyness for real presence — and it’s one of the best trades I’ve ever made.

4. Weakens Pressure to Keep Up with the Joneses

I’ve sat around campfires with millionaires and thousandaires.

The good news when you RV slow?

No one cares.

Around a fire, nobody’s trying to impress you.

No one’s asking what you drive, what you make, or what you own.

You could have a fleet of rental planes, run a pet food company, or guide millionaires up Mount Everest (okay… that one might get a story).

But even then — it’s not a competition.

Slow RVing draws you toward people who are more interested in who you are than what you have.

It shifts the focus away from money, status, and the rat race —

and toward the things that actually matter when the world gets quiet.

So What About You?

Could you block three weeks on your calendar — today?

Don’t plan the route. Don’t overthink the details.

Just pick the dates and protect them.

And if three weeks feels like too much, start smaller.

A week. A weekend. Even a day.

Take the step you can take today — the road will meet you there.

Until next time, see you down the road!

- Nathan

Nothing’s Ever Simple in RV Life

Today we’re leaving our campsite to head to the next destination — mostly interstate, about 3.5 hours according to Google.

Simple, right?

If we were leaving a house, hotel, or Airbnb, maybe. But not for us. Not today. Turns out we’re tucked into a tiny campground in a valley near Boone, North Carolina — ski town, tight roads, mountain passes, and my biggest fear: tiny campground navigation.

Here’s the size camper we should have brought into the campground. Comfortably in a Flintlock Campsite:

And…then there’s our camper trying to make it fit:

Pro tip: If people stop what they’re doing and their jaws drop as you drive by, you’re probably in the wrong campground. 😅

This campground was not built for 43-foot RVs. We somehow got in… but today we have to get out.

On top of the stress of leaving, here’s been our reality the last few days:

• We couldn’t extend both the side deck and front door. We chose the deck. Big mistake. The steps are now a permanent part of our living room.

• The campsite’s been under 4–6 inches of water most of our stay, and I’ve been walking back and forth to the creek 70 feet away checking to see if it’s rising (the campground flooded last year).

• For some reason, our 30-amp site is only pulling 15 amps — while temps dip into the 30s.

This is your living room when you use a side deck but realize you can’t get your main steps out 🤦🏻‍♂️

So yeah… not exactly “simple.” But it did remind us of a few lessons we’ve learned (and clearly forgot) about keeping RV life a little less complicated.

3 Ways to Make RV Life Simpler (Even When It Isn't)

1 - The bigger the RV, the plainer (and pricier) the campsite.

Of course this isn’t 100% true. There are times a massive rig can boondock or comfortably park in a state or national park with an epic view. However, the chances that will happen go down with each foot that’s added to an RV. Our issue is we’ve parked in some of these epic places with smaller RVs so our bodies and our brains haven’t quite aligned on what we can or can’t do in an RV the length of a small house. If simplicity and low-stress are your goals, remember: bigger usually means harder to find affordable or scenic campsites.

This seems like common sense, but time and time again, we push it.

The campground tells us the site is only 40ft and we tell them “we’ll be fine”.

Roads look a little tight but we can do it.

Comments state trees are hanging over and the RV will get scratched, but “not our rig”.

2 - Travel Pace determines Travel Stress

Choose a rule and pace that works for you.

Some prefer the 2-2-2 Rule: No more than 200 miles, Arrive before 2pm, stay at least 2 nights. Some the 3-3-3. Some 2-3-2. The 9-1-1 🤷🏻‍♂️.

The rule itself doesn’t matter — the boundaries do.

If you hate arriving after dark, make a rule.

If you drive better in the mornings, make a rule.

If you’d rather avoid traffic altogether, make a rule.

RV rules aren’t restrictions — they’re permission slips for a calmer day.

3 - Leave cushion. 80% is full

I usually say this about storage, but it applies to everything on the road.

Leave 20%+ buffer on everything

• Add 20% to whatever Google Maps tells you.

• Add 20% to your travel costs.

• Add 20% to your departure time.

• Add 20% to how tired you think you’ll be.

Driving an RV Isn't Like Driving a Car.

In a car, you’ve got maybe 6 things competing for your attention.

In an RV? Try sixteen.

