And just like that our travels have come to an end.
We started our journey back on June 21st, 2014. We left that day not knowing how long we would last as full-time RVers. Would we last 2 weeks? 6 months? 5 years? We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. THE only time we had stayed all night in an RV was the night AFTER we had signed the papers on ours (and it was in the RV dealership parking lot!)
We will not be moving back into our house until July. We have renters in it right now, and that is when their lease is up. We are putting the parking brake on though and staying put in Ohio from now on.
The decision to live in an RV wasn’t a dream of ours. It was a dream of mine to own a motorhome after we retired and to travel the country, but not to live in one. Deciding to live in an RV happened pretty quickly. After the death of Tom’s brother, Tony, our goal was to live life. Like really live life. We wanted to live like Tony, for Tony. He was not someone who cared about the dollar. He didn’t care about having the best job or the best education or the best of anything. He was really good at living. He was all about forming and keeping valuable relationships with people. He was someone you wanted in your corner. We miss him being in ours.
And if I’m being honest, becoming full-time RVers was a distraction from our grief. We knew NOTHING about RVing. So we put all of our time into learning about how to rent our our house, everything about RVs, everything about massive trucks, everything about campgrounds, everything about getting rid of our possessions, everything about homeschooling laws, everything about where we wanted to go, everything about what we wanted to see. Was it a drastic distraction? Without a doubt, yes. We don’t regret a thing, though!
So…we got rid of most of our possessions. It shocked people to see all the things going out of our house. To us, though, it was just stuff. You can always get more stuff. You can’t get your loved ones back after they have passed. We wanted to show our boys in a big way that stuff doesn’t matter. We wanted to have amazing experiences with our boys. We wanted to teach our boys valuable life lessons. We wanted to spend quality time as a family.
How many times have you said, “I’m going to do xyz after I retire” “We’re going to do xyz after the kids graduate” “We’re going to do xyz after we make more money.” “I’m going to do xyz after I get my degree.” “I’m going to do xyz after I save more money.” And so on. We simply stop saying those things.
My zest for living life actually didn’t start when Tony passed away. It started when I was very young….after I learned that my own dad had died before I was even born. I’ve known my whole life that you are here one second and gone the next. I kinda forgot that for a while. Tony reminded me. Everyone forgets that from time to time. Now I want to remind YOU that it’s true…THIS is your ONE life here on Earth. If you want to do something, DO IT!
We spent the majority of our time in Florida to be near our family (12.5 months). We immensely enjoyed spending so much quality time with them all. Here’s all the places we went (with the exception of a bunch of little towns):
Milwaukee, WI
Melbourne, FL
New Smyrna Beach, FL
Tampa, FL
Boynton Beach, FL
Apopka, FL
Daytona Beach, FL
Kissimmee, FL
New Orleans, LA
Houston, TX
Boerne, TX
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
San Antonio, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Grand Canyon, AZ
Granville, OH
Niagara Falls, NY
Randolph Center, VT
Montpellier, VT
Portland, ME
Scarborough, ME
Boston, MA
Plymouth, MA
Danbury, CT
Washington D.C.
College Park, MD
Yikes. I can’t remember this city, VA
Four Oaks, NC
Charleston, SC
Hilton Head, SC
Savannah, GA
Tybee Island, GA
We spent time on lots of beaches, in national parks, in state parks, in amusement parks (Islands of Adventure, Legoland, and Universal Studios), family birthday parties, family holiday gatherings, around the campfire with friends, hikes through the woods, hikes around marshland, hikes in the dessert, in various history museums, at forts, in natural springs, drove through the Rocky Mountains, drove through the Smoky Mountains, drove through the WV turnpike (ha!), saw national monuments, at zoos, in movie theaters, on bus tours, in casinos, at wildlife refugees, in aquariums, in science museums, in children’s museums, at a railroad museum, in war museums, at bowling alleys, at the Grand Canyon, at the Alamo, at Niagara Falls, at Plymouth Rock, walked the Freedom Trail, at yummy bakeries, at various restaurants, at farms, at a beautiful plantation, at a depressing plantation, at NASA space center, in Capitol buildings, and we did it all together. We even filmed a TV show! We saw things with our own eyes. We heard things with our own ears. We touched things with our own hands.
We homeschooled in all those states listed above. We did our school work outside on a blanket, outside on a picnic table, inside on the bedroom floor, inside on the couch, inside at the table, at family member’s houses, in campground rec centers, in libraries. Learning can and did happen everywhere.
Why are we ending our adventure? Because we decided that 2 years was long enough. Our boys crave their friends and stability. So do I. Pretty sure Tom could continue on because he's so chill about everything. The boys really, really miss 'our home'. We miss 'our community', 'our village'. We miss being surrounded by all we love. We miss really good wi-fi (hahaha). I miss my dishwasher. It is bittersweet, though. Part of me desperately wants to keep on going, to keep on traveling. I watch other RVers pull out of the campground, and I'm jealous wondering where they are headed. The other part of me, though, is excited to be stationary...to get back to our normal, predictable life.
Tom has been incredible through all this craziness. He’s the most patient and selfless person ever. I couldn’t have done this adventure without him, nor would I want to. He learned how to be an ‘RVer’ like a champ. He pulled our home on wheels safely throughout this whole country. He sat in his ‘hell hole’ as he called it, five days a week to work to support us. He endured countless mosquitos and noseeums. He set up the RV in the rain. He prepared the RV for travel in the rain. He learned how to make RV repairs by watching youtube videos. He drove us safely from tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, flash floods, hail storms. Last summer, when I started having my horrible health issues in Vegas, he suggested we get back to Ohio so I could see my doctor. I felt incredibly guilty to derail us from our plan to travel the California coast. He answered with, “You are the only wife I have and the only mom to our boys. We need you to get better.” So he drove for 5 days to get me to my doctor in Ohio. He’s my Rock.
Living on the road is not cheap. We’re not coming home with more money in our pockets. But man….we’re coming home with so much more than money.
WE. DID. IT.
