Nate and Tilly sold their RV after 18 months to travel the world with their three kids. They packed up, flew to Lisbon, and showed their hotel room with a kitchen and bunk beds. The kids stayed screen-free on the flight, and the family discovered a bidet for the first time.
Chapters
We are Nate and Tilly. 18 months ago, we sold everything to travel full-time in an RV with our 3 kids. We have been traveling around the U.S. and planned on posting our adventures to YouTube, but as it goes, life got in the way of editing and publishing those videos. I'm currently working on producing them, and when they're ready, we'll publish them all at once as a complete season. But for now, we're going to skip forward because today we're about to make a big change. So here's our big news: selling the RV, buying plane tickets. First stop, Portugal.
Portugal, baby!
It has always been our dream and our goal to travel the world with our kids. We were in the middle of actually planning a worldwide tour with the kids when COVID hit. Anyways, we all know how 2020 and 2021 and 2022 turned out. So now that we are in 2023, we're ready to make that dream that we've had for years and years and years a reality. So first stop is Portugal. Ah, we leave March 20th. 6 weeks away, I think.
Yeah, it's less than 45 days, that's for sure.
And we haven't sold the rig, we haven't listed it, we haven't cleaned it. So we have to do that obviously before we leave. Hopefully it sells quickly and we're not stuck with an RV in the States.
Hey, would you take this to the trash for me? New status: not clean, but a whole lot less stuff. Some food in there and a couple of bins that are empty. The rest of this is all cleaned out, so all that goes in all that, which goes out there. Everly. What time is it? Tate time!
Tate time!
Okay, come here.
My turn. The trailer is completely empty. Undoing all the utilities, undoing the stabilizers. It's completely cleaned out. Why am I so sad. I'm so sad. Oh man, Nate just pulled out of here with the trailer and I'm still emotional. I wish we had been able to go on one last family adventure in the RV and, I don't know, enjoyed it one last little time, but it is what it is, so We're moving on and looking forward to hopping onto a plane.
It was fun. Peace out.
Bye. Good morning. We leave for Portugal in 4 days and we're excited. Um, the only thing is we have here at this vacation house that we're renting is literally everything we're going to bring around the world with us. I feel super exciting and super simple and a little insane. Anyway, so we're here for one more night, and then tomorrow we have a couple different errands to run, and then we're staying at my brother— my brother's house, um, with his family for the weekend, and then they will bring us down to Seattle where we'll stay a night in a hotel, and then hop our flight to Portugal. I can't believe it's actually happening. We've been dreaming about this. I've been dreaming about this since before I even had kids or was married. And to actually be here a couple days before this epic dream coming true— it's not a vacation, it's not gonna be all dreamy, but it is a fulfillment of a dream, which is pretty great. Tomorrow's a big day. How you feeling? Right now? Tired. Tired. Yeah. And happy. Not sleeping. 11-hour flight. Yeah. Wait, really? 11 hours? Yep. Almost half the day. Wait, 11 hours to London? Mm-hmm. Oh, and then how long to Portugal? I don't know. 3, 4 hours. Oh, okay, so like over 12 hours. Mhm. How you doing? I'm doing good. You doing good? Yeah. You're going to cross off 2 more countries. It's so exciting. Yeah. Are we ready? Yes. First, first night of the rest of your lives. Good night. Last night in the US. That's right, for a while. For quite a while. Quite a while. Good night. Good night.
Okay, so we're about to board our flight to London and then to Lisbon. I have to say, this is a dream come true, going all over the world with a backpack and nothing else. I cannot explain how excited I am about it. It's fantastic, and we're about there. We're gonna get on this plane, and we have put everything else in storage. Everything else is done, and we are off. We are gone. We're leaving this country, and it's amazing, and I can't wait. Ready to take off?
Yes!
Excited to not sleep for 9 hours?
Maybe?
In reference to Kara and Nate.
This tote bag has slippers, pajamas, cute! And last but not least, a memory kit.
We're gonna do a little tour of what we get in economy with a family of 5.
Hmm, let's see.
We have the 777-200 Escape Route, a bag just in case you get sick or you have a little one who gets sick, a blanket, so soft, and a pillow?
Sure.
And that concludes our tour. Thank you, traffic police. That y'all seems quite nice, thanks. Tilly's running on like an hour of sleep. The rest of us slept okay, but she has a surprise waiting that she doesn't know about. Well, that didn't work as planned. I was going to surprise her with a spa treatment in Terminal 3, but apparently you can't get to Terminal 3 without going through security again, so we're gonna just adapt and do something else.
We're on the last flight of the day. It's been a very long day. We're all very tired. And the boys had to store their bags up above before they could grab their Kindles or their iPads. So surprisingly, they're able to— they're able to entertain themselves without a screen, which I didn't know if it was still possible anymore. Have a little over a 2-hour flight down to Portugal and then a bus ride to the hotel. We will promptly crash. So, looking forward to being done with this exhausting travel day. We made it to Portugal! We're here! Our bag is not here. We got here in one piece. We're exhausted. It's like 11 PM local time.
I don't have my glasses out, so I can't see any of the signs. Oh, babe, you need to get them on. Yeah, I got to get them on.
You have to. You know where we're going. I have no clue.
Now I can see. Can't get to the exit if you can't see where the exit is.
Hey, where are we going?
The exit. That way.
I'm hoping there's a hotel at the end of that.
Yeah, subway line, subway line, hotel.
Let's go!
Should be pretty easy. Okay, we just got a tour of this place, but I had to show— this is insane! Look at this! How cool is this?
Amazing!
So nice!
So cool!
So we have the boys with the bunk beds. We have our family room. Yeah, it's 11 o'clock, but still. Look at that outside. We've got a full kitchen. Fruit is complimentary. Oh, an espresso. I've missed you. Oh, you're good. All of the niceties that a family would want. A nice master bedroom, and of course a toilet. Not used a bidet before.
What is— oh, that's, that's it. And that's a one sink for Everly.
No.
Toilet?
Sort of.
Bathtub?
Nope.
Shower?
No.
Sink?
No. What is it?
Pee washer?
Butt washer? Yep.
Butt washer?
It's called a bidet. It's French and you don't use toilet paper. It washes your butt for you.
She moved from one toilet to the next. I hate you. Well, then where are you gonna use it? Anywhere.
