Today we celebrate 6 years since we moved out of our house in Florida to start traveling fulltime in an RV. I know I say this every year, but how in the world did 6 years fly by so fast?!
Like for everyone, 2020 wasn’t the best year, but it wasn’t all bad either. We started out skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado — my favorite place in the country! Our time there was cut short when the mountains closed down on my birthday of all days. After that we spent 6 weeks with great friends in St. Louis.
When we decided to sell our house and most of our belongings to hit the road and see the country, I had no idea we would still be doing this 5 years later. At the time we thought we would do this for a year or two, but we quickly realized there is way too much awesomeness to see in this beautiful country to only travel for 2 years.
Now, 5 years later, we’re still going strong with no end date in sight. I can’t even describe how blessed I feel to be able to live this amazing life with the people I love most in this world. Making memories instead of accumulating stuff has become my life goal.
Each year has been great. Well, maybe the Heartland disaster year wasn’t that great, but our 5th year really was the best so far. It almost seems like we were making up for the not-quite-so-great year before that.
So on this 5th anniversary of the day we moved out of our house and into an RV, I am excited to share with you this video of the highlights of our 5th year on the road. The song “My House” by Kacey Musgraves is just perfect!
Green = 2015; Red = 2016; Blue = 2017; Purple = 2018; Black = 2019
If you would like to see our Nomadiversary videos from the first 4 years you can see them here:
Today we celebrate 4 years since we left our home in Fernandina Beach, FL to travel the country in an RV. Four years ago I never imagined we would make it this long, but this lifestyle seems to agree with us so we keep going.
Most of you know this was not exactly our best year since we hit the road. The first half of the year was good, and then on July 8th everything fell apart, literally. We made it to Calais, Maine on the Canadian border where we ended up leaving the worthless Heartland RV and continuing our journey to Canada with just our truck. Eventually we made our way back down south where we purchased our new Grand Design RV.
I wasn’t sure if I would bother with a Nomadiversary video this year, but with the help of my super-talented brother-in-law, we put together a great video which tells the story of our year, the good, the bad and the ugly. I love how it turned out and I hope you do too.
Our first 3 years of travel consisted of visiting lots of national parks, this year we visited lots of friends and family as I’m sure you can see by all the people in our pictures.
Each year I put a lot of thought into the song I choose for the video. This year I chose 2 songs, 1 for each half of the year and my brother-in-law came up with some great sound effects for the scary intermission part. 😉
In the first song (Home by Phillip Phillips), I love the phrase about not paying attention to the demons that will fill you with fear. I thought that was so appropriate as I was filled with a lot of fear and anxiety this year when our RV fell apart. I had so many worries about what we were going to do and where we were going to live. God is so good to us and He is our Provider. I hope I learned this year to rely on Him more and not to fear. The second song (There’s a Light by Todd Smith) perfectly sums up how I feel now at the end of the year. Yes, there was a light at the end of the troubles and there definitely is hope for those who believe.
Green = 2015; Red = 2016; Blue = 2017; Purple = 2018
We had to get a new state sticker map since the old one was still stuck on the Heartland. No we did not visit all these states yet in the new RV, but we decided we did not need to start over on the sticker map.
We are so excited to be back on the road and ready to continue traveling this beautiful country and making memories with our family! Lord willing, we are trying something different this year… instead of flying south for the winter like most RVers do (including us usually), this year we are headed west for some snow skiing.
Three years ago today we moved into our home on wheels and began the adventure of a lifetime, exploring this beautiful country. I can’t believe it has been that long already! I thank God every day for this lifestyle and time with my family.
We have now visited 29 states and 2 Canadian provinces, but I’m afraid I have lost count of how many national parks we have been to. My talented brother-in-law put together this recap video of our 3rd year on the road. I hope you enjoy it!
I love the lyrics to the song in this video: If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback… what would you do if today was your last day? You may not sell everything you own to travel the country in an RV (I know it’s not for everyone), but what is something you have always wanted to do, something you say you’ll do “someday”? Please allow me to encourage you to do it today, don’t wait.
Each year I like to get a picture of the boys pointing to our sticker map of states visited. As I look back over the pictures from each Nomadiversary, I see that our sticker map has filled in quite a bit, but what I notice even more is how much older Jake and Jesse look. Time, please slow down!
I tried something new this year — a color-coded map of our travels from the first 3 years.
Green = 2015; Red = 2016; Blue = 2017
It looks like we’re missing a bunch of states in the upper right-hand corner. As much as we love the west, we decided it’s time to explore the northeast. So stay tuned for year 4 of our adventures as we explore the east coast states and eastern Canada.
Two years ago today we moved out of our house to begin this amazing adventure on the road, and what an incredible ride it has been! We started out saying we would do this for 2 years, but we quickly realized that there is far too much to see in this beautiful country to stop after 2 years. So we are onto more adventures for year 3. But first I would like to share this video of the highlights of our second year on the road, as well as give an update about what we’ve been up to lately.
If you missed our 1st year nomadiversary video you can watch it here: One Year Nomadiversary. This is why I blog. I am certainly not a professional blogger and I don’t do it for money, but I like to keep this as a sort of travel journal so we can look back and remember everything we did. It is really fun to look back at prior blog posts and nomadiversary videos and count our blessings. If it helps anyone with travel planning or inspires you to travel, that’s an added bonus.
In 2 years of travel we have visited 24 states and 24 national parks/monuments. It’s hard to say what has been my favorite experience so far, but in 2016 I would say it’s a tie between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
I never did get around to sharing last year that we were interviewed by Epic Education Radio. Here is a link to the podcast if you would like to listen. http://www.anepiceducation.com/eer069-family-rv-living-in-the-usa/ Honestly I probably didn’t share it because I am generally shy and not comfortable talking in an interview like this. But some people said they liked it and it was helpful, so here it is for your listening pleasure. 🙂
It has been a while since my last post. Since then we have been spending time with friends and family in NC and FL. We stayed at Ft. Clinch State Park twice to visit friends in Fernandina Beach where we used to live.
Ft. Clinch has 2 campgrounds: one on the beach, the other on the river. We stayed on the beach side last year, you can read about that here: Ft. Clinch State Park. This time we stayed on the beach side for 3 nights, and stayed on the river side the rest of the time. These pictures are from the beach side.
Chris enjoying evening happy hour on the beach hammock.
Both campgrounds are wonderful, but I think we like the river side a little better. The river side campsites are larger and surrounded by trees so you get more privacy at those sites. We also had a lot more room for friends to visit.
The boys got a new slackline kit for Christmas which was fun to try out with friends.
And I finally got to beat Doug at Mexican train dominoes which means I don’t have to eat a bison burger! 🙂
The sunsets behind our site were glorious!
After Ft. Clinch we moved on to the Gulf Coast of Florida to St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach. I will write about that next time. Cheers!
It’s hard to believe that one year ago today we moved out of our house and into our new RV home to begin our traveling adventures. I wanted to share this video with you of the highlights of our first year on the road as we celebrate this milestone.
In the past year we have visited 15 states and 12 national parks/monuments. We have absolutely no regrets for having made the decision to sell our house and just about everything we own to travel this beautiful country.
I love this saying: “Childhood has an expiration date so squeeze out every second you can.” I am more aware all the time of how quickly my children are growing up. This traveling lifestyle is giving us the opportunity to squeeze out every second that we can before they grow up. I will be forever grateful for the memories we are making as we travel.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
4 Radical Roadschoolers and a Fat Cat 