22 Things We Wish We'd Known Before Going Full-Time

Chapter 01

The Rig Decision

Three rigs, one lesson. Fit your travel style, not your fantasy

01Mistake 1 of 22

We went through three rigs before we found the right one.

Marissa calls it our three little bears. First was an Earthbound Telluride, a 28 footer we tested at the house when Hensley was five weeks old. Too small. So we overcorrected and jumped to a 43 foot Sandpiper, the biggest thing we'd ever towed. Too big. It fought us everywhere we wanted to go. We finally landed on a 38 foot motorhome, and that one was just right. Not because of the size, but because it fit how we wanted to travel. Three rigs in about a year and a half, and we learned more from them than from anything else we did.

Earthbound Telluride 28-foot travel trailer — The 28-footer. Too small.

Our 43-foot Sandpiper fifth wheel — The 43-footer. Too big.

Our 38-foot motorhome — The motorhome. Just right.

02Mistake 2 of 22

We didn't get the rig inspected before we bought it.

That same Earthbound we were so excited about? We didn't inspect it well. The pipes were busted and the water heater was shot, and we were into it for three thousand dollars in repairs before we could even use the thing. We skipped the inspection on our first one. We've never skipped it since.

Catch the problems that cost thousands before you hand over a dime.

OPEN THE RV INSPECTION CHECKLIST →

03Mistake 3 of 22

We almost pushed all our chips in.

When you've got a number set aside for your RV, the temptation is to slide all of it across the table and say it's all or nothing. We came close. What saved us was buying something we could resell without losing our shirts, so if it went wrong we could break even and regroup.

Family with RV on the open road — We bought this used RV and sold it a year later for more than we paid.

Chapter 02

Getting Ready to Go

The gap between 'someday' and 'we're leaving.'

04Mistake 4 of 22

We waited to feel ready.

Ready never showed up. We kept thinking we needed the right moment, but there's never a perfect time to go, there's always going to be something. Money, kids, the house, the job. At some point we just decided, and the deciding turned out to be the whole thing.

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05Mistake 5 of 22

We tried to downsize all at once.

Thirty-five years of stuff does not leave the house in a weekend, and we've never once heard someone say getting rid of their stuff was easier than they expected. What worked was going room by room, clearing one out completely, then shutting the door and living smaller on purpose. We sorted into piles: give away, throw away, sell, and the honest one, "still thinking about it." That last pile is always the biggest, and it shrinks over time.

Closet stuffed full of clothes — The closet that wouldn't quit.

Sorting through the closet again — Round two. Still too much.

Pile of stuff to sort — One pile at a time.

06Mistake 6 of 22

We underestimated the money side of RVing.

We assumed RV life would just be cheaper than a house. It wasn't. Between wear, depreciation, and the expenses nobody warns you about, the budget that works in a spreadsheet does not survive a blown tire, a dead fridge, and a campground that cost more than the website said. When that Sandpiper sat in the shop for months, we had a genuine choice: are we done, or do we keep going? The only reason we kept going was the cushion we'd set aside.

See how your travel pace impacts your monthly budget.

OPEN THE PACE PLANNER →

07Mistake 7 of 22

We thought we had to know how to fix everything first.

Nathan is not a born handyman, and the fear of breaking down with no idea what to do held us back for a while. What changed wasn't getting better with tools. It was realizing we didn't have to. The same way insurance lets you stop bracing for disaster, a real cushion meant the worst case was dipping into the emergency fund, not being stranded.

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08Mistake 8 of 22

We thought we needed every gadget before we could go.

There's an endless supply of must-have RV gear out there, and in the beginning we believed we needed most of it. We spent money on things we used once, or never. The stuff that actually earns its place reveals itself over time, and it's usually not the flashy stuff.

11 years of what's worth it, so you can skip what isn't.

OPEN THE GEAR LIST →

Chapter 03

The First Miles

Confidence is expensive. We paid for it.

09Mistake 9 of 22

We got cocky after one good trip.

We towed our 43 foot fifth wheel all the way from Middle Tennessee down to Florida without a single problem, and somewhere on that drive I decided I had this figured out. On the way back, I whipped into a gas station that was never built for a rig that size, sure I could make it. I underestimated how long it takes for 43 feet of trailer to follow you through a turn, and I clipped a concrete pillar protecting the pump. Seven thousand dollars in damage. Five months waiting on repairs. The danger isn't your first nervous trip. It's the trip right after the one that went well.

