Posted May 23, 2020 – Narrated by Carmen and Jim
(Due to the video below, there is no podcast)
Skies are bluer. The air is clearer. The birds are singing, and we are making the most of our much-deserved time-out as we learn a lesson about our relationship to viruses and Mother Nature.
Our strength grows as we shelter in places …
We walk more, drive less.
Preparing delicious home-cooking makes us healthier. We are surprised to discover that LIB is the best Happy Hour, restaurant and movie theatre in town, and, it’s dog-friendly. Go ahead, Yelp that.
Still, there’s something missing …
Tapping wine glasses with friends on Zoom is a hoot, but we miss the pre-covid hugs and dredging pre-covid tortilla chips through a big bowl of pre-covid guac, and Ubering to a pre-covid concert.
Our concert was canceled. Maybe yours was, too. We had March tickets to see Chicago for our 45th wedding anniversary. We saw the Band at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1972, our first date.
Also canceled, was our annual summer Airstream Rally. And, it’s likely that your RV rally was canceled too.
Yet, here you are. Here we are. Connecting in a way that would have been impossible thirty years ago, much less during the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918.
It was shaping up to be a bummer-summer until The Airstream Club International Rally invited the speakers to adapt their in-person presentation into virtual presentations.
So we used our COVID-19 time-out to produce our first video about LIB – an introduction to Full-time RV Lifestyle Travel.
Although this video addresses Airstreamers, it covers topics that apply to all RVers whether in trailers, fifth-wheels or motorhomes.
Topics include: statistics, costs, tips, suggested gear, common questions and the true grit and creature comforts of road life. At 38 minutes, it may be the shortest RV rally in history.
So, make yourself at home. Drinks, snacks and pets are welcome.
To participate more fully in this community experience, email us at info@livinginbeauty.net your “sheltering in places” photo and we will post it in the comment section below.
Now, sit back, relax, and let The Virtual LIB Rally begin.
RALLY TOPICS
Downsizing and Divesting
Property and Possessions:
The Clearing
Roadside Preparedness:
Roadside Debacle Busters
Coffee On The Road:
Cafe Beaubeaux
Is Full-timing really Affordable?
Travel Map and Facts
What If I get Locked Out?
Locked Out
What If I get Locked Inside?
Trapped!
Black Water Tank Maintenance
We Met The Enema and
It Is Us
Water Conservation
and Filtering:
Water, Water
Our Favorite Campsites:
Campground Reviews
When Tire Blowouts Happen:
The Blowout of Destiny
Solar Power and Inverter
How-To:
Vinnie Lamica and
That Lucky Ole Sun
Our Solar Set-up:
Hot Stuff
Cork Flooring Installation:
We’re Floored
A Sustainable Travel Schedule:
Groovin’ To The 4-3-2
Full-timing
When Is The Right Time?
The Elephant In The Trailer
Kayaks – The Inflatable Option:
Our Kayaks
To Store Stuff Or
Not To Store Stuff:
It’s Just Stuff
Packin’ The Truck:
Beast of Burden
Bloggers We Follow:
Airstream Travel Blogs
and
RV Travel Blogs
Outfitting The Rig:
Our Gear
As always, we welcome your comments and are standing by to take questions and receive helpful advice. So, feel free to reach out. Let’s make this presentation and all of the LIB Rally topics listed above an ongoing forum for fellowship and discussion.
If you want to see the exact route we travel, click here.
*photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) were taken and copyrighted by Living In Beauty.
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We don’t own an Airstream, but we found your video helpful as we hopefully plan to full-time in the next year. Your travel map looks exhausting. Have you found traveling all the time tiring?
Barbara, glad you found the video useful. Congratulations on your plans to travel full-time. To answer your question, is full-time travel exhausting? At times, yes, most of the time, no. When we get into the 4-3-2 groove, we find ourselves enjoying our stays and feel we have time to explore the area. It is when we need to be somewhere at a certain time and we have to travel long distances in a short time-frame, we find it can be tiring. So, we try not to travel far between our stays. 200 miles max is what we shoot for. What we can tell you is that traveling full-time is a wonderful lifestyle where we meet new folks, see new things and find almost everyday a new adventure. Safe travels!
