The Jones family are Andrew and Debbie and their 5 kids, Sam, Lizzy, Abi, Hannah and TJ. We left Orkney (an island off the north coast of Scotland) in March 2009 and have been traveling in a 4×4 Overlander truck named Maggie. Since beginning our travels our son has bailed and gone to Wellington, New Zealand where he is going to University but the rest of us continue to travel.
Random Thoughts.
To be perfectly honest, we have no plans to stop traveling. We figure we will travel as long as it works for us, which could be quite a long time. Andrew’s family is in Australia and New Zealand. My family is in USA. We have friends all over the world.
We are not so interested in being tourists. As a matter of fact we tend to avoid tourist places as much as possible – they give us the heebie-jeebies. We simply love people and something just seems to come alive inside us when we are rubbing shoulders and figuring out how to be in other cultures. Even having to struggle for every word is exciting. Learning other languages doesnt come naturally for us but we love to keep trying.
We have a quite modest lifestyle. We dont have a lot of money coming in. But, to be perfectly honest, if there is extra there is normally a better place for it to go than to make us more comfortable. We have noticed that we don’t need as much money for this lifestyle. Our biggest expense by far, right now, is food. Not food from restaurants but from grocery stores. As is typical for us, we dont limit the amount of people around our table. All this is not to say that we don’t celebrate. A great big feast seems extra tasty after a week of simple, cheap food. Sometimes we will go to a nice campground or the movies. We are also always on the lookout for a great water-park. Aaaaah, that beautiful Italian water-park that emerged from the desert sands on that very, very hot day like a mirage. We still wonder if it was for real or simply a dream. Anyways, that is another story. However, I think it is worth mentioning, so your visual picture is complete, that they had a BUBBLE MACHINE. Oh yeah.
We are not homeless. We have simply made a home that has wheels. We are not handy craftsmen sort of people. We seem to learn more from our mistakes than doing it right the first time.
We are beginning to suspect that we might be a bit strange in that we prefer a home with wheels to one that is bigger, more acceptable and stationary. We are not as good as most in looking after a house, preferring to play with it rather than take it seriously. However, we think we thrive more than most when traveling, as we take it more seriously and embrace it.
The only new sofa we have ever owned was a wedding present. We have never bought a new bed, kitchen table or chairs. Just not a priority. Also, we have realized that buying new stuff tends to limit mobility, which we value.
We do not see ourselves as being on break from our lives but finally finding out what we are better suited for.
We do not feel that we have given up our favourite things by traveling. We think of ourselves as distilling what we love. We love our old 1950s kitchenette – we have it with us. We love to host people – we have tents for 30 people, including a tipi that will sleep 16. We love to feed people – we have very big pots. We love books and real wood – we have an overlander that can handle the weight. We love to create things – we have computers, cameras, an old hand-crank sewing machine, fabric, beads, string, paints, drop spindle, loom, etc., etc., etc.,. Actually, I think we have more books and art things than most houses. We love playing games, we have a games cupboard. We love sitting around a wood stove, we don’t have a wood stove yet but planning on getting one soon. I think you get the idea.
We have done lots of searches on the internet and as we travel. We are having a hard time finding families that live like us. We would like to find some and spend some time together. We’ll keep on looking.
Some History
1985 – Me and Andrew met on a ship going around Central and South America. We were giving away and selling cheap educational books. We were 2 people among 130 from 30+ countries.
1987 – We flew to California, USA and Got married.
1988 – We bought a house in Portland, Oregon, USA and filled it with international students.
1991 – We sold our house. Put all our earthly belongings in a few backpacks and trunks and moved to Australia with one 6 month old child, Sam.
1994 – We put all our earthly belongings in the same backpacks, without the trunks, and moved back to USA with 2 kids. Lizzy was a year old.
