Trading Comfort Zones for an Airstream + Open Roads

She Who Wanders

Jul 28

A Convo with Alexis from @neversaysomeday

Meet Alexis. An adventurer to her core, Alexis is the epitome of living life to the fullest. She’s a wife and mom of two (plus one pup!) living full-time in an Airstream with her family for the last four years while they explore the United States and Mexico. She’s passionate about being outside in nature, slow living, and sharing her stories of exploration with her online community, inspiring other families to create a life that matches their values + dreams.

Tell us a little about you and your family like where you’re from, where you live now, how old are your kids and anything interesting or unique you’d like people to know.

My name is Alexis. Along with my hubby Steven and our two sons Levi and Harvey, we’re a family of full-time travelers and adventure lovers who are chasing our dreams and aiming to inspire others to do the same. If you would have asked us a few years ago if we could sell our home, 99% of everything in it, and hit the road to live in a van together, we probably would’ve laughed hysterically. Us? Traveling in our van as nomads? Never in our wildest dreams! But over the years, we got comfortable. Too comfortable. We checked off all of the goals according to societal norms: find a great job, buy a big house, get married and have kids. (BTW, those are all great things — not knocking them!) Insert school, home maintenance and other obligations, and we found ourselves on a hamster wheel. We questioned ourselves and each other — “Is this it?”

Eventually, we got the bug to shake things up. We were both working a lot, and with the kids in pre-school it felt like we still didn’t have enough time for one another. So we brainstormed. We threw all of our ideas on paper. And we kept coming back to full-time travel. This idea of letting everything go to chase new experiences in new places. This little spark of an idea grew and grew, and naturally set fire to where we are today: living in our Airstream, traveling all over the United States.

We’re in our fourth year of adventures, and we’ve learned so much about ourselves, both collectively as a family and as individuals. We know now that we can face our fears, and come out on top. That we can take a huge leap of faith and discover a life rich in memories and experiences vs. material goods. We’ve learned that we each have a greater capacity for love, patience, kindness and creativity. And most of all, we’ve learned that all we really need in life Is each other.

“Never Say Someday” began as a mantra for our family, but has transformed as a way of life not only for us, but those we encounter along our journey.

The Great Wanderlust is all about moms stepping outside of the box and diving deeper in both travel and in life! The mission is to inspire mamas and families to feel fully alive through adventure and exploration! What is your great wanderlust? What most makes you come to life??

Honestly, I used to think it was allllll about the adventure. About seeking new and different places and seeing it all. To some degree it still is, but I’ve come to realize that after four years on the road, it’s really about just being in nature. It’s our happy place! It can be as simple as hanging out in the middle of nowhere in the hammock, to hiking to an epic view with my dog, Ruby. As long as I am in the wilderness, I am my best self.

What would you say has been the biggest reward of selling your home and possessions and starting full-time travel? What has been the greatest challenge?

Hands down, quality time. Being together 24/7 is a blessing, especially considering we didn’t have much quality time together in our previous lifestyle. We know that we don’t have an infinite amount of time with our kids as they grow older, so being fully present for them is a gift. I love watching my kids grow up in slow motion, and to truly be present in their everyday lives.

The greatest challenge has been balancing the call of the wild and spending time with our extended family. We love being with our people, but we definitely recognize more and more that suburbia isn’t for us. It’s honestly one of the reasons why we never get too far from California. I don’t particularly enjoy feeling guilty for chasing my dreams, but it comes with the territory. That and finding the time to see it all!

You’ve mentioned that quitting your job was one of the hardest decisions you’d ever had to make. What is something that taking the leap to start living life outside the box has taught you that has been really impactful? Take us back to a situation where you were able to overcome fear because you’d learned how to overcome it in such a big way before.

