Adventure Life: Q&A
I had fun answering all of the questions we received!! Check them out below, and if you have any additional ones I should add, leave them in the comments, or of course you can always email me or reach out on social media!!
Do you ever get tired of living in a small space?
Yes and no! Depends on how cooped up we are, where we are, and how much Joel gets on my nerves at a particular time (; There are cons to living in a small space (like being in each other’s business ALL THE TIME) but there also pros (like being able to clean our entire home in about an hour-ish and realizing what you really NEED and don't need)
There's no escaping each other in the RV (:
How long do you typically stay in one place?
Joel’s contracts typically last anywhere between 3 - 6 months, however we’ve had ones that lasted longer, and ones that only ended up lasting a month sooooo yea.
Does Joel let you drive?
Joel MAKES me drive HAHA! It’s terrifying (for everyone involved) but driving the RV is kind of hard work and on long trips he needs a break, so yes I drive (and I’m okay at it!)
Where’s your favorite place you’ve been?
Our favorite place that we’ve lived in the last 3 years is Meridian Texas. For multiple reasons including: 1. near to Dallas/FW, Waco, and lots of cute small towns with interesting things to do 2. The tiny cottage we lived in was perfect for us, and it even had a fenced in yard! 3. We met really awesome, kind, fun people while we were there and 3. We were there to see Spring arrive and it was BEAUTIFUL!
Tiny Cottage on Young Ranch in Meridian, TX 2016
In the RV, I think our favorite place we’ve lived is where we are now (which I will not share for safety reasons until we leave, but it’s near-ish to Houston TX)
In general, our favorite place that we’ve visited would probably be Fort Davis Texas/Davis Mountains, and Terlingua Texas! (read about Terlingua HERE and HERE, and Fort Davis/Davis Mountains HERE and HERE)
Hiking to our primitive camping spot in Davis Mountains State Park 2015
Do you find yourself spending more time outside enjoying the beauty of nature?
Maybe a little more than we did originally, but we enjoyed being outdoors a decent amount before the RV too! We frequented state parks, went for lots of walks, and even tent camped some (which I do NOT do anymore!), and I’d say we do all of that about the same amount now as before. We still watch way too much Netflix and spend some sunny days inside. Just living our normal life I feel like (:
Camping in Abiline State Park during Joel's first contract in 2015.
I'm curious what path you took to get the education needed for this work?
I hadn’t really thought about it, but if you don’t know us, it may be a little unclear about what we do for work!
-Joel is a physical therapist assistant (PTA) He obtained his Associates degree through an accredited PTA program and then passed the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE), which allowed him to get his license to practice in Ohio. Joel worked as a PTA in Ohio at a nursing home/rehab center for over 2 years before he took his first travel assignment. The ONLY “extra” thing Joel had to do to be eligible for travel PTA jobs is become licensed in whatever state he takes a job in. This usually just involves some sort of application, providing proof of his passing of the NPTE and licenses in other states, and paying a fee. *SUPPOSEDLY sometime this year a licensure compact is going into effect which will allow license holders in participating states practice in other participating states without having to obtain an individual license in each state (if that makes sense..) This would open a LOT of doors for us, as it’s been hard to justify spending the money (sometimes a few hundred dollars) and time (sometimes weeks-months) to obtain a PTA license for Joel in a state that may not even have a job for him after he’s finally obtained the license.
-I (Alix) have a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. I taught for over one school year between a “private preschool” and a charter school before teaching first grade for one school year prior to Joel and I getting married. The summer before we got married, I left my teaching job and started working for my Dad’s private investigation and security company again. While still in Ohio I did surveillance (yes, I followed people around and took video/pictures of them) (which I had done in college) and then also worked from home as the operations manager doing the paperwork, scheduling, etc for the surveillance side of the company. I obviously do not do surveillance anymore (I think someone would notice Georgie Boy following them around!) but I’m still the operations manager , which allows me to work from my phone/computer. (I'm actually technically working right now! (: )
Watching the sunrise while primitive camping on top of a mountain at Davis Mountains State Park 2015. I took work phone calls from on top of a mountain!
Don’t you miss your mom? (and BFFs)
Yes I miss my mom, BFFs, and all of our family/friends incredibly! But thank God for the internet, texting, and FaceTime (:
Have you ever done any potted veggies or herbs?
