Posted July 18, 2025 – Narrated by Jim

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Today is our 3,287th day on the road, and the first day of our 10th year of Forever Camping in our trusty rig, Beauty and The Beast, with us since Day One.

Nine years ago, living mobile held more mystery and intrigue. Today, house-free lifestyles are almost as normal as overpriced houses. 😉

Wherever Living in Beauty goes, we receive positive vibes, but occasionally, an unsolicited whopper 😏 pops outta nowhere.

Here are the top twenty whoppers we’ve heard first-hand about full-time travel.

#1 “Your life is an absolute fantasy”

This one is half true. It is kinda magical to RV from one gorgeous location to another. But is it truly “Living The Dream?”

It all depends on the Joy Tax 🧰

Towing loosens bolts, breaks stabilizers, vent screens fall off, and storage bin rails detach. You have two choices: 1) let it shake you up, or 2) you can embrace the never-ending fix-it list as the price of living in a miraculous moving house.

#2 “You must be rich”

Well, we do feel rich, but the full-time RV lifestyle doesn’t have to break the bank. If there’s a will, there’s a way. Car, van, trailer, motorhome or overland vehicle– a dream-machine is out there to suit every budget, preference, age, travel style, comfort zone, skill set and ambition.

For example, we follow a blogger who camps free sites only. Liesbet and her husband, Mark, live on less than $2,000 a month and range far more widely than we do. Another couple we know travel in a two-million dollar motorhome and spend $100 to $250 a night for top-end RV resorts. Carmen and I like contrasts. We riff between undeveloped scenic wonderlands with free or low-cost dry-camping and upscale resorts with wristbands and musical margarita delivery.

These are our average monthly costs.

#3 “I’m so sorry you have to live in a trailer”

Don’t be! Turn that frown upside down. Living in Beauty is our pleasure. We prepared our whole lives for this. Conscious consumption and can-do skills reduces our usage of natural resources to well below that of the average household. Donate that pricy taxpayer funded tiny house, or THOW (aka, Frankentrailer), or controversial ADU to charity. Our Social Security income covers our daily expenses even while paying hotel prices in metro areas with convenient access to health services. Investments from our life-savings cover any short-falls to insure that Living in Beauty is sitting pretty for the long-haul.

We don’t need your snap-judgements, pity or help. As self-reliant RV enthusiasts, we are adapting to metabolize repetitive onslaughts of economic instability while enjoying life to the fullest.

That said, we’d be delighted to have your thoughtful, educated, respect and advocacy. Sales tax on RVs should be used to build metro area RV parks and services beginning with common sense zoning laws and public sanitation stations.

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#4 “You’re just fancy squatters”

😊 Thank you!

Yeah, Beauty is an international supermodel, but we’re into her brains. She’s smarter than the average trailer.

Seriously, our happy places are free, legal dry-camping on public land. It’s not about money. The privacy, views and the challenge are more rewarding than easy hooks-ups along the highway.

#5 “Ya’ll running drugs 😏?”

Absolutely. Freedom of Movement can be intoxicating and addictive.

From 2016 to 2020, we rarely made reservations. We were like unleashed lab beagles following our quivering noses in wonderment. Then, the pandemic hit. RV sales soared and camping surged in popularity– especially on weekends. Around the holidays our preferred campgrounds were impossible to access. We tried, repeatedly, to adjust but anxiety set in and we began exploring alternatives.

Fortunately, entrepreneurial campers stepped up with specialized software to take the whimper out of trip planning. RV Life Trip Wizard is now our go-to travel tool. We even plan periods of that good ol’ pre-Covid spontaneity between reservations. What a rush!

#6 “You’re just playing house –”

“– Someday you’ll come back to earth,” says a dear friend who hasn’t cleaned her own house or tended her own garden in decades, and chimes “TMI!” when the subject broaches tank maintenance 🙄 (Well, she asked!)

We love to throw Shaka 🤙🏽 because our lifestyle is real life-life, not play.

In addition to mundane housekeeping, we vigilantly monitor the wind and weather, mill our own organic flours, make pasta and brew beer. Dirty laundry is washed and dried the slow old-fashioned way. We search far and wide for proper bins to discard our trash and recycling.

We scavange for diesel, DEF, propane, tire rotation services, RV sanitation stations and potable water sources. Meanwhile, we triple-filter our water, treat our sewage, maintain our tanks, monitor our solar and lithium batteries and conserve our resources.

When the chores are done, we carve out R&R in the un-real world.

#7 “Your trailer is too small”

Compared to what? 🫤 180 square feet of living space is way too small for a house. But RVs are not houses, they are machines designed for efficiency and are more functional than a house. Historically, a 30′ trailer is more than enough for two average-sized adults.

