I live on the road in an RV with my family... any questions (1 Viewer)

[Jaysus]

• Everybody in my family gets to pick 1 thing to do, anywhere in the continental U.S. each year.

Please add the following to the above for a 6th annual trip!!

I think you should put up a poll for the FFA to decide a destination for you every year.

 

[lombardi]

Homeschooling DEFINITELY is not healthy long term unless major efforts are made to give the kids a chance to socialize on a normal level (ie TONS of after school activities and such). However 2 years like this is NOT a big deal IMO. As lombardi said, they're getting a ton of time with kids their age at each stop. Tougher to form long term relationships but candidly I have zero friends remaining (outside family) that I had when I was in grade school.

I think Highschool, College, and beyond is where you form your lasting friendships. Hell, I'd say the vast majority of my friends now are from after college even.

Don't want to twist this into a homeschool thread, but just to stick up for my home school homies a litlte bit....

I think a majority of people are making pretty mass generalizations. The home school movement has changed a lot in the last 10 to 20 years and the wacko insular home school family at the end of the blocks just isn't the norm anymore. Most homeschoolers I know, and I know quite a bit, are involved in large co-ops, home school groups, and almost mini-schools at least a day a week. They have ex-teachers and professionals teaching their kids some of the higher end HS classes, they go on field trips together, have gym classes, have graduation ceremonies and even proms. It's much more social and getting more mainstream than it used to be. We're good friends with our local librarian they started a homeschool program a few years ago. They had a handful of families. In the last few years it grew to about 50 families and they have a waiting list. Not going to pontificate about the why, but the fact is undeniable that it is growing at an exponential rate.

It's not for everyone and I sympathize with many of the concerns of long time home schooling, one of the reasons our kids are going to high school. However, I know literally dozens if not a hundred home school families. I know a few wackos and I worry about their kids futures, but I can say the same thing about friends with public school kids who are just bad parents. I don't think the percentage is any higher. I just think the generalizations are out of date and pretty uninformed with the current state of home schooling.

 

[lombardi]

Did not read the entire thread so I apologize if you already answered this question. 1) Are you keeping some kind of journal or diary that could possibly go to book form someday? 2) How many state magnets do you have on your fridge door?

1. My wife journals to keep a log of things we do. I do some basic writing, travel thoughts, etc.. but not as systematic as she does. I've got some interesting (at least I think interesting) ideas about a book but will be working a lot of the details form her notes, travel logs, receipts, etc., to get the details right on the when and where. Basically I am thinking of writing a half, hopefully humorous, travel essay and half how to for families considering doing something like this. More stories and maybe sidebars or small snippets of practical how to advice. Market for people doing this isn't very large so you want to appeal to regular readers or the "hopefully, someday" crowd. It has to be entertaining. But then adding some practical sidebars or advice at the end could help it gain some footing in the how to market in the RV forums.

2. They're not per state it's per place. I actually haven't really counted them. We have two giant zip loc bags full and we just cleared it a few months ago and have 20 of them on there now. Some examples on the range right now....

Crater Lake

Bonneville Dam

Monterey Fisherman's Wharf

North Cascades National Park

Haight and Ashbury

Seattle

Lassen Volcano National Park

Powell's Bookstore

Vancouver (cool hockey jersey magent)

NP Junior Range Badge

Portland

EMP Museum

Availla Beach

Hurricane Ridge (Olympic National park)

Cleveland Rock and roll Museum

San Juan Islands (Orca Whale)

 

[spOOfy]

i did some cross country traveling in my past, but it was cheap car and tent camping. my question for you is, how safe do you feel sleeping in the RV in these different campgrounds? i know when i was tent sleeping in those places, i slept with 1 eye open since the only thing between me and someone else was a zipper, but i assume you are a little safer in the RV. can you talk about that aspect?

 

[lombardi]

i did some cross country traveling in my past, but it was cheap car and tent camping. my question for you is, how safe do you feel sleeping in the RV in these different campgrounds? i know when i was tent sleeping in those places, i slept with 1 eye open since the only thing between me and someone else was a zipper, but i assume you are a little safer in the RV. can you talk about that aspect?

First, I'm not a very anxious person, worry isn't something I deal in very much so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I've only had maybe 2 or 3 nights where I've felt unsafe. It probably had more to do with the creepiness of the surroundings than any actual event or happening. But for the most part we feel perfectly safe. Some of the scarier, or spookier is probably a better word, places are when you're out on your own somewhere or far from a lot of other campers. But those are probalby the safer places, too far for "teh bad guys" to waste their time getting out to. The most dangerous RV parks are probably the urban parks where people wander through, steal things, meth heads probalby live in a trailer down the street. But you are surrounded by so many people because they're packed in that it doesn't feel as scary.