Stressful drive day in Atlanta traffic — The trip right after the easy one.

10Mistake 10 of 22

We skipped the slow start and tried to move every single night.

When you finally launch, your gut screams move it, move it, move it. We did. So does almost everyone.

Moving fast on the road — Move it, move it, move it.

11Mistake 11 of 22

We had no system for travel days.

In the early days, every move was chaos. We'd forget steps, leave things out, and find out the hard way at 60 miles an hour that something hadn't been latched or stowed. Travel days are when the expensive mistakes happen, and we were winging every one of them.

The setup and teardown list we wish we'd had on day one.

OPEN THE CHECKLIST →

12Mistake 12 of 22

We learned why the shakedown trip matters the hard way.

Our first trip out was supposed to be an easy one, a campground about 30 minutes away. We didn't make it 15 minutes before the truck blew an antifreeze line and had to be towed home. That short first trip did exactly what a shakedown trip is supposed to do. It found the problem 15 minutes from home instead of 400 miles out, somewhere remote with no help around.

RV and truck on the roadside — Shakedown country.

13Mistake 13 of 22

We said yes to drive days that were too long.

We'd push way too far because the map said we could, and by the time we arrived we were too fried to enjoy it. The faster you move, the more it costs: more fuel, more one-night stays at full price, less time to settle in somewhere cheaper. We've since landed on about four hours as our sweet spot, based on the Google arrival time, before you add in the stops to eat and stretch.

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14Mistake 14 of 22

We treated every stop like we'd never be back.

We rushed, trying to see it all. The road isn't going anywhere.

A quiet long stay outdoors — The reward of staying put.

15Mistake 15 of 22

We were afraid to back the rig up.

That fear is so common we hear it constantly, especially from the person in the passenger seat who's frozen at the thought of helping.

Backing the RV into a spot — Practice makes confidence.

Chapter 04

Once You're Living It

The road doesn't fix anything. It just shows you what needs fixing.

16Mistake 16 of 22

We weren't ready for decision fatigue.

This is the one that surprised us most. In a house you know where you'll sleep, what the noises are, where the bread is. On the road, every single day you're deciding where to stop, where it's safe, whether you can get a spot, what happens when the one you planned falls through. The freedom you pictured can quietly turn into exhaustion.

Overwhelmed on a travel day — Decision fatigue is real.

17Mistake 17 of 22

We didn't prepare for how much it magnifies everything.

RV life doesn't fix your problems. It magnifies them. If money's already tight, it gets tighter. If you're shaky on planning, the road won't fix that. And if you don't love being around each other, a small stressful space only makes it harder. We learned it firsthand bringing a newborn home to a 300 square foot Airstream, an adjustment that would've been hard anywhere and was a far bigger shock in that little space.

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18Mistake 18 of 22

We thought freedom meant no structure, and it nearly sank us.

We thought freedom was going where we wanted, when we wanted, doing whatever we wanted. A few months in, the wheels were quietly coming off. We were spending more than we'd planned, we'd put on weight, and we just didn't feel good about how the journey was going.

Real life still happens on the road — Structure is what made it sustainable.

19Mistake 19 of 22

We got stuck in vacation mode and forgot it was still life.

You hit the road excited, and it feels like a permanent vacation. But you can't be on vacation 365 days a year. There's still work, still homeschool, still chores, just with travel layered on top.

A family moment with a view — Same life. New view.

20Mistake 20 of 22

We didn't prioritize community our first year.

About six months in, we started to feel lonely. Sunsets just feel different when you watch them alone instead of next to friends. It wasn't until we started connecting with people in year two that everything really clicked. What we thought was about the journey has really been about the relationships more than the locations.

Friends together outside — It's the people. Always was.

21Mistake 21 of 22

We underestimated how much a home base would matter.

Marissa's mom built a cabin, we went in fifty-fifty on the infrastructure, and in exchange we put in a spot to park our RV. That's been our home base for most of our years on the road. Then 2020 hit, campgrounds started closing, and that little parking spot turned out to be everything.

Family at their RV home base — Having a home base turned one year on the road into eleven for us.

22Mistake 22 of 22

We almost didn't go.

This is the one that matters most. Our single biggest regret isn't the wrecked Sandpiper or any of the rest of it. It's that we almost didn't start at all. We finally decided we'd rather try it and have it not be for us than spend our lives wondering what if. Eleven years later, we say it all the time: it's all part of the journey.

A little inspiration for what's out there waiting.

OPEN THE JOURNEY LIST →