Road Warriors
Once upon a time in September of 2015 our family took a long road trip. Marissa and I had our anniversary coming up (our story starts on September 20th and our anniversary was on the 28th) and we hadn’t decided what we were going to do. We were watching a college football game and the television station advertised the next game being Boise State vs. Virginia Cavaliers (Go Broncos!) at Virginia. Note: If you see where this is going and think I’m a terrible husband you don’t know my wife and football ;-). I checked flight prices and found them to be extremely reasonable. I asked Marissa if she would like to spend our anniversary in Virginia, attend the game, and see the sights? She was enthused at the idea and we started looking to see what there was to do around Charlottesville. Since we had absolutely no idea about the geography of the east coast, we didn’t know how near it is to Washington, DC. It is roughly 100 miles away, and there was no way we would get that close to the Capital without checking it out.
Washington had always been on our bucket list. We have homeschooled for quite a few years and the history available in Washington is a homeschool family’s dream. Marissa and I took an evening stroll around our neighborhood and considered how we would feel if we went to DC and didn’t take the children. The idea was not enticing. I know every time I learned something cool I would regret not being able to share it with my children. I would regret not having those teaching moments and not being able to see the light shining in their eyes when their educational interests are piqued. Marissa felt the same way. By the time we got back home it was decided; despite it being our anniversary, we would be taking the whole family east.
As we gathered our ducklings to talk to them about the trip they became excited. We asked if they wanted to fly or to drive. The vote was almost unanimous (with one dissenting trouble maker); we would drive. The kids wanted to see the country rather than fly over it. This decision was made on Sunday evening. The game was on the following Thursday, and we could not leave immediately because we needed to settle things at my office to make sure everything would be taken care of for the two weeks we planned to be gone.
It was Tuesday afternoon by the time we were ready to go. Forming a strategy and executing a plan to cross a nation as large as the United States by car and having less than 48 hours to put that plan into motion was interesting. But, we achieved our goal and set course for Virginia. It was an interesting drive to say the least. Joseph, our four year old, was very interested in state capitols at the time. He had spent time in the Idaho capitol building as I worked with the legislature on passing some bills. He loved seeing the process of governing a state and wanted to learn more about other states. On the drive east we were able to visit a few state capitols and other historic sites, and we still made it to Charleston, West Virginia in 32 hours. It was quite the trek. The next day we attended the Boise State game, stopped at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s house), and then headed into DC.
Washington, DC was amazing, and amazingly strange. All of the buildings have famous quotes about liberty, but the city itself feels like a police state. There are federal police on just about every corner eyeing you to see if you appear to be a terrorist or otherwise dangerous. The density of historical sites in the city though…is an unparalleled history buff’s dream.
We spent the next week trying to see everything. The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, Smithsonia Museum after Smithsonian Museum…. It was wild, entertaining, educational, and at the end of the week…exhausting and not at all fun. The last day we were there we were trying to see one last Smithsonian, but we weren’t feeling it. We were all tired, hungry, and irritable. None of us wanted to be there. We weren’t getting along. We sat down at literally every bench we came to and had a hard time getting up. Someone would inevitably fall asleep as soon as they sat down. It was utterly and completely miserable. We drearily made our way back to our hotel.
The next morning we started our trek home. We certainly were not going to do the drive in 32 hours again, and we didn’t have a specific day we had to be back, so we wanted to take our time. We stopped at Gettysburg, but we were still exhausted from DC. We went by the visitor center, but we didn’t have the energy to spend time at the battlefield itself.
As our trek home continued Marissa and I talked about the trip. We spent a lot of time and a lot of money, and at the end of it we felt that it was more difficult than fun. We wanted more time to stop and smell the roses. We wanted to be able to take a break from seeing things and not worry about missing out on anything. We wanted all the time in the world and didn’t know how that was possible.
I began to look into the subject as Marissa drove home. (Which I totally don’t feel bad about because she wouldn’t drive one inch in DC.) I found blogs written by people who had walked away from the “normal” life to travel full time in RV’s. It was an exciting prospect that Marissa and I spent the entire four days of the trip home discussing. I began to look at RV models online and we began dreaming. Ultimately we knew, or thought we knew, that it was no more than a dream. We periodically brought it up and went to RV lots, but you couldn’t just leave your home and wander around, right?
Making the dream a reality
Fast forward to late March, 2018. We were in the process of moving. We were looking to buy some property with a house big enough for eight of us. We thought we needed at least five bedrooms and 3500 sq ft of space. We needed room to breathe, or so we thought. We couldn’t find anything on the market that fit our needs at that time. (There were a bunch of places for sale a few months prior to us moving.) We were faced with the decision of renting a place until we found our new home or buying a house we didn’t want. Rent prices are currently outrageous in our area and it would have been far cheaper to buy a house that we were not interested in. We weren’t enthralled with either of the options.
Side note: Now is the time to introduce my mother, Jill Swigert. She has a mantra that rejects bilateral decisions. If society makes you believe that you must decide between Choice A and Choice B, you need to look for a third option. Basically, society often tells us that we have limited choices, but it is never true.
In this case, social programming says we need to own a house, set down roots, and live “normally”. I thought back to the dream Marissa and I had and knew we had our third choice. Perhaps we could just move into an RV and travel.
I approached Marissa and rekindled the idea. We knew we had limited time to decide because we had to move in three weeks. We decided to go look at RV’s and think about it for a few days. Marissa looked online and found one she wanted to see. We went to the dealership with the intention of checking it out and coming home to think about things. As life would have it, Marissa walked into the rig and knew is would be our new home. She imagined us living there and suddenly wanted nothing else. We left having put a down payment on the rig. (Thank you Happy Camper.)
We have always been natural road warriors and had never followed the average way of life. We have always chosen our own path even if others find it strange. But this new decision, a nomadic life…it put our other strange ways to shame. We had three weeks to downsize everything we had to what we needed and what could fit into a 357 sq ft tenement on wheels. Contrary to our belief that we needed a 3500 sq ft house, we decided to begin our life in a home 1/10 that size.
#ThisIsHomeschool #Roadschool #FulltimeFamily #WeMightBeCrazy #WhatDidWeJustDo?