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Project RV: Living Lost

Arizona State

☀️ It is crazy hot in Arizona right now! Thank god we finally bought our new iRocker Stand Up Paddle Boards! Even better news...we've now got puppies on paddle boards...🐶🌊

We absolutely love our IRocker Blackfin SUPs! 

When Victoria signed a Travel Nurse contract extension in Yuma, AZ we knew that we were taking our chances with the growing heat. We also considered moving RV parks for a change of scenery. After a little consideration, our solution was to stay at Riverfront RV Park which is located right near the Colorado River and the West Yuma Wetlands. Why? Because we finally bought the paddle boards we had been talking about for so long. Too hot? Let's go float!


Dogs on Paddle Boards | Full Time RV Arizona

Are we still RV Newbies?

After being on the road 6 months as full-time RV’ers, we answer that question. We wanted to reintroduce ourselves to those that have joined us along our RV journey so far and those new to the Project RV: Living Lost channel. 2020 brought about a lot of change for a lot of people. For us, it was selling all of our things, buying an RV and truck and hitting the road full-time with no prior RV experience. 

Our relationship journey has been an adventure in itself. We met about 10 years ago working at a brewery in Charlotte, NC and started dating. Couple years after that we went to house sit in Charleston, SC for a summer and never left! It’s where we’ve called home for the last 6 years. We’ve been married for almost 2 years now!

When COVID hit, Victoria took a part-time travel nursing job in Atlanta to help out. After returning home one day, she suggested we get an RV and take on travel nursing full-time. 5 months later we were on the road! 


Still RV Newbies? | 6 Months Full Time RV

South Carolina State

6 months, 8 states and almost 7, 000 miles on the road, it's RV bath time!🛁🧽🧼 

We decided instead of paying a service to come clean our RV for the first time, it would be fun and cheaper to roll up our sleeves and clean 'Kodi' ourselves! Spring cleaning is in full effect which means the interior as well. We've got some RV cleaning tips to share with you!

RV Interior - Like your mother always told you, clean from the top down! 
Victoria's favorite all-purpose cleaner, Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena 

How to Wash Your RV | Cleaning Tips

🇲🇽 💰 How far did $50 get us in Mexico?!

Luckily for us, we are just 15 miles from the Mexico border while staying in Yuma, AZ. We decided to do a little experiment. How far could we get with just a $50 bill?
Well, the truth is, not very far!

We walked across the border into Los Algodones, Mexico. Parking was $6 in the US side. Crossing into Mexico was a breeze, getting back into the US was a different story. We spent almost as much time waiting in the border crossing line then we did exploring Los Algodones. Also keep in mind, the border closes at this location at 2pm, due to COVID restrictions.

We had a lot of fun, spent exactly $50 and made some new friends! 
What have your border crossing experiences been like?

Crossing the Border | How Far Did $50 Get Us? | RV Mexico (Los Algodones, Mexico)

Colorado State

🏜 Page AZ has some amazing outdoor adventures to offer

Antelope Canyon is one of the most famous spots in Page, but is in Navajo land that is closed due to COVID. But we ere able to rent paddle boards and access the only open area by Lake Howell! Definitely worth the sore arms the next day. 
 Glen Canyon Dam is a beautiful sight, and the main reason Page even exists as a town. 

The Hanging Garden Trail is a quick hike, and offers beautiful views of the dam, and a surprisingly beautiful Instagram pic background. 😆 

Horseshoe Bend is breathtaking view of the winding path the Colorado river carved in the landscape creating a dramatic 270 degree bend. 

The Wave is also on Navajo land - so we visited the New Wave 🤷‍♀️ I bet you can’t guess what the layers of sand resemble….

As always, we made the best out of our time, despite COVID closings and restrictions. We would be excited to return and see all we missed.

Paddle Boarding Antelope Canyon | Secret Entrance on Lake Powell | RV Arizona | Horseshoe Bend

Contract is up. We’ve got a decision to make! 🤷 Then we changed our mind at the last minute...😳

Victoria’s Travel Nurse contract in Yuma, AZ is almost over. Which means we must decide what to do now! Victoria has some updated RV Travel Nurse advice concerning the current state of nurse travelers, how much money there is to be made and what her deciding factors were. 

