Escapees Profiles: Will & Lucinda Belden

 

Who is with you?

We, Will and Lucinda, travel with our 20lb Shiba Inu, Cozy (short for Cozumel).  She rarely barks and loves to ride in our truck, so she is a great traveling companion.  ‘Ray’, Lucinda’s motorcycle/sidecar and ‘Mojo’, Will’s Harley also travel with us. 

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How long have you been on the road?

We are working on year three.  We talked about trying it for five, but we can see five years won’t be enough.

Full-time or part-time?

We are full-time.  We sold our brick-and-mortar.  We sold, donated, and gave away all our other belongs not coming with us in the RV.  We have no storage.  It’s just us and what’s in our RV.  We haven’t retired.  We still work full-time too.

What kind of RV do you have?

We own a Grand Design Momentum 399th (‘th’ stands for toy hauler).  It was a unique design with a side patio we use ALL the time.  We pull our fifth wheel with a Ford f-350 dually.  We don’t tow anything else (as that is illegal in many states).  We just use our motorcycles to get around if we don’t want to take a big truck.

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What got you interested in living the RV life?

Our motorcycles.  It’s all their fault.  We had ridden everywhere and as far as we could from our home base.  Riding new areas meant taking more time off work, longer vacation time and more expensive overnight or long-term stays.  In the last few years RVing, we have put over 10,000 miles a year on our bikes.  Now our RV homebase creates a new circumference for us to ride and explore.

How do you fund you travels?

We are not funding our travels like we anticipated.  We both had work from home jobs which made our decision to full-time easier.  Just a few months into our new RV life and the Pandemic hit.  Our employers were both effected, and our income became a trickle.  We could turn to online work, but we wanted it to be our passion too.  The result has been full-time writing for magazines & blogs about RVing with Motorcycles.  We wrote a book on RVing with Motorcycles available on Amazon.  Progressive International Motorcycle Shows asked us to tour the U.S. and do presentations on RVing with Motorcycles.  We are having the first ever RV & Motorcycle Rally September 22-25, 2022.  In June this year we are launching the first radio station from RVers to RVers – MyRVRadio.com.  (We have some content and music up, but you can still listen in.)

What is your camping style? (off-grid, campgrounds, mix, how fast do you like to travel, etc.)

We don’t mind boondocking for a few weeks when the weather is nice.  We will usually stay in a location for one month.  This gives us time to work full-time and take advantage of great weather motorcycle rides.  We ride a radius all around our new home base.  Then we will travel around 4-5 hours, stop over at a Harvest Host, drive 4-5 more hours and be at our new home.  We don’t try to rush.  We like to get an in-depth experience in each new place we live.

What do you seek out when traveling?

We like hole-in-the-wall/out-of-the-way places that have the best food and drink.  We like seeing the ‘tallest, weirdest, oldest, tiniest, most unique Americana created and dreamed up by everyday people (like the largest ball of twine – yeah goofy but we like it).  We also continue our tradition of stopping at every Harley Dealership we can and collecting a poker chip.  Our collection currently stands at 150 chips. We have every dealer chip in Arkansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Whew!  That took a while.

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Favorite experience so far?

Aside from boondocking the first night in our RV in Joshua Tree National Park after we bought our RV, our first experience would be staying in South Dakota.  We spent a whole month there riding through all the national parks on our bikes.  We also accidentally rode along with a herd of buffalo.  That was scary, humbling, and amazing.  We did not get to ride and see everything we wanted (although we wrote a small booklet on getting the top 14 Sturgis Rides in 6 days).  We still plan on going back and seeing more of South Dakota!

Worst experience so far?

The worst experience was also our first.  It was the first trip we made after we got our RV home and loaded all our belongs and headed out.  We cut a corner too sharp turning into a boondocking spot.  We went off in the ditch and our jacks were stuck on either side of the concrete culvert.  We couldn’t move forward, and we couldn’t back up.  We couldn’t get any truck out big enough to tow out our 44ft fifth wheel.  We were near tears.  But what started out as a horrible experience turned into a learning experience and a reminder there are wonderful people everywhere. 

While we were sitting there stuck, local farmers from the community started stopping to help.  Soon we had tractor-size jacks out lifting our RV, sliding timber under the tires, helping us get into four-wheel drive.  Someone started breaking ice chests out and passing around beers.  We were soon the Friday night neighborhood entertainment.  If we were going to have a bad experience, I’m glad it happened where and when it did and with whom it did.

How many Escapees events have you attended?

We have been to one Escapade and three Winter Home Base Hangouts.  Can’t wait to do more!  We have met so many great RVers!

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Introvert or extrovert?

Lucinda is the introvert.  She will try and find every way possible to avoid having to meet people.  Although she is the first to admit that when she makes herself (or Will does) get out and mingle – she always has a great time and really likes everyone she meets. But she will need a whole day to recharge after mingling – it’s just her personality.  Will is an extrovert.  He likes the spotlight.  He will talk for hours before he realizes you haven’t said a word.  But he is very interested in learning and hearing from other people.  He just thinks he needs to fill up the quiet.  That might be Lucinda’s fault for providing so much quiet!

Tell us something weird about yourself.

Lucinda in the last couple of years has started dying her hair ocean colors.  Maybe because it’s been too long since she has been on a cruise.

Will really likes vacuum cleaners.  So much so that his son and daughter-in-law gave him a photo album full of pictures of vacuums, and related vacuum humor.

RVers reading this won’t think it’s weird but everyone outside our circle does – Our grandkids (6 of them) think it’s cool their grandparents ride motorcycles and travel the United States full-time in an RV.

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Would you rather deal with a leaky sewer hose or a flat tire on the RV?

Leaky hose.  We’ve had both.  Leaky hose.  ‘nuff said.

Do you have any advice for others?

Research all you can, continue to learn as you go, be self-sufficient as much as possible, don’t give up.  In the end just do it!

Where can people find you online if they want to follow your travels?

Direction Wide Open is what we go by with family, friends, and future friends.  You can find us there on our Facebook and our website.  You can also follow MyRVRado.com and our Rally to see what we are working on!  We hope to meet you in person on our travels!  Ride on!

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