So your mind tricks you into being scared when you're probably most safe and secure when you're probably in the most danger.

RV is a lot different than a tent, we have locking doors, a deadbolt, and if there is any kind of decent noise or big movement near or outside the RV I generally will wake right up.

The most frightening thing probably happend about a month ago. We were in a WA state park and the ranger knocked on the door, was going door to door. Gave me a description of a dude and asked if I had seen him. I said no, why? Registered sex offender had been camping there on the sly. They spotted him, recognized him, but he bolted. They then saw him a little later that day on a trial skulking around because they now were watching his tent and campsite. So that was a little nerve wracking. Told the kids no outside today without mom or dad and we ended up taking a drive that day instead of hanging around since we were leaving the next day.

That kind of thing probalby happens more than we would like because RV parks are probably a great place to hide out. We keep a pretty good eye on the kids and they go places without us in pairs. Boys go to the showers in pairs, don't come home without each other, things like that. I don't think it's any more dangerous than society in general, the only fear is that if there is some freak out there he is driving around in his house. As a parent of young kids you can't help thinking about that occassionally.

 

[E-Z Glider]

People act like environment determines the future for these kids, when in reality, it has very little relevance. If the OP and his wife are smart, well adjusted, socially adept people, their kids will grow up to be the same, regardless of where/how they spend the next couple years. Do whatever makes you happy.

 

[Black Box]

I am now a huge lombardi fan. This sounds very cool.

 

[Joe Summer]

Do you guys post (obnoxious) photos and updates on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.??

 

[Black Box]

Do you guys post (obnoxious) photos and updates on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.??

I'm hoping he's running a "Fifty State Selfie" project of some sort.

 

[Beef Ravioli]

Did not read the entire thread so I apologize if you already answered this question. 1) Are you keeping some kind of journal or diary that could possibly go to book form someday? 2) How many state magnets do you have on your fridge door?

1. My wife journals to keep a log of things we do. I do some basic writing, travel thoughts, etc.. but not as systematic as she does. I've got some interesting (at least I think interesting) ideas about a book but will be working a lot of the details form her notes, travel logs, receipts, etc., to get the details right on the when and where. Basically I am thinking of writing a half, hopefully humorous, travel essay and half how to for families considering doing something like this. More stories and maybe sidebars or small snippets of practical how to advice. Market for people doing this isn't very large so you want to appeal to regular readers or the "hopefully, someday" crowd. It has to be entertaining. But then adding some practical sidebars or advice at the end could help it gain some footing in the how to market in the RV forums.

2. They're not per state it's per place. I actually haven't really counted them. We have two giant zip loc bags full and we just cleared it a few months ago and have 20 of them on there now. Some examples on the range right now....

Crater Lake

Bonneville Dam

Monterey Fisherman's Wharf

North Cascades National Park

Haight and Ashbury

Seattle

Lassen Volcano National Park

Powell's Bookstore

Vancouver (cool hockey jersey magent)

NP Junior Range Badge

Portland

EMP Museum

Availla Beach

Hurricane Ridge (Olympic National park)

Cleveland Rock and roll Museum

San Juan Islands (Orca Whale)

Not a huge reader, but I think I would like to read something like that if it included some humor, the weird, etc.

 

[lombardi]

Do you guys post (obnoxious) photos and updates on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.??

A bit of a subjective question

My wife updates facebook every so often with pics of family. Keeps everyone in touch with where we're at and what's going on. I generally just lurk on facebook.

I'm sure when you're shoveling snow and we're posting pictures of snorkeling it's probably considered obnoxious by some. However, the grandparents sure appreciate it.

 

[lombardi]

Do you guys post (obnoxious) photos and updates on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc.??

I'm hoping he's running a "Fifty State Selfie" project of some sort.

We started out taking pictures of every campsite, doing some funny poses in differnet states but it got kidn of boring and we stopped.

One thing we started doing is posing in from of the National Park signs. We did olympic sports in front of Olympic NP, we look for an incoming asteroid at Crater Lake, made a arch with the kids on our shoulders in front of Arches. I wish we started at the very beginning but we thought of it a little ways into our trip. When we're all done we'll do a montage of all those National Park sign pictures and it should be pretty fun.

