Planning an extended adventure

dustboy

Explorer
Last night we started talking about walking away from the rat race for a year, and taking our family of 4 out to see North America. In a couple of years, the kids will be 5 and 2, and not too attached to friends or school yet. I think it would be an incredible learning experience for them.

Maybe this is a little off-topic for ExPo since this trip is going to be more highway than trail. But having been active on this forum for many years now, I think the mindset of folks here is more similar to ours.

There are many questions to answer, but we have time.

-How to finance the trip? I like to work, so I just need something I can do while traveling. We will need to come home with money to get started again.
-How to travel with small children without losing your mind?
-What sort of vehicle do we need? It has to be large enough for us to be comfortable, yet small enough to be fuel-efficient and travel forest fire roads.
-Have you found any resources online for gypsy families?

This will be a low budget trip, we can't afford a Sportsmobile, much less an Earthroamer. I would actually prefer to build my own rig, rather than buy or finance an RV/trailer/whatever. The fewer bills to pay while on the road, the better.
 

4x4x4doors

Explorer
On pavement vs. off is not a big deal here. I've gotten excellent suggestions and support for some rental car trips as well as 4x4 trips.

On financing, excellent article on how others do it here: http://expeditionportal.com/financing-extended-overland-trips-how-do-they-do-it/
Also a discussion thread at http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/127434-How-does-it-work/

There are a couple of blogs on traveling with kids. I'm drawing a blank at the moment but google ought to help you on that if it doesn't overwhelm you.

Good luck.
 

dustboy

Explorer
Well, let's start with the fun part. What kind of vehicle do we need?

Right now we have a Honda Ridgeline and a 6x12 cargo trailer conversion. The trailer has an outdoor galley at the rear and sleeps the 4 of us more or less comfortably. All other activities happen outside. This is fine for weekend trips, and when the weather is predictable, but for any extended trip we need more of the creature comforts. This means an indoor galley, a toilet and shower, heating, and comfortable seating for rainy days. I think having 4x4 and diesel power would be much desirable.

We've rented a 22-foot RV in the past, and it was definitely comfortable. Problem was, it was a bear to drive, guzzled fuel, and really wasn't built to handle any travel without pavement.

My first idea is a 4x4 crew cab pickup with a slide-in camper. Benefits are that it's fairly compact, diesel and 4x4 options are readily available, and you can park the slide-in and travel light when you want to. Interior space might be a little tight but with a good awning, you'll always have the outdoors to escape to. I've never driven one, but they look a little challenging with the high center of gravity.

The next option is a pickup with a smaller travel trailer, say 16-18 foot. Again, diesel and 4x4 are available, and it's also easy to drop the trailer for trips around town. I don't mind pulling a trailer but the low speed limits in some states really adds to the travel time. Also travel on rough forest roads would be much more difficult than with a slide-in.

3rd option is a small motorhome, or conversion. Probably won't have the option of 4x4 here, at least not without spending $50,000+. I could convert a Sprinter van, the fuel economy is ideal, but no 4x4, and even 300,000 mile Sprinters are almost $10k.

I'm mostly just thinking out loud here, but let me know if you have any thoughts to add.
 
Keep in all in perspective. If your kids are under 5 , this trip is for you , not for them. Don't take me wrong.... now is a great time because it you don't have to worry about school schedules, etc. Just have extra medication with you if you are ever out of reach of emergency help.

We had some of our best vacations when the kids were little due to it being when it worked for us. Kayaking/canoeing Boundry Waters for 2 weeks. My daughter at 10 paddled it all by herself. By the time they were 13 , they didn't remember much of the many trips we took when they were younger. Wish they did but we've taken long vacations every summer (2-3 weeks at a time).

We've continued to travel (driving vacations/camping) throughout the kids lives (now 17 & 20) . Next month may be the last one the entire family has together due to getting their own lives and hard to get 4 people off work at same time. TAKE PHOTOS !!! MOVIES !!! They will be priceless.

Many times I wish we would have taken some of these trips when they were older and would have remembered it , but it did open them up to adventure and always making the best out of every situation. They travel well (first year was due to threats if they didn't behave) lol. Allowing them to do what they love (game boys, headphones) and not getting upset when they didn't find the beauty in the mountains. Most kids don't .... they would be just as happy at home in a back yard. My kids now, happily deal with 6-7hr drives, but deal with a 12hr if we have to do it. Having a spot for the kids to have their own stuff (their very own container) allows them to still feel at home. Remember they are still kids and need that time to just run. Having melt downs when they are stuck in a car for a while is to be expected as they are kids and not adults (although I've felt like having one on a long drive before).

Hope this works out for you because we would have loved to take a year off to do it and doing while they are young just makes a different type of trip. No real long hikes or you have to carry them, but being able to be gone that long without worrying about other schedules could be priceless.
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Honestly if it was me thinking back on when my boys were 5 & 2 and knowing what I know now....
I would find a used Sportsmobile and sell it after the trip...or keep it.

The problem with a truck/camper setup is you don't get much floor space for the little ones to spread out and play...and at that age they love to spread out and play :)

A van gives you plenty of floor space, ease of movement from seats to living space and a popup gives decent mpg with plenty of sleep space for mom & dad...kids below.

Gas vs diesel isn't really a big deal as you won't drive as much as you think since with little ones you want them to spend more hours out of the car seat than in it.

Portable toliet is fine vs built in, same with shower as you can use campground setup often.

That is my thought based on our experiences.
 

rcharrette

Adventurer
Our Story

My wife and I say we have "gypsy blood" :) We have a 9 year old Son we home school and a (now) 6 week old Son! We've been back on the road since he was 4 weeks old. Currently we are camped just outside of Sun Valley, ID on USFS land (free).
Here is how we do it in a nut shell.
1) My wife works remote so her job comes with us. The one "issue" if you can call it that is we need internet for her job and his school. This limit's us a little bit but has never been a huge problem, Moab, Sedona, Crested Butte, Sun Valley, etc. All of these area's have great dispersed camping out of town with good cell service to stay connected to work. We have BLOWN through our data a time or two and had to buy more which sucks but it's a cost of living this life.
2)We have "some debt". We had a lot of debt years ago. Credit cards run up and just paying minimums or a bit more. We now have one CC we carry a payment on and keep it all under control. We have a budget to live on cash and we do our best to keep to it.
3) We rent our house out when we travel. We have our house listed on VRBO and AirB&B. If we rent it out for a week we make about $300.00. For example, right now we have someone just finishing up a week, the place is being cleaned and new people are coming in tomorrow. After that the house is empty for 10 day's and then we have another week long renter in it. We are making around $900.00 in less that a month. This actually more than covers our mortgage and we are now making money.

Our set up is a 2008 LR3 and a Kodiak 240BHSL camper We have payments on both of these but the camper has RV financing which over a longer period keeps the payment lower. We have a Honda 3000 generator that can run everything on the camper (microwave, toaster, coffee maker, etc). We live in comfort while traveling for sure. We are not trying to show how tough we are and rough it in any way :)

Most of our travel is centered around mountain/road biking areas.
Summers we tend to let the rental of our house dictate our travels and we travel mostly Colorado, Utah. Winters we look for longer term renters and generally head to So California and look for a monthly rental in a campground by the beach. Mission Bay RV resort has been our go to the past 2 years, about $850/Mo and includes everything.

Here is our blog, feel free to have a look. http://pedaladventures.com/tag/travel-lifestyle/

Oh, and no it's not always easy and fun. People think we are on a constant "vacation". We are not, we still deal with all the daily life stuff. We just do it from our rolling house :)
 

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