Team Traveling Tiny
We are a young family with wanderlust!
Over the past 10 years, we have been fortunate enough to travel to 29 countries and 61 cities around the world. From backpacking coast to coast across northern England, to cruising up the coast of Africa, we have experienced enough food, culture, and wonderful people to know that traveling is an important part of our growth as individuals, but also as a family.
Now that we have 2 kids, we are excited to focus our explorations on the US. As a new American household with Dad as the stay at home parent, and Mom working remotely full time, it is clear to us that we have an incredible opportunity to travel and explore, without set time-limits like you would typically see with a scheduled “vacation.” Since the kids are too young for school, we don’t have obligations to be settled in any one place. So why not explore as much as we can over the next few years while we have this unbelievable opportunity?
Why a Tiny Home?
We initially explored completing this journey in an RV. However the more we looked into RVs (how they are built, long term usage recommendations, materials and upkeep) the more we came to understand they are not built for long term living. Between the less than durable plastic materials and various chemicals/toxic materials used to construct RVs, we knew living in an RV full time - especially with growing children - would not be a safe option for our family.
We also looked into short term rentals like AirBnB and VRBO. Yes, you can usually get discounts for month+ stays, but compared to some of the picturesque campsites and RV parks close to the intended destinations of National Parks, we felt the Airbnb/VRBO route would be too expensive and not in the desired locations.
We also wanted to make sure we had the kids at the forefront of our decision. Kids (at least our kids!) tend to do best with some sort of daily routine; it is important to us to provide comfort, stability, and safety in the spaces created for our kids. Going the Airbnb/VRBO route would require us to pack everything up and start a new routine in each location. Additionally, the worry of breaking other people’s “stuff” in an Airbnb/VRBO seemed an unnecessary stress to add onto our adventure.
Lastly, we want to feel like we are “home”. Compared to an RV, for us, our tiny home feels more solid, well-built, spacious and has the option to be permanent.
Where are we going?
We knew getting out and exploring nature had to be our primary focus. We feel the happiest, and most fulfilled when we spend more time outdoors than indoors. Not to mention the kids seem happiest when they can be throwing rocks/sticks/mud and playing outside.
With that intention in mind, visiting the National Parks certainly seemed appealing. While we are not following the exact route found below, we used the information from Randy Olson (who has made a hobby of optimizing various road trips around the US) to help us setup a route around the western half of the US, with the intention of making our way to all 59 protected areas at some point in the next 5-7 years.
http://www.randalolson.com/2016/07/30/the-optimal-u-s-national-parks-centennial-road-trip/