Beauty has more living space and amenities than a 50′ luxury yacht. She boasts a gourmet galley with ample refrigerator/freezer space and an oversized food pantry. The bathroom has a shower with a portable laundry machine, a flushing toilet, lavatory and spacious medicine cabinet. The dining nook seats four comfortably. The cozy bedroom has a walk-around queen bed and deep closet space.

For entertainment we enjoy a 42″ high-def TV and Bose sound system.

Hmm… What else? Climate control, of course, and– oh (how could I forget!?) the 24-bottle wine cellar. Guest quarters? Not a problem. Most campgrounds have tiny houses, cabins, and yurts. When we need a good hot soak we stay at a natural thermal spa.

The rig can even travel over water to exotic destinations (on a ferry).

Good luck with getting a yacht to Big Bend, Texas or Dead Horse Point, Utah.

Efficiency is elegance – simple, small, light – and it is the future.

#8 “Whoa, your trailer’s like sooo huge”

Again, compared to what? 😯

The 20-something van-lifer’s comment stung.

Most folks our age schlep heavily outfitted 5th wheels and Class A’s. Overthinking house-free living (like Jeff Bezos yacht fiasco) is a common newbie mistake. Mobility favors the small. More freedom, less joy tax.

We’d love to size down to an adorable single axle, if only we could keep our extra-large tank system and solar farm.

Many successful forever-campers live in smaller rigs and enjoy access to more exclusive sites. We envy them. But for comfort, storage and extended dry-camping trips, we find that our 30′ Airstream is our Goldilocks Zone, just right.

#9 “You two must get sick of each other”

Every day of the last 50 years is an experiment in the “opposites attract” philosophy 🙂🙃. We are truly an odd couple, yet we flourish in our dramatically reduced footprint. We explain our coping strategies in Prickly Pair where (Spoiler Alert!) we reveal that the less stuff we have, the more we dig each other, even in a small space.

#10 “Trailers and trailer people are icky”

We almost spit our beers when we overheard this whopper in a brewery 🤭. The young lady who spoke had been cueing with her partner to view a gorgeous travel trailer in the beer garden.

Ick, is a strong word, and I feel the same about McMansions which are nearly uninsurable and unmarketable without an invasive, unflattering 0-energy retrofit as new home buyers now rank amenities over size.

To my eye, this new Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Vintage Edition Airstream with high-tech and mid-century features is a turn-key experience in the art of living. Go ahead, pour yourself a lager and enjoy the icky trailer porn 😜

#11 “Wow, all this and you don’t pay taxes. Nice.”

No taxes? 🫨 Seriously? 🤔 It’s truly amazing how many people repeat this whopper. Of course we pay taxes, gobs of taxes: Sales tax, federal and California income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes, vehicle registration tax, diesel fuel tax, and TOT (Tax On Tourism) which is included in our camp fees. Plus user-fees (taxes) at our beloved county, state and national parks. We even pay taxes when we don’t know we’re paying taxes, so I’m sure I left some out. The point here was first coined by Benjamin Franklin. I will paraphrase it in two words: Death and taxes.

#12 “I don’t trust you. You don’t have a mailbox”

This came from an old-timer who didn’t trust my personal check. Evidently, no box-on-a-stick means I’m a sketchy guy 🥸.

Before we hit the road, we switched to iPostal1. This service provides us with a “real” address where daily mail (minus the junk) is delivered. As I sip my morning coffee (wherever we are), I can view our scanned mail online and click a box for important correspondence to be forwarded to our current location. Secure. Private. Efficient.

Of course, the trust issue runs deeper than a box on a stick, it’s more about the dirt under the box 📫

#13 “You can’t vote”

🤨 Yes, we can 🇺🇸 and we do. Our mail service is our “real” official address for correspondence with the IRS, Social Security, the DMV, our bank, medical billings and our mail-order pharmacy. It is also where the Registrar of Voters delivers our mail-in ballots from our home town, Coronado, California, where our military parents voted by mail when we were kids.

#14 “You must be retired”

Yes and no. This is the era of semi-retirement. Carmen and I stay busy with voice-over gigs, writing projects, research, blogging, and remote volunteer work. It’s not your grandparent’s campground anymore. When offices closed during the pandemic, companies adapted to remote work. Employees, by the millions – no longer needing an address near an office – adopted the digital nomad travel lifestyle. Work-camping is also trending through sites like Workamper, WorkersOnWheels, and CoolWorks.

Fully retired seniors and techno-luddites are rare oddities in campgrounds these days. Most seniors are golden-handcuffed to outsized properties. Our mobile neighbors are teachers, oil workers, well diggers, construction contractors, miners, traveling nurses, hospital technicians, entertainers, professional athletes and artists traveling with pets. Campgrounds are becoming the most diverse, interesting and inclusive neighborhoods in the USA.

