How Do You Survive?

The two of us on a waterfall hike near Dominical, Costa Rica

This is something we get asked about often.

It is usually in reference to our marriage as in “I would kill my spouse if I spent all my time with them”.

Other times people want to know how we manage to get by with such a small amount of “stuff” in our world.

Andrea and I usually smile at each other and non-verbally signal who gets to answer first. 

Truthfully, we had the same questions of each other when we first set out to live full time in the Queen.

We were uncertain as to how we would respond to each other day in and day out. 

Without any distractions from the kids at home, jobs outside the house, or activities we had developed in our lives there were no excuses for us not to communicate effectively.

Driving away to embark on a totally new lifestyle and one in which it was just the two of us for the first time in our 25 years together was scary, exciting, and all sorts of feelings in between.

The one constant we knew was that we had to be willing to change, grow, and adapt to the unknowns. 

All our plants stowed away in the shower and prepared for another travel day.

Let’s answer the easy question first. 

Life with less “things” is freeing! 

It is refreshing to have minimal clutter and as a bonus cleaning your home when it consists of 224 square feet is a much faster chore than at any other time in our lives.

We prioritize our belongings and ensure that everything we have has multiple purposes it can fulfill in our days.

The bed of the truck is our garage and where we store our generator, air compressor, tools, water equipment, weights, and paddle boards.

On our travel days, we “triple check the double check” as my friend Ryan would say every night as we closed the gym. 

We ensure everything is in its travel spot to avoid finding disaster inside when we arrive at our destination. 

For example, our plants travel securely in the shower and all our wall decorations lay on the bed.  Our solar panels are packed and stored in the back seat of the King along with extra freshwater jugs. 

It is quite fun to see everything in its place and know that in three hours you will have a new view of sunrises, sunsets, and mother nature. 

Puerto Jiminez, Costa Rica was magical in so many ways!

As to how our marriage survives, well we are happy to tell you it is better than ever! 

Being in such a small space and spending 24 hours a day together forces you to get good at being honest.

No longer can something bother one of us and we just distract ourselves from it until it passes.  No more “I’ll just ignore it and hope we forget about it”.

Now we talk and figure it out right away, so that we can move on enjoying our days.

This much time together alone has allowed us to learn and understand each other’s likes, dislikes, and dreams beyond what we thought we knew.

We get to visit our old personal favorite places and discover new favorite places together, while improving our patience, compromising, and love for one another!

Living full time in our airstream has been a blessing for us in so many ways we had not expected!

Follow our adventures daily on Instagram @alternateroads