INTERVIEW WITH THE ANDERSONS (@A TEAM FAMILY ADVENTURES)
Who are you and what is your backstory?
Hi! We are The Andersons. We are Andrew, Summer, Reese(9), Nixon (6), and Ty (4). We (Andrew and Summer) are originally from Texas but moved to Colorado a few days after we got married 12+ years ago. The original plan was to “play in the mountains” for a few years and then move home to settle down when we got ‘serious’. A decade later, we had a business and 3 kiddos and no plans to move back to Texas. And now, we are taking full advantage of our shared adventurous spirit by taking our adult responsibilities on the road!
We left our home and our American sized life in Denver on February 1, 2020. We sold most of our possessions, started renting out our home, and moved into a fifth wheel. Since then we have been traveling around the country. We’ve been showing our kids all it’s beauty and experiencing humanity‘s kindness even amidst all the unrest around us.
We will let the kids introduce themselves….
Reese (9) “Hi, my name is Reese. I am 9 and I have the best family in the whole wide world. I like to read. I just finished the Harry Potter series and it was so good that I am reading it again! I love to hike, bike, shop, and create art. I am learning fractions and I like that because they help me bake. I love to be with my friends. Sometimes I meet friends on the road which is really fun. I love to travel with my family and I hope we make more friends on the road this year!”
We’ve traveled all over the western side of the country during the pandemic and been able to see that most people are good and kind no matter what the news is trying to tell you. Even when people don’t agree with us! Most people still want what’s best for their family and so many of them choose love instead of fear.
Nixon (6) “Hi my name is Nixon and I am 6 years old and I live in a camper. My favorite thing to do is to go on adventures to places I have never been to before. One of my favorite adventures from this year is Craters of The Moon because of all the lava rock and caves. I like to rock climb. The best day was going to an amusement park in Utah with my friends who I met at an RV park.”
Ty (4) Hi my name is Ty and I am 4 years old. I am about to turn 5. I really like adventures and really love my family. I love my brother and sister and all the places I go to. I just learned how to swim. I can really hold my breath. I like riding my bike on bike trails. I love bike parks and pump tracks. And everything. I also love how old I am and how I make friends”
Take us to the moment you decided to begin your RV life?
About 10 months before we made this drastic life change (to full-time camper life) we were taking a road trip to see some family. On the drive, we were talking about how much we enjoyed being on the road and experiencing new things. The question we asked ourselves was “if you could remove the “obvious” obstacle of money, social obligations, school, our house, etc……. what would you do for one year with your family? “
The answer came to us surprisingly quickly. We would pack up our kids and travel for a year. We looked at each other in a kind of shock and slowly decided that this dream could become a reality if we wanted it to be.
We have always loved to travel! As our kids were getting out of the baby phase we realized the benefit of showing our kids new places. We personally enjoyed learning through experiences and desired to give this to our kids.
We own a business in Denver and have never left it for more than a week or two at a time. That was the largest obstacle for us but we gave ourselves 10 months to get the business in a place where we could leave it. We pulled the kids out of school and started homeschooling to make sure that it could be done before we hit the road. It took us almost all 10 months to downsize all of our junk and get our house in a place where we could rent it out while we are gone.
Tell us about the advantages to the RV lifestyle?
It feels almost impossible to think back but we actually started this road trip several months before we knew Corona was anything other than a beer. Being newbies to full-time travel while facing a pandemic was really sticky for a little bit. As a whole country was freaking out so were RV parks! It was a hard decision to decide to stay on the road or turn around and go home. We decided to stay on the road and now looking back we’re so incredibly thankful.
Being on the road in 2020 has been such a blessing for our family. We have stayed relatively self-sufficient, out of big cities and crowded places, and in nature as much as possible. The ability to remove ourselves from the mix has allowed us to stay in an emotional state that we enjoy. While we obviously feel the effects of the pandemic it is nothing like if we would’ve stayed in our town. It enables us to remember that we have the choice of how we react to things we don’t control.
