RV Living, Sailing Life and Travel: Nomadic Lifestyle Tips!

Are you dreaming of RV living or the sailing life? Or perhaps wondering what it would be like to travel full-time and live a nomadic lifestyle? We are Emily and Mark Fagan, and we’ve been very fortunate to have been there and done that! Back in 2007, we left convention behind to live a life of adventure on the open road and at sea. As the years have gone by, we have fulfilled our most cherished dreams.

This website tells our story, from our first days of RVing full-time to our most recent travel adventures, and we share our many nomadic lifestyle tips, our tech tips for upgrading and maintaining RVs and sailboats, and the life-altering soul growth lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Our sincerest hope is that somewhere in our library of nearly 1,000 articles posted on this website you will find the ideas, courage and inspiration to live your dreams too!

Full-time RVers with puppy living nomadic lifestyle and traveling in Montana

Emily and Mark Fagan with our puppy Buddy in Montana.

OUR MOST RECENT POSTS:

For thirteen years we traveled full-time by RV, and for some of those years by sailboat too, and we’ve been sharing our travel stories as well as our cruising and RV lifestyle tips on this website ever since we started.

Sunrise Tuttle Creek State Park Kansas copy-min

Sunrise in Kansas

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse at Sunset Nova Scotia Canada copy-min

Sunset in Nova Scotia

We have enjoyed several fabulous rolling and floating homes during all these years of travel, and we changed rigs and modes of transport as our personal dreams and ambitions evolved.

2022 Genesis Supreme 28CRT Toy Hauler

Our current rig for seasonal travels: 2022 Genesis Supreme 28CRT toy hauler and 2016 Ram dually truck
We’ve traveled in this rig from 2022 onward…Here’s what it’s like to live in a toy hauler!

Arctic Fox 860 Truck Camper towing Polaris 900 RZR

Our previous rig for seasonal travels: 2005 Arctic Fox 860 camper on a 2016 Ram dually truck
towing a 2017 Polaris 900 XC RZR on a flatbed trailer
We had this truck camper for just one year in 2021

Fifth wheel RV living and nomadic lifestyle travel stories-min

Our former full-time rolling home: a 2007 36′ Hitchhiker fifth wheel and 2016 Ram Dually truck — in Utah
2008-2020 (we lived in a 27′ travel trailer for our first year in 2007)

Hunter 44DS sailboat Groovy on Mexico cruise and nomadic lifetsyle-min

Our former floating home “Groovy,” a 2008 Hunter 44DS, in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez
2010-2013 (we returned to the 5th wheel annually during hurricane season)

Our travels have taken us throughout North America, from Canada to Mexico, RVing scenic back roads and byways and sailing Mexico’s Pacific coast. This blog brings our wealth of knowledge to you.

Happy campers RV living at the Tetons in Wyoming-min

Grand Teton Natiional Park in Wyoming.



The Reese Goose Box was a GAME CHANGER for us. We got the bed of our truck back (yay!) and hitching/unhitching is easy.

Check out our review: HERE!
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A rainbow over saguaro cactus in Arizona

From RV tech tips and RV lifestyle tips to cruising tips and travel stories, from full-time RVing ideas and pointers to a vivid glimpse of what goes into RV living, we give you the tools you need to plan your escape and live the dream of a nomadic lifestyle!

Our goal is to inspire you, to lift your spirits with fun travel stories, and to share our tips for how we’ve lived the dream of traveling full-time by RV and sailboat in an exciting nomadic lifestyle.

Joseph Oregon barns and mountains and RV living and travel stories-min

Barns and mountains in eastern Oregon

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East Quoddy Head Lighthouse offshore from Lubec, Maine, and Campobello Island, New Brunswick

OUR STORY IN A NUTSHELL

We began our full-time RV travels in 2007 in a 27′ travel trailer. We criss-crossed the US in that RV for a year and then upgraded to a 36′ fifth wheel. (You can see our progression of trucks and trailers at this link: Our Rigs for Full-timing (also in the menu)).

