Helping People Live Fully in the Second Half of Life
About Mike and Jennifer Wendland
Helping People Live Fully in the Second Half of Life
We're Mike and Jennifer Wendland, and for more than 15 years we've been helping people discover the freedom, adventure, and community that come from the RV lifestyle. But this website is about much more than RVs. It's about making the most of life's second half.
Over the years, we've learned something surprising. The most important conversations in the RV community aren't really about RVs. They're about people. They're about the couple wondering if retirement will be everything they hoped it would be. They're about the family trying to reconnect after years of busy schedules. They're about the widow taking her first solo trip.
They're about the husband and wife figuring out how to keep traveling after a surgery, a health challenge, or simply the realization that they don't move quite as fast as they once did. They're about purpose, friendship, staying curious. They're about continuing to grow, learn, and explore.
The RV just happens to be the vehicle through which we tell those stories.
Our Story
Both of us spent our careers as journalists. Mike is a multiple Emmy Award-winning reporter, broadcaster, blogger, podcaster, and content creator. Jennifer is a fitness instructor, teacher, communicator, and the practical voice that keeps us all grounded.
In 2012, we started sharing our RV adventures online as a hobby. We had no grand plan and no business strategy. We simply loved traveling and thought others might enjoy coming along for the ride.
What began as a small blog eventually grew into RVLifestyle.com, the RV Podcast, a YouTube channel with tens of millions of views, a daily newsletter read by tens of thousands of RVers, more than two dozen travel guides and books, and RVCommunity.com, our private community for RVers.
Along the way, we've traveled across North America, reviewed countless RVs, visited hundreds of campgrounds, interviewed industry leaders, explored national parks, and met some of the most interesting people imaginable.
The greatest reward hasn't been the travel. It's been the people.
What We Believe
We believe your best years may still be ahead.
We believe adventure doesn't end when you retire.
We believe curiosity is one of the secrets to aging well.
We believe friendships become more important, not less, as we grow older.
We believe learning new things keeps life interesting.
We believe community matters.
We believe slowing down does not mean stopping.
And we believe that every stage of life offers opportunities for growth, discovery, and joy.
Those beliefs shape everything we do.
Why We Do This
As we've grown older ourselves, the focus of our work has evolved. When we first started, we spent most of our time helping people learn how to RV. Today, we're equally interested in helping people learn how to thrive.
How do you keep traveling after retirement? How do you adapt when health challenges arise? How do you stay connected? How do you avoid isolation? How do you continue learning? How do you find purpose? How do you embrace change rather than fear it?
Those questions matter whether you own an RV or not.
They're the questions many of us face as we move through the second half of life. The RV lifestyle gives us a unique lens through which to explore them.
Our Personal RV Lifestyle Journey
What began as a distant dream has blossomed into our everyday reality—a magnificent adventure viewed through the panoramic windshield of our rolling home. North America stretches before us like an endless canvas, each mile offering new possibilities and every stop a chance for discovery.
We truly believe our journey into RV living wasn't planned so much as it was destined. We've found that the most extraordinary experiences are often those unscripted moments—the roadside attractions not marked on any map, the conversations with strangers who quickly become friends, the breathtaking vistas that appear around unexpected bends. This beautiful serendipity defines our nomadic lifestyle.
The adventure officially began in 2012 when we purchased our first home-on-wheels, a pre-loved 2008 Roadtrek Class B. What started as simply documenting our travels soon evolved into something much more meaningful—a way to share the authentic heart of North America.
My previous life as a journalist had me crisscrossing continents, covering everything from presidential campaigns to papal visits. I've witnessed history unfold in real-time and earned recognition as one of America's most traveled reporters. Here's an ad the newspaper I worked for at the time took out in a national trade publication:
But that sort of traveling existence was what we in the industry call “parachute journalism”—briefly dropping into locations, capturing a single narrative, then quickly moving on to the next assignment.
When I stepped away from the demanding pace of daily news, I yearned to revisit those places with fresh eyes and an open schedule. Our RV gave us that freedom—the ability to linger, to explore deeply, and to truly experience each destination alongside our beloved Norwegian Elkhounds, first Tai and now Bo, who has known no other life than one of adventure on the open road.
The goal then and now is to share our RV adventures and experiences.
About half to 3/4 of the year, we travel North America, discovering the interesting people and places I didn't have time to meet when I was a news reporter.
Since we began, we have traveled over 350,000 miles. Typically, we mark out a route, identify a few spots we want to be sure to visit, and then take off, stopping when we want or find something that interests us. An old editor of mine once told me that “every person has a story to tell.”
Our current RV is a 2026 Brinkley Z-3100 Fifth Wheel. We have no relationship with Brinkley, and they are not a sponsor or advertiser. We bought this RV with our own money, paying the full asking price of the dealer – the same price everyone else pays.
My journalism career has shown me that to be very true. It's the same with most places. Places have stories, too. So we like to wander, chat up the people we meet, and start taking photos and videos. Usually, we return with more stories than we can tell.
We travel year-round, even to cold, snowy places in the winter. We have driven RVs to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the North Lake Superior shore of Minnesota in the month of January, where we found a winter wonderland that most people never see.
I remember one night when there were 28 inches of snow on the level ground and deep in the wilderness, it got down to -21 degrees F. It was an awesome experience. We slept snug and warm inside our RV and realized winter is no excuse to put the RV in storage.
RV Lifestyle Has Grown Far Beyond RVs
Truth is, though, that if I'm not careful, RV Lifestyle could become all-consuming. What started as a simple blog about our travels has grown into something much bigger than we ever imagined. Today, we publish a daily newsletter, have a Facebook Page with more than 520,000 followers, a Facebook Group with over 600,000 members, and a YouTube channel with more than 200,000 subscribers. We're active on Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other platforms, and we've launched RVCommunity.com, our private community for RVers who believe their best years are still ahead.
Along the way, we've also written more than 30 books and travel guides covering destinations across North America, RV travel planning, camping tips, and ways to make the RV lifestyle more affordable and enjoyable. We've developed a growing collection of apps and digital tools designed to help RVers plan trips, manage travel budgets, and get more from every adventure. You can find many of those resources at https://rvlifestyle.com/plan.
As the years have passed, our mission has evolved, too. While RV travel remains at the heart of everything we do, we've come to realize that the most important conversations in our community aren't really about RVs. They're about living fully. They're about retirement, purpose, friendships, health challenges, technology, lifelong learning, and figuring out how to make the most of the second half of life. The RV simply happens to be the vehicle through which we explore those topics.
Thankfully, we're supported by an incredible team that helps keep everything moving. Phyllis Khare manages our content and somehow keeps all the moving pieces organized. Wendy Bowyer helps with the podcast, RVCommunity.com, and special projects. We also have a dedicated group of volunteer moderators who help make our online communities welcoming, informative, and drama-free.
We're now well into our second decade of RV travel, and I can honestly say we enjoy it every bit as much as when we started. Maybe even more. The pace may be a little slower these days, and we're certainly a little wiser, but the excitement of discovering a new place, meeting interesting people, and sharing what we learn remains as strong as ever.
We have no plans to stop anytime soon. There are still roads we want to travel, stories we want to tell, people we want to meet, and lessons we want to learn.
So that's our story. Or at least the part we've written so far.
We hope to meet you somewhere down the road.
Happy Trails,
Mike & Jennifer