We’ve traveled all over the western side of the country during the pandemic and been able to see that most people are good and kind no matter what the news is trying to tell you. Even when people don’t agree with us! Most people still want what’s best for their family and so many of them choose love instead of fear.
We often say this lifestyle unlocks time. We now experience an abundance of time. We find ourselves with such flexible schedules it can be almost overwhelming in a way we haven’t experienced before. We love the ability to just pick up and go. The lists of ‘to-dos’ that we loaded onto ourselves while living in the suburbs are mostly eliminated.
We often say we wish everyone could experience this even if it’s just for a short time. We say this because having the ability to view modern society through a different lens has been wildly empowering for us and we hope for our kids.
Here is an example. A few months ago we made a last-minute decision to head to Colorado from the west coast to see the fall foliage and escape the fires. On our haul across the west, we found ourselves giggling at the ability we had to just go. When we were living in the suburbs we would have to find someone to watch the dog, take care of the lawn, pull the trash bins in, cancel the kid’s lessons, stress about missing school, etc, etc…. to make this kind of impulse adjustment to our plans. We find ourselves spending so much more quality time with each other and the kids with the absence of these lists of things to take care of. All these ‘adulting’ tasks are NOT inheritably bad or wrong to spend time on. The realization for us is the power they have over us when we don’t even realize it. Releasing them has allowed us to see the choices we have around our everyday lives.
We feel so thankful for this lifestyle. After longs days of traveling when we find the perfect camp spot in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by massive views that we just pinch ourselves. The fact that we made the decision to remove ourselves from the busy everyday city and experience this life with our kids is something we will never regret.
Tell us about the biggest challenges and downsides to the RV lifestyle?
The hardest part of the lifestyle for us is: We don’t have time alone. We are together all the time. Like…. all. the. time. We were used to having schools and nannies give us time to work during the week. Babysitters and playdates allowed us to sneak away for date-nights. So, quiet spaces to work, meditate, and get away is really tricky. Summer misses a bathtub and Andrew misses his garage gym.
As far as technical challenges, there have been so many funny and embarrassing mistakes we’ve made along the way. In the first few weeks on the road, we were driving in south Texas on i10. There were several cars that passed us honking and waving. Upon quick glance, we didn’t see anything wrong with our trailer or truck so we thought “geez, Texans are just the best, they are so nice, even on the freeway!” It wasn’t until we reached our destination that we realized we have forgotten to lock our exterior storage cabinet and lost an entire load of camping gear on Interstate 10.
We have also messed up parking the rig so many times! We have gotten the trailer unhitched and almost all the way set up only to realize the popout would hit a tree if we didn’t pack back up and move over 6 inches. Then, we have been too far away for the electrical cord to reach and had to rehook up and start over. Then…. not in the right spot for sewer. Then…. On and on! We are on a roll at the moment so let’s not jinx it, next question!
How do you find a sense of community when you’re always moving? How do you maintain and build relationships on the road?
One of our biggest concerns was how we were going to keep in touch with our friends and family. We have some of the best of friends in Denver and it has been one of the reasons we have stayed for so long.
One of the blessing in disguise of the pandemic for us personally is how the whole world was forced to experience some of the things that we chose. The uprise of the zoom hangouts with friends worked wildly in our favor. The fact that people were forced to homeschool their kids and communicate online with friends put everybody in the same social arena as we found ourselves.
That being said I had grand visions of all the full-time families that we would meet on the road. The pandemic has put a kink in that plan as it has changed the playing field for everyone. It’s been much harder to meet these full-time families because all of the rallies and events have obviously been canceled.
As the year has gone on we have thankfully been able to meet more families on the road. It is an absolute blast to meet these families and connect with them on such a deep level. When you meet other like-minded people on the road you automatically have some things in common that are not as easy to find when you live in the suburbs in a city.
