A refresher on our path
This title reminds me of a text I might send my mom. You might say that Jami, Mia and I have made some big changes over the last few months! Honestly I’m most excited to tell you all about our latest adventure living in our new van, Betty White, but I probably need to fill many of you in on some background first.
Amazon was a trial back in the corporate world for me. After leaving Microsoft in November 2016 and trying a small company partnership with the launch of Team Run Run for a few months I found myself with an offer too good to refuse (Thanks Janene!). I decided to give it a shot. It was a fantastic place to work with amazing people, but long story short, my heart just wasn’t in it. I’m lucky and fortunate enough to be in a financial position not to have to work, so I decided to leave and see where life would take me! Who knows, some day I could end up back at Amazon, but for now I’ve got other adventures in mind!
I don’t seem to be working in any of the photos of my time at Amazon…
We also decided it was time to move on from our condo about the same time I left Amazon (November 2018). We still loved it, but had been talking about selling it for awhile since it was bigger than we needed. With market conditions for Seattle condos beginning to cool off we decided we would take the opportunity to list it with Mark Worthington (he was great if you need an agent in the Seattle area!). With the holidays and cooler market conditions it took a few months to sell, and we closed last week!
So, with all that going on we needed to think about where we would live next. We considered a small apartment in Seattle or maybe a year in Denver. We found ourselves just a couple weeks away from closing without a clear plan when I suggested the idea of buying an adventure van/RV! We had always dreamed about exploring the country in an RV some day. Within a week we had our van purchased and waiting for us in San Diego! <Note from Jami: it’s not a van. Fine, van is in the title and it’s built off of a sprinter van chassis, but no one would look at and say, ‘hey, nice van.’ They would, however, be inclined to say, ‘hey, nice RV.’ Dave likes the idea of living in a van. The only way I would stay in a van is if 1. I was being held hostage and tied up in the back, or 2. I was stranded and it was either sleep in a van or sleep outside. It’s not a van.>
How we picked our van
I had already been looking at sprinter vans to aid in mountain adventures, so had a little knowledge of what was available. We knew we wanted something easy to drive, so that ruled out big trucks and bus type RVs (Class A's are the big busses, and class C's are the trucks with big overhangs/beds over the cab). Personally I would have considered a class B sprinter conversion (think Mercedes sprinter on the outside, and RV on the inside), but one of Jami's must have criteria was a usable dry bath (a dry bath has a separate shower, while a wet bath has the sink, toilet, and shower all combined). There are only 2 class B sprinters with a dry bath, and they both compromised too much in other areas to be options for us. That left us with the class B+ (technically a Class C, but the smallest of them). They are built on a sprinter type chassis, but have more of an RV back end which gives them a little more space and storage.
There aren't a ton of Class B+ RVs on the market. We went to some local dealerships to view them, and quickly decided that the typical RV manufacturers (Tiffen, Winnebago, Thor, etc.) had too traditional a feel and felt cheep to us (which was also reflected by reviews). That left us with 3 primary higher end manufacturers with options in the B+ size (Leisure Travel Vans, PleasureWay, and Airstream). Leisure and PleasureWay seemed to have similar options, good reviews, and good quality, but we liked the Leisures better. The one Airstream option is fairly new to market and is significantly more expensive without any significant differentiating features, so we ruled it out. We were down to Leisure as our top pick.
Leisure has 3 different main model families (Wonder, Unity, and Serenity) built on the Ford Transit (Wonder) and Mercedes Sprinter (Unity and Serenity) chassis. We liked the Unity the best mainly because of the Mercedes chassis and available floor plans. All of the floor plans have tradeoffs. We tried to think about how we would live in it on a typical day, which helped us narrow it down to the FX, Island Bed, and Rear Twin Bed floor plans. The main benefit of these is two separate living spaces, so that I could sleep in while Jami had someplace to work. We ended up deciding on the FX for the full queen bed with a real mattress and very flexible living space.
The Leisure Unity FX floor plan.
