Brad and Becky podcast about full-time RV living while working from the road.
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What are the biggest surprises about full-time RV living while working remotely?
Full-time RV life brings surprises like windstorms shaking your home, unexpected fire evacuations, limited closet space, and the joy of ever-changing “backyards.” While it offers freedom and adventure, it also requires flexibility, problem-solving, and a willingness to adapt to small-space challenges.

1. Episode Summary
2. Transcript
3. Apps, Tools, and Tech
4. RV Life vs. Reality
5. Chasing the Perfect View
6. Things We Miss (and Don’t)
7. What We Actually Miss
8. Things That Turned Out Overrated
9. Things Nobody Warned Us About
10. We Should Have Figured Out Sooner…
11. Falling in Love With RV Life
12. Life Logistics
13. Magical Moments
14. Pinch-Me Moments
15. Relationships in 300 Square Feet
16. Is It Romantic?
17. Let’s Talk About Bathrooms…
18. Things That Turned Out Easier
19. How “Normal” Has Changed
20. Ridiculous Must-Haves
21. Weather
22. RV Life Myths: Rapid-Fire
23. Share this Episode

Episode 3: What Do People Get Wrong About Full Time RVing?
Recorded at “Purgatory Cove,” Oregon Coast.

Is full-time RV living really all mountain views and cozy campfires? This episode dives into the surprising, often unspoken realities of working full-time while living in an RV. From windstorms that shake your entire home to the joys of portable date nights, Brad and Becky unpack what RV life actually looks like, mess, magic, and all.

This conversation is packed with laughter, real talk, and valuable takeaways for anyone considering a mobile lifestyle. If you’ve ever wondered whether you could really live, work, and travel full-time from the road, this is the episode that tells it like it is.

Key takeaways from the episode:

This episode pulls back the curtain on full-time RV living in the best way possible: with honesty, humor, and a whole lot of firsthand experience.

This transcript has been generated automatically and may contain errors and edits for clarity and brevity.

Brad: Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Just in Case You’re Wandering. We are in Newport still. This is our last day in Newport and we are sitting out at what is my favorite place along the coast here. I don’t think it even has a name. We call it Purgatory Cove. Do you want to tell them why?

Becky: Sure. So this is dating ourselves probably, but that’s OK. If you’ve ever—first of all, if you haven’t watched it, you should because it’s a great movie. It’s called On Golden Pond. Classic. Total classic movie. Katharine Hepburn.

Brad: Certainly.

Becky: Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, awesome movie. I won’t tell the whole story, but basically their summer house is on this lake or pond called Golden Pond. There’s a section in the pond called Purgatory Cove where they go fishing and it’s full of rocks. It’s really hard to get into. It eats boats and all the things. So this place that we’re at today, if it were a lake, would be Purgatory Cove because it’s full of rocks. It eats cars. But we are here anyway because it’s secluded and it’s gorgeous. We’ll definitely post some pictures because it’s a gorgeous blue sky. This is the kind of day that makes me want to be at the coast all the time.

Brad: Yeah. So when we drive in, we drive in really slow and we’re dodging big, sharp rocks all the way in. They’re not like boulders, it’s just gravel with some really sharp rocks mixed in. It’s a bit of a trick. Probably shouldn’t bring this little car in here, but I do it all the time because I love it out here. I wish I could tell you where it is.

Brad: But like I said, it doesn’t really have a name. It’s more of just a big pull-off section. What I love about it is there are some bluffs between the highway and the ocean. So you can kind of pull around the other side of those bluffs, like we are right now, and you don’t hear the highway at all. You probably hear the ocean in the background. For us it’s not angry today, it’s beautiful, but it’s making a little bit of noise out there. Waving at us.

Becky: As she does.

Brad: Yeah. In fact, I might readjust our windows here a little bit. So if you hear some background noise, I’m going to roll my window up and yours down a little bit. Keep some air in here and take out some of that ocean noise.

Brad: Before we jump into today’s topic, I thought of a couple of things I wanted to add to what we talked about in our last episode. We were talking about how I do some research on what kind of cell coverage we’re going to get at the parks we go to. I mentioned Google Earth and Google Maps and stuff. But there are a couple of apps I use all the time too. One is called ” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>CellMapper. If you want to check that out, another one is Network Cell Info Lite, and then there’s one called OpenSignal. None of them are user friendly. They all take some figuring out, but once you do, they work really well for me. I can zoom in on a location and see what kind of cell signal people are getting, even down to what area of the park—north side, south side, whatever—has the best chance. So just thought I’d mention that if that’s your world.

That reminded me of a question I was thinking about after that episode. What apps do you wish existed? Like if you could create or pay someone to create the perfect app for RVers, what would it be? I have a couple ideas if you need to think about it.

Becky: I would really—this is more about the individual parks—but I’d love to have park websites with better pictures, especially of the sites. Maybe an app where you could book and see actual site photos.

Brad: Yeah.