🌉 We’ll also show you the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge, a historic piece of Yuma, AZ.
🌄 Plus, what Yuma is best known for…Sunshine! More importantly, the stunning sunsets that grace the sky almost nightly here.

🌵We are excited to explore Arizona and the surrounding areas!
What is your favorite place in Arizona to visit? We’d love suggestions!

Travel Nurse RV Living | We've Got an Update for You!

California State

Who doesn't like surprises?! Victoria, that's who! 🤣
Until her winey senes started tingling! 🍷🕷️

Thomas plans a surprise weekend RV adventure to wine country in the hills of southern California. Only a couple hours from Yuma, AZ we found special place in Julian, CA. An old mining town with an interesting history, sprawling apple orchards, lots of wine, beautiful mountain views and the most amazing PIE! 

As usual when Victoria has a couple of days off in a row from Travel Nursing, we like to explore the areas within the southwest. We make of first official trip into California since being full-time RV newbies. Victoria was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. Her winey senses were tingling! 🤣

We stayed at Pinezanita RV Park & Campground, which we was an enormous campground. Extremely well taken care of with a good mix of full-time residents and travelers. 

RV Camping Southern California | Julian, CA | Wine Country

🏜Riding the largest sand dunes in the U.S.!

The Imperial Sand Dunes in California are impressive! They are 45 miles long and 6 miles wide. There is no lack of space to roam around out there, but we were secretly hoping to run into a celebrity shooting a movie. 😆 

If you decide to visit, make sure you bring your OHV (off highway vehicle) and some sunscreen. ☀️ Even in winter, you can definitely get burned out there. 

OHV Imperial Sand Dunes | Biggest Dunes in the US | Full Time RV Arizona

Yuma, AZ

Sedona, AZ

💌 Dear Sedona, we love you. 🏜 

Sedona AZ is one of our favorite locations so far! (I feel like we say that after every new location) 🤣

We really enjoyed all Sedona had to offer 
✓ outdoor activities 🏜
✓ good food 🥙
✓ wineries 🍷
✓ hippie-dippie vibe ✌🏼☮️

There was no way we could do everything in the couple of days we visited, and we can’t wait to go back! Here are a couple of spots we visited:

05:19 Cathedral Rock
09:43 Chapel of the Holy Cross
11:18 Airport Vista Overlook and Sedona View Trail
14:18 Tlaquepaque Market and Center for New Age
17:58 Long Canyon Trail and the Birthing Cave

We stayed at Page Springs RV Park, right outside of Sedona in Cornville. It runs right along the river and is dog friendly. Very laid back, and everyone there seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
It only has 30amp hookups, and not all spots have sewer, but there is a dump station. Also has 🚫cell service for AT&T. 


RV Camping in Sedona, AZ | Hiking Cathedral Rock and the Birthing Cave

🌳 We lucked out on our RV spot 🎣 

🌵Booking an RV spot blind can be scary. All RV parks look nice on the website. We were pleasantly surprised to find that ours is located right next to a park! West Wetlands Park runs along the Colorado River, and has a lot to offer. Bike paths, butterfly gardens, beaches, fishing holes... 

🌄 Victoria got Thomas a (really) early birthday present - the DJI Mavic Mini 2 drone! We go out by the fields to practice, and to catch a classic Yuma sunset. 

🎣 There is a stocked fishing pond in the park. We didn’t catch anything, but it was still a nice way to spend an afternoon. 

🧭 Yuma is home to a yearly Geocache Mega Event! Which means there are plenty out there for us to hunt down. So we hop on our bikes and see what we can find. 

🌳 We get out our hammock and chill by the Colorado river.  Come join us and have a drink with us! 

🌵We are excited to explore Arizona and the surrounding areas!
What interesting places have you been to so far in 2023?

Arizona RV Park | How did we get so lucky? | Full-time RV Arizona

⛓️⛓️We just got out of Prison⛓️⛓️…and it was awesome!

