Author: One Story
Let me start off by introducing myself and my little family of love. There’s me, Jenn, a 33-year-old mother of two, singer, artist, graphic designer, and lover of musical theater. Then we have David, my husband, who many say resembles actor Seth Rogen (I’m not complaining ;) He is 36, a musician to the core with his primary instruments being the bass and guitar. He is a super fun loving easy going guy which helps to balance me out… a more anxious, outgoing, free spirit with a temper and dramatic flare.
When we met, there was never any talk of kids or travel or much of anything other than what we were already doing. Me, singing in a band in LA, and he a manager at Sherman Oaks Guitar Center. I’m sure my loving husband would have been just fine with a life that went much the same as that, but crazy dreaming Jenn wanted more.
On a whim, we decided to move to a place we had never heard of and open up a performing arts studio for kids. It was there that we met our first little son Alex, who is now 6-years-old. He is a very intelligent, energetic, and creative child, a natural born leader and very dramatic. He takes after me a lot! It’s been fun navigating life with him. We butt heads as we have very similar personalities, but love always prevails.
After a few years of meeting great kids and creating awesome plays and memories we packed it all up and headed to my childhood home town of Big Bear Lake, CA, where we had our second little son Els Carter. Els is 4-years-old now and is hilarious. He always keeps us laughing with his funny faces and impressions he learns from watching Jimmy Fallon.
Related Read: Full Time RVing with Kids
After being settled and established in Big Bear for around four years I started getting restless. Days and weeks became the same. Work, school, t-ball, dance, more work, gymnastics, a bit of sleep…wake up and do it all over again. I longed for more, of course, and one night when I was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook I stumbled across a map that some scientists had made for the perfect route to road-trip across America. I literally stared at the map for 20 minutes or more and then couldn’t sleep the whole night. My mind was racing with all the possibilities that could be out there on the road for my family and I.
The next day I bought a poster board and hand drew a map of America. I titled it “Our Adventure:”
That poster hung there on the wall for many months, always staring back at me and me always making more and more excuses like, “Yeah that would be nice but what about money?” Or “You know, I just don’t think I’m cut out to homeschool,” and another one “What about health insurance, or a mailbox, or friends for the boys, or or or or….?” The questions went on and on and they did for another year or so. It wasn’t until about three months ago that we really decided to do this thing. We were going to become a full time RVing Family of LOVE!
Related Read: 10 Things to do BEFORE you Jump into Full Timing
After the final decision was made things moved pretty quickly. We were able to save a bunch of money from our tax return and with some extra help from my awesome parents we were soon driving away with our used 1998 27ft Shasta Class C Motorhome.
The following is a list of steps we took to finally get out on the road.
Step One:
Organize each room of our house. Putting things in piles of SELL, KEEP, or DONATE.
Step Two:
Sell Sell Sell. Sell as much as you can!
Step Three:
Make sure all your necessities are taken care of. Things that make sense for your own family when you’re hitting the road. For us, we needed to pick a homeschooling curriculum, research and find car and RV insurance, pick a home base State, (We chose Arizona cause my parents live there and are willing to forward our mail, Yay!) and of course we had to figure out how we would get our medications and health covered on the road.
Related Read: Navigating Health Insurance and Wellness on the Road
There is more to it than that, of course and I will be going into more detail in upcoming blogs, so please subscribe.
Hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit about us! Please feel free to ask any questions you may have and follow along with our journey across America as we learn how to live full time in an RV, road school, make money, and most importantly, be happy as a family. Until next time always remember, One Story Loves You!
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