They say you have to give yourself at least 3 to 6 months to get used to the full time travel lifestyle. And they aren’t wrong.
We had pretty solid reasons for selling it all to travel full time before we hit the road. But Mitch and I had never even owned a travel trailer. And there was a lot of anticipation around whether we’d enjoy packing up our entire home for a road trip every single weekend.
The truth is: we’ve been loving the nomad lifestyle since our first state park campground.
Sure, showering is a nightmare. We have to get rid of our own poop. And there’s nowhere to hide when we start getting on each other’s nerves.
There is no perfect lifestyle. But we genuinely love traveling full time.
Full time travel is in alignment with our values
We loved our home in North Carolina. And buying it was the right decision for our family when we left Chicago in 2018.
The house was everything we thought we wanted at the time. We didn’t feel like we were bursting at the seams with 2 toddlers in our 4-bedroom house like we had in the 2-bedroom townhouse we left behind. We could host out-of-town family.
Sure, the inside needed some TLC. But we didn’t spend much time inside anyway.
Y’all should have seen that garden (I’ll do a story on how gardening changed our family’s entire value system sometime soon, I promise!).
Our house sat on a little less than an acre just 10 minutes outside Winston-Salem. During our 3 years there, we turned more than half the yard into a garden. (We had never gardened before moving to NC. That place was special.)
Neighbors from back home still text us that they miss seeing the cornfield and pumpkin patch in front yard. Me too, friends. Me too. (Update: all the people who bought our house are growing sunflowers in their front yard – sunflowers that grew from the seeds of the flowers we grew last year. I’m so thankful!)
We grew out of the house we bought.
I don’t mean that we ran out of space on the inside. What I mean is that as we grew as people and discovered the things that truly mattered to us, the house we bought was just no longer a fit for our family’s values.
We wanted to have much more land and a whole lot less house. We wanted to spend more time in nature and less time cleaning up stuff we didn’t even want in rooms we barely even lived in.
And with full time travel, now we do.
We’re spending more quality time together
Back when Covid was just beginning, I remember thinking that working from home would mean that I would have more quality time to spend with Mitch and the kids.
That’s not what happened. A few months into working remotely, I settled into a rhythm of using the time I had been spending commuting to the office to catch up on work emails or get a head start on that next big project.
And being at home all the time meant I was constantly reminded of all the DIY projects we still hadn’t gotten around to tackling. I never could shake the feeling that I was being mocked by the kids’ overwhelmingly messy playroom. Yikes.
I’m a lot better at setting boundaries now than I was back then. But the lifestyle really helps.
It’s a lot easier to set a boundary when leaving the office means stepping into a national park. It’s easier to set a boundary when deep cleaning your entire house takes no more than a half hour and home improvement projects are few and far between (knock on wood!).
Therapy helps, too.
Don’t get me wrong. The full time travel lifestyle isn’t a permanent vacation. We still have errands to run and chores to do. Doing laundry in laundromats takes an entire day. Our cabinets aren’t big enough for the amount of food these kids eat so we have to shop for groceries at least twice a week.
But here’s a hard truth: there is a cost to maintaining the American Dream. Managing all that takes a lot of time and money. And it keeps you in one place.
For us, it just isn’t worth it. Experiences are greater than things.
Full time travel is a great education
We chose to educate our kids at home for many reasons. Mainly, we wanted to give them the chance to play, explore their interests, and learn at their own pace for as long as possible.
Roadschooling was definitely not on our radar. I’d never even heard of it. But we’re so glad we’ve heard about it now.
Thank about it: when you want to learn something new, what do you do? If you can, you probably try to experience it firsthand. Take a field trip. Practice the new skill. Visit a country to experience their culture firsthand. Observe the animal in its natural habitat.
On the road, every day is science class and nature study.
We take advantage of Junior Ranger programs at national and state parks that offer them (many do!). We explore historical moments in the places where they happened. Reading, writing and math practice happen outside in the fresh air.
I’m incredibly thankful that we’ve been able to choose this education for our kids. We know they won’t remember every moment, but their childhood experiences and learning opportunities are rich.
We’re deepening our relationship with Mother Nature
When we lived in the Midwest, I had no relationship to Mother Nature at all. I remember one of my girlfriends telling me about how relaxed and whole she felt after a simple afternoon outside with her feet on the soil. I couldn’t relate at all.
But that all changed when we moved to North Carolina and began gardening. I discovered how deeply connected I felt to the Earth when I spent time cultivating a relationship with her in the garden. And I wanted my kids to grow up with that too.
And even though we were spending so much more time outside, it still wasn’t enough. We all wanted more. More hiking, more chasing waterfalls, more time to rest our bare feet on the forest floor…
So we got rid of everything that was keeping us from doing more.
If that sounds drastic, it’s because it was kind of was. But anyone who tells you that you should stick to the status quo because it’s safer – even though your heart is calling out for something different – is lying to you.
Now we live out entire lives in some of the most wild and natural places left in the United States. I can’t think of a better way to help out kids fall in love with Mother Nature too.
We’re experiencing new ways of living and being
When you live in one places, it’s pretty challenging to uncover diversity.
It’s always been important to Mitch and I that we raise our kids to understand that America (and the world) is made up of so many unique people, each with their own cultures, music, food, traditions, beliefs and more. We want them to see the beauty in our diverse world so they respect it.
Being on the road has meant that our kids get to know other kids from all around the country. We’ve met kids who speak different languages (so far, it’s been Mandarin, French, and Spanish). We’ve been exposed to new games, new food, and new music.
We love that our kids are learning to navigate cooperating with all kinds of kids. And the kids they are cooperating with this week aren’t the same kids they’ll be cooperating with next week. It’s such a valuable skillset and I hope it will teach them first-hand about the value of all people.
And it’s not just the diversity of human life that we’re witnessing. The United States has so much biodiversity left. We are so lucky to have so many different types of ecosystems to explore without even needing to step on an airplane.
Every day I’m grateful that we have this opportunity. I know it’s a privilege. And I do not take that lightly.
Full time travel gives us time to discover what’s next
The more we fell in love with spending time in nature, the more we realized that our house in North Carolina wasn’t our forever home. We needed a minute.
I guess you could call it a mid-life crisis? You wake up at 33 and realize that the life you’ve working so hard to build is nice. You did a good job… But it looks a lot like the life you thought you wanted at 23 and very little like the one you find yourself wanting now.
That’s not a fun spot to be in. I think back on it now and I realize how much it hurt.
But let’s talk about the good news. Mitch and I got through it. Most couples who have each others’ backs will get through it too.
But you have to be open to drastic change. You have to be vulnerable. The first step to creating the life you actually want is being open to this hard truth: you’re life doesn’t look exactly how you want it to – yet.
Living and traveling around the country has given us the space and time to do that work. We aren’t tied down to one specific spot. As long as we’re together, that’s what matters. We can spend this time discovering just exactly where our hearts want us to be.
We’re having tons of fun!
Honestly y’all, we’re just having so much fun. It turns out that packing up your entire home to travel every weekend is more exhilarating than it is tedious. It’s so fun to discover new places together.
And we’re sharing so many first-time experience with the kids. I mean, Mitch and I were 33 when we attended our first Mardi Gras parade. and we were 33 when we went snorkeling for the first time, too. Our kids did these things for the first time at 8 and 6.
So do we miss our house? Sometimes. But also not really. We’re having too much fun.
Get the monthly newsletter.
Spam sucks. So don’t expect any from us! Once a month, we’ll send you personal stories and photos from our travels to inspire you to get wild.
