NEW YORK – When Robert and Jessica Meinhofer told friends they were moving into an RV in 2015, most thought they were crazy.
The questions poured in: How could they go from living in a 2,000-square-foot home to living in a 250-square-foot trailer? What would they do with their stuff? What would their children, ages 6 and 9, do for school? Was this a midlife crisis?
The hardest people to convince were Jessica’s parents, who grew up in an impoverished Latino neighborhood in the Bronx and worked hard so their daughter could have a better life. They couldn’t understand why the couple wanted to live like migrant laborers.
The Meinhofers are doing this by choice, not financial desperation. They are part of a movement of people ditching “sticks and bricks” homes that have long embodied the American Dream and embracing a life of travel, minimal belongings and working when they want.
“We’re a family of four redefining what the American Dream means. It’s happiness, not a four-bedroom house with a two-car garage,” said Robert Meinhofer, who is 45.
There’s no official term for this lifestyle, but most refer to themselves as “full-time RVers,” “digital nomads” or “workampers.” Most modern nomads need jobs to fund their travels. Jessica Meinhofer works remotely as a government contractor, simply logging in from the RV.
Others pick up “gig work” cleaning campsites, harvesting on farms or in vineyards, or filling in as security guards. People learn about gigs by word of mouth, on Workamper News or Facebook groups like one for Workampers with more than 30,000 members. Big companies such as Amazon and J.C. Penney even have programs specifically recruiting RVers to help at warehouses during the peak holiday season.
A million Americans live full time in RVs, according to the RV Industry Association. Some have to do it because they can’t afford other options, but many do it by choice. Last year was a record for RV sales, according to the data firm Statistical Surveys. More than 10.5 million households own at least one RV, a jump from 2005 when 7.5 million households had RVs, according to RVIA.
Below, four families – with members ranging in age from 2 to 84 – share their experience of life on the road:
Current location: Tennessee.
Vehicle: 2004 Tiffin Phaeton (They bought it used for $67,000).
Brink, 62, and Litchfield, 59, have a “Welcome to Margaritaville” sign outside their RV and the kind of easygoing spirit that immediately draws you in. The couple met in the late 1980s when they were working in the same business complex in Vermont, but Chip was married to someone else at the time. Their paths crossed again a few years ago at a craft fair, and as their relationship blossomed, Chip suggested they travel in an RV. Penni was apprehensive at first.
“I made it clear I needed a big fridge in the RV because I like to cook,” Penni said. “And I needed more than a tiny little bathroom.”
Chip took Penni to a used RV lot just to “check it out” in 2015, but they ended up buying a 395-square-foot camper they call “Daisy.” They say they love this lifestyle now and have no plans to return to a typical home. Penni is selling her condo in Montpelier because they don’t think they’ll need it anymore. They track how many states they have been to on a map on the side of their RV. The current tally is 25.
Current location: Georgia. (Last year they traveled from Maine to Florida for six months).
Vehicle: 2016 Forest River Grey Wolf 26DBH Travel Trailer. (They bought it for $22,000 and tow it behind a truck).
Robert and Jessica Meinhofer, 40, have been living in their RV for three years and don’t have any plans to return to their old life in suburbia.
As they started having kids, Robert and Jessica wanted more time with them than a typical day job would allow. They watched a YouTube video of a family that traveled the country in an RV and thought, why not us?
“We both had full-time jobs. We were doing the 9 to 5 grind. We had the house, but it just didn’t fit us quite right. We were just working, working, working,” Jessica said. “We were longing for freedom.”
When Robert was offered a job in Atlanta working for an airline, they didn’t think they had enough money to buy a “proper house” for their two kids, their dog and their cats. So they decided to take the plunge on the RV lifestyle.
Jessica convinced her company to let her work remotely so she could home-school their children and work in the RV anywhere in America. Robert works four days at the airline and then gets four days off, which he spends with his family in the RV.
Current location: Wichita, Kansas.
Vehicle: 2012 Tiffin Allegro RED Diesel. (They paid $150,000 at an RV show in 2014).
Joyce Ann Seid, 84, and Steven Seid, 77, bought their first RV in 2001 to travel on weekends to see the grandkids and visit casinos and parks. By 2010, they moved into the RV full time. “We rented our house and wound up getting a bigger RV and then we wound up living in it because we liked it so much,” Steven said. “If we don’t like our neighbors, we just pack up and leave.”
The couple drive around the country in the warm months and spend the winter in Arizona, where they own a lot in a gated RV community.
They mostly live off their retirement money, but they pick up various jobs to help pay for vehicle insurance and RV repairs. Steven worked several years in the Amazon CamperForce program, priding himself on being one of the oldest in the warehouse.
“We’re old people, but we hate being retired. We like working,” Steven said.
Current location: Tennessee.
Vehicle: 1999 NuWa Hitchhiker Premier (Bought for $10,000).
Richard Booher, 58, and Miranda Booher were debating doing the “small home” lifestyle when a friend advised them, “you don’t want a small home, you want an RV.” They had never even been in an RV before, but they bought a Hitchhiker in 2016 that attaches to their pickup truck and took their family – five kids and a 10-year-old dog – on the road.
“It’s been awesome,” Richard said as he watched his 5-year-old son Teddy bike around the campsite waving at new neighbors. Later, the kids, ranging from 2 to 10, went to the campsite pool and quickly made friends with other families.
The Boohers wanted to show their kids more of America and get closer as a family. Accumulating stuff stopped mattering to them. Instead, they wanted to accumulate experiences. Miranda teaches the kids and is a coach for a Christian organization called Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) that helps bring moms of young children together for support and fellowship.
The Boohers get plugged into a church wherever they go and find lots of activities for the kids between church and the campsites. Teddy and Amy, 7, are eager to show off the Macarena dance skills they picked up at a recent kids party at a campsite.
Richard is working with the Amazon CamperForce program for the second year. He’ll be at the warehouse from September to December. It’s very different from his career in IT, but the income allows the family to live this nomadic lifestyle.
“The kids have so many friends everywhere we go,” Richard said. “You can definitely do this with kids.”
