“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

Lao Tzu

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So many people have asked us why we decided to take this leap. Why did we decide to sell literally nearly all of our belongings? What prompted us to downsize our 2700 square foot house and move into an RV with only about 400 square feet? How can we possibly stand being together in such a small space… all… the… time?

It’s hard to answer that question, to accurately explain what this journey means for us and our family. So, I guess the best explanation is to start at the beginning.

Dan and I have been traveling since we met each other. Some thought us crazy, but after only seven months of dating, we embarked on our first cross country road trip to Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Two weeks, multiple states, ten national parks… we came back stronger in our relationship because of it. A year later, he surprised me with a trip to Glacier, and it was there that he proposed to me next to a waterfall on a hike. Having kids never slowed us down. We went on our second cross country road trip to the mountains of Yellowstone while I was pregnant with Levi. I will never forget the 13-mile hike we did together down the backside of a mountain in Grand Teton. When Levi came along, we ventured to Tennessee and Maine and lots of other states on the east coast. Then the twins arrived, and we went to Florida and Grand Cayman and Mexico. When they were two and Levi was five, we took our third cross country road trip, back to Yellowstone. And then, just last summer, we picked up our entire family and moved across the country to Idaho.

The idea of living on the road always seemed like this pipe dream. When Levi was born, we would go on these trips and joke about the idea of traveling for a year or two before settling down in some mountain town in Montana or Colorado or Idaho. But that seemed like such a crazy idea. I was still teaching, homeschool was not an option for me at the time, and Dan had far from a remote job.

But then, COVID hit. And if there was anything that COVID taught us, it was the importance of family. We were told to hunker down and ride the wave and suppress the curve. We all became homeschool moms and dads… the majority of companies became work from home… and we did everything… together.

It was during the camping season of 2020, the year we used camping as our escape, that Dan and I really began to think “what if.” We found ourselves using camping as our way to continue to live while the world seemed shut down. We traveled that summer to Kentucky and Tennessee. We traveled to North Carolina and upstate New York and so many Pennsylvania state parks. And during his first grade year, we opted to homeschool Levi. And it worked… we flourished!

But the weekends we weren’t camping, it became depressing. We felt boxed in. We had the same monotonous routine. We all stayed in the same house, oftentimes isolated from friends and family members at the behest of our leaders. And our mental health suffered. I found myself wishing for something more.

I also looked at my kids and mourned my time lost with them. I was so angry at COVID for ripping two years away from my children’s childhood. So many days that we didn’t spend with friends. I still am in disbelief that in the early months of COVID, we went without giving our grandparents hugs and we went without seeing our friends. I blinked and my children were older. My son was going to be entering second grade and my little toddlers now had their own personalities with no more baby faces.

In early 2021, we started watching YouTube videos of these families that traveled full time in an RV. We started researching layouts and dreaming of this life on wheels. This life that gave us the opportunity to “live again.” We even went so far as to pick out the perfect rig. We traveled two hours north of our home in Pennsylvania and toured some Cyclones and fell in love with so many of the features. I had even made homeschooling work – as my son was thriving in first grade under my instruction. But… there was still one thing missing, and that was the remote work.

In late spring of 2021, we got an opportunity to move our family across the country and be near the mountains. The mountains have always seemed to call my name. It wasn’t a remote job, but it was a good job and it was out west. We moved to Boise, Idaho and rented a townhome near downtown. And it was lovely. The mountains were so close, and there was so many outdoor recreational opportunities available to us! We had so many amazing experiences.

When Dan was offered a position that was full remote, we took it. We took it originally because it gave us the opportunity to search for property outside of Boise. But, when we began searching for a home, we were in disbelief at the housing prices! It just seemed like this wasn’t the right choice for the moment.

And the wanderlust still called.

We started looking again and talking again about going full time. But it seemed like such a hurdle. Actually, it didn’t seem like a hurdle… it was a hurdle. It was a huge hurdle. But, we decided to take that leap.

We toured a rig. After talking about it, we decided to put down a deposit. By the time we called back, that rig had been sold (it was only two days). We found another rig and the next day attempted a deposit. It had sold earlier that morning. We realized then how difficult this was going to be.

All in all, if there was a hurdle to leap, we definitely leapt it. Supply chain issues affected our purchase from start to finish… the camper, the truck, even the IKEA furniture we needed to convert our back room. We sold more than half of our stuff… again. The remainder we paid to ship back across the US to move into storage near our family homebase. We’re still attempting to complete minor renovations inside since we had nowhere to park the rig in Boise.

There were so many times we thought we should just throw in the towel.

But, I sit here typing this on the back deck of our new toy hauler… our new home. We just arrived and our site is overlooking a mountain landscape and a lake.

My three kids just rode by in front of me on their bikes. And it made me realize, we did it. We actually did it.

We did it for those three kids. Those kids who will grow up with experiences beyond any I’ve had myself. Those kids will bond with each other, will learn from their mother and their father, and will continue to develop a love for nature, for the outdoors, and for the many people all over this great nation who have made it what it is today.

They say that we only have 18 summers with these kids… and man, is it true. Our kids are already eight and five and are growing like weeds.

And so, in a long, circuitous, roundabout way… that is why we did this. We did it for our kids. We did it for our family.

So, here’s to our adventure. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Follow along on our adventure: @our_pickett_fences