The story of the 104sq ft RV that housed our family of four

To live in an RV fulltime with children, you need to spend at least $40,000 on a bunkroom model
that's at least 35 feet long. Right?

WRONG!

Hey, if you can find it and honestly afford it, great! BUT those are not prerequisites to fulltiming! We started out with those beliefs and even bought that RV. It was definitely nice and comfortable with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, full kitchen inside plus an outdoor kitchen, and three slide outs to make it even larger. It was like a condo on wheels. But it was more than we needed and there were disadvantages to our size. 

Our 37ft fifth wheel was difficult to manuever, parks often didn't have large enough campsites, and it always required us to plan ahead when driving so we didn't end up stuck in a place we couldn't get out of. Have you ever seen a fifth wheel do a u-turn? There's a reason. 

We didn't plan on living in a 16ft RV for a year, it just kind of happened.

After living in our spacious 37ft fifth wheel for 3 years, we decided to begin traveling internationally the following winter. Not sure if you realize it, but not many people are shopping for RVs during the winter. We wanted to sell while the market was good and we needed a smaller RV to easily explore the narrow roads and low bridges in the northeast. We intended to only be in it for six months, just until we flew to Spain, so our biggest concerned was resale value instead of the long list of requirements we thought we needed for our last home on wheels.

We purchased this cute little toyhauler for $6000 and I immediately began remodeling. I painted EVERYTHING- the walls, the ceiling, the cabinets. My mom came for a visit and helped me wallpaper the outside of the bathroom. I recovered the couch, made fancy curtains (thanks Pinterest!) and finished it off with touches from our favorite store Hobby Lobby. Then with both RVs parked next to each other, we moved in. Easiest move ever!

[Photos to be added later]

Life in our little RV began in Florida and took us up the east coast into Canada's New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island before heading back to Florida.

After a bit we found the downsides to going smaller- the biggest being a wet bath, basically a toilet inside a shower. It's so small we never used it as a shower. The bunk bed was a nice feature, however the bottom bunk was just a tad smaller than a standard full size bed, so my husband and I cannot comfortably share it. The kids and I ended up sharing the bunk beds while daddy slept on the couch that opens into a bed. It wasn't perfect, but it served our purpose. This was also a great way to decide what we can and can't live without in our next RV.

As I said we intended this to be a 6 month transition, but upon arrival in Florida we realized we needed to be closer to family for awhile. Another benefit of living in a small RV is that when visiting family, you can fit in their driveway or in front of their house without attracting a ton of attention like you would in a big RV.

After spending some time with family, the road was calling to us again. This time we headed west to visit friends in Las Vegas, stopping at national parks and favorite places along the way.

Back in Florida, just before moving to Ecuador for six months, we sold the RV thru Facebook marketplace in ONE DAY for nearly the same price we paid!

During the year we spent in our tiny RV, we attended church with Jimmy Carter, stood in the bedroom of George Washington during his stay at Valley Forge, and learned all about Minutemen in Massachusetts. We witnessed the largest tide change in the world at Hopewell Rocks, went clamming in the Bay of Fundy, counted falcons and helped release tagged butterflies in Cape May, New Jersey. We hiked Clingmans Dome in the Smokies, Cadillac Mountain in Acadia, and White Point in Nova Scotia. We encountered a bear with cubs along a trail in Shenandoah. Asher rode a motorcycle. We visited two zoos, multiple nature centers and museums, LEGOland and Dutch Wonderland. Took factory tours of Cow's Creamery and Hershey. We tried raw oysters, discovered we love clams and mussels and fell in love with hot, butter-dipped lobster.

We explored 37 National Park sites, 7 State Parks, and 5 National Wildlife Refuges!

We visited so many states: Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,  Delaware, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, plus Washington D.C. and three Canadian provinces- New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

So, don't let the cost of an RV hold you back. Be responsible. Buy something within your budget for cash (and have money set aside for repairs. If you're having trouble with this, I HIGHLY recommend implementing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace methods.) You don't have to spend a lot, and if you find a used RV for a good price, you may just be able to use it for a while and recoup your costs. But the memories you will make are priceless!

The messiest week in South America

When I hear 'carnaval', instantly parade images of Rio de Janeiro come to mind, but this holiday, leading up to Lent, is celebrated all over South America. As Carnaval was aproaching friends warned us about being in public during the 4 day holiday weekend celebration (Saturday thru Tuesday), as anyone is fair game. Attending a parade, or merely being out in public during those four days, could end with you covered in water, raw eggs, paint, flour based paint, anything really. You do NOT want to wear your favorite clothing and you do want to protect your camera and any electronics!

