Tommi - The Dog Is Driving

De-winterizing our 2019 Travato 59K

This is a write-up of how I de-winterize our Travato. I'm explicitly talking about our specific rig, a 2019 Winnebago Travato 59K class B van. I may have left something out, or I may have screwed up something — but hopefully this helps someone, at the very least it'll help future

Fun things to do

Visiting Great Sand Dunes National Park with Dogs

Truth be told, I didn't really know Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado existed until we moved to nearby New Mexico. Formerly classified as a national monument, Great Sand Dunes was established as a National Park in 2004. The sand dunes formed from sediment washed into large lakes from

How-to

Winterizing our 2019 Travato 59K

This is a write-up of what I did to winterize our Travato. I'm explicitly talking about our specific rig, a 2019 Winnebago Travato 59K class B van. I may have left something out, or I may have screwed up something — but hopefully this helps someone, at the very least it'll

Fun things to do

Exploring Dog-Friendly Silverton & Ouray, CO

Colorado is famous for its mountain ranges and forests. The peaks reach well over 14,000 feet, and many small towns are above 7,000 feet. We are lucky to live close to many of these towns, just on the other side of the state border in New Mexico. We

Buying an RV

Choosing a dog-friendly Class B

We are no longer full-time RVing, and as part of that transition we downsized from a diesel pusher class A motorhome to a class B van. As you may have already noticed, our lives often revolve around dogs. Here are our thoughts on picking a campervan ideally suited for us

Buying an RV

SOLD: 2004 Fleetwood Revolution 38B (+Jeep)

SOLD Thank you for your interest! Is it your dream to full-time RV off-grid? If so, read on. This higher-end diesel motorhome is built up for off-grid travel with an enormous lithium battery/solar setup. It has large holding tanks and has enabled us to boondock in remote locations, all

Day Trips

Arizona Dog Adventures

If you know us or have been reading our posts — you should know by now that this is kind of our mantra: We love traveling with our dogs and plan our adventures around them! Recently, we highlighted our favorite dog adventures in Utah. This month, we're taking you to Arizona!

Dogs

Keeping Track of Traveling Pets: Whistle 3 Review

Why a GPS tracker?Lily is a good girl, but when she sees critters that we've labeled "chippies" (chipmunks, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, etc.) she draws the line and crosses into... naughty dog territory. Irresistible!The longest we've lost Lily was for about 10 minutes in the woods while in

Boondocking

Earth friendly boondocking & RVing

With the #trashtag movement still inspiring people volunteer to pick up other people's trash and April 22nd being Earth Day, we figured we'd write about living small in an RV, consuming less, and hopefully not wrecking the planet. We're definitely not experts on recycling or ecological consequences. We do, however,

Retrospective

Full-time RV Recap: Year Two

Our full-time "nomadiversary" was February 1st and marks two years of full-time RV travel! If you missed our year one recaps, you can find months 1-6 here and 6-12 here. We've decided to just do them annually now, so the next one will be in 12 months. Ok,

How-to

Flexible standing desk in an RV

Here’s how I set up a modular standing desk for Ane in our RV. It also doubles as a laptop stand when sitting (for neck relief), and stows in a small space. Before this, Ane was working long days seated at our dinette. The dinette has regular chairs (not

How-to

Fulltime RVer healthcare in 2019

The coming new year brings new healthcare legislation with it, the biggest change being that the ACA individual mandate a.k.a. non-insured tax penalty is going away. Because of this, we're making some radical changes in our health insurance for 2019. One of the biggest frustrations for us about

Boondocking locations

Campsite review: Tinkham Road

Tinkham Road is a national forest boondocking area 1 hour east of Seattle, WA that goes through a very lush, densely forested area. There is practically no solar charging here. Young branches reach in on the roads, we couldn't even drive the access road without hanging branches brushing our roof.

Dogs

How-to: Teach your dog to wait at the RV door

Arriving at a new campsite is exciting. It’s likely even more exciting for your dog. But dashing out of the motorhome or tow vehicle door to smell all the new things is not only impolite toward your new neighbors, it can be very dangerous — what if you had to

Hikes

Hike: Honaker Trail

Honaker Trail is a hike near the Goosenecks State Park that descends from the canyon edge to a sandy beach on the San Juan river. The beginning of the trail, just below the rim. The hike there and back is 5.78 miles total, and descends, and on the way

Boondocking locations

Campsite review: Goosenecks State Park

Goosenecks State Park is $10/night dry camping with amazing scenery. The last few miles of the road there are narrow and winding, but it's paved all the way to the park. Inside the park, there is a more maintained day use area, and to the left camping along a

Amazon is not for boondockers

I've seen prominent RVers recommended Amazon Prime, and I used to be an ardent fan too. When we lived in a house, we'd have Amazon packages with single items show up regularly. I loved having the motion-detecting security camera notify me of packages before the Amazon notification came through. (I

Modifications, Improvements & Upgrades

Improvements, repairs, and maintenance

We have a 38-foot class A diesel pusher motorhome built in 2004. We've lived in it for almost 11 months, and we've been on the road for over 7 months by now. Here are the major improvements and other work we've done to our setup as of late 2017, in

Retrospective

Six months of travel

In celebration of our first six months on the road, we will be rolling out a series of blog posts about our experiences and explaining the improvements we've made to our RV. Let's start by getting an overview of the last 6 months. Time 6 months (Jan 31–Jul 31

What we look for in a campground

We've been traveling fulltime in our motorhome for about half a year now. In that time, we've seen many different kinds of RV parks, and I figured we'd write down what we like and don't like. First of all, we like to boondock. That means staying on public lands, in

RV Park Reviews

RV park review: Rusty's RV Ranch

Rusty's RV Ranch is a little south of I-10 in New Mexico, near Rodeo NM. It was a clean and well-kept park, with friendly people. They advertise all-pullthrough 1/4 acre sites and surrounding nature. The sites are spacious but there's nothing blocking your view of your neighbors, and you

Mapping

Avoiding the CA Grapevine

Being fairly new to this whole driving a 31,000 lbs beastly bus thing, and being fairly new to the controls of our specific 31,000 lbs beast, we wanted to avoid the long steep climbs and downhills of "The Grapevine", a section of I-5 to the north

Health insurance for fulltiming freelancers

Health insurance in USA is confusing. Health insurance for a fulltimer is even more confusing. Here's what we did recently, for 2017. We're a married couple, and generally healthy. At least for now, we will not have employment-related health benefits, as we're both in a freelance/entrepreneur situation. We don't

Dogs

Dog toy review: Wubba

Just about every large dog owner knows the sturdy Kong toys that you stuff with dog food, treats and peanut butter, but Lily says the best thing Kong makes is a squeaky toy! Wubba is a combination fetch, tug-o-war, squeaky, chewy and huggy toy. It seems to keep Lily's interest

RV Park Reviews

RV park review: Camanche Reservoir Recreation Area

At first, we thought we'd dry camp, but our battery voltage dropped way too low last night, so we decided to want an electric hookup for the night, and troubleshoot batteries later. We found Lake Camanche and made a same-day reservation. The nearby Monument RV Park is busier, with lots