We have been living in our RV, Sleipnir, since August 2017. Neither of us had any experience with owning a motorhome or even much camping experience, but we researched as much as we could to find out if it was the right environment for us. So far, it has been. We bought a vintage 1988 Tiffin Allegro in April 2017, and then spent a few months working on it. We didn’t get as much done as we would have liked, mostly because we were working and didn’t have as much free cash as we’d have liked.

The current project we are working on is the Smart Home on Wheels. The idea is to bring as much smart technology as we can into a mobile lifestyle. Since Eric has a lot of experience with computers and networking, he’s been leading the push to make Sleipnir as technologically advanced as possible. We are improving the networking inside the RV and the connection to the outside internet. We are also adding smart devices such as ways to control the lights and temperature, monitor the outside, and eventually be able to access all our entertainment from any device. We are also trying to boost our battery storage and add solar power. As we add these items, we will blog about the quality and ease of installation and use of each of them. In the end, Eric will probably write a full ebook to publish with detailed instructions on how to make your own RV a Smart Home on Wheels.

Eric

I am from a small town in Wisconsin. I went to college, worked as a web designer for a few years, then went back to school a few years later to finish my degree. After some issues in Wisconsin, I moved to Florida for some change and a new environment. I met Tiffany there, and after five years of chasing, she agreed to marry me. We’ve been happily married since 2014 and decided to move back to Wisconsin a two years ago.

Ever since I was young, I wanted to be self sufficient. I’ve gone back and forth between living on a small farm in the middle of nowhere to getting in an RV and traveling the country. In the winter of 2016, we decided to finally go for it and get an RV and travel.

I deal with a pretty severe mental illness, and dealing with that will be part of this blog and our videos. How to get medication on the road, what to do if you need to see a doctor, and things like how to find support groups when you know no one.

Tiffany

I was born in Crawfordsville, IN and moved to Vero Beach, FL when I was 7. I lived there for 30 years and am proud to call Florida my home. I moved to Melbourne, FL when I was about 27 because when I was in junior high, I used to go to Melbourne because Melbourne had a better mall!

I met Eric in 2006 and we became best friends, communicating every day, even if we didn’t see each other in person. After many years of him loving me and me being too scared to admit the love was mutual, I finally let my walls down and accepted his marriage proposal. My only condition-my cat, Marshall (Bubba), stays with us as our fur-baby. Eric didn’t have MUCH of a problem with this!

I went to college on and off and worked in the medical field, but couldn’t quite find my passion, so when the opportunity came to move to WI, for a change, we did. I started school as a Veterinary Technologist, but due to my own struggle with severe depression and anxiety, I couldn’t finish my education.

Because of our struggles, I became interested in natural and holistic health and finally found my passion. I am applying to become a certified aromatherapist. I created a natural health blog, Facebook group, YouTube channel…and many other social media outlets and it is truly what I love to do!

Our videos on the road will include my natural and holistic health finds and reviews while on the road and my journey to become an aromatherapist. I hope to eventually become a master aromatherapist.

Above all, I am a proud mom of 3 fur-babies. Odin, Zoe, and Rain.

Marshall

Marshall “Bubba” Mathers Morris Baierl

Yeah I know, long name but Ill explain why I keep it. We call him Bubba for short.

My very best friend was an apartment complex agent and found Marshall, as a kitten, eating out of a dumpster. He was assumed to be abandoned by his owners, which she said happened frequently. She kept him for a while and I saw him a few times when I would visit, although I vaguely remember him as a baby.

I moved from Vero Beach to Melbourne when I was around 27 and my friend asked me if I wanted a cat. I said I would take him even though I didn’t expect much more than a companion. Well, I was wrong about that. He quickly became my bff, my baby, my partner in crime, and my number one little dude.

He’s been through a lot medically, but is still happy and purring and in love with me and the feeling is mututal!

Now for how he got his name. My best friend, who gave him to me, loved the rapper Eminem, so she named him Marshall Mathers. My maiden name is Morris and my married name is Baierl and his nickname is Bubba. Why Bubba? Honestly? He never responded to Marshall. I would and still call him little baby names in baby voices…yeah yeah, I know…but he answers to Bubba so it stuck. Now everyone in the household is called some form of Bubba and it just works!