A couple days later we ended up right smack in the middle of it when we went for lunch at El Jardin in Puyo. We had to walk thru a popular square where a number of people were standing along the street selling cans of colored spray foam, water balloons, and such. As we walked across the bridge, I was taking a photo of the mayhem when a young man reached over and put his paint-covered hand across my face. (You can see him walking towards us in this photo.) It was a shock, but also pretty funny. On the way back to the truck, we were sprayed with water, and witnessed a group tossing buckets of water from the bed of a truck, all in the name of good fun.

Our neighbor's hosted a Carnaval party for their church youth group and invited Asher and Journey to participate. It was a messy, fun party with water balloon fights, buckets of water, raw eggs and a relay race across a soapy tarp.

Another day (remember this is a FOUR day event) our neighbors decided to have us try a few fun challenges. Here the guys were competing against the ladies by passing a handful of flour over their heads from the front to the back of the line. I don't remember who won, but it was fun to watch.

We used black paint flour to mark our faces and arms or smear on each other. We took turns sliding across the soap-covered tarp, then had a water balloon fight that evolved into dumping full buckets on each other. Great memories were made with our new friends, our vecinos!

2019 {Year in Review}

2019 was an incredible year of new experiences for us. We spent five months living in Ecuador, one month in Colombia, then ended the year with a roadtrip from Florida to Ohio and Tennessee. While living in Shell, Ecuador, on the edge of the Amazon, we experienced earthquakes, and learned when you hear a "train", you run for cover, because that is the sound of serious rainfall headed your way! Asher and Journey attended an actual school for the first time ever, which of course was in Spanish! This freed up Daddy and I to be able to volunteer at ITEC Ecuador, helping with anything from cleaning to accounting to building canoes and airplanes! At school the kids learned to play futbol, and found you don't have to speak the same language to be friends. 

We spent time in the "ring of fire". Rode a tram 10,000ft up a volcano where we then explored on horseback, enjoyed lunch from the rim of one of only two inhabited volcano craters in the world.

We explored Cotopaxi National Park by car, on foot and on horseback and experienced blizzard conditions when we tried to hike up the snow-covered mountain.

In Mindo's cloud forest, we rode a cable car over a deep valley then hiked a popular trail past 7 waterfalls. I saw a Cock-of-the-Rock and a Long-Wattled Umbrellabird. 

Nicole and I spent a week birding like mad from the cloud forest, to the paramo of Cayambe Coca, to the Amazon jungle tallying 380 species of birds, while staying in numerous interesting places, meeting incredible people and improving my spanish. 

We spent four days in the Amazon learning what life is like for the Waodani people. We met Mincaye and Kimo, men who killed our friend's grandfather. The bigger shock is that same friend actually introduced us to these men who are now totally changed Christ-followers. We saw firsthand the power of redemption, forgiveness and true love. I watched Mincaye, hunched in his old age, walk barefoot thru the jungle holding the hand of his bride. If you only knew how she became his, you'd understand why I still get emotional thinking back to this memory. 

With the Waodani we planted crops (plantain and yucca) and ate monkey, piranha, wild boar and chontacuro (palm grubs- Asher) in the jungle. We experienced culture shock when we arrived, and again when we traded jungle life for a high-rise in Medellin. A visit to Comuna 13, one of the most dangerous locations at one time, gave us a new perspective on life and how much can change in a short time, both for the bad and the good. 

Back in the states, I had the pleasure of attending Night to Shine with my buddy, Lisa. We milked a cow for the first time at the Fugate homestead. The Obrien's showed us around Chattanooga and treated us to the aquarium. Daddy finally bought another Jeep Wrangler and began outfitting it for overlanding. 

In Florida the kids took classes in Batik art, archery, volleyball and tried indoor skydiving for the first time! They witnessed the birth of 8 puppies and observed their development and helped with their care. They also learned thru fostering that saying goodbye is hard, but it's still worth doing. Numerous trips to Tallahassee and Sarasota gave us time to spend with family. In Ohio we visited Chrissy & Shaun, toured Shawshank (Mansfield Penitentiary) and attended J's annual Halloween bash. When we left Ohio we had no way of knowing it would be two years before we'd be able to return (upcoming covid pandemic). 