#15 “Your neighbors, family and friends must miss you!”

No, not so much 🤗 We see family now more than we ever did when we had to fly. When we need them or they need us, we just turn the rig in their direction.

They often join us when we’re someplace they’ve always wanted to visit like Charleston, New Orleans or Dollywood.

Last year, when Pico was sick, we were distraught and needed the company of friends, so we detoured to El Dorado, Arkansas for an Airstream M*A*S*H-themed rally. Familar faces and kindred spirits warmed our hearts.

Music festivals, campgrounds, breweries, wineries and coffee shops are all opportunities for community.

Call it Driveway-Surfing, Moochdocking, or Yamping, we park as close as the law allows to friends and family. We’re no trouble because we bring our own bed, bath and an extra kitchen for holiday cooking.

#16 “You must be exhausted!”

“Don’t you ever get tired?”

We were exhausted until we found our 4-3-2 pace.

If we tried to see everything we’d burn out, so we don’t even try. Maintaining our own natural pace allows us to feel at home, unlike the ol’ slam-bam vacation pace. Relaxed, Golden-age style travel is having a renaissance. But, like slow food, slow travel is an acquired taste.

Arriving to a beautiful place should be like a soft landing. That’s why we keep things light. If an item sparks joy, then the following question is: “Is it multi-functional? portable? lightweight? Flamingos don’t get a pass. We divested everything to make this possible and the rules are simple. We must be able to move within 30 minutes. Any item we cannot locate and retrieve within 60 seconds is 86’d.

The honest truth is, of course we get tired because we’re old 🫩. Like everyone, everywhere, we get exhausted and stressed, but never bored 😉

The image below is a mosaic of more than 600 photos of possessions we sold, donated, gifted, recycled or threw away. To see the individual photo details click on the image and zoom in, or the “+” or “–” buttons.

#17 “You are either brave or naive. The world is dangerous”

Relax. The facts don’t support the fear. The RV lifestyle is not dangerous. Few ne’er-do-well’s operate successfully in developed campgrounds with round the clock armed patrols and hyper-observant campers. Still, we take precautions – lock our doors at night and keep our bear spray handy, because you can never escape the world’s most common repeat offenders 👉 🦨💨

#18 “When will you get a real house?”

We have a real house, but we know what you mean. Maybe someday. Maybe never. Carmen sometimes misses her giant shoe cabinet and 150 potted plants. But we don’t miss litigious neighbors, construction noise, lawn care, termite control, roof rats, roof replacements, fence repair, property line disputes, plumbing disasters, permit applications, climate mitigation, remodeling, homeowner’s insurance, garage cleaning, yard sales… You get it! The mental health rewards are priceless.

#19 “You must feel untethered and lost”

🤭 Strangely, no. We feel more comfortable in our skin and in tune with each other and to Nature than ever before. Four decades of home-ownership and sweat equity burned us out. Each new place is a unique interpretation of home and every new day is a mortgage burning ceremony 🥳

#20 “You sold your property and now you’re stuck”

Oops! 😬 While we were Out There having the time of our lives, the housing market doubled, effectively shutting us out of the priciest 8 square miles in America! 🎻🎶

We confess that if, in 2016, we knew a 50% increase in homeowners equity was guaranteed within 10 years, then we’d have probably stayed home. But the intent behind this whopper is, “You must have regrets.” No. We do not.

Did we sacrifice financially? Not sure. Maybe. Probably? But looking back over the last 9 years, even a substantial long-term financial loss wouldn’t trigger regrets. Our choice to work in non-profit careers and have a child also came with financial sacrifices, and the benefits far outweigh the costs. Most leaps of faith do not proceed according to plan, but 9 times out of 10, they work out.

Vienna & Vinnie’s!

So what are we doing in Vienna for 3 months?!

Celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary! 🍾

Where’s the rig? At Vinnie’s! Beauty is enjoying a deep tissue massage and The Beast is pasturing.

In Austria, we’re having a quiet and slow vacation while researching green sustainable housing. In Autumn we’ll be back with Beauty and The Beast, migrating between Taos and San Diego, or Baja and Radium Hot Springs, or Borrego and Mammoth, or maybe even Oahu and Ajijic because… we’re stuck 😅

Your turn!

Have you heard any whoppers about full-time travel or living in a trailer? If so, please share in the comments section.

Annual Statistics

I celebrate every new Living in Beauty year by posting annual statistics. Here’s the 9-years animated travel map. Enjoy 🥳

You can see our exact route on this map.

*photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) were taken and copyrighted by Living In Beauty.

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