By Valerie Coffey
One of the best things about this life roaming the US in an RV is visiting friends and family around the country. All the new people Mitch and I meet are a huge bonus. What’s hard about this life, however, is that you miss a sense of community. You miss your friends from home, you miss going to their events and seeing your neighbors around, and seeing people you know when you’re out.
So it means so much when you meet someone with so much in common, and then you come to find out you’ll be in the same place again down the road. So it was with Marc and Julie Bennett of RV Love.
Mitch, Val, Julie and Marc in the Denver area in June, celebrating our two-year “nomadiversaries.”
Ah, the beauty of the interwebs! We “met” Marc and Julie Bennett of RV Love through Instagram, the social media app that lets you share inspiring pictures. Then, on a walk around the Garden of the Gods RV Park in Colorado Springs one June evening, Mitch and I noticed their Allegro bus rig and little MINI Cooper convertible displaying their logo, “Live. Love. Travel. RV Love.” And I immediately recognized their brand. I looked them up, sent them a message and we met for social hour around their campfire.
Whereas most full-time RVers are retired, Marc and Julie are full-time RVers who are working age, like us. Marc grew up in Colorado, while Julie grew up in Sydney, Australia. Also like us, they sold their sticks & bricks home to expand their horizons and see the USA in a motorhome. Marc works full-time as Operations Manager for a nutritional supplement company, and Julie is a lifestyle coach. In the sharing of their journey via their blog and social media platforms, they’ve become a social media sensation with a following of thousands and over half a million views on their YouTube channel!
We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Bennetts during our time in Colorado Springs. We were all scheduled to be at Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, Colorado, at the same time about a week later, so we made plans to meet them again down the road. We went to TAG restaurant in Denver with them to celebrate their two-year “nomadiversary” – just a few weeks before ours!
Julie and I bonded easily like two long-lost girlfriends, even though she looks like she could be my much-younger daughter. I’m a jolly giant at 5’10” and she’s a spritely elf at 4’8”! And we had a laugh when we found out that I went to high school in Sparks, Nevada, with Marc’s boss, Bert Wegner! I have stories about parties at Bert’s house back in the day. What’s even funnier is that Bert is my Friend on Facebook; Bert noticed the picture of the four of us together (Marc, Julie, Mitch and I) and he did a double take because he thought Marc was Mitch. A few people have commented on the resemblance of Marc and Mitch – they could be brothers!
I asked Marc and Julie some questions about their life on the road, and their answers make a great story. Read on to see why we love RV Love:
Motorhomes Versus Fifth Wheels: What’s Behind the Choice?
2015 Thor Outlaw 37LS Motorhome
Heartland Cyclone 4200 Fifth Wheel
By Valerie Coffey
With our experience of having stayed in well over a hundred RV parks and having met numerous owners in the past two years, we know that the most common choice of RV for people who plan frequent use or full-time travel is often either a fifth wheel or a motorhome. (Read my previous post for the definition of various RV classes, What Type of RV Should You Choose?)
Why do some people choose motorcoaches and some choose fifth wheels?
By Valerie Coffey
You can’t see it, but I’m sporting a huge smile here and bursting with excitement to see my first mountain goat! And such a beautiful one at sunset on the spectacular Highline Trail in Glacier National Park in Montana!
What does a year-plus of full-time traveling by RV around the US get you? 10,000 pictures and video totaling 60 GB of files!
Granted, we have two of us taking pictures — a LOT of pictures — using mostly a Samsung Galaxy S5 cell phone and a Canon EOS D60, occasionally a GoPro Hero4, and various other DSLR cameras.
And we are solidly amateurs dabbling in photography. But here on Google+ is a sampling of 31 photos that are my personal favorites from our amazing year, representing every region of the country, every month of our travels, and boatloads of smiles.
Click on the Google+ box below.
https://plus.google.com/107839670759502214880/posts/VfSRGDAAtK2
Hello from the Love Shack!
Here is a full list of our blog posts, in chronological order from the beginning. Enjoy!
Aug. 20, 2014 Hello, World! It’s the Mitch and Val Roadshow Tour!
The problems we encountered upon taking delivery of the Love Shack in Florida and driving her home, and the beginning of the adventure. It’s gettin’ real!
Aug. 26, 2014 Feeling “High in Utah” and Coming “Home to Nevada
Our first stop on the “tour,”Park City, Utah, is high in elevation and a cute place to shop and eat.
By Mitch R.
Valerie and I have now been on the road for close to four months, the length of a school semester, so it’s a good time to evaluate the best of what we have seen, experienced, and accomplished since becoming full-time RVers. If our trip were to have an interim report card, this is how we would evaluate some of our goals:
Continue reading
By Valerie C.
Everywhere we go, we get a few questions asked often. So here are the answers to your FAQs:
Q1. Where are you from?
Short Answer1: “We are full-time RVers. We live in the XXX campground down the street.”
Which often begs Long Answer1:
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By Valerie C.
We’ve had an amazing start to our full-time RV adventure so far — dropping off the kids at college, having to be towed after a breakdown on the side of the interstate in Kentucky on day 5, visiting friends, family, and National Parks in Utah and Nevada (as described in my last blog post), and generally finding an adventure every day.
The Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas…rows of palm trees, an oasis-like pool complex, and 85F at night makes this one of the most beautiful RV parks we’ve seen so far.
This week continued our amazing RV adventure, including possibly the most interesting and fun 24-hour period ever!
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