Full Time RV living - Page 18

[~Boudicca~]

I'm crashing your thread!

There is a possibility we will be a full-time RV family next month. I have one question though. How do you travel with pets?

The reason I ask is because I have 2 cats, one is a 5 y/o male who is too smart for his own good, and a 12 y/o female (she's my first "kid") who is a big marshmallow. Both are indoor/outdoor. We are tentatively shopping for a 30-footer, preferably with a slide-out, for the 4 of us plus the cats, but do cats do ok with this kind of lifestyle?

I really, really don't want to get rid of them. I really don't think any of my friends/family would be willing to take them, and I can't even deal with the thought of a shelter. Especially for my older cat

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am so stoked at the possibility of doing this but the cat thing is really worrying me.

[crazyms]

We're looking into living in an rv full time also although we won't be technically 'on the road'. DH has a contract job that moves him around a good bit but he can also be in one place for months at a time. We have been working on downsizing and selling our house to move out of state but are considering me and the kids hitting the road with dh for a while before trying to set up a new homesite.

We actually lived in place in a 35' 5th wheel for about 3-4 months a few summers ago and it wasn't that bad. Once we parked the camper in the backyard back home we actually didn't "move out" of it other than using the house bathroom for probably another month just because it had become habit. The house seemed large and spooky .

Right now DH has a 27' bumper pull set up near his job site and we stay a few days every other week (he's only an hr from home but I'm still working part time). I'm downsizing and browsing for new campers while getting the house ready to sell. We have two littles with a third on the way so definitely need a larger camper than what we have. I'm excited though!

[MoonStarFalling]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

I'm crashing your thread!

There is a possibility we will be a full-time RV family next month. I have one question though. How do you travel with pets?

We had two cats and a dog in our 30ft 5th wheel plus two kids, two adults. It worked out really well. We crate the cats and kept them in a secure space in the camper while we traveled. You can crate them in the tow vehicle but we just didn't have room to do that. They were only slightly stressed out with the traveling. Once we got stopped and set up they were back to normal.


Good luck crazyms. I know some other families who have contract jobs and stay in one place for several months. They say it works out really well.

[Pilgrim]

Where is everybody these days?

We are working our way to north FL and should be there in less than a week.

Is anybody going to the FOTR rally in January? we are!

[nicole_marie]

We are in Austin, TX and will be here a while! We hope to make the rally in Florida in Jan. Anyone else in TX?

[crazyms]

Wish I was in TX! I can't wait to find out where they send DH next. There's some talk about Oregon and it sounds exciting but I hope we can get the house finished and a new truck/camper before a real move.

I see some other moms on here are expecting and hashing out different possibilities for the birth. I've been considering this too (14 wks now) but I'm a little lost on a few things. The info I found on applying for a birth cert. in most states has a requirement to prove residency. How does that work if you deliver somewhere you aren't a resident? And at home unassisted? At this point I'm thinking a up/uc will work best for our situation. I'd love a midwife and would be ok with a birth center but I have no way of knowing where we will be at the time of birth. How will I get a bc if I'm not a resident of the state and have a uc? Any thoughts?

On another note... I've seen a lot of mention on ft rv sites about domiciles and residency. A lot of fters seem to file for residency of another state (most common I saw were FL, TX, SD) and use mail forwarding services there. We will be stationed in one spot for a little while at a time just following dh's contract jobs so should I just apply for residency in the state we are currently in or use one of the services like other fters do? We won't be traveling that often but I don't see the point in changing residency every couple of months either. Right now I'm leaving things like they are until we've sold the property and cut ties with the current home state anyways but just trying to think things out for later.

[Pilgrim]

I would definitely not change your residency every time you move the RV. Changing residency means getting new drivers' licenses, registering vehicles (and paying all applicable taxes and fees!), and getting new votor registration cards.

I don't know all of the details of how to handle a birth away from your "residence," but surely that happens enough in this country. I'd keep digging to turn up the right information.