At home in Ecuador

Our first week in Shell was spent with Galo, his wife and their three children. Before we arrived my children were very nervous about communicating with kids in Spanish. To their delight, their oldest son knows quite a bit of English. By the end of the night all five kids were running and playing together and sad to say goodnight. They took great care of us by showing us around Shell and feeding us delicious food until our house was ready for us.

 Here is the house we rented in a compound with great neighbors and their six dogs! It was huge- five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and laundry room. A hide-and-seeker's dream. With all that room you'd think we'd spread out a bit, but no. We closed off the extra three rooms and the kids shared a room as always. Twins that are best friends can't be separated!

View from the front (above) and back (below)

The house is one of 10 residences inside a fenced compound behind a mission-built hospital. The homes were built to house the hospital staff, however after a hospital opened in the next town, this hospital was closed and later reopened as a clinic.

Most people in Shell have a locking fence securing their home and bars on the windows. Initially Journey thought there were a LOT of jails in Ecuador. Ha!

4 of the 6 dogs of the compound. 

On a clear day (which is rare) two volcanos can be seen from our house. This perfectly cone-shaped one is Vulcan Sangay, a 17,158ft active volcano that we witnessed sending up puffs of smoke at times.

(Our house on the left, clinic in the background and Sangay in the distance)

The other volcano, El Altar, is the most rugged mountain I have seen. At 17,451ft, it is always snow-capped and is a real treat when the cloud curtain rises to reveal its beauty.

Having a playground in the backyard was a wonderful bonus.
My children enjoyed playing with our neighbors who were close in age. 

It rains pretty much everyday, often multiple times a day, and sometimes for an entire day. It's not the kind of rain I've known in the US, this feels as though the sky opens up and just pours out from the heavens. When you're outside and hear a train coming, you better hope you're less than 30 seconds from shelter, because that's not a train!

This is a photo from our patio looking thru rain at our neighbor's house.

Some of the most beautiful rainbows appear afterwards.

Exploring Ecuador: Quito

We spent five months living in Ecuador while helping an organization named ITEC (more on this later). We spent our first few days exploring Quito where we'd found a nice high rise apartment on Airbnb with floor to ceiling windows, a gym on the first floor and a lovely rooftop lounge with a view of downtown.

The place in Quito that I was most looking forward to visiting was Pichincha Volcano, but at nearly 16,000 ft elevation, we were advised to wait a few days to first acclimate to Quito's 10,000ft elevation. In the meantime we discovered some interesting places.

Our first stop was the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church in Old Town. This, the largest church in Quito, was constructed in 1892 and features animals like frigatebirds and tortoises instead of gargoyles on the exterior.

To reach the lookout tower, you had to walk this path then climb quite a few very steep staircases. I was the only one that went all the way to the top.

The virgin on El Panecillo can be seen from the church. Just look on top of the hill between the two towers.

Historical Old Town is filled with narrow, steeply-sloped streets and tiny sidewalks.

Our apartment's location next to Carolina Park, gave us lots of opportunities to enjoy multiple nearby parks and a short walk to the grocery store. Grocery shopping in other countries is always a fun experience to see what new items are available. My kids especially love the fruit section.

The dairy section in this store in Quito was HUGE and the variety of eggs filled an entire aisle. Asher was excited to try some quail eggs. By the way, none of the eggs are refrigerated. 

And lollipops the size of their heads! Nope, sorry kids.

Even though it was February, the midday sun was quite warm and a t-shirt was sufficient, but mornings and evenings we needed a fleece or jacket. We later learned that while most of Ecuador has similar weather year around, Quito experiences more extreme weather fluctuations including flooding, snow, and ice storms. Our last morning I took a trip to the San Jorge Eco Lodge to walk their trails looking for birds. I was not disappointed!

I also visited the serpentarium to see the local species of snakes. Once we arrived in Shell, I was lucky enough to meet a man who supplied most of the animals on display there. In the past he would pay indigenous people $1 to bring the snakes they came across to him instead of killing them. He would keep them in his own collection or release them in a safer area away from people. Eventually he was no longer allowed to give anything in exchange, so unfortunately more snakes are being killed again. The time came to give up his collection, so he sent the snakes to Quito for display and educational purposes. 

Asher was very curious about Ecuador. In this photo he was writing down the population of Quito and comparing it to Florida, a fun world schooling memory for me.