About Us

Who are you? What are you doing?

We’re just a normal family of four (plus a dog) that’s decided to live life a little bit differently. In fall of 2015, we are escaping the winter of our Wisconsin home and hitting the road in our shiny new fifth wheel trailer.

So is this a vacation, then?

No, not really. This is our new life. We are becoming “full timers”, at least for a while, as we travel the country. The kids will be homeschooling, Scott will be working from the road, Kelly will be our primary trip planner and the school teacher. The dog will be responsible for causing all sorts of trouble.

Are you crazy?

No. Well, I suppose maybe a little. Usually, when we tell people our plans, their first response is to look at us like we have two heads. But after the initial shock passes, most people are very excited to hear about our big adventure.

After many hours of research, lots of Excel formulas and a huge amount of prayer, we decided that this “disruption” to our lives is one of the most amazing experiences we could ever have and that this is the best time for us to experience it.

Are we crazy? No, but the dog is.

What’s a “nomie”, and why do they roll?

When we were talking about this trip over cheeseburgers and cheese curds, we were explaining what a “nomad” is to our daughter Charlie. That conversation turned to the blog that we planned to update throughout the trip. When the question of the blog title came up, we threw a few names around, but none sounded just right. Then out of the blue, Charlie said, “How about ‘Rollin’ with my Nomies’?”

At first I wondered how she ever heard that old song, and what else she might be listening to, but she explained that she had a notebook that had that phrase and a bunch of garden gnomes on the cover.

After we talked about it for a minute, it was a unanimous decision.

So the “nomies” part came from our daughter’s creativity. The “rollin'” part really should be obvious at this point, though, right?

How long will you be on the road?

Our current plan, if you can call it that, is to travel to about a year. If we love it, we’ll go longer. If we find that we hate it after a few months, we’ll just point the trailer home and return to normal life with some stories to tell.

What places do you plan to go?

We have very few plans about this trip. We do have a number of places that we’d like to see, but have decided to plan only a few weeks or so in advance. We don’t want to be forced to stay at a place that we don’t love and don’t want to feel like we have to rush through a place we do love. We expect that we will stay anywhere between one and three weeks in any given city. That said, we’re hoping to see a mix of beaches and mountains. And avoid cold weather.

Why are you doing this?

While doing some research earlier this spring, Kelly found a quote that said, “Someday is now.” That is exactly how we feel about this. This is our next chance to do something big and exceptional, and to create experiences together as a family that we will carry with us forever. This is our next chance to teach our kids to not be afraid of taking chances. This is our next chance to show them that it feels amazing to try things that make so many others say, “I wish I could do that.” This is our next chance to teach them that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, even if no one else thinks it’s extraordinary.

Tell me more about you guys.

Sure. Here you go.