 

[moleculo]

when I was a kid, both of my parents were school teachers so they had all summers off. We went on 2-month road trips, which were pretty awesome. Of course, because they were teachers, all we could afford was a tent - no fancy RV for us. There were four major trips that I can recall - Maine, Florida, and California and Alaska, and all points between. We saw lots of awesome stuff and had some great experiences, and spent some time with all sorts of friends and relatives along the way.

I didn't know many people that have camped at the base of Mt McKinley, gone whale watching in Maine, gone deep-sea fishing in Florida, been to the top of Sears tower or Empire States Building, visited Washington DC, toured the boats in Mystic Sea Port, walked the fields in Gettysburg, hiked along the Appalachian trail, rode the SF trolley, saw the Redwoods, etc., all by the age of 14.

The cost to me, as a kid, is I never went to "summer camp", I couldn't play baseball, and I couldn't be on the traveling soccer team.

I imagine that this two year tour would be like my summer vacations on steriods.

:thumbsup:

Interesting to hear from someone who had a somewhat similar experience.

I don't think my kids appreciate how different/special it is right now. They're having a great time and enjoying it but I wonder sometimes if they really "get it". How did your travelling, if it did, affect you later in life?

probably like you might expect. I have no problems road-tripping - packing everything up and hitting the road. My wife isn't as fond if it, but again, it's tougher with small children. We have taken some great vacations - over the past 5 years, we have visited (by car) Maine, Key West, Yellowstone, Dallas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Disney, New York, Washington DC, Colorado, Tennessee, and probably a few others.

one other weird thing is my wife and I have completely different ideas of what vacation should be. To me, when I'm on vacation I'm up and at it, ready to hit the road and see/do some cool stuff. Vacation is my time and I want to take full advantage and maximize the experience. To my wife, vacation means slow it down, relax, go a slow pace and try to enjoy your time off. It's a different perspective, and probably born out of my time on the road when I was a kid.

I also have been very open to living in different parts of the country. I was born and raised in Wyoming but went to college in NY, lived in Florida for 10 years and now live in SC. Packing up all of my things and moving is not a big deal, I understand that there are opportunities out there beyond the 50 mile radius of where you were born.

 

[mr roboto]

Lombardi,

I've thought about buying a small business in the north woods (Wisc, Minn or Mich) that is a rental cabin/RV business. We were looking at buying a cabin, one thing lead to another, and the wife and I started exploring business purchase vs personal purchase.

From your experience, is the owner there as the operator? Do you get the sense that this is a very involved business? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of parks you've experienced?

 

[Otis]

By the way, does anyone else here have a feeling that this is a Joe Bryant alias? For giggles:

-resources to do something like this, and doesn't have to worry about the hiatus affecting his career going forward

-strong Christian right leaning

-can do his job from anywhere

-family man

-handles challenging questions from other posters with grace and that signature JB touch

-JB has been missing in action here on the boards for some time now, and Dodds has even been sending out some of the daily updates

The NJ thing could be for cover. The only hitch in the story is that I thought Joe had older kids. Still.

That would have to be a pretty long set up considering I've been around since the 'ol Yellow days

Joe needs an anonymous outlet too.

 

[Joe Summer]

Do the kids have any portable video games/ipods/computers/etc.?

 

[Mr. Cross]

How many different churches have you attended?

 

[Annyong]

I was thinking about doing this, but in an airplane.

 

[lombardi]

when I was a kid, both of my parents were school teachers so they had all summers off. We went on 2-month road trips, which were pretty awesome. Of course, because they were teachers, all we could afford was a tent - no fancy RV for us. There were four major trips that I can recall - Maine, Florida, and California and Alaska, and all points between. We saw lots of awesome stuff and had some great experiences, and spent some time with all sorts of friends and relatives along the way.

I didn't know many people that have camped at the base of Mt McKinley, gone whale watching in Maine, gone deep-sea fishing in Florida, been to the top of Sears tower or Empire States Building, visited Washington DC, toured the boats in Mystic Sea Port, walked the fields in Gettysburg, hiked along the Appalachian trail, rode the SF trolley, saw the Redwoods, etc., all by the age of 14.

The cost to me, as a kid, is I never went to "summer camp", I couldn't play baseball, and I couldn't be on the traveling soccer team.

I imagine that this two year tour would be like my summer vacations on steriods.

:thumbsup:

Interesting to hear from someone who had a somewhat similar experience.

