Full-Time Nomads With No End In Sight!
Inspiring Nomads
Q+A with The Wandering Shores!
Zach and I are very excited to bring back our Inspiring Nomads blog series in 2024! We’re eager to share more about our friends and fellow nomads who have chosen similar lifestyles to ours! This month, we highlight Kyle & Michelle from The Wandering Shores! They are thriving as full-time nomads and have figured out the best way to live this life, all while saving money. They say, “on September 9th, 2024, we will hit our four-year anniversary of road life,” “with no end in sight.”
“We are Kyle and Michelle Shore (The Wandering Shores); in September 2020, we headed out from Indianapolis, Indiana, for what initially was planned to be a two-year RV adventure.”
Kyle and Michelle’s rig of choice is a 2018 Keystone Outback 240urs. This unique RV is 28 feet long with a rear slide, front-end toy hauler, and an entry ramp from the side. The one pro to towing is it allows them to unhitch! This way, they can leave their tiny home behind while they take the truck out for adventures and chores.
Let’s talk about luxury!
There are many questions and assumptions based on tiny home dwellers and how we have to give things up. But living tiny doesn’t mean we have to give up all our favorite luxury items! Kyle and Michelle have chosen to travel with a few comfort items of their own. The first item is their air fryer. Although an air fryer is something you can find in most homes, they consider having theirs a luxury. Kyle says it is something Michelle uses each night for dinner, and “it makes cooking so much easier!” Kyle has chosen to travel with his PS5 and an 80-inch projection TV screen! The Shores enjoy working out and mountain biking as well. They consider themselves lucky to have a toy hauler RV. It allows for the extra space to travel with some of their favorite things!
Check out their YouTube channel to see a complete walkthrough of their rig.
“We had lots of experience living in a tiny space before we started living in our camper full-time. The only ‘luxury’ furniture we had in our tiny house was two lazy boys. So, one thing I wish I would’ve known before living in our camper full time is to get rid of the scissor-jack couch and get a lazy boy loveseat. I quickly got tired of always sitting on the couch while Kyle got to sit in a lazy boy. This has made our camper living area much more comfortable for me.”
Why go tiny?
“During a vacation in 2014 to Ketchikan, Alaska, we were introduced to the idea of tiny living. When we returned home, Kyle started researching and watching hundreds and hundreds of hours of YouTube on downsizing, living small, etc. We joined a tiny home group on meetup.com but quickly realized that building a tiny home on wheels was a lot of work, required a big truck, and was not really meant to be hauled around on a regular basis. This eventually led him to find some of the original RV nomads, Long Long Honeymoon, Fate Unbound, and Drivin & Vibin. After a year of planning, we sold our home in June 2015 and moved into a tiny cabin (325 sq feet) with the intention to live tiny for five years and then hit the road.”
The challenging & not-so-challenging aspects of RV life.
“The challenges have changed over time. Initially, it was an Internet connection, but we got Starlink in January 2022, which changed everything. The next challenge was finding ways to make money on the road. When we launched, the plan was to live for two years on the road, and we had saved enough money to live off our savings. However, once we realized this was how we wanted to live for much longer, we had to figure out how to make money. As funny as it may sound, the biggest challenge for us right now is finding places to throw out garbage. We boondock 99% of the time, so we don’t have access to trash without significant effort. For us, living small has been a pretty easy transition. Since we moved into our cabin in 2015, we have become very comfortable with small living, so the transition to a 188 sq ft trailer was no big deal.”
Working on the road.
As full-time nomads, we get loads of questions about the lifestyle. One major question for almost everyone is how we find stable work while living an unstable life. After 2020, things became more accessible for full-time travelers. But it doesn't mean finding remote work is always easy, and it can sometimes seem daunting! Despite the competitive industry, the Shores seem to have figured it out! Both Kyle and Michelle work from home. They each have flexible schedules, allowing them to travel and live off-grid as free as a bird. “Michelle works part-time for an online educational survey company," and "Kyle works part-time for Southern New Hampshire University as an online professor.”
A day in their life.
“We live our life like regular people. The only difference is we don’t get up and drive to work. We are not on vacation, so we don’t travel every day or sightsee every day. We are out here living life. Some days are boring, but most days, we get up, eat breakfast and work online. Our work hours are flexible, so we don’t have to sit in front of our computer all day. During the day, we take several walks, work out, watch TV, work on an RV project, or take a nap.”
Finding community on the road.