The transition week
Last week was busy! On Wednesday Jami flew to Florida for work, and movers came (we used CallBox Storage) and took 95% of our belongings into storage. On Thursday I cleaned the condo, moved the last few odds and ends into a small local storage, got Marcus’ help shipping 5 large boxes overnight to San Diego (decided against trying to lug them through the airport… thanks Marcus!), turned over the condo to the new owners, found a nearby AirBnB to sleep at, then ate some Pie with Marcus and Bethany for Pi Day! Oh, and somewhere in there I setup our new address at Traveling Mailbox, submitted a change of address, and booked our first couple of nights at an RV resorts, along with my daily training for upcoming summer races. On Friday I dropped off our car with Daisy who graciously agreed to keep it for a couple months, picked up Mia from her getaway with Freddy, and then met Jami at a hotel near the airport as she got back from Florida. On Saturday we took a 6am flight to San Diego, where our salesman Dean picked us up and took us to meet our new van in person!
<Note from Jami: reading the above paragraph it appears that I flew to Florida and left everything for Dave to do. While Dave enjoys procrastinating almost as much as Mia likes belly rubs, I packed and prepped starting a month early. Dave was amazing and made it possible for me to take my work trip and got a ton done, and I don’t want it to seem like I didn’t pull my weight. :) >
Drugged Mia on the way from the San Diego Airport to San Marcos to pickup Betty White!
We drove up to see Betty ‘Babs’ White shining in the California sun and took a few minutes to admire her. She is a pretty van! Then we met with a service tech for a few hours to go over all of her systems. Whew… there is a lot going on that will take a while to fully comprehend. Propane, solar, a generator, auto-leveling jacks, fresh/grey/black water tanks, house batteries, inverter, surge protector, 2 tvs, TV/WIFI/Cell antennas, fantastic fans with rain sensors, AC/heatpump/furnace, etc. etc. etc.
We went to finalize the paperwork and I got the first “you’re lucky you’re cute” (YLYC) of the day from Jami (I seem to fall back on my cuteness a lot). We had made a down payment, but needed to actually pay for the majority of the van and apparently I had packed our checkbook, somewhere not with us, and since it was a Saturday a wire transfer wasn’t possible. It was almost noon by this point, so we took an Uber for a quick bite to eat and then headed to the RV resort to search through boxes for our checks. Luckily Jami found them pretty quickly, and we Ubered back to pick up Babs!
As we made the final payment I got the second YLYC. I had cancelled our homeowners insurance policy and started a renters policy, but didn’t actually have RV insurance yet… oops! I had of course talked to our insurance company about it, but hadn’t started a policy. So, I sat out front of the dealership and and called our insurance. I found out they didn’t actually provide RV insurance in Washington… something they failed to mention when I talked to them originally. Long story short, I made another call and we had our insurance in place!
With insurance in place the three of us drove off toward Escondido for our first night aboard Babs!
#Vanlife
<Note from Jami: it’s not a van.> Organizing stuff on Babs went much faster than I expected. This is completely thanks to Jami and her amazing organizational skills! This was one of my biggest worries, and it was a huge stress relief to see that there was enough space for our things. After just a day I felt like everything had a place. We are still figuring out what else we need, but feel pretty settled and organized already. We’ve already had a couple of Amazon deliveries right to our site!
We got some folding rocking chairs and a table to better utilize outdoor space.
Mia seems to be loving #vanlife! She gets tons of walks, usually has us around, and has lots of comfy place to curl up. The only downside is that playing fetch with the Frisbee is a little anticlimactic since there’s not much room to run.
Babs all set for the first night in Escondido!
Both Jami and I have an amazing sense of freedom. It’s a pretty cool feeling knowing you have pretty much everything you need and more in less than 200 square feet, and that you can easily take it with you almost anywhere. I love the feeling of simplicity, and also the way it makes you aware of the impact of many things that we take for granted normally. For example, it’s very easy to track how much water we’re using, how much trash we use, how much energy we use, etc.. I think it will make us more efficient over time.
