Making progress

While we are not at the stage of getting our RV we have certainly begun watching them. Recently we had another major brick wall to our travels dismantled so we are ever closer to going Rogue. I'd like to find an RV that has been full-timed in already, you know someone who is downsizing perhaps- as I am a blonde and Brad is damaged- I mean deranged- I mean retired with a bad back. It would be so great for our circumstance if we found an RV with the fulltime bugs (not literal) worked out.

Today I sorted out our passport renewals since our current ones expire in June anyway. I figured I'd get it out of the way and tomorrow we are having our passport photos done, then likely Thursday we will hand deliver them both to our local passport office since we are going to be in the vicinity. Sending them in via mail, while an option, doubles the processing time.

I have watched so many RV renovation videos that I'm thinking it would be a lot of fun to do just that. We built this house together last year, so how hard can RV renovating be?! I know, I know! The problem with renovating is that we just want to go. However, if we were to go out and buy an RV that was relatively useable we could bring it back to the house and do the renovations to it while also getting some of the things we already had planned to do to our property here. Access to materials would be easier done elsewhere but then we wouldn't have the space or the tools readily available. 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other.

Clearly we still have a lot of decisions to make but we are getting there, learning the ins and outs is still where we are at the moment though. Its easier to make decisions if you know what the questions are so thats what we are working on presently -ie. what are the questions we need to make decisions on?!

There are so many factors to consider. How will we travel? How will we park? Class C or Class A? Campground or Boondocking? Solar? How much? I will be going through the items we intend to take with us and calculating the energy requirements for each of those so that we just (theoretically) need to add the energy requirements of the RV unit itself and then - Make it so #1! (Yes, I am a Trekkie and a Jedi (shoutout to RV Jedeye here).

I have begun a list of items we will need from home. Brad's CPAP (and the battery I saw on The Freedom Theory's YouTube channel -Thanks for that guys!) is a prime example. There are some things (not the popcorn maker, Bradley) that we simply can't live without. So I am sifting through those to get some idea of the $Thousand it will cost us to Solar ourselves. That brings me to the question of how do we want to do Solar? DIY as per Pippi Peterson or buy them - and if we buy them do we want to put them on ourselves or go with my ever popular 'there's people for that'?

Aye Aye Aye... when we first started looking at RV Life people were saying how they prepared for a year or more and I couldn't grasp why the hell..... well let me be the first (or millionth) to tell you, THERE IS A LOT TO IT! And our plan (as least at this point - and open to reconsideration) is only to fulltime 6 months and spend 6 months at home and abroad (that compromising thing I referred to in a previous post reared its ugly head again) so I can now clearly see how it would take a lot of preparation if one were to sell their home and all their belongings to fit into a couple of hundred square feet - yes, that would take a bit of doing.

My favorite thing is to watch the growth of RV veterans. A prime example of this is Eric at Nomadic Fanatic I saw what at the time was a recent video of his and was so impressed we went back to the beginning of his videos and watched them through. I have to say, if I hadn't seen the recent one I'm not sure I would have stayed with it, but now when I watch his videos having seen his earlier stuff, it always amazes me how much he has grown and matured not just in his online persona but personally. Another good one is actually an International Traveller Todd at The Unexpected Life he has 112 subscribers and climbing quickly, his videos are quite humorous and most definitely insightful so 'high-five' to him.

While we are doing this preparatory stuff I feel like a fraud having created the blog, building an online profile and following. There are real people out there who have put in the time and made the leap and here we sit watching YouTube videos like some kind of digital stalkers. There are plenty of people who started out the same way we know but the feeling is what it is. I comment on a few videos here and there and have had some private conversations with RVers but it is awkward - for me at least. None of these people know us, and only one knows who we are.

I have deliberately kept our names and faces out of Rogue Less Travelled for personal reasons but intend to change that eventually however in the meantime its hard to 'get to know' people while wearing a cloak of sorts.

There are some great people out there doing videos and blogs like Carol-Anne at Roaming RV and Paul & Lorena at The Motorhome Experiment (both fellow Canadians) and Paddy from The Paddy Wagon who was our first follower. We have found that relative newbies are more likely to acknowledge your comments/messages than those with a strong following (mental note) while I appreciate its not possible to respond to everyone when you have 100,000 subscribers/followers as PsychoTraveller does (though she has responded to me) as a newbie it definitely gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when someone you admire responds to 'little old me'.

So a huge thank you to those who have knowingly and unknowingly helped us on this journey so far, I know I put this in most every blog I write but it really is true that the brave pioneers who have blazed a trail either in words or pictures make a huge difference to helping you find the confidence and conviction to 'Make is so #1'!

Katie