What kind of set up do you have? Fifth wheel? What kind of truck ?

We have a 2020 Heritage Glen 369BL, which is a 43ft fifth wheel (it’s gigantic). The truck we tow with is a 2017 Ram 3500 Dual Rear Wheel (dually) - specifically it’s a Mega Cab, which means the cab is longer, but the bed is shorter.

Our first rig was a 2018 Wildwood Travel Trailer, with a 2005 Chevy Silverado 2500HD. We upgraded the truck first to a 2012 Ford F250, which we loved, but the rear suspension in fords is notoriously soft (for the smoother ride), so we added airbags for support. We used this rig for 18 months before upgrading to the new truck and trailer. We have friends who have been in a 35ft travel trailer for almost 3 years with a family of 4 (two teenage girls!). There are a lot of floor plans that have separate rooms for you and your kids (which we recommend).

Trucks are expensive...more expensive than RVs. If you’re towing, you want to get either a gas truck with a light trailer, or a diesel truck. Diesels have more torque and run forever. Our first truck had 250,000 miles on it when we traded it in. Everyone we know that tows serious miles tows with a diesel. For fueling purposes, diesels are easier because you can stop at truck stops and use the truck fill lanes (which are larger and easier to get in and out of).

Did you save the money you made from your house or put it all into the set up?

We saved the money from the house and put it in the bank. We have used the money as an asset to purchase our trucks/trailers because we can put a decent downpayment and lower the loan amount, then paid it back over time.

We have plans to go back to a home so we figured we could pay down a loan and then sell the truck and trailer to get out of it, but it would be much harder to build that much savings up again.

Are you able to do the national parks ?

We have seen over 30 National parks, but camping in National Parks is a pain. They’re old, so there usually aren’t hookups, they were also built before RVs were so large, and they’re crawling with people, which makes the authentic experience a little less enjoyable. We usually stay 10-20 miles outside of the park and drive in to see it, then drive back out to the campground where we’re staying. If national parks are a big part of your travel, keep your trailer (or RV) below 30ft. This seems to be the limiting length for most parks. This life makes national parks very easy, but you usually see some pretty amazing stuff just outside of the national parks as well.

For working out, do you jump into classes or you bring your stuff along?

Believe it or not, we carry a barbell with bumper plates, dumbbells, jump ropes, gymnastic rings and a medicine ball. For the first year, we travelled with JUST dumbbells and only added the additional stuff once we knew we wanted more gear (and had room for it).

Working out on the road is not that challenging if you have your equipment with you. We use Street Parking (https://streetparking.com/) a subscription service that gives us programmed workouts every day (different levels for different equipment/fitness). I’m an introvert, so the idea of dropping into a class terrifies me.

Do you do your own school stuff for the kids? How do you use libraries?

We use a mixture of programs and curriculums. The kids used Monarch last year, but this year, we’re using Accellus through Power Homeschool for video lessons. Hannah is using Teaching Textbooks for math (Liam and Norah use Right start math) and we’re using some other curriculum from the good and beautiful.

We haven’t used libraries much (see my comment about introversion).

We have stopped in at a few, but for the most part, we have our own setup at home. We use Hoopla, Kindle Unlimited, and Scribd for books for the kids (both audio and ebooks). We carried a bunch of books around with us for awhile until we needed to clear some weight and get rid of them (it’s so hard giving books away).

Do you work on the road or just Joseph?

When we first left, just Joseph, but now we both work for Joseph’s company. He hired me last year to do project management part time.