In 2012, when my husband Frank hung up his Marine Corps uniform, I envisioned a quiet life, finally putting down roots in our little Yucca Valley home. After 20 years of moving from duty station to duty station, I thought I was ready for stability. Little did I know, our journey was just beginning!
See... I never wanted to go on the road full-time in an RV. In fact, several years prior to Frank's retirement... when he suggested this lifestyle, I was pretty adamant I would NEVER (like over my dead body) do it.
So what changed?
We had spent just under a year in the desert, and we were trying to figure out our new normal. My Pastor, friend and mentor Jim had texted me and asked me to come down for senior weekend. Our oldest was also a senior and was ecstatic at the possibility. I was the youth leader at the church in Oceanside and to be honest I was looking for a way to go back to Oceanside. Frank was finishing up his degree in Biblical studies and I thought, maybe, God was opening a door for us to return there.
So I went down to Oceanside & took our oldest daughter and our 2 youngest of our 7 children and went to senior weekend. It was an amazing weekend of both community & connection. As we got into the car to return Sunday night my heart was so full and bursting with ideas to find a way back there to our church community.
The pressing questions were
- why would we go back to oceanside?
- How could we ever afford it?
- How would we sell the house?
- What would we have to sacrifice to do it?
As I pulled into the driveway, something had shifted in me. The whole ride home, it felt like I was having a quiet but powerful conversation with God... questioning why I was clinging so hard to the familiar, and whether I was dreaming too small. What if there was something more for our family... something bolder, more freeing, more meaningful?
I walked through the front door and looked at Frank. Without thinking, I mumbled, “What if we went on the road full-time in an RV?” I was almost hoping he didn't hear me.
His reply was ... " I have been waiting 7 years for you to say that"
The next morning he had sold the big screen TV as I came home from grabbing groceries. That was the moment I realized we were ACTUALLY doing this.
Planning & Preparation
So in 2013, we launched from house life to RV life in just 90 days, barely having time to figure things out. It was definitely a faith over fear approach. We read everything we could on becoming minimalistic. We had a 3-year plan. But it was going to be in a 30' bumper pull toy hauler (with no slides) & 6 out of 7 of our children, ranging in age from 15 months to 13.
Our oldest daughter was 18 & wanted no part of this lifestyle or transition, so she moved in with friends. It was another abrupt transition into this absolutely crazy idea.
We sold almost everything. We rented the house. Whatever this was, we were all IN... By this point, the truth was, there was no turning back now. We built up our savings and dug our heels in. This had to work, at least to see some of the country Frank had just spent the past 20 years serving.
Back then, this wasn't a trend.
No one was doing this.
We were blazing a trail and we thought we were the only ones.
Vacation Mode
We had some savings and Frank's retirement so we figured we could live off that for at least a year, maybe more before we would have to find some way to supplement our income. We are a family of 9, we knew how to be frugal, cook low cost meals and find affordable ways to travel, or so we thought.
The truth, however, was it cost way more to travel than we anticipated.
We launched the day before the 4th of July. Yep. July 3rd.
Do you think we could find anywhere to park that day? nope.
We ended up on the base in oceanside paying $10 a day to dry camp. I had to learn HOW to be an RVer. it was HOT. I was miserable and Frank had to quite literally show me how to camp.
We did that for 10 days then headed out on what we thought would be an epic roadtrip. Sequoia, Yosemite and then head east. There was no real plan... follow wherever God led us.
But $10 a night was not a normal price to stay at RV parks & travel costs added up fast. we traveled faster than we should have and it cost a lot more than we thought it would to live this way. We learned laundromats are EXPENSIVE and navigating life with 6 kids on the road could actually be pretty lonely. We went from California to upstate NY in under 5 weeks.
The Good
Roadschooling was actually pretty easy. It was kind of like leveling up more traditional homeschooling. We did math and English and kept journals of the places we were visiting, documenting our travels both on paper & online.
It was fun most of the time.
We were reconnecting as a family, Frank was an integral part of our day-to-day lives now.
Our life was the most stable it had ever been. We were realizing that even though our home was always on the move... it was still our home at the end of each day.
The bad
It was expensive. Even a day at a museum could easily cost $100 just to walk in the door and that didnt include snacks.
It was pretty lonely
We were tired.
We didn't anticipate the upkeep, maintenance or breakdowns of travel.
The truth was we were living in vacation mode. We moved every few days at what we realize now, almost broke us, both financially and mentally. This is actually a common problem for many new RV'ers as they start traveling.
We left NY and visited Hershey PA where we discovered a "FREE" 2 night stay if we stayed for the sales pictch. That's where we discovered Thousand Trails. We bought a membership.. while we did have to put down a down payment, This slowed our roll and put us in a much more comfortable monthly payment allowing us to stay up to 21 days and travel from Thousand Trails RV parks within the system.
Discovering Community
We arrived in Virginia by mid-fall and met our 1st ever fulltime family in the wild. Turns out this was a thing! In fact, we would soon discover that there were at least a handful of us on the road... as Janis and Phil told us about the membership we decided the only real option was to head to Florida in hopes of finding other FTF in the wild.
That winter changed everything. Community and connection were the things we were missing in our travels. We scraped money together to become a "charter" Fulltime Family & wear that badge with pride. We also knew that without the community that we were lost. That winter 13 families gathered around a campfire at the end of the winter season.
That was a long time ago.
TIme passed & we jumped in with both feet. We attended our 1st rally in 2014 and joined several more community groups. We built a community as we traveled. Going places is great, but the truth is, finding people to experience those things with is equally important.
We volunteered to host events and help people connect. We know how it felt not to be connected, and we would always seek out other traveling families.
Where we are today
We will begin our 13th year of fulltime nomadic travel this July. We have launched a few kids out into the world since this journey began. We now have a business that funds our travels and also helps other traveling families find work on the road. It also keeps us on the road- since our business is within the RV community.
Our passion has and will continue to be connecting people. Finding community & connections is a vital part of this lifestyle.
When my friend Doug mentioned that he was (maybe) hanging up his hat at Learn to RV I knew this site was an essential part of our future. It had such great informational content but I also have a vision of what Learn to RV will become.
It was also the perfect venue to continue to connect any type of RV'er and not only help them find resources but also get connected to a vibrant community.... Whatever that looks like for your journey.
