Reflections after 2 months on the road

Family photo - ElwhaAfter 70 days living in a camper (NOT a trailer!), I polled the family to capture our thoughts and reflections so far:

Favourite places so far:

Favourite experiences so far:

Thoughts and Reflections at this juncture:

  • We have done amazingly well living in a tiny space with 3 people, especially on the rainy and cold days
  • We are learning how to balance exploring and activities with just “being” – this is recent and I’m sure will take some more work to fine tune. Hunter is pushing us on this one…
  • It is amazing how much stuff you can live without – for example, we have a small selection of clothes and do laundry every two weeks and yet even then we are only washing about half of our clothes
  • We are still growing into home school. We are on our second approach and it seems to be working better. I now lay out a weekly curriculum, similar to Montessori at home, and Hunter has to get it done that week. When, where and how are up to him. This way he knows his goals and I only have to really plan the minutia once a week.
  • The snow seemed to be chasing us for much of the first 2 months and that had a big emotional impact on all of us. The last 2 weeks in southern California have been wonderful (highs of 21c, lows of 10c) and we are hoping for more of this
  • California has alot of people and is really expensive! It’s a trade off for the fun time at the ocean…
  • You can learn so much from others – just keep talking to people you meet and be curious, ASK QUESTIONS!
  • Good, solid internet is tough to find and not to be taken for granted.
  • Clean showers with full height shower heads are not as standard as you would think or hope… Why do people install short shower heads? I can’t imagine how it is for the many people that are taller than me!
  • We are beyond thrilled that the truck has performed so well – going from a cranky, persnickety truck at home, it has started every day and driven well for over 10,500 km so far! Obviously it just wants to be used, loved and warm 🙂
  • Research, Research, Research and then go with the flow. Knowing what our choices are (especially regarding campgrounds) makes it easy to adapt on the fly and make the most of opportunities.
  • Most important – be thankful for the graciousness of strangers and enjoy creating new friendships along the way as part of the making of memories

Time is just flying by and it’s hard to believe that we’ve been gone for 2.5 months. We’re all still looking forward to the adventures still to come and the family and friends we will visit along the way.

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4 Comments

  1. Nice blog! We are doing a similar thing. I am an ER nurse doing travel jobs, living in a fifth wheel for three or more years, two year old ,wife, rented out our home in Utah.

    Stoked to see you guys doing stuff everyday and your youngster requesting a day off. Awesome parenting!

    We will be in Arizona in a few weeks. Looking forward to the sunshine!

  2. Good. The market for ER and ICU is strong, the pay is good, etc. Not sure about Canadian tax structure, but we make a good chunk of change as tax free money that is classified as daily per diem and housing. Seasonal Arizona jobs are plentiful, Alaska seasonal work, then pretty much everywhere else when the jobs pop up. The seasonal jobs are filled a few months in advance, but most positions have start times two to four weeks after posting, so you never really know where you might end up.

    Between jobs, we take a couple weeks to drive to the next location, poke along. I don’t feel the need to take a bunch of time off because I only work three days per week and my wife doesn’t work. Life is super relaxed.

  3. I have always though we want and have too much. It is good to see you can get along with so little. Enjoy your time on the road you will miss home sometimes and when you go home you will miss the road sometimes. Have fun and stay friends. Love Grandpa

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