Our First Steps Into Full-Time RV Living: From Our First Rented RV… to a 2023 Foretravel Realm Presidential LVB
- Wanderluxe With Us
- Nov 17
- 5 min read
If you’ve followed our journey for any length of time, you know this big leap into full-time RV life didn’t happen overnight. In fact, our love for RV travel started long before we ever dreamed we’d live in one full-time.
Today, we’re sharing our very first steps into full-time RV living, the mistakes we made, the chaos we survived, the dreams we chased, and how we ultimately ended up purchasing a used 2023 Foretravel Realm Presidential Series LVB (bunk model with a tub!)—a coach we still can’t quite believe is ours.
Whether you’re dreaming about hitting the road yourself, curious about family RV life, or just love a good “how did they end up HERE?” story, this one’s for you.
Where It All Began: The 2018 Road Trip That Hooked Us
Back in 2018, RV life wasn’t even on our radar.
We were just two exhausted parents of a toddler and a newborn—Grayson (2) and Freya (6 weeks old)—desperate for a getaway we couldn't afford. We rented an RV on Outdoorsy, buckled the babies in, and took off on a route that now feels like a rite of passage:
Yellowstone
Moab
The Grand Canyon
And all the beautiful miles back to Texas
It was our first taste of waking up in national parks, sipping coffee in camp chairs, and putting real miles under our wheels together.
We were hooked.
2020: The Year We Bought an RV… Without Knowing Anything About RVs
When the world shut down in 2020, our cabin fever hit an all-time high. So naturally, we did the most logical thing:
We bought an RV we knew absolutely nothing about.
To be fair, Chad did do his research on chassis, and manufacturers.. and so on, but really, our only experience in one was the rental.
And then, because we never do anything halfway, our very first trip was a 6-week loop around the U.S. with:
My mom
My grandmother
A 4-year-old
A 2-year-old
And me… pregnant with Sloan
I still don’t know why we thought that was a good idea during a global pandemic, but off we went—half-cocked and ready to take on the world.
And ohhh did we have some big oopsies.
The Night the RV Rolled Down a Hill
We pulled into a “campsite” we found on Google… at midnight… in pitch darkness. The “campsite” was basically a primitive tent pad up a narrow hill.
When Chad stepped out to assess the situation, he forgot to set the brake and the RV started ROLLING DOWN THE HILL. He dove back inside and slammed the brakes.
My mom and grandmother almost had tandem heart attacks that night.
The Trip of a Thousand Mistakes
Same trip, we:
Scraped the slides on a low branch
Backed into a concrete pole
Had our mirror knocked clean off by a too-close passerby on Hwy 1
Broke a slide because we let it out without leveling properly.
We learned quickly. Sometimes painfully.
Years of Learning, Growing, and (Still) Making Mistakes
From 2018 to now, we’ve:
Logged hundreds of travel days
Learned how to fix more things than we ever expected
Made mistakes… LOTS of them
And created this blog + our channels to share it all—successes, mishaps, and everything in between
We’ve grown to truly love this life, imperfections and all.
June 2024: Our First Steps Into Full-Time RV Life
This summer, we finally did it. We:
Sold everything,
Moved into our 2013 Forest River Charleston, and
Hit the road full-time as a family of six.
We were excited. Fired up. READY.
But our Charleston? Not so ready.
Every trip we attempted ended in a breakdown. It felt like we couldn’t make it more than a few hours without a new mechanical issue popping up—and the repair bills kept stacking higher.
We had planned to upgrade to a nicer motorcoach in 2–5 years…But at this rate? We wouldn’t have made it 2–5 months.
So we made a huge decision:
We expedited our long-term dream… to right now.
The Great RV Search (and the Short-Lived Pull-Behind Idea)
We started looking. Hard.
But every coach that had enough beds for a family of six was either:
Out of budget,
Wrong layout,
Or just not us.
At one point we even entertained the idea of buying a travel trailer.
That fantasy died during one six-hour drive from Dallas to San Antonio. The kids were bickering nonstop, making a disaster out of snacks, and asking to pee every five minutes. Chad looked at me and said something along the lines of:
“Yeah… no. Absolutely not.”
And that was the end of the pull-behind era.
Heat Waves, Breakdowns, and a $10K Detour
By July, temps in our 2013 Forest River Charleston were hitting 96°F by midday INSIDE THE RIG! Our insulation wasn’t cutting it. We needed to get north—fast.
We headed North for the Wisconsin Dells to cool off a bit, but the road there was… expensive.
We broke down three times, racking up nearly $10,000 in repairs.
We were drained—physically, emotionally, and financially.
Head over to Instagram to check out the Dells. Despite the breakdowns.. it was worth the trouble. We also popped into Mall of America! That was expensive also, but for good reason! lol.
OH! And.. Ok, so I didn't fly out and make national news, but my lap bar DID malfunction at Mall of America: See it here.
And then, out of nowhere…
August: The Surprise of a Lifetime — Our Dream Coach
Chad pulled off the surprise of ALL surprises.
He found the exact motorhome we had hoped someday—maybe years from now—would be ours: AND BOUGHT IT SIGHT UNSEEN!
That was a whole challenge in itself because getting financed to live in an RV Fulltime is no easy task, regardless of perfect credit and good financials! (More on that and the whole process + tips coming soon!)
We bought . . . (drumroll please . . . )
A 2023 Foretravel Realm Presidential Series LVB
✔ Bunk model
✔ With a tub
✔ High-end Foretravel build quality
✔ Spartan K4 Chassis (What is a Spartan K4 you ask? Click here)
✔ Enough space for our family of six
✔ Room to renovate into our dream layout
✔ Did I mention heated floors?!
✔ AND it was a cool 70 degrees in the DEAD of September?!
We signed the papers during the first week of August. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
And then we did something even crazier:
We drove it straight to Foretravel to begin a massive renovation—including a custom quad-bunk configuration that has never been done before in a Foretravel coach.
It’s already been a roller coaster.
We’ve had snags.
Delays.
Unexpected “oh, that’s going to cost how much?” discoveries. (Like the latest... $19,000 for a 3" screen reprogram that controls the bunk windows?! We din't opt in for that obviously. . .)
But it’s happening. It’s real. And we cannot wait to show you the final result.
Want the Full Walk-Through Tour?
We filmed a full tour before Foretravel started tearing things apart. Watch the FULL Tour on YouTube: CLICK HERE
The Bottom Line: We Wouldn’t Change a Thing
From rolling downhill in the pitch black…To traveling pregnant with toddlers and grandparents…To breakdowns, bumpy roads, and $10K detours…To buying our dream coach years ahead of schedule…
Every moment led us here.
To full-time RV life.
To raising our kids on the road. To living differently, intentionally, and together.
We love this life—messy, thrilling, unpredictable, beautiful. And we can’t wait to share every chapter of it with you.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for joining the journey!
— Sarah & the WanderLuxe With Us Family
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