Something I find interesting and absolutely adore about meeting travel people is the questions that are asked in the introductory phase. The question of what do you do for work for a living is so low on the list sometimes we even forget to get there. The topics of conversations are more wrapped around, what do you like to do with your time, tell me how you got to traveling and all our adventures to be had. These conversations have been so fun and such a great way to get to know people initially as opposed to identifying people based on what they do for a living.
How do you support yourself financially?
We own a real estate investment company based out of Denver, Colorado. We’ve had the business for over a decade now which has allowed us to make great relationships and have really incredible people on the ground who are able to make the whole thing work. Our job is to work behind the scenes to support all the moving pieces.
We’ve been wildly fortunate to be able to get the business in a place that was able to operate it from the road. Once again the pandemic has worked in our favor as far as that’s concerned. Since almost everybody is working from home this notion is becoming so widely excepted.
Being entrepreneurs at heart we will say that we have new ventures and thoughts swirling around as to how we can play a part in the travel industry. Very exciting to dream about what’s next for the Anderson family.
What is your one piece of advice for people who want to do what you do?
Plucking our kids out of the everyday suburban life in America and taking them on the road for a year has been one of the greatest decisions we’ve ever made. We often say we wish everyone could experience this even if it’s just for a short time. We say this because having the ability to view modern society through a different lens has been wildly empowering for us and we hope for our kids. We realize that all the busyness and pressure that we put on ourselves under lends itself to unnecessary stress and a loss of choosing what you do with your time.
I think for us if we had one thing to offer we would wildly encourage people to take a leap of faith. It may not be traveling…. it may be a new business venture, or switching up the school that your kid goes to, or moving, or taking them out or putting them in some kind of extracurricular activity. But whatever it is that shakes up your life completely has the ability to change your perspective for the better.
What have been the most influential and helpful books, podcasts, blogs, websites or other resources?
We are quick to admit that it would be so hard to travel or homeschool the kids without all the resources that we have available to us in 2020. Social media has been instrumental in our journey so far. We use social media to help us choose where we travel. We’ve connected with many full-time travel families online that have given us confidence, advice, and friendship. We use the council of several incredible apps to tell us where we’re camping in the future and even some right on the spot. Our favorites are Campendium, Hipcamp, Harvest Host, and RoadTripper.
What does the future look like?
We are currently dreaming about our future. There have been a few surprising revelations caused by time on the road. We will most likely not move back to a big city. We plan to continue traveling for at least another year. 2020 has put a kink in the travel plans and so there is more that we hope to experience as the world slowly starts to re-open and adapts to the new normal. We have dreams to make it up to Canada next year. We’re also looking and exploring ways that we can add value to other travel families who are traveling with their kids.
Is there anything that you need that you can’t find or anything you are seeking help with?
As far as our next steps we would love any advice on taking the camper down to Baja California. It’s a strong potential for winter plans and we would love any advice we can get. Another dream we have is owning RV parks. We have yet to meet any young families who have taken on this endeavor and would love to connect with them.
Rapid fire questions
What are the top 3 RV essentials that you couldn’t live without?
- Our drawstring LEGO Holding Bag (it’s amazing because it holds so many legos AND keeps me sane)
- A door on the kid's bedroom
- weBoost (internet signal booster)
Top 3 favorite places you’ve visited?
- Escalante, Utah
- Sandpoint, Idaho
- Crested Butte, Colorado
Where are you now?
Heading from Utah west, hopefully to California
How long do you usually stay in one place?
We’ve moved pretty quick this trip and realize there’s so much to see. Currently, our average stay is about 4 to 5 nights. As we get more into this I can foresee I was wanting to stay in place is longer and experience more of the culture as things start to open up.
When did you first start RVing?
February 1, 2020
Are you full-time or part-time RVing?
We are full-time RV travelers
How many weeks have you spent in the RV in the last 12 months?
ALL of them! Since February 1st, 2020
What kind of vehicle/rv/trailer/setup do you have?
We have a Ram 2500 and a grand design 28BH. We love both.
Where can we go to keep up with you and your adventures?
Instagram @ateamfamilyadventures
We would love to connect with you!