Sadly, Marshall passed away in May 2017. We did everything we could for him, but in the end, his infection was too much and we had to let him go.

Rain

Rain began her life somewhere around Miami, FL. She was found by a family friend as they traveled north on I-95 just sitting next to a gas pump all alone. She was friendly, alone, and tailless. Eric was given to her by a coworker, and she quickly adapted to a comfortable life in an apartment with one other cat.

Rain plays fetch, especially with a certain orange fish found at Publix. She is also very talkative and meows constantly, chats and responds to humans. She also loves sitting in the window watching birds while her jaw twitches as she chitters at them.

Rain is a spayed six year old female Manx. She has a grey striped coat with a target circle on her ribs and spots on her belly. She doesn’t have a tail and never has, though she has a few vertebrae that twitch when she gets excited.

Zoe

Zoe was found as a kitten in the shed of a friend. She brought in Zoe and her siblings, as well as their mother. The mother and male kittens were fixed and released, but Zoe became ours and her sister Monkey stayed in the house with the friend.

Zoe has always been terrified of everything. We do our best to care for her, but she absolutely hates humans. She hides during the day, but comes out at night to run around and eat. Zoe and Odin have their own special language and talk at night with little mews back and forth.

Zoe has been difficult, but we’d never get rid of her. We are trying to socialize her more and bring her out. She had an infection awhile ago, so we had to give her medicine and clean the wound. We put a muzzle on her so she couldn’t bite us, and that calmed her down immediately. We are trying to use that with her every day and hold her, so maybe she’ll realize humans aren’t that bad.

Odin

Odin is the newest addition to our household. He is a kitten still, only about 14 weeks old, and rambunctious, hyper, active and playful. We got him from a farm family that picked him out of his barn litter as the most social one, and he is proving to be just that. He purrs every time we pick him up and plays with just about anything we give him. We have him in a crate now to keep the other cats away from him and keep from getting into places we can’t get him out of, but we take him out and play with him a lot to socialize him.

Rain and Zoe meow and hiss at him, Rain has smacked him in the face a couple of times (though no claws), but I think when he gets a little bigger and we can let him out full time, they will get along fine. We are hoping he becomes friends with them, but right now I think they see him as that small furry thing that makes a lot of noise.

How we chose this lifestyle

Our Hobbies

Eric

I have been a long time tabletop roleplayer. But I don’t LARP. I have been working on writing a game of my own for years as a hobby, but I would like to publish it at some point. I used to have hundreds of books, but in the last few years I’ve sold a lot of them to make room and replaced them with PDF copies that I can transfer and read on my iPad.

I also play miniature war games and enjoy building armies and painting figures. I haven’t gotten too deep into the actual playing of them, but I plan to take my army on the road with me so I can finish it and then play if we happen to be near a game store. Just stop for a bit and play for a day to give me some nerd time.

There are also video games, but most games now require an internet connection, so I won’t be playing much of those unless we are somewhere with good, free wifi. I have a Nintendo 3DS that I love to play, and that doesn’t require internet to use. It is also portable and has a battery, so I can easily charge it and play it wherever we may be.

While it has fallen aside lately, I used to read a lot of books, primarily fantasy and scifi fiction, and I think that is something I will pick back up. I have a library of books to go through, so when there is downtime, I’ll go through those. Next up: the Shannara books. There are many of them, over twenty I think, and I read most of them in high school and college, but the last few I haven’t gotten to yet. I want to start over at the beginning and go through them all in order so I can get the full epic story.

Tiffany

I’ve loved natural health for quite some time and now run a blog about the subject. I also have gone to school to be a vet tech and decided it wasn’t the right field for me after losing Marshall. After that, I decided to study a passion of mine which is aromatherapy.

I love just snuggling with my cats, writing fan fiction and short stories, playing the Sims, and watching crime shows.

I also love making jewelry and crafts and I run a Facebook group about essential oils.