How We Got Here

This post is for anyone who is interested to know how we made the decision to travel the U.S. in a trailer for seven months or so. Although it feels random in some ways, this idea was first brought up just over two years ago on a trip to the beach. Our extended family visits the beach every November for Thanksgiving and during one of these visits, Daniel and I left the kids under the watch of their grandparents and took a stroll together on the beach. We had one of those chats that couples have from time to time about careers, kids, life, and the future. This was when Daniel announced, “We should take a year and travel around the country in an RV!” My knee-jerk reaction was, “That’s crazy! We can’t do that!” We talked and walked some more and the idea was left on the beach.

Fast-forward to 2020. Although I wasn’t initially keen on the idea of spending a year in an RV, the idea of owning an RV is something we did seriously consider at various times. Daniel and Colin had tent camped over the years with Trail Life USA and the girls were eager to try camping themselves. I tried to get on board with tent camping, but I just can’t! I’m sure it is fun and I know many people who enjoy tent camping, but I’m a girl who really needs indoor plumbing. And a kitchen. And a real mattress. You get the point.

With camping on all of our minds, we started watching Big Time RV together on Saturday mornings. Big Time RV is a reality show that aired on the Travel Channel and is basically House Hunters but for recreational vehicles. This is where we received our education about all the different types of RV’s that are out there. It didn’t take me long to pinpoint the perfect RV for our family: a fifth-wheel toy hauler! Unfortunately, we were shopping for an RV – not a new truck – so I was limited to what we could tow with the truck we already had. So once I had my limitations set, I started shopping around and found a used travel trailer that we all loved. But the idea of using this trailer to travel the country did not come up.

Now that we were suited up for the great outdoors, we took trips to Cheaha State Park, Oak Mountain State Park, and Blue Ridge, GA. We instantly took to the camping lifestyle: plenty of fun, outdoor adventures and creature comforts too. In addition to shopping for an RV, we were also house shopping. Moving is something that was brought up from time to time. Dreams change and families change and we were pretty sure we wanted something different. Sometime in September, I saw a house go on the market that ticked a lot of our boxes. We toured it, made an offer, and put our house on the market. It really did all happen so fast! Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. A cash offer was made on the house we wanted and that was that. And that put us in a strange spot – our house was on the market but we had no place to go. We continued to look at houses but nothing seemed quite right.

So one night, as we were discussing our situation, Daniel laughingly said, “Maybe now is the right time to take that RV trip across the country!” And once again, I thought that was crazy. What can I say? I tend to play it safe. But the seed was planted and from that point on, the idea began to grow and take shape. We found other families who had done, or were actively doing, similar trips and followed their stories on podcasts and YouTube. Their courage was inspiring and we (okay, I) eventually found the courage to say “yes” to an adventure too.

So that’s about the long and short of it. We received an offer on our house just before Christmas and it was such a blessing since the buyers wanted about two months before closing. That gave us a good amount of time to pack up the home we had lived in for thirteen years while also planning our route and booking campgrounds. We decided to spend our first month in Florida and considered it a shake-down trip. We worked out the kinks of living, working, and homeschooling from the road and made upgrades and small changes to the camper. And more importantly, we were able to fully commit to the remainder of the trip!

I’m writing this in Virginia, so I’ve got a lot to catch you up on. Let’s go!