Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason & Julie Roberts.
Hi Jason & Julie, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Many have asked WHY? Who in their right mind would give up a big two-story house with a basement, a huge backyard, and an amazing screened-in back porch? WE DID!!! We now have the freedom to go anywhere we want while being comfortable in our own surroundings within our home. Our tiny home on wheels is a Grand Design Momentum 351M. We are currently a family of 4. Jason, Julie, Addison, our 17-year-old daughter, and Maddie, our 4-year-old little Yorkie rescue. We had been weekend warriors for years, going all over Georgia and a few places in Florida. During the warmer months, we would camp every other weekend, mainly within an hour of home at various campgrounds.
It had been our dream to become full-time RVers once we retired. Then Covid happened and changed things for so many people. Jason has worked at the same company for over 27 years and was in the office daily. With Covid, his company gave employees the ability to work from home. He hated it at first. Couldn’t stand looking at the same walls every day and missing the in-person connection he had with his co-workers and staff. Three weeks in he discovered how much he truly loved it. He saved over two hours a day not having to drive to an office and re-discovered his love for running at our local park during lunch. Time went on, and it seemed like they would be working from home forever. Well, as luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened!
What did that mean for us? Jason had a nice office to work in from home, as did I. Since I had already been working at home the past few years and our daughter was doing her school digitally, then why did we need to be in that spot to do everything? Why couldn’t we do all these same things in different places? Would that be possible?? We started looking at the camper that was sitting next to our house as a really good option.
Cue YouTube and Jason’s love of watching people that had given up all of their material things to hit the road. As he started getting our daughter Addison and I to watch these videos, we started forming a crazy idea in our heads. Most decide this route after the kids are in college, and they can retire and leisurely roam about the country in search of the things they always wanted to see. Since our daughter was in the first semester of high school, it had to be a family choice. Did she want to see the country and continue with her school digitally, or would she prefer for us to wait until after she was out of the house and miss the one possible opportunity she had to do that with us? She chose to get on the road now. It was a back-and-forth decision for her as she was already involved in a competition cheerleading team, and could we wait until her season was complete? Of course! We had the house to sell along with most of our worldly goods. Could we get rid of things we thought were so important? YES!!!
After months of downsizing, we started to feel lighter. Things are just that… things. Do they matter? As a very sentimental person, I was struggling with this part. Couldn’t we put everything important in storage? When you start checking the prices of your local storage facility, you decide against that! I had to realize that some of the items that were very important to me were also important to other people within my family. It was time to let some of my family members know what we were planning and see if they wanted anything. I will say that Jason was very nervous about this part. Would I change my mind when I was giving something to someone in my family that I have coveted for years and finally had it? Would that daily reminder of my grandmother go away if I didn’t have her singer sewing table to look at with fond memories every day? Luckily, I was able to convince family members that I was happy with them having it instead. All the while being at peace with my decision. Each item is now looked upon by other members of the family instead of sitting in storage with no one to see.
I also struggled with getting rid of anything without finding someone I knew that could use it. This drove my family nuts because it was very time-consuming. My friends were inundated with calls and texts of pictures of things I thought they could use. I also donated a lot of items to some local charities. I sold things, and I even posted stuff for free. We lived in that house for 10 years, so we had accumulated way more than we could have ever imagined during that time! If someone I knew was getting rid of something and I thought I could use it or revamp it somehow and sell it, I was the girl that didn’t turn anything down. I have always loved making old things new again, and that certainly contributed to our overall income as well. I couldn’t do that in an RV, so for now, I have put that part of my creativity aside.
We listed our house and were under contract right away. A few hiccups later, we were under another contract that closed. That was a nail-biter for sure. Meanwhile, we continued to downsize to the point that we were ready to move into the camper.
We knew selling the house at the time we did was the smartest choice, as the market was higher than it had ever been. However, that left us with a camper parked in a long-term campground in the meantime. Realizing that although we have been weekend warriors for years, maybe that would be a great thing to do to make sure we were completely set up to hit the road. Just because you move into a camper and find a long-term parking spot with full hookups doesn’t always mean you are fully ready. We had to make sure we had the best internet setup that is completely mobile so we could go anywhere and not lose access. To do his job, Jason has to have access at all times to the internet, and Addison also needed the internet to attend school digitally each day.
We have successfully been full-timers for two years now. Is everything perfect? No, but that’s life. Are we thrilled we made this choice? Absolutely!! We had to learn to roll with the punches. We ordered the perfect RV for our family; meanwhile, Addison changed her mind and wanted to go back to school in person. We agreed as long as we could take as many trips as we wanted until she graduated.
Luckily, we found a very nice and friendly RV park to use as a home base. We are close to everything we need for now. Addison graduates in a few months, and we will leave the security of our home base and hit the road traveling full-time. In the process, we started our own website and YouTube channel to share our adventures with our family and friends. We call ourselves Destination Fulltime and created a website www.destinationfulltime.com to connect all of our social media avenues in one place. Be sure to follow our adventures, and we hope to see you on the road!!! Don’t be a stranger as the best part is all of the amazing people we meet.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have encountered some big obstacles. We waited 22 weeks for our RV to be built, including full body paint. This is an automotive paint covering the entire 5th wheel that is an odd on option which gives the RV more of a motor coach look. It costs thousands extra, but we felt was worth every penny. Several months after we moved into our new RV, Jason noticed tiny pinhead bubbles forming in the paint. As a few weeks went by, he noticed that these bubbles started popping up all over the RV. He then contacted Grand Design and the dealer we purchased the RV from and sent them pictures to show the bubbles. Grand Design informed us that our entire RV needed to be re-painted. This consisted of sending our RV to Indiana in order to have the work completed. Which meant we needed to find somewhere to live while this was taking place. This process was supposed to take 4-6 weeks but ended up taking 11 weeks. Luckily, we ended up staying at a cabin during this time; however, we greatly missed our home.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Jason and Julie both work remote from anywhere we are at in the country during our travels. Jason is a Director of Technical Support for a large technology company. Julie is a Sales Manager and Trainer for a corporate recruiting company. There are a lot of traveling RV families on the road. Some are retired, some workcamp which means they work at an RV Resort or park to pay for the use of their spot, some families have one person working remote and the other homeschooling the children, and then you have the rare couples that both work remote while traveling. We love the ability to work remote while still being able to travel and see new places and things.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
That we live and travel full-time in an RV while working remote
Contact Info:
- Website: www.destinationfulltime.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/destinationfulltime/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/destinationfulltimerv
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/destinationful1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@destinationfulltime
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@destinationfulltime
