2024-02-07
Before living in a travel trailer, I knew virtually nothing about living in one. The only time I’ve been in anything similar was on a one week stint in an RV where I was just a passenger and didn’t worry too much about how anything worked. I didn’t even know the difference between a travel trailer and an RV! For those who aren’t familiar, an RV is usually a vehicle with the living space combined into one, whereas a trailer is usually towed by a vehicle. Needless to say, there was a bit of a learning curve for me and I realized that living in a trailer means knowing how to fix things on your own or paying someone a lot of money to do it for you.
It all started during the pandemic when a friend of mine (Adriano), asked me if I would join him on an adventure in the west (of the US). We had been hunkering down together and with other friends for a few months at this point. He had been thinking about living in a trailer for a while, done his research on which one he wanted, and just bought the truck he needed to tow it. I didn’t even have to think about it. The answer was an absolute YES! It was, join him, or go back to my apartment in NYC and be bored to death and wait for the world to open back up. I figured, since I was able to work remotely, I might as well live the remote life.
Excitement started to build inside me and I thought about what I was about to embark upon. I’ve always been one to leave the country in search of adventures. Prior to the pandemic, my vacations usually meant, packing my climbing gear and finding new friends to climb with in amazing far away locations. I’ve never really explored or even knew that the west side of the country even had to offer. What I did know was, I at least had someone to explore with, and a way to do it safely.
Before driving off and waving goodbye to NYC, we gave ourselves a week to get everything in order. Adriano had to clear out his apartment, and I had to figure out what am I going to need for the foreseeable future. I was giving instructions to only bring what I need because storage in the trailer will be limited. I pretty much packed a large suitcase, a carry-on and a backpack. I didn’t really say goodbye to anyone because I believed I would be back in a few or six months (this was June 2020). Honestly, if I knew it wasn’t coming back, I may not have even gone. Big life changes scare me, and pretty much all I knew was the concrete jungle. Now that I’m living the nomad life, I don’t regret my decision to leave.
At the end of June 2020, we were all packed and ready for our trip west. After 3 days of long driving days, we made our way to Poncha Springs, CO to pick up the trailer. The plan was to stay in the area for a week in case anything went wrong with the new rig. Apparently, a lot of issues are found in the first week of living in a new trailer. There so happened to be BLM land in Salida, CO, not far down the road from the dealership, which means free stay! It has now been converted to an RV park unfortunately. We spent the week in Salida, taking in the sites, rafting, working, and it so happened to be July 4th weekend, so we were able to watch fireworks from the comforts of our new home. We didn’t find anything wrong with the trailer after the week was up and thus we left Salida to find more adventures!
Happy travels!