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Hi! We’re Levi and Nicole.

We got tired of doing what we were “supposed” to do. We had a house we didn’t want in an area we didn’t love, and cubicle jobs that ran us ragged. In 2017, we traded it all for a 39-foot motorhome and moved to Tucson, AZ.

We create content about camping, small space living, and everything our beautiful southern Arizona home has to offer. We hope this website provides you with camping and small space living inspiration.

Videos

Ironwood Forest National Monument - Free Camping Bureau of Land Management Land near Tucson, Arizona

Ironwood Forest National Monument - Free Camping Bureau of Land Management Land near Tucson, Arizona

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Fun and Free in Tucson: Sweetwater Wetlands Park

Fun and Free in Tucson: Sweetwater Wetlands Park

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Our Outdoor Squaredrop Trailer Camp Kitchen Setup

Our Outdoor Squaredrop Trailer Camp Kitchen Setup

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Off-road Squaredrop Camping Setup with Rooftop Tent Walkthrough

Off-road Squaredrop Camping Setup with Rooftop Tent Walkthrough

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PLAYING IN THE DESERT RAIN: Quick Drive Down Redington Pass in Tucson, Arizona

PLAYING IN THE DESERT RAIN: Quick Drive Down Redington Pass in Tucson, Arizona

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Southern Arizona Dispersed Camping Mount Graham Safford Arizona

Southern Arizona Dispersed Camping Mount Graham Safford Arizona

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Insta

Our resident great horned owl chicks have graduate

Our resident great horned owl chicks have graduated from bbs to pre-teen fuzz balls.

They grow up so fast! The baby great horned owls a

They grow up so fast! The baby great horned owls are looking more like their parents every day. Their white floof is giving way to brown adult feathers.

Apologies for the lack of sound in the video. People kept stopping to:

👽 Ask us if we were taking pictures of satellites

⁉️ Claim that the parent owl swooped at them (doubtful, unless they somehow got too close to the nest 20 feet up in a Palo Verde tree)

🤯 Tell us about the time their cat almost got taken away by a hawk (why was your cat outside in the desert?)

Living in an RV park isn't always easy...

Folks always wanna know: how did a couple of yahoo

Folks always wanna know: how did a couple of yahoos from the Midwest come to sell their stuff, move into a motorhome, & drive it across the U.S. to call the desert home?

Living in Indiana wasn't for us, but for years we couldn't afford to move. We bought a house because everyone said we needed to or we were "wasting money renting." MISTAKE! 2008 happened & the house suddenly wasn't worth what we paid for it.

We realized everyone else's idea of a great life didn't match ours. And we started making moves to live the way *we* wanted to by paying off debt & getting remote jobs.

We weren't sure where we wanted to live. Florida was the easy answer, as we were familiar with it and knew people there. But FL felt like a place to visit and not home.

Levi works a traveling healthcare job, & in 2012 he was sent to work with a hospital in Tucson. Every time he visited southern AZ for work, he didn't want to leave.

I (Nicole) was abused & bullied in Indiana, & it's NOT my home. I was tired of living in a place I didn't like with reminders of what happened to me, & I would have moved anywhere (warm) sight unseen. Still, Levi thought I should visit Tucson during different parts of the year to get an idea of what living here would be like.

The first time I visited Tucson, it was like a bomb went off. I was entranced by the alien world of 60 ft. tall cacti forests & mountains with snow. I'd never been to a place where you can drive in any direction for an hour & enjoy a vastly different landscape.

I loved the weather, the culture, the landscape, the food, & the people. I felt a longing when I wasn't here, & a magnetic pull back to the desert. I knew I was finally home.

So here we are, idiots living in a "depreciating asset" doing better mentally & financially than we ever did by "being smart" & living in a house.

I'm grateful I had the courage to make the change, the tenacity to see it through, & the self-love to not listen to people who aren't interested in getting to know me as I am (not who they think I am or should be).

I hope my long-winded Instagram post makes you feel encouraged & heard if you made a similar life change (or are thinking about going for it!)

CAPTION THIS: Cactus Wren butt vs. Jeep front edit

CAPTION THIS: Cactus Wren butt vs. Jeep front edition

🔥 GEAR REVIEW: Stansport Outfitter Series Propa

🔥 GEAR REVIEW: Stansport Outfitter Series Propane Camp Stove 🔥

We love this camp stove because it's tough and works darn near flawlessly in challenging conditions. It boils water in a hurry, the built-in igniter is handy, and the removable grates make cleanup easy. (Even though ours isn't flawlessly clean, because, uh...camping)

We chose this 3 burner stove for its mega-BTU output. The two outside burners are oversized 25,000 B.T.U., and the center burner is 10,000 B.T.U. It always makes me wish there was a safe way to use it in the motorhome because the propane stove in it is old and sucktastic.

The individual windscreens keep the flame going when the weather isn't cooperating, and the high altitude pressure regulator is nice when we're camping in the mountains.

If you're looking for a propane camp stove, this one is a banger.

For your April Fool's Day amusement: a sewer dump

For your April Fool's Day amusement: a sewer dump disaster story starring yours truly.

Once upon a time, it was October 2017 and we were new RVers. Despite having done ALL THE RESEARCH, there was still a lot we didn't know.

Like don't use the cheap sewer hose they give you as a "gift" when you buy a motorhome.

We landed at a dump station behind a convenience store to take care of our tanks. Setting up the stinky slinky went fine, just as it had every other time we'd purged the piddle pan.

Then the pressure of the black tank contents dislodged the collar on the flimsy sewer hose and shot a stream of demon liquid my way.

In my moment of terror and disgust, I somehow summoned superhero-level reflexes to get my face outta the way and slam the waste valve shut to stop the deluge before it dowsed anything other than my arms and Gryffindor shirt.

Teeth gritted and cleanliness sensibilities screaming, I secured the wayward sewer hose and completed my sinister task. All the while thanking myself for my decision NOT to take a grumpy in the RV until I had the whole black tank maintenance thing figured out.

You know you've had a bad day when "it's just pee" counts as positivity.

4.5 years later and I'm still waiting on my black tank badge of honor to show up in the mail...

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