This is a first for me. I’ve written hundreds of articles on homeschooling, parenting, and marriage, but this is the very first time I’ve written a series of articles about RVing as a form of homeschooling.
I don’t know what qualifies one as an expert, but my family and I have been RVing for about 14 years. Each year we’re on the road for several months and have been out for as long as 100 days in a row.
Now you should know that my wife, Debbie, and I didn’t grow up RVing or camping. In fact, my wife’s idea of roughing it was staying at the Holiday Inn instead of the Hilton. But someone once suggested that the best way to do our ministry was to get an RV and travel as a family.
We did, and the rest is history. We can’t imagine what we would have missed out on if we had decided to ignore that piece of advice. Knowing next to nothing about RVing, we did some homework and bought an old RV and fixed it up. Fourteen years later, we’re on our third, fixed up, old RV and feel like RV-evangelists, spreading the good news of family RVing for homeschoolers.
I’m betting the idea of traveling the country, visiting historic sites along the way, has crossed your mind at some point.
But before you call a real estate agent to sell your house so you can buy an RV, let me say that RVing isn’t easy…but it is worth it. It’s worth being broken down along the road, spending sweaty nights in a Wal-Mart parking lot because your a/c isn’t working, and ‘holding it’ because the sewage tank is filled to the brim. These are all the things I’ll be sharing in the coming months… the good, the bad, and the hysterically ugly.
I’ll share stories of visiting battlefields, presidential museums, and factory tours. You’ll learn some RVing basics, what to look for in an RV, and why I call the RV ‘the crucible.’
I’ll even tell you right now why my closing salutation is what it is. Years ago, we were traveling through Saint Augustine, FL. We had spent the day at Castillo San Marcos, climbed a big lighthouse, and played on the beach. For dinner we searched for a quaint restaurant near the beach. We turned down a sandy road, and I knew right away that was not a good idea.
We asked a kind-looking lady to watch our back side as we backed out… and we were almost out when the back end of my RV swung out and caught the back end of HER brand-spanking new Mercedes (she wasn’t so kind- looking after that). Lesson learned.
That’s why I say…
Swing wide and keep your eye on your tail,
Todd
You can find out more about Todd, Debbie, his eight children,
their RV, and ministry at www.familymanweb.com