I don't think my kids appreciate how different/special it is right now. They're having a great time and enjoying it but I wonder sometimes if they really "get it". How did your travelling, if it did, affect you later in life?

probably like you might expect. I have no problems road-tripping - packing everything up and hitting the road. My wife isn't as fond if it, but again, it's tougher with small children. We have taken some great vacations - over the past 5 years, we have visited (by car) Maine, Key West, Yellowstone, Dallas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Disney, New York, Washington DC, Colorado, Tennessee, and probably a few others.

one other weird thing is my wife and I have completely different ideas of what vacation should be. To me, when I'm on vacation I'm up and at it, ready to hit the road and see/do some cool stuff. Vacation is my time and I want to take full advantage and maximize the experience. To my wife, vacation means slow it down, relax, go a slow pace and try to enjoy your time off. It's a different perspective, and probably born out of my time on the road when I was a kid.

I also have been very open to living in different parts of the country. I was born and raised in Wyoming but went to college in NY, lived in Florida for 10 years and now live in SC. Packing up all of my things and moving is not a big deal, I understand that there are opportunities out there beyond the 50 mile radius of where you were born.

The vacation thing is funny, my wife and I have always seen it the way you do. I want to squeeze every ounce and experience out of every second. We've travelled with other people, mostly family, that just want to sit by the pool and have a few drinks all day. They busted their but all year and this is their couple weeks to relax and do nothing. I totally get it, just a different mindset. We drive them crazy and they drive us crazy, Better that we don't travel together.

 

[spOOfy]

my wife and i are kinda hybrids i guess. every other vacation is sit by the pool and drink, eat way too much food and get a couple month's worth of sex crammed into 1 week. then the next vacation is touristy/action-packed. europe, disney, us destination cities, etc. wake up early and don't stop until late at night passing out in bed. rinse/repeat.

 

[lombardi]

Lombardi,

I've thought about buying a small business in the north woods (Wisc, Minn or Mich) that is a rental cabin/RV business. We were looking at buying a cabin, one thing lead to another, and the wife and I started exploring business purchase vs personal purchase.

From your experience, is the owner there as the operator? Do you get the sense that this is a very involved business? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of parks you've experienced?

I honestly don't know too much of that side of it. But i'll pass on a few impressions I have.

If you havng out on rv.net/forums, easily the biggest rv forum on the net, there is a lot of complaining by owners. Squabbles between owners and campers all the time about bad reviews, what they think is considered good or bad service, tons of arguing about wifi, etc.. Usually on the internet you get more complainers than praisers, but they seem like a miserable bunch over there.

In person it's a really mixed bag. Some places seem to be sad and small and you can tell they're just barely hanging on. Lots of ownership changes and the permanents (people who buy and live in a place as opposed to someone like me who just stays for a time) are always griping about ownership being cheap not giving them what htey want. Same stuff landlords must deal with.

However, some places seem to be thriving, they use a lot of work campers (people who work for free or cheap in exchange for long term sites, mostly retired couples), they seem to really enjoy what they're doing. People like camping at these places and the owners seem to enjoy what they do.

I don't know what the difference is but a lot of it seems to be financial. Dumpy places have crappy and miserable owners. Clean, fun and booming places generally have happy people running the joint. Exceptoins in both cases. I don't know which comes first though, chicken or egg.

I would say this, I think a lot has to do with location. It doesn't matter how nice your place is if the location sucks. Nobody is going to come. On the flip side there are absolute horror show rv parks charing a mint because they're near a big park or especially a popular city. Candlestick park charges $80/night basically to park in a parking lot with a few hookups. That's non-event rates. Because they're so close to the city and there aren't any good parks any closer. So it depends a lot on where you're at.

If I were buying a place I would definitely talk to the residents, people who live there, get a feel for what they're happy and unhappy about. Expect unexpected things, it's amazing the havoc people can rain down on an RV park on a long holiday weekend. I'm guessing it's fun once you dial it in but a ton of work figuring things out until you do.

 

[lombardi]

Do the kids have any portable video games/ipods/computers/etc.?

Used to play wii a lot but now they play their hand helds more. Wii just collects dust.

Oldest has an iTouch for music and a kindle reader, uses my ipad and laptop a lot.

Middle has Kindle Fire he uses all the time, lots of games and reading while we drive.

Daughter has a Kindle Fire and a DS. Plays with Fire a lot more than DS.

They seem to like app games a lot. They use them for music and reading as well.