1994 – We lived in a small 1969 ford motorhome, with Snoopy flying on his doghouse painted on the side, for a year in Pasadena, California. This was for cheap accomodation while Andrew went to graduate school. We had 2 small children, Sam and Lizzy. We looked for a suitable parking lot, asked permission to park and worked for them as payment for parking. Our most momentous adventure was to drive to the Rose Parade a couple of days early and enjoyed front row seats on top of our home.
1995 – We moved to San Francisco, California, USA and lived in 3 different flats. Our 3rd child, Abi, was born in 1995 outside of San Francisco. Our 4th child, Hannah, was born in the redwoods in 1998, about 4 hours drive north of San Francisco while we were heading up a training program for street kids from San Francisco, getting off drugs and learning how to live life.
1998 – We put all our earthly belongings into a cargo van and a tent with 4 children for 6 months. Hannah was only 6 weeks old at the time.
1998 – We were given a 10 year old, 33 foot, Winnebago Motorhome. It had dusty pink carpet, need we say more. We did over 25000 miles in 2 years crisscrossing America several times. Unfortunately we killed this vehicle. Why? We now think that “normal” motorhomes are typically not built to haul a family around full-time. Too much weight and too many miles. A van engine and van brakes and van shocks with too big of a box on the back.
2000 – We put all our earthly belongings in a few suitcases and moved to Scotland with 4 kids.
2002 – We put all our earthly belongings in an old Volvo sedan and moved to Prague with 4 kids.
2003 – We took off in a 20 year old Avia motorhome from Prague. This vehicle was built by a Czech airplane company as a cargo truck, converted into a motorhome by an employee after the “Prague Spring” to take his wife and 2 sons over the newly opened border and explore the continent. We did not bring all our earthly belongings with us this time as we were only gone for a few months. We had 5 kids at the time (TJ was born in Prague) and an adopted family member (Jessica). The engine of our little Avia motorhome blew up on the motorway in Italy and had to be left for dead. We were then rescued by Paulo (Italian), Reinhold (Swiss) and Wolfgang (Germany). We had a wonderful diversion for a couple of weeks before picking up our summer plans with a borrowed van from Wolfgang.
2006 – We put all our earthly belongings in a van and moved back to UK with 5 kids.
2008 – We bought our overlander, a 1987 Magirus Deutz, for GBP 3500 and made her into a motorhome from November on. We took her on the road just a few months later on March 11, 2009 even though we continue to work on her on the road. We chose Maggie because she is strong. She can handle the weight. She has air brakes. She has a non computerized system so we might be able to fix her ourselves or she can be repaired in poorer countries. She is air-cooled (no radiator). We think she is beautiful.
2009 – Spent the year seeing old friends and making new ones in Europe. We drove through England to take the ferry to the continent. We went to France, Belgium, Germany and Czech Republic, on our way to Poland. We came back across and down through Spain where we finished off the year in Portugal.
2010 – We made it into Africa in January and went through Morocco to the Sahara before heading back up north. After 3 months in Morocco we went through Spain, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovna, Albania and Greece on our way to meet with friends in Macedonia. We went back up north through Serbia and Hungary to go back to our favourite festivals in Poland and Germany. While in Czech Republic we decided to leave the truck behind and fly for a bit to see our families. We flew to the U.S.A. after a few days in the United Kingdom. We bought an old station wagon for USD300 on the east coast and drove it across to the Pacific Northwest in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas with mom’s side of the family.
2011 – We continued our around the world flight by flying from California to New Zealand in January. After 3 months in New Zealand to introduce the kids to their New Zealand side. We flew to Perth, Australia where most of Andrew’s family has immigrated to and spent a month with dad’s side of the family. We got a free layover in Asia and spent it by flying to Hong Kong and taking the train to Beijing to see old friends and make some new ones. In May we made it back to Czech Republic and picked up our beloved truck. We revisited friends in Czech Republic and Germany before leaving Europe through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. We parked our truck in Turkey for a few months and are on our way to New Zealand via Egypt, India, Indonesia. We plan to finish out our year in New Zealand in our yurt on a friend’s farm, somewhere on the North Island of New Zealand.
Thanks for following our adventure.
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