Well that was tons of fun, as usual, and we will never be doing what y’all are doing… but I totally enjoyed the entire presentation and laughed a little at the Avatars! You guys are special… always have been! Live long and prosper!!
Margie, glad you enjoyed the video. We had a blast creating it and hope folks find it helpful and fun. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you soon.
xoxo,
Carmen & Jim
Wonderful! Stay safe out there ❤️
Bambi, that’s the plan! 😍 Thanks for following Living In Beauty.
You are AMAZING and so loving and positive about your dream taking things in stride and always sharing the joy ! Thanks for taking me along and one of my fondest memories is meeting you briefly but memorably on the road my first summer as well in 2016 ❤️
Hey Deborah, glad you enjoyed us ‘sharing the joy.’ This full-time lifestyle is a wonderful way to see North America. So much to see in so little time. We certainly remember meeting you at the missile museum in South Dakota while traveling through the Badlands. “The Badlands,’ what a magical place. Sorry we missed you in Jasper in the summer of 2018. We are sure our paths will cross again some day. Safe travels!
I stumbled upon your blog when I googled our upcoming campsite at Myrtle Beach State Park (you stayed in the same one!) and I have decided I want hubby and I to be just like you when we grow up! :). We camp when we can, but we still both work full-time (he’s in the Air Force and I teach). Anyway, I think you guys are the coolest couple ever and would love to have a glass of wine or a beer with you if our camping paths ever cross. Until then, I will continue to live vicariously through you!
Hey Lynne, thank you for reaching out. It seems like only a few months ago we were in Myrtle Beach SP – best beach walks, ever – I hope you have a wonderful vacation there. If you ever think we’re in your area feel free to contact us via email. We would love to meet up for a happy hour.
Safe and Happy Travels!
LIB
I don’t understand your comment about not hooking up to shore water. Can you explain what you mean?
David, we decided several years ago to only use water that is stored in our fresh water tank. When we say we never hook up to shore water (city water source), we mean we never directly attach a water hose from a city water source to the trailer for water use. We keep the fresh water tank filled by running water through our dual water system and filling the fresh water tank when needed. That way we always have fresh water in the tank that is constantly being used and refreshed. It also keeps us water conscious since we boondock often with no water source nearby. Another advantage is if we ever have a water leak, and we forgot to turn off the water pump, the most the trailer can be flooded is 59 gallons, instead of unlimited water coming in from shore water. Hope that answers your question. Jim
264 different campgrounds in 4 years seems like more than one every 2 weeks. You said you like to stay 2 weeks at a place but it doesn’t appear you do. What’s up with that?
Roberta, good question! Life gets in the way. Family health issues, doctor appointments, houses during down, hurricanes, tornados, hail, you name it, we have experienced it. We plan for 2 week stays and plan for no more than 4 hours of driving, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. It is still our goal to stay 2 weeks at a location, and most of the time lately we have managed to accomplish that, but not all the time. Sometimes we need to get somewhere far away fast and only spend one night at a place while traveling to our destination, 7 locations in 7 nights. Safe travels!
I am convinced you guys are just good at everything! This video is fantastic – so professional in both content and editing, and there are tons of useful tips in it – even for us non-Airstreamers. I found myself nodding along throughout the video.
I think your 4-3-2 schedule is excellent and wish we had done something like that from the beginning. We tend to stay a week, but we almost never feel ready to leave when it’s time to go. Of course, now everything is different, so we are going to be staying in places much longer. It’ll be interesting to see how that all feels. I also wish we had done what you did and got rid of most everything. We didn’t keep much, but we could have gotten rid of a lot more than we did. I still think it would be tough to get rid of mementos – though your idea of taking photos of them rather than storing them is a good one – but there are several other things we kept that we are realistically never going to move across the country. Either way, less is definitely more, and we, too, have gotten rid of lot of stuff from the rig itself.
