After a long day of travel, Cassie Bailey’s family was looking for a spot to park their RV in the Utah mountains so they could get some rest.
Bailey, her husband, and their four children, who all lived together in the RV, woke up to the sounds of sheep baaing all around them. It’s just one of many magical memories the family of six has been able to create while living on the road full time.
Through these travels, the family has had the chance to see wild horses run in Arizona and build a community of friends on the road. Bailey saw a turtle and a dolphin while paddleboarding in Florida, and saw the northern lights on a date-night hike.
Her family’s journey reminds her of the late ’90s Nickelodeon cartoon “The Wild Thornberrys,” which featured a family traveling by RV and documenting animals. The family, as an homage to the show, styled their social media handles as “wildthornbaileys.” They started their full-time RV journey in 2019, but recently took a roughly one-year break while still doing RV life when they could. That gap is coming to an end, as they plan to hit the road this summer when the larger RV they bought and renovated is ready.
The couple has four kids — aged 8, 10, 13, and 14, with the youngest being under 2 when they first started RV life. Bailey said that almost losing one of their children to undiagnosed type 1 diabetes prompted them to move from a house to the open road.
“We realized we were both working nonstop, and we just wanted to spend more time with our kids,” Bailey said, who was a photographer largely working weekends and nights while her husband worked in construction. Her son’s health scare inspired them to take a chance. “All we could think about was all the things he hadn’t done.”
So in 2019, they sold their house and most of their belongings to fund their new chapter. Bailey said it was scary to hit the road with four kids. But the family, who didn’t travel much prior to RV life, has loved the adventures and new memories they’ve created. “I’ll never sit at another hospital in a chair thinking all the regrets of things I didn’t get to do with my kids and husband,” Bailey said.
There are ways to control spending
Bailey said RV life could end up being more expensive than a house if you spend like you’re on vacation, but that’s not how the family lives, and they find it’s been an affordable lifestyle. She said living in a house temporarily while they were waiting for their new RV was a big adjustment because they hadn’t had to pay for electricity or water in years.
“We like to find all the ways to save money in any way possible so that we’re able to fund our travels more,” Bailey said.
She said the cost of staying at campgrounds varies. They use membership programs like those offered by Thousand Trails and Passport America for deals. Otherwise, they will park in public spaces managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
She said free areas without water, electric, or sewage hookups can be a way to save money, but it means they have to plan, packing additional water and other necessities.
Fuel can get expensive, but RVers can stay at campgrounds or explore local spots for a while before returning to the road. However, Bailey said aspiring RVers should be mindful of rising prices. Her family uses Open Roads, a free fuel card that lets RVers save at participating locations.
The family also leverages their Costco membership for food, since there are plenty of locations. They also like to shop at farmers markets and try to be mindful that prices can be higher in tourist locations.
“We do end up spending more on food when we’re traveling, if we’re not careful, especially if we eat out a lot, which is easy to do because you’ll see these cute little places,” Bailey said.
She said that because a lot of RVers work remote jobs, it’s best to have as much internet access as possible in case one plan works better in certain conditions. Her family pays about $100 a month for OTR, a wireless internet service targeted to travelers and those in rural areas, and $165 a month for a Starlink plan.
Her family has been through a few RVs, and is moving into their latest one, partly because the older children wanted their own space and privacy. In their last RV, all four kids were sharing a room with two bunk beds. The new RV will allow the kids to have more space to themselves.
Pros and cons of RV living as a family
Bailey said it’s easy for the kids, who are homeschooled, to connect with other families on the road. She said they’ll sometimes plan their trips around their kids’ friends, and that it feels like she’s raising her family in the ’90s.
“They’re outside playing from sunup to sundown, and everybody’s watching out for everybody’s kids,” she said.
RV living also allows the family to pursue goals that might not be feasible if they weren’t on wheels. Bailey said there’s a tech camp one of her kids wants to attend, so they’re able to travel to that. She likes that she and her husband get to teach their kids hands-on beyond books, such as by going to science museums. “It’s easier to homeschool and educate the kids in the RV versus in a house,” she said.
Her husband is now a stay-at-home dad, doing a lot of the homeschooling and home duties. Bailey said when they first started traveling, her husband’s job was RV roofing, while she worked remotely for a company’s email marketing team. Now she’s a content creator, which her husband helps with, posting about her travels and doing brand deals; she also does affiliate marketing, works as a travel agent, and is a marketing manager.
She also likes that many campgrounds have a pool, playground, and activities, making it easy to be entertained. Bailey also thinks RV-based date nights are cool because you can travel pretty much anywhere.
RVs have some tradeoffs relative to a house not on wheels. Bailey said you have to worry about securing items in the RV to avoid things breaking or falling, and RVs are less spacious than houses and have less storage space.
She suggests others looking to pursue RV living first tour or rent one so you can get familiar with what it’s like. “If it doesn’t work out, you end up back in a house,” Bailey said. “If your kids hate it, you end up back in a house, you end up back where you started.”
It’s also important to make sure the layout fits for however many people will be tagging along. “Definitely purchase the RV your family can grow into, not one that fits your little kids perfectly right now, because then you grow out of it so quickly, like we did,” she said.
She also cautioned that it’s a learning experience and can get stressful, like when the vehicle breaks down.
“There’s so much character building that happens living in an RV and traveling in such close quarters with your family,” she said.
Have you sold your house for RV life? Reach out to this reporter at mhoff@businessinsider.com.
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