🌵Now that we’ve landed in Yuma, AZ for Victoria’s travel nursing assignment, it’s time to do some exploring! The perfect location to indulge our inner Wild West! 

We visit Castle Dome City, and old mining town that is now a Ghost Town museum.

Keeping with the Old West theme we visit Yuma Territorial Prison & Museum established in 1876. There is even a movie about it! Check out “3:10 to Yuma”. This is the former home to some of the most vicious men and women of the time from the AZ territory and a high school? Yes, that’s right, the Yuma High School Criminals!

Plus, we do our first ever product review. We are trying to step our game up when it comes to our videos so we purchased a Gimbal for smoother shots. See what we think about the Zhiyun Crane M2 and the DJI Ronin RSC 2. 

Spooky Ghost Town | Full Time RV Arizona | Castle Dome City

We broke a lot of things on our RV. 🛠️ 😭

4 states. 4 National Parks. Below freezing temps. ‘Project Good Start’ was a 3 week non-stop adventure, but winter weather took a toll on Kodi (our Kodiak RV).

Now that we’ve landed in Yuma, AZ for Victoria’s travel nursing assignment, it’s time to give Kodi some love. Plus, we share 5 things we learned during ‘Project Good Start’. The good, bad and ugly of RV travel.

✅ 5 Things We Learned on ‘Project Good Start’
- Earthships are better than Tiny Homes.
- Driving an RV in windy conditions is a bad idea.
- RV repairs are inevitable.
- Travel Nurses should take time off in-between contracts.
- RV travel vs Car/Hotel travel (RV for the win!)

🛠️ RV Repairs:
- Leak under kitchen sink
- Malfunctioning water heater
- Freshwater pump failure
- Bedroom flood (cracked hose connection)
- Broken grey tank drain pipe

Plus we begin to explore Historic Downtown Yuma!

5 Things We Learned | RV Life | Broken RV

Victoria’s new Travel Nurse assignment - we made it to AZ! She’s got some great advice for anyone thinking about working as a Travel Nurse.

‘Project Good Start’ 2021 has been a blast but we’ve been constantly on the move for almost 3 weeks. We’ve seen so many new places and things in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado and now we’ve finally land in Yuma, AZ for the next 8 weeks. Loving the sunshine already!

Before making it to the Grand Canyon State, we got an unexpected overnight snow storm in Durango, CO. To say the puppies enjoyed the snow would be and understatement (especially Oreo)!

After an 8 hour drive (439 miles!), we spent a night in Phoenix and explored. We found this amazing park called Papago Park which in home to “Hole-In-The-Rock”, which offers great views of the city.

We make it to Yuma, AZ the day before Victoria starts her new Travel Nursing assignment. She’s got some really good advice for travelers when it comes to getting comfortable working in a new location.

Travel Nurse | RV Living in Arizona

"Project Good Start" turned into “Project Don’t Tip Over” 

After a long day of terrible weather conditions and our nerves being completely fried, we took shelter at an RV park in Fairplay, CO. The extreme windy conditions didn’t get any better throughout the night. This was easily our toughest day in our RV. 

The worst part was we were only 22 miles from our destination. Thankfully, the weather was a completely different situation in Breckenridge, CO. We stayed at the famous Tiger Run Rv Resort, explored downtown Breck. 

Next stop…Durango, CO! We got to explore our 4th National Park over the course of 10 days when visiting Mesa Verde National Park. A truly magical place full of stunning views and incredible history. We stayed at Oasis RV Resort in Durango where we woke up to a fun surprise…8 inches of snow! Guess we’re staying another night!

Check out our next episode as we finally make it into Arizona and our home for the next 8 weeks, Yuma!

Mesa Verde National Park | Colorado RV Camping | Our 4th National Park!

Breckenridge, CO

Ever heard of an Earthship? 

'Project Good Start’ continues as we make our way up to Colorado to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Before leaving New Mexico however, we had to stop to check out the Earthship Biotecture community which focuses on sustainable living. The goal was to get to Breckenridge, CO in time for our reservation at Tiger Run RV Resort. Well, the weather had a different plan for us…

We hit Great Sand Dunes National Park, our 3rd National Park in just 5 days! It was so much fun sledding the tallest sand dunes in North America. 

