In the latest Travel Tuesday Interview, I chat with Jools and Christy Bourne who sold their house and quit their jobs to live in an RV during the pandemic. They started their journey in October and share all the details about their new life in this post! (I was lucky enjoy to meet these two in Southeast Asia last winter!)
One of the highlights of living the RV life for Jools and Christy Bourne has been biking in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in West Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne)
Name: Jools & Christy Bourne
Age: 52 & 50
Hometown: Jools: Coventry; United Kingdom (world’s first COVID vaccine jab in the same hospital I was born in!); Christy: Pittsburgh, PA
Country count: Jools: A lot. Prob 50.; Christy: Somewhere between 70-90
Website/Social Media: Jools: Twitter – @j7ols. Insta – @joolsbourne; Christy: Instagram – @junebug20201
1. How did you start traveling?
Jools: I struggle with this question, as to me it revolves around a distinction of being in another country versus traveling. Being from the UK, from an early age most Brits go abroad (it’s the only way we can see the sun) or ‘travel’ to Spain, France, Greece, Italy, etc. for ‘holidays.’ It was not about enjoying another country’s culture, appreciating their language, learning about their customs, it was much more about being British amongst other Brits doing British things but off our island and with added sun. Full English breakfasts with lager, watching English football and getting sunburnt. The evening would be rounded off sitting in a gutter in the early hours wondering where your hotel is and just exactly what was in that last ‘local’ drink you’d consumed.
Then, it was ‘traveling abroad’ with the Royal Air Force which was wash, rinse and repeat of the above. Next ‘traveling’ with a corporate sponsor…. My job with Rolls-Royce took me to lots of faraway places, living a year in Dubai and brought me to the USA where I met Christy. I’d been visiting lots of foreign countries for most of my life, but it wasn’t until I travelled with Christy that I really began to enjoy those other things, culture, customs and almost language…
Christy: I had a friend in high school who moved to Arizona, and he and his family invited me to come visit. Arizona sounded so exciting and exotic being from Pittsburgh. Without telling my parents, I bought a plane ticket. The day before the flight, I asked them for a ride to the airport. It did not go over well, but I went anyhow.
Last October, Jools and Christy moved into their 35-foot RV named Terry. (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
2. Tell us about your decision to quit/sell everything to live the RV life.
Jools: Easy part first, probably going to be on the road for 12 months but I wouldn’t be surprised if its longer as we settle on a new home/area. Also, I think we’re being robbed of some experiences due to COVID (I realize this is a very insular and privileged perspective on a global pandemic that has killed 1.5M people.) so might be on the road longer to re-visit some places. Our plan didn’t have a long gestation once the decision was made. We’d been looking to move house and as such leave Charleston for a while. Lots of small things fell into place or came into clear focus. Add in a global killer disease that would change the life of every person on the planet, and it felt like we could leave out the back door while no-one was looking.
Christy: We had been living in Charleston, SC much longer (13 years) than we had initially planned (5 years). We had been thinking and talking about moving for some time, but it was hard to leave somewhere we loved so much. Jools always said that “something” would happen that would make it obvious. And then, well you know, 2020 and all…. We decided it was time. Thought about moving to Asheville, and while exploring the area we jokingly said we should just buy an RV and travel the country first, since we really wanted to be out West but couldn’t travel there at the time (COVID). One thing led to another, and now we live in an RV named Terry. (I was curious to see if our answers matched on this one. Overall, well done team.)
Jools and Christy stayed at an alpaca farm in Virgina through an app called Harvest Hosts. The app has an annual
fee but allows you to stay for free at at farms, wineries, breweries across the U.S.
3. Do you have a set route? How are you finding places to stay?
Christy: We have no plan, which is one of the points of the trip. We occasionally have a set date/place to be, but the rest is pretty random. We certainly take the weather into consideration, and we like outdoor activities so that plays into the decision making. We use A LOT of the RV apps for planning including but not limited to RV Life, Harvest Hosts, The Dyrt, and Campendium. We mostly stick with state parks on the East Coast. Can’t wait to get out west and stay on Bureau of Land Management areas, but there just really aren’t any [in the] East. Harvest Hosts, which we had never heard about until we decided on living in an RV, is an annual membership which gives you access to a list of over 1,000 breweries, wineries, farms, and other points of interest where you can stay the night for free. So far we have stayed at seven locations, and I absolutely love them! But make no mistake about it, you don’t save money. Yes, it’s free to stay but by the time, we support the local business (which has included buying wine, beer, food, jams, alpaca yarn, cash donation, etc.) you financially would have been better off paying for a campsite. But in my opinion, it is worth it for the experience and often times “the goods.”
Jools: No set route, following the weather for now with a loosey goosey plan to head west and up that coast. Then, who knows???! Harvest Hosts are OK. Twenty four hours isn’t enough in each spot. The romance of the idea is better than the actual event. It’s a lot of work setting up and breaking down camp only to get a few hours to truly get to relax and enjoy the moment. Forty eight hours would be better to really get a feel for the place you’re visiting.
