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Category Archives: RV Living

RV living has long been popular for vacations, but now it’s becoming more important as a way to live economically. In this section, I write about our own experiences and blog about our trip around New Mexico one winter.  The pros and cons of RV living come out clearly in these tales!

The benefits of the lifestyle include:

  • Versatility. You can park inexpensively or free in a wide variety of places, enjoying the scenery or moving to where you have a job.
  • Own your own home without a mortgage. You can get an older RV in reasonably good condition for very little money, only recommended if you do know how to fix things. But even newer rigs can be economical.
  • Simple living. There’s no room to accumulate lots of stuff!

We wondered if we would be interested in permanent RV living,  full timing. We concluded that we wouldn’t but we did make a surprising change in our lives. 

Tranquility Good for the Spirit… By a Lake, Even Better!

Simple Green Living

Ah, tranquility! How much of it do you get? I’d call my life interesting and generally enjoyable, but only rarely tranquil. This week we started up the motorhome (unlike on my birthday last month) and went to a nearby lake for a couple of days with our dogs. There we met up with friends and had a great time gazing at the water, going out in their canoe, sharing dinners, going for long walks with the dogs, and not going online because we couldn’t. The weather was heavenly, the fall colors coming out on some of the trees. By going to … Continue reading →

RV Stalled This Morning, No Birthday Trip, But…

Simple Green Living

It’s my birthday today. I’m 74, and I’ve got to say I’m delighted at how many people I know in their 70s and 80s who are full of life and creativity. Anyway, the day started in a wonderful way, as my husband Kelly (45 years together!) gave me a photo book he had made for me on Shutterfly. We sat together on the loveseat, our little dog curled up between us, and looked at the photos he’d chosen, spanning decades of our life together and before.He put an early photo of me on the cover, and he commented on how … Continue reading →

Top 5 Reasons for Fulltime RVing, and the 6th Reason that Transformed Our Lives

Simple Green Living
Our motorhome parked right by the water at Sumner Lake, NM

Fulltime RVing is a different lifestyle, all right. We  loved the five months we spent last winter and spring, exploring New Mexico and staying in the NM State Parks while continuing to run our internet business and write books. We often talked about the best reasons to be a fulltime RVer,  and  about fulltiming ourselves. Here are the top five reasons to make your home on the road, and then the one that surprised us. 1. Low Cost Living in a portable home tends to be very reasonable in cost. Sure, some rigs are expensive but everyone can get something that … Continue reading →

Good Bad Luck and an Emotional Return to our Town

Simple Green Living

Day before yesterday, it was bittersweet to wake up at Heron Lake State Park in northern New Mexico. We were going home, which I’d been looking forward to, but it also meant our trip was about to end. I went outside alone, leaving Kelly and the dogs in the cozy rig, and listened to the geese as I watched the sunrise. No other campers were in sight. What a lovely moment. I would later draw on its beauty. Our route took us from Chama, NM, to Antonito, CO, over winding mountain roads that went higher than 10,000 feet in places. It … Continue reading →

Wrapping Up Our Five-Month RV Trip

Simple Green Living

Our plan for tomorrow is to go home, the first time I can say that since last November. We’re in northern New Mexico, and home is in southern Colorado, so it’s a realistic plan! Kelly and I have been talking about the many beautiful places we’ve been and the great people we’ve spent time with. We’ve been to about a dozen New Mexico State Parks plus an assortment of other spots. We’ve spent quite a modest amount of money. We’ve had decent internet maybe 90% of the time. And we’ve gotten a lot of work done… We both finished books … Continue reading →

At Canyon de Chelly

Simple Green Living

When we emailed our family that we would be going to Canyon de Chelly, we got immediate replies from two of them that it was one of their favorite places. Never having been there ourselves, we hoped the long drive across the Navajo Nation in NE Arizona would be worth it. It was! Canyon de Chelly was inhabited by the Anasazi in ancient times. Then there was evidently a hiatus, perhaps drought, before the Navajo arrived, and they have been there continuously for hundreds of years, despite the efforts of the Anglos. But rather than go into the history, I’ll … Continue reading →

