Welcome to February’s feature where we had the privileged of interviewing the family from Way Beyond the Norm! A travel blog documenting their travels and holistic living in an RV. Kristi and her family sacrificed normal living by selling their home and their belongings to live a life on the road. Something I can only dream of doing.
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Dates in the States: Who is Way Beyond the Norm? Tell us about your blog and your family!
Kristi: We are a family of 5 who loves to live outside the box. Our crew consists of Brent (dad), myself (mom), Allison and Abigal (11-year-old twins), and Peyton (8). We’ve decided to sell our home located just north of Dallas, TX and hit the road in our RV full-time. We live our lives very differently than most people. We home school, we travel (almost) full-time, and we utilize holistic forms of healthcare (chiropractic and homeopathy) for our family. Our blog focuses on RV life, family travel, and holistic health.
Dates in the States: So awesome! We love reading about your travels in your RV! Tell us how you got started with traveling full time?
Kristi: We are not traveling full-time YET. Our house is still currently on the market, but we have been on the road more than we’ve been home. Brent actually grew up camping and RVing, though not full-time. My family traveled on occasion, but not in an RV.
Over the past few years, we went on trips with Brent’s parents and stayed with them in their RV. The kids had a bunkroom to sleep in while Brent and I had to sleep on the couch bed. If you know anything about RV couch beds, they are horribly uncomfortable. After a few trips, I think both of us had had enough.
Brent used this opportunity to ask if he could buy us our own RV. I think he had been planning it all along and was just waiting for the right time to bring it up. I said I would agree as long as he would agree to take me camping at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground.
The RV was purchased and I started the planning for our Disney trip.
We took many camping trips before we ever made it to Walt Disney World, but it was on that trip to Florida where I started thinking that I could live the RV lifestyle full-time. Brent had already been planting the seed, but I was having no part of it until I experienced such an amazing 3 weeks living in our tiny space.
Dates in the States: That is so inspiring. Out of all the places you’ve overnighted in your RV, which one has been your favorite?
Kristi: Brent’s favorite place so far has been where we boon-docked overlooking Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
My favorite place has been Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground.
Allison and Abigail’s favorite place has been boon-docking at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Peyton’s favorite place always seems to be wherever we currently are. He lives in the moment.
Dates in the States: Can you tell us some of the essentials when traveling in an RV? What is one thing each one of you can’t live without while on the road?
Kristi: There are definitely some basic essentials that everyone needs when traveling in an RV. For yourself, you’ll want to have clothing, food, and water. For the kitchen, it’s a good idea to have cooking utensils, pots and pans, silverware or plastic ware, and some eco-friendly cleaning products. The bathroom needs to be stocked with RV safe toilet paper, soap, shampoo, and other toiletries, while the bedroom needs basic sheets, comforter, and pillows. And you can’t forget about things for the outside of the RV such as a “stinky slinky” (sewer hose), fresh water hose, and electrical cord.
But there are a few out of the norm things that we can’t live without. We never go without our homeopathy remedy kit. It’s great for aiding in healing from illnesses and injuries. The same can be said of my portable chiropractic table. I’m a chiropractor and our family is always kept well adjusted. A portable Squatty Potty is on our list of must-haves as well. Abigail can’t live without her stuffed animal, Mr. Bear, and Allison can’t live without the Marco Polo app to be able to talk with her friends back in our hometown. Peyton just thinks he can’t live without toys to play with.
Dates in the States: What was your most recent trip?
Kristi: We are currently in Arizona. First, we boondocked in Tonopah near Saddle Mountain and now we’re in Quartzsite boondocking at a Fulltime Families meetup. There have been about 30-40 other full-time RVing families pulling in and out of the area for the last couple of weeks.
Dates in the States: We camped in Arizona when we were hiking the Antelope Canyon. We found a quaint and affordable camping ground in between the canyons and desert in Page, Arizona right near Horseshoe Bend. We don’t camp often, but that an amazing place to do so. Find things to do in Arizona here: Arizona Dates
Dates in the States: Where are you planning to travel to next?
Kristi: I have a chiropractic conference in Las Vegas near the end of February. I’m hoping to convince the hubby to take us to Disneyland before we head to Las Vegas.
Dates in the States: How have you saved enough money to travel full time? Are you working remotely?
Kristi: Our family is very frugal. We have never had cable or any services like DISH TV. For many years we didn’t spend money on entertainment or eating out. Our focus has always been to spend less and save more.
Brent has worked remotely for years, so he is still able to work as long as we have a good cellular signal. I lead virtual homeopathy study groups a few hours per week while we are on the road and provide chiropractic adjustments to families when we travel back to Texas.
Dates in the States: What is your worst experience traveling in an RV?
Kristi: Luckily we haven’t really had any horrible experiences traveling in our RV. One time as we were leaving a campground, Brent drove forward while our jacks were still down which caused one of our jacks to break. Another time I sat down on the toilet only to get up and see a spider was sitting on the back of the seat. And just recently, we had one of our bicycles fall off of our rack and bounce down the highway behind us as we were driving.
Dates in the States: Too funny! What do you look for when finding or choosing a campsite?
Kristi: Brent likes to boon-dock. He’s set up our RV with a great generator, lots of solar panels, tons more battery power, and a larger inverter to power the rig. So most of our boon-docking research consists of word of mouth or finding BLM land.
However, there are a few things we like to look for when we want to stay at a campground or RV park.
1. A playground – Since we have children, a playground is always high on our list. If there’s a playground, we tend to try to book a site near the playground. When doing this, we know that they will have something fun to do and we find that other families will tend to book sites around there as well.
2. Great views – Our living room is at the back of our RV and we have large windows on every side. We want to wake up and have beautiful views out our windows.
3. Reviews – We want to hear what others have to say about the places we are researching to stay. You can learn a lot just by reading campground reviews.
4. Hookups – Obviously we like to boon-dock, so we can get by without any hookups at all. But if we’re staying at an RV park or campground, we tend to try to stay somewhere that has full hookups. Usually, these stays are a week or two sandwiched between two different weeks of boon-docking.
Dates in the States: We love what you’re doing and sharing with the world on your blog, tell us how we can support you!
Kristi: We just appreciate you taking the time to do this interview with us. If anyone would like to know more about RV life, family travel, or holistic health, you can direct them to our blog and social media channels.
blog – https://waybeyondthenorm.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/waybeyondthenorm
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2NwJyjSlF0HrgxvRMcOQTQ
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/waybeyondthenorm
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/waybeyondthenorm
Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/waybeyondnorm
It was really insightful.
Thanks for such a nice content.
Cheers
BTW if anyone interested more have a look rvguiders.com thanks
That is a really good room and fantastic view. I love traveling with the similar comfort of my home on my camper. It is so nice and comfortable. I can enjoy outdoor and also my home at the same time.