Thoughts & ideas for extended trips while working FT

[JM0397]

The DW and I were discussing working in longer trips over the next year or two. '23 marks our 3rd season and we've learned enough and comfortable enough to work up to a few trips already that were 15-18 days. The issue is the 2-3 week time frame works well with a full time job, but 4+ weeks on the road presents some issues that need to be worked out.

Here's the situation:
We

• both work full time remote, with fairly flexible schedules but not totally flexible.
• We both technically have unlimited vacation time, but there is a limit to that (usually around 30 days/year don't annoy our respective companies).
• We can work some half days and piecemeal days off, but we'll want to have a real vaca time when we hit a prime destination (say a week).
• We're in far-eastern TN and reside full time in a nice house, so all the standard maintenance and care required wheather we're home or not.
• We love the southwest - 4-corners states to be specific, and that's our target for a longer trip one of these years.
• We've settled into the pretty standard "rule of 3s" for our drive days - so 300ish miles, 3 days in a row. I can bump that a little, so call it 1000ish miles in chunks of 3 days driving, which would require 1 day of PTO on a Monday or Friday, and then working a full week before and after.

I can sense there's some sort of magic equation/factor for us to use, of time on the road vs. time working vs. distance vs costs for both life on the road and maintaining the house at home, and probably a dozen other factors and variables we haven't thought of yet.

We used to go to Sedona every year and haven't been back, so that would be nice to get to. We loved Durango, CO the one time we visited a few years back, and we love all the parks in the West, from Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Bryce, Grand Canyon, etc.

Lets say we head to Durango first, that's ~1700 miles so doable in 5-6 days worth of driving.
We would need to find something worthwhile to stop at for a week - ideally somewhere worth visiting and not just a CG off the interstate in nowhere Nebraska, for example, but we have an extra 200-300 miles we could divert to get somewhere nice - say Badlands in the Dakotas, something like that.

Once we hit Durango, the plan would be spend at least a few weeks there, and then on to Sedona for a couple weeks, and then maybe somewhere in NM or TX on the route home. A northern path out, then looping back southern on the way back east.

The longer we stay out, the easier it is to get around and visit places.
However, that's more cost for the Rig & people taking care of the house.

My SWAG tells me something like 8-10 weeks would be the sweet spot for all the above, but I'm not sure.

For those of you that split time on the road and at a sticks & bricks somewhere while also working fulltime, how do you handle your time on the road and ensure you don't end up somewhere very nice, but then can't do much there because you need to work?

Just curious anyone's thoughts on this kind of situation?

Thanks!

-Colin

 

[JM0397]

We live in an excellent, central location for a lot of the nice-to-see stuff in the East - Appalachains are literally out our back door, most areas of the Atlantic & Gulf coasts are within that 3-day/1000 mile sweet spot for us, and there's a ton we can do and see in the East.
BUT, we really love the Southwest!

I guess the main question behind the question that we need to determine for us is this:
While we're still working full time and in our 50s (we're 50 and 51), is getting the rig out west just a bridge too far, and we'd put our time in the rig to better use exploring the East as much as possible?

The best idea is try some 3-4 weeks on the road this year and see how it all feels/works, and then go from there next year... But the Westward pull is strong for us, so it's a tough one to answer!

 

[MoonShadow_1911]

Are you both employed in jobs that allow you to work remote?

If so, you can bring your work laptop(s) and get a Verizon hotspot (for the southwest, they have the best coverage) and work for a time, as needed, then take your PTO when you get the itch.

Disclaimer: My wife and I are full-time. She is retired and I still work full-time. We use the rule of 4 (400 miles, or 4-6 hours driving) since I do the all the driving. We travel Saturday and Sunday as a rule so I don't have to take PTO to drive. I have Starlink, a Verizon hotspot, a T-Mobile hotspot, and and AT&T hotspot to make sure I have the connectivity.

This is our schedule that we are in the middle of: 6 weeks in Oklahoma City, 2 weeks in Albuquerque, 2 months in the Texas Hill Country, 1 week in New Orleans, 3 months in central Florida.