[BirthTender]

RV living and expecting a baby

I have had folks to come to me & set up on my farm and have their baby in my huge home on my private 8 acres, or in my RV set up on my farm, which is located at the end of a rural road.
I have also traveled as a midwife. If you would like to discuss, please get back in touch with me

[incorrigible]

Does being a midwife give you the legal right to file for birth certificates in your state? So, if someone birthed at your farm, you would be able to bypass the miles of red tape they may otherwise encounter UP/UC away from their home state?

[BirthTender]

Birthing on my lovely acreage

Folks go to the county health dept. and declare the birth and file for the birth certificate. It is not miles of red tape. It is also not difficult for me to sign birth certificates, but I do not want to go through the miles of red tape in that I might be considered running a birthing center, which I am not. Folks just happen to come here to birth in their own RVs/campers, sometimes my home or outside. I have also had clients to come to this geographical area and birth in their friends/families homes or in motels, and BedN Breakfasts. The process of acquiring a birth ceritificate is not difficult here.

[LeslieB]

Hi all! We just made the move back into our van a wek ago today. So far, so good. It's pretty easy to get back into the groove of it. We have a different setup this time so we're still working out where to put everything. Our son was excited to move into the van and hasn't had any adjustment issues. He seems to be enjoying it. On weekends, we're staying at a campground, so that's nice for cleaning dishes and have a shower right there. During the week, we just park "wherever" and use a gym for showers. It is starting to get chilly, but since we're in eastern NC, it won't be so bad.
I wish we were around some of you other folks; it sure would be nice to be with people like ourselves.
So anyway, good luck to those just getting started on their rv/van living journey.

[incorrigible]

We bought our RV yesterday! WOOT! We're almost there. We're FT Nov. 30!

[MoonStarFalling]

LeslieB, glad to hear all is going well!

incorrigible, congratulations! How exciting!

crazyms, I know quite a few people give birth in other states. Sometimes because of better laws. I would just give the address where you are camped at. We kept our residency as our home state of IL where we're from. That's where our vehicles and driver's licenses and health insurance was from. I can't think of any reason to change residency. Some people get their truck registered in a different state because it's cheaper or for income tax reasons. We had our mail sent to my in laws so MIL could pay a bill or two that came. All other bills were done online. So we never needed a mail forwarding service.

[txmom4jc]

We're in Austin! How is your pregnancy? I gave birth in our 5th wheel 3 weeks ago to our baby girl. It was awesome! I walked around the rv park the last month of my pregnancy and I got to know many people around the park. Our baby was the first baby born there! That was neat. though my husband left the bedroom window open so I'm sure some people were wondering what in the world was going on in our RV! Enjoy Austin!

[MoonStarFalling]

Congratulatons on your RV birth!  Boy the walls in our camper are so thin that's probably what I would worry about lol. We have a stick house for the winter and for the birth.  

[Familyofmovers]

We are a full timing rv ing family that travels with Wilson our 100 lb american bulldog. Some campgrounds are really cool and let your dog run off leash if they are trained. we travel in a travel trailer. To me the only thing different about living on the road is the "new neighbors" I get to meet usually every weekend! Other than that, you just live in a smaller space, live more intentional (water, propane usage, laundry) we blog at family of movers dot com

[Familyofmovers]

We are living in our RV in the winter in the mountains. Living in the winter with an RV is doable - -we have cheap heaters for $10 in the bunkhouse and in our room, we have a heater in our living room - the furnance never turns on at night. Last night got down to 28. Skirt the underbelly and if you can find a heated water hydrant, if not--fill your fresh water tank daily and use your water pump, place a heater underneath and wrap all exposed pipes with heat tape. It can be done. 

check out the blog at family of movers dot com -- -Lynne 

[MoonStarFalling]

Hi Familiyofmovers!  We were staying in plenty of cold places last year.  It was snowing in MT and then we got to OK and it was -4 wind chill!  We stayed plenty warm though.  Wish we would have had the time to skirt the camper but it all turned out ok!  Being able to drive away from the cold was a nice option!

