Just Buy the RV: Ashliy & Jake of WanderAboutFullTimeRV on Roadschooling, Workamping & Full-Time Family Life | Community Spotlight

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey guys, welcome back to Learn Tarvey the podcast. Today we have a really neat guest. This is our community spotlight series. And I met Ashley and her husband Jake at Ash. We were two or three doors down from them, and they had some little kids. And I love when families are on the road. I actually hosted the family activities at that particular event. I got to know them a little bit, but they were also volunteering at the event. So like we were kind of like two ships passing in the night. I'd love to share with you today the real story behind Ashley and Jake and what they're building on the road. And you know, everybody's story is different. And so I'd love to get into it with them. So welcome Ashley and Jake to Learn to RV the podcast. We're so glad to have you here. Yeah. And we're glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah, thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Of course. You know, when we started this podcast, I was like, I never need to start a podcast. And the community spotlight series became something we did right away. Well, probably within the first two or three months, because we realized that this isn't about our journey at all. It never is. It's about everybody else's journey. And so that's super important to me. Let's take you guys back to your beginning on the road. You and Jake have two kids. You're full-time RVers, but how did that actually happen for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

So we started in on the road, November of 2021, was kind of our launch date. Prior to that, I was fascinated. My brother, he's actually a full-time RVer as well. And he's been doing it for a number of years. Seeing him and his journey and his travels and all the friends and community that he was building, you know, we were lucky enough to meet up with some of them, different events and at Vegas and stuff like that. It kind of was a pull. Like we got we felt pulled in that direction. That was kind of what jump started it. We took, I don't know, probably about a year and a half or so of planning. I wish we could say we were one of those families that just jumped right into it and knew exactly what we were gonna do and all that. That was those families are crazy. Yeah, I agree. More power to them, especially, you know, those that are still on the road, and that it's just amazing. Yeah, we took a long time to plan what kind of rig we needed, how would that look with work situation as well as homeschooling the kids? So that's kind of how we got started.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

And and what would you say was your biggest surprise going into it?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

You said the biggest surprise.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

The biggest surprise was, I guess honestly, how flexible you really needed to be. Because for the longest time we were planners, we would plan stuff out like this is where we're gonna be a year from now. And now, if we know where we're gonna be at next week, is crazy to us at times.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah. So I mean, I mean, lots of people have the same thought. Let's hit the road, let's do it. Was there a timeline plan for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Had it set out because we bought our camper and immediately like a week later, we bought our truck. So it all kind of made sense to just leave right after Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving happened, and then we left that Saturday. Wow. And that's quick.

unknown 2:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

It was super fast. And then the first thing we did is we decided to drive from New Mexico to Escondido, California. That first 24 hours on the road for us, it would have broke anybody else. We lost our awning, we ripped a hole in the side of our camper, we had a blowout on the five. It was just insane.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Your first day sounds a lot like mine. I try to black mine out, but you know, we hit the road. So, first of all, Frank had us leave. We launched July 3rd, 2013. Wow. Yeah, July 3rd. Let's go back to that number. Yeah. And then Frank took me boondocking for two weeks on base. He was such a nice guy about it. We're going July 3rd, so there's no spots open. We can offer you a boondocking spot in Oceanside, not on the water, for $10 a night. And I learned how to use my camper for the first time ever. And yes, when we first left there, we had a very interesting experience, much like what you just described. We spent the night overnight. We had a cop knock on the door. I mean, like it was a thing. It was like a whole thing. The fact that we're doing this 13 years later and almost ready to start our 14th year of full-time travel is absolutely insane to me. But now my life revolves around it. But with kids on the road, how old were the boys when they when you guys first launched? Dean was three, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

