Working from the Road
See America in your RV! What a great American dream this has been for the past few generations!
We are so fortunate that we do get to see America in our RV. However, unlike many full-time RVers who have retired from their long-term careers, we are still trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up (it’s a trap!) and so we work as we travel.
We certainly are not alone. Especially starting in 2020, a lot of people have discovered that working remotely means more than staying home. In the right circumstances, it means working from wherever they happen to be. For people who thrive in such a lifestyle, nothing could be better than sitting by a lake working, or taking a hike on lunch break, or any number of “road-remote” situations. A 2022 Progressive Insurance survey found that 54% of all RVers are active remote workers. And the number of full-timers has increased from 1.9 million in 2020.
We have so much fun on the road that we aren’t really in a big hurry to retire from this lifestyle, or from our business of helping others find joy in RVing. We truly enjoy sharing our adventures and our knowledge.
This is a good thing because we aren’t in a position to actually retire. Like so many other people, we still need to make an income. And, like so many others, we are lucky that we can make that income from wherever we happen to be.
Places and People
The statistics I mentioned above are for full-time RVers. I don’t know if there are counts of part-timers like us. We travel part time with a 24-foot travel trailer. We’ve been traveling about half of each year since 2021. Typically, we spend six to 12 weeks on the road, then head back to our home base for a while before heading out again. Our travels have found us up and down the coast of California. We have been as far east as Detroit, Michigan, (in the North) and Perry, Georgia, (in the South). And there are so many more places we want to see!
We love to travel to new places. Our rule is that we need to sleep in a state in the Rockwood MiniLite 2205s before we add to our sticker map, which we placed on the outside of the entry door. What is your rule?
We get to meet so many wonderful people. Whether we head to Indiana for a Forest River Owners Group (FROG) Rally, or to one of the numerous FMCA conventions or area rallies, or to an “RV Basic Training” teaching opportunity, we get to meet new people at each event. Some people are fun to talk to over an ice cream, or around a campfire. Some people become Facebook friends and we keep track of one another’s travels. Some people become lifelong friends!
We also get to catch up with people from our past. Sometimes we cross paths with full-time RVing friends who are in the same area we are. Sometimes we plan to meet up with other part-time RVers and maybe even travel for a while together. Sometimes, we remember someone we knew years ago, and realize we are going to be in their area, so we reach out and try to meet up for a campout, a beer, or a lunch or coffee date just to get caught up! We are surprised how far-flung our friends are across this great nation!
How we do it
We spend almost half of our year at our sticks & bricks. While there, we catch up with our local friends, take care of our doctor and dentist appointments, or do minor renovations to our home. We spread out across the vast expanses of our 900-square-foot home to our individual offices where we can catch up on work that’s easier to do with larger screens and rolling office chairs.
The rest of the time we travel in our small travel trailer. We always have a destination, and usually travel more quickly than full-timers do because we need to be somewhere.
We’ve created a comfortable office space in our travel trailer as well. We removed the theater seating from the slideout and replaced it with office chairs and large TV trays as desks. We often wear headphones so each of us can listen to what we are working on, or listen to music or podcasts while we work. When in Quartzsite, Arizona, in January, we found chairs that sit up comfortably for working but have a lounging back and a footrest for relaxing at the end of the day (or for a quick siesta). While these new chairs have benefits over the rolling office chairs, I’m still on the fence about which I prefer.
At times, we set up our Lippert screen gazebo and put our office furniture outdoors. This is another advantage to having portable furniture. We get the best balance of enjoying the sunshine and getting our work done. And if a neighbor comes by and starts a conversation, we get to take a (probably much-deserved) break!
Connectivity
In order for us to keep up with our daily blogs, our videos, and our weekly podcast, we really require constant connectivity. As our needs have grown, so has the connectivity industry, and we’ve kept up with our growing demands.
For the first couple of years, we relied on cellular service. Our travel trailer had a cell booster. We had a phone with AT&T service, a phone with Verizon service, and a T-Mobile hotspot from FMCA. When FMCA changed to AT&T service for mobile internet, we discontinued that and bought a hotspot of our own from T-Mobile. FMCA has since revamped the Tech Connect+ program and has access to all three major providers. It’s a great option for people who don’t absolutely have to be connected at all times.
In the meantime, however, we purchased a Starlink satellite service plan. While we had fairly good service with the three cell providers, we need to have reliable internet access pretty much every day we are on the road (and at home as well) so we went with the most reliable option we knew of. We have been extremely satisfied with Starlink, and it’s part of our setup each time we arrive at camp
After a few different methods of getting Starlink’s “dishy” to see the satellites, we have found a system that works really well for us.
Work-Fun Balance
Sometimes we wonder if we sit in the RV and work too much. At times when we are packing up to leave for our next destination, we realize we didn’t do all the local things we wanted to do. On occasion, we must make plans with other people to get ourselves up and out.
We aren’t sure at times whether that makes us good entrepreneurs, or bad tourists. We are making attempts to slow down. We have been setting our schedule to leave home a day or two earlier so we can spend a bit more time checking out the attractions on our routes. After all, how can we share the great places we go if we don’t go any places, right?
Who we are
We are Tony and Peggy Barthel, and our business, website, and podcast can be found in all the social places as StressLess Camping. Since 2019, we have been providing blog posts and a podcast offering tips and tricks, plus sharing destinations and experiences as we travel around the United States. We have a growing YouTube channel that is mostly product reviews and tips.
Our goal is to make this American RV Dream into a fun, exciting, and stressless adventure.
How about you?
Have you ever worked while on the road? Do you do it regularly? Are you curious about downsizing, packing up, and working from your RV? We can highly recommend it!
| Peggy and Tony Barthel are RV industry veterans who travel part-time in a Rockwood MiniLite 2205S travel trailer, looking for fun and unique destinations as well as tips, tricks, and discounts to turn the American RV adventure into StressLess Camping. You can catch them Thursday mornings on their podcast, or any time at www.stresslesscamping.com |
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