Becky: Other than that, I can’t really think… well, maybe an app that tells you more about whether or not you should drive your RV under certain bridges and things like that.

Brad: 100%. That’s the app I was going to mention.

Becky: My guess is there probably is something like that, I just don’t know what it’s called. So if you’re out there and you happen to know, drop us a link. Drop us a line. Let us know.

Brad: Yeah, and that’s really my ulterior motive in bringing this up. Hopefully some of you have heard of apps like this and you’re like, dude, why aren’t you using this? And I’ll be like, I didn’t even know it existed. That would be my number one: how to spot unfriendly roads for RVs. Whether that’s low bridges, tight turns, or super rough roads. I can’t believe Google Maps doesn’t have a little button you can hit and just say “RV—show me RV-friendly.” And maybe they do and I just don’t know where it is.

Brad: If you know of one, reach out to us—[email protected] or [email protected]—or just leave us a message on the community discussion board. That would be amazing.

The only other one I thought would be cool is if there was an app where you could punch in the make and model of your RV and it would give you a complete maintenance schedule with reminders. I use an app called AutoAssist—it’s like “auto assist” without the first “a” or something, I don’t know—but I’ve had to go in and manually add every single maintenance item and timer. So there’s kind of a back way to do it, but it would be amazing if I could just tell it what my RV is and have it map that out for me. So if you know anything like that too, let us know.

The only other thing I think we left uncovered about how working life affects the campgrounds we go to is how it affects the days we’re able to move.

Becky: Yeah, and this is probably really individualized to your own work schedule. For us, we work Monday through Friday, basically. So for us, moving has to be on the weekends. We can’t move during the week. Lots of people have more flexibility. If you can, great. But for us, it has to be the weekend or it just doesn’t work. So yeah, we move typically on the weekend.

Brad: Yeah, it’s always on a Sunday unless something weird happens. We were told Saturdays are really busy move-in days. A lot of people come in just for the weekend on a Saturday afternoon. I’m glad we listened to that advice about doing it on Sundays instead. There’s still traffic, but it’s people headed out, which makes it easier than trying to get in and find a spot.

Becky: Yeah, and if you’re not going to a place with assigned sites, it can open up more options for you. For us that doesn’t make a big difference anymore since with Thousand Trails we’re assigned sites almost everywhere now. So yeah, weekends for us. But again, your mileage may vary.

Brad: Yeah.

Brad: And you might be comfortable with evening moves—I never want to set up in the dark, like ever. We could theoretically move at night, but that’s tough too since you have to be out of most parks at a certain time.

Becky: Yeah, check-in and check-out times make a difference too.

Brad: That’s something I don’t think everybody thinks about when they get into RV life. They think, oh, we can go anywhere, anytime. And maybe. But you probably don’t want to be moving in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon when you’ve got work to do. Just something to think about.

Brad: So today we’re going to answer the question, what do people get wrong about full-time RV living? I know it feels like we’ve touched on this already, and we have, but we’re going to go a little deeper with it today. We’ll look at some different angles. We’re kind of pulling back the curtain on full-time RV life. Talking about the myths, assumptions, some of the weird questions, and truths that nobody tells you. I thought we’d start with what we’ll call the Instagram Mirage—the way Instagram makes full-time RVing look. So what’s a glamorous RV living moment that people post on Instagram, but in reality, it’s a lot different?

Becky: Well, I mean, you can broaden that. Instagram, TikTok, videos of RVers—they’re all showing beautiful RVs, fancy tours, and the ones that always get me are the ones where you look inside and it looks like they pulled it right off the sales lot. Like they never touch anything. It’s always perfectly staged. I get it, we want to put our best foot forward, but that’s not reality, at least not for us. There’s stuff on the kitchen counter. We live here. This is our home. Sometimes, I don’t need to see everybody’s messy counters, but sometimes it’s refreshing to see the real side of it. When you’re actually living there, it’s a small space and it doesn’t always look like the showroom.

Brad: Rarely, if ever, does it look like the showroom. Unless you’re getting ready to take a picture for Instagram or maybe for our website.

Becky: That’s true. I always want to see behind the photographer—where they’ve stashed all the stuff that’s normally sitting on the counter or piled in the closet.

Brad: Absolutely. That would be mine too, except a different angle. You see so many people who’ve redecorated their RVs so they look like these amazing beach cottages or something. And I know people really do that, but I don’t think they do it while they’re living in it full time.

Becky: I do. I’ve watched some of those videos. I think it’s harder—probably a lot harder—but we’ve done some renovations in our RV while living in it, and it’s difficult. Especially when you’re moving every so often. You’ve got to pack everything up. Sometimes you have to time your projects to finish before you move, or you have to pack up things halfway through and start again at the next place. I love the look of those RVs. I think people have great imaginations, and I get a lot of inspiration from them, but yeah. I wonder sometimes—how do you do that? A lot of them renovate before they move in. We didn’t have that option.

