Since day one of us talking about hitting the road, Mike and I knew we would likely want an upgrade if we continued on the road living full time. When we got our first rig, we made sure it was affordable and comfortable but we didn’t know then, what we know now after being on the road for a year. Mike spent months researching and researching until he found one that, we think is the perfect little home for us on the road!
In March 2020 when Covid19 first hit, Mike and I, like many others started to officially work remotely and the days and nights started to feel like groundhog day. So when Mike suggested we hit the road, there was no hesitation and just a whole lot of planning from that moment on. When we went to look at rigs the first time around, I don’t think we really knew what we were looking for. We liked the Keystone Fuzion 427 because it was a toy hauler, which had the 13 ft garage in the back. We made the garage Mike’s office and I had a desk in the living/kitchen area and made that my office space. We had two separated spaces to work in and a roof over our heads. We were ready to hit the road!
We figured we’d be spending most of our days outside in nature, exploring and going on adventures. I had this thought/dream that we’d spend all of evenings sitting out by a campfire and roasting marshmallows every night staring up at the stars…Quickly we realized, even though we are out on the road, our days are spent working during the week and we still have all the regular household chores/errands to do. That meant spending a lot more time in the RV than we thought and a lot less time star gazing and relaxing by campfires. Maybe that’s a switch we need to make at some point; to try and be outdoors more but the reality is that we do spend a lot of time in the rig, which is what led us to the decision of our new one!
After months and months of learning what we were frustrated with and what we were really missing, Mike finally found ‘the one’. 2021 Forest River Riverstone 37FLTH. This beautiful rig has an exterior garage thats right below our bedroom and plenty of underbelly outside storage! That’s probably what really sold Mike, all the outdoor storage he see’s in all the other rigs around us makes him so jealous. We also have multiple additional outside under belly storage spaces that are larger than the only one little storage area that we had in the old rig. Inside we have designated spaces for the living room and kitchen. In our previous toy hauler we had a couch and tv in the middle of the kitchen and spent so much of our time staring at all the kitchen appliances as we were trying to relax on our one couch. It was just such a small and cluttered space that we spent most of our time in. The bathroom in the Riverstone has a nice large shower that we can really enjoy. In the other rig, Mike barely fit in there, poor guy. The cosmetics of the Riverstone is also part of what sold us on it. We have full auto paint vs vinyl stickers on the exterior. I really love all the bright white all in the inside and the lighter grey color couches. No more need for couch covers, yay! We have better insulated walls/windows and it really makes you feels like you’re in a real house. The outside noise is reduced, we barely hear the winds or the raindrops. So many things to love, so many reasons to why we upgraded! Oh, and I failed to mention that we now have a stackable washer/dryer vs our single unit combo washer/steam dryer. I must admit, although they are a bit smaller, having a normal dryer makes a big difference! And of course I saved the best for last…we now have a dishwasher!!! Yes, that’s right, a dishwasher in an RV! That was definitely on my must have list. That alone is going to give me back so much time in my days 🙂 Happy wife, happy life! Thanks husband, for making sure I had the only ONE thing I really wanted in our new home!
We took a couple days off work to get ourselves packed up for our weekend move! Last Friday all we did was pack pack pack and had some minor projects around the rig that we wanted to get done before trading it in. Saturday was the big day, we got up bright and early and spent a whole day moving things over. Our first night in our new home was so quiet. Thats what Mike and I keep noticing, is how insulated we really feel in here. It’s not freezing when you walk by a window and the walls aren’t freezing to touch. It’s also so spacious in here. The bathroom, the kitchen, the living space…all of it is so spacious, especially compared to our other home on wheels. Dare I say, it feels almost like a real home! I kept telling Mike how I felt like we are in a fancy hotel, haha!
We didn’t finish unpacking over our moving weekend, but we got to a point to where we can close up our slides and travel! We just have a few more boxes in the garage that we will need to organize. We are having a couple major issues with our new home sadly. The electrical wiring for the fridge and the front door are the two main issues we need fixed/replaced, along with a few other minor things we found during our first few days in the rig. We’re in contact with the dealership, Click It RV Spokane daily so we’re hoping they can get things fixed soon. We are currently in an Air bnb in Downtown, Spokane. Trying to enjoy this cute home and treat it like a vacation, rather than be upset about our travel plans being postponed. Thankfully our main contact, Jake and his team has been taking great care of us and are going to take care of our stay this week. We appreciate everything they have done to accommodate us. This is definitely not what we expected from our brand new rig, but we are understanding that things happen. Thankful we stuck around and are able to get things worked on while we are still in town.
A few more days and hopefully our new home will be in a good place to travel. We know that they will have to order us a few new parts and we will have to return to have those repairs done. Still working out the details on what needs to get done. We’re hoping to get back on the road this coming up weekend and start enjoying our new home on wheels!
Mily Lourenço Adventures 