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Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia

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Horseshoe Bend in Arizona

At the beginning of 2010, after nearly 3 years of full-timing in our RV, we bought a sailboat and took our travels to the sea. For the better part of the next 4 years, we cruised our 44′ sailboat Groovy up and down the entire 2,000 mile Pacific coast of Mexico, spending the summertime hurricane seasons traveling in our trailer in the US while Groovy waited for us in Mexico.

We sailed from the US border to the Guatemala border, and visited almost every Mexican port in between, including the Sea of Cortez. We also headed inland for some of our best adventures, taking public buses on long journeys to see Mexico’s magical colonial cities and visit the mind-blowing Mayan ruins way down south in the jungle.

Sea of Cortez Mexico travel stories and nomadic lifestyle on a sailboat-min

Conception Bay in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez

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Las Hadas in Manzanillo, Mexico

Fishing in Mexico-min

Catching dinner.

Sunset in the ocean Zihuatanejo Mexico-min

Sunset in Zihuatanejo, Mexico

In the summer of 2013, we did the infamous Baja Bash, sailing Groovy uphill against the wind and waves from Puerto Vallarta back to San Diego. For the entire 1,200 mile journey we were tucked into the sweet spot between two hurricanes, riding the coattails of one while being chased by the other!

In early 2014 we said goodbye to our beautiful sailboat Groovy for the last time, and returned to RV living full-time.

Sailing into the sunset

We loved Groovy and cruising Mexico but we were excited to return to living exclusively in our RV.

In 2020 we put down roots once again and returned to living a conventional life in a stick-built home.

In early 2021, after 7 months of being happy homebodies, we yearned for the thrill of life on the road. We bought a truck camper for shorter duration adventures, however it wasn’t the right rig for us.

In 2022 we sold the camper and purchased a barely used Genesis Supreme 28CRT toy hauler. This rig made it easy for us to bring our Polaris RZR on our travels, gave the us the fun of an open air patio, and still gave us a comfortable home on the road.

This super cool toy hauler has worked out beautifully!

You can learn the rest of our backstory before we became full-time travelers on our About Us page (in the menu too). For a thrilling overview of our first ten years of full-time travel — chock full of gorgeous photos — check out these two posts:

In our nomadic lifestyle we have each discovered and nurtured a deep love of photography. In addition, I (Emily…the narrator of this site) have fulfilled my lifelong dream of writing as well.

We have both grown tremendously as photographers — photography has become a truly shared passion for us — and this website is a fun testament to our improved techniques and maturing artistry from 2007 to the present!

For tips on how we learned photography and the gear we use, visit our photography page (also found in the menu).

Over the years we have published our photos and travel articles extensively in various print and online publications. You can see our portfolio of published work here.

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Sedona Arizona


We use these two-way radios EVERYWHERE!
Hiking, biking, shopping and parking the rig!

For more of our RVing tips, visit this page:
RVing Tips & Tricks
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Las Vegas, Nevada

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Zion National Park, Utah

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Bryce Canyon, Utah

PUBLISHED WORK

We have published over 200 feature articles in the major RVing and Sailing magazines, and 42 of our photos have appeared on magazine covers in the RV and sailing industries. We’ve also created a video guide series for cruising Mexico.

Mountain biking and RV living travel stories from Waterton Lakes Canada-min

Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada

Moraine Lake near Lake Louise Banff National Park RV trip Canada-min

Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Canada

In 2017 we began authoring a column on the back page of Trailer Life Magazine showcasing our photos of special places we’ve been.

Watkins Glen travel stories and RV trip-min

New York’s Watkins Glen State Park impressed me so much I featured it in my May 2017 Trailer Life Magazine column!