I have an iPad, wife has a kindle fire, we both have laptops.

 

[Brony]

Lombardi,

I've thought about buying a small business in the north woods (Wisc, Minn or Mich) that is a rental cabin/RV business. We were looking at buying a cabin, one thing lead to another, and the wife and I started exploring business purchase vs personal purchase.

From your experience, is the owner there as the operator? Do you get the sense that this is a very involved business? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of parks you've experienced?

I have a related question. Do you think campers would be interested in pocket combs if I sold them door-to-door (or tent-to-tent! LOL)?

 

[Ookie Pringle]

I think this is awesome you are able to do this!

 

[Zow]

Really interesting thread. While I think your fear of the school system being geared towards indoctrinating kids into some liberal agenda is irrational, hard to argue with how well you've thought everything out and are doing things.

One question I had though is how do your kids engage in extracurriculars like sports, scouting, etc.? I think that's a major learning tool for kids growing up and I imagine for your kids it'd be nearly impossible to stick with a team or group. Do you replace that with anything?

 

[Big Cat]

Are you guys on youtube anywhere?

 

[Willie Neslon]

Reading this now is very timely. My wife and i have been discussing doing something like this for years. We had decided against it about 8 years ago because it wouldn't have been fair to our dog Buster. Now that Buster is dead (aids just kidding) we talked about it again a few months ago but my wife doesn't want to because she has started a home business cutting hair and doesn't think she'd be able to translate the business to an RV lifestyle. I have actually argued the other way and think that people in RV parks and campsites would welcome a haircut at a fair price. What do you think. Would you pay 10 or 15 dollars for a haircut in an RV park? Where do you get your haircuts now? She says now her business is mostly friends and feels like it would be pushy to go knock on an RV door and offer a haircut. I said all you need is a sign and they would come to our door and knock. She doesn't like that either because what if she doesn't want to work at that moment they knock. She does nails too.

Good luck whichever way you go. I would only say from my experience that you want your wife entirely on board with the idea before 'winning' that debate.

She is on board. It is only about wanting to cut only friends hair and not strangers. I told her that in every barber shop it is mostly strangers and all of her friends at one time were strangers to her. She doesn't want to make small talk with people she doesnt know and says she'd feel trapped being in the rv with nowhere to go. It is the opposite of trapped as the business will be on wheels. I said if every one just did business with friends we'd all be poor. What if mcdonalds sold only to friends. We toyed with the idea of a trailer on the back of the rv that would be only for business but it will make the driving so much more difficult. It is probably because she is not confident about her hair skills and even though I am supportive I will admit she is not very good at it. Her friends mostly have long hair so she just wets it, bushes it back and cuts in a straight line at the bottom. Then they both look at it in a mirror and she trims whichever part they want her to. For Christmas this year I am going to get her nice hair scissors and maybe that will help because she still uses paper scissors. she is also nervous about having so much cash in the RV but i told her leave the security to me, smith and wesson.

Did you ever give any thought to doing something like a long vacation to see how you like it? Try to borrow something or rent something for a month? Put together a month or two worth of in place rentals or something to see if you like it, if the business works? Sort of a trial?

We travelled in the summers for a few years. We went away for 4 weeks, then 6 weeks, then we did an entire summer. We knew we would love it on the road and had no doubts when we left. But it's not for everyone.

Many years ago my wife surprised me with Oak Ridge Boys tickets to five of their shows in three different states. We traveled in the RV for about 2 weeks and saw a show about every other night. My friend Steverino and his wife came along and they were able to get tickets to most of the shows. It was among the best experiences of my life. It was only two weeks but I felt I could have gone 2 months at least. We got to meet two of the Oak Ridge boys after the second to last show and told them about our travels and how we saw a bunch of their shows. They thought it was cool. They said they basically do the same thing except they stop to sing in each town they visit. They stayed in a hotel a few nights of their tour just to take a break from being cooped up with each other but they said they did a lot of singing and writing new songs when they would travel.

 

[TheAristocrat]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

 

[pollardsvision]

Ever do any geocaching?

 

[joffer]

I liked middle school

 

[Scoresman]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

It's not just the middle experience itself in a vacuum though. Middle school is very much a transition into high school. Going from years of home schooling to suddenly being dropped into a high school environment cannot be easy.

 

[Big Cat]

I liked middle school

I came "this close" to going to reformatory school for sending a kid to the hospital courtesy of one of those mini-bats, after having bullied me for months on end. dude owns an auto repair shop in town, now, that I still won't go to.