One thing that I have learned through taking this leap of faith, is that you have infinite chances to reinvent yourself and design the life that you want to live. For me, the biggest risk in all of this was quitting my job I had spent my whole life working to the point where I was at, and had committed so much of myself to ensuring success in my career. Often at the detriment of my relationship and family life. When we started traveling and I wasn’t working full-time, I got to see a different side of life that really opened my eyes to the way that we were meant to live. When I decided that it was time to take on some freelance work and dip my toes back into the workforce, I realized that I could create the type of career that I wanted and still live the life that I desired. You just have to ask for it. Or better yet, you just have to demand it!

To live a lifestyle that goes against the grain, I think you have to know yourself on a deeper level, have the ability to tune out societal norms and expectations and be really in tune with what your heart has to say. How do you stay connected to yourself and in tune with your heart on a daily basis, especially when it comes to big decisions? Any particular go-to routines or rituals?

I think one of the reasons why I love being out in nature so much is the fact that I can sit in solitude and the quiet, and really truly reflect on life, and what I want out of it. Every time we’re back in suburbia, I find myself so distracted and temperamental. The pace of life there is just so much faster than on the road, where it feels like you have ample time to think through the things that are really sitting on your heart.

When it comes to big decisions, or simply reflection, I always go for a walk. In fact, over five years ago, I started walking with my dog Ruby before work every morning and would ponder life and talk to God about where I wanted to be and how I saw myself living life. It really was the catalyst for choosing to take this risk, and being OK with every aspect of it. So anytime I’m feeling down or I have a big decision at hand, I simply just go for a walk. To me, there’s nothing better than communion with God out in nature, and that’s where I’ve found most of my answers.

What would be your biggest piece of advice for someone who wants to take a big leap to chase a dream, but they keep analyzing all the factors and are too scared to jump?

My biggest piece of advice for someone who wants to chase their dreams, whatever those may look like, is to set a date for yourself. We gave ourselves a year prior to hitting the road, and it was just the right amount of time for us to build a plan, work against that plan, and then execute it. By setting a date, it gave us the deadline we needed to take action. We had quite a few things to do, like sell our house, sell all of our worldly possessions, sell our second vehicle, save enough money for a full year of adventures, convert a van into a livable space, quit our jobs, AND break the news to our families.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it — making a decision of this magnitude takes a ton of work. You have to ask yourself what is your dream life, and what steps are you willing to take to live it? Don’t overthink it, but do take the necessary steps to ensure that you’ll be successful in this endeavor.

What is one of the greatest hopes you had for your family when you decided to leave everything behind? Have you seen that come to fruition?

The greatest hope we had when we decided to buck societal standards and move into a tiny home on wheels was really just aiming to truly LIVE. For me, the thought of spending the next 50-something years working my butt off just to have money and a broken body at the end of the day, depressed me more than anything. I watched a lot of my family members sacrifice the things that they wanted to do or the life they wanted to live in order to work and stash away money, only to get to retirement and not be able to travel or do the things they once envisioned for themselves. I couldn’t bear the thought of repeating that cycle. And I really wanted more quality time with my husband and my kids. I wanted to do the things while we were all still young enough to do them, and to truly enjoy the beauty of life. I thought we would get that in one year of travel, and we definitely found it. So much so, that I can’t ever see us stopping!

Where are you off to next and what are you most looking forward to about it?

Right now we’re in a bit of a holding pattern because we have a family member who is battling cancer. Because of this and the flexibility we have within our lifestyle, we really wanted to be able to support this person in any way possible and stay close by if/when they needed us. So for the rest of summer and fall, we will be doing a bit of housesitting in our hometown. Afterwards, our plan is to head back down to Baja, which is our happy place. This will be our fifth winter in Mexico, and we really enjoy leading caravans down the peninsula with folks who want to see that side of the world, but want the comfort of going in a group.

Who inspires you to dig deeper in travel and life? Do you have a few recommendations of someone I should feature next?

I don’t know if it has to be a mom, but I LOVE following @drifterkait. She is truly chasing her dreams and creating a beautiful life!