Welcome to Part-Time Paradise
Hello everyone. My name is Jack. For many years I dreamed of purchasing a RV and travelling the countryside with my family a-la Clark Griswold.
Why We Got a RV
I have rented several RVs to take to NASCAR race weekends with buddies. We stayed right next to the track and had our tailgate platform and our beds at our fingertips. That planted the bug for me to want a RV.
My wife, Erin, wasn’t as sure at first. To see if we would enjoy being a RV family, we rented a RV last summer and traveled to several National Park Units in the US Southwest (a trip that I’ll document for old time’s sake soon). On that trip, we enjoyed the ability to stay in or near the unit we were enjoying while not having to pack up a suitcase each time we moved really appealed to us. We also enjoyed cooking most of our meals, having a rest area wherever we needed it, and the way a RV vacation brought us together as a family. That vacation solidified it for everyone, that we wanted to be a RV family.
In August 2018, we found the perfect RV for us to start out in. The kids named her “Patty.”
Our Truck and Trailer
In the photo above, you see Patty, our 30′ 2015 Solaire Ultralite 25BHSS. The trailer has one slide, bunks for the kids, and a queen bed for the adults. There is also a dinette and jacknife couch. We pull Patty with a 2011 Chevy Silverado 3500 with a 6.6L Duramax. I already had the truck to pull a large gooseneck cargo trailer. So we have plenty of room to upgrade in trailer size, someday. Patty is the perfect size for our children right now and a good starter trailer to figure out what we would do differently when we buy our next trailer in the future.
Why the Blog?
I follow so many different RV bloggers and vloggers. I really enjoy learning from them and seeing the country from their eyes as they travel the country and the world. This motivated me to begin documenting our travels so we could document them to remember one day, but also contribute to the community that our favorite RV families do too. A few of our favorites are:
- The Motorhome Experiment (website or YouTube) – full-timers that documents the journey. By far our favorite content. These two are what helped us decide that RVing was something we wanted to do.
- Wheeling It – full-timers focused on the journey, but sprinkles in some lessons and tips. Nina’s blog is what encouraged us to document our journey.
- Loloho – a part-time couple that is about 50/50 the journey and lessons/tips
- RV Geeks (website or YouTube) – full-timers that are absolute artists for RV maintenance, upgrades, and tips.
- Love Your RV (website or YouTube) – full-timers that focus a lot on upgrades and tips with some journey sprinkled in. I really enjoy the way Ray looks at a problem and invents solutions.
- Keep Your Daydream (website or YouTube) – full-timers that focus primarily on their journey, but spend about a quarter of their content on tips, upgrades, and life on the road. I appreciate their honesty of the ups and downs along the way
What’s This Blog About?
My intent for Part-Time Paradise is to take you, the reader, along on our travels. You’ll get to take trips with us. We’ll documents all of the places, activities, and events. We’ll also share our thoughts on campgrounds and other destinations. Finally, I’ll share my lessons, tribulations, and victories that we encounter as owners of a vacation home on wheels. I hope you’ll follow along our journey.