 

[joffer]

I liked middle school

I came "this close" to going to reformatory school for sending a kid to the hospital courtesy of one of those mini-bats, after having bullied me for months on end. dude owns an auto repair shop in town, now, that I still won't go to.

I used to build structures out of eight 36"x1/8"x1/8" sticks of balsa wood and see how much weight they could hold while slamming a billiard ball into the side. I think my record was 275 lbs. that was cool

 

[TheAristocrat]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

It's not just the middle experience itself in a vacuum though. Middle school is very much a transition into high school. Going from years of home schooling to suddenly being dropped into a high school environment cannot be easy.

I can see this argument and could partially agree. I just think that some kids are more prepared than others and that Lombardis' kids will be extremely prepared from their experiences touring the country. I might be wrong.

I appreciate your comments though. I'm probably poo-pooing the middle school experience a little too much and should take a step back.

 

[lombardi]

How many different churches have you attended?

We go to church most Sundays, occasionally we'll do a weekend camping trip or have some event to go to, but we almost always try to catch Sunday service. We also have gone to a few mid-weeks. Sometimes we find a church we really like and we'll go all month. Sometimes we pop around to try out a few places, like here in Socal. We went to big Calvary last week (so sad I was 2 weeks late for the Chuck Smith memorial ), we'll probably visit Joey Buran's church, we may check out the Refuge in HB, our friends go to Hope Chapel. So we'll pop around because there are interesting pastors, places we'd like to visit, or people we want to go to church with. We went to a church in Foley, AL and loved it so much we went for about a month. I actually ended up leading worship at the church filling in for someone before I left, we made a really great connection there. So it's a mixed bad. I've probably been to several dozen churches, probably not a hundred but definitely more than 20. Not sure, interesting question though.

It's actually been pretty awesome. In addition to seeing some of my favorite teachers, I get to go to some REALLY bad churches. The best conversations we've had with our kids after church have been in these places. Why are they saying what they're saying, what the Bible really says, why do we or don't we believe in this or that. Pretty cool stuff. I almost walked out of a service in the Grand Canyon, actually almost stood up and yelled Blasphemy, but I held it together. We left quickly and quietly. It ended up being one of the best conversations on faith we ever had with our kids. Pretty cool.

I think kids grow up in one church their whole lives and they don't know that there are so many different kinds of Christians doing it so many different ways. Things like false gospel are hard for a kid to understand until they see it, know something is weird, and then talk about it after. Some children don't experience that until college or later and it throws them for a loop. WE've loved the diversity we've come across in some of the out of the way places. It's been great for the kids.

 

[lombardi]

I was thinking about doing this, but in an airplane.

I read an article about a couple who converted their plan into an RV type living space. They flew to different airfields and rented cars. Seemed a little pricey but very interesting.

I've always wanted to do it on a sailboat, maybe when we retire.

 

[lombardi]

Lombardi,

I've thought about buying a small business in the north woods (Wisc, Minn or Mich) that is a rental cabin/RV business. We were looking at buying a cabin, one thing lead to another, and the wife and I started exploring business purchase vs personal purchase.

From your experience, is the owner there as the operator? Do you get the sense that this is a very involved business? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of parks you've experienced?

I have a related question. Do you think campers would be interested in pocket combs if I sold them door-to-door (or tent-to-tent! LOL)?

Hmmm, considering some of the places I've stayed I'm thinking that maybe beard and mustache grooming tools may be the hot market, men's and women's.

 

[McGarnicle]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

Most notable thing I remember about middle school is getting blown by this Italian chick every day after school. We were both latch key kids, not a good idea once kids hit puberty.

 

[TheAristocrat]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

Most notable thing I remember about middle school is getting blown by this Italian chick every day after school. We were both latch key kids, not a good idea once kids hit puberty.

I'd be more likely to side with the Middle School people if this were my middle school experience.

 

[Annyong]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

Most notable thing I remember about middle school is getting blown by this Italian chick every day after school. We were both latch key kids, not a good idea once kids hit puberty.

i grabbed my gf's boobs at her locker.

 

[lombardi]

Really interesting thread. While I think your fear of the school system being geared towards indoctrinating kids into some liberal agenda is irrational, hard to argue with how well you've thought everything out and are doing things.

One question I had though is how do your kids engage in extracurriculars like sports, scouting, etc.? I think that's a major learning tool for kids growing up and I imagine for your kids it'd be nearly impossible to stick with a team or group. Do you replace that with anything?

