The real reason why we sold everything, I quit my job, and we have traveled all over the country this year!

I wrote a short article the other day about how much I love work. After that was published, I was reached out to by a number of people who know me well, and know what I’m doing in my life in this current season. My article was a head-scratcher to them, so I wanted to provide some visibility and clarity to what’s going on.

In October last year, I had this growing unsettledness?about my life: Covid was a mess, the economy was so unpredictable, my work at church was radically different than it was prior to the pandemic, school for the three kids was a moving target, and the racial tensions and the political unrest seemed all consuming. But there was more, on a personal level, that all of the aforementioned was unveiling. All of this led me and my family to realize that we were too distracted on things that didn’t align with our core values. We needed to shake things up so that we could get properly focused on faith and family.

So we sold our house and our cars, I resigned from my job, we bought a big truck and a fifth-wheel RV, and we hit the road.?

With all of that out there, I wanted to share the top 10 questions we receive, and the answers to each, about our surprising decision.

1.?????When did you leave and when are you coming back? We left April 1st, and we plan to be done with the trip no later than November 30th.

2.?????Where have you been and where are you going? We have been to over thirty states in five months, and we have another ten or so to go. We have seen a majority of the national parks; but, better than that, are the people we have met along the way. Our family mantra on this trip is “people are better than places.”

3.?????What’s the coolest thing you have seen? All of the kids would say “we can’t answer that…there are too many cool things.” I would say arriving on the beach in Maine. We had left the Georgia coast months ago, traveled west across the southern half of the U.S., up along the West coast, across the top of the country heading east, and arrived back on the Atlantic in Acadia National Park. There was something incredible about it, like “wowzers…we went from coast to coast with five Team-Hurley members in a dually truck while we pulled a big box for our home. Now that’s cool.”?

4.?????Did you have a lot of experience RVing before the trip???No, I’m horrible at RVing. The new RV that we bought is dinged up really bad due to my poor driving skills. I shouldn’t be surprised because I wasn’t a good military pilot either.?

5.?????How crazy do you feel this was for you to do with your family? From one perspective, it’s nuts. We changed EVERYTHING that we know, and jumped into a bunch of what we don’t know. Another perspective was that we have been blessed to be able to even consider doing this wild adventure. Yes, I do have to go back to work to provide for my family, because the money from the house sale runs out in a handful of months; but the fact that we could physically and financially do this 8-month trip is less about guts and more about blessing and opportunity.

6.?????Was Covid a concern while traveling? Yes, but not anymore than living back in Atlanta; and, actually, there was less of a concern. When we were traveling we were pretty self-sufficient and quarantined in our RV; and when we were seeing the sights in a new destination it was almost always hiking or walking outside in a national or state park.

7.?????Will it be hard to go back to fulltime work after being “retired” for 8-months? No – I love work. I don’t think I will ever retire. Rest and play are good, and work and flourishing in vocation/community are good. This was truly a sabbatical to get our minds renewed around our family core values.?

8.?????What do you want to do for a job when you are done with the trip? I don’t know specifically. I could be back working at a church, or I could be back in business. I love so many things about both the church and business. I’m open and seeking guidance, wisdom, and prompting on this topic from good friends, mentors, and my wife. I would say at a high-level I still feel called to enlist, equip, and encourage people to be a light in the marketplace in some way, shape or form.

9.?????Why haven’t you been more public about sharing your trip for the first five months of your journey? It’s easy for me to get too focused on keeping up with social media, and that would have pulled me away from our family mission to dive deeply into each other and into our faith. So, for the most part, I resisted getting on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram until the trip was well over halfway done.

10.??Why would you post this article on LinkedIn? First let me say what it’s not. It is not to be soliciting for a gig to be full-time RV people that are selling their story, service, or products. There are some incredible families doing that, and we support their social media, their TV shows, and their websites. These families are all about RVing fulltime, and showcasing that – and we think that is awesome for them; but we don’t have any desire for that type of life. The biggest reason I’m posting this on LinkedIn is I (and my family) want to encourage people to go after what they are called to do. That could be making a career change, taking a sabbatical, going for a promotion in your current organization, or having the freedom to stay put in your current role and feel confident in knowing that it gives your soul life. Bottom line, YOU have a lot of control over your career, vocation, and direction. Granted, it’s not complete control (look at the last 18 months of unpredictability in the world for goodness sake); but you do have a lot more control over your choices than we give ourselves credit for. To be clear, I don’t think I’m special for doing what I’ve done with this RV trip – rather I simply made a choice to lean into what me and my family were being called to. I know that life and the world’s expectations will often make us think we are trapped in our current situation; and I want to offer hope that you are not trapped.?