Our Journey
My wife, my 4 kids, 2 dogs and a cat all set journey from Salt Lake City in January of 2021.
Our cat decided to stay in Sandusky Ohio, and find a better home (that didn't move so much).
We planned to be gone for 1 year, return to SLC, settle back down in another home, and call our travel bug itched. After 2 months of being on the road we realized 1 year was absolutely not enough time.
That 1 year extended to 2
Then it extended to almost 3.
We were gone for 2 years and 10 months. Moving back into a home in South Dakota December of 2023.
What was difficult
the first 6 - 7 months was pretty hard to get used to such a different life style, being away from what was familiar, and away from people that were familiar was very difficult.
This did change over time, after this period of time, it became a lot easier, and we found ourselves more willing to adventure further, than wanting to be close to home.
What we didn't expect
it was more beautiful, more spectacular, more friendly, more of everything than we ever imagined. Even being a grown adult, and knowing about different areas of our nation, it didn't hold a candle to what it was actually like living in the middle of it all
People are amazing ... we ran into and made life long friendships in the most unlikely of circumstances. We have friends all over the nation now. These friends helped us in many ways, and we had the great opportunity of being able to help them as well.
Favorites
There are amazingly unique places all over the United States. Places that have their own style, accent, food, manners, behaviors. Part of what made this journey so great, was being able to take a piece of each of those cultures with us.
Some of our favorite spots were war torn memorials in Vicksburg MS, Gettysburg PS, Valley Forge PS, and Memorial Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. These placing bring a harrowing reality of how hard our past has been, and all the lives it has cost.
The midwest ... some of the most down-to-earth people I have ever met. Willing to give the shirt off of their back to a complete stranger. We have always tried to carry this hospitality with us no matter where we are.
The South, then there is Texas, then there is Louisiana. Do not make the mistake of thinking these are the same, they very much are not. When you walk onto the site of the Alamo and realize the long journey Texans have had, you understand why they band together SO much. Louisiana is a world all on it's own, to Christmas river boat parades, gator infested swamps, haunted cemeteries and Voodoo; to meet pies, cracklin' , Po' boys and crawfish boils, you'll always find something unique and amazing about Louisiana.
Standing in the National Mall in the heart of Washington D.C. where you can see the Smithsonian, the White House, the Capital Building, Washington Memorial, and so much more ... you are drawn to the captivating history of the nations founding and growth.
Pleasant surprises
We crossed paths and stayed in contact with many friends along our journey, and would reconnect multiple times in different places.
We even met and traveled with another full time family for half a year
Why Fernveh
We want people to be able to experience what is out there, find memories, create life long friends, and journey together.
we want to make it easy, simple, and elegant to connect with friends when you cross paths, or when you might be traveling together.
We want to connect people and guide them to memorable locations.
The troubles
While we traveled none of the solutions available provided a good way to keep our family and friends updated on our timelines, locations or plans. We constantly had to be tracking travel plans in multiple locations, and finding the next spot, was very very difficult at times.
We travel in a 43' 5th wheel, and that caused a lot of limitations for us - it was not always easy to determine if the camp would fit us, or if we could even get to the camp ground.
We would use at least 4 different websites to plan travels, then hit endless more websites to find availability, sometimes even then, we would make a dozen calls ... for each leg of our journey. Tracking all the places we were talking to, until we found one that was within our budget, fit our rig, and we could drive to has always been overly cumbersome.
More than once we took the wrong path, and ended up in sticky situations ... more than once we ended up at camp grounds that simply didn't cut it - we want to build a tool that solves these issues. Somewhere you can find out from other campers with similar equipment, party sizes, etc ... what their experiences were like.
We want to build a tool, not just built by RV'ers for RV'ers, but influenced by RV'ers; Influenced by campers, influenced by your journeys.
