Fernweh Families: The Z-Leaches - Family adventure of a lifetime

Next in our Fernweh series is the Z-Leach family. When they’re not adventuring in their trusty camper named Zephyr, they hail from Colorado. Sadly, they lost their home in the Marshall Fire of December 2021. Mariah feels that they tapped into the resilience and perspective learned from travel to help them fare the roads ahead. Mariah and Austin have been together for more than 20 years and visited 49/50 U.S. states and 102 National Park sites. Their kids are currently 11, 9 and 5 years old and have been quickly trying to catch up to mom and dad. Each of their three kids has already been to at least 17 U.S. states and 40 National Park sites.

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?

After living in our camper through most of the summer, we are currently back in our hometown in Colorado, getting ready for another year of public school to start next week. One thing we really love about being based in Colorado is how many places there are to explore right in our own backyard. Colorado is an amazing state, so even when we are stationary we are constantly finding new things to explore here. While my heart is always longing to explore new places, I also think it can be really special to truly get to know a particular place and discover tiny gems that we might not otherwise experience.

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!

Fernweh Family the Z-Leaches in their Zephyr camper

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?

I really enjoy the content shared by @accessible.adventures on Instagram. On behalf of their son, this family works to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion and accessibility. They also share information about the accessibility of various places they travel in their RV, which is information that can be difficult to come by and I’m sure it helps many other traveling families. As someone who lives with rheumatoid arthritis, I do sometimes face some challenges when it comes to my physical capabilities for travel, and managing my disease on the road can complicate matters for us significantly – in fact, my health is one of the main reasons that we don’t opt for full time travel. But accounts like this one help remind me that I can choose to travel in my own way, whatever way works best for our family.

What do you wish a fellow worldschooling family had told you before you left home?

family with junior ranger badges, worldschooling

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?

Wonder Year Fernweh Family; Sprinter Van stuck in the mud

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?

We’re taking our first international trip as a family at the end of this year! Our oldest son just finished elementary school, and to show we appreciate his maturity as he heads into middle school we entrusted him with a task: to research and decide between two potential international destinations. He has chosen Costa Rica, and we are very excited about the learning opportunities the trip will create for all of us! We are continuing to involve our oldest son in the planning of this trip, which is also a great learning experience for him. We plan to repeat this activity with our younger two children when they head into middle school.

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.