I think my "fear" of the liberal agenda is overblown a little bit. I would call it an active understanding and something I want to always be aware of and that I feel works against me as a conservative, Christian parent. Anyone who doesn't see liberal leaning in the public school system, at least in the NE, is either liberal or doesnt' have a kid. It's obvious, even my liberal friends know it's obvious. Of course, they see it as a good thing.

We didn't go on this trip or start home schooling because of it, but to me it's an added benefit in the formative middle school years. I may continue home schooling middle school years in part because of it. But there isn't fear and I don't think it's paranoia. If you hold the beliefs I do and live by the moral system i believe in, it seems rational and obvious. If you don't, well there isn't a problem at all and I wouldn't expect anyone to be concerned.

They did sports and scouting before our trip and they'll do it again when we get back. WE can't do these things on the road obviously. Although with extra fee time my oldest has learned to play guitar and my middle son learned the Ukulele. They're getting pretty good!

 

[lombardi]

Are you guys on youtube anywhere?

Nope, not us. They seem pretty cool though.

 

[lombardi]

Reading this now is very timely. My wife and i have been discussing doing something like this for years. We had decided against it about 8 years ago because it wouldn't have been fair to our dog Buster. Now that Buster is dead (aids just kidding) we talked about it again a few months ago but my wife doesn't want to because she has started a home business cutting hair and doesn't think she'd be able to translate the business to an RV lifestyle. I have actually argued the other way and think that people in RV parks and campsites would welcome a haircut at a fair price. What do you think. Would you pay 10 or 15 dollars for a haircut in an RV park? Where do you get your haircuts now? She says now her business is mostly friends and feels like it would be pushy to go knock on an RV door and offer a haircut. I said all you need is a sign and they would come to our door and knock. She doesn't like that either because what if she doesn't want to work at that moment they knock. She does nails too.

Good luck whichever way you go. I would only say from my experience that you want your wife entirely on board with the idea before 'winning' that debate.

She is on board. It is only about wanting to cut only friends hair and not strangers. I told her that in every barber shop it is mostly strangers and all of her friends at one time were strangers to her. She doesn't want to make small talk with people she doesnt know and says she'd feel trapped being in the rv with nowhere to go. It is the opposite of trapped as the business will be on wheels. I said if every one just did business with friends we'd all be poor. What if mcdonalds sold only to friends. We toyed with the idea of a trailer on the back of the rv that would be only for business but it will make the driving so much more difficult. It is probably because she is not confident about her hair skills and even though I am supportive I will admit she is not very good at it. Her friends mostly have long hair so she just wets it, bushes it back and cuts in a straight line at the bottom. Then they both look at it in a mirror and she trims whichever part they want her to. For Christmas this year I am going to get her nice hair scissors and maybe that will help because she still uses paper scissors. she is also nervous about having so much cash in the RV but i told her leave the security to me, smith and wesson.

Did you ever give any thought to doing something like a long vacation to see how you like it? Try to borrow something or rent something for a month? Put together a month or two worth of in place rentals or something to see if you like it, if the business works? Sort of a trial?

We travelled in the summers for a few years. We went away for 4 weeks, then 6 weeks, then we did an entire summer. We knew we would love it on the road and had no doubts when we left. But it's not for everyone.

Many years ago my wife surprised me with Oak Ridge Boys tickets to five of their shows in three different states. We traveled in the RV for about 2 weeks and saw a show about every other night. My friend Steverino and his wife came along and they were able to get tickets to most of the shows. It was among the best experiences of my life. It was only two weeks but I felt I could have gone 2 months at least. We got to meet two of the Oak Ridge boys after the second to last show and told them about our travels and how we saw a bunch of their shows. They thought it was cool. They said they basically do the same thing except they stop to sing in each town they visit. They stayed in a hotel a few nights of their tour just to take a break from being cooped up with each other but they said they did a lot of singing and writing new songs when they would travel.

That sounds awesome. We've seen some shows but haven't really travelled or followed a band around.

 

[lombardi]

Ever do any geocaching?

Yes! We love free fun.

We havent' done a ton, i think we've done maybe a dozen or twenty caches, I'd have to check. We introduced a friend to it a few years ago, she is doing her 1,000th cache this upcoming weekend.

We actually want to do more of it we're just always doing other things. I love geocaching though.

 

[lombardi]

I would trade my "middle school experience" (WTF is that anyway???) for the experience that Lombardis' kids are getting. Those kids have seen more of the country than most FBGs have.

