10 Lessons Full-Time Travel has Taught Us

10 Lessons Full-Time Travel has Taught Us

In this season finale of TravelEssary, we’re pressing pause to reflect on what full-time travel has taught us (so far).

After a full season on the road, we’re sharing 10 lessons we’ve learned through experience, trial and error, and a lot of windshield time. From redefining what “home” means, to learning when to slow down, stay flexible, and rest instead of rush, these lessons have shaped how we travel and how we live.

We talk about the unexpected value of community on the road, why small towns often leave the biggest impression, and how choosing memories over milestones has changed our perspective as a family.

We also give a sneak peek into Season 5, which kicks off next week, with deeper conversations around RV life, more detailed location insights, and a few special guests joining us along the way.

If you’re traveling full-time, dreaming about it, or just curious what life on the road really teaches you, this episode is for you. 

Transcript

 We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. Today on TravelEssary, we are ending our fourth season of this podcast, and I cannot believe it's been four seasons, but you guys stick with us as we talk about the 10 things that travel has taught us. Let's chat.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this season finale. Oh my goodness. It's already been four seasons. That is absolutely mind blowing of how crazy that is. Four Seasons. Yeah. We are going into our. Fifth season next week, which I think is amazing, and thank you to everyone who continues tuning in every week and encourages us to keep going in our podcasting.

We really are enjoying it so far, especially now that we are finally doing the full-time travel that we have been dreaming about forever. And I cannot wait to see what Season five has in store for us. Yes. , I am so, I don't know, I'm just kind of in shock and an awe right now because, four Seasons, it may not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but man, four Seasons is a lot. Yeah, so we've been doing this about a year and a half now. We do 20 episodes a season, and I still have imposter syndrome. Even though we are going into season five, I still have imposter syndrome.

Like, is this really my life? Am I really doing this? Am I really a podcaster? Am I really giving people ideas and tips and tricks about traveling because. That's what my life is focused around right now. And yeah, it is true. I am doing that. It just feels so unreal sometimes. But today we wanna end this season talking about the 10 things that travel has taught us so far, because now that we are full-time traveling, that is bound to change. But in this season of our life, these are the things that we have learned. So without any further ado. Let's see if we can get through this list because it is extensive and there is a lot to it with this list of the top 10 and coming in at number one is home isn't a place, and this is something, man, this is something that we dealt with. This is something that me personally for sure dealt with. For sure. I believe that home is a place, it is a stick. It is a brick house.

That is what home is. You think it's a physical location? Physical location that has a 9 1 1 address. A place that you can go on Google Maps and go, that is my home. I guess I am more sentimental because I do believe home is where the heart is. Home is where the heart is. Home is wherever your, your what?

What's that? That they say online? King home is wherever your rump rest. I've never heard that one. Your rump rest? Yes. I have heard the RV version is home is wherever you park it. Oh, that is true. Yes. For us as home is wherever our children are, wherever we are as a family, , it's who we're with, not where we're at, and.

I've always felt that way, but I guess that's a new one for you. Yeah. And you can make any place your home, which is really good. And sometimes it totally is a mindset. Yeah. I'll tell the kids at the end of the day, okay, we're going home, we're done, we're going home. We're.

And without even thinking about it, all of us automatically know it's wherever the RV is at that time. That's where home is. Well, even whenever we were traveling without the RV and we were staying in hotels, we were like, alright, let's, alright, let's, let's go home. Let go home. That's because that's where we were sleeping, so it was just so, wherever the bed is at, that's where home is for us.

Wherever we can lay our head down and close our eyes, that's home. The second thing that we have learned while traveling is that slow is still progress. Would we love to get out on the road and be in a new place every single day? Then we'd be able to see so much. Right. Or just as, as fast as possible.

Absolutely. I love the concept, but I don't think I would love the undertaking of that. No. We've watched way too many YouTube videos. We've listened to too many podcasts about people that get out there and it's run and gun. The entire time. Yeah. In fact, in three to five years they are done. In fact, we were just talking about this morning.

So one thing that we have noticed is yes, a lot of your full-time RV travelers are retirees that come at the end of their. Nine to five life and they're starting their travel life. And because I don't know if it's 'cause they feel like they have a short time, which I don't believe that, or if it's because they have worked for so many years, they feel like they need to go do all these things at once.

But not all of 'em. But a lot of 'em that we have noticed and we have talked to personally, , they hit it hard during their retirement and they are moving across the country every few days, which is mind blowing to me, especially since I have a 2-year-old.

I do not wanna do that with him, but I feel like they overextend themselves and then. Three to four years. Like, we're tired, we're exhausted. It's too much. And I'm like you kind of did it crazy, like you needed to go a little bit slower than that and maybe it wouldn't be so exhausting. But yeah. You know, it may take us half a year to get to the other side of the country, but we'll get there.