He was three and then Logan was eight. And how old are they now? They are eight and thirteen.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I didn't realize he was so close to Judah's age. That's crazy. When you do it by yourself, like as a couple, it's one thing, right? But you bring your family on the road. We hit the road with a 15-month and a three-year-old, and then four other kids too. Certifiably crazy with six kids on the road full time. It's a different level of transition, too. Did you guys homeschool before you hit the road? I guess let's start there.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

So we did homeschool, but it just happened to fall in kind of perfectly, I guess. We lived in Vegas in like an apartment, and Logan was in second grade, just a school here in town. And then COVID happened. So then they were doing the virtual learning online. I would have to sit there for eight hours a day and just like listen to them read one chapter in a book. And I was like, that is not going to cut it. So after he finished his eight-hour school day, I signed up for another online program for homeschooling. And we would do that afterwards. At the end of the school year, we withdrew him and started just homeschooling him from there. Dean's never actually even been to like regular school. He's only been homeschooled and this year he's going into third grade.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

And I mean, we've we've homeschooled all of our kids. When we hit the road, my oldest was 18. She said, love you, mean it. See ya, I'm out. But she was homeschooled from the time she was really little. We have 17 years between our oldest, who's 31 and our youngest, who's 14. My kids, being military kids, were all over the country. And every time we got orders, it was the middle of the year. So like April or like November. There was never orders anytime other than that. There was no real natural transition for us. So for us, road schooling just leveled up the whole equation. What does that look like for you guys being on the road? I don't know. Can we say what program they're using? Absolutely. Yeah, because I think that everybody uses something completely different. You know, your story might be different than my story, and that's why we do the community spotlights for sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

When we originally started, we started with Time for Learning. That program was okay, but like their social studies was just like, here's nine pages, read it, take a test. So we didn't really like that. So we switched over to Me Academy, and we've been using that one for about two years now. And it's accredited. Logan's about to start high school. So with that one, it gives multiple programs where you can have a teacher come on there and help, you can get a diploma, or you can just do more of the homeschool version where I would still be like the teacher, and then he can still get a diploma at the end.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Well, and I love that. You know, our our our families do it so differently. And I think that you have to do what's right for you guys and your family. And I mean, the reality is you know your kids best. Here's a big question that everybody asks, and I've been asked this one a thousand times myself. What about the social side? How do you keep your kids socialized?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

That is not an issue with our kids. You know, I am often kind of taken aback by how easily that they make friends at times, you know, so much so I'm worried. I'm like, you can't trust everybody, especially like our youngest Dean. You know, he will, he's the first one if we're like, oh, we're gonna take a picture. There's somebody next to him, he has no idea, and he's throwing his arm around, you know, throwing up the peace sign. I'm like, this is our friend, so it's fine. But you don't know that, you know, because as RVers, you know, you've got families or, you know, friends that you maybe, maybe see once a year, you know, so he hasn't seen some of these people for a few years and he uh he'll tend to forget that. But it's amazing, you know, if especially if you're able to go to, you know, whether it's bash or any of the other events, you can't keep track of the kids half the time because they're, you know, in somebody else's rig or you know, they're down at the center camp or somewhere, you know, all just hanging out, having a good time.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