What was that noise?

Is my TPMS still reading?

Google just changed the route—should I trust it?

How low are those wires?

And of course… why is the person next to me on the interstate holding their phone, brushing their teeth, and painting their nails at the same time?😳

What Matters

We’ve learned the simple life doesn’t mean an easy life.

It means choosing what matters, even when it’s messy, muddy, or just plain inconvenient.

Because every mile, every mistake, every miscalculation is part of the journey that’s shaping us into who we’re becoming.

So here’s to all of us learning how to let go of perfect — and get going on the our adventure.

Until next time, see you down the road!

- Nathan

What We Wish We Knew After Hitting the Road

The first step to RV life isn’t buying the RV someday. It’s learning to live small where you are today.

That was our motto from the summer of 2014 to the summer of 2015. Sparked by the birth of our daughter Hensley (and a few too many YouTube videos), we were dead-set on selling our house and hitting the road.

We thought once we hit the highway, it would be smooth sailing. Boy, were we wrong.

Last week, I shared what we wish we’d known before the launch in our RV:

1. Live in your home like you’re already in an RV

2. Tour multiple RVs (or go to a show)

3. Rent before you buy

4. Don’t go all-in on your first RV purchase

5. If your house isn’t your “forever home,” sell it

6. Keep a home base

7. Take a shakedown trip

This week, I’m digging into what we wish we’d known after the launch in our RV — when “It’s all part of the journey” became a little too real.

1. Stay Put for 2-4 Weeks

Decision fatigue is one of the biggest reasons people burn out in RV life. We just didn’t realize how many decisions there were.

• Where do we refill propane?

• Why have the last three stores not carried our usual bread?

• The RV broke — how do I even get a part shipped to here?

• Why does the slide make that noise every time it goes out?

Everyday life has a hundred decisions. RV life has a thousand — especially if you’re moving every 3–5 days like we were. If we could start over, we’d stay in one familiar spot for a few weeks, fix the quirks, and get our systems down before chasing the horizon.

2. Don’t Buy Everything at Once

We felt pressure to own every RV gadget and membership on day one. To this day, we still don’t have a sewer hose support — and we’ve survived just fine.

Look at this thing? Have you ever seen one at a campground looking this way in the wild? 99% of them are dragging on the ground by day two.

If you don’t have all the “must-haves,” you’ll be okay. You can always buy it later… if you can figure out the delivery thing. 😉

3. Go to a Rally (Even If Crowds Scare You)

We skipped rallies our first year — too tired, too overwhelmed. But when we finally showed up to one, everything changed.

Connection was the missing piece. We met people struggling like we were, and it reignited our fire to keep going. Even one rally a year can be enough.

Just find your one person — if you leave with one new friend, it’s a win.

4. You Don’t Need to Know Everything - Just How to Google It

Around a campfire one night, friends compared their “must-have” repair tools. Drills, jacks… then Sean held up his phone and said, “All I need is this.”

Sean wins.

There’s almost no RV problem that can’t be solved with a phone — videos, forums, mobile techs, even satellite texts in the middle of nowhere.

It’s not always cheap (and it makes me feel like less of a man), but it’s reassuring to know help is one call away.

15 minutes into our first trip in our first RV 🫣

5. Don’t Do it to Save Money

Can RV life save money? Maybe. But not the way most YouTube thumbnails promise. If you move more than once a month, you’ll likely spend more than you did in a house.

Do it for the memories, not the math.

6. Arrive Before Dark

If your mom ever said, “Nothing good happens after dark,” she was also talking about RVing. Driving, arriving, and setting up at night multiplies stress (and repair bills).

Daylight is your friend — use it.

7. You Have Wheels - Use Them

One of the biggest perks of RV life is freedom.

• If the campground’s loud, move.

• If the neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking, roll out.

• If the weather turns ugly, chase the sun.

Every time you remember that you can move, confidence grows.

The Real Lesson

RV life isn’t about perfection — it’s about persistence. Every breakdown, wrong turn, and awkward setup becomes part of the story that builds your confidence.

You’ll never have it all figured out. But that’s the beauty of it.

Get to 95%, and leap. Your dreams are worth the risk.

Until next time, see you down the road!

Nathan