Loving Silver City, NM

Simple Green Living

Silver City, NM, is a town of something over 10,000 people, off the beaten track in SW New Mexico, about an hour’s drive from Deming. Kelly and I have been in Silver–as people often call it–for almost two weeks now. We had come here once, about 15 years ago, to visit friends who are no longer here. Silver City has a food coop, where I figured I could get some of my favorite foods that aren’t in any New Mexico grocery stores we’ve been to, like ume plum vinegar. The town has a style that reminds us of great alternative towns we’ve … Continue reading →

City of Rocks and Faywood Hot Springs

Simple Green Living

New Mexico’s City of Rocks State Park is a favorite of many travelers. We had loved it when we were there over 15 years ago, and I think we loved it even more when we spent a couple of nights there recently.The geological formations are amazing, and most of the campsites are tucked right in among the rocks. The non-electric sites, that is… the relatively small number of sites with electricity are just a little ways away. Here are some of the rocks: Our picnic table was tucked in among the rocks: We got a spot on the western edge … Continue reading →

Why Would We Stay So Long at a State Park Campground?

Simple Green Living

We’ve just spent ten days at the South Monticello Point campground, part of New Mexico’s Elephant Butte State Park, but some ten miles north of the better-known parts of the park. Why? Several reasons… [1] Kelly and I both love water views, and we stayed in Campsite #25, with one of the best views. We had to use the telephone reservation service and pay an extra fee for our days there, as all the spots with the best views were reservation sites, but it was a luxury we were very happy with. We were parked not far from the edge of … Continue reading →

Our Motorhome Stalled Halfway Up a Hill

Simple Green Living

Living and traveling in a motorhome is not always fun. For a couple of days, it had been great–we were boondocking at the end of an almost empty boat-ramp parking lot at Caballo Lake State Park, about 15 miles south of the town of Truth or Consequences, NM. We didn’t need electricity, as our solar panels were producing plenty, so we hadn’t parked in the campground where we’d have to pay $4 to have electricity and water right there and where our views would mainly be other motorhomes and trailers. We were closer to the level of the lake than … Continue reading →

My $15 Wardrobe Makeover for Life on the Road

Simple Green Living

I could have come out of the thrift store with a fabulous dressy wardrobe suitable for a high-powered office job, but I passed by all those things, plus the adorable size 8 blouse that I couldn’t get into. That still left me dozens and dozens of choices at the excellent Helping Hand thrift store in Deming, NM. The first time, I was there, it was with my husband, and I quickly picked out this top:   Yesterday, when we were going into Deming to do laundry and groceries, I asked him to do the laundry and to leave me at … Continue reading →

What It’s Costing Us to Live in our RV

Simple Green Living

Living in an RV can cost you more or less than living at home. If you are adding the expenses of a motorhome to the costs of owning a house, it will likely be more unless you’re getting a good rent on the house. If you have an older RV that didn’t cost much, as we do, that’s easier on the wallet than one you bought new. So whatever I say about our expenses will apply to some people but not to others. Sounds like life in general, doesn’t it? Still, here are our costs with some comments, in case … Continue reading →

A Friendly Horse Stops By for a Visit

Simple Green Living

Yesterday afternoon I glanced out our motorhome window and saw a medium-sized black dog trotting by. Luckily, both of our dogs were asleep on the floor and didn’t bark. I went back to my computer. I looked up a few minutes later, and a horse was following the route the dog had taken. No humans were to be seen. We were camped on our land, which is in the middle of many acres of undeveloped land a few miles outside of Deming, NM. As it happened, Kelly was out on the land with his camera. I was pleased to see him walking … Continue reading →

Surprise! Our Dog Nicky Makes a New Friend

Simple Green Living

Our dog Nicky is a Sheltie-Papillion cross. We’ve had him for almost two years now, and he’s about six. Supposedly he was born in a puppy mill, sold in a pet store, and passed through Craigslist a couple of times before a Sheltie rescue group got him, and he came to us from them. With a history like that, he’s not always the friendliest of dogs, though he and our Rottweiler Lola are devoted buddies. He has been something of a trial on this trip, there’s no getting around it. His shrill bark warns away both humans and dogs. I’ve never known him … Continue reading →

Living in Vehicles: Two YouTube Videos

Simple Green Living

We watched a video about people who are living good lives in RVs, vans, trucks, and so on, several of them very happy on around $500 a month. The program is under an hour and it certainly held my attention. I first heard of Without Bound because Bob Wells, one of the people interviewed for this program, has a website and runs a forum at Cheap RV Living. I check in there often and share ideas with others. This program  is well worth watching if you’ve thought of wanting a simpler life. There’s a lot of discussion of how much … Continue reading →

