Interview with a Traveling GrandMama: Carol White

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After Phil and Carol White returned home in 2001 from a year-long RV adventure throughout the United States, they were bombarded by questions: “How’d you do it?” and “How much did it cost?” and “How did you figure your route?”

They wrote Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a year for the cost of staying at home to answer those queries, and recently published an updated and expanded edition to add details for traveling and working families, with information on taking a sabbatical from your job, working on the road and “road schooling” for kids.

The Mamas have “met” loads of road-tripping families, like SoulTravelers3 and the James Family, who are traveling the world with their kids, so I know this is a do-able adventure. While traveling via RV for a year to various parts of the U.S. (or across the planet on a round-the-world ticket) absolutely appeals to me, personally, I can sooner envision my family taking six months off from our lives in Colorado to go set up base camp somewhere else — likely a Spanish-speaking country — and enroll our children in local schools, taking weekend trips throughout the local area.

I had some specific questions for Carol White, the grandmother of nine, about this prospect:

1. How realistic is it, really, for a family of four, with two school-age kids to either road trip or relocate for six months to a year?

I think it is very realistic. That is why I added some information into my new edition to give families some additional tools to encourage them to make it happen for yourself. You have all the same issues and needs to figure out as the first edition — but you have the added dilemma of how to continue to educate your kids and how to make money on the road. The schooling part is relatively straight forward with local schools, if you relocate, or home-schooling online options abounding. For most families, the biggest issue is continuing their job-life while they are away.

2. What if the adults’ jobs are location-dependent? What’s your advice on asking your boss for a sabbatical?

More people than you might imagine have negotiated sabbaticals, time-off, telecommuting options, and more as ways to stay connected and in the work force. The key to asking for a sabbatical (there is actually a whole book about this called Six Months Off) is making it a win-win for both your employer and you. You have to put yourself in their shoes and have your plan in place as to how this can work and why they should do it before you ever float the idea with your boss. The better your plan, the more likely you’ll get to go. If you own your own business, you are in control. Depending upon what the business is, you may be able to take it on the road, have someone (a “key” person”) run it with some help from you via telecommuting or find another solution. It is all about how badly do you want to make this happen?

3. Is there a good age for children to take an extended road trip?

I think until they are in about the 8th or 9th grade it is all good. More teachers are receptive to helping you put together a plan and more districts have options for these sorts of non-traditional learning situations. Some locations that I am really in favor of visiting won’t have the same impact at age 6 to 8 as they would at 8 to 10 — I’m thinking of Williamsburg, Jamestown, Plymouth, etc. The kids need a certain base on which to build these experiences. If you are taking them younger, you need to prep them with simple stories.

We took a mixed-age (4 to 12) group of grandkids to see where Lewis and Clark wintered near Astoria, Oregon: Fort Clatsop. We rode an old-fashioned steam train to the coast and I read them a simple, colorful storybook of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Even the littlest child “got it” when we were there. The park rangers were wonderful at helping the kids understand those pioneer days. As the kids get older, fewer things impress them and you have to work harder to keep them engaged.

4. What mistakes did you make on your road trip?

We made no mistakes on our year-long road trip! Ha – if you think that is true, then don’t go! That is part of life. Our trip really ran quite smoothly except for getting in a car crash with an uninsured driver in Minneapolis and breaking my ankle in Wisconsin (everyone thought we’d be headed home…) and flying home for 10 days when my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. So life does go on and you just handle things like you would if you were home. But as far as day to day “mistakes” — it is all part of the adventure — you get lost, you can’t stay where you thought you would, the restaurant wasn’t all that great — just normal things that add to the experience.

The biggest thing we did right was not to book ANYTHING ahead — we just let our journey unfold in front of us and we never faced a situation of not having a place to sleep (another good reason for choosing an RV). That is our major piece of advice: Don’t try to book your trip ahead – have a general itinerary, but let each day unfold or you will feel like you are on a forced march to your next destination — you’ll be disappointed and ready to go home the first time that you have to unravel a bunch of plans because something delayed you along the way.

5. What was your hands-down favorite place to visit on your American road trip?

The National Parks in Southern Utah — Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion and more — you just can’t believe what nature has formed in that beautiful, unreal area of our country.

6. Where’s your next trip?

We’re headed to Vietnam and Thailand in January and in Mar ch and April we’ll be in Kauai, Hawaii, bonding with our newest grandchild, Arlo.

7. Any final advice?

If you want to do something like this totally for yourself and your family, the most important thing is to set the date to leave and start working towards it. You will be surprised how everything will start falling in place and before you know it, you too will be on your adventure of a lifetime.

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October 24, 2008 | Filed Under Mama Interviews, The Cookie Jar 

Comments

4 Responses to “Interview with a Traveling GrandMama: Carol White”

  1. Carol White says:
    October 24, 2008 at

    Hey all you Traveling Mamas – I’ll check in here every day for a while to answer questions that you might pose for me. My #1 piece of advice is to set a date and Just Do It!

    Carol

  2. Mara says:
    October 24, 2008 at

    What a lot of great tips in this interview. My parents are traveling grandparents too – they’re the best kind!

    I traveled for a year with one son before he was in school and am looking forward to doing the same now that I have two older boys. I think that it definitely can be done with some planning; this post definitely made me feel motivated.

  3. Carol White says:
    October 25, 2008 at

    Hi Mara –

    Being a grandparent is the best! As the saying goes, “if I’d known how much fun grandkids are, I would have had them first!”

    I hope that you’ll really consider “road schooling” your boys for a while. There is so much to learn by doing in our great country. There is even a Yahoo Group devoted to families on the road (FOTR) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fotr/ – they even plan get togethers around the country.

    We address all of the getting ready to go and planning issues in our book – as well as the unique issues that families (rather than retired couples) face. If you go to our website (www.roadtripdream.com) and click on “look inside the book” the complete table of contents is there.

    Stay motivated and make it happen for your boys – they will never forget it. We’ve decided that we want to create memories with our grandchildren, not give them “things” that they will forget about next week. You can do it with your kids too – think about your own childhood, I remember very few things that I got for holidays and birthdays, but I sure remember trips that we took.

    Carol

  4. lewis clark shoes | Bookmarks URL says:
    October 28, 2008 at

    [...] … Kinda cute. I think the organizers of the Lewis & Clark Marathon are trying to make it up to us for cancelling the marathon in mid-run. Interview with a Traveling GrandMama: Carol White [...]

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