Brad: Right. When you’re moving every few weeks, you’re not too worried about redecorating. We’re getting ready to hopefully redo our floors—pull out the carpet and put in wood flooring—and just the logistics of that seem overwhelming. We’re going to have to literally put stuff outside or shove the bedroom full of things just to make room to work.

Becky: We’ll figure it out. We always do. We’ve redone our bathroom. We figured that out. It makes things crazy and messy for a little while, but you figure it out. And the results are worth it.

Brad: Sticking with the Instagram thing—not only do people post beautiful pictures of their RVs, but also of their perfect view campsite. So the question is, have we ever done anything dumb trying to get the perfect view?

Becky: I’m glad you added “for the view” and didn’t just stop at “Have we done anything dumb?” because we’ve definitely done lots of dumb things. But have we done anything dumb to get the perfect view? I don’t think so.

Brad: Oh, we’re going to talk about all the dumb things. But yeah, I don’t think we’ve done anything crazy for a view.

Becky: We’ve been really lucky and had some amazing spots. And when we’ve had the opportunity to pick a spot—especially at state campgrounds where there’s a lake or a river—we try to get near those views. It’s nice to have that out your window once in a while, but we’re not going to do something stupid. This is our home, so we don’t want to risk that.

Brad: Yeah. I’ve put the RV in a few tricky spots because we wanted the view, but I don’t think that’s dumb. That’s just wanting a nice place.

Becky: Happens sometimes. You want a view. But like you said, we’re not doing stuff that puts us at risk. Again, it’s our home.

Brad: What I have seen is other people doing dumb stuff to try to get that open view. Like, people pulling in and trying to park their RV sideways across the site so their window faces a certain direction.

Becky: Oh, we’ve seen lots of that. Someday we should just do an episode on the things we’ve seen people try to do while parking. Watching neighbors try to move in and out of sites can be very entertaining.

Brad: We’re actually going to talk about that a little later.

Becky: Oh, how funny. I didn’t know that. He doesn’t tell me the questions in advance, just so you all know.

Brad: Yeah, I’ve seen people pull in and park weird angles trying to get a view. And I’m thinking, if that site next to you fills up, you’re not getting out. And I’ve seen people spend so much time just waiting for a site to open up so they can move into it. Like, are you even relaxing? Or are you just obsessing?

Becky: Looks super stressful. Also, if you hear that sound in the background, one of our dogs is laying on the back seat and she snores like a freight train. So, just FYI. Everything’s fine.

Brad: Yeah, hang on, let me be quiet for a second… Yep. That would be Scout.

Becky: She’s our little snore bug.

Brad: That just means she’s happy and sleeping.

Becky: She needs a doggy CPAP.

Brad: I’ve literally searched Amazon to see if there’s such a thing as a doggy CPAP, and I don’t think there is.

Brad: All right. So let’s move on to things we actually miss and things we don’t miss about living in a house compared to living on the road in an RV. What’s something people assume we miss, but we actually don’t?

Becky: Hmm.

Brad: Scout’s really snoring back here. I’ll answer for me and give you a second to think. For me, I think it’s having a big kitchen. A lot of people, when you tell them you live in an RV, say, “Oh, I could never do that, I need my big kitchen.” But I don’t miss it. I think it’s partly because our floor plan has a lot of counter space.

Becky: Yeah, compared to a lot of RVs, we do have a nice amount of counter space.

Brad: But I don’t think I ever find myself wishing for a bigger kitchen.

Becky: I don’t wish for a bigger kitchen, which is funny, because I thought I would. What I do miss, and I don’t understand why it’s not a regular thing in RVs, is an actual oven. RV ovens… I know some people figure them out, but the only times I’ve used ours, it’s just been terrible. I use the stovetop all the time, but yeah. I miss having an oven. That’s something I miss. But we’re talking about things people think we’d miss and we don’t, so I digress.

Brad: Right. That’s OK. And it’s OK if you don’t have anything.

Becky: Probably space. Maybe just having four solid walls that don’t move in storms or anything like that. I’m sure there are things people think we’d miss, like “Don’t you miss that stability?” But not really. I mean, there’s stuff I miss, but not stuff I’d want back badly enough to give up this lifestyle.

Brad: I think people probably assume we miss having our own yard.

Becky: We have the best yards ever. I don’t even know why people think that. Every time we go somewhere, we have a new yard. And I don’t have to mow it.

Brad: Yeah, or water it or maintain it.

Becky: Or weed it. And if we don’t have a good yard, we will when we move next time.

Brad: Or we’re five minutes from something beautiful. We don’t need a yard when we can go to the beach or the mountains or the trees.

Brad: So how about a small, random thing we actually do miss from living in a house that we didn’t expect to miss?

Becky: Well, like I said, the oven.

Brad: OK, that’s not really a small thing. That’s a pretty big one, but it counts.

Becky: Yeah. Small thing… I don’t know if it’s small or not, but consistent water pressure.

Brad: Oh yeah. Most parks are fine, but there are some where you’re like, this is going to be a long three weeks with this dribbly water pressure.