A Mini-Blizzard Near Deming, NM

Simple Green Living

When we left Colorado for the winter in November, I wondered if I would miss the beauty of snow. I shouldn’t have worried. We’ve had some snow here in southern New Mexico, and this week we had a really good storm. It was more of a challenge, too, as we were camped on our land not far from Rockhound State Park. We couldn’t go back to the park, with its electric hookups, as we had used up our two weeks there recently and needed to be out for six days. We could have driven to Poncho Villa State Park about … Continue reading →

There’s More to Deming

Simple Green Living

The other day, we drove twenty minutes into Deming, NM, from Rockhound State Park to do laundry, get groceries and a few other things, and have lunch out.  I was surprised to get a life lesson as well: I’ve been a snob. About Deming. My perceptions started nearly twenty years ago, when we were full-timing in these parts one winter, staying here at Rockhound, at Poncho Villa State Park down in Columbus, and at other places in the area. We made some good friends in the Columbus area; two of them have since died and one now lives in Canada, but we do still … Continue reading →

Five Down-and-Dirty Details of RV Living

Simple Green Living

After almost two months of roaming around New Mexico in our motorhome, I’m all too aware that some aspects of this trip aren’t exactly blissful. Since friends and family have been telling us how lucky we are, I thought I’d balance out the joys with a few things they likely haven’t considered. So here are five down-and-dirty details, using the expression in the meaning of crudely basic…not in the sense of bawdy, sorry! I’m not complaining (much), just saying… 1. We rarely take showers. This is the point that made me realize I’d better do a blog post on the harsh realities. When we first … Continue reading →

No Escaping the Weather

Simple Green Living

I admit it: we’ve gloated a lot on this New Mexico trip about the weather, that is, about the relatively benign weather we’ve been having compared with the frigid temperatures and numerous snowstorms that folks in our hometown in Colorado are experiencing. When I read a discussion on a Facebook group for the town about what’s been happening as people drive on black ice, I thanked my lucky stars. (I didn’t read about any serious harm done but there were sure some wild slides in cars on the ice.) It’s a lot warmer here. We are about as far south as … Continue reading →

An Ever-Changing Community at NM State Parks

Simple Green Living

When we began this trip, I wondered if I would miss the social life I was used to in our small town. Not so! Sure, I sometimes miss specific people, but we’re meeting a lot of fascinating folks on the road. I’ve already blogged about some of them. We’ve stayed at nine state parks in New Mexico in the past several weeks, and we keep seeing people we met at other campgrounds. From this, a very nice sense of community happens naturally, among full-timers, snowbirds, and folks who are out on shorter trips. We met a Canadian couple at Santa Rosa State … Continue reading →

Almost a White Christmas at Poncho Villa State Park

Simple Green Living

We’re in southern New Mexico now, at Poncho Villa State Park, right on the edge of the small town of Columbus, NM and about 3 miles from the border with Mexico. Yesterday was Christmas and it was very windy but fairly warm. We walked the dogs with new friends, had dinner with old friends, and had a generally nice day. Not the white Christmas that our town in Colorado was having, but that was okay by us. I enjoyed the holiday music we played from the internet, songs like “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” and “Frosty the Snowman” continued … Continue reading →

A Chat with 19-Year Full-time RVers

Simple Green Living

“We’ve been full-timers for 19 years,” Jim said, as he stood outside our rig chatting with Kelly and me at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park in New Mexico. I immediately asked if I could interview them for this blog, and he said sure, so he and I walked over to their fifth wheel and I met his wife Donna. They got started a while after they retired… they both were able to retire at 59. They had a little trailer, and they rented out their home in Oregon and took off, thinking they would go for a couple of months. They … Continue reading →

At Bottomless Lakes State Park, Near Roswell, NM

Simple Green Living
The Old Water Tower

“Yes, five million gallons a day come up into Lea Lake,” Joe said. “They go out through that ditch over there, and we have overflow culverts too. From there, they go into wetlands, through BLM lands, and eventually on into Texas.” I couldn’t believe it. Lea Lake, the largest of the eight Bottomless lakes, is about 15 acres in size and said to be about 90 feet deep despite the “bottomless” nomenclature. I had found Joe and Blake, two of the Park Rangers at Bottomless Lakes working near our motorhome, and I was asking them how there could be so much water … Continue reading →

