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Our first year on the road, we were broke but determined.
No matter what—lack of money included—we were going to visit all fifty states in our 1994 class C RV.
That meant hustling to do anything to make money, all from what was hands down the most uncomfortable RV office we’ve ever had.
Don’t let the plush blue chairs deceive you. This tiny table was our first—and worst—office setup.
There was barely enough room for both our laptops to sit across from each other and every single day without fail, Heath and I would battle over the two-inch gap between the backs of our laptop screens. My shoulders hurt from hunching over to get closer to my computer. Heath took video meetings right next to me making it impossible to focus—and impossible to go to the bathroom without being in the background of his video.
As uncomfortable as we remember it being, it was this tiny table where we started to see how a lifestyle of full-time travel could be possible. Our motorhome already offered everything a house could offer us, but with our hotspot and a place to work, we could keep traveling indefinitely.
(We just needed to figure out a way to make money, but that’s a different story.)
Like so many other travelers, once we got on the road, we were committed to finding a way to keep traveling and retain that glorious feeling of experiencing new places for the first time. Every time we plopped down in those big blue chairs, we opened our computers determined to increase our income—$25 blog posts at a time.
We’ve had much better RV offices since then. (The one in the Winnebago Forza was our favorite and our productivity was off the charts that year!)
But I love looking back at this one and remembering how much we learned in that first year. We tried half a dozen ways to make money. We volunteered at conferences to soak up as much knowledge as we could. And we said yes to everything on our way to figuring out what work we loved doing that could also pay the bills.
It was a tiny, tiny table, but it’s where we started dreaming big. (And where the whole idea for the RV Entrepreneur podcast was born!)
Want to see what truly awesome RV desk setups look like? Check em out here.
Knowing that we would be working full time in our rigs (as full time RVers!) we knew that we needed a big rig. We ended up with a 44′ Grand Design 399TH Momentum. You’d think “that’ll work”, but we were bringing motorcycles, too! We ended up taking out the 5-person sofa and putting in a double desk. We took out some weird shelf under each side and turned them into risers for monitors. In fact, the wife is on a conference call (with GD, coincidentally…) right now while I type this. Having dedicated office space is key. Now, we’ve given up “relaxing” space, and we pretty much eat dinner at the desks and just watch shows on the monitors, and hardly ever use any of our (four!) TV’s in the rig.