While making our way to the famous Tiger Run RV Resort in Breckenridge, the weather got bad in a hurry and we end up making a detour to Fairplay, CO (where fictional Southpark is) as we try not to crash the RV.

Check out the next episode as we finally make it to Breckenridge, CO where we hang for a couple days, then head to Durango, CO where it turns out to be an unexpected winter wonderland.

Great Sand Dunes National Park | Full Time RV Colorado | Our 3rd National Park

Carlsbad, NM

Who knew caverns were so hot?!

We continue our travels for ‘Project Good Start’ and head north to New Mexico. Our plan was to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park & Santa Fe.

If you’ve never been 750 feet below the Earth’s surface, it’s hard to explain how magical these caverns can be. 

Once we left Carlsbad, we head to the capital city of New Mexico, Santa Fe (the oldest capital city in North America). Historic Downtown Santa Fe is a must see! 

We are excited to share our adventures as we make our way to Yuma, AZ over the 18 days (taking a really round about route through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado & Arizona). Subscribe to the channel to see next week’s episode as we discover what the Taos Earthships are all about and make it to Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park!

Full Time RV New Mexico Adventures | Carlsbad Caverns | Our 2nd National Park!

Texas State

It’s true what they say! Big Bend National Park in West Texas is like stepping into another world. 

We were extremely excited to kick off the new year and ‘Project Good Start’ as we visited our first National Park as full-time RVers. We just so happen to pick Big Bend National Park, which is the least visited NP due to its remote location. Which meant we had about a 8.5 hour drive (325 miles) from Austin.

Upper Burro Mesa Pour-off Trail (4 miles) The terrain was insane changing from rolling hills with cactus, to jagged cliffs and drop-offs. Check out some of the stunning landscape on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. 30 miles of paved road that shows off the park’s beauty. We went to the Window View for sunset, and it did not disappoint! 

Visiting a landscape like this could very well change your view of how the world works. We couldn’t be happier that we kicked off ‘Project Good Start’ at Big Bend National Park. Be sure to check out our next episode as we visit Carlsbad Caverns!

Big Bend National Park | RV Camping | Our First National Park!

Austin, TX

Saying goodbye is always hard. We’ve fallen in love with this city and know how high the bar has been set as we move on to new locations and adventures. The truth is, we couldn’t get possibly see it all, but we definitely tried! Our last day to explore Austin proved to be a good one. 

We visit one of the most popular joints in town, Terry Blacks BBQ, visit the Pennybacker Bridge aka the 360 Bridge, and have a beer at Jester King Brewery!

We are excited to share our adventures as we make our way to Yuma, AZ over the 18 days (taking a really round about route through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado & Arizona). Be sure to check out the next episode as we travel to the most remote National Park in the USNP Service, Big Bend National Park!

RV Living in Austin, TX | Must Do Activities Before We Say Goodbye

More Texas fun! There is so much left to see! With only a short time left in Austin, we’re trying to show you as much as we possibly can.

We get a stunning view of Austin’s skyline during sunrise from Mount Bonnell, the highest point in the city. 

We have a picnic on the “Secret Beach” on the Colorado River. 

We do a scavenger hunt in the downtown Austin area. Victoria is not a huge fan of stopping at all the history plaques in normal cases, but she loves a good scavenger hunt! 

We end our day hanging out and getting dinner on Rainey Street, which is full of houses converted into restaurants, bars and food trucks. 

Secret Beach | Austin, Texas Hidden Gem

With only a few weeks left in Austin, TX, it is time for Victoria to start looking for her next travel nurse assignment. While we mull things over, we take advantage of the beautiful weather and kayak the Colorado River with a view of Austin. Plus, we finally get a tour of one of the tiny homes in Austin’s first tiny home community! 

When choosing a new travel nurse assignment, there are many factors you have to consider, including money, location, hours per weeks, and length of assignment. Then there is always the factor of housing, or in our case, where to park our RV! This can prove difficult during the winter months, when everyone else has the same idea of chasing warm weather. Skip to 16:17 to see where we are going next!