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Tina and Craig Klinefelter spent most of their life chasing the traditional “American Dream,” only to realize that something more important was missing. After RVing for vacations, they realized they could pursue that same sense of relaxation and adventure every day. Now, they live full-time in their Jayco Pinnacle fifth wheel RV, traveling North America, spending quality time with family and creating their own adventures together.
WHAT FINALLY MADE YOU START RVING FULL-TIME?
What our life used to look like was: a big house, big yard, two cars, camper, motorcycle, boat, everything you could ask for. Family, a lot of stuff and working nine to five. It was basically just working to live versus living to work, and not having a whole lot of time to enjoy what we were working towards. And then bam, Tina’s job got cut. And we were left thinking, “What direction are we going to go in now?” So we decided to change it up a little.
WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF RVING FULL-TIME?
We fully immerse ourselves in hiking and experiencing the beauty of nature. There's nothing like it. We're having these pinch me moments all the time like, "Is this really happening? Is there any place on earth this beautiful?" And it is just blowing us away. We’ve seen so many breathtaking views, so many lakes, waterfalls, hikes. There's so much to do. I mean, we'll be somewhere for two weeks and we'll just scratch the surface of things to do. It's just so amazing.
WHAT HAS RVING CHANGED FOR YOU?
We went from 4,000 square feet to 400 square feet, so pretty tight quarters. And we’ve always liked each other, but it’s brought us closer together, because you can't hide anything. There's nowhere to go if you have a heated discussion. So you talk things through and there’s a lot more communication. We do it pretty well now.
HOW DO YOU STAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR FAMILY?
We stay connected with our kids by visiting and parking in their driveway, having ice cream sundaes, chocolate chip pancakes together, movie nights with the grandkids, having family dinners... Also, when we are not there, we FaceTime them and tell them where we are on the map and have conversations about where we are. We travel several months out of the year, but like half the time we're parking in our kid's driveways and spending time with our grandkids.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST SURPRISE ABOUT RV TRAVEL?
There's so many other people out there doing it. It's not just us. We're not isolated. There's such a big community out there and everybody's so friendly. Everybody would just give you the shirt off their back, help you out if you had an issue. So yes, we're missing our family, but we made new friends and new family because we have met so many people that we still keep in touch with. It's just that it's more prevalent than people think. More people are doing it. Both weekend warriors, some people call them “some-timers,” and full-time RVers, which there are a lot of. it's not just retired people. It's younger people that are starting out this way too.
The Klinefelters travel in a Jayco Pinnacle fifth wheel RV. Read more about their story here.
Watch more on Craig and Tina Klinefelter: https://youtu.be/3wegPDUE2YE
