--- MIA ---

In order to travel as a lifestyle, Rory and I must build location independent income; therefore, we are starting a new business. As anyone who is self-employed or owns a business knows, it becomes like your child and demands all your attention. This isn't the first business we have started, but we know it will be the one we stick with for a long time. We are in the very beginning stages and once all is sorted we will come back officially announcing our new business. Please bear with us during this time. We know preparations can be boring, but once we hit the road then adventures will be never-ending!

Please join our news letter so that you will be the first to know when we return.

Countdown to Departure

This photo was taken by Sarah in 2013 at an outdoor market located in Ishka, Italy.

Our Countdown to Departure post will be changing just a little from here on out. Turns out that we will not be putting wheels to the road until around January 2016. One of the reasons being is that my weekend job gave me a pretty sizable Christmas bonus, so we want to wait for the bonus next year to put toward our funding toward our adventure. We've also been unable, due to some unforeseen expenses, to save money as quickly as we thought and need to take a little more time. We will still continue to post on Friday sharing with you what we've done to prepare for that week.

Sarah and I are still really pumped about hitting the road, but just want to begin our adventure the right way. We can't wait to get out there next year and see all the amazing things that are waiting for us. There hasn't been a whole lot happening in the last couple of weeks due to Christmas and New Years, but we have been getting our plans together for a two week trip to Europe around June. Along with our progress on our RV adventure we will be also keeping you up to date on our Europe trip.

We plan on flying from New York into Sweden, and then from Sweden taking a train through Germany into Italy where we will be spending most of our trip. You can expect a lot of social media and blog post during those two weeks for sure. Sarah has family that lives over there so we will be spending a good deal of time with them. I haven't gotten to meet them yet so I'm really looking forward to that. We'll be hitting on the main hot spots like Rome and Naples, and maybe even Venice if we have the time. Either way, this will be a trip to remember for us.

Well, that's it for this week. Hope you all have had a good one, and hope you have a great weekend as well. Please feel free to leave any comments below, especially if you have any recommendations for what we should do while in Europe. Thanks for reading and talk to you soon!

This is another pic taken by Sarah during her 2013 trip of Gesualdo, Italy where her relatives live.

This pic was taken on a very narrow street in Gesualdo. Each door you see in this pic leads into a different home.

My First Play, It's a Wonderful Life

I was standing center stage after the show when I took this pic.

You, Me and an RV is about more than just travel; it's about experiencing life and all that it has to offer. As you already know Sarah and I live in the beautiful city of Nashville, TN, and since the beginning of our blog have shared some experiences that we've had here. Today, though, I would like to share a first-time experience that I had over Christmas in a little town just nineteen miles outside of Nashville called Franklin. Franklin kind of reminds me of Mayberry except that some of the most wealthy and most powerful in the country music industry reside there and spend there money there and it's much larger with 68,000+ residents.

You have the historical downtown area, which looks like Mayberry, and then you have the Cool Springs area which is the more modern area of Franklin. Cool Springs has your Galleria mall, chain restaurants, shopping malls, and pretty much anything else we think that we need in the 21st century. I guess where my rambling is leading to is that if you ever visit Nashville, try to take a day and visit Franklin. It really is a delightful cool little town to visit.

Now time to get to the point of this post. I had the amazing experience of seeing one of my all time favorite Christmas movies It's a Wonderful Life performed live on stage. A non-profit production company here in middle Tennessee called Studio Tenn put on the play, and did an amazing job. The play was done almost exactly like the movie with some of the smaller not so important details trimmed from it. I didn't get to see the gym floor open up to a large swimming pool during the school dance scene, or a large bridge over a frozen river from which George thinks about jumping to his death, but the stage and props were masterfully built and placed so that anyone who has ever seen the movie knew exactly what they were looking at and where the characters were. Anyone attending that had not seen the movie could very easily follow along. 

Sarah and I saw the play on the Saturday before Christmas which gave me a totally different experience than I have ever had before, and seeing the classic story live on stage made it even more Christmasy for me. It was an amazing new first-time experience, and if anyone reading this has never seen a professional live play before, then I highly recommend doing so.

