Hi! We are the Blakes, a family of four, traveling the world in rugged style by boat and RV. My husband Adam and I have been traveling off the beaten path since we first met. From Asheville, NC to the California coast, I rode on the back of his 750cc Honda Motorcycle for two weeks straight. 11 years later, we are now equipped with two children, and still chasing the scenery wherever it goes. By boat and RV, we go to great lengths to put our footprints in the landscape.
How do we approach ‘school’ for the kids while traveling?
Through homeschooling, worldschooling, roadschooling and boatschooling, we are learning together about the things we experience on our journey. More often than not, the natural world is our teacher. Applied Learning is our educational foundation. Whether we are on the road, in the water, or at home, every day is a field trip. Our children learn by interacting with the world around them, and retaining the information through first hand experience. In other words, we have taken education out of the classroom, (and in some cases out of books), and placed it in real world experiences.
How Do We Afford Indefinite Travel?
That’s a great question! I feel that western society has us all hiding our financial truths from each other, when we all could be learning from each other! We are not independently wealthy, rather, we rent our house out through air b and b, which helps to fund our rugged travels. My husband, Adam, started a small gutter cleaning company from scratch, which we now run remotely. It helps to fund real estate investments that provide the passive income which pays the mortgage and pays for our travel (especially if its short term rental versus long term rental.)
Luxury Travel vs Rugged Travel:
We would rather chase the scenery than have chocolate laid out on satin pillows. We are leaving the luxury for cruise lines and resorts, and instead, we do more research to find immersive and safe travel destinations. Our budget doesn’t allow for luxury travel. And in my experience, you can’t really immersive yourself in the landscape if you’re too busy getting cozy and pampered in a penthouse sweet 30 stories above sea level in a luxury hotel room.
Currently our home is a 38 foot Catamaran, but not long ago a 20 foot RV was our home, from the coast of North Carolina to the Coast of California. See and follow more of our RV adventures on Instagram.
Sustainability
Traveling as often as we do has taught us one thing: home is a state of mind. “Home” is the opposite of four walls piled high with things and toys. Currently, our real home is wherever we are together, as a family. Pairing down our posessions has done two important things:
It has broken us free of our attachments to physical items. We can live in smaller spaces, free from personal comforts that so many others require.
It has also shown us clearly how much consumer culture has hijacked our psyche. I think we often forget that when we die, we literally can’t take any of that shit with us. We are a total sum of our experiences in life. The things we surround ourselves with in life simply hold us down.
Lowering Expectations:
Indefinite travel is viewed by many as a dreamy world of perfect sunsets, sunrises speckled with rainbows and the occasional unicorn. But the struggles are the same for us as for anyone reading this. The key for our family is to lower expectations and accept the human experience in all its colorful forms. I try to share these experiences as honestly as possible, so that my audience can see the real thing, and relate to all the ugly moments, as well as the good.