Why You Should Do Whatever it Takes to Get Your Family on the Road

Today, we are featuring another guest blog post in our RVing with Kids series, this time from Margie Lundy of the Lundy 5. Margie and her family just hit the six month milestone. I'm sure that you will be able to relate to her reasons for RVing. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about Christmas RV park events. Interested in writing for the blog? Check out this page with our list of the types of posts we are looking for.

It's hard to believe we've been on the road for six months already! Some days it feels like we've always been nomads, yet other days it feels like we've just left. We're very comfortable with our traveling life and have seen so much of the country. At the same time though, we now realize just how much more there is to see. We're not worried though. We have plenty of time and desire to see more, and the growing understanding that we'll never be able to see it all.

As we started talking about living on the road fulltime, the main question we heard was "Why?" Of course our answer was simply "Why not?" Now that we're on the road, people we meet along the way just ask "How?" As in how can they do it too? Our answer to that is "However you can!" Whether you save for a short time or simplify for a lifetime, we certainly recommend doing whatever it takes to take your family on the road. Our kids (ages 8, 10, and 10) love fulltiming and we're so thankful for this time together.

In terms of quality time, and certainly quantity time, you can't get much closer as a family than living and traveling in a 400 square foot RV. And despite the close quarters, we rarely feel crowded. We chose an RV with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen table that would seat all five of us, so that our home on wheels would really feel like home. And it does! We love our home and the convenience of taking it anywhere we want to go. We have plenty of room and all the comforts of home, wherever we are.

As for education, the kids (and adults!) are learning first hand about this country's geography, geology, history, and culture. Since we are roadschooling, those subjects as well as math, science, reading, and writing are part of life. My husband Allen and I are now fascinated by things I'm sure we heard in school, but forgot because they didn't seem relevant. Our kids now learn about the Oregon Trail while they are walking on it, about volcanoes while they are climbing them, and about bear and bison while taking pictures of them, instead of looking at pictures in a book.

We spend much of our time exploring our beautiful national parks. We highly recommend their Jr. Ranger program as it combines fun and education. The kids earn badges while learning about each park's features, wildlife, activities, history, and preservation. They glean so much information from helpful park rangers, and currently all three want to be rangers when they're old enough. We all enjoy the exhibits, visitor centers, scenic drives, and trails. Camping in the parks is sometimes very convenient and affordable too. For only $80, we purchased an annual pass to all the parks, and after only a few months it had already paid for itself.

Along the way, we've met so many friendly and interesting people at campgrounds, churches, picnics, parks, gas stations, and on the side of the road. A couple is walking across America, with their pig. A man who's played guitar for 60 years gave us an awesome lesson in musical history. A truck driver took the time to explain the proper technique for climbing up, and more importantly down, mountains to save our brakes. Our kids are very outgoing and love to hear these stories, and tell their own of course. They do look for RVs with bunkhouse windows (a sure sign of kids inside), but they're just as happy finding a retiree with a good story, or a willing ear.

Flexibility and simplicity have now replaced schedules and stress in our life. Our plan is to have no plan and so far, that's worked out very well. We're free to leave early if we're bored, hot, cold, there's no cell coverage, it's raining too often, or certainly if we see snow. Or we might stay longer if we really enjoy a park, meet another family on the road, have super fast wifi, or need to finish a work project. With no calendars to fill or schedules to work around, life moves slowly and peacefully. We simply leave when we're ready and arrive when we get there.
We're fortunate to be able to work on the road. With laptops, air cards, routers, smart phones, and wifi available at most campgrounds, we're able to stay connected and work remotely. It can be challenging working at home with three children (as it was before we left). We've learned to work at night, or when the kids are outside playing or inside reading, or while one of us takes the kids on an adventure leaving the other in peace and quiet.

We have a supportive staff and a wonderful community at Digital Scrapbook Place, which is my workplace, but also my online home. Digital scrapbooking is a fun and meaningful hobby, and it's also very convenient for RVers with little storage space (you just need a laptop)! To meet more of that community, we began an official digital scrapbooking tour. As we travel, we hold laptop crops across the country for Scrap the Map. We always have a great time scrapbooking and chatting with old friends and new. It's wonderful to have such a fun and mobile job!

So we live, learn, play, and work together and love every bit of it. None of us can imagine stopping anytime soon. We love our ever-changing back yard and the anticipation of where we'll go next. Looking back, we have only one regret about leaving everything for our fulltime life on the road: We left our dog behind. So after six months and twenty-one states, and much to the kids' delight, we came back and picked up Jack, who is now RVing with us. It's not as convenient and we may have to skip a few trails, but Jack's family. And as our family motto says, Family Sticks Together.

Margie is traveling the USA fulltime in an RV with her husband and three young children. Owning Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc. allows them to work remotely and hold events all over the country. Learn more about the laptop crops as they Scrap the Map. Follow their family adventures, RVing, roadschooling, and more on Lundy5.com.