Becky: And we’ve done the shower upgrade thing everyone talks about, with the new showerhead, and that helps. But yeah, you’re still relying on the park.

Brad: Sure.

Becky: Otherwise, it’s mostly appliance things. I love our washer-dryer combo unit, but I do miss having a real washer and dryer. Ours works, but yeah.

Brad: Yeah. Doesn’t take, what, four or five hours to run a load through?

Becky: Yeah.

Brad: For me, and this feels small, but it’s major in an RV—full-sized garbage cans. I feel like I’m taking out the trash every day because all we can fit under the sink is a tiny garbage can.

Becky: Right. He takes the garbage out a lot. And it’s crazy how much garbage even just two people and two dogs can make. It’s probably not that much, but with small cans, it feels like it.

Brad: Are there any household things that we now think are totally overrated? Stuff that we thought we needed in a house, but now we’re like, wow, we can totally live without that?

Becky: I don’t know, because I haven’t really had to give up things I cared deeply about. I can’t think of anything.

Brad: I know for me, when I first looked at the size of the water heater in the RV—like ten gallons—I thought, can you even take a shower on ten gallons? But now when I look at a regular house water heater…

Becky: Oh yeah.

Brad: I think, why would you ever need that much hot water? I mean, it’s rare we ever run out.

Becky: No, we time it so we don’t shower right after each other, but we’ve never run out. And that’s on just ten gallons.

Brad: Which is more than I expected.

Becky: And we’re pretty conservative about water usage too. We try to be smart about the resources.

Brad: All right. So let’s move on to stuff nobody warned us about when we got into RV life. Things that surprised us. And again, I can give you mine if you need a second to think.

Becky: Well, nobody warned us about anything because we kind of just jumped in. So we had to figure it all out on our own.

Brad: That’s true. But even with the videos and research we did, was there anything that came up and made you go, “Wow, nobody mentioned this”?

Becky: Go ahead and tell yours while I think for a second.

Brad: For me, it was the wind. I’ve never seen YouTubers talk about what a windstorm feels like in an RV. And when you’re full-timing, you’re in it. You’re not going to pack up and go home early. You are home. We’ve had some pretty sleepless nights wondering, are we going over? Are we going to end up on our side? It’s never come close to that, but it can really move and shake like it’s going to.

Becky: Yeah, I think I kind of expected that. I grew up in a mobile home—a real one, like an old-school aluminum trailer—and those shook a lot in storms. But yeah, that first really big windstorm we had in the RV was definitely more unnerving than I thought it would be.

Brad: Yeah.

Becky: The thing I wish I’d known more about is how to take care of things inside the RV—like, what kind of cleaners to use, what you can safely put down the drains, all that. The materials in RVs are different, and it matters. I think I might have made some different choices early on if I’d known more.

Brad: That’s a good one. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

Brad: Is there anything we moved in thinking, “Eh, we’ll figure that out later,” and looking back, we wish we’d figured it out way sooner?

Becky: I think—I mean, we switched it out pretty quickly—but I think changing out the furniture for more comfortable stuff. We survived with what was in it for maybe…

Brad: A year?

Becky: Yeah, probably a year. Which seems crazy now because it was so uncomfortable.

Brad: It was bad.

Becky: Also, I wish we’d figured out the mattress situation sooner—the whole mold problem underneath.

Brad: Oh, the mold under the mattress, yes. 100%.

Becky: That was a problem. Otherwise, I can’t really think of anything else.

Brad: I see so many people online say, “You don’t have to worry about mold under the mattress, that never happens.” That is not true.

Becky: Well, and we’re on the West Coast. It’s more humid here. And probably in Florida or the South too. In dry, central parts of the country, maybe not. But in coastal or humid climates, yeah, it’s a thing.

Brad: Yeah. I also wish we’d figured out our storage unit situation sooner. When we first moved in—like we’ve talked about—it was very short term, so we just had to throw stuff somewhere. We do have a storage unit with things like your scrapbooks…

Becky: Used to scrapbook. It’s been a long time. But yeah, we have stuff like that. And I think most full-timers have some things they want to keep but can’t take with them. Whether they store it with family or like us, in a little storage unit. We organized it a lot better this year and got it into a more central location, which helps.

Brad: And that’s what I was talking about—thinking through where that storage should actually be. For a while it was three hours away from where we normally traveled. So if we needed something, it was a six-hour round trip. Now we’ve moved it to a more central spot, and it’s made everything easier.

Becky: Yes, which is another thing. Some full-timers keep a home base. They haven’t sold their house. So they’ve got that to fall back on. We don’t.

Brad: Right. No sticks and bricks for us.

Becky: So a storage unit becomes that place for the things we can’t or don’t want to carry.

Brad: Is there something people should have warned us about but didn’t? Something we didn’t expect about getting into RV life?

Becky: That you might like it more than you think.

Brad: Ah, that’s an interesting one. Yeah, that it might become kind of addictive. I like that.

