A Journey Through the States with Renay of Follow Those Rogues
The latest episode of The More Sunsets Please podcast features guest Renay, of Follow Those Rogues, and her family, who have been traveling full time in an RV since 2021. In this episode, host Kate discusses with Renay how they’ve been able to explore many states, including South Dakota and Florida, while living on the road.
Renay shares, “We kind of did a quick not quick tour up to South Dakota then across to Michigan to hang out with family for quite some time at each stop. And then we made our way down south to Florida, spent the winter, and then last, we hit up the whole East Coast before going back to Michigan back to South Dakota and then back down to Florida.”
Their journey hasn’t just been about seeing new places, but also spending time with family and loved ones. They even stopped in South Dakota, where Renay’s husband’s family resides and to catch up with relatives.
For those interested in following in Renay’s footsteps and seeing all that the United States has to offer, here are three tips:
1. Plan ahead. Identify the states and destinations you want to visit, and create a travel itinerary that fits your budget and lifestyle.
2. Be flexible. Unexpected situations may arise, so be open to changing your plans and adjusting your route as necessary.
3. Make connections. Whether it’s staying with friends and family or meeting fellow travelers along the way, building a network of connections can enhance your journey and make it more memorable.
If you’re looking for inspiration and tips on how to travel full time, be sure to listen to this episode of The More Sunsets Please podcast. Renay’s adventure as a full-time RV traveler is sure to ignite your wanderlust and encourage you to explore the beauty and diversity of the United States.
Where to Find Renal from Follow Those Rogues:
https://www.instagram.com/followthoserogues/
https://www.instagram.com/thoseoilyrogues/
FROM THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA:
The Howeys | Fulltime RV & