The Roaming PJ's: December 2017

The Vision:

To become free of debt, to travel and explore all parts of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Live a minimalist lifestyle that will allow us to explore places and have new experiences without being tied down to one specific place. Enrich our experiences by exploring and learning and discovering new places, new things, new people, new jobs, new adventures!

The Plan:

Downsize and move into our 32 foot travel travel and our Toyota Tundra. We moved from a 2400 square foot house to an 1100 square foot house and now to the travel travel.

Paul retired from his job with the bread company after 20 years and I will continue to work online.

Shelby, age 17 and Josh, age 16 will travel with us and hopefully experience some things that will enhance their lives. Josh will finish high school online; Shelby graduates in May of 2018; right before we set off.

May- June, 2018 we will leave Mississippi and travel through Arkansas, then Missouri and land in Altoona, Iowa for our first work camping adventure. Depending on how long we stay there we may either travel west to Yellowstone or travel east to Tennessee for the fall work camping adventure. There are many possibilities and we will not know exactly how long we will want to stay in Iowa until we get there.

We will make plans as we go; try to follow the weather so we do not have to be in extreme hot and humid temperatures or extreme cold temperatures.

How we prepared:

1.) Financially prepared: we got rid of as much debt as possible. We paid cash for my car, paid cash for the camper and do not have any mortgages or large bills. We will have monthly expenses but my income will take care of those. I will keep my job on the road. I am a certified teacher, I teach online and so we will pay for cell service and Internet so we will always have it when I need it. Paul will work camp when he finds something he is interested in trying out. If he doesn't like it, it will be a good experience to know in the future; if he likes it, he may stay longer with it and also will be a learning experience and something to go back to in the future.

Workcamping: For those who are not familiar with workcamping there are some companies and campgrounds that will hire people to work for them. These jobs are usually temporary and some pay a wage and other just give a free campsite with full hook ups; some do both. By workcamping, our expenses for camping will be greatly reduced and we will be able to keep our savings built up for any unexpected expenses on the road. While my income will take care of all of our basic needs; it would be difficult to pay for a campsite every single night just with my income. Our goal is to find free campsites; or workcamping. When finding free campsites those usually do not have any hook ups and we will be dry camping or boondocking. In order to that, we have had to prepare our camper so we will not be without electricity for any length of time. We will use a generator and install solar panels and use those to help provide the electricity we need.

2.) Downsizing: We have always enjoyed living a minimalist lifestyle and I hate clutter so it really is not too difficult to get rid of stuff for me. We planned out and thought out some must needed things to have and will focus on only the necessities and utilize storage solutions in order to have everything we need. A lot is not needed on the road; we are not going to be away from civilization at all times so if there is something that comes up that we need we should be able to get it at that time.

Ready To Go:

Now that we have researched and prepared we are just waiting on our youngest daughter, Shelby to graduate and we will hit the road. We have been watching other people who travel full time in an RV or travel trailer and have been reading their information so we feel like we are well prepared. Of course the unexpected will probably come up but I know we are as prepared as we can possibly be.