Here, there, everywhere – working remotely from 50 states and counting
Getting the workspace right took some iteration. A lot of iteration. I’m a product owner at heart, so iterate, test, adapt, you get the point….
This is where it all started. The Bounder didn’t have an obvious place to work, so I improvised. The front passenger seat became my office – park somewhere, out comes the 32″ monitor, docking station, and cables. Setup wasn’t terrible, and the blinds gave me some control. Power was right there, the monitor rode on the floor while traveling, and getting up and running at a new spot was quick.
The downside? Sitting in front of those massive windows is basically a greenhouse. Unless you close the curtains and lose the view entirely, you risk baking. And even with the curtains closed – you’ve lost the whole point.
It was fine. But fine wasn’t going to cut it long term. When have I EVER kept something the same long term? My house – yep, always rearranging, this RV is no different 😉
So out came the dining table. I kept both booths and built a platform along the window – then used the top of one booth side to create an L-shaped desk. What looked like a gut punch to the RV turned into a genuine upgrade.
No more fumbling with the monitor every time I arrived somewhere. Eventually I setup two monitors screwed to the desk, bungee cord the chair to the desk, and down the road I’d go. Power was still a limitation – the inverter wasn’t big enough to run much while driving or parked for the matter – but as a stationary office plugged into shore power – it worked.
This view? Right in front of my office? That’s the whole point right there. And, when the view gets blocked, the grass needs cutting, or the neighbors suck – I just bungee the chair, roll up the shore power cable and move to where the grass is greener!
The Outlaw was a meaningful step up. It has the “dream dinette” – a massive booth that folds down into an almost-queen bed – so I wasn’t ripping that out! Back to the front dashboard I went, but this time with a lot more to work with.
The monitor lived at the far back of the dash, the keyboard pulled out, and a tabletop on a pole between the two captain’s chairs gave some extra surface. The Outlaw also has automatic push-button privacy sun screens – you can see out, nobody can see in – plus a night shade. Game changer for heat management compared to the Bounder days.
Peak dashboard office. It worked, but it was getting crowded.
One trick worth noting: a portable monitor is a surprisingly capable travel-friendly second screen. The Asus portable monitor slides into a bag, takes up almost no space, and gives you a real dual-screen setup anywhere without hauling extra hardware. It’s powered by USB-C (and you can adapt it to older USB types) – so one cable and it works amazing. Super slim too!
I realized quickly that I didn’t really need three beds – the drop down bunk in the front had little to no use – my bed was perfect and can be used when the slides are all in, so I didn’t really need the extra bed – and I certainly didn’t need a huge dining table for just me. So, out the dinette came and in went an L-shaped desk.
This is where it started feeling like a real office. Rustic wood desk, Herman Miller Aeron (yes, I hauled a proper Herman Miller through 50 states – zero regrets), a plant held down with earthquake putty, and enough surface to actually spread out. I kept one booth bench for extra seating and sat with my back to the window – shades pull down, comfortable, and I’m not fighting the awkward angle of the slide.
Even more recently, I swapped out the old L-Shaped desk and upgraded to a two-tier desk with double-door closed shelving underneath. Lots of room for appliances and things I don’t need to access constantly.
The rolling office chair still works, but leaning back is tight in the space. Landed on a premium folding chair — still comfortable, just more practical.
The details that make it feel home:
Traveling: the monitor is clamped down. 2,000+ miles in, zero issues. At the next stop, I just pull out the laptop, plug in one or two cables, up and running.
Not every workday happens indoors. Sometimes you pull the camp table out, prop up the laptop under the awning, and the office has a pretty spectacular view. No complaints. Ironically though, here I was planning my travels back across the states from the desert – so it’s flexible for weekends or week days!
Not everything goes according to plan. Coming down a hill outside Bakersfield, CA – the brakes went to the floor and stayed there on the Bounder. Pedal flat down, no fluid leak, brakes weren’t hot. Just… nothing. I had to use my toes to lift the pedal, tried to pump it but the pedal just flat fell back to the ground, with no pressure. Got towed to a shop after sitting on the side of the highway for three hours, and eventually a brake flush had me back on the road. The tow truck driver had never seen anything like it.
