Welcome
Welcome to Miles Across USA. We are George, Louise and Miles, our golden retriever. We have been married since September of 1982 and life has been good to us. We have three incredible and independent grown children and a wonderful daughter in law. (What we don’t have are grandchildren!)
Alyson with Patrick, Kyle and Jessica and Keith with Rachel
In 2019, we made the bold decision to leave our full-time corporate careers, sell our dream house of 28 years, buy a motorhome and join the 1.1 million other full-time RVers to live, travel and explore this beautiful country of ours. We are excited beyond words to be able to do this while we are both healthy and able.
As we shared our decision with family and friends, everyone was not only excited for us but many wanted to hear about our adventures along the way. For this reason and for the fun of it, we will be doing a blog and YouTube video and periodic updates via our Facebook page and Instagram. We intend to share where we go, what we see and what we do as we play, work, explore, and volunteer our way across the country.
The initial thought of traveling the USA in a 25 foot motorhome started with George. Louise’s first reaction was “Sure, maybe in 4 or 5 years.” The comforts of home, the challenges of two successful careers were just too much to trade for a rustic life of camping and minimalism. However, the seed was planted and we became hypersensitive to the demands of work, the large house and the hectic life of a two career couple. Life began to steer us into the direction to move forward with our plans to live a more nomadic life with less things and more experiences. We kept asking ourselves, “What are we waiting for? More money? More stuff? More accomplishments in our jobs?”
Working in a cloth box
We talked about it a lot and began to analyze what this new life would be like and what it would take to live it. We started by learning as much as we could about the “Full-time RV Lifestyle”. George created a survey that weighed the pros and cons of changing our lives to one with less stuff and more experiences. We both took the surveys and the results indicated that the switch probably would work for us. So, we decided to get serious and come up with a plan to move forward with pursuing this dream.
In the months that followed, we began to watch YouTube videos and read blog posts of other full-time Rvers and we soon found ourselves daydreaming of the possibilities. We came to the realization that not only was this move feasible but entirely practical and doable. We decided that life is too short to not enjoy it. Our “someday” had arrived.
We told our kids and friends and began our search for our perfect RV. We bought our 2019 Winnebago View 24G from a private seller and began the huge task to downsize from our 3500 square foot house to a 25 foot motorhome.
Our Home
We left our jobs, began getting rid of 38 years of accumulated stuff. All the while, we continued our research. We sincerely appreciate all that we have learned and will continue to learn from the many full-timers out there that share their experiences through social media. Thanks to this community, we learned about our RV, places to visit, necessities to buy, and how to deal with problems that can and will likely occur while we are on the road. As a result, we have made some modifications to our motorhome that will make our life on the road more comfortable and we have prepared ourselves to avoid and deal with some of the mistakes others have made.
We have joined Thousand Trails, a camping membership, Harvest Hosts (a list of wineries and breweries that allow free overnight parking) and we plan to boondock (camping without hookups, usually on public lands) and mouchdocking (staying in friends and family driveways). Although we haven’t determined our style of RVing yet in terms of how long our stays will be or how far we will travel when we do, we plan to apply the 330 rule which is to drive no more than 330 miles or stop by 3:30pm each travel day. This should allow us to travel at a leisurely pace. We still have so much to learn about our new lifestyle.
We are both looking forward to the freedom and flexible schedule this lifestyle provides. We are looking forward to meeting new people and meeting up with old friends and family and having and sharing some incredible experiences. We are embracing the simplicity of the lifestyle with less consumption and waste and a life filled with experiences rather than possessions. We are a little apprehensive about the small living area but we are not going to miss the expense and maintenance of our large home and yard. George had a long, tough commute that he will not miss.
We are grateful that we are able to have this opportunity. Our adventure is scheduled to begin Mid June 2020. We have no idea how long we will be on the road. Please follow us as we document our adventures and experiences. “Today is a good day for a good day.”