I'm honestly jealous. Since I can work from anywhere in the world, maybe it's time to leave the city and hit the road.

It's not just the middle experience itself in a vacuum though. Middle school is very much a transition into high school. Going from years of home schooling to suddenly being dropped into a high school environment cannot be easy.

I don't take these transitions lightly, but I think kids are very resilient. I went to 9 different school as a kid. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone intentionally, but honestly it formed a lot of my personality. I'm comfortable in places with people I don't know, I'm capable of striking up conversations and meet all kinds of interesting people. While there were definitely disadvantages it wasn't all bad.

Transition from middle to high school is frightening for any kid. I'm sure going without some preset friends is a little more difficult, it was for me when I did it. But I was fine and I think my kids will handle it without any trouble. If they had social anxiety or trouble fitting in or relating to other kids I would be more worried. Like I've said before I think a lot of this lifestyle depends on your personality. Generalizations probably don't fit any situation. In ours I believe they'll handle it well.

 

[commisholio]

I'm hoping to get a summer in like this in a couple of years, when my boys are 8 and 5 or 9 and 6. It sounds like a wonderful experience for everyone. It's really too bad my employment options wouldn't support doing it longer term.

 

[Beef Ravioli]

How many different churches have you attended?

We go to church most Sundays, occasionally we'll do a weekend camping trip or have some event to go to, but we almost always try to catch Sunday service. We also have gone to a few mid-weeks. Sometimes we find a church we really like and we'll go all month. Sometimes we pop around to try out a few places, like here in Socal. We went to big Calvary last week (so sad I was 2 weeks late for the Chuck Smith memorial ), we'll probably visit Joey Buran's church, we may check out the Refuge in HB, our friends go to Hope Chapel. So we'll pop around because there are interesting pastors, places we'd like to visit, or people we want to go to church with. We went to a church in Foley, AL and loved it so much we went for about a month. I actually ended up leading worship at the church filling in for someone before I left, we made a really great connection there. So it's a mixed bad. I've probably been to several dozen churches, probably not a hundred but definitely more than 20. Not sure, interesting question though.

It's actually been pretty awesome. In addition to seeing some of my favorite teachers, I get to go to some REALLY bad churches. The best conversations we've had with our kids after church have been in these places. Why are they saying what they're saying, what the Bible really says, why do we or don't we believe in this or that. Pretty cool stuff. I almost walked out of a service in the Grand Canyon, actually almost stood up and yelled Blasphemy, but I held it together. We left quickly and quietly. It ended up being one of the best conversations on faith we ever had with our kids. Pretty cool.

I think kids grow up in one church their whole lives and they don't know that there are so many different kinds of Christians doing it so many different ways. Things like false gospel are hard for a kid to understand until they see it, know something is weird, and then talk about it after. Some children don't experience that until college or later and it throws them for a loop. WE've loved the diversity we've come across in some of the out of the way places. It's been great for the kids.

I would love to hear more about your faith and how your experiences have helped your children! I am a "church going individual" but have always been of one denomination. I have thought about attending some different "types" of churches while on vacation to see what its like but have always backed out of the idea as I do not attend church just for me but to worship Him!

 

[James Daulton]

About this liberal leaning in middle school, my kids are just out of middle school and I didn't notice any leaning either way. I'm curious as to what you regard as the liberal leaning. No judgements, just curious.

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Lombardi,

I've thought about buying a small business in the north woods (Wisc, Minn or Mich) that is a rental cabin/RV business. We were looking at buying a cabin, one thing lead to another, and the wife and I started exploring business purchase vs personal purchase.

From your experience, is the owner there as the operator? Do you get the sense that this is a very involved business? What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of parks you've experienced?

roboto - our neighbors in northern WI used to run a resort in their younger days. They were there every day (in high season) as the operator, and their kids worked at the resort too. It was a huge time investment - but they really loved doing it.

 

[NutterButter]

Ever do any geocaching?

Yes! We love free fun.

We havent' done a ton, i think we've done maybe a dozen or twenty caches, I'd have to check. We introduced a friend to it a few years ago, she is doing her 1,000th cache this upcoming weekend.

We actually want to do more of it we're just always doing other things. I love geocaching though.

I've done it a few times with my 4 and 7 year old girls. Its just amazing how happy they are to find some random lunch box with some cheap trinkets in it. I love to hike so combine just being outdoors with the looks on their faces, its a pretty good time.