In the 1930s, a man named Colonel Tooey had a problem. He was running a jungle cruise attraction at Silver Springs in Florida, and he wanted monkeys. Six of them. He imported them, dropped them on a small island in the middle of the spring, and figured that was that. This goes without saying, but don't. touch. the. monkeys! What he didn't know, or maybe didn't believe, is that rhesus macaques can swim. All six swam off. He bought six more and tried again. Same result. Twelve monkeys total,...
1 day ago • 4 min read
January 2017 changed everything for us. By that point we'd been on the road 18 months. Living in our 30-foot Airstream, three of us in 300 square feet, moving every four nights on average. We'd been through dozens of states, more national and state parks than I could count. Sunsets that stopped us cold.Hikes that took our breath away.More family memories than we ever dreamed we'd have. It was freedom on the outside, but on the inside we were falling apart. Hensley on our RV Journey in 2017 I...
15 days ago • 5 min read
The moment we decided to live in an RV, I thought the hardest part was going to be the purge. We were living in 2,000 square feet and moving into a 400-square-foot fifth wheel. That gap meant selling, donating, or throwing away nearly everything we owned: furniture, tools, clothes, kitchen gadgets, boxes of stuff we hadn't opened since the last move. It was painful and exhausting. Marissa after our latest downsize There were moments where Marissa and I looked at each other and genuinely...
29 days ago • 4 min read
Hensley was green. Marissa looked like she was about to lose it. I was gripping the railing of this ferry, watching my family suffer through 4-6 foot swells in the middle of the ocean. We were only an hour and a half in. We still had another hour to go. Hensley had already thrown up once. Marissa was fighting it. I was groggy from Dramamine, barely able to think straight. All I could think was: "This is nothing like the videos." What We Expected We'd spent ten years watching other people...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
This week marks 15 years since Marissa's dad, Stan, passed away from cancer at 52 years old. He worked hard his whole life. Raised seven kids. Held multiple jobs, everything from preaching to driving a bus. Did everything right. He had plans for retirement, that magical "someday" when he'd finally relax, travel, spend time with his grandkids. He never made it. Stan passed away before he could meet Hensley or Judah. Before he could take that dream trip. Before his someday ever came. His death...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
I received an email from Christina this week that I hear all the time: "We're retiring in April and plan to purchase our RV just before we hit the road. We've looked at several models and like fifth wheels, but prices are over $100,000. How do you go about selecting the right RV? Should we travel to neighboring states to see what dealers have on their lots?" Here's what makes this question so stressful: you're not talking about a $100 mistake. You're talking about potentially tens of...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Several weeks ago, I sent an email asking one question: "If I was your personal coach for a month, what would you want me to help you with?" Almost 40% said the exact same thing. I asked this question for a few different reasons: First, I wanted you to think about your specific problems or struggles with your RV journey. Second, the problem to be something that was more of a journey. Not "I need to replace my refrigerator, what model should I buy?" But instead, something that required several...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Setting goals for 2026 is the norm, but I've found reflecting on the previous year can be just as much, if not more so, powerful than looking ahead. Here are 25 things I learned about myself this last year. No judgement :) On the Road The hardest part of owning a large RV isn't the towing, cost, or repairs. It's backing it into a site. Tools don't matter as much as process. It's better to create a flow with what I currently have than waste time looking for the next shiny thing. Forcing...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Last week, Cliff posted in our Team Journey community: He was freezing in Missouri, and it was only getting colder. He needed to get south. Fast. The RV was packed. The campground was booked. But he couldn't find his RV GPS — the Garmin he'd relied on for years. Some people told him to buy another Garmin. Others suggested different apps. A few hinted it might make sense to wait until everything was "just right." I told him something different: Go for it with what you've got. Two days later,...
4 months ago • 3 min read