Kandace
@kandacerogersfitness
1. Who are you ? How old are you ? Do you travel completely alone... if not who do you travel with?
My name is Kandace Rogers, I am 29 years old. I live/travel with my husband Cody and 2 dogs, Totes and Gixxer (Siberian husky & shih tzu)
2. How long have you been living full time in a Mobile-Home (camper-van, RV, etc)
I have been living the full-time RV (40' 5th wheel) life for 3 years now. WE LOVE IT. Best decision we've ever made.
3.What the best thing about being female and on the road?
FREEDOM to have less and DO MORE! its empowering to be creating MY FUTURE for once by my own design. I don't know that its directly related to being a female but it feels good to do life differently than what's typically expected via societal norms.
4.Conversely what is the worst thing about being female and on the road?
have yet to experience any negative scenarios relating to my sexual orientation BUT I will say I am very grateful to have a husband that can DIY pretty much everything. We're a big DIY family. We've had some RV issues like leaky roof when we had a massive rainfall, broken heater, leaky sink pipes etc that he was able to figure out and repair without hesitation. If I was alone I am sure I could have youtubed how to do things but having a partner that is also capable and intelligent has made life a lot less stressful in terms of RV living speed bumps. Not to mention something that would have taken me days or weeks to figure out, takes him a matter of minutes/hours. Grateful A F.
5. How do you decide on where to stay?
Typically by reading reviews online and photos provided by the park. I prefer clean, safe resorts with amenities (laundry as we don't have that on board), trees for shade and privacy, grassy areas to take the dogs but sometimes we end up in front of our parents house for a week lol #noshame
6. What is the most surreal places that you visited?
The farthest place we had taken our RV was to a resort down near southern California to attend a family reunion. we have yet to travel longer than 8 hours away from our "home base" town but it's on our BIG goal list for future - we have goals to round up all of our toys (dirt bikes and quad) and get to the Oregon sand dunes and glamis sand dunes for an extended vacation of quality time braap-ing! Then eventually head over to states that have kickass riding terrain, maybe visit a few friends along the way in Colorado/ Idaho.
7. What are some common items savvy travelers bring with them (that less-savvy travelers don't)/ what could you not live in a mobile-home without ?
I have found in the 3 years living full time rv life/minimalism-ish (I like to clothes shop #poshmarkaddict closet: @mrscody09 lol) that I can live without almost anything and figure it out as I go, BUT hahaha I will say we have had a clogged RV toilet a few times that was a disaster and quite messy trying to figure out how to fix... LOL and we discovered this special tool recommended to me from a friend who also lives rv life, from Home Depot called the "kleer drain" which is c02 loaded drain gun like device to blow the pipes clear -- It has been a LIFE SAVER haha. even though we haven't had that issue in a long time we still keep cartridges on hand just in case. As far as other items -- my husband and I always say you can make do/ legit fix just about anything ( temporarily, lol) with duck tape, zip ties and Loctite. We like to enjoy nice things but we can get by with not much. ;)
8. How do you get work in different locations?/ How do you have an income/ support yourself?
I work from home (or anywhere) as an online health and fitness coach. Our ultimate goal is to be credit card/loan debt free SOON to have even MORE freedom to take this big house on wheels farther around the U.S. As of now my husband and I split all of the bills we do have relatively evenly between his full time job as a foundational driller/heavy equipment operator, and mine from coaching. The reason we took on RV living was to be able to live under the same roof again together WITH our dogs. rents were too high to live in someone elses home and it just didn't "feel right" Rv living DID. for a couple years we were doing a long distance marriage and it was heartbreaking and ripping us further apart than just distance. we started to look into RV living as a means to get us together again (nearer to his career)-- everybody told us DONT DO IT you will HATE IT, we ignored them. truth is; its the best decision we ever made. we got rid of 7 years worth of accumulation of crap that we had stored in a 20ft trailer. our entire life in boxes - gone. It was emotional but also so FREEING. and so I built my online coaching biz to be full time next to a 40 hour job I had in a cubicle working for the state of CA dept& housing, I quit that state job and we've been doing this ever since. #noragrets
9. How did your friends & family feel/ react when you told them you were going to travel full time?
They told us not to do it - we would HATE living in an rv too close to each other like that. they said if we did it we would be STUCK in it. honestly before rv living we were BOTH renting rooms in someone elses home. we were super unhappy, cramped, had NO PRIVACY (no naked cooking, lol) and the thought of moving from a small bedroom to a 40' house seemed SUPER appealing. PLUS it would be OURS. so we jumped in and bought OUR FIRST HOME. the family/friends were certain it would be like a big burden but honestly STUCK or burdened is the LAST thing we feel. we feel FREE. like a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. sometimes when we're driving and the rv is behind us I look at him and say how crazy is it that RIGHT NOW in this moment, THIS is everything we have in life? everything we've built and own is literally with us right here and now. it's a crazy thought but EMPOWERING A F. and whats even funnier is that a handful of our family and friends followed suit in pursing their own version of RV living. ;)
10. what inspired you to hit the road?
The idea of having LESS and DOING more was extremely appealing to us. we were scared but also intrigued. we were sick of packing and unpacking boxes from place to place. once we had that a-ha moment that we didn't NEED *things* to be Happy in our life (because buying things constantly was a way I was trying to fill a void I had felt for many years not living up to my truest potential/ life numbing habit) we became focused on creating more MEMORIES. we had the funds to DO MORE like adventure, pay off bills, say YES to last minute trips. I won't lie tho, living in California near San Francisco, the RV life is WAY MORE expensive than most people I've spoken to. BUT it is still way cheaper than if we were to rent someone elses home and the fact that we are creating our own future and have fully renovated the RV to be OURS (something we could not do in someone elses home) is satisfaction AF and #WORTHIT !
I use to be a hoarder and after digging into my own personal growth journey hard as a coach (with many books, help of mentors) I just wanted to BE BETTER and do life differently than those before me or around me, on MY OWN TERMS. I wanted to have a life FULL of vibrant experiences not cluttered with ITEMS in a foundational home collecting dust. Rv living aligned with this new empowered self I had been creating, our goals to travel, explore, adventure MORE and it aligned perfectly.