Becky: Yeah.

Brad: I remember asking you once, if we hit the lottery and had millions of dollars, would we buy a big fancy house or a really nice RV?

Becky: And I said, we’d buy a really nice RV and maybe a plot of land.

Brad: Yeah, a home base somewhere, but not another house.

Becky: Probably not. And honestly, I never expected that would be my answer either. But yeah, this lifestyle has opened my eyes to realizing there might be things you thought would never work for you that turn out to be something you enjoy more than you ever imagined.

Brad: Yeah. I think it’s addictive.

Becky: It is. I love that feeling right now, thinking about the adventure ahead—new places, some familiar ones, and just knowing there’s always something new around the corner. It scratches that travel itch I’ve always had. Even if it’s not huge international trips, it still feels like enough.

Brad: Yeah. I would never have thought this for me, but after about three weeks in one place, I start to get that itch to move. Like the stores are all the same now, I’ve seen everything. I don’t want to move faster than that, because then you don’t really get to settle in and enjoy a place, but after three weeks, I’m ready.

Becky: We do have some shorter stays during the summer—sometimes just a week or two.

Brad: Yeah.

Becky: But for the most part, yeah. About three weeks in, I’m ready to go.

Brad: I’m never ready for the work of it, but I’m always ready for the adventure.

Becky: And there’s something nice about getting to a new place and setting everything up. It makes things feel fresh and clean and put together. It’s like a little restart every time.

Brad: Yeah. Kind of like a forced spring cleaning every three weeks.

Brad: I think for me, something I wish I’d known is just how hard it would be to prove our residency. Like, we rent a mailbox that was marketed as a “real street address” and for some things it is—but not for the important things.

Becky: Yeah, there are some things it works for, but others where it just doesn’t.

Brad: Especially for things like starting a business or applying for a license, or anything where you need to prove you live somewhere. It’s a mess. It’s tricky.

Becky: I’m hoping that as more people live mobile lifestyles, more options become available. There are states where it’s easier to set up “traveling residency,” but I don’t want to give up being a resident of Oregon.

Brad: Yeah. We love Oregon.

Becky: That’s home.

Brad: Yep. For sure.

Brad: So let’s call this next part “Mythical Creature Sightings”—OK, that might be a little much—but what’s a moment that actually did feel as magical as the brochures promised?

Becky: Oh, we’ve had a few of those. The one that really stands out to me was at Pacific City, up on the top of the campground. We didn’t even know that area existed. It used to have cabins, but they moved them out and opened it up to campers. We got there right before they closed that section for the winter and we had an ocean view—right out my kitchen window.

Brad: Yeah.

Becky: That was one of those moments. Another was in Ashland, camping right by Emigrant Lake, sitting outside in the sun watching the sunset. Or Lake Owyhee too.

Brad: Yeah, for sure.

Becky: We’ve had some amazing spots. Not all of them are like that, but when you get one, it’s magic.

Brad: That Pacific City spot made my list too. Once we pulled in, there was one neighbor, and they left the next day. Then the park closed the section, so we had the whole bluff and ocean view to ourselves.

Becky: Probably never happen again, but we loved it.

Brad: Another moment I think of was in Seaside, the day all the elk came into the park. I got pictures—I’ll post them on the website.

Becky: I don’t think I saw that.

Brad: You might have missed it. But yeah, just full-on elk wandering through. It felt surreal.

Becky: Sometimes it’s the everyday moments too. Like last summer in Bend, just sitting outside in the trees. It was beautiful and peaceful. Or sitting around the campfire. Those are the moments where you think, “Yep, this is why we do this.”

Brad: Yeah. In some ways, it feels like we retired before we actually quit our jobs.

Becky: You know how they always say you wish you had the wisdom of your older years in the body of your 20s? I feel like we’re getting to do a little of that with retirement. We’re still young enough to do the things, but we’re living a lifestyle that feels like retirement.

Brad: That leads us right into the next question: Have we ever had a “pinch me” moment while living on the road?

Becky: Oh, those magical ones we just talked about were definitely pinch-me moments.

Brad: I think they happen all the time. Sometimes it’s just driving down the road into a new place. I really remember it in Leavenworth, Washington. I was driving through town and just thought, we live here. This amazing place that I’ve never been before—and now we live here. Most people leave a place like that thinking, “Will we ever come back?” But we get to live there for a while. That gives me chills.

Becky: Yeah, I have those moments too—especially driving between spots. I follow behind you in the car and I’ll see the trailer ahead of me and think, that’s my house. It’s going where I’m going. I’m going somewhere new or somewhere I love. It’s cool. I need to pay more attention to those moments. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget how cool it is.

Brad: Yeah. I have pinch-me moments just stepping out the front door sometimes. It hits you that you’re in a totally different place. You kind of forget where you are until you step outside and go, oh yeah.

Becky: That always happens the morning after we move. I walk out and think, wait, where am I? Oh yeah, this is our new place.

