The End

Jill's Journal: This post finds us in the midst of our journey across the heartland to a different life in New Jersey. At first, we intended to continue this little blog, especially as we plan to make many, many daytrips to nearby Manhattan and Philadelphia. (And that doesn’t even bring into account the many weekends we hope to spend in locales like Vermont, Maine, Washington D.C., and so many other close destinations!)

But after much soul-searching and plenty of debate, Rob and I have decided it’s time to close up shop on this little corner in cyberspace. (And Rob may carry on at some point, but it’s unlikely I’ll continue to contribute in this space.) We started this blog as a record of our RV trip for our children to have someday. Since that chapter of our lives is coming to a reluctant-but-hopefully-not-permanent close, I could sure make good use of the hours upon hours of extra time not blogging affords a person. Maybe, instead of blogging during the precious hours the girls are sleeping, I can finally learn a new language. Or read a book. Or get a good night’s sleep. Or simply watch a movie. Or, you know, have a new baby in two months or so. :)

We want our kids to know what a magical life we’ve all led together over the past two+ years. It’s been wonderful in ways we never could have imagined. And our story is not over. We may be taking a hiatus to better situate ourselves financially, but we’re sure as heck not done traveling with our kids yet. There’s a whole world out there.

I think we gave this blog a valiant effort over the last two+ years on the road. We hope our kids will enjoy it someday and we hope you enjoyed it too. Thanks for reading. (And a very special, heartfelt thanks to the folks who have commented over the past two years; you have no idea how appreciated you are and how much your feedback encouraged us. Thank you.)

Road trip!

Hi, Great Grandpa!

Jill's Journal: What fun it was to receive this photo from my Uncle Kim and Aunt Julie in Iowa. This is the girls’ adorable Great Grandpa reading our blog…how awesome is that? Hi, Grandpa…we love you!

Welcome!

Jill's Journal: If only I had a penny for each time someone asked if we had a blog! We finally decided it was time to go public. I’ve been keeping an occasional journal of our preparations to travel with the intention of sharing it with our girls someday. (Because surely someday they’ll wonder what possessed us to pack them into an RV and hit the road). Since my typing skills are stronger than my handwriting skills, it seemed a natural to make it a blog and that way my parents could track our travels as well. And now it’s morphed into something a little bigger…we’ve decided to also share it with our friends and family.

If you’re just joining us, the brief version is this: we’ve sold our house (closing in a matter of hours!), have bought a fifth wheel, and plan to travel North America for the next three years. We have a loose itinerary that includes 49 states and parts of Canada. Rob telecommutes already and can work from anywhere, so we realize this makes us incredibly blessed and very, very lucky. Our three girls are young with our oldest just finishing kindergarten tomorrow, so I’m going to try my hand at homeschooling for a few years. We can’t think of a better education for them (and for us!) than seeing the country firsthand.

As people have learned about the adventure that awaits us, we realized how many either long for this type of opportunity or think we’re completely off our rocker. Either way, it’s clear many people are very curious. We thought this blog would be a way we could take everyone along for the ride.

Both Rob and I will post. His entries (like the one immediately below) are labeled with an “R.” Mine will always begin with “Jill’s Journal.”

It will take another week or so for us to completely wrap up things here in Lexington, Kentucky, and then we’ll be on our way. So, stay turned and join us on our journey if you’d like. And welcome!