"Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place."
- Unknown
When Anna and I decided to embark on the adventure of full time living in a RV we were eating lunch at our favorite restaurant, Sakura Bana in Jackson MS. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend checking this place out. Order some salmon belly sashimi and a one punch roll. You can thank me later. As far as RV living goes, we didn’t really know where to begin. Neither one of us had ever driven one, much less knew about the inner working of one of these vehicles. So we did what any natural born millennials would do… We got on the internet.
We knew that we wanted something you drove rather than pull behind a vehicle and it also had to small so that it would good gas mileage, be easy to drive, and be maneuverable. We also knew that selling my car, motorcycle, and various other items around the house would fetch us somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000, so we started looking in that price range. The RV would obviously have to be older to fit within our budget, but what make, what model, and how old were still left to be discovered. We searched and searched, even going to several dealerships and test driving some in the 25 – 33 ft range. We liked the spaciousness of them, but they definitely didn’t tick all of the other boxes. The search continued. While searching online we randomly discovered a Toyota motor home “Toy home”. There are not that many of them on the road because Toyota only made them from I believe 1986 to 1994. It was exactly what we were looking for. I ended up finding a completely rebuilt and updated one for sale in California for $19,000. It was more than we wanted to spend, but just for fun, I thought that I would call and see if I could haggle. Turns out, this particular one had only been on the market a week and was already in the process of being sold. The person who remodeled and sold the unit is named Mary Lee and goes by “Tika” in the Toyota motor home community. Yes, there is a community. After talking with Tika for several hours I was now convinced that a Toyota was without a doubt the target vehicle. Aware of our target price range Anna, Tika, and I continued looking for the Davis family RV. A few weeks of searching went by and Anna and I found one in FL that might fit our needs. It would need some renovating, which just about ALL of the ones listed for sale do, but we could make it work. We had plans to go see the band Phish play in Alpharetta that weekend anyway so we had decided to work it into our plans to also go to FL and check the prospect out. Then, I get a phone call from Tika, who tells me that I’m not going to believe this, but a 1989 Toyota RV just hit the market in Horn Lake, MS. Given the lack of inventory on these vehicles, I was absolutely stunned. It seemed almost too good to be true. We canceled our FL trip and after having our auditory senses dominated by Phish all weekend, we headed to Horn Lake. When we arrived and set our eyes on what soon would become Nancy, it was love at first sight. Sure the gas gauge didn’t work… sure new tires were needed…. sure there was no battery in the coach, and sure the interior was the most hideous midnight blue you had ever seen…. She drove like a charm…. Well actually she was bumpy as hell because she needed new shocks, but with only 63,000 miles and for the bargain price of $5,000 how could we say no. We gave the stranger the money and with title in hand, I drove Nancy from Horn Lake to Jackson that day. That night we broke her in a bit by lounging inside her, listening to music and having drinks with friends…. -G
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We are two passionate millennials aspiring to live a budge-friendly and sustainable lifestyle, living on the road in an RV, traveling with three dogs.
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