Birds at Sunset, At Bottomless Lakes State Park

Simple Green Living

One evening at sunset, we took the wetland trail at Bottomless Lakes State Park, right near Lea Lake. It’s a boardwalk, completed in 2010, and you can see a lot of birds… They even have blinds you can spend time in so the birds will be less likely to notice you. We just walked out to the end of the boardwalk, about half a mile, and sometimes flocks of birds did rise as we approached. But they soon settled back down again. We aren’t serious birdwatchers with good binoculars and lists and all, but as we walked back to the … Continue reading →

Sumner Lake, Our Favorite New Mexico State Park

Simple Green Living
Our motorhome parked right by the water at Sumner Lake, NM

We’ve been camped at Sumner Lake State Park for over a week now, and we love this place. Most nights, our solar panels have given us enough power that we’ve been able to stay right by the water’s edge. The weather has been nice enough for us to be outside more, but even when inside, we’re happy with water views from every window in the rig. “It’s soothing to the soul,” Kelly said. Kelly has been roaming around with his camera, and here are a couple of the results:   Raymond added that the park is on a natural flyway for waterfowl … Continue reading →

New Mexico State Parks: Internet, Goatheads, Our Favorite Campsites, & More

Simple Green Living

The New Mexico State Park system is a wonderful resource for economical camping. You can buy an annual camping pass, whether you are a resident of the state or not, and with that you can camp for free at all but a couple of the parks. If you need to plug in to electricity, it’s only $4 more per night. You can stay at a park for 14 nights, then you have to leave for that long, but you can return to any park after you’ve been gone. Lots of campers go between their favorite places. Their informative website is … Continue reading →

Bandanna Dan’s End of the Road Tour

Simple Green Living

“I’m guessing you’re a full timer,” I said to the tall man with a friendly smile who was camped a couple of sites away from us at Conchas Lake State Park in New Mexico. I nodded at his South Dakota license plates, but his camping setup was also a clue. His SUV was loaded with plastic containers that looked organized and he hauled a small cargo trailer. Just beyond it, he had a good-sized tent set up. “Yes, I am,” he said, “Call me Bandanna Dan.” I soon learned that he was from back east and had been camping in … Continue reading →

Love Songs at a State Park

Simple Green Living

We are at Ute Lake State Park in eastern New Mexico, happy to have a 4G internet connection that allows us to stream music all day and work online as well. We saw a few other campers in a section of the park where there are electric hookups, but we have this section, with water hookups only, to ourselves. (Hmm, just like at Clayton Lake, getting to be a pattern.) Ute Lake has many inlets and meanderings and our campsite is on a little peninsula of its own, with water views everywhere. This morning, we took the dogs for a long … Continue reading →

On the Road Again!

Simple Green Living

I woke this morning at first light, listening to the raucous cries of wild geese  taking off from the lake down the hill from our campsite. Finally, we were on the road again, and if I hadn’t been so fixated yesterday at dusk on checking our little device that tells us the quality of our Verizon cellphone and internet signal, we wouldn’t have driven past the entrance to Clayton Lake State Park. As a result, we inadvertently explored dusty back roads of northeastern New Mexico till after dark. Still, we managed to find the state park, get a level spot, … Continue reading →

Rolling Shelter: Vehicles We Have Called Home

Simple Green Living

When I fell in love with Kelly Hart, he was living in a 30′ school bus he had converted to a home. It even had a piano in it! I fell in love with his lifestyle as well as with him. Well, now, many years later, we have actually lived in houses much of the time, but Kelly has recently written a book called . It’s available at Amazon, by clicking on the title or on the book cover below. It’s both a paperback and a Kindle ebook.   The book could give you a lot of ideas for living in … Continue reading →

Fixing a Leaky RV Roof on an Old Rig

Simple Green Living

We had a spring snow right after we bought a 32-year-old Tioga motorhome. Over an inch of snow sat on the roof of the rig, and it was a perfect test of the roof. What we discovered was water dripping down, over the kitchen sink and the sofa.  My husband Kelly wasn’t bothered.  “I expected things like this in an old vehicle,” he said. “It’s not impossible to fix a leaky RV roof.” I was glad he thought so! To the left, you can see a few of the several dozen holes that turned up. Right away, he caulked the dubious places … Continue reading →

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