It was a plan hatched during the depths of the pandemic. Stuck at home, unable to travel, we came up with an idea for a grand adventure. If we saved our money, and everything went right, we could retire within four years and hit the road in an RV to see America. We dubbed the plan the Great American Road Trip, and worked on a framework for where we would go, how we would pay for it, and how we would go from RVing newbies to full-timers. Now we’re just a year away from realizing our dream and setting out on a trip of a lifetime.
You see, we’ve always been dreamers. We’ve always been travelers. We’ve always loved spending time outdoors. We love hiking, paddling and camping in the summer, skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. And with no kids, we didn’t have to worry about saving for college tuition, weddings or passing on an inheritance. So Mr. 123 can potentially retire at age 57, and Mrs. 123 can leave her part time job.
At first the idea was to spend a year circumnavigating the U.S., north from Denver to Yellowstone, across the top of the county to Acadia in Maine, down the Eastern seaboard to the Florida Keys, across the south to California. But as planning got underway, we decided to add on a second year crossing Canada, from Victoria Island in the West to the Maritime provinces in the East. As we researched RV trips, we realized we had to make a trip to Alaska as well.
So now we’re planning on full-time RVing for three years. The time is right for us. Mr. 123 started a new job in Colorado in 2019, and we decided to rent out our house in Oregon instead of selling and committing to a more permanent relocation. As long as we have a tenant paying our mortgage and other costs of homeownership, we can limit our expenses to just our travel costs and still have an exit plan anytime we decide we’ve had enough of the road.
Mr. 123 began planning – in excruciating detail – our route for the first three years, what sights we would see, where we would stay, what hikes we would do and even what restaurants we just couldn’t miss.
While we’ve always been campers, we’re getting to the age where sleeping in a tent just isn’t that comfortable any more. We first considered getting an RV years earlier. But with only weekends and limited vacation days available, an RV purchase didn’t seem practical. We would wait for retirement. But the new job and the pandemic changed the calculus. We began to realize we wouldn’t have to wait another decade to go.
So we’re inviting you to join us on the journey before the journey, as we learn about RVing and take the final steps to make our vision a reality. We’ve learned so much already from RV magazines, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. But there’s still so much to learn, and we’ll chronicle that here on our blog, at 123RV.com.
It’s one year till we launch; two people embarking on an adventure of a lifetime, and three years of full-time RVing. Let’s go!