We'll get there. This is also a good thing because no matter what kind of vacation that you go to, sometimes slow is still progress. And if you get out, we've done a lot of podcasts on this and we're not gonna take too much time on it, but you know, you get out there and you go as fast as possible and then you wear yourself out and then you know, you still have three or four days of vacation left and you don't want to do anything because you're too tired and you're exhausted.

. I don't wanna say slow wins the race, but Slow is still gonna get you to the finish line. So you know, slow is still progress. Number three, community shows up everywhere. We just got finished with the podcast of how to build your community and there is community everywhere.

If you're just willing to take a little step and just be in places and introduce yourself to people. Community is everywhere. Yeah, that one's absolutely true. I don't wanna go into too much depth with that one because we just did a podcast like two weeks ago, all about finding community on the road.

But yes, it shows up wherever you go. If you want it, it's there and it's available. I mean, we've been a lot of places that we've seen people never leave their rv. They never step outside. But the community , is definitely there no matter where you go, number four, plans will change. Notice I did not say plans can change. I said plans will change. And it is something we see literally every day when you are traveling, especially when you are full-time traveling. Don't try to set anything in stone. Be very flexible because those plans will change and you just gotta learn to be okay with that and not only be okay with it, but absolutely embrace them.

Yeah, like she said it's inevitable. It's going to happen number five. Small towns have big stories, so let me tell you guys something. In case you do not know this, it is so much easier to find the history of a small town than it is in a. Big town. So we have been through several small towns where we have went to like their little museums and their historical places about the town, or there's always someone at the chamber or the visitor center that's wanting to tell you all about the history or even when we visit like the local churches, someone there were gonna tell us about the history of that town.

But when we visit large cities and communities. It's so much harder to find that information. You have to like actively plan and search and try to figure out where to go and who to talk to and yeah. Small towns, they just have so much character. Well, it's something that they lean into and so whenever you go to bigger towns, they kind of get overwhelmed with a lot of the tourist attractions

that are there and. The smaller towns, you know, they get into it. The people around there know the history. I mean, you go to like Austin, you're like, Hey, what's the history of Austin? There's not a whole lot of people that are truly gonna tell you the history or, why Austin was even built, where it was built at.

But if you go to. A small town around there, like Pflugerville or something like that, more people know that history of wine was built. Small towns are really cool and I think that they get overlooked a lot in travel. Oh, absolutely. I do enjoy visiting.

The large cities and shopping. Oh, yes. And some of the bigger activities, but my favorites are the small towns. They just have so much character. Number six, less stuff means more life, y'all. This is just like number one for me. This was something that was not my mindset, my concept. Of life and the, I don't wanna say American Dream, but American dream is to have stuff, but to be successful.

That's what I thought being successful was having stuff. Was the more monetary stuff that you had that you could put your hands on and say, Hey, yeah, I own this, and this and this. The more successful you were., I guess if that's your definition of success, then you achieved it. But No, we absolutely believe now for sure that less stuff is freeing.

Oh man. And it allows us to experience more. I think we do have a podcast. It's like less stuff, more experience, and it's absolutely true. Now that we have downsized our material items. Our memories and our life experiences have increased tenfold and our stress and our anxiety. Has decreased. Yeah. We have a lot less things to worry about now, which is good because you know the truck and the RV themselves can Yeah.

Enough. That's plenty enough. Plenty. That's plenty what that brings in. So we don't need more things to add to that. Number seven, the seventh thing that we have learned while traveling is that rhythms can be changed. And not only can they be changed, they should be changed. They should be changed because sometimes you just get into a rut.

I don't even wanna say a rut. You just get into like a funk. Yeah, a little funk. And then that's what you do day in and day out for years. And then one time you just kind of look back and you're like, I didn't accomplish anything during that time. . And it was because of the rhythm that you were in.

It was because of, your routine that you were going through and it, you kind of became a robot and you didn't get to, experience and enjoy the things that were going on. Yeah. So not only have , our day-to-day rhythms changed since we've been full-time traveling, but they will change with us, , depending on what season we're in.

Oh yeah. Depending on what. State we're in, depending on whether we're in a large city or a small city. So, although, a lot of our daily rhythms do revolve around our 2-year-old right now, that will also change as he gets older. So yeah, our rhythms they can be changed and they should be changed.

Change your rhythms up. I mean, be willing to be flexible on your day-to-day life. Yes. One thing that I'll say about this is every park that we've gone to so far, our rhythm has changed. Yeah. Because every park and what they offer is different. Yeah. It's not the same. So we're not doing the same thing.

