"Don't you two get tired of each other?" is one of the most common questions we get asked about our life on the road as we live the full time RV life. The answer? Mostly no. sometimes yes. But we've figured out how to make this lifestyle work for us, while still staying in love with each, and enjoying each others' company.
How do you make it work in tiny quarters?
This was the thing that we were most worried about before we made the decision to live as full time RVers and work remotely from the road. Our tiny dinette table isn't a lot of real estate for both of us to be working at the same time and yet we've managed to make it work quite well. Luckily for us, Steve is only on video calls for about 20% of his weekly work, and I'm on calls even less frequently than that. So the amount of times Steve's coworkers have had to say, "Steve, you should mute yourself. We can totally hear Michelle in the background," have been minimal.
When we feel like we need some actual physical distance from each other, we have the great outdoors right outside our front door! This is one of the reasons we have realized we like camping in state parks or federal recreation areas as opposed to RV parks. It is much nicer to take a walk and have some literal space from each other, when there are walking trails and nice outdoor space to take advantage of. We most definitely got more stir crazy when it was super rainy or cold and we didn't feel like we had the option of stepping outside for some space.
Do you run out of things to talk about?
You know that thing when your partner goes and does something away from you or with other people, and then comes home to tell you stories about their adventures without you? Yeah, we don't so much have that anymore! This is definitely one of the more challenging aspects to living with just the two of us and we notice we run out of things to talk about more now that we don't really have stories to tell each other. It makes it even more wonderful when we get to connect via phone or video call (or heck even text and social media messages) with friends from home. So, if you're reading this and have our contact info, reach out, we'd probably love to have someone new to chat with for a bit!
Do you still prioritize date nights
We have always been diligent about making space for date nights in our relationship. We love novelty and that is one of the things that is great about this lifestyle. When your home is in a new location every week, there is always a new and novel experience to be had. It may take a bit more research for us to figure out what we want to do for date night, but we've had awesome dates and adventures all across the country!
Do you fight?
Call us hyper-functional but we rarely (if ever) fight! In fact, what we call one of our worst fights, is just a regular Tuesday for some of the married couples we know. We have done a ton of work on how to communicate effectively with each other and credit Drs. John and Julie Gottman for much of our successful communication strategies. That's not to say that we don't get annoyed with each other, we do! And we have definitely had days (they always seem to be travel days!) where it seems like everything we say to each other, annoys the other. One thing that has been incredibly important for us is keeping the mindset of "Steve and Michelle vs. The Problem" instead of "Steve vs. Michelle." When we keep that lens on any difficulty we're having, we are generally able to work though any miscommunication with minimal challenge or tears.
Okay, seriously... what's the hardest part of full time RV life on your relationship?
We miss our people. While we have met some really great people on the road (and have the fun group text threads to show for it) we miss spending time with our people. When we lived at home our calendar was completely filled with activities that included the people we love, and we just don't have that on the road. We miss double dates and adventures with other couples and group gatherings with lots of people. For now, we feel like the trade off of missing our people is worth it for the adventures we are getting to have with each other. But who knows, maybe we'll feel differently down the road. If you ever want to join us somewhere on our journey, we bet there's a campsite available nearby.
I really enjoy reading and seeing all your adventures through pictures and your posts. Michelle what are you doing for work now? Caitlin says hi .