Our place in Yuma

I explained in an earlier post about how we have housing while we move around for Caleb to work as a travel nurse. The travel agency provides us a furnished apartment or we can find our own furnished apartment for each contract and the agency will give us a set stipend amount for housing. You can often save money by finding your own furnished housing that costs less than the stipend amount. So back in December we thought "hey, let's give it a try finding our own place for cheaper and saving some more money." And so we did just that! 

We researched using VRBO, Homeaway.com, Airbnb, craigslist, and apartment websites. One problem you can run into with looking for and reserving your own housing sight unseen is the risk of being scammed. We read many travel nurses are able to arrange sight unseen as long as you are careful and do all you can to assure the rental is legit. We were already aware of this when we were looking for rentals in Colorado Springs back in 2012. We inquired about one rental posted on Zillow.com  which seemed too good to be true but thought we would see what the response was about it's availability. We received by email what was the most obvious scam to us. An email saying "we are missionaries who have had to leave suddenly to Uganda and we aren't able to show you the house in person but you can send us your information on this application form and then we'll arrange you picking up a key after you wire us your deposit" or something close to that wording. All this to say, we knew going into looking for our housing while travel nursing sight unseen we needed to use caution and wisdom as there are plenty of scammers. 

After looking at options online and calling many places for pricing information, we came across an ad on craigslist for an RV 5th wheel rental. My first thought was "be weary as this is a craigslist ad and not as trustworthy as some of the other sights." They had a lot of pictures of the inside and it looked really nice. I initially was hesitant wondering how I personally would feel about living in an RV for 3 months. Caleb said go ahead and call them to find out more about it and see if it's legit from what we could find out. So I called and a nice older gentleman answered the phone. His wife was there too so we chatted for a while and they gave a lot of information and answered all of our questions. We felt very comfortable after talking with them. It was easy to see it was parked in a legitimate RV resort and we could easily call the RV resort to see if this couple truly owned a 5th wheel in this spot they were renting. We told them we would talk about it and let them know if we would like to have them hold it for us to rent for 3 months once we got into town. 

We made the decision and said yes! They had an older couple renting it already for the first two weeks we were going to be in town so we said that was fine because we found a cheap and nice vacation rental on airbnb.com we could stay at for the first two weeks. We ended up actually saving even more money for the month of January splitting the time between the vacation rental and the RV. 

So we are RV living now! We've been in the 40 foot RV for about a week now and so far we are loving it. I never would have imagined I would like it this much. It feels like a home and not like you are out camping and roughing it. There's a living room area with a love seat and two chairs, an electric fireplace, and a little desk area. 

Then you walk into the kitchen area which had much more storage than I expected for an RV. This kitchen was already equipped with cooking items which is what we needed since we only traveled with what we could fit in our car.  No dishwasher which I've lived without before so it's nostalgic to our first year as newlyweds. And only one small decent section of counter space for cooking/preparing meals, but you know what, it works even though I do enjoy cooking. 

I'm thankful God has been teaching me over many years now about learning to be flexible and more of a laid back person. I still have a long way to go to saying I'm a laid back person, but I'm more-so than I used to be. This has prepared me for having a great attitude of looking at aspects of living in an RV. There is upkeep like any home you own where things don't work and you have to fix them. I see things which I could choose to grumble about but rather I can take them as opportunities to be grateful for what I do have. I'm sure I'll continue to grow and learn important life lessons through living in an RV. 

From the kitchen you walk up a couple steps into the hallway type area which has the bathroom amenities which can be closed off by sliding pocket doors. There is a nice tall shower which we don't have to stoop in. Then you walk into the bedroom. It has a bed, closet, and storage spaces and that's about all you need.

Even though it's a small space, we feel like we are living in luxury. Crazy, huh? Before we moved into the RV, we were already toying with the idea of buying an RV for us to travel nurse in. After moving into our 5th wheel here, this idea has continued to grow. Even after having two issues already which both we knew the problems too (propane pilot light won't stay lit in the oven & hot water wouldn't work one night) we are still excited thinking about buying an RV.  We've done research learning about some different types of RVs - 5th wheel trailer, class A, class B, class C, travel trailers, and toy haulers. We have gone to a couple RV shows going into many RVs checking them out. We go back and forth on the advantages and disadvantages to each one and some weeks we'll both be set on what we like, but the next week our mind changes on what we think would be better. This is what leads to more researching and hearing about others personal experiences. There is a Facebook group specifically for people who travel nurse in an RV with close to 1500 members. 

We met another travel nurse couple working with Caleb here in Yuma who travel in an RV and they love it. They said it's been one of the best decision they've made and they would never change it. I had lunch one day with Caleb, this same couple, and some other travel nurses. One was a lady in her 60s who her husband and her live and travel in a 5th wheel for her to travel nurse. Another nurse middle-aged is traveling alone, and said she had been doing the research for two years about what kind of RV to get and if she really wanted one. Caleb reported a week later that she had gone and done it. She bought herself a 5th wheel and the truck after 2 years of thinking about it and doing the research. (A 5th wheel is an RV which is a trailer you have to tow behind a large pickup truck). We both love the idea of being in an RV for Caleb to travel nurse, so now our research into buying and looking at RVs continue. Feel free to share advice you may have on any personal RV experiences.