Yahoo Finance Why this couple sold their home to live as nomads in their RV
It's not always easy, longtime couple Larry and Alice Grimm will be the first to admit. But 19 months after choosing to live as nomads in an RV, they're not ready to turn back yet.
In February of 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning, the Grimms sold their home in Florida, along with most of their belongings, and hit the open road. They recently ended up in P.E.I., where they spent three weeks of their adventure.
"I'm from Florida, and when I see cliffs, especially red sand and red cliffs, I'm in another world," Alice said.
The Grimms worked for 30 years, but when Larry started to get arthritis, they decided it was a good time to retire.
"I knew that I was going to change something, and not working would really bring down the stress level. So I said to Alice, I said, 'What do you think about moving into an RV?'"
I knew that I was going to change something, and not working would really bring down the stress level. So I said to Alice, I said, 'What do you think about moving into an RV?' — Larry Grimm
He made it look appealing, Alice said.
"What he did was show me other YouTubers that were parked by mountains and lakes and streams and said, 'This is what we're going to do.' We haven't quite gotten there yet, but we've parked close enough that we can walk to the beach, so that's good enough for me."
Larry, who is from Ontario, holds dual citizenship, so coming home to Canada was an attractive destination as the pandemic took hold.
But they said driving away from the house where they raised their children for 23 years, and were part of the community, was an "emotional moment.
"It was scary, but ... it's exciting too, you know, because we wanted to get out of the routine, the rut," Alice said.
"We knew the house was empty. The kids were out of the house. The walls were echoing and it was time to do something different."
At first, they said, it seemed like a vacation. Then they realized they had to slow down.
"Every day is a little different, and that's the whole idea of this lifestyle is you have a lot more variety in your life," Larry said.
Their destination depends on the weather. They look for that sweet spot — about 18 C in the morning and no hotter than 25 C during the day.
They usually set up in national or state parks, living day by day instead of the structured life they were accustomed to.
Not like the movie Nomadland
And while it's not like the movie Nomadland — they don't poop in a bucket, they said, and they weren't forced to live this way — living in an RV can be difficult at times.
"Some days are awesome and we've definitely had our bad days and I won't candy coat it. It's not all great," Larry said.
"You've got two people who have been together for 36 years and you're in a small space, so sometimes that can be tough. But there are challenges of travelling and moving — we move about every two weeks — and that's sometimes challenging."
