How Roadschooling Has Transformed Our Life
Embracing Flexibility, Adventure, and Connection on the Open Road
When we gave up our full-time apartment lease in December 2022, we weren’t just looking for a cheaper way to live, we wanted a lifestyle with flexibility, curiosity, and time to really know the places we visit.
The travel spark hit earlier that year on a long East Coast road trip, but the leap came when we packed up for good. We started in Southern Vermont on a business exchange, helping with a project in exchange for a place to stay. Then we spent a couple of months in Upstate New York managing a friend’s Airbnb properties. That mix of short-term housing and hands-on work was the perfect launchpad before we found house and pet sitting.
House sitting changed everything. We could stay in beautiful homes, care for pets, and live in neighborhoods most tourists never see. By the end of our first year, we’d visited 23 new towns and 11 new states, bringing our total to 26. We’ve found coffee shops we’d fly back for, stumbled into Saturday farmers markets that locals have been going to for decades, and discovered walking paths and little parks that never make a guidebook.
House-sitting also kept our costs down, just $1,701.08 on Airbnbs for all of 2024, compared to over $22,000 for a typical two-bedroom rental on the East Coast. That’s 27 paid nights in a whole year. In between sits, we stayed with friends in New York, South Carolina, Kentucky, and New Hampshire, adding even more stories. We drove about 10,400 highway miles in 2024, roughly 167 hours, with fuel costs of $1,906.67.
For London, it’s been a way to see the country while caring for animals, trying new foods, and making friends in places we never would have gone otherwise. For me, it’s meant building relationships in towns we return to, revisiting favorite markets, and walking into coffee shops where the barista already knows my order.
Looking ahead, we’re dreaming about Europe, a summer in Alaska where I grew up, and maybe a trip to Japan for London. But no matter where we go next, the heart of roadschooling will stay the same, stepping off the main roads, into the side streets, and seeing what life is really like there.