These days, everyone is in a hurry. Technology has made us impatient and made screen time an ever present feature of our daily lives. This attitude of “rush and rush until life’s no fun” has many families redefining their idea of a fun and satisfying lifestyle. Parents are realizing the freedom of getting out of the house and forcing everyone to notice each other.
One of the craziest choices people are making lately is embrace the nomadic lifestyle by living full-time in a camper with their children and sometimes even their pets. You can see the Justin Rhodes family travel the country in a bus in The Great American Farm Tour Documentary . Then you can click over to YouTube and watch families like the Family of Nomads live on the road. “van-life” is an actual phrase that describes an entire lifestyle aesthetic of people converting transit vans into tiny homes on wheels.
The beauty of this nomadic lifestyle is in the variety of morning views. Picture waking up to the sunrise casting a warm glow over the mountains; the next day you wake up to a Walmart parking lot; and the next day your looking out across the snowy midwestern plains.
The ultimate act of freedom us breaking away from eh norm an blazing your own trail. The open road becomes your playground, and every new horizon is a canvas waiting to be painted with family adventures. You discover a newfound spontaneity and flexibility to do things when you want, where you want. Gone are the days of expensive vacations with luxury hotels and expensive meals. You can vacations anywhere you want and still be at home!
But it’s not just about the places you’ll visit; there can still be a host of mundane activities that make life on the road less appealing than the traditional bricks and sticks (that’s slang for your “real” house). Imagaine- 7 people, one bathroom. Plugging and unplugging your sewer pipe. Packing up everything you own every time you move the camper. It’s not all sunshine and roses. So is it worth it?
Family fun takes on a whole new meaning when your living room is your homeschool room is your dining room is your kitchen is your laundry room. You learn to enjoy games like how much stuff fits under the bed and it’s not really overloaded because it’s only a thousand pounds over.
You also get unlimited amounts of family time. There’s less to clean, less junk to keep inventory of, more homecooked meals (campers don’t fit through drive thrus and they’re hard to park in the Longhorn parking lot).
Living in a camper also teaches valuable life lessons to your children, teaching them to share space, be considerate of others, wait patiently, entertain themselves, and enjoy the beauty of so many different geographies. Living on the road is the ultimate homeschool activity!
Living in a camper with kids is not just a departure from the norm; it’s a revolutionary choice. It’s an invitation to create memories of adventure, love, and the sheer joy of living in the moment. Remember that the road ahead is paved with excitement, and the destination is the beauty of family fun and freedom you’re creating—one mile at a time.
So what in the world does all of this have to do with go karts? Let me take you back to 2019.
We had a family of 6 at the time, 4 kids under the age of 10. My parents were running a prospering Trailmaster Go Kart store online.
Our crazy selves decided to sell our little mini homestead and buy a big truck and a camper. We hit the road to travel the country as my husband preached in church all over. By the end of the year we discovered we were expecting baby #5- which meant we were soon to be 7 people living in less than 800 square feet!
Over the course of the next 3 years, we traveled all over America. We visited over 300 churches in that time. Historical markers, lots of fishing, beautiful scenery, and all the seasons made their way into our travels. Check out a small sampling of of camper life years:
Our travels took us to some beautiful places, but by the end of 2021, we were ready to move to our forever home: South Dakota! We moved to Sioux Falls into a “real” house and sold our camper to some friends. That’s when my parents needed help with their go kart business.
Flashback to 20 years ago, my husband Scott used to work for my parents and did a lot of their research and development a.k.a. riding all the go karts. Flash back even further to 1993 when my dad built my very first go kart! We have been doing this our whole lives- it’s in our blood!
Today we own and operate TrailMasterGoKarts.com! It is still our vision to see families get back to fun and enjoy each other. Go karts can bring such a sense of joy and freedom; and what better thing to build memories around than riding go karts together?! So what do you think, will you try full time camper life? Or maybe just buy you a go kart and feel the freedom of the wind blowing in your hair? Just be careful and keep your mouth closed- bugs and mud have a way of finding open mouths!