That year, what was funny was so Desiree and Zach were my my helpers for the kids' camp that year. And their son, he's a who so he was the right age at the time to test everything for us. And Desiree kept apologizing. And I'm like, dude, I have kids, I've done this, it's okay. And so he goes up, and there for those of you listening, there's this mountain at bash, or there used to be in 2024, there was outside where we had the kids' camp tent. And so he takes this box because we're trying to figure out what to do with all these boxes to keep the kids inside the tent. He's like, I'll be back. And we're like, okay, that's great. And he goes sledding from the back side of the tent. We hear a whole cheering committee of older people that are cheering him on, and then we hear thum thum thum thum dum thum. And I looked at Desiree. Desiree looked, I am so sorry. I'm like, don't be sorry. We just now know that no boxes can go on top of that mountain. And so kids are the best tool for that. Leighton was our test subject that year. He just didn't know it. Desiree didn't know it, and she doesn't hate me, apparently. So we're still good. So, but you know, I think that that's the thing is I think the community comes together and is so supportive once you get in it, whether they're an older couple traveling, they're excited to see the kids out there. And I know there's some times where you get some pushback from older community, and so you just have to be mindful of that. So I want to get into work camping because you not everybody that goes out on the road has done some work camping, and you've done a handful of it over the years. But I want to talk about it because as a family, we work camped as a family, but it's a whole different level. In 2016, my 26-year-old, so it's been 10 years, wanted a summer job. And back then we didn't own RV roofing solutions, so that wasn't a choice for him. And so we found a work camping job that would hire him at 16. In order to get him hired, however, it meant I had to work too. Our dynamic with that one was very different. My husband still worked remotely, so he would watch the other kids during the day. But at the same time, at the campground we were at that year, being work camper kids was a hard role because you weren't the guests. Let's hop into that with kids a little bit and talk about what did that look like for you. You don't have to name places, but just kind of what does a day in the life of a work camper with you guys look like?

SPEAKER_02 9:40

We've done two kinds of work camping positions. Um, one was in a national forest, and then one was at like an RV park. In the the national forest, I think the kids had a lot more fun because then there would be other campers that would come in with kids. A lot of them, they're kind of like all having like their little family trips or whatever. But then sometimes they kind of want to like push their kids off so they would know that they were parked near us and they'd be like, Hey, do your kids want to go fishing? And all the kids would be able to go down, go fishing. Somebody was always at the campground, either whether me or Jake, so we'd be able to keep an eye on them and everything. And I think they really, really enjoyed that. At the RV park, they were the only children in the entire park. So they they didn't really enjoy that one as much. So we would have to leave. I was doing maintenance, so I was gone the entire day. And so it was just Jake at home with them. But then back to getting the job part, our oldest was able to get a volunteer position at a local business. So he would go in there and serve breakfast every Sunday morning. He made a lot of money in the eight months he was there. That's awesome, though.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, and he was able to learn some skills like communicating with adults, which he does excellent at, or washing dishes, setting the table, stuff like that, which he's already done a portion of that stuff at home, be able, I guess, build upon that skill set even more and learn kind of the value of hard work as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Absolutely. No, that's fantastic. I love when we can be at a place and the kids can set up a booth or something like that, or there's abilities for them to just kind of dip their toes in the water of entrepreneurship. Our actual first work camping job came with just a free site. We were helping a kid get back on his feet, so we ran the kitchen together. But it was it was fun. It was a good experience. The kids learned how to handle a grill and all that stuff. Get interaction. I think that one of the things that people don't realize is how homeschooling or road schooling kids, like when we grow up, it doesn't matter how old we are when we're sitting around a campfire. And I think that's something that we don't teach enough of. And so I think that kids on the road actually are better equipped to jump into the real world in that experience. So what are the what would you say was the real trial, other than being, you know, the only kids in a park? What would you say? Are there any trials that come with like work camping or traveling like that?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

One of the the biggest ones is was at times how far away from everything you can be. For example, the first work camping job that she took, we were, I mean, it was technically it was only like 18 miles from town, but it was all windy gravel washboard roads. So it took you closer to an hour to go to the store, to get anything. There was no, oh, I need to go grab a thing of milk. I'll be right back. That was, you know, you're looking at a two-hour long trip. I would say that was probably the biggest struggle, making sure that you were more prepared for how what you needed.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Especially when your fridge is tiny and your eels roll. And right now you're sitting in the middle of something like that too, right? Like, didn't you expect a couch to be delivered yesterday? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah. Yeah. We uh we ordered a couch. Uh it still hasn't shown up yet. Uh so if they knock on the door at any time saying it's delivered, I apologize. Our dog will bark. But until then, we've got this luxury, Walmart's finest camp chairs that we're sitting in in our living room.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

