Facts of a Travel Life
There are some amazing things that happen when you live a travel life.
The travel life is unique, freeing, challenging, growing and amazing.
I’m learning that I love to travel, see new things and discover new places.
But, I’m also learning that there is an interesting side to the travel life that sometimes others don’t see.
Things like:
You don’t have an answer to the question, “So… where is home for you guys?”
You feel like “home” is wherever you sleep at night.
You have learned to sleep in a hundred different kinds of places… living rooms, hotels, weird mattresses, air mattresses, the floor, loud places… and you are thankful for every single space to sleep. every time.
You learn to do laundry at laundromats. You actually realize that the laundry mat is a brilliant time saver and you think maybe more people should do their laundry that way!
You save quarters for that purpose. and for tolls. Always for tolls.
Your travel life takes some major organization and planning skills.
Moving overseas? Yeah. planning.
You aren’t sure where to have people send you snail mail. It takes some figuring, calendar checking and all around detail planning to figure it out.
Random post offices find things that people were trying to mail you, empty envelopes end up in funny places.
Friends call and say, “Uhm… did you have a package sent here?” because you forgot to notify the people who really live at the address you used.
You’ve mailed items to strangers, friends’ parents, hotels and other crazy addresses.
The girls ask “where am I going to have my birthday?” and you name some other state or country than you are in right now.
You get really good at eating cheap at restaurants and using coupons and finding deals on food.
You get really good at not looking at prices at all because in some countries, food is expensive everywhere.
You get really good at recording miles, adding up receipts and keeping track of every single car repair. And there are a lot of them.
You aren’t afraid to dig out all your suitcases in a parking lot and repack or reorganize belongings for the world to see.
You are never sure what a day in this travel life will bring.
You can quote your traveling schedule off the top of your head and know where you will be 3 months from now.
You go to sleep at odd hours and wake up while most people are well into their day.
You get up crazy early to drive hours for an early appointment. 3 hours to go to the dentist is nothing.
You have a system for packing the car, for unpacking the car, for packing a luggage cart… everyone has a job.
You are a master at “moving in” to an unknown place very quickly.
Three days in the same bed feels like you have been somewhere a long time.
Your kids take turns sleeping on roll-away beds.
Sometimes you don’t get a roll-away and they fight over the floor so they don’t have to sleep with a sibling.
Your kids know hotel names really well.
You have a very strict “10 Things Not to Do While Traveling” list.
You get to move in somewhere and move back out without cleaning or cooking a thing.
Your GPS works a full-time job.
You have entered the wrong address in your GPS and learned to roll with it.
You have favorite driving and traveling songs.
You know where the coffee shops are in random places around quite a few states. But you’ve also accomplished the difficult task of traveling and making your own coffee so you have GOOD coffee with you all the time.
Yet, depending on the country, you can go a whole year without driving at all!
Your husband is like a human google map.
You’ve had an address in 3 countries in 3 years.
Travel days like this happen often and you stay flexible, learn from mistakes and keep the travel life going!
Ah, the life of a traveling family.
The things you learn, the experiences you have… travel life is exciting and exhausting.
Every day is a new experience and you master going with the flow of life, waiting to see what God has planned for today!