The only PTO I'm taking is the week in New Orleans, plus a smattering of days at our other destinations. I do work 4 10's with Wednesdays off, so it's a little easier to do some sightseeing in the middle of the week.

 

[trailrydr]

Right now the DW (still works FT) and I (retired) plan 30 day trips to CGs in city/states we want to visit. We do use our Verizon Hotspot and plan our stays accordingly. She too has "unlimited" vacation with PTO, and we pick our days during camping to tour the areas we visit. We also do 4 to 5 hours of drive time per day and plot our stays using CGs, rest areas, and RV friendly restaurants along the way.

As for our touring, we usually pick centralized CGs (distance wise) from those areas we want to visit. If planning travel far from the RV, we usually rent a car for several weeks and stay at hotels while touring. Keeps the RV/TV mileage down while also limiting any accidents that could hamper our trip home or to the next CG. It also helps with MPG and easier access in cities, parking lots, and places of interest. In our opinion we can always get another rental car but not a TV, and, hopefully we don't have to comeback just to deal with or pickup a vehicle that was involved in an accident later (other than of course any towing accidents to/from the CGs).

 

[JM0397]

We are both full time remote, so only need our laptops, phones, and wifi and we're good.
Been using a Verizon mifi devce, with backup on our Visible unlimited mobile phones. This works fine in the east, but I'll definitely upgrade to Starlink for any trips out west.

The more I think about it, 2 weekends of driving and fulltime working would be a drag. I think the best schedule might be 3 days drive, stay for 2 weeks, and then repeat that cycle 3 or 4 times, for 6-8 weeks on the road.

 

[MoonShadow_1911]

We are both full time remote, so only need our laptops, phones, and wifi and we're good.
Been using a Verizon mifi devce, with backup on our Visible unlimited mobile phones. This works fine in the east, but I'll definitely upgrade to Starlink for any trips out west.

The more I think about it, 2 weekends of driving and fulltime working would be a drag. I think the best schedule might be 3 days drive, stay for 2 weeks, and then repeat that cycle 3 or 4 times, for 6-8 weeks on the road.

That's my feeling on it. If I wasn't taking PTO for New Orleans, we would have stayed two weeks.

 

[trailrydr]

We are both full time remote, so only need our laptops, phones, and wifi and we're good.
Been using a Verizon mifi devce, with backup on our Visible unlimited mobile phones. This works fine in the east, but I'll definitely upgrade to Starlink for any trips out west.

The more I think about it, 2 weekends of driving and fulltime working would be a drag. I think the best schedule might be 3 days drive, stay for 2 weeks, and then repeat that cycle 3 or 4 times, for 6-8 weeks on the road.

That would be the better solution. But, with our other "obligations" at our stick built, we tend to come back after a month away. Also, neither of us like the long drives, especially repetitive ones. Our limit, is 2 days @ 8 to 12 hrs total.

We also like the longer stays to get to know the area better for possible "future" retirement plans. However, if and when we do full time RVing, will probably do more "leaps" and shorter stays to tour as much as possible.

As we get older, siting behind the wheel gets older too - no matter how many repetitive days we do it.

 

[TomPanning]

I work but my wife doesn't, so she does the driving and I work in the backseat. I have a portable monitor that uses USB for power and USB-C or HDBMI for the video input, and I put it in a tablet holder that attaches to the headrest of the seat in front of me. Then I can have my laptop on a simple lap desk and still have a monitor at eye level. I have a Verizon MiFi and the hotspot feature on my AT&T phone; between the two of them I have pretty good coverage on the interstates. If you could use a similar setup and split the driving, then a driving day could take just a half day of PTO for both of you.

You said that your schedules were somewhat flexible, so you might be able to get a full day of work or close to it on a travel day. There are plenty of people who commute an hour each way for their job. With that in mind, if both of you do two hours of driving and work a full day, then you can get 4 hours of driving done on a work day. It might take a few more travel days to reach your destination, but if you're not using any PTO, I think that counts as a win. Then you can save your weekends for sight-seeing instead of driving. I would definitely try this strategy out on a trip that lasts only a few weeks before using it as the basis for a trip that lasts a month or longer.