Working from Babs has been challenging at times for Jami so far. We started with 3 internet options: resort wifi (boosted by an antenna on top of Babs), a Verizon hotspot (also with a directional MIMO antenna if needed, and an unlimited data plan), and tethering to our AT&T iPhones as a last resort. Unfortunately none of the options are great consistently in our current location. Having some concerns about site availability we booked 5 nights here. Now in hindsight, we likely wouldn’t have stayed that long with the internet as it is.
Mia is wondering if she sits nicely for long enough will Jami give her a bite of the granola bar? One of the things we love is all of the LED lighting!
Mom, are you still working? Are you done with your plate? Can I lick it for you?
RV parks are a mixed bag. This is after only staying at two, so we have a ton to learn I’m sure. The first was pretty nice, but this one feels like a massive parking lot with over 200 sites. The facilities are also a bit dated. It got good reviews, but in the future we’ll do a little more research before booking something. I’m also excited to try some boondocking (basically staying anywhere without hookups) in more scenic areas. There will be tradeoffs, such as no facilities and the need to track our power and water usage more closely, but I think it may be worth it. In reality I expect us to spend a mix of time at RV parks and boondocking.
Is Betty White a van, coach, RV, rig, or what? We honestly didn’t know the difference, and after asking it sounds like they are all pretty much synonymous. <Note from Jami: coach, RV, rig, motorhome are synonymous. Van is not. It is not a van.> I like to think of us living #vanlife, but also realize that Babs is a little bigger than the typical sprinter van conversion. She is still built off of a sprinter van chassis, so I think I can get away with calling it #vanlife though! Jami MUCH prefers RV or coach, so we’ll see what sticks.
Our little home on wheels came to be Betty ‘Babs’ White after some discussion and deep consideration. She was obviously a strong woman. Originally we were leaning toward Jami’s idea of calling her Babs (after Barbra Streisand) because she’s regal, elegant, and has a prominent nose. Then I thought a Golden Girls character would be fitting after spending a day with her. None of the character names fit so we landed on Betty ‘Babs’ White. It goes with her paint color, spirit, and hopefully longevity. You can call her Betty, Babs, or Miss White if you’re nasty.
Utilizing the multiple spaces on Betty White. A Queen Murphy bed comes down where Mia and Jami’s feet are sitting.
Exploring San Diego
We have one more day in Mission Bay which is in close proximity to explore San Diego. We’ve loved it so far!
One of my favorite ways to explore a new city is through running. Thankfully I’m in good shape and upping my mileage (thanks Coach David!), with almost 80 planned for this week. I’ve mostly been running around Mission Bay and Fiesta Island, and today ran out to La Jolla and then rode a rental scooter back.
On Wednesday I decided to make my way into Old Town San Diego (I also needed to get Mia some food and do some grocery shopping). After running 13 miles I didn’t feel like walking another 4, so decided to try out a Lyft scooter that I noticed during my run. I quickly set it up and was off! I rode it almost 3 miles and then decided to walk the rest of the way. Old Town was way too much of a tourist trap for me, so I quickly decided to find a pet store in another neighborhood.
I walked up to the Mission Hills and Hillcrest neighborhoods and loved them (Jami and I went back on Thursday night for dinner)! On my way there was a massive downpour! I quickly ducked undercover and luckily it passed quickly. I got a couple of slices of great New York style pizza from Bronx Pizza (thanks for the recommendation Arya!).
That parking post is on the sidewalk. Luckily I wasn’t on the other side of the road after the rain!
What’s next
We plan to boondock on Saturday, and stay on the coast in Oceanside at a nice looking park on Sunday. From there we need to be in LA in early April, and then are meeting friends in Palm springs (we’ll explore Joshua Tree before or after that). We’d like to see a lot of the coast, as well as Yosemite and other parks. We plan to be back in Seattle mid to late May, and I plan to be in Colorado in early June through July. Also, starting in mid April Jami will be traveling for work pretty much every week, so Mia and I will be exploring on our own for some of the time.
We aren’t sure what will happen when we get back to Seattle. We may choose to rent a “home base” apartment, or not. It’s a little too soon to tell.
I’ll try to blog to keep family and friends up to date with our adventures, but am not committing to a regular schedule yet.