In any case, you provide a ton of great information – on the video, in these associated blog posts, and on your resource pages. I have some idea of how much work must go into it all. It is truly a gift to share all this knowledge and know-how. Nice job!
Hey Laura,
Wonderful to hear from you. Your Drive From Hell post reminded us of our first and only 24 hours in Kansas. It was like driving through the set of Oz but scarier. You really captured the intensity of the threat. Thank the RV Gods that you are safe.
If we did everything right we would have started when we were young like you. Every time we read your blog we’re a bit regretful that we for didn’t start out sooner.
BTW, I love your CRV. It was difficult to let mine go. Best car ever. Enjoy.
I hope you three are winding down from a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend. We are moving out of the Sedona area into the mountains tomorrow.
Today is Pico de Gallo’s 12th birthday.
Be well and prosper,
Jim and Carmen
Do you really have no paper in your truck or Airstream? That just doesn’t seem possible.
Diane, OK, you got us. Do do carry our vehicle registration and proof of insurance in the truck in case a police officer stops us and asks for it. We also have a book of 50 personal checks for emergency and our passports. But besides that, we have scanned everything to PDF (using our iPhones camera) that would normally be stored somewhere. All the owner’s manuals and receipts are on PDF. All books are on our Kindle. Any hiking trail maps we get, we scan and toss the originals. Paperwork we get when arriving at a campground is read, evaluated and if needed, scanned to PDF and then thrown away. We have a well organized filing/folder system on our computers so we know where to put a PDF file and where to find it if needed. All our documents on our computers are stored in Apple’s iCloud (for backup and syncing) and both our computers are synced so they have the same documents in the same place all the time. Safe travels Diane.
When do you hope to accomplish hitting 49 states (assuming you fly to Hawaii for vacation)? Thanks for a wonderful presentation. Love getting to know you both through the blogs.
Barbara, we missed Delaware and Maryland just because of some logistics and timing. We hope to get to both states in 2021. We had planned to travel to Alaska this late Spring/early Summer, but, well, you know, COVID-19 kinda got in the way. Glad you are enjoying our blog. We sure enjoy the adventure and sharing it with friends. I still plan to be in San Diego in October 2022 for my 50th high school reunion. Go Red Devils! Safe travels… Jim
Always traveling and going to places everywhere! This is totally my dream, and you’re just literally living it! I believe you guys are having so many great experiences and great journey! I just pray and hope that you guys always stay safe out there!
Thanks for your comments. We are living our dream of traveling full-time. It is hard to believe we will be starting our 5th year on the road in a few weeks. Seems like we just started. Hope someday you have the opportunity we have been blessed with enjoying. We are taking a lot of precautions to stay safe during these crazy COVID-19 times. Lately, unlike in the past, we have had to stay near the campground to avoid crowds. We no longer go inside a restaurant and will only go out to eat if they have a large outside patio and the staff are practicing appropriate safety measures. We stayed in Prescott Arizona for 21 days while the entire town was closed, so that experience and the many we have had since February this year, just tells us we have many places to go back to when things go back got normal, if that ever happens and whatever we might call ‘normal’ in the future. Yes traveling full-time the last 5 months has been a challenge, but we will still feel this is an amazing lifestyle AND what better place to practice social distancing than outdoors in a campground? Jim
W-O-W! I have been enjoying your blog for awhile, but your Virtual LIB Rally just blew me away. What an amazing story, well scripted and some of the best 38 minutes I have invested for a long time. I commend you on sharing your presentation beyond just the Airstream Rally. I sincerely hope to meet you in person one day. Safe travels.
Darrell, glad you liked the Virtual LIB Rally. That was our first video we ever produced. It was fun! Thanks!