(This is an excerpt from my book The Spartan RV)

We all have the vision.

We can vision ourselves visiting all the amazing places in North America. Seeing it all, let alone, living immersively in it all, would take a lifetime.

We lived our lifetime working.

We spent our YEARS getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Getting ready also meant, getting financially ready. Scrapping, scraping, living, accumulating, and if all goes well retiring.

All these places are on our list (this is just a sample, ok?): Niagara Falls, Carhenge, USS Lexington, Corn Palace, Mile High stadium, Yosemite. Any lake or place in Canada, Mall of America, Orlando, Orlando, Orlando, Grand Canyon.

The list goes on and on. It is as endless as the imagination of the adventurer.

A large portion of these people would like to visit these places with 1) No schedule, 2) No reservations, 3) No commitments, and 4) traveling as you see fit.

Doing it in a recreational vehicle (RV) seems like a perfect fit.

The largest RV that can legally roam the road is 399 square feet. I repeat for EFFECT: The LARGEST RV is 399 square feet.

The problem is that after 30, 40, or 50 years of living you accumulated some stuff. In fact, if you are AVERAGE, your house size has ballooned to nearly 2,500 square feet. [ See graph ]

Getting all that stuff from 2,500 square feet to less than 400 square feet is a reduction of 5 times. Oh yea, RVs don’t come with garages which most home do so the space problem between the two is even bigger.

Before ending this short chapter, do you remember when you were in your parents or grandparents house, perhaps in the 50′s, 60′s or 70′s or even earlier?

I do. I remember that those houses were really small. They were cozy little 3-6 room houses on modest lots. What they lacked in size, they made up with character, quality, and little touches like porches and outdoor areas. This is what we’ve gotten far away from. I imagine the jump from those little houses to an RV wouldn’t be hard for the people that lived in them.

So the BIG question is… how do you go from 2,500 square feet to less than 400 square feet while simultaneously having everything you need to experience North America fully?

That my friendly reader is the idea behind the book: Going from BIG life to RV life.