Brad: So now we’re going to talk relationships. How has full-time RV life changed our relationship—for better or worse?

Becky: Well, like I’ve said before, we actually like spending time together.

Brad: (nods)

Becky: He’s nodding, which no one can see. So yes, he agrees. I don’t know if it’s changed our relationship, but it’s deepened it. We’ve always been close. Like any marriage, we’ve had ups and downs. But this lifestyle has really solidified that team feeling. We’re in this together. We explore together. It’s been great. I suppose there are moments where it might be nice to have a little more space…

Brad: Not really. Honestly.

Becky: He’s shaking his head again.

Brad: For me, I think it’s given us more perspective. Little things we might have argued about before, we now realize just don’t matter. It’s like, why waste time on that?

Becky: I totally agree. And RV life will either bring that out in people or bring out the opposite. In a small space, you’ll either argue constantly—or you’ll realize the small stuff isn’t worth it. And also, slamming a door in an RV doesn’t have that satisfying thud. So there’s no dramatic exits.

Brad: Yeah, the doors are too light.

Brad: All right, we’re going to get a little personal here. One of the questions people sometimes wonder is… is living in a tiny space as romantic as people imagine?

Becky: People imagine it’s romantic?

Brad: I think so. You know, the idea of running away together, living by the sea in a little trailer—it feels like it would be romantic.

Becky: A little cozy love nest. I get that. I think it can be romantic. But like everything else in life, if you want romance, you have to make romance. You have to put in the effort. It doesn’t just happen because you’re living in a small space.

Brad: Yeah. And one thing I’m just realizing now—it kind of feels like we go on more “dates” in this lifestyle. We eat out more often, we explore new places. It’s not always a formal “date night,” but we’re sharing experiences in a way that makes it feel like dating again.

Becky: That’s true. I hadn’t thought about that. Like when we pulled into Newport, we started thinking about where we wanted to go eat, the places we love, and we make a plan to go back. It feels special, like a little getaway, because we’re not there all the time.

Brad: Yeah. It’s not like when you live in the same place and you say, “Oh, we’ll go there someday.” Now it’s like, “We better go there before we move.”

Becky: Especially if it might be a while before we’re back—or it might not be there at all next time.

Brad: So that was a sweet little moment… and now I’m going to completely undercut it by talking about something a little less sweet. Here’s an admission about real RV life: we have a rule in our house that we never speak of the sounds or smells that come from the bathroom.

Becky: I can’t believe you’re telling people this.

Brad: If we’re going to be real about RV life, we’ve got to talk about it all.

Becky: We’re not talking about everything. Some things stay private so people keep listening.

Brad: But you can’t get away from it in an RV. It’s a small space. So we made a rule—no shame, no pointing it out. We’re human. That’s just how it is.

Becky: Yeah. We don’t comment. It’s just part of life. But yeah, that’s definitely not the romantic part of RV life.

Brad: All right, I’m going to give you the option to pass on this next one if you want to.

Becky: Thanks. By the way, I already have that option.

Brad: Yes, you do. The question is… is sex different in an RV?

Becky: Is it different? Sort of. Mostly because RVs are small and the walls are thin. If you have neighbors close, you’re aware of that. You can hear more than you think. So it makes you more careful, more aware.

Brad: Yeah. Definitely more self-conscious if someone’s sitting outside nearby.

Becky: But is it different otherwise? No. It’s not like the mechanics change. But yeah, awareness is part of it.

Brad: The wind isn’t the only thing that rocks the RV.

Becky: Oh my gosh.

Brad: I’ve definitely had moments where I wonder if our neighbors can hear something they probably didn’t want to.

Becky: Well, there is that saying: “If the RV’s a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’.” But seriously, you live there. You love there. You argue there. You cook there. You do all the things there.

Brad: Yeah. And that’s another reason I can’t imagine full-timing with kids.

Becky: Right? Even in bunkhouse RVs, there’s no real privacy. I don’t know how families do it. Those tiny homes where you have one loft for the kids and one for the adults—with no walls or doors—I just don’t get how that works.

Brad: Maybe lots of playdates?

Becky: Maybe. But yeah, I couldn’t do this lifestyle with kids. And that’s definitely one of the reasons.

Brad: OK, we’ll move on from that. What’s something that turned out way easier than we expected?

Becky: Working. Especially with what I do, I was really worried about privacy and whether it would work out. And it has. It’s worked great. Even with internet stuff—it’s been pretty good overall. So yeah, working has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Brad: Yeah. For me—and this is going to sound dumb—but getting on the roof of the RV. For the first two years, I was terrified of it. I’m a bigger guy, and I thought, am I going to fall through? Am I going to fall off? I just psyched myself out. We kept saying we’d hire someone to do the roof inspections, and we never did. Finally, I just got up there. And it was fine. A little freaky the first time, but now I’m up there so often I don’t even think about it. I just go.