[LeslieB]

It seems no one has posted lately, so I thought I would. How's everyone's winter going? We've had major cold weather for NC in December, which may not be cold to others, but for us, who have no heat, it's meant some rough nights and mornings. I'm not complaining, though. It is what it is, and I firmly believe it makes us tougher. And it's doable when the temps are in the teens and 20s. Next year at this time, we'll be living in NH, so we will have to probably rethink the van. We will really need some sort of inside heat source. I'm not sure if we'll rent an actual house or what, but a winter rental is a possibility.
We have gotten into a groove so that always feels good. We're outdoors a lot of the day with our 3 dogs (we just got a puppy 2 weeks ago; some might think we're nuts got that. ). Our son has just rolled with it all and seems to like it.
In 2 months, my sons, 2 dogs and I will be moving into my parents' house for months, while my dh and one dogs hike about 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail to celebrate getting out of the Army. For most of May and half of June, we'll be staying in my in-laws' vacation house in NH. So for a good 3 months, I won't be living in the van anymore, but I expect us to move into it again through the summer and maybe until mid-October.
So anyway, that's what's been going on here with van living. I hope you're all doing well!

[incorrigible]

Leslie - I remember our house furnace going out in Chicago in January when the kids were little. The fear the cold brings is the worst part. Once I got past that, it wasn't so bad. Just another quirk of life. Back then, we all just piled into my son's bunk bed at night. I used about every blanket in the house to turn the bottom bunk into a kind of tent. It got so warm we were all kicking off the covers at night. lol While, outside our little tent, the water I left on the dresser was frozen solid by morning!

We're doing well. We've had a crazy holiday this year. Our propane leak detector started leaking! So we disconnected the propane. We're on the road at a rest stop. We go to turn on the brand new generator. It starts leaking gas! It wasn't too cold out but it was still a bit of a chili night. We were moving slow the next day. Way behind schedule, with somewhere to be. We run out of gas. Our auxilary tank has got some kind of clog in the line! We deal with it and get moving again. Finally things are going as they should. It's 7pm Christmas Eve and we're just trucking along great when the RV loses power. It won't even try to start. The alternator belt snapped. We're in the middle of nowhere! We call Good Sam Club. They find an RV park about half an hour away that will take us after hours. They were having a heck of a time finding a tow truck though. There weren't many out and the soonest one could get to us was like 12 hours. A tow company in the town we're headed to convinces a driver to leave his wife in labor at the hospital to come get us!!! No kidding! We finally get to the RV park at like 11:30 and the manager turns us away. He was still up just watching TV, but it's late and he doesn't want to deal with checking us in. He tells us to come back during business hours. The RV is on the back of a tow truck right behind us when he's saying it. There was no where else to go! The tow driver talked his boss into letting us spend the night in the tow yard. At least we had somewhere safe to stay for the night...and no, the Christmas story parallels aren't lost on me! lol Christmas morning we had our pick of RV parks, and are in an area with a wide variety to choose from. We decided to go ahead and drop more of the emergency budget and stay in a really nice RV Resort. We could all use the moral boost right now. It's a far cry from our plans to be dry camping in the Mojave desert for Christmas, but it makes up a bit for the kids missing their ride on the Polar Express that we have tickets to for tomorrow night. This place doesn't normally let rigs as old and beat up as ours in the door, but they're feeling the Christmas spirit. I showed up with barely any voice (did I mention I've been fighting bronchitis for the last 2-3 weeks?), told them the whole story about no one taking us, and they called the owner and got special permission. We can stay up to 28 days. We're debating staying till mid Jan, when I get paid again....if we pay for the repairs right now, we'll have to go somewhere cheaper. We might wait till january to do the repairs and just enjoy the stay here, though. ;)