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 I thought the transition to living on the road would be effortless. The one thing that most people said they couldn't take - never getting away from the kids - I was already living on a regular basis as a homeschooler. Piece of cake, right? What I didn't expect was the huge increase in the noise level, dealing with the fact that my kids were bouncing off the walls of the RV unless they got outside daily to burn off some energy (which meant one of us had to go with them), and missing the sense of freedom that comes with having 2 cars. All of this we learned in the first 3 weeks. Thus began our journey to somehow reconcile the dream with the reality of life on the road.
First off, I could not school my children on the road the same way I did at home, and for me that was a great source of frustration (and also an opportunity to grow). The reality was no where near what I had envisioned. I thought we would get in-depth, tangible history lessons, full of real-life places and experiences that would really leave an impression. Instead, we were moving so fast that we ended up with a basic overview of American history. Not at all what I had hoped for. It left me discouraged and wondering if the year as a whole would wind up being good for my kids or a colossal waste of time academically. (Their standardized test scores, thankfully, showed that it was not a waste of time. They really did learn something on the road!) In retrospect, to get the type of educational experience we had envisioned we would have had to move much slower and stay on the road much longer...2-5 years. By moving so quickly we didn't allow ourselves time to rest between cities, time to process what we had learned, or time to really get to know anyone in the campgrounds. Unfortunately, I didn't know that on the front end. We left too many expenses and obligations at home and our income wasn't keeping up (we were on the road when diesel was close to $5/gal). We had to get home and get back to work.
We didn't make an effort to find and meet other families on the road.
I really regret that. It was, again, a function of our crazy pace. We
just didn't have time, but there are some amazing families that are
currently doing exactly what we did. I wish we had taken the time to
get to know some of them. If you'd like to read about a few of them,
look here: www.familiesontheroad.com
We brought WAY too many clothes. We ended up packing up a couple of
boxes (which is a testimony to how much you can fit into a motorhome)
and taking them back to storage. The more clothes we had to wear, the
more we allowed the dirty laundry to pile up, and dirty laundry just
smells up the place. Truly, less is more.
It took me a long time to get a meal plan in place and to get
comfortable with the convection microwave. Consequently, we ate out
too much in the beginning and spent too much on food. It's so
important to plan ahead on the road. There are times that you won't
get to where you're going until late in the day and by then, if you
don't have food ready you'll eat out. (The crock pot
works great for days like this. Plug it in and set it in the sink
while driving. By the time you arrive, dinner's ready.) In the end, I
came to really like cooking in the convection microwave and wish I had
one now.
We stayed in "vacation mode" too long. When you first hit the road it
really feels like a vacation, so you relax. Get up whenever. Go to
bed whenever. Watch a lot of TV. The problem is, at some point you
have to acknowledge that this is your life, not a vacation, and you
still have to be productive! We learned, the hard way, the importance
of routine. The kids really needed it (and so did we, if we're honest). Their
attitudes got progressively worse until order was restored. Once we
got them back on schedule - consistent bedtime, a morning routine, etc. - everything
ran more smoothly.
Because I didn't have any experience running a website, I had no
idea how much time it would take to answer emails, post articles, and
just keep up with basic housekeeping online. It took several hours a
week and there were times that I just didn't want to do it. In the
end, I'm glad I did. I look at our website as an "online journal" of
our trip and enjoy reading over some of the old articles. I wouldn't
have written about any of our experiences if I wasn't doing it for
friends and others that might be considering doing it too. But...if
you are considering keeping a blog of your travels, make sure you know
the time commitment involved, or at least have an idea of how much
time you intend to give it. It can get out of hand.
Again, as with the things that we did right, I could keep going, but
this article would look like a book! Most of the things I would list
have to do with adjusting - physically, mentally, and emotionally - to
the trip. In the end, many of the things that we learned (the hard
way) are things that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Definitely worth the effort!
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