Viva!

We have a mantra in our family. It’s pretty simple – our life doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s life. We say it all the time, when we’re making trivial decisions that have little impact, and likewise when we’re facing potentially life-altering choices.

A few years ago, we had a big idea to sell all of our things and move across the ocean to England – to serve the local community there and be a part of a culture we’d dreamt about. When the idea came, there was absolutely no doubt it was what we were supposed to do next. There were nerves, of course, but no valid excuses for saying no. About a year ago, in early 2018, we had another big idea.

We discovered that living our lives to the fullest meant not ignoring those big ideas when they came along. It’s with that thought in mind that we want to announce our next big idea with you.

Starting in the summer of 2019, we’re trading in our sticks and bricks for a home on wheels – taking our life, work and belongings on the road as full-time travelers.

Now we know you have questions. Everyone we’ve spoken to about this before now has had a similar line of questioning. So we wanted to take the rest of this post to answer them. (And if you have more…let us know!)

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Are you crazy?

Yes. Absolutely. 100%. Ok, moving on…

Why?

We spent a lot of years chasing the the things that everyone tells you that you should – the job, the house, the cars, the 2.5 kids. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with those things, and we know tons of great people that have good jobs, live in amazing homes, drive cool cars, and have 2.5 kids. (Well maybe not that last part.) But for us, we found the pursuit of those achievements a little bit less fulfilling than most.

We’ve been very fortunate over the years to own our own business and work independently from home. There’s no telling how long that will last. And with that in mind, we figure we shouldn’t waste any time in pursuing the dreams we have while we have the opportunity to chase them.

We kept thinking up excuses, but the idea of full-time travel has always been there. Then one day we remembered that we’re not exactly “normal”. (Remember that mantra?) We sat down and talked through all of the reasons why this wouldn’t work, and as it turns out, none of them were actually legitimate. Our work, the costs associated with this life, Baron’s education – all easily addressed. There are so many people who wish they could do something like this. We have the opportunity. So why not?

Why Now?

We only have 18 summers with Baron. We’ve already been through 7 of those. I know this all sounds very YOLO, (albeit, in a very sappy, my-baby’s-growing-up kind of way), but it’s true.

Wanderlust. Deep down, we are both very nomadic at heart. But don’t misunderstand. We LOVE having friends around the corner, an amazing school right across the street, a nice home with a pool. We truly are very blessed. But we’re also blessed with this hunger to explore, to meet new people, try different foods, immerse ourselves in other cultures. And we want to instill that in Baron too. We want him to know that there’s a great big world out there – outside of this little suburban-bubble.

Where are you going?

We don’t have a specific goal as of yet to visit all 50 states or anything like that. The main goal is to visit as many beautiful places and make as many memories as possible. From a practical standpoint, however, it’s the Western half of the United States from June-November 2019, and the Eastern half from January 2020 on.

Do you have a timeframe?

Sort of. Currently we’re committing to full-time travel for about a year, starting at the end of June 2019. The beauty of this though is that it’s 100% open-ended. We may decide along the way that we hate it and want to set up roots somewhere. Or we may decide to do the full-time nomad life forever. We’re not sure. But for now, a year is what we’re shooting for.

What are you doing for work? / How are you going to afford this?

As we said before, we’ve been very fortunate to be able to work independently from home for many years. It’s important for us to note very clearly, what we’re doing, while it is an adventure, it is NOT a vacation. We plan on continuing to work full time and give our clients the same level or better of service we’ve given them for years.

As far as affording it goes, that’s a pretty interesting question. While it’s no small expense to buy a travel trailer and have the equipment and tools necessary to keep it going…the lifestyle of a full-time traveler can actually be much cheaper than your traditional home life. We’ll probably get into more specifics on budgets another time, but suffice it to say, where we may spend more on gas getting around the country, we’ll more than make up for in many other cost-saving ways.

What about Baron’s school?

Before travel plans, costs, equipment, work, etc….this was our number one concern. Baron is everything to us and we would never want to do him a disservice because of our whimsy hippy decisions. With that in mind, we will be home-schooling (or rather “road-schooling”) Baron during our travels. The resources available to full-time traveling families schooling their children on the road is endless. Baron is in good hands. There are tons of details here that we’ll go into another time.

What about Watson (our fur-baby)?

He’s coming with us! Our family would be incomplete without our dog alongside us. We even picked out our camper with him in mind.

What about all your stuff?

Remember that time we got a big idea and sold all our stuff to move somewhere? Yeah, we’re doing that again. Be on the lookout on social for our purge!

What camper do you have? 

We purchased a 2019 Winnebago Minnie Plus 29DDBH. It’s a bumper-pull travel trailer that’s about 30′ long and 7500lbs.

Can we come visit?

Yes! Please do. As we travel, we’ll keep everyone up to date with where we’re at and where we’re headed. If you want to take a vacation and come hang with us in Yellowstone, or stare at some huge trees in the Redwood National Forest, please do.

How do we keep up with you?

We plan on keeping everyone up to speed with how and what we’re doing. Like we said before, this isn’t a vacation, this is a lifestyle change. We want to create a life that inspires others to live more intentionally, and dare we say it, more abundantly. So we’ll be keeping this blog up to date with thoughts and tips and photos (of course) as well as our Instagram!

Thank you for being a part of our community and a part of what we’re doing! We are so fortunate to have friends and family support our nomadic, not-so-normal little family. 

With love,