Actually Joel did when we first got the RV. A little over a month after that we headed back to OH for a few months, and while they made the trip (locked in the shower of the RV) they kind of got forgotten about once we were home. I’d really love to get some kind of little window box for our kitchen window, to grow mint in, and maybe like cilantro or something, but I just haven’t found the perfect little box/container just yet!
*I will say that Joel and I are just starting to become “plant people” haha! We have a little pot of succulents that we’ve kept alive for over a year now! And a small tree that we’ve kept alive since November-ish. I’d like to get a small hanging pot for our one shelf, but again haven’t found the right one yet, and also have not figured out exactly how we will be able to hang it (: **Yesterday (Tuesday) our plant family grew by two! One of Joel's patients sent him home with two succulent pots!
Do you ever feel like you wish you had more space and stuff? Or is the simplicity freeing?
Definitely feel a little bit of both!! I miss having a large oven and a regular size fridge for sure. And sometimes if we’ve been cooped up in the RV for a few days (because of weather or whatever) it definitely starts to feel small. But I actually think that we’ve lived in smaller spaces than our RV (we lived in a hotel room for about a month and then a studio apartment above a garage for a few weeks in Maryland, and then we lived in a “tiny cottage” that was also a “studio” style)
As far as stuff… it is hard sometimes not being able to have some conveniences that we’d be able to have if we had more room to store stuff. And it’s REALLY hard to tell ourselves (myself) “No” to just stuff that I want just because. But in all honesty, we’ve been dealing with that for three years now and it’s gotten easier every year. Traveling with our RV has actually allowed us to be able to travel with MORE of our own stuff than ever before, and it was pretty exciting at first! But we still haven’t even filled up all of our cabinets/drawers/storage spaces! And every couple of months I tend to go through a purging cycle and get rid of things/donate stuff. I’d like to point out that 3 years ago, I had a WHOLE TOTE full of shoes that we traveled with!! HAHA! So ridiculous. And every time we would go “home” to Ohio, I would go through the travel-tote of shoes, and switch out different ones from the home-tote of shoes. (shoes are my thing, don’t judge me) But it’s funny because, I’m not sure when, but at some point, I just stopped putting shoes back INTO my travel-tote, only taking some out to leave behind. I realized “hm, if I don’t fill this tote completely, it has room for other stuff” Things that were a little more necessary than another pair of shoes. And now, ALL of my shoes (except my hiking boots) fit into one little cube storage thing. And that is pretty much how it’s gone for all of our “stuff” over the past 3 years. It just gets easier to recognize what you actually need and use, and to be a lot more picky about the “just because” stuff.
What "luxuries" do you have in the RV (things that aren't necessary but are cute/make the place homier etc) and how much of a difference does it make to have them?
Like I said above somewhere, the RV actually allowed us to be able to travel with more of our own "stuff" than we had been able to those first two years of traveling. The things I was most excited about finally having room to travel with were: my electric griddle, our Ninja blender, more books, my big crockpot, and our own pots/pans/dishes/knives, and our ice machine when we received it as a gift recently!! (I feel so old admitting all that! haha!!!) All of those things weren't "necessary" to try to fit in our Escape when that's how we traveled, and until you live like that, you kind of don't realize how just plain convenient (but not "necessary") things like that are!
As far as luxuries that make the RV feel homier I'd say our record player, our plants, and just our decor in general. Almost EVERY thing hung on our walls, sitting on a shelf, etc has a memory or a meaning. And I LOVE that!! I love being surrounded by things that bring back happy times when we see them, remind us of all the places we've been, people we've met, and of our amazing families. Even our entertainment center has special significance because it was custom made just for us by my grandpa. To me, that sort of "stuff" has become what's most important to have around, and it's what keeps me a lot of times from just buying STUFF just because.
What make/model RV do you have? Did you refurbish it?
Our motorhome is a 2000 Georgie Boy Landau. We did all renovations/changes ourselves (with help of our awesome family and friends!) which included replacing the flooring, painting, replacing some furniture, and some other smaller things. You can read about our reno (so far), including before/now photos, HERE and HERE ! AND, we are not completely finished with our changes to the RV!