That's the other side of our V life that nobody talks about, right? Is the unexpected side. So the sides that don't go as planned. Or what if you had to leave today? That sort of thing. When things are hard, what keeps you in it?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Honestly, I would really say each other. Whenever, whenever things are bleak or looking rough, I mean, we've always been able to lean on each other, but this has really made it even more so. You recognize how each other's feeling to where you can kind of jump ahead of that even a little bit. So yeah, I would say really just the relationship with each other is is what's enabled us to do it for, you know, almost five years now.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah, and that's a lot of times when what what I've seen over the years is when people stop is the, you know, that five-year mark is kind of that, eh, they might not be on the road next year, Mark, or they're gonna push through it. And so it's kind of 50-50 on that one. I think it happens at two years, too. We see a lot of people go on and off the road. There was a plan, they hit all 50 states, they're done. Frank and I have still not hit all 50 states. And I, you know, I have so many places that are my favorites across the country that I don't know if I'd ever want to stop. He's fine. Our dog's trying to knock our table over. Well, you know, those camp tables work real well for this. Um that's part of it, I think that's just life. Life would be like that in a house for me. I've got favorite places. You're actually in one of them right now. Henderson's on my top five list of places I might settle down someday. It's close enough to the ocean and far enough from things, but it's got tons of hiking. I'm currently somewhere I absolutely hate, which is we're near Lake Conroe, Texas we're in Lake Conroe, Texas. And uh by the time this airs, we won't be. But the reality is, is it's so hot, it's so humid, there's no hiking, and there's so few things to do other than shopping in this area that it drives me absolutely bonkers to be here. There's places I love in the country, and there's places I don't love in the country. I wouldn't say I hate anywhere unless it's snowing in the winter. I'm not staying.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So yeah, I agree. I we we're not snow people. We used to live in Nebraska in the Midwest. That's one reason why we moved to the Southwest and then eventually went full time. We're in Vegas right now, and the high of the day is 107. And I would take that over negative 15 and snowing.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Absolutely. I agree with you there. I would love to ask you guys if somebody's listening right now that's a family and they've got kids and they're thinking about this, what was would be one thing you'd each say to them?

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Just go for it. There's never like a right time or a wrong time. I made a post the other day that said just buy the RV. Because like you can plan and plan and plan, and it's never gonna be right. We're in our first rig, the same first rig we bought almost five years ago. All we keep doing is doing like more upgrades to it so it works better for us instead of going out and just getting a new rig because you're gonna buy the new rig, and there's gonna be things in that one you hate as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

My biggest thing would be you have to be resilient. You're gonna have situations where you have a blowout on the side of the five in California. You're gonna have, you know, situations where your slide out will come in. You cannot let that get you down. Those things happen. Things happen whenever you live in a house, it's no different. Does it seem like it happens more frequently? Maybe at times.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Because you're in a rolling earthquake.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Exactly. Exactly. Be resilient, be patient, especially, you know, if you're traveling with other people and be adaptable.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about what you're building. You're building a new online space. While you've been around a long time, this is kind of one of those things. So I built narrow road schoolers when we first got on the road, and almost nobody knows us as narrow road schoolers anymore. I think it's been two years since we posted anything because at some point for us things shifted with the kids and they didn't want to be on film and they so we were super respectful of all of that. But last year I bought Learn to RV from Doug Setzer. And so he had built this brand. It's 10 years old this year. I saw this brand as this five years ago. And so I said to Doug around a campfire in Palm Springs a couple years back, two years before I bought it, actually, if you ever sell it, would you consider selling it to me? And he's like, I would think about it. I saw Learn to RV about everybody else's stories and that kind of side quest sort of sort of thing. And so, like, learn to RV is about so much more than just me. And so let's talk about where your guys are going because wander about RV, it's wander about full-time RV, right? And you're growing a brand right there. So let's talk about what led you to that point.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Before we went on the road, I was really into TikTok. So I had my own personal TikTok and I had a few videos on there kind of go a little bit viral. And then when you're preparing to like go on the road, all you do is you see yourself searching other RV families, seeing what's going on. I'm a very like, I don't want to watch things that are like 30 minutes long. I was like, I'm gonna make videos that are this is what you need to do. Here's all the fluffs removed, and here's the videos. So when I post things, they're usually less than like three minutes, and it's like switch out your hood range. This is how you build a wall, like just things like that. And it's very like straightforward directions on how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Well, and I actually love that your stuff is actually very tech focused, tech forward fo oriented. Because as a woman in the RV space, I can't tell you how many people don't take me seriously when we talk about RV roofing. That's one of the things that we deal with on a sh at a show all the time. Like my son was at a show with me one year, the person was talking to me, and all of a sudden he walks up and they turn and start talking to him. As a female in the space, like that does that type of work on a regular basis, you've run maintenance roles. How does that look for you? Like, I mean, how how do you handle the pushback?

