I forgot to share my final Crikey post on Road Trip USA: Breathless in Oregon Rivers in the wonderful madness of returning to Oz and moving directly onto Jonai Farms! Watch soon for a new website and farm blog…
As for Road Trip USA, it was an incredibly enriching, grounding experience for all five Jonai, bringing us closer and teaching us things together in a sustained way that just doesn’t happen in the banal confines of home, with all its attendant work, school and social distractions.
Would we recommend driving across a country in a small RV with three kids? Absolutely – we adjusted rather quickly to living in a small space, cooking with limited gear, and coping without air-conditioning in a heat wave. Okay, we never *really* adjusted to that, but we did learn to put up with it.
Having sold the RockVan at the end of the trip on eBay for slightly less than we paid for it, the trip didn’t turn out to be *too* expensive – cheaper than if we’d hired an RV and cheaper than staying in hotels as well as hiring or buying a car. Being in between paying rent and a mortgage also made the trip achievable (not to mention Stuart working two jobs for the previous 2 years…).
Thank you to the wonderful people we met along the way who made the trip more interesting, warm and full of great learning, and big hugs to my extensive mob of family in Oregon and California.
So that’s a wrap, armchair travellers. The Jonai have settled in on the farm, and your next reality show is about to begin. 🙂
