Living the Dream: My Journey to Becoming a Digital Nomad RV Adventurer

I'm preparing for my digital nomad RV takeoff in two weeks, and since this topic is on my mind, I figured I'd write about it.

How did this RV nomad thing come about for me? My husband and I love to travel, and have always done our best to make the most of our vacation time by cramming as much travel as we could into our schedules. It was tiring, but it was the best that two people working full time in the corporate world could muster until I transitioned to my coaching career. Then the pandemic hit. We found ourselves at home, our wings clipped, longing to roam but locked down like everyone else. We decided to rent an RV and headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, and had an amazing time. RV camping is a huge upgrade to tent camping, which I also love. That's how it began.

The RV idea started with entertaining a notion. What if we could figure out how to work from an RV and spend more time in nature? What if we could spend a month living and working in one place and really get to know the areas we visit? What if we could take off for a few months at a time in our home-office on wheels? How different would life be for us?

The silver lining of the pandemic lockdown was time. Time to think, reflect, dream, research, strategize, plan, make things happen, and work on the many RV projects to get ready for adventure. My husband and I are two tech nerds, and this dream required all of our nerdiness to pull it off. There are so many layers of planning to this, and it became our pandemic project.

One very important and practical question that we had to answer was: can we both work from the RV and have the internet connectivity we need for our work and the many Zoom meetings that make up both of our workdays? A few years ago, it would have been more challenging, but technology advances quickly and with time comes better internet options. We’ve got Starlink (it works great in the desert, not so great in a forest), and two hotspots to cover all of our internet needs. With these in place (and researching coverage maps), we’ve had good internet connections everywhere we’ve been that’s been more than enough for all of our remote work needs.

Now for the RV - there are seemingly infinite RVs to choose from, for every type of human, use, and budget. My husband and I looked at a dizzying number of RVs and floor plans online to figure out what was best for us, and my business analyst/product management skills helped A LOT! Identifying our primary use cases really helped to narrow the options and kept the focus on the right priorities. The main use case: an RV that we could comfortably live and work in for several months at a time (this helped us get the size right). We did A LOT of research, A LOT. The research paid off: we found a little apartment on wheels that is perfect for our work-from-the-road needs. It's got a bedroom with enough room for a small standing desk that my husband work out of. And it's got a roomy-enough kitchen, living, and dining room space. I work from the dining room, usually with a great view.

Because we are tech nerds, we started off with a test run. We booked a campground at a local park and lived and worked from there for a week. It was close enough to home that if we had internet issues, we could run home and work from there as a contingency plan. It all worked really well, though, and we didn't need to use the contingency plan. Next up, we did a one-month trial run in central FL with the added bonus of getting to see friends. Again, it all worked surprisingly well and gave me confidence for our first big trip. We also learned a lot about RV living and how to prepare for a longer trip.

Last summer was our first big RV nomad adventure, and it was an epic 4 1/2 months. It was absolutely amazing after all of that hard work and planning! I worked with beautiful views from every window, a big change from South Florida. Each place had its own look, feel, and personality, and it was such a great experience. Towing an RV across the country takes a lot more work than hopping on a plane, but it was well worth it for all of the experiences we got to have and the beautiful places we got to work from. It's hard to be overly stressed when the view outside your window makes you feel like you're on vacation and calls you to explore. Wrapping up the workday is a cause for celebration because that means its vacation time: time to step outside, go to a park, or go for a walk by the river.

This post kicks off my summer series of blog posts dedicated to the Digital Nomad lifestyle and tips. What digital nomad topics would you like to see me write about? Leave me a comment.