Becky: I think cooking in the RV has been easier than I expected too. Sure, the oven’s terrible, but overall, it’s not bad. We do have decent counter space. Sometimes it still feels small, but I’ve figured out how to work with it. And just living full time in the RV—I thought that would be a huge challenge, and it’s really not.

Brad: Yeah.

Becky: I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this at first. But it turned out to be way more doable than I thought.

Brad: On the flip side, what’s something that’s stupidly hard, that we thought would be easy?

Becky: Hmm.

Brad: For me, it was leveling the RV. I thought it would be easy—especially if you have one of those automatic systems. But we don’t. So I’m back to blocks and wedges and levels. It’s gotten easier with some tools, but it always feels like it should be simpler than it is.

Becky: I think the closet in our RV. I love the RV, but I hate the closet. It’s weirdly shaped, it curves with the front of the trailer. There are these tiny “cubbies” that are basically useless. Nothing fits. It just wasn’t designed well. It’s taken forever to figure out how to store stuff in there, and even now, it’s my least favorite part of the RV.

Brad: Yeah. I’d love to custom-build shelves in there. But they’d have to be totally custom—not something you can just buy.

Brad: So, how has our “normal” changed since moving into an RV? What comes to mind?

Becky: That I have to explain to people that I’m not homeless.

Brad: Right.

Becky: That this is a choice. I’m not doing this because I have to. I’m doing it because I want to. Some people think it’s awesome. Others look at you like, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” It’s a weird mix of reactions.

Brad: I remember talking to a student and mentioning we were moving that weekend. I said, “We live in an RV, so we move all the time,” and he got real quiet and then said, “Are you guys okay?” Like either we were broke or running from the law.

Becky: We’re not Breaking Bad, I swear.

Brad: I think our normal is still a lot like everyone else’s. We work, eat, sleep, take the dogs for walks, pay bills. But we do it in about 300 square feet, and we move every few weeks.

Becky: Yeah. It’s still life.

Brad: But there’s definitely one thing I think about more now than ever before.

Becky: What?

Brad: Poop.

Becky: Oh. Yeah. That’s true.

Brad: It’s not like I’m constantly dealing with it, and it’s not as bad as people think. But it’s always in the back of your mind—how full is the tank? When was the last time I dumped it? You can’t just flush and forget it like in a house.

Becky: You do take that for granted in a house. You flush it, it’s gone. You never think about it again.

Brad: In an RV, you deal with it at least once a week. And like I said, it’s not terrible. If someone’s avoiding RV life because they’re scared of dealing with tanks, don’t be. If you learn the right way to do it, it’s not a big deal.

Brad: OK, since we were just talking about not fighting much… let’s see if this starts one. What’s a ridiculous item we refuse to live without, even in an RV?

Becky: Are you saying “we,” or “I”?

Brad: We both get to answer.

Becky: OK. Well, I already know what you’re going to complain about.

Brad: What is it?

Becky: Pillows. You hate pillows.

Brad: Yes. Not just pillows. Massive, human-sized pillows.

Becky: They are not massive. They are normal king-sized bed pillows. Everyone knows what those are. And we have fewer than we used to. I’ve cut way back.

Brad: It’s true. But there are still three that serve no function except to be moved from one place to another every single day.

Becky: They make the bed feel like home. There are few things I really care about keeping, and those pillows are one of them. So… suck it up.

Brad: I’m trying. I have been for years. And I’ll keep trying. That’s my answer. Pillows.

Becky: OK, so what’s yours? What’s the thing you won’t give up?

Brad: I don’t know. I don’t think I have anything I absolutely won’t let go of.

Brad: Maybe my guitar?. I don’t play it much, and it takes up space. But we found a way to hang it on the wall, so it’s out of the way. I still feel a little guilty sometimes, but I like having it around.

Becky: Yeah, it’s not in the way at all. I don’t think there’s anything else you’re unreasonable about. Just the pillows.

Brad: OK, so other than pillows, what are some of the small things that make our RV feel like home, even though we move every few weeks?

Becky: The pictures on the wall. Little bits of decor. I’ve learned to be really mindful of what things get to take up space. I like to change things up, so I’ve had to figure out how to do that in a way that makes sense in a small space. But yeah, just like in a house—it’s the little touches.

Brad: Yeah. And I’ll give you credit for that. I really appreciate the work you do to make our space feel homey. Every time we move, you unpack those little things and make it feel like our place again.

Becky: Thanks. And same to you—you always get the outdoor setup done, with the fence for the dogs, the signs, the little flag. You do a great job making the outside feel like ours too.

Brad: I think that helps a lot—having that sense of home both inside and out. And we’ve done some customizations too. We’re not worried about resale. We’ll live in this until it falls apart. So we’ve made it work for us.

Becky: Yeah. And if you are worried about resale, you might make different choices. But we never even talk about it. We’ll deal with it when the time comes.

Brad: Let’s talk weather. We already mentioned wind, but how does weather affect full-time RV life?

Becky: Wind is the worst by far. Snow’s not fun. Ice is really not fun. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we get ice storms and they can be intense.

