Every Adventure Has a Beginning
At just 18 and 20 years old, we said “I do” and began the greatest adventure of our lives.
Having both grown up camping, it wasn't long before we decided to carry on that tradition together. We purchased our very first tent, packed up our gear, and set out to make some memories of our own.
We even spent our first wedding anniversary camping in that tent!
Now, if you've ever spent a summer in North Alabama, you know just how brutally hot it can get. And let's just say that particular anniversary trip had us seriously questioning whether tent camping was such a great idea after all!
Little did we know, that little tent was just the beginning of a lifetime of adventures together.
Growing Our Family, One Camper at a Time
Eventually, we decided it was time for an upgrade. We moved out of the tent and into a borrowed pop-up camper. It might not have been fancy, but it sure felt like a step up!
We spent plenty of time camping in that pop-up, first as a young married couple and then as new parents when Tucker, the first of our three sons, came along.
As our family grew, so did our need for space. Our next adventure came in the form of a used travel trailer. It was an '80-something model, about 20 feet long, and absolutely perfect for our needs — and, just as importantly, our budget!
Somewhere along the way, Sawyer joined the crew, making us a family of four.
When our next tax rebate arrived, we did what any camping-loving family would do. We bought a bigger camper!
This time it was a 1991 Coachmen Catalina fifth wheel. During our Catalina years, our youngest son, Carter, arrived, completing our family of five.
We kept it until Carter was three years old. But by then, we had started dreaming a little bigger. We wanted to travel farther, stay gone longer, and show our boys more of the world. To make those dreams happen, we knew we needed something a little newer and more dependable.
The Trip That Changed Everything
Our first brand-new RV was a 2007 Zinger. With plenty of room for all five of us, we finally felt ready to hit the road and see the country.
And our first big destination? Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
We had certainly visited national parks before. In fact, we'd been to the Great Smoky Mountains several times and had even spent our honeymoon there.
But something about Mammoth Cave was different.
Maybe it was the experience of exploring somewhere completely new with our boys. Maybe it was realizing just how much there was to discover beyond the places we already knew. Whatever it was, something clicked.
That one trip changed the way we thought about camping. Our RV wasn't just a place to spend a weekend anymore. It was our ticket to exploring the country, experiencing new places, and making memories with our children that we hoped would last a lifetime.
Miles, Memories, and Growing Boys
It didn't take long for all that traveling to start showing on the Zinger. We were putting some serious miles on our campers, and eventually it was time for another change.
Enter our first Jayco bunkhouse.
That camper was just about perfect for our family. It had room for everyone, and we put nearly 30,000 miles on it!
It carried us across the country, from one adventure to the next. For us, it wasn't just a camper. It was our home away from home, our way of seeing the world together.
Although we loved the RV life, we never completely gave up tent camping. Some adventures are just meant to be experienced a little closer to nature!
From the remote beauty of Dry Tortugas National Park and Isle Royale National Park to hiking and camping along a portion of the Appalachian Trail, we discovered that some places simply MUST be experienced in a tent!
But there was one problem we hadn't really planned for. Our boys kept growing. And growing. And growing!
When your three sons eventually reach 6'4", 6'3", and 6'5", standard RV bunks become a little difficult to manage!
Fortunately, we discovered that Open Range Light made a bunkhouse with beds long enough for all three of them. So, once again, we traded campers and kept the adventures rolling.
We traveled in that Open Range until Carter headed off to college. Even as the boys got older and life became busier, we continued taking the other two along on summer trips and whenever we could make everyone's schedules work.
Those years were about so much more than campgrounds and destinations. They were about time together, long drives, new experiences, and memories that would become part of our family's story.
Sometimes Less Really Is More
When Carter left for college, we found ourselves entering a whole new chapter of life. For the first time in years, our nest was empty, and we began thinking about what traveling might look like with just the two of us.
We decided that maybe a motorhome was the answer. Something we could drive instead of tow. Surely that would make traveling easier, right?
So we sold the Open Range and purchased a Hurricane Class A motorhome.
Well, let's just say things didn't go quite as planned!
We took several scenic drives in that big rig, but believe it or not, we never actually camped in it. Not once!
It was just too much. Too big, too cumbersome, and not nearly as convenient as we'd imagined.
So we did something that apparently nobody at the dealership could quite believe: we traded that big Class A motorhome for a tiny little Coleman Rubicon travel trailer!
We were the talk of the dealership. People couldn't believe we'd make such a drastic change.
That little Rubicon brought back something we hadn't even realized we'd been missing. It renewed our excitement for camping and reminded us why we'd fallen in love with it in the first place.
We absolutely LOVED that little camper!
It was simple, easy to travel with, and just plain fun. After years of bigger and bigger rigs, we discovered that sometimes having less means enjoying more.
Our Next Season
After a couple of wonderful years with the Rubicon, we started thinking about making one more change.
We still loved the simplicity of a smaller camper, but we wanted just a little more room. An indoor kitchen and bathroom would certainly be nice, and we wanted enough space for Oakley, our four-legged traveling companion, too.
That's when we found our current Jayco Jay Feather.
And for this season of our lives, it's just about perfect.
Looking back, it's hard to believe how far we've come since those two young newlyweds first crawled into a tent on a hot Alabama summer night.
From tents and pop-ups to fifth wheels, bunkhouses, a motorhome, and back to a little travel trailer, we've experienced just about every kind of camping imaginable.
Along the way, we raised three boys, made countless memories, and discovered a love for exploring that has only grown stronger with time.
We've traveled to all but three of those National Parks in an RV. We've camped in 40 states, with plans to keep going until we've filled in the rest of our camping map.
But the truth is, our adventures have never really been about checking destinations off a list. They've been about the journey. The people we've shared it with. The things we've seen, the memories we've made, and the excitement of discovering somewhere new.
Our boys are grown now, and life looks a little different than it did when we first started camping all those years ago. But that love of adventure? It's still going strong.
We're just getting started.
Thanks for joining us on this next chapter of our journey.