Christy and Tigger at Watsadler Campground on Hartwell Lake in Georgia. (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
4. How does the cost of living in a camper compare to your old life in Charleston/owning a house?
Christy: Just as with a house, living in an RV can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. We are certainly spending more on gas and “rent” aka campsites in the RV. But we no longer have home/flood insurance, home property tax, utilities, etc. As far as day to day expenses, we haven’t changed much. We are rather homebodies and eat in most meals. Entertainment (home and RV) was/is hiking, biking, running, exploring which for the most part is free. Our RV is 35 feet long, trying to balance the need for comfort and longer-term storage, but utility and accessibility to the outdoors. For us overall, it so far seems be cheaper than home, but not drastically so. And, I will say it is much more expensive than we originally thought it would be. Even once we get out west and plan to stay on Bureau of Land Management areas (free) you still have unavoidable expenses which add up quickly (gas, insurance, maintenance costs, propane, water, dump stations, groceries, etc.). But again, there are many factors you control. For instance, if you want to slash your gas costs, travel shorter distances and stay longer at each stop. Makes a huge difference! [Their RV gets 7.5 mpg.]
Jools: I try not get involved in the financial aspects of each endeavor, either with a house or with an RV. My wheelhouse is the mechanics and hardware of each. As an engineer, I worry about anything that we rely on failing. Whether it’s my electric toothbrush or a sheet of toilet paper, failure of either can have dire consequences. Owning a house, I would constantly listen to the HVAC system wondering whether this was going to be the day when it wouldn’t heat or cool the living environment we called home. Would the fridge keep working? Is a cabinet door coming loose? All those things can and do go wrong. Multiply that worry by 31.4% living in an RV. In here, there’s nowhere to run, and we don’t have the facility/ability to fix something like the slides if they get stuck whilst extended. So, I have the same worries as I had when we lived in a house except I don’t have all my tools to fix everything.
Jools is obsessed with this Blackstone griddle and his sandwich creations! (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
5. Share a highlight from your trip so far.
Christy: Genuinely, every stop is a highlight. So far we haven’t stopped anywhere that we had knowledge of, so everything has been a pleasant surprise. There are so many wonderful places in the U.S. Once I got the travel bug, I always aimed for the most remote destinations I could think of. (Hint: I have been to Antarctica multiple times). This trip has really hammered home the point that there are wonderful outdoor activities right outside your front door. If you haven’t already, make a point to visit every state park in your home state. I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised, followed by shocked and embarrassed that you “had no idea!”
A few of her favorites: Sitting under a million stars on a horse farm in Kentucky, seeing an armadillo on the hiking trail in Georgia, walking a baby alpaca (cria) in Virginia, cycling part of the C&O Canal in West Virginia, hiking from our campsite in Maryland and (much to my surprise) crossing into Pennsylvania on the trail and finally, all three of us always smelling like fresh air even when we’re a bit stinky.
Jools: I have created some of my most memorable and genuinely breathtaking sandwiches on the Blackstone griddle we use for most of our cooking. The fact we’re only two months in to this trip sends shivers down my spine when I think of my potential creations over the next year.
Their dog Tigger is loving life on the road. (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
6. How does Tigger like the RV life?
Christy: Tigger aka Tiggs, Tiggalicious, Tiggarama, Tiggaroni is our (approximately) 11-year-old puppy. He was a stray in the neighborhood that we took in just over 10 years ago. He loves his RV life since he is with and can see both of his parents at all times, 24/7. And, he gets to sleep in their bed, which NEVER happened in his house.
Jools: He’s in dog heaven. Well not really, that would signify a huge change in his living conscious state. Let’s just say, if he imagined a heaven where he gets to sleep in his parents bed every night, gets roused with gentle belly rubs, three square meals, a thousand new smells, new sticks to chase, enough treats to count as an extra meal and nights sat by the fire in his raised campsite bed whilst covered in a blanket then he’s living it.
Tigger and Terry (the RV) at Cary State Forrest near Jacksonville, Florida.
(Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
7. What was your greatest struggle with the RV, and how did you overcome it?
Christy: Our inexperience with every single aspect of it. Driving, navigating, what we needed to pack/not to pack, picking places to stay, etc., etc., etc. Once you sell your house and have no home base, it’s not like you are packing for the weekend. There’s no way to know for sure what you are doing until you do it. The learning curve was steep, but after two months, it is much, much easier.
Jools: I think our greatest struggle is yet to come, the depreciation. We bought [the RV] used to try and mitigate some of it, but it’s coming with inevitably huge teeth and bad breath to bite us in the arse. How will we overcome it? By sobbing, into a very large gin and tonic.
8. What advice would you have for someone wanting to start living the RV life?
Jools: Dream big. Start saving bigger…
Christy: If you wait until you are totally ready and prepared, you will never start. At some point, you just have to pull the trigger.
One of Jool’s prized sandwich creations made on his Blackstone griddle. (Photo courtesy of Jools Bourne.)
9. What are three most useful things you packed/bought for the RV or living on the road?
Jools: Verizon Jetpack Wi-Fi hotspot. Headphones and amplifier. Apple TV. In that order.
Christy: Outdoor comfy camp chairs, pen/paper, binoculars.
For more about their RV life, check out their interview on The School of Travels podcast!
10. Where are you headed next?
Jools: Florida. Scratching that itch, getting through Christmas and then the trip starts in earnest, we head west. Roll on the epic sandwiches.
Christy: The Sunshine State. Always wondered what these snowbirds have been on about. But really ready to head west after that.
