Why Are We Doing This?

Blog Post #1 - Written: April 20, 2025

Why Are We Doing This?

Hi there, my name is Gary. My wife, Megan, and I are embarking on a 12-15 month (we think) adventure around these United States with our 3 young children: Z - 6 yo, Q - 4 yo, D - almost 2 yo.

The first question people usually ask when we tell them our plans is “Why? How did you come to this [crazy] decision?”

To answer that, I need to take you back in time a bit. Megan grew up in CA and I grew up in CA. We met and married in UT and then moved out here to OH for work after graduating college. We’ve lived here for 8 years, which was longer than we expected. But for good reasons! We’ve truly enjoyed our time here; my work/company/coworkers are awesome, the weather is nice (besides the gray winter), the people are good, and it’s so GREEN! Coming from the desert out west, we were blown away by the never ending forest and little rivers and streams everywhere!

But all that said, for reasons I can’t fully explain (although likely due to the fact our nearest family is a really long drive, or a plane ride, away), it’s always felt temporary. Not our forever home. We moved into a bigger home when D was born a couple years ago and it’s on a main road. So we loved the house and yard, but missed the “neighborhood” and community feel. About a year ago, we starting talking about moving, but rather than just moving to another suburb of Cleveland, Megan suggested travelling the country to find where we liked best and figuring out where we really wanted to settle long term. And rather than shooting such a crazy idea down like any normal spouse would, I instead said, “Yeah, let’s do it!”

But maybe that’s not altogether too surprising given that during one of my more restless phases a few years ago, I almost convinced Megan to go be “House Parents” at a working ranch for adults with disabilities in Montana. Yeah, I know. Most people don’t know that we were pretty far into the interview process with this ranch and might’ve gone through with it if they hadn’t taken issue to our religion. It’s a Christian ranch and we were excited to surround ourselves (and our children) with good Christian people working together in a good cause. But they apparently didn’t think members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were “real” Christians, or the “right kind” of Christians. It was very sad and disappointing at the time, but it all worked out for the best, and we were very blessed during the 3 years since then. And to be clear, we harbor no ill will towards these good people, they were simply doing what they thought was best, but a bit closed-minded (in my opinion). In fact, we hope to stop by and visit their ranch when we drive through MT in August.

Back to our “Why”.  We are wanderers. We didn’t realize it before, but we’re learning this about ourselves. Like how Megan can’t seem to bring herself to cook the same meal twice haha. She always has to try something new :)   And ever since I read “The Call of the American Wild”, I’ve wanted to go off and build my own cabin in the woods (still on the list!).  Like how one night I was paying our utility bills online and 30 minutes later we had purchased flights to Costa Rica! (I couldn’t pass up such cheap tickets haha).  On that “pura vida” trip, we met a family from Gilbert, AZ that was 2 years into a 1-year stay in the beautiful mountains and rainforests and beaches of Costa Rica. That was probably the first time we caught the bug to live life outside the normal parameters.  Another was meeting a family in Palmyra, NY doing exactly what we’re about to do, exploring the country living in an RV.  Reading “Die With Zero” helped reassure us that we weren’t crazy.

We have 2 conflicting desires:

1. Explore and travel

2. Settle, build, create, and forge lasting friendships within our neighborhood and community

We decided that doing #1 first would be best and easiest, and will also allow us to [hopefully] find a great place for #2.

If you’ve made it this far without nodding off, congratulations!

Feel free to join us on our grand adventure, but be warned, it is not for the faint of heart!

TL;DR - we’re uprooting our entire lives to go explore the USA for a year