Life as a Single Dad
Let’s face it. No one signs up to be a single parent. We all dream of having a family and living the dream but that isn’t always what happens. Life tends to have plans that often contradict our own and we must learn to deal with them. I for one know this all too well.
BECOMING A SINGLE DAD
I won’t go into extreme detail here but in 2016 life decided it was time for me to no longer be a husband. That itself is a traumatic situation for most people and it was no different for me. The difference for me is that my time to deal with that incident was short lived. Just a few months later on July 4, 2017 life decided that not only should I be single but I should be a full time single dad!
This was the point where I felt like breaking. I didn’t know how this was going to work or how I was going to raise two children alone. Here I was with a 9 year old girl and a 7 year old boy with my closest family almost 5 hours away from me! Having the oldest be a girl compounded my fears ten fold because I am an only child. I knew nothing about hair and make-up or girl drama! How was I going to deal with all of this much less the inevitable female growth cycles?
I sat up many nights unable to sleep wondering if I was doing things properly. Are my kids going to turn out ok? What could I be doing better? How am I, one person, going to split between two kids activities, friends and events? All of these were things I had to work through in my head and there were many times I felt like just giving up.
My immediate focus was to turn back to my roots and remember how I was raised. I found a church and got the kids involved in the kids and youth programs all while making the choice to life by faith. I knew I didn’t have all the answers but I certainly knew who did! I learned to spend time nightly talking with God about life’s direction while constantly asking him to show me the way and guide me as a father.
THE PATH TO RV LIFE
One of my favorite poets, Robert Frost, once wrote “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
This quote has immense meaning for me and is always on my mind. I could have taken the easy way in life working the 9-5 while the kids went to a public school all week. I could have taken them from work to ball practice or church and back home…..you know the path many call “normal life” but this isn’t what I wanted. I tried this path at first but it just never felt right. I constantly felt as though we were missing out on something bigger……….something better.
I wanted to see things and live a life that could be full of memories. I never wanted to look back with regret and I certainly wanted my kids to have better than a “normal life.” I wanted them to know that with determination they could do anything they ever wanted because normal is boring!!
With this thought in mind we started traveling a little at a time camping in a tent and loving every minute of it. We were getting to spend time in nature and I saw the happiness in my children’s eyes. They constantly talked about the places we went and how they wanted to see this place or that place. And to top it all off we were getting to do all this together as a FAMILY!!!
After roughly a year tent camping we were blessed with a 1986 Jayco Pop Up camper to make our travels even better. We all jumped into this camper with paint, flooring, upholstery……..we made it our own together. This kept us strong as a family and everybody felt they now had ownership in our old PUP!
THE NEAR FULL TIME LIFE
After spending about a year in the pop up and traveling all over the United States we knew what we wanted to do and that would require a larger unit. We wanted to spend even more time on the road traveling but we couldn’t afford to pay for a campground every night to set up the camper. We needed a travel trailer that at least we could boondock in overnight on the road. We needed a bathroom and more space. With this in mind I started looking and landed on a hybrid camper in Ohio. This wasn’t exactly what we wanted because we didn’t want the canvas ends but the price was right! We drove almost to Cleveland, Ohio the day before Thanksgiving 2021 and brought it home. This is our 2003 Keystone Cabana 1701 that we are still using today.
We do hope to upgrade once more in the near future to a full travel trailer with a bunk house for the kids but making that happen has proven difficult thus far. Faith, hope and persistence are not lost!
Also around this time the decision was also made to withdraw the kids from the public school system and begin a home school life. This meant even more on my shoulders but I felt that it was in the best interest of the kids so I was up for the challenge. Since making this change and spending more time on the road I’ve seen the attitudes of both kids change drastically for the better. They both seem to enjoy life more and love learning new things from each place we visit. We’ve all made amazing friends along our journey and it’s only just beginning!
Remember that we document everything on our YouTube channel and highlight many events on Instagram and Facebook so be sure you’re following us in all the places! Taking just a minute to subscribe and follow helps us out more than you know! Take a look in our Amazon shop. We constantly add items we use and recommend here. Any purchase there costs you nothing extra but provides us a small percentage to help on this journey! Finally we do have Venmo for anyone interested in being part of the journey. This is just the start of a new feature coming soon where subscribers will get additional content and goodies from the road!
Until next time……………..