Don't let your life pass you by without experiencing new and exciting things. If there is something that you've never done, but have always wanted to, than take time in 2015 AND DO IT! Sarah and I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment below sharing any first time amazing experiences that you've ever had or want to have. We're looking forward to hearing from you! Hope you all had an amazing holiday season, and that you have an even more amazing 2015! 

Countdown to Departure: Week 45

Better late than never, I always say. It's a common phrase for me because I am an intense procrastinator. Oh well... Rory asked me to write the countdown post this week because I am in love. *Cue tweeting birds and little hearts above my head.* I'm in love with my new Nikon D7100.

This photo was clearly NOT shot with the Nikon D7100.

Why am I totally excited about this? Because the upgrade from a Nikon 3100 to a D7100 is huge. It will be so much easier to take awesome photos. The D7100 has in internal focusing motor, two SD card slots, better ISO performance, better image quality and many more focus points. It is weather sealed so I don't have to freak out over a little drizzling rain. The D7100 was the best choice for me within my price range. It is on sale now at B & H Photo for $896.

Honest moment: I really wanted the Nikon D810 but it's $3000. I haven't quite made enough money through my photography to justify that expense and the Nikon D7100 is good enough to last me a really long time.

Why should you be totally excited about this too? My photography game has just been upped, so this will mean better and more photos for you to enjoy. Many of the photos on our Instagram account, @youmeandanrv, were shot with an iPhone 5s, but I am going to start sharing more of my DSLR photos now. They will all be #latergram, but you don't mind as long as they are pretty, right?

Share your instagram username below. We'd like to follow you to get to know you better.

P.S. This post is completely un-sponsored. I am just in love and wanted to share. 

Focus + Law of Attraction = Bucket List

The term "bucket list" is so worn out that people roll their eyes or groan whenever they hear it. However, there is some validity to it. A Bucket List helps you focus on what you want out of life. You have to know what you want in order to get it, right? "Focus" is a lesson I am somewhat reluctantly learning recently. I tend to have an obsession of the week and that means my focus changes from week to week. Unfortunately, that usually leaves me spinning in circles rather than traveling down a path.

Have you ever heard of the law of attraction? You attract things into your life based on your thoughts and attention. I grew up hearing "don't give power to that". Basically, that's the law of attraction. If you think about negative things then you will attract them to you. If you think positively then you are more likely to have good things happen. This can be used to attract more specific situations and experiences as well. I don't know how deeply I believe in the law of attraction, but I do believe that what you put your attention on is the path you will go. (It goes back to that focus thing I was talking about.) If you expect negative outcomes then you will see negative outcomes (because you are either creating them or ignoring the positives).

With all that said, I am going to share my bucket list with you. I am putting it out there in the universe so maybe this law of attraction thing will work. But regardless, it will help me focus and know what I want out of life. Plus, it will be really awesome to check experiences off the list!

SARAH'S BUCKET LIST

• ♦ Visit every city in the United States with a population over 100,000.
• ♦ Visit an active volcano and see molten lava
• ♦ Hike in the Grand Canyon
• ♦ Fly in a helicopter over New York City
• ♦ Have a picture I took be on the cover of a magazine
• ♦ Swim with dolphins
• ♦ Pet a large cat (like a lion!)
• ♦ Go on a Cayamo cruise.
• ♦ Ride an airboat in a swampland with alligators
• ♦ Take a ride in a Hot Air Balloon (I don't care when or where!)
• ♦ Zipline in Hawaii (kapaluaziplines.com will do)
• ♦ Publish a photography coffee table book
• ♦ Hike atleast one trail in every national park.
• ♦ Relax in a natural hot spring.
• ♦ Whale watch
• ♦ See a Broadway play
• ♦ Go on a sleigh ride

I encourage you to create a bucket list as well. Below, please post your top five bucket list experiences. I want to know what they are and so does the universe!