Before hitting the road, we weren't sure what our new community would look like. We found a traveling neighborhood of families who pull into the same campgrounds, plan pizza and paneer potluck dinners together, and keep rearranging their schedules just to do it all over again in the next beautiful place.
May 17th, 2026
Over the past few months we have found something we haven't really had on the road until now: a traveling neighborhood. We met new friends at our campground in Pismo Beach who happened to be planning on being in Yosemite at the same time we were. The kids were thrilled to be able to get to see their new friends again just a few weeks after we were all together in Pismo. We arrived in Yosemite and our friends had befriended two other families, all with kids similar ages.
We spent the next few weeks in Yosemite getting together for pizza potlucks, crafting with the kids in the lodge and watching the kids paddleboard and jump into the icy river alongside our campground. We collectively got 11 kids in bed so the parents could chat and stay up too late around the campfire. We started comparing summer schedule and changing bookings to be able to meet up with each other in the PNW this summer.
We left Yosemite and headed back to Santa Cruz, excited to be able to spend another few weeks there but sad to leave our little campground neighborhood. After a few days in Santa Cruz we decided to change our bookings around and book a couple weeks in Tahoe, where we knew two of these three families were camped for the next couple weeks. We've been wanting to visit Tahoe since we got on the road but once had to change our plans to go there due to wildfires and have found it more difficult to book.
The amazing thing about the traveling campground neighborhood is just how much time the kids get to play together each day. Everyone homeschools in the mornings and the kids are available to play around midday. There are no baseball games, ballet classes or after school obligations. No need to schedule playdates and drive across town to see friends. When the schoolwork is done, the kids run out to play and find their friends, spending hours playing outside together until the sun starts to go down and we send them inside to shower off the dirt and get into bed. We have all gone to the lake together, had two campground birthday parties this week and several late night campfires once the kids are in bed. The kids play "RV" every day the way other kids play "house," creating trailers out of wagons, dog crates and camp chairs and living in little "families." We watch each other's kids, share dinners, and give each other haircuts.
It is everything we would want in a neighborhood and it travels from one spectacular place to the next: Pismo Beach, to Yosemite to Lake Tahoe. Some of us will see each other again in Bend and on the Oregon Coast. There is something to be said about arriving in a new place and having it already feel like home because your traveling neighborhood is already there.
Before we started this journey, people often asked us what we would do about community — didn't we worry about the kids being lonely, not getting enough socialization? We understood the concern and did wonder what making friends on the road would look like for our family. What we couldn't have anticipated is that the road has a way of delivering exactly what you need, in exactly the right moment. The people who are drawn to this life tend to find each other, not just because of proximity but because of shared values — a belief that childhood should be long on adventure and short on schedules, that dinners taste better eaten outside, that the best thing you can give your kids is time and space to explore. We didn't leave community behind when we pulled out of our driveway. We just found a new way to build it — one campground, one fire, one starlit night at a time.