Welcome to our adventure!

“We promised each other that we would travel when we met.”

How many of you can relate to this statement? I will freely admit that this is a statement which is easier said that done. The responsibilities that life presents us do not take of themselves magically. There is no money tree or pot ‘o gold at the end those rainbows. The basics of life - food, shelter, clothing, internet : - ) - must be acquired. Then there is the fear; fear of the unknown, fear of failure, or simply, just fear. Any of these can make the most hardened and confident of us question, if not, outrightly abandon that youthful dream. How did we overcome these fears? How are we getting along? How do we manage? Well, these are questions that will be answered, as best we can, in this blog. We will do our best to cover our adventure in this every growing demographic and hope that you will learn from our mistakes, but more importantly, see the overall successes we have and will achieve as we work towards our goal of succeeding in that initial promise, traveling and learning about our great nation, its people, its beauty, its culture, and most importantly, its freedom.

We welcome you to travel with us and learn, as we do, and see the world that is just a step outside the beaten path.

“Two roads diverged in the wood, and I -

took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Mountain Interval, Robert Frost, 1920

Where it begins.

Our home was a 2,300 sq. ft. home on almost 10 acres of land in the Piney woods of East Texas. The homestead was lovely. It was peaceful, being set back from the road, that itself was set away from the main transit route that crossed from the outskirts of the city. This was where our children learned about the circle of life. We had goats and chickens. We also had coyotes, snakes, skunks, and all other forms of nature. The kids learned how to sow seeds, feed the livestock, and harvest the fruits of their labors. Many an afternoon and weekend were spent watching them revel in the beauty and wonder that was country living. On the many clear nights we had, we could just go outside and bask in the glow of the stars as they cheerfully sang, “Deep in the Heart of Texas”. Alas, as the days flew by and added to their years, time in front of a television or computer began to outnumber the our time outside. I had no idea when we started the homestead, the amount of effort it would take to make it run. 

See, I’m a kid from the city. First generation born in Los Angeles, California, I grew up in the middle of a place where if concrete was a crop, we would have been set. The street lights were always on and the traffic never stopped. You could spit and hit your neighbors window. I didn’t even know who our neighbors were. It was not the safest place to be and as kids, mom preferred that we stayed inside, not that you could play outside, next to a street that has three lanes in each direction. I had dreamed of one day having home where I could let my kids play outside and not worry. Having distance from prying eyes and judgmental looks. A place that was ours. Well, as the saying goes, careful what you wish for. Keeping a homestead is a full-time job and I already had one. Eight hours in an office and then additional hours keeping up the land and house. By the time I was done with all of the chores, the kids were ready for bed and I barely saw them before they left for school. Many of you can probably relate to this! Then there were the play dates, karate, dance, sports, and church activities. It became clear that all we were doing was running from one event to another, barely having time to breathe, let alone enjoy our home or children. My beautiful and loving wife saw what was going on well before I. She saw how much of a toll it taking and was ready to pull the plug on the “American Dream” and find something that would put us back to where we needed to be, together with the children. You see, I couldn’t see what was happening. I was so focused on ensuring that my family had what I saw as the perfect life, that I couldn’t see it was actually taking me out of there lives. I kept telling myself that we would have summer to travel or the holidays. We would just save up for the trip of a lifetime or we can do all of the traveling when the kids are grown and we’re retired. Always putting traveling off for tomorrow, but what if tomorrow never comes?

Starting small.

We didn’t take the plunge all at once. The kids participated in Trail Life and American Heritage Girls. These activities took us out of the house and into nature. There were many opportunities to camp and see what life was like away from our framed abode. We visited many Texas State Parks (https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/) and nature preserves. We travelled for archery tournaments (https://asaarchery.com) as well. Those trips quickly starting adding up! Hotels, motels, and the like add up quickly, but the time spent together was priceless. We searched for more ways to travel and found a great opportunity to purchase our first travel trailer when a friend told us she was selling her 15 foot Layton two years ago.

That’s right, a 15 foot travel trailer. Two adults, three kids, and a German Shepherd in a 15 foot travel trailer. To say that we didn’t know what we were doing is an understatement. Terms like black water, grey water, battery capacity, and the like were a new language to us. Needless to say, I am not one to read the instruction manual, at least in the beginning. But the fun we were having again was immeasurable! However, as much fun as we were having, the small space and limited capacity of the trailer relegated our trips to locations where we had to have full hook ups. You can imagine how quickly that little trailer’s tanks would fill up with five people when it was designed three. So after six months, we moved up to a Keystone Passport 2670BH.

I’m going to leave our story here for now. The next entry will be how we decided on this model and what our experiences have been so far.

Stay tuned!

So, in the summer of 2017 we moved on from our litter 15 foot trailer and purchased a new Keystone Passport 2670BH. This was, and still is, our first foray into the world of buying a truly mobile home. Why did we choose a Keystone Passport? Truth be told, it was located at the dealership we visited, it fit the need we had at that moment, we could tow it with our truck, and most importantly, it was the one we were able to finance.

That being said, there was a lot of “flying by the seat of your pants” going on that fateful day. Let me break it down into some for you.

1. Why did you choose that dealership?
2. How did you know you could tow it?
3. Finance vs cash purchase.