Peter, Myran and dog Luka have changed their life’s course. They have been living in their motorhome since the beginning of 2022 and are 'Endless on Wheels'. In three blogs, they provide answers to questions such as: how does such a dream become reality? What makes you decide to leave your house behind and live in your motorhome? How are you experiencing your first adventures as full-time motorhomers? And they talk about their plans for the future. In this first part they tell us about their dream and how it was turned into reality.
We are Peter, Myran and our dog Luka. Until this year we were recreational motorhome owners who, with our motorhome 'the Endless', took beautiful motorhome trips at weekends and during holidays. Ever since the purchase of our first motorhome (a Knaus Alcove), we have been fantasizing about living in a motorhome permanently. As the years passed, we encountered more and more motorhome owners who lived in theirs. These stories inspired us and we talked about doing so ourselves more and more. 'How nice would it be if we could have stayed in that beautiful spot a little longer'. And 'what if there were no more Mondays in the sense of a new working week, but a Monday that we could celebrate somewhere on a beautiful beach?' We did wonder, however, if we could live in such a small space. Yet the dreams prevailed! Being able to drive in any direction you want, at any time you want. In short: what if we really could be next level motorhomers? Well, the decision has been made! Since January 2, 2022 we are ‘Endless on Wheels’.
When do you make this decision and based on what? This can of course be different for everyone, but it will be roughly based on two things: budget and (external) circumstances.
Budget
The starting point, of course, was calculating whether and how our plan could work from a budgetary point of view. For us it meant that we would have to work for a few more years. In addition, our experience shows that the dream grows with you over the years and becomes more and more present, and that we started to focus our lives more and more on this dream as its fulfillment became more realistic. For example, the moment dreams become plans, we started handling our purchases differently; Ikea was visited less frequently, and fewer "nice to have things" were also bought for the home.
External circumstances
And then the external circumstance. Together, we have four children, three of whom live independently and one who just can’t seem to find a suitable place to live. She still lived with us, which was a reason not to just pack up and leave. But it will probably be recognizable to everyone that things happen in your life, in family circles, sad events or just at a moment in your life when you wonder when it is the right time to really take action. Perhaps we should no longer wait for the ideal moment. After all, you only get one life. Corona also affected us a lot, because the more our wanderlust was limited by all the restrictions and regulations, the more we fantasized about that one dream; live in our motorhome.
So, we started calculating, we started talking, we started thinking. And during that process, there were suddenly some medical issues for both of us that were fortunately resolved very well, but which did provide a huge wake up call; another trigger after one of us ended up in hospital out of the blue. The following Saturday, at home on the couch, we looked at each other and we came back to the subject. Are we going to wait or are we going to do it now? We both chose the latter. Then the execution could begin.
We promised our daughter who lives at home that she could stay in our house, until she finds a suitable and affordable home. For her, the idea took some getting used to, but not long after that, she started to design the interior to her own taste and we could start selling quite a few pieces of furniture. The other three kids also thought it was a great idea and immediately took it seriously. They know us well enough to know that this could actually happen and they don't see keeping in touch as a problem. We are talking about young people in their thirties here, who are used to keeping in touch via social media and Facetime; options that are not limited to where you are at that moment. Moreover, a return ticket by plane is also fairly easy to arrange.
Operation declutter
From that point on, we had four months left to sell, give away, or dump furniture, cars, motorcycles, and stuff we wouldn’t need anymore. Operation decluttering had started. Everything we had collected over the years went through a selection process. On each floor of the house we had four different types of boxes: throw away, sell, storage, and take. The items that ended up in the last box were then checked another 36 times to make sure we really needed this on our journey. ‘The Endless’ has a normal load capacity of up to 3500 kg., which is easily doable for a holiday or weekend, but now we preferred to be safe. In view of the enormous fines for overloading that are handed out in various countries, we thought it better to bring a trailer.
The ideal trailer
Peter set to work with a self-made construction to load and unload the bicycles and Myran bought some storage boxes. So, the trailer contains everything we thought we could not do without. Now, more than two months later, we can already say: what were we thinking? A trailer like this also means that you take far too much, especially an unnecessary amount of clothing; way too many shoes and way too many toys for Luka and so on. Did we forget to bring something that we should have brought? Well, no! Everything is available on the journey! You realize this when you pack, but trust me, you still think you need two pairs of sneakers and five dresses instead of three. And hey, why not? We have the trailer after all!
Anyway, back to the preparation. And the goodbyes. Suddenly the big day is fast approaching. We said goodbye to our nice colleagues, dear friends and before you know it the day is there when the motorhome and trailer are parked on the sidewalk and you, under the watchful eye of your neighbors, are hugging your children and saying goodbye. I write this down briefly and quickly, but it took some tissues during the first kilometers on the Dutch highway, let's be honest about that!
Curious about the first adventures of Peter, Myran and Luka? You can read it here: Peter, Myran and Luka: the first experience as full-time motorhomers.
For more impressions, updates and videos from Peter, Myran and Luka, we refer you to their social media channels on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. They can be found under the name 'Endless on Wheels'.
Fun fact about the creation of this name: 'Loos is our last name, our motorhome is called 'The Endless' and hence our social media channels: Endless on Wheels.