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I mean, all you can do is prove them wrong. My work shows for it. And I've had the same thing where people would talk to me. He would walk up, they would start talking to him, and he'd be like, I don't know, talk to her.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Like, I don't work here.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, but they automatically assume. But as far as building a channel, I mean, that's not for the faint of heart either. I mean, it's it's it's work. I don't think people realize how much work building a channel is.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yes, it's a lot of work. There's hours where you're sitting there, you're editing things. I did it before we came on here, I was just doing another video, and he just hears me repeating and repeating and repeating myself to make sure it sounds right because you said lock wrong or something like that. And it you gotta just keep going through with it. And I want to make sure everything on him's perfect, basically.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

And then it's it's also it's a lot of planning, right? I mean, you have to to kind of think ahead of okay, what else can I make content about? You typically need at least a week, if not more, of content lined up ready to film at any given time.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Well, and the equipment that goes into that, people don't realize that. So, what do you film with? Do you film see? I film still mostly with my camera. I have a GoPro and I have good stuff, but then for me, the tech gets the better of me, and getting it from the camera to my computer is a bigger problem for me. So it's so much easier for me to just do it from my phone. I do have some like mobile mics that I can just attach to my phone, so it's so much faster. And my phone is probably better equipped camera-wise than most cameras out there. What do you guys use? We just use my phone. What do I have?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

An iPhone 13 or something.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

I think it's a 15.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

iPhone 15 Pro or So it's it's nothing fancy. We don't have ring lights, we don't have microphones, anything like that. I just do it all straight from my phone.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

My computer, when we did the podcast, we had to keep things in mind. What you don't see above my head is I have these, my kids call them my Octavious lights or these bendy arm lights that I have for the podcast, which we didn't have when we first started. And you can upgrade as you go. I think that's one of the things that stops people. Say, oh, I don't have the equipment. Well, start simple and then add to it as you grow and you'll learn more stuff. For somebody that's out there listening that's nodding along thinking, you know, I need to follow this family. Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_02 20:23

We are actually on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube now, TikTok, a little bit of Twitter. Not a whole lot. I'm sorry, X.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

We don't really use that one too much.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

No, he he runs that one. It doesn't get a lot of because I am not an X fan. I don't like the way it lays out or reads or anything, so I don't even try to.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I have the same problem with Reddit. I understand completely. So yeah. But my kids love Reddit. So I'm like, you can run that channel. Well, that's awesome. You guys, your story is still evolving from when we when we first met you, and you'd been on the road for a couple years then. Where are you headed next? What does the next chapter look like for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Good question. Technically, I right now I'm in the process of looking for remote work until something like that comes along. We're kind of stationary here in Vegas. We're not off the road completely because we definitely want to get back out and have a couple trips that we want to make. But yeah, until full-time remote work comes around again, uh, we gotta lay low a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Be bouncing between campgrounds here in Las Vegas. So, what do you do, Jake? If somebody were looking for somebody to hire, what what is your expertise?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Yeah, so I've spent the past almost 16 years now working for like BPOs or contact centers, manage quality programs, uh, operations manager, I've done project management. Yeah, for different, you know, telecommunications customer service teams, building those teams up, managing their people.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

