One-Year Roadiversary!

Jill's Journal: Hands down, this is our very favorite photo of the entire first year of our journey. I take 99% of the photos for our family (which is why I’m rarely in them), but Rob took this gem. Oceano Beach, California, January 2011

And the other coast. Is there any child who doesn’t love the beach? We never dreamed we'd be playing on both coasts within the first year of our trip, but sometimes journeys like these take you to unexpected places. Assateague, Maryland, July 2010

Believe it or not, when we first started considering an extended road trip, we didn’t envision anything beyond a year. Today, as we celebrate our one-year “roadiversary,” that makes us laugh. With one year behind us, we literally feel like we’re only just getting started. There’s so much to see in this mighty country of ours that (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise) we’ll surely also surpass the three-year projection we had last year when we left Kentucky. That’s part of the beauty of an adventure like this…the sky is the limit.

With no further ado, we wanted to refer back to some the questions you asked and share just a few of the more significant photos from our first year on the road.

What was your favorite/least favorite "place"?

Favorite educational place -- Plymouth, Massachusetts. Wonderful.

Favorite touristy place – Chincoteague, Virginia.

Favorite all-around place -- Portland, Maine. Loved it, as well as all of Maine along the coast. Just incredible. Can’t wait to go back.

Least favorite place – Delaware, all of it. Never have to go back! --Jill and Rob

Heading east out of our adopted home state, ready to start the adventure of a lifetime. Somewhere east of Lexington, Kentucky, July 2010

Do you feel like you’ve learned anything this past year?

We’ve learned there are good people everywhere. Actually, my Mom has always said that, but I think we can really, really see it now. --Jill

Would you do it again (travel for a year)?

YES. No question about it. –Rob and Jill

Did you ever think about quitting?

Why yes, we did. Here’s a tip: don’t go a place with no hookups (meaning no air conditioner, no fans, and limited water) for seven nights during the hottest summer on record just a couple of weeks into your ‘still-figuring-out-this-RV-thing’ trip. As you melt into a puddle of misery for that endless week, you will curse the day you first thought this would be an adventure. If Maryland’s Assateague Island didn’t have wild ponies to remind us of how special it was, we wouldn’t have made it through that week of hell and very possibly would have thrown in the towel. --Rob and Jill

What do you like most about traveling?

I like that every day can be an adventure. You never know what’s around the next turn. And, by the same token, if you don’t like something, it’s not permanent. There’s always a next place. --Jill

When we started this trip, one of my goals was to show the kids all these different experiences so that they could know them instead of just read about them and I think we’re doing just that. -- Rob

The girls touching a chunk of Plymouth Rock. Awesome. Making their education come alive is what this trip is all about. Plymouth, Massachusetts, September 2010

What is the best improvement you've made to the RV?

Washer/dryer. --Rob (Jill SO agrees)

What was your favorite/least favorite campground?

Nothing will top the Van Peursem Barn in Orange City, Iowa…best place to stay ever. As far as our least favorite campground, none are perfect. Sometimes the spaces are really tiny, sometimes the staff is rude, and some are just plain weird and uncomfortable (Rhode Island!). We’ve come to find each campground has its own personality. Some places will always be great, some will always be bad, but the experience depends a lot on who is camping around you, what time of year it is (in season, out of season), etc. So many little things really dictate the experience. We could be in the same campground 25 spaces apart and might have a completely different experience. --Rob

When are you thinking about being done with this travel thing?

We’re not. --Rob

As the girls grow, we are going to miss moments like this. How special to be able to capture them now. Morgan Hill, California, April 2011

What is your greatest luxury on the road?

Oh my, I want to answer that one! Hands down, happiness is full hookups. With three kids, I hate when we don’t have hookups for more than a day and I have to ration every drop of water for even little things like toothbrushing and handwashing. That makes me miserable. I guess that proves I am not a natural camper in any sense of the word. –Jill

Is it bringing your family closer?

Without a lot of outside influences and separate groups of friends at school, we’ve seen some really special things with the girls’ relationships. They are truly each others’ very best friends. They do their share of bickering like any other siblings, but they are so tight with each other. It’s almost like I would imagine triplets to be – they’re just so close and would be completely lost without the others. That is an awesome thing for a parent to behold. --Jill

How does one celebrate one year of homelessness?

This is something we've found a lot of people ask us, and the answer is simply this. We have a home. We ARE home. We each sleep in our own beds every night, cook breakfast and dinner on the same stove, shower and occasionally shave in the same bathroom, and read bedtime stories on the same couch night after night. Our home is no different than anyone else's except that our backyard changes, the grocery store we shop in changes, and the places we get to see change more frequently than most everyone else. We are not homeless, we just have a bigger yard than you do. --Rob

Opportunities, opportunities. During our time at Laguna Seca, a pilgrimage of sorts for Rob, we came across a briefly-open gate to the racetrack. Even Garmin was urging Rob on – see the GPS proclaiming, “Driving on Laguna Seca”? It took a lot of self-control (and probably the threat of jail time) to pass this up. Salinas, California, March 2011

I guess you are heading north along the Pacific coast. Are you going into BC?

As much as we’d like to, we’re not planning to go to British Columbia this summer (there just aren’t enough months of decent weather for all the “northern” things we want to do!). We do hope to do all of the lower part of Canada after we “finish” the lower 48 states and we also hope to go to Alaska one summer, so BC will be on our list for one of those times. --Jill

Out of all the places you've been, if you had to choose right now, where would you move to and why?

We haven’t found it yet. --Rob

That wasn’t the question! If we had to choose from our journey so far, it would be either Southern Maine (near the coast) or Lexington, Kentucky (although Rob’s short list probably would not include Kentucky). I want a place that makes my heart sing – a place that’s beautiful, a place with wonderful people, a place that’s rural enough to feel we’re in the country but close enough to a decent-sized city to have a choice between grocery stores, a place where the girls can have opportunities ranging from 4-H to dance lessons, a place where we love waking up in the morning. Maine and Lexington are the two places I feel that most so far, but we haven’t been to Montana yet. :) --Jill

Like the Trace Adkins song, it’s not about the fishin’. Scarborough, Maine, October 2010