They planned a short RV adventure: It turned into a life-changing journey
RV Podcast - Stories From The Road
Mike Wendland
4.5 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They planned a short RV adventure. It turned into a life-changing journey.
In this episode of The RV Podcast, we sit down with the Shinpaugh family, a family of four who hit the road in 2016 thinking they would travel for a few years. Instead, they quietly built a whole new life on wheels, homeschooling their kids, running their businesses remotely, and making the road their normal.
They share the real story behind going full-time as a family, including:
What surprised them most after their “temporary” RV trip never ended
How they balance work, school, and family life while traveling
The challenges no one talks about, and how those hard moments made them stronger
What it really takes to build a sustainable life on the road as a family
Then we shift gears and break down what just happened at the Florida RV SuperShow, our 14th time attending the biggest RV show in the country.
We cut through the hype and share our two biggest takeaways from the show, including:
- Why Brinkley RV had the best display at the entire show, and why their low-pressure, owner-driven approach stood out
- Why we came away encouraged that real quality still exists in today’s RV market
- The motorhomes and towables that impressed us most, including Grand Design’s Lineage, lighter-weight Coleman fifth wheels, and the futuristic Lightship and Pebble trailers
- We also answer your RV lifestyle questions and catch you up on our latest travels on the road.
This episode is packed with inspiration, industry insight, and real-world RV living, whether you’re dreaming, planning, or already rolling.
Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss our two weekly episodes:
Mondays, RV Podcast News Edition
Wednesdays, Stories from the Road and in-depth interviews
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody, we're Mike and Jennifer Wendland and this is episode 585 of the RV podcast. |
| 0:06.0 | And this week on the podcast... |
| 0:09.0 | When we would go camping, when we would get out in nature, when we would leave our town and go exploring as a family, |
| 0:15.0 | we would go longer and longer and longer and we would be sadder and sadder and sadder to come back. |
| 0:20.0 | And one day we |
| 0:21.8 | said to the kids what if we weren't going home today what if we were just going |
| 0:26.5 | to the next place and they were like really what do you mean and that's when we |
| 0:30.9 | started talking about it as a family in this episode's conversation we're |
| 0:34.8 | going to meet a delightful full-time RVing family of four that |
| 0:38.7 | planned a short RV adventure for mom and dad to escape their corporate rat race, but it turned |
| 0:45.3 | into a life-changing journey that redefined family, work, and what it really means to build a |
| 0:51.9 | life around shared experiences instead of waiting for the perfect time. |
| 0:56.5 | Plus, we'll clear away the hype from the Florida RV Super Show and share our major takeaways, |
| 1:02.7 | answer your RV lifestyle questions, and catch you up on our latest adventures. |
| 1:07.6 | This episode is being released on Wednesday, January 21st, 26, and we are thrilled to be coming to you |
| 1:15.0 | today from Florida. We just left the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa, and we're looking forward |
| 1:21.9 | to maybe a couple of weeks of R&R in Florida. It's cold, though. We were hoping for sun. |
| 1:27.5 | It is Sunday. |
| 1:28.3 | It's very sunny, but it's just cold. |
| 1:30.3 | Temperatures in the 50s and it's supposed to get into the 30s tonight. |
| 1:34.1 | Well, what are you going to do about that? |
| 1:35.9 | Show notes for this episode and all our podcasts are available at RVpodcast.com, |
... |
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