What actually stopped the rig: the Blue Ox toad brake system on my towed car. When the RV brakes failed, I was able to manually apply the aux brakes and bring everything to a stop. That little detail mattered a lot that day. In the RV I have a small LCD screen – it’s got a few buttons, one being “FORCE BRAKE” – that relays back to the car’s brake that sits on the floor to apply force to the cars brakes. That helped to slow the RV coming down the hill until I was able to safely pull off the road. Ironically – in all of that – my desk stayed put, I opened the windows and sat at the desk working and calling around to various shops.
If you tow a car, get a quality auxiliary brake system. It’s not optional. In fact, I believe it’s mandatory in many states – so check that out before going if you’re towing anything behind the Class A RV.
I started this before Starlink existed and got a little lucky.
When I hit the road in 2017, I had a Verizon plan from another era – 650 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited and unthrottled data with hotspot, and 10 friends and family lines. Calling Verizon to manage it was a mess. The website was barely supported. I finally cut it in 2022.
In the meantime, I’d picked up a secondary hotspot plan on a whim – $20/month on another carrier, unlimited hotspot. That plan became my primary internet and honestly still is. So… I’m keeping it as long as they let me.
I tried Starlink early on when it launched, but at the time it was significantly more expensive and Thousand Trails campgrounds – rustic, lots of trees – are not friendly to a clear sky requirement. I dropped it.
For 2026, I restarted Starlink with the new Mini. It’s been solid so far – works while driving and handles some cloud cover. It’s my secondary now, and it’ll be essential heading into Canada where my other plans don’t cover international roaming.
The piece that ties it all together: a Pepwave router. I build my own internal WiFi network, then bind any WAN or internet source to it. Roll into a campground, swap the primary source once, and nothing else changes. Failover works automatically. You can bond the WAN interfaces for more throughput if you want to get into it. Worth every penny – and no, guest access is not offered. 😄
(I realize that’s a lot of geek speak – so in non-geek speak – think of it as just unplugging the cable from the back and plugging in a different source – just that I do this automatically through software).
Headset – probably the secret weapon of this whole setup. Started with a Jabra Evolve and haven’t really looked back. The microphone noise cancellation (not the audio noise cancellation — there’s a difference) is remarkable. I’ve taken calls while driving down the highway, in the middle of a crowd, and the other side hears a library. Ran my first one into the ground – foam came off, duct-taped it longer than I should have – and have since upgraded to a newer version. Between Bluetooth on the phone and a dongle on the laptop, I can jump on any call without disturbing anyone around me. These aren’t cheap – but again, worth every penny!
Link to Product Page: Jabra Evolve2 85
Printer – yes, there’s a WiFi printer. Print from any device, scan receipts, bills, and campground maps. Keep what matters without hauling paper everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to actually find a printer and manage that or scanning on the road? Yeah – just not worth it to me.
Backgrounds (for virtual meetings) – in the early days, an actual green screen. Then a printed fabric backdrop I ordered. Then Teams brought virtual backgrounds in late 2020/2021 and none of that mattered anymore. People have no idea where I am. Neither do I, really – because I’m at home. It is always “interesting” to get on a call and people say “where are you today”? Uhm, home? You? LOL.
TV & Video – Four TVs and a projector in the Outlaw. A 4×4 HDMI splitter keeps everything centralized – one input can go to any or all outputs. Start a movie in the living room, move to bed, swap the output. Done. Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, HDMI from iPhone, DVD player, and Dish TV on the pay-as-you-go plan – plug in the dish at the campsite, wait 5-10 minutes to acquire signal, instant TV. Over-the-air antenna works too, and surprisingly, a lot of campgrounds still offer coax.
Music – I’m always running some music in the background. Multiple Alexa devices handle music, rotate through photos, and act as a hub for the space. Works surprisingly well at this scale.
Smart Lights – I use Hue light strips to keep my regular 12v dc lights off – who likes overhead lights anyways? But, the nice thing is since no matter where I travel, I try to stay on EST time zone – my lights are setup to smart dim at bed time and turn on to wake me up in the morning – always the same time, so I feel the sunrise the same in the EST as I do in the PST. It keeps the body sane.
When I started this, I set four rules. They haven’t changed:
Everything else is optional. These aren’t.
What gear am I missing that you want to know more about? What are your Non-Negotiables? What new gear should I be looking at? Leave a comment or drop me a note on the contact page.
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