“Initially, this was difficult; we were camping in remote areas with few people, and much of our first 3-4 months was just us. Then, in December 2020, we met a couple and their young daughter in Florida who happened to be riding bikes right near our campsite. These were our first “road friends”. We traveled on and off with them for about three months, but they had to return to Pennsylvania due to some family health problems. We then decided that we liked meeting and traveling with others, which led us to sign up for our first RV Rally. We attended the 2021 Escapade in Rock Springs, WY, and began to find our community. YouTube is also another place where we have made friendships. Currently, a large part of our community is through attending Xscapers Convergences and the annual Xscapers Bash. These events have allowed us to reunite with our road friends and make new friends.”
Traveling with pets.
The Shores travel with four cats: Nikko, Marley, Mooshie, and Chanel! Michelle states that one of the pros to traveling with cats is that they “make good company and give you those feel-good endorphins.”
“Whenever I take a nap, all four cats come up to the bed and join me, and that feels pretty good. It’s nice to know you are owned by your pets.”
Another pro to being cat owners is that they don’t have to take them on walks or out for potty breaks like you do with dogs! Although there are many pros to traveling with cats, there are a few cons that the Shores shed some light on! “I get ‘cat mom guilt’ when we leave our cats for long periods of time. Even though they sleep most of the time that we are gone and take care of themselves, the guilt is real!” Another con they mentioned “is not having the vertical space that cats like so much.” Cats love erect spaces, and living in a travel trailer, they don’t have the same height as they would in a home. Because of this, the Shores plan to “create something... to give {the cats} that much desired vertical space” in the near future.
A few of their favorite things.
State:
“We love being out West. There are more opportunities for boondocking, and the full-time RV community is far more available. Our goal when we hit the road was to ‘Chase 70.’ We have multiple favorite states that seem to change the more we travel. Currently, our favorite states are Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Washington, and Arizona.”
National Park:
“We love the “Big Five” parks in Utah. Zion National Park was our favorite because we conquered Angels Landing and the Narrows hike, but we would also like to mention what we consider #6, Cedar Breaks National Monument. What an amazing hidden gem with a fraction of the people. We have currently visited 37 of the 63 National Parks.”
State Park:
“Slick Rock State Park near Sedona, Arizona. We visited for the day and enjoyed spending time in the water. Honestly, we have not spent much time in State Parks as we have traveled; many of them have an entry fee, so that has been a deterrent.”
Hiking/Biking Trail:
“Colchuck Lake Trail near Leavenworth, Washington. Hands down, it's our favorite trail. We do have a video of that adventure on our YouTube channel.”
Campsites:
“Badger Creek Dispersed Camping near Greer, Arizona. We have been to many amazing locations, and this spot in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest just has it all. Amazing views, wild animals, and amazing hiking and biking from the camp spot.”
The stories they tell.
Some of the best stories come from sitting around the campfire chatting with fellow nomads. It is something that Zach and I have come to enjoy and one of our favorite things about meeting new friends on the road! Each of us experiences this life so very differently. And it’s always exciting to hear about the types of encounters others have while traveling!
The scariest thing to happen.
“We were boondocking in an old abandoned airfield near Mt. Hood in Oregon. Late at night, a large truck pulled up near our camper and revved its engine for several minutes. Our neighbors confronted the guy, who just ignored them. He eventually drove away but returned about 15 minutes later and did the same thing. The police arrived, but he had left again just before that. We believe it was ‘a local’ who probably was just trying to be a jerk because we were camping ‘in his area.’”
After one month on the road.
“We had been on the road for about a month; when visiting some friends in West Virginia, we all went on a mountain bike ride. When we were done, we packed up and headed home, only to realize that we both had left our front tires back at the trailhead. We returned to find they were gone, and after checking with the park rangers and on Craigslist with no luck, we were forced to buy two new tires ($500+ unexpected expense one month into traveling…ugh).”
Shoutout to the Shores!
We want to thank Kyle & Michelle from The Wandering Shores for being part of our Inspiring Nomads blog! Show them support as they continue their journey as full-time nomads. Here are a few ways you can get in touch with them!
Website: www.thewanderingshores.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@thewanderingshores
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewanderingshores
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewanderingshores
Follow along their journey and give them some love in the comments! Subscribe to their weekly newsletter! Ask questions about their rig & life! And don’t forget to subscribe to their YouTube Channel!
To read about other Inspiring Nomads or our journey as vanlifers, visit the blog! There, we shed light on what it's like to travel full-time and offer tips and tricks about the lifestyle. Thanks for reading, and as always, safe travels!
