Laurén Ettinger
- Oct 11, 2021
- 2 min read

From Vintage RV to Airstream: Matt and Amanda’s Life on the Road

What’s in Today’s Episode:

Nomadic couple and adventure travelers Matt and Amanda are joining us today! They discuss living full time on the road in a vintage RV, transitioning into and Airstream travel trailer, how they have found work on the road, what ultimately led them to their dream jobs, and dating advice for couples looking to live in a tiny space or on the road full time.

“When you buy a 50-year-old vehicle, it doesn’t matter who makes it, you’re probably going to have something happen.” – Matt

What Laurén, Matt and Amanda Chat About:

How they first got on the road in 2016 after a backpacking trip in South America
Transitioning from living in San Francisco to living on the road
Deciding on what vehicle to buy; purchasing a vintage RV
Picking up their Cortez
Deciding to do a minimal renovation and discovering that it needed a lot more work
Starting to work on the van on the street in San Francisco
How they adjusted the layout on their van to make it work for them
Shifting their travel style and moving into an Airstream travel trailer
Differences between living in the Cortez and living in the Airstream
What they did before they lived on the road; types of jobs they did while traveling
A warning to people considering social media influencer work as their main job source
Taking a break from the road and shifting gears professionally
How Amanda launched her sustainability copy writing business
Getting laid off during COVID from his retail job, finding his job with Overland International through connections he made on the road
Matt and Amanda share their advice for couples thinking about living tiny or traveling full time on the road
Different styles of traveling and living on the road

“You better, hopefully, know how to communicate and to talk about things pretty quickly if something comes up…just being able to say this thing is making me feel this way and talk about it sooner rather than later because in a small space, things can be amplified. It’s not going to solve anything, if anything it’s going to make it something you need to deal with quicker and it’s going to amplify things.” – Amanda

“Our bottom line was, if we buy this vehicle and live in it, even just for a year—we’ve already at least broken even, we’re no further in the hole than if we just paid rent in San Francisco, and, instead of giving our money away to someone else, we’ll actually own this vehicle so we’ll have a bit of an investment that we can sell or keep.” – Matt