Inspiration
About 10 years ago back when I just had 2 little babies, 1yr old and 3yr old, my best friend was getting married in Zion National Park. We decided to make a family trip out of it and road trip around the Southwest a little bit. We started in Las Vegas and then drove to Zion for the wedding. After a couple of days hiking around Zion is off to Page, AZ and a boat ride to Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell and then a tour of Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River. Then we spent a few nights in a cabin in Bryce Canyon National Park before heading back to Vegas to fly home. That trip was fantastic and really got me excited about trying to get out and do some camping and see more of our country with my family.
That trip combined with memories of camping when I was a kid with my family helped reinforce to me a new direction that I wanted to take with my own family. We needed more outdoor camping and hiking adventures! Let the research begin…
This was about the same time that my wife was researching homeschooling ar our oldest was approaching school age. Maybe that’s what ultimately sold me on the idea of homeschooling actually. I read a book about a family that decided they wanted to homeschool their kids for a year from an RV exploring the US. The primary wage earner (me) took a sabbatical from working for a year, bought an RV and drove around the country. What could be better than that?
This was about the time that I realized the internet was an amazing resource. Practically anything that you could imagine there was probably someone out there in the world doing it and documenting it online. This got me exposed to the Worldschooling community and Overlanding and Expedition Vehicles. Why stop at simply exploring the USA when there was a whole world out there to drive though and explore!
In 2013 we found ourselves with our third child, I had a new job, and I had stumbled onto the world of Overlanding. I was inspired by a site I found called Expedition Portal where likeminded adventurers got together to discuss camper builds and trips over land around the world. Two stories I found really picqued my interest, Shachagra and the Overlanding Family.
Shachagra was built by Doug Cuthbert and family as basically a land yacht to drive around Europe with his family as he retired from active duty US Navy. They built a box from marine plywood, fiberglass and epoxy and then married it to a brand new International Durastar 6×4 tractor. Once complete they shipped her to Europe and began a 1 year tour around the continent with his 3 kids, 17, 15, and 12. They all homeschooled from the road and followed my dream near exactly.
The Overlanding Family was the Steve and Gilly Snaith who retired from their working world and bought a new truck from the German builder, Bocklet on an MAN chassis. They shipped the vehicle to Canada from their home in the UK and then wnet with their 2 young daughters to begin a multi year drive around the wolrd. They homeschooled the entire trip from their truck. Their journey lasted 4-5 years finishing in 2018. Over the course of their trip they visited all 7 continents and documented it the entire way with near weekly blog updates. I was fascinated and fixated on their journey. This was living my dream completely!
Unfortunately the one thing that they each had on me was the ability to be retired and not have to work. I hadn’t gotten to that point yet, so put together a more gradual plan…