The Hardest Part of Living on the Road

When people learn we travel in our RV full time they have lots of questions: 

“Where do you travel and how long do you stay?”

“Do you have one favorite place?”

“Are you going to go back east?”

“What’s the best part?”

“How long are you going to travel for?”

“Do your kids like it?”

“What’s the worst part?”

This last question often has me imagining that people want to know about the challenges of living in under 300 sqft with a family of four, the difficulty of always being on the move or the constant disruption in routines. And there are plenty of things about this lifestyle that are challenging: maintenance, the mental load of route planning and making sure we always have a place to park our home, the overstimulation that comes with living in a tiny home with kids. 

But when I really think about it the biggest challenge is obvious and completely unrelated to the quirks of living in a travel trailer. 

The hardest part is that we left our incredible community of friends in Washington, friends so close they truly are family. 

This weekend I have been back in Washington celebrating my birthday with a group of incredible friends who I met in early motherhood and have grown with over the years. I share about all the things we love about life on the road: the gift of more time together during our children’s childhood, learning about the world together by experiencing it firsthand, visiting friends and family along the way, exploring beautiful places. And then they ask what the hardest part is. 

And I think of the only thing that has ever made me question the decision to live on the road: having to say goodbye to our best friends.