We're not going to the same places. Our scenery is not the same day in and day out because, , we don't have a stick and brick home anymore. , We're traveling. But whenever you travel, change up that rhythm. Don't let it be like your normal day rhythm of, you get up and you drink coffee and then you read the newspaper or you go through this, you know, that is easier said to done when you have very established rhythms.

Yes, it is hard, and we talk about that a lot, especially on our bonus episodes, on our Patreon of how difficult it was for us in the beginning. We were lost little lambs. Mm-hmm. Because our rhythms like, what do we do? We've done the same thing for the past 30 years. Like, what do we do now? But

it does change. And you know it's okay. Number eight, rest matters. Just as much as movement. Oh my God. If not more. Oh my gosh. Rest matters. And , the more little kids that you have, the more important that this is. Sometimes the older you get, the more important this is. Sometimes if you're just in the prime of your life and you have all the energy in the world, you know, 'cause you're still in your twenties rock on.

But if you're younger, if you're older. Man, take those rest. You know, this reminds me of what we were talking about a while ago, how there were so many people that they wanna go from one side of the country to the other and then back again every few days, and they're traveling six, 700 miles a day, and then they're only staying somewhere for four to five days at a time.

And that's like a long stay for them. And I, I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they do it physically and mentally, because even if I did not have a 2-year-old, I would not want to travel that way because the rest days to me are so important. . We really enjoy our rest days around here.

And so real quick that we did a podcast about this as well, where we were talking about Disney World, about our first time and our second time. Just a massive difference and it was because we had rest days. Yeah. , These are things we have learned that travel has taught us, right?

Maybe not for everyone, but for us personally, we enjoy our travel. More when we have built in rest times than when we do, when we want to see and do everything. Like we enjoy it more when we rest, but that's just how , we like slow travel. That's what we do. It's kind of, I guess, our motto if you want to say it or whatever, but if you have to have a vacation after your vacation, you did something wrong.

Yeah. Number nine, memories, beat milestones. This could be rough for a lot of people. It's rough for me. I get the concept and I understand what we're talking about, but sometimes that some people like setting up that goal of what that milestone is. Mm-hmm. Oh, we traveled, 50,000 miles in a year.

You know, we did this. , We were able to see 30 states in a year, or all 49 states that you can drive to in a year. It's kind of one of those things where you look at Google Maps and it tells you, Hey, you're gonna reach your destination in an hour and a half, and you're like, Nope, I'm gonna beat that.

'cause you set that milestone and so you just have that competitive, that's milestone. You're just taking off as like, no, I'm gonna do it in an hour and 25 minutes instead of an hour and a half. Yeah. I look at it so differently. So yes, we have a family bucket list of things that we want to accomplish. Not necessarily this year, but as we are doing this full-time travel, and to me it is a bucket list.

That is all. Would, I think it would be wonderful if we achieve them all? Yes. But am I going to stress our family out or, push ourselves to limits that will make us uncomfortable. And by uncomfortable I mean like. Making the baby drive too far, too many days in a row and putting him in his car seat for too long.

Things like that. No, I'm not gonna do it. If we're like, we only have one state that we have to eat a hamburger in and it's five and a half hours away and we gotta make that trip today, I'm gonna be like, Nope. We are not doing that. I am not making an 11 hour trip to go eat a hamburger. Like it's just not going to happen.

But the memories that we create between now and the end of whenever we stop doing this. To me that's so much more important than checking off a list. Yes, because it's gonna be that no matter where you go to, if you're going slow, you have your rest days. The longevity of this you will eventually reach those milestones.

May not be in the timeframe that you want to reach them at, but you're going to acquire. Way more memories, precious memories, and I feel like you're not meaningful memories. If you're not pushing yourself to do a checklist, then you're not gonna get burnt out as fast. You're not gonna get exhausted as quickly because, you're taking it in and you're enjoying it instead of feeling like it's a task that has to be accomplished.

The last thing that travel has taught us is that the road teaches gratitude. And this one's so true. The more we travel, the more I realize how grateful I am one for this opportunity to be able to do this. Like the more I travel, the more I realize . This is gonna be a double negative right here, so bear with me one.

There are more people who do this lifestyle than I realized. Yes,. And I realize that when we're in the campgrounds and we, build our community there in each campground and we talk to people, but then when we leave that campground and we go explore the area, I realize how extremely unique.

This lifestyle is. Yes. 'cause then we're talking to people who are outside of the campground and they have so many questions and they have so much to say about our life. And , I was just talking to someone yesterday and I was trying to explain to them what it is that we do and they're like, wow, that is like a dream.

