Its been a while since our last update and over 3 months since our RV trip across America abruptly came to an end. Its hard to believe that the holidays have already come and gone and its the year 2019! Where does the time go?

If you’ve been following along watching our RV series on YouTube, then you’ll know we are quite a bit behind! In fact, our most recent video was from Colorado back in September! The beginning of September that is. One thing we discovered this past year is that Vlogging isn’t easy. It takes a lot of time and dedication and I have the utmost respect for those that produce videos on the reg. For us, however, it is more of a hobby and a way to record the memories so it often gets the back burner to our “real” work. We’ll get caught up eventually!

If you did see our most recent video (below), then you probably picked up on our frustrations with RV life…

I wanted to do a quick update on what’s been going on since we arrived back in Florida and what our plans look like for this year going forward because we’ve had a lot of people asking us about the RV lately. 

When we last left off, we had arrived back in Florida and rented an apartment for 3 months. We weren’t sure if we would continue the RV life after those 3 months were up. However, after much discussion, I think we both knew deep down we were over it…

We sold the RV.

We made the decision to sell our Travel Trailer. It was too much work and too much moving around, and for the amount of money we were spending, we decided we would be happier renting short-term apartments in the places we want to visit. This allows us to continue working while traveling and just suits our (spontaneous) lifestyle a bit better. Not to mention, we were itching to break out our passports again. Having said that, the travel trailer allowed us to discover so many new places and find out which places we really want to go back to.

We both agreed if we give the RV lifestyle another shot, we would definitely go with a Class B or C. While the travel trailer was great when we were sitting still and certainly felt like home, we honestly wished we had something smaller and easier to maneuver around. We aren’t ones to make plans way in advance because we like to go with the flow, where we want, when we want. However, we quickly discovered that there are way more RVers than campgrounds. And if you want to stay in the great campgrounds, you have to book and plan in advance, unless you want to be scrambling at the last minute. We wouldn’t have minded the scrambling if we were in something smaller and a little more discreet that allowed us to do more boondocking or getting off the beaten path. It would be much easier to pull over somewhere for the night and move on the next day when necessary. But with a bigger rig like ours, we really had to plan out our exact routes and stops and always stressed about getting into a sticky situation. 

Needless to say, I spent more time figuring out our route and researching where to go next than actually working (on our real jobs) for the entire 5 months we were on the road. And because we could rarely find a place to stay for over 3-5 nights, we were constantly on the move. After the 5 months were up, we were burnt out on RV life.

We put our Imagine on the market and it sold within a week. The buyer drove all of the way from New Mexico the weekend before Thanksgiving to pick it up.

We tell you this not to discourage anyone from the RV lifestyle. This can be a fantastic way of traveling or even living. But finding the right type of rig to travel in really is a personal path and choice. And there really is no “perfect” RV. There are pros and cons to each style. It all comes back to how you travel and everyone is different. 

So…What’s Next?

Our 3 month lease in Crystal River was up this past week and we just moved down to Gulfport (St. Pete) for the next 2 months. We rented a cute little house 2 blocks from the beach and 1 block from the main street with tons of shops, restaurants and bars within walking distance. Its a very laid back, “Key West” vibe and we are enjoying Florida’s wonderful winter weather. We are one block from a great coffee shop, so we plan to spend the next 2 months continuing to catch up on work, editing videos, as well as hanging out at the beach. We will also be doing some vlogging in Gulfport so you can see what we’re getting up to.

After 5 months of being back in Florida, our feet will certainly be getting itchy and we’ve already made plans to break out our passports again in the Spring! 

Trading in for a CAMPER VAN!

We will be heading back to Croatia in April and are SUPER EXCITED to be doing a 10 day road trip around the Balkans in a camper van! Yep, we are going back to camp life for just a short time! This will be quite a change and a challenge as we are used to traveling in our 32 ft travel trailer. With a super large kitchen. And bathroom. And heated recliners. And smart TV. It will certainly be interesting to see how we do traveling in a retro camper van.

This isn’t our first rodeo in a camper van, though! We actually did a camper van trip in New Zealand back in 2015, which is what originally sparked our desire to live the RV lifestyle. 

Balkan Campers is the company we are are partnering with and they are doing some really cool things. They are currently offering a great promo (40% off pre-season camper van rentals) so if this is something of interest to you, NOW is the time to book!

We are currently researching our route and trying to decide where we want to visit this time around. In 2017, we did a 3 week Balkan road trip in a car around Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia. It was one of the best trips of our lives. But we definitely want to see some new places! 

After our Balkans road trip, we will be heading to Italy, where our good friend is getting hitched. We will be renting a car and road tripping around Italy for 2 weeks and my brother and his girlfriend will be joining us. We’ve been to Northern Italy in the past, but there is so much more we want to see (looking at you Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome!).  

We plan to spend most of the summer in Europe as we would like to see some new countries, as well as visit some of our old favorites. But you know how we change our minds at the drop of a hat, so you’ll just have to keep following along to see where 2019 takes us…