For where to stay while traveling, keep two things in mind:
1. The main objective is to be working and taking a break from driving. You don't need (or want) a place that makes you want to take a week off from work to explore. You just want someplace enjoyable to spend your non-work hours.
2. I have some favorite campgrounds close to home, and I'm sure you do too. There are RVers all over the country, and they all have favorite nearby campgrounds. They aren't worth driving across the country to, like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but if you're already in the area you won't be disappointed. That means that if you throw a dart at the map of the county, there's probably a pretty great campground not far away, you just have to figure out which one it is. For example, Wilson State Park has amazing mountain biking and a beautiful lake. It is also "a campground off the interstate in Kansas" that we found because it matched our driving itinerary a couple years ago. Who knows, maybe some of these "along the way" campgrounds will become must-visit stops for you. We made sure Wilson State Park was "on our way" for our upcoming trip out west

 

[geotex1]

This is pretty much how Nikki and I are part timers. First, the sticks and bricks doesn't require much. I can monitor it remotely. I shut the potable well pump breaker off so as not to have concern there. HVAC is set to minimums appropriate with the time of year, and I can adjust remotely ahead of our arrival. With the exception of the lawn, our landscaping is low maintenance - purposely done over a number of years. I have a separate non-potable well that supplies our irrigation system that I designed and installed myself. Through years of overseeding, our lawn is a blend of drought tolerant cultivars that are irrigated once a week. We stopped growing our own vegetables but continue with herbs, which don't need a lot of fuss. We are surrounded by farm stands given we live in the center of more than a dozen preserved farms. So, it's just a matter of mowing the lawn. At first this was a hassle and frustration because of lousy work or no-shows, but we lucked out when I helped a full-timer with rebuilding their 5er's suspension. Their son has a professional landscaping business that cuts the local school properties. They are reliable, do great work, and make quick work of the couple acres we keep as lawn and, I kid you not, email drone pictures when done! Even with friends and family discount, it was $90/cut last year.

Traveling, Starlink was the game changer for us! I was a beta tester to start, and now it is no problem at all to work remotely. My plants are located around the world so my hours are always unusual, and thanks to the pandemic, Nikki transitioned to virtual counseling sessions. As long as there's an active Starlink cell, I've fabricated multiple styles of stands to be able to get Dishy in front of it! We're well-covered by cell too because personally we have Verizon, my company provides AT&T, and my wife's provides T-mobile. Haven’t needed much of the cell data at all since Starlink. I upgraded last year to have a fantastic portable, wireless HP printer/scanner with e-fax (Nikki's profession still relies on fax). Outside that, we tend to schedule worktime in the early mornings and evening (late night for this nightowl) in order to have the prime part of the day to enjoy. Sure, there are days when it's all work for one or the other or both, but we're pretty independent and don't have trouble occupying ourselves if the other has to work. The key to this way of camping and working, IMO, is that you have to stay put in one spot a least a full week (2 work best for us) or more. Additionally, we treat it much like being at the sticks and bricks with set chores, shopping and stocking for at least a week's worth of meals, and always looking for efficiency and consolidation. Like if going to town to do laundry, do the food shopping same trip while its drying, top off the fuel tank, wash the TV if needed, swing by the hardware store for that project or repair, and then back to camp having checked off many to-dos in one trip. Not only does this help keep fuel costs in check, but helps keep a "house budget" and really helps balancing work, maintaining home, and experiencing a new or favorite place!

 

[JM0397]

Thanks for the input, everyone!
Sounds like our intuition is pretty close to reality for a lot of you.
We have an easy 2 weeks this spring, and thinking about 3-4 weeks in the late summer or autumn to give a longer trip out a try.
For now we're thinking stay within 2-3 days drive time (ie <1000 miles), so we can come home at any weekend point we get tired and want to head back.