We practice what some might consider an unusual lifestyle, but it works well for us and we try hard to focus on what we consider important to us in this life, the things we can experience and effect. Like a friend of mine says: we make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes.

In 2007, we sold our house, our furniture and most all the extra stuff that we did not need nor want. We did this to live full time in our RV, to travel the USA and in particular, spend a lot of time in the most beautiful places in this country. More on that later....

Laura had a multidisciplinary background as an accredited geologist, computer trainer, web designer and small business owner. I worked in the commercial AudioVisual industry at for over 25 years, over half of that time at the senior designer level. I'll say that meeting Laura did wonders for my career, but that is another story....

Laura and I are soul mates, having lucked into love at first sight quite literally. We got married in 1997 and have no children of our own. Shortly after marriage, we planned a new home from scratch, from an empty dirt lot in a new home subdivision and oversaw it's construction each day, stud by stud, wire by wire, until completion 5 months later. We outfitted our home with tasteful, quality furnishings and added a huge deck in the back with a hot tub and built-in grill. We got to know the neighbors shortly after and assumed at the time we would live in this, our dream home, for a lifetime.

We went forth from this point, loving life, our home and our careers. We liked the fact that it was in a HOA and that everyone had to keep their lawn looking good. We bought in 1998, and we had equity in the home. We were slowly paying off the mortgage and property values were rising at the time. We bought into the whole suburban living thing.

After a few years however, it seemed that the longer we lived in our home, the less satisfaction we got back, both in terms of home ownership itself and the particulars of our suburban lifestyle.

Maybe I was going through the mid-life crisis, maybe not. But we wanted to go out and be more adventurous again. We had become couch potatoes. We ate in front of the TV at dinner, we did not exercise, and we were becoming quite heavy and flabby. Was the house the reason? When we first met, we kayaked, hiked, biked, white water rafted, skied, cross-country skied, and camped. We had done none of those things when we got the house. We had put all of our energies into the house and not into the fun things that had made us fall in love with each other.

At the time, we thought the solution to our dissatisfaction was to get an RV for weekend getaways. We thought an RV would be just the ticket to re-energize our lives.

I initially started looking into EarthRoamers, a very expensive type of Truck Camper/RV. It was way too expensive for us, more than many diesel pushers even. It was a pipe dream. But in doing further research and reviewing our finances, it looked like we could afford a truck camper and a Ford F350 truck. I spent a lot of time, over a year, on the RV.net forums to research trucks and campers. We got the truck locally in December of 2005 and drove out to Denver, Colorado to buy the camper in spring of 2006. Since we were already at the foot of the Rockies, we immediately took a 2 week trip in the process. We quickly found that we loved our rig and the feeling of freedom it offered us. Even as rank RV beginners, our first outing was a smashing success and the narrative of this trip and photos can be seen on the Previous Trip. We were both sold on the RV lifestyle.

We took the rig home and used it for weekend trips that summer.

In 2006, I was extremely fortunate that I was able to arrange a six week sabbatical from work. We used the opportunity to take our truck camper and newly added enclosed utility trailer on a dream trip out west. The narrative of this second much longer trip and photos can be seen on the Long Trip.

This 6 week trip was a fundamentally life changing event for both of us. We had an amazing time and did not want it to end. Indeed, we stretched it out to the last possible second. It made us realize that life is short and that home ownership was largely preventing us from leading the kind of lives we really want to live. We don't have kids after all and we knew right then that we want to travel extensively and live in scenic, different areas of the country, particularly near and in National Parks.

With the mortgage, the property taxes, utilities, lawn care, storage, newspaper, maid, insurance, HOA fees, and maintenance we were averaging about $3000 in expenses a month. We both worked full-time and many of our weekends were cleaning up or maintaining the home, and not having the adventures we really wanted to have. We were feeling stifled by the home. We wanted out.

From the time that we both realized that we needed a change, to the time we sold the house, we started purging ourselves of possessions. I sold a lot of stuff on eBay and Craigslist. Laura got me to read Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL) and it hit home to me, showing me a different way to look at money and the time spent in pursuit of it. We went through all of the steps and continue to do so.

Having the house and being able to sell it with a profit, helped us get that much closer to financial independence then if we had been renting the entire time. Fortunately for us, we had bought the house at a low period, and sold, not at the peak but close enough, so that we got a profit out of the deal.

So, soon as we returned from this second major trip, we immediately made plans to change our lives and lifestyle. We wanted to sell the house, most of our possessions and live a very different, simpler life. Laura promptly devoted herself full-time to being the project manager for both of these tasks and excelled in both, making a website for the house that we sold ourselves, banking an extra 3% in the process and with the help of my wonderful mother-in-law, organizing the estate sale which we sold most of our possessions.

We sold our home May 2007. The feeling of freedom and relief was indescribable. Hopefully, we will never again own a stick'n'brick.

We promptly moved our rig over to Prince William Forest Park, specifically in a beautiful 2 acre open meadow, surrounded by woods, with full hookups for our rig. We enjoyed our first night in the spot, dining alfresco outside under the stars with a bottle of champagne.

Laura was already volunteering at the visitor center of this gem of a park, so we got to live free there for a year while Laura garnered valuable NPS experience. I still commuted to work during that time.

The next year, we lived at a private campground near Winchester, Va. Laura work-camped for our site and I continued to commute. While the experience was valuable, we found as time went on that this particular campground had inconsistent management. We lived there just under a year there, a mixed experience but one where we learned from so, it was still a positive experience.

All this time, Laura was applying for NPS Ranger jobs. In the spring of 2009, she accepted a wonderful position at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, where she started in April 2009. I retired from my company shortly after and joined Laura at the beach. The park provided us a RV pad to live on that was close to the beach.

After a couple months walking the beautiful beaches there, I volunteered at the Park's maintenance department and spent a fruitful summer mowing, weed whacking, painting and general park assistance.

Laura's seasonal park position is now over and we are traveling for the winter of 2009-2010. We hope to be in another National Park by next spring!

The adventure will continue, check out the Road Trip 2009 for now.