And I sat there for a second, I was like, it is this is a dream. It really truly is. And it has made me so grateful for what we are experiencing and grateful that I'm able to do it, you know? With my husband and my children. The opportunities , that we have got, just going from place to place.

, The people that are super nice, the people we have met, it's been amazing , that are, you know, whenever you show up and. You meet 'em for like the first or second time and then they're like, yo, here's my cell phone. Here's my number. If you need anything, you run into a situation. Hey, just gimme a call. We'll take care of you. Yeah. This is legit. No joke. And I know we just said this a few podcast episodes ago, I can't remember if it was a bonus one or our community one, but every single church we have visited, the pastor and or pastor's wife have given us their cell phone numbers

and it's not that we're somebody, it's not , like we roll up there and be like, oh yeah, we're so and so. They're, we're like, nobody at all we're like the least important people in this world. But that's just like how great it's been to experience meeting people and exploring places and just the whole lifestyle is just, we are extremely.

Extremely grateful to be able to experience it, , to be able to do this and I, without tearing up and going into, , just a whole bunch of other stuff. We'll save that for a bonus episode. We'll save that for a bonus episode. Patreon will definitely get tears that it's just, it's really awesome what we do and the way that we do it, because not everyone that do it does what we do has the opportunities that, that we have. Mm-hmm. Because we are in a system that a lot of people use on a constant basis. Right. So we're not like, boondocking, all that other kind of stuff. So we have like our own little community.

No, we're not that brave yet. Yeah. That, that we get to be a part of. And like, they'll put their necks out for you and be like, oh yeah, you have sewer problems. Yeah. So when do you wanna work on that? And you're like. Wait a minute. I didn't even ask you. You're just like volunteering to come work on my rv, right?

Just because . You're that kind of a person and I'm so grateful that there's people that, hopefully that we see another time. Yeah, because I, I've made a lot of friends. We just saw someone pull in the day that we got here to the campground we're in now that we saw leaving the same day of the campground that we were the last one we were at.

Yes. And I was like, Hey. They just left the same grand ground we were at. Well, and some of the people that I've talked to, it's like, oh yeah, so where are you going after this? Because everyone wants to know, Hey, where you been and where you going? Yeah. And we're like, oh, we like to compare the different places.

Yeah. We're like, oh, well we've been here and we're going over there, and like, oh, so how'd you like that? I was like, oh yeah, you're heading up over there. Yeah, we're gonna be in the same area around that same time, and we're. Dude, we could possibly see each other again. Mm-hmm. Like multiple times because , it was so unique.

Our itineraries at the pretty close, the last potluck we went to in the campground, we were talking to this young lady who Van Lifes by herself. Yes. And . An elderly couple came in, she's like, Hey, I know them. I met them at a campground in Colorado. At a potluck there. Mm-hmm. A Pollock. Yep. , And then they saw each other and like, Hey, how have you been since it was like six months ago or whenever it was.

They saw each other in Colorado and then they started talking about family. , Oh, you went down to Florida to go see, . One of your family members, how did that go? How are they doing? And I didn't know that that community, it's existed in the lifestyle that we have.

And it can be a very tight community. It can, and I'm so grateful for it. And they're the, the type of community that you meet 'em once and then they're like your friends for the rest of your life. Yes. You know, I'm grateful for, I know we're not getting into a whole grateful podcast kind of thing, but you know, the job that I'm able to do, which is that enables our lifestyle, which is super flexible.

And they have great people. , Everyone that I've met at the lodge and even my dispatcher, they're great people. They're working with you. They'll give you the tips and tricks of how to do things. Mm-hmm. And it's really nice to be a part of that community, you know?

And if I was still in my stick and brick house, I never would've had no, and we've just been extremely blessed.

Mm-hmm. And I'm extremely grateful for it. Yeah. So travel has taught us a lot. So much. I imagine there's so much more we're going to learn. Well, we had to narrow this list down. Yeah, we did. So we didn't talk all day long. But before we end this episode real quick, again, thank you to everyone who has stuck with us throughout our four seasons.

We cannot wait to get into our fifth season. If you want a little preview of what we're going to be talking about in season five, as we are really going to be digging deep into the RV life in the RV life community. The full-time travel RV life, and so , we will be doing a lot more podcasts specifically about RVs and traveling in the RV full-time.

And of course we will be doing, specific locations, which, you know, it's been a fat minute since we've done a specific location because we've had so many other things going on that we wanted to talk about. But in season five, I do want to talk  about some of the specific locations that we have been in.

We just got through visiting Houston. And I can't wait to share some more about Houston. I liked it more than I expected. I was going to, and I do have a guest or two lined up for season five that I can't wait to share as well. So you guys stay tuned. Season five is coming up 

 next.