Fernweh Families: The Z-Leaches
Please tell us a bit about your journey.
In 2005, Austin and I moved into our very first home together: a tiny popup camper. We lived in that camper for months and traveled to all 48 contiguous United States and as many National Parks as we could. It was the trip of a lifetime, and we have wanted to recreate as much of that experience as possible for our children. We spend most of each summer road tripping in our camper (a larger popup to make room for the 5 of us plus a dog!) and we recently got a Sprinter van as our new tow vehicle to increase our adventure options. We take advantage of pretty much any opportunity to travel, and plan to take our first international trip as a family at the end of this year.
Austin and Mariah moving into their first home together in 2005: a popup camper named Donna.
What’s outside your window right now? What fascinates you about where you are?
Can you describe a time when learning for your kids or family happened organically and profoundly…when you learned outside the “plan” you started with?
My husband and I have been visiting National Park sites together for many years. Our favorites tend to be the ones with beautiful natural landscapes, abundant wildlife, and opportunities to immerse ourselves in nature. However, earlier this summer we happened to be near Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, Florida. This National Monument preserves the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States. Originally built by the Spanish, the fort holds 450 years of history. We weren’t sure whether the fort would even interest our children, so we were astonished to discover that our middle kiddo became absolutely absorbed within moments. This became an organic learning experience for both of us! My 9 year old started to piece together his interest in weapons and military things with actual U.S. history, and I came to the realization that I need to take my children’s unique interests into consideration when planning our travel routes. In the future, we plan to incorporate many more historical sites and battlefields in our travel routes!
This summer in their current home on the road, Zephyr
What have you discovered about your family by being on the road together?
Travel teaches kids amazing amounts of adaptability, and has helped our children learn that experiences are more important than things. These life lessons helped our kids remain resilient when we recently experienced a tragedy. In December 2021, along with 1,000 other families in our Colorado hometown, we lost the only home my children had ever known in the Marshall Fire. Our house and entire neighborhood burned to the ground, and nothing was saved from the blaze. Of course my kids were sad to lose all their favorite possessions, but they also understood that if we stayed close as a family we could get through anything. I truly attribute much of the strength of our family to the experiences we have had while on the road together.
Is there another traveling family you are particularly inspired by? How are they inspiring?
What do you wish a fellow worldschooling family had told you before you left home?
Boys, 7 and 4, proudly show their junior ranger badges along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.
I think it’s important to remember that you don’t have to travel full time for your children to benefit from roadschooling or worldschooling. Any amount of family adventure or exploration can teach really valuable life lessons! My children attend a traditional public school, and we “summer school” on the road. We do the Junior Ranger program at every National Park site we visit. We explore historical sites and museums. We interact with new people and learn about different ways of living. And we find opportunities for new experiences that we wouldn’t have at home or during traditional school. While we are currently looking into options for potentially doing a Wonder Year or Semester in the future, I do think families who are interested in the benefits of worldschooling should know that you can achieve plenty of amazing new experiences for your kids through any amount of travel, even if they also attend traditional school.
What’s your favorite story to share about this experience?
Stuck in the North Dakota mud, along the Enchanted Highway!
I think it’s funny how some of the strongest memories I have of our time on the road often come from adversity. We recently drove the”Enchanted Highway” in North Dakota, which, despite its name, is basically just a couple of large sculptures in the middle of huge stretches of corn and sunflower fields – nothing life-changingly exciting, but we figured it might be more interesting than a regular highway. However, it had been raining for several days in a row, and as we pulled into the parking area to look at one of the sculptures we got our van and popup camper ridiculously stuck in some thick, clay-like mud. While our van does have 4WD, we weren’t able to turn it on once we were already stuck! So, there we were, alone with 3 small kids and a dog with our van and trailer super stuck in the mud. Luckily, we were prepared with traction mats and a tow strap, but we still had to get really creative. We ended up having to unhitch, fight the van slowly out of the mud so we could get the 4wd turned on, and then tow the camper out of the mud with the tow strap so we could get to solid ground to re-hitch. In the process my husband and I got absolutely covered in mud! Was it fun? Definitely not! But I’m proud of us that we didn’t panic and we worked together on the issue until we solved it – and our kids got to watch us do that. And now all of us will certainly remember North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway forever!
What are you excited about seeing/doing/learning next?
Thanks to Mariah for sharing inspiration and an important perspective. To follow along with their journey, you can find them at @zephyr.travels. Also if you’re a family facing chronic illness, check out Mariah’s website mamasfacingforward.com.
Check out other Fernweh Families on this blog to get inspired and learn all the different shapes your Wonder Year might take.
First trip as a family of five to Mount Rushmore