You know, and I think that so many people think that just because you're on the road, you make a million dollars, or you know, you're some kind of there's a trust fund somewhere hiding in the wings. And for most of us, it's just literally like getting through each month, each day, each week. When we hit the road, Frank had retired from. Marine Corps. So he had his retirement. And so we were very fortunate that way. It was not that much money when you stopped and you actually counted out the pennies. And so by the end of every month, we were eating beans and rice. And so that's how we got into RV roofing years ago. He worked for another company and then he worked his way up through the ranks. And when we owned this company, it was very unexpected. In 2020, I worked real hard to get this one seen and visualized, but it wouldn't be until 2024 until it was ours. And that comes with its own ups and downs, by the way. It's not always easy. So learn to RV isn't an anything yet. We're still building out the social media side. And the reality is, is while Doug had great framework, we also had a dead group when I took it over. There's some downsides of having a 15,000 member group that's pretty much stagnant because nobody else participates anymore. So we're breathing new life into it. And that's why the scavenger hunt is a thing every summer. The Learn to RB scavenger hunt becomes this great big way to draw more people. And it's not just about growing my brand and channel, it's about growing all of our brands and channels. So if we can grab hands and do it together, I kind of feel like that's the heart of what I'm trying to bring back to this space because we don't always get together for rallies. We can have these online spaces that almost feel like we're not alone.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, absolutely. We're excited for the scavenger hunt.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun. This year it's a lot bigger. We're over $3,000 in prizes right now. It's crazy. And I've got more coming. So I'm very excited. People that are brave enough, that are willing to take a chance, that maybe don't have it all lined up. They're out there thinking, I could do this, but I don't know. This has been such a great conversation. I'm so glad we met at Excapers. And, you know, I just look forward to everything that you guys bring to all of this community. Make sure you follow them on all their social handles. It's you're going to be one to watch. Lots of people come and go. And I know a lot of them that have come and gone. But we're hoping that Ashley and Jake are around for a long time. And yes, her name is really spelled like we spell it. You don't have to correct it. My computer has tried to correct your name every time I've typed it in. Do you really mean? No.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

There's an eye in there.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Any last words of wisdom for you know anybody listening today that maybe doesn't think they could do this with their spouse full time?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

You can. You absolutely can. It takes communication. That is something that never can falter. You can't go away. You have to be able to openly communicate respectfully with one another just by doing that, learn what their needs are and be able to adapt to some of those.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

And what would you tell a brand new creator, Ashley, that, you know, you've been in the space a while, but you're now building out this thing and you've done it on TikTok before. You can do it again. What would you tell that brand new creator that maybe is scared?

SPEAKER_02 24:31

You just gotta get out there and do it. I mean, if you look back at my older videos, it's a lot of them of just like my kids. It was just random. And then I started doing food videos. Those really started to take off, but it was just things I was doing already. I wasn't, I'm gonna spend all this money and go and do this or whatever. Like it was like I'm making chili dogs for dinner. So now I'm gonna make a video about chili dogs. And it went viral. Like it just, it's just super random. Just be yourself. And even if it reaches one person and one light, that's one more than you had the last time.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Well, if today's episode hit home for you, don't forget to like, share it, and send it to a friend. And make sure you go like and subscribe to Ashley's stuff and Jake's stuff, but also like, subscribe to Learn to RV the podcast. We're gonna bring you more people. We're almost at the end of season two. So if you want to be on season three for the community spotlight series, make sure you hop over to the podcast page and apply. They're filling faster and faster every season. We're just thankful for everyone that's taken the time to trust us with their story. Thanks again. We'll see you next time on Learn to RV the podcast.