House Sweet House

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When we first started traveling, I would tell people that we were homeless. I stopped doing that after a little while because it wasn't really true. We were houseless, but we weren't homeless. We were all together, and we had a roof over our heads. It was a small roof, yes, but we had a home.

Now we have a house.

Let's back up and do a brief recap.

We sold our house in North Carolina in February, 2021 and bought an RV. We didn't really have a plan for what came next other than to visit as many National Parks as we could. We hit the road in March, 2021.

Me: "Should you teach me how to drive this?"
RV Guy: "Have you ever driven a moving truck"
Me: "Yes."
RV Guy: "You'll be fine."

Our kids were 7, 9, and 11 when we began. We spent the next 20 months driving around this (very large) country, visiting all 59 National Parks in the lower 48 plus Alaska.

We didn't have a house to come back to once we were done traveling. Our plan was to find a church, find some land near that church, and build. We had an idea of where we wanted to settle but that's about it.

We ended up spending a few months in North Georgia before moving to Northeast Georgia. We homed in on Athens as a good place to settle. I went to school at the University of Georgia, but that wasn't the reason we chose it. We wanted to be close to our respective families in the Atlanta metro area without actually being in the Atlanta metro area. IYKYK.

Our little piece of land while looking for our big piece of land

After finding a lot, we had to wait out some issues with the development (a story for another time), but we were finally able to move onto the property while building the house.

Fast-forward to today, and we now have a house. So while we were never really homeless, nor were we technically houseless (our house just happened to have wheels), there's no debate at all now. We have a house, and it's our home.

Landscaping is a job for another day

Some statistics:
  • Months on the road: 20
  • States visited: 49 (we'll catch you later, Hawaii)
  • Countries visited: 3
  • National Parks visited: 59 (we lack the 4 offshore parks)
  • Miles driven: 33,000
  • Parts replaced in the RV: I'd prefer not to talk about it
  • Months in the RV: 54
Now is a good time to praise my family for their flexibility. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in this adventure than Julie. She was super flexible and made the most of every day, good and bad, schooling our children all the way.

And our children were great. They started this adventure as kids and ended it as young adults. I know every day wasn't rosy, but they made memories to last a lifetime, and they never rarely only sometimes complained.

What's next? Lord willing, we'll be in this house until the children are all out of high school. After that, who knows? I already miss traveling. We really do have a beautiful country, and it's worth exploring. With no children, we'd be able to get a much smaller and more manageable rig!

But that's a discussion for another day. For now, we're just going to enjoy where the Lord has us for this next season.



I think I can do six months. -Julie

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