Amid the pandemic, a grand adventure…

My husband and I are adventurers at heart. Long before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19, we dreamed of taking our girls out of school for a year, hopping in the minivan and traveling the country. The realities of work commitments and removing our daughters from their friends and the structure of our school district (not to mention gambling on my homeschooling abilities) kept this grand adventure from coming to fruition.

Until now.

Our school district has offered a 100 percent online academy to any parents who have concerns about sending their children back into the classroom, and we are jumping at the chance. It’s not so much about our concerns over the virus, (though I fully respect every parent’s decision and understand why some might choose to educate their kids from home this year). For us, with Tony able to work from anywhere, it’s about turning lemons into lemonade and turning this pandemic into an opportunity to travel and explore. So off we go.

We’ll be departing on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and heading toward the East Coast. Our adventures will take us through Pennsylvania to Delaware, then on to Maryland, D.C., Virginia and North Carolina before settling in for an extended stay near Charleston. The home we’ve chosen is a vacation rental (like the others) just an hour or so away from Zac’s Marine Corps base in Parris Island, South Carolina. After Charleston, we’ll spend another month at a different rental house just 20 minutes from his base. It’s going to be a low country Thanksgiving; we can’t wait.

Now not everyone is going to love our plan. I know we’ll run into those who think we are being irresponsible by going on this adventure while health officials are urging folks to stay home. I’m of the opinion that we are just as likely to contract this virus by sending the girls to school, or by going to the grocery store or church as we are by going on this trip. Of course we will be careful; we’re avoiding hotels as much as possible and will wear masks, use hand sanitizer, etc. This is by no means a political statement; it’s just what we decided is best for our family.

Also, I know there will be people who think we are being unsafe by broadcasting our travels across social media, but I’m just not worried. Our home is going to be occupied by renters (thank you Powerhouse Properties). It’s actually probably going to be safer and more secure than when we were “living” there but never home!

These exciting times, though, are not without worry. I wake up every morning at 3 a.m. with “what ifs?” running through my mind. We’re going to miss our friends, family and neighbors, first and foremost, and the girls are going to miss out on a year of shared experiences with their classmates. We don’t know how the rest of this virus saga is going to play out, or whether the world will go on lockdown once again. Our road trips in the past have always had at least one hiccup along the way; how will we tolerate four months of travel? Health, education, finances … these are weighty topics to ponder individually. Our adventure throws all three of them up in the air.

But still, we’re going. We’ve already started packing and decluttering, cleaning out closets and touching up paint. Our house is listed for rent; we have reserved other homes as vacation residences through December. The plan is to fly back for Christmas and see as many loved ones as possible before potentially heading out again (this time to points on the West Coast) after the holidays in early January. I had to resign my position as a yoga teacher but plan to post travel yoga videos on my YouTube channel, tentatively titled “Yoga To Go: USA.” We are also going to keep a family video blog of our adventures; watch for additional updates on that.

In the meantime, thank you for your prayers and messages of support. We are beyond excited to share our adventures with you! If you have recommendations on places we should go or sites we should see, by all means let us know!!