Brad: We’ve had some really bad ones. One was so bad we had to get a hotel because we lost power and couldn’t even get back up to the RV.

Becky: Yeah. But on the flip side, one of my favorite sounds in the world is rain on the RV roof. Not when it’s pounding during a Zoom call, but when it’s soft and steady—it’s peaceful.

Brad: That’s one of my favorite parts too. In a house, you can go a whole day without even noticing the weather. But in the RV, you feel the weather. You hear it. You see it out the windows. It makes you feel connected to the world.

Becky: Yeah, it’s really grounding. You live with the weather instead of around it.

Brad: So… have we ever had to make an emergency move because of weather?

Becky: I just talked about the ice storm. But if you mean actually moving the trailer because of weather…

Brad: I’m thinking about fire season last summer.

Becky: Oh. Yes. That.

Brad: We were on our summer loop through Eastern Oregon and Washington. In a matter of 48 hours, we had to move from two different campgrounds due to wildfire evacuations.

Becky: Actually three. We had one reservation we couldn’t even check into because the fire got too close. Then the second one we moved to got shut down, and then the third one—yep, same thing. That was stressful.

Brad: Yeah, we were basically chased out of the region by different fires. We finally just said, “We’re going back to the green side of the state.”

Becky: Yep. And I’m really glad we planned this summer differently.

Brad: Me too. But yeah, fire is a real consideration, especially in late summer. You’ve got to stay flexible and be ready to move if something flares up.

Becky: There was one windstorm back when we were stationary that made me wonder if we’d have to hook up and leave. That was rough.

Brad: I remember putting the slides in so they wouldn’t catch the wind.

Becky: We’ve had a few moments like that, and some borderline flooding days, but so far, we’ve been able to stay put. But fire’s definitely been the most serious threat we’ve dealt with.

Brad: All right. Let’s end with a rapid-fire list of RV myths. Just quick yes or no—maybe a sentence if we need it.

Brad: You can always find a place to camp for free for the night.

Becky: It’s hard. Maybe a parking lot in an emergency, but truly free campgrounds? Not easy.

Brad: Yeah, I’d say no. Especially if you’re in a remote spot. It’s not guaranteed.

Brad: If a campground says they have Wi-Fi, it’ll work well.

Becky: No.

Brad: Nope. Never count on it.

Brad: RV life is cheaper than traditional living.

Becky: It can be, but not always.

Brad: Yeah. Depends how you do it. We’ve seen $1 million RVs, so…

Brad: Full-timers are always traveling to new places.

Becky: Not always. Some rotate between just a few parks.

Brad: Yep. A lot of people full-time in a small loop near where they work.

Brad: Living small means living stress-free.

Becky: Nope. Still life. Still stress—just different kinds.

Brad: You’ll automatically become a minimalist when you move into an RV.

Becky: No. You should, but it doesn’t just happen.

Brad: You can hire someone to do all your RV maintenance.

Becky: Sure, but it’s expensive. I married one instead.

Brad: Yeah. And you’ll be waiting weeks or months for service. Better to learn to do it yourself.

Brad: People will think you’re weird for living full-time in an RV.

Becky: Yes. And I’m fine with that.

Brad: Yeah. Same. We were weird before the RV.

Brad: Campgrounds are always peaceful and quiet.

Becky: Sometimes. But it depends on your neighbors and whether there’s maintenance or construction happening.

Brad: Yep. Real life still happens.

Brad: Tiny living means more arguments.

Becky: Not necessarily. It might reveal stuff that was already there. Or help you let go of the small stuff.

Brad: Agreed.

Brad: Black tanks are the worst part of RV life.

Becky: I don’t deal with it.

Brad: I thought it would be. But it’s really not. It’s manageable if you learn how.

Brad: Every day feels like a vacation.

Becky: Nope. Most days are just regular life.

Brad: Yeah. You’re still working, cooking, cleaning. It’s not all adventure.

Brad: Most people only live in RVs for a few years and then go back to a house.

Becky: Some do. Some don’t. Totally depends on the person.

Brad: Yeah. People ask how long we’re going to do this. I say, as long as we’re physically able. We’re not in a rush to change.

Becky: We love it. And for now, it works.

Brad: Yeah. And look where we are today—sitting in Newport, staring at the ocean. Tomorrow, we’ll live somewhere else. And that’s the beauty of it.

Becky: Safe travels, wherever you’re headed.

Brad: As always, you can head to the website. This is episode three, so you can find it at jicyw.com/3. We’ve got photos, links, and a space to leave comments or questions. You can also join the community board there.

Becky: Or just say hi. We’d love to know you’re out there.

Brad: I always picture people listening to this on a moving day.

Becky: Or maybe wondering if RV life might be for them.

Brad: It’s not as scary as you think. And the benefits are real.

Becky: Thanks for wondering with us.

Brad: We’ll see you down the road.

Do you have a question or comment about this episode? Join the community discussion here!

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