Miles, Memories & Milestones: 5 Years of Full-Time Travel
5 years ago today, our road life adventure began!
That's...
- 60 months ago
- 261 weeks ago
- 1826 days ago
… we officially signed the paperwork to sell our house and become nomads. When we started this adventure, we had no idea how long we would last. We didn’t know if we’d give it a try for a few months and be done or if we’d love it and keep going.
Well, obviously, we didn’t give up after a short time, and we have no desire to stop now either.
There have been many amazing moments— and also some not-so-great moments—but all of it has been worth it. We have absolutely loved having the freedom to move about and go wherever we wish.
Some of our travel stats:
⭐️ We’ve driven approximately 125K miles with two different trucks and traveled to all 50 states! We had traveled to around 40 states before we even began our nomadic adventure, and we visited the ones we hadn’t been to before, with Alaska being our 50th in August 2023. Interestingly enough, we’ve been to almost all of the states again since we began traveling 5 years ago, with the only two missing since then being Delaware and New Jersey. Guess it’s time to hit those up again!
Seen here:
Our two trucks that have served us well.
Getting to our 50th state, Alaska!
⭐️ We’ve loved visiting sites in the National Park System, and we’ve made it to 35 of the 63 official National Parks, and we’ve visited a total of 113 NPS locations (which includes the 35 official parks).
In addition to those, we’ve also visited 5 different National Monuments within the BLM system. These are truly some of our favorite travel adventures!
Seen in the pics:
Denali NP - the one that’s the furthest away (had to take the pic out the bus window 🤣)
Rocky Mountain NP - our first and one of our absolute favorites
Death Valley NP - the one that took us by surprise the most - we loved it!
Capitol Reef NP - our most recently visited park
Yellowstone NP - amazing park and probably one of the most iconic and biggest bucket list parks
⭐️ We’ve visited 12 UNESCO World Heritage sites since 2020 and a total of 19 overall.
Shown here:
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Yosemite National Park
Mesa Verde National Park
La Grand-Place in Brussels, Belgium
Paris, Banks of the Seine in France
Québec City - pictured is Fairmont Le Château Frontenac
⭐️ We’ve seen two of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World (Aurora Borealis & Grand Canyon).
⭐️ We’ve visited seven different countries in the last 5 years: Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, and Luxembourg. This brings our total country count to 20 overall.
Shown here:
Quebec City
Cozumel
North Caves in Maastricht, Netherlands
La Grand-Place, Brussels, Belgium
Town Hall in Aachen, Germany
Omaha Beach in Normandy, France
Vianden Castle in Luxembourg
Some other fun facts about our travels:
⭐️ We purchased a timeshare in February 2021 through Diamond Resorts (which was bought by Hilton Grand Vacations), and we have loved taking advantage of that program and staying in awesome condos, not only around the US but in Paris as well!
⭐️ We added a rooftop tent to our truck in March 2024 and started camping, which has been a blast. We’ve found some amazing campgrounds and enjoyed some beautiful places.
⭐️ We joined the Armed Forces Vacation Club in May 2024 and have enjoyed booking great deals through that for nice condo stays.
⭐️ And we’ve spent a fortune on hotels. 😂 I will say it’s still not much different than a mortgage and all the monthly bills that go with owning a home, so it’s still a good trade-off. This topic could be a whole post of its own, though, because there’s so much to say about this. lol!
⭐️ We’re also excited to announce that we’re in the process of upgrading our travel digs by purchasing a camper van!!! We’ve been dreaming about it for a while and now we’re one step closer. This will open up SO many doors for us and make our travel possibilities almost endless. More on this soon.
Needless to say, we’ve had some AMAZING experiences over the last 5 years and we’re so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to live our dream.
I will say traveling has been more difficult since we began in 2020. The prices of things in 2025 are crazy high compared to just five years ago, so it makes it harder for our dollars to go far enough. But we just adapt and improvise, as James likes to say. 😂
However, the sacrifices we make to continue living this dream are worth it.
Here’s to the next 5 years of travel! Can’t wait to see what adventures we find ourselves on in the future.
How about a chance to win a free prize?
Because we love a good party and want to celebrate our five-year travelversary in style with all of our online friends, we're gonna give away a prize. It also happens to be National Give Something Away Day. So why not?
If you're interested in a chance to win, here's how you do it:
Make sure you're following our Facebook page.
Give our celebration post a 👍 or ♥️ .
Comment with your favorite travel destination.
Tag a friend on that post who also loves adventure travel.
That’s it! One lucky winner will be randomly chosen to win a surprise gift from us. It's just a little thanks for being such a fun part of this adventure!
Now for the fine print:
It's only open to US residents who are 18+. The winner will be randomly selected from qualified entries and announced in a post on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025. This giveaway is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Facebook.
Congratulations you crazy kids!