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A wild lovebird in a saguaro cactus in Arizona

RV LIVING and OUR NOMADIC LIFESTYLE

In our nomadic lifestyle we have lived almost exclusively off the grid on solar power. In our RV living we like to “boondock,” that is, camp independently on America’s gorgeous public lands, away from campgrounds and RV parks.

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Camping in Utah

In our sailing life we “anchored out” in bays and coves rather than staying in marinas.

Hunter 44DS sailboat anchored in Mexico in our nomadic lifetsyle-min

Anchoring out on Mexico’s Costalegre

In our years of RVing, we’ve spent a total of 4,308 nights off-grid on solar and battery power: 3,495 nights boondocking in our RV and 905 nights anchoring out on our sailboat. This unique nomadic lifestyle has taught us a lot about how to live simply and frugally, without “hookups” to power or water.

Saguaro cactus on RV trip to Arizona-min

Morning mist in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona



A pair of storage ottoman benches LIKE THIS ONE transformed the dining area in our full-timing fifth wheel. For more info about that upgrade, visit:
Creating STORAGE SPACE in an RV
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Sunset travel stories at Bryce Canyon National Park nomadic living-min

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

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Deer in eastern Wyoming

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A mountain bluebird catches breakfast in the Black Hills of South Dakota

NAVIGATING THIS WEBSITE

With over 1,000 articles on this website, there is a ton of info for you about RVing full-time as well as cruising tips for sailors. And there are plenty of travel stories for armchair travelers too.

Fifth wheel RV camping in the boondocks-min

The “golden hour” at dusk in South Dakota

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Crater Lake National Park in Oregon — It really is that shade of blue!


We used two of these solar panels to upgrade our toy hauler's factory-installed 200 watt system to a 600 watt system.

See our DIY installation details here:
RV Solar Power Upgrade
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A surprise September snowstorm in Colorado

To get yourself oriented so you can easily navigate to the articles that interest you, please visit these links which explain how the website is laid out:

RVers Start Here! Cruisers Start Here!

Happy RVers loving RV living and a nomadic lifestyle at Petrified Forest-min

Taking a break from photographing Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona

WHERE DID WE GET THE NAME FOR OUR BLOG?

We are perpetually wandering off the well-worn paths of other travelers.

So, years ago, a friend sent me an email referencing Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken after he read my post about why we are pursuing this travel dream. Reading his heartfelt note, I realized the poet’s sentiments matched the theme of our travels.

Nomadic lifestyle on the road and RV living travel stories-min

What an inviting road to go see the fall foliage in Colorado!

The final lines of that famous poem, written so long ago, ring true for us today:

Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

Perhaps you are at a crossroad in your life the way we were when we started on our adventures. If so, and if–going forward–you decide to follow the roads that are less traveled by, we hope it will make all the difference for you too.

As John Irving once noted, “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”

Fifth wheel RV living stories from Montana-min

A rainbow breaks through the rain and fog in Montana

Have a look around, and if you like what you see —

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— Emily and Mark

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Two very happy campers at Banff National Park, Canada

Below are some of our most POPULAR POSTS (also in the MENUS above)

Buddy - A Journey in Spirit - The story of an event that changed our lives forever.

ARTICLE INDEXES
  • RV Tech Tips Articles - A one page index of links to all our RV Tech Tips, RV Upgrades & RV Maintenance articles.
  • RV Lifestyle Tip Articles - An index of links to all our RV Lifestyle Tips (finances, boondocking, major repairs, work/jobs, etc.)
  • Solar Power Articles - Overview and tutorial articles for how to design and install solar power on an RV or boat
  • Product Reviews - An index of links to all of our Product Reviews
RV UPGRADES, SYSTEMS & TIPS MONEY FULL-TIME RV LIFESTYLE GEAR STORE
  • Gear Store - A list of the goodies, equipment and gear we've found useful in our RV lifestyle!
Happy RVers out RV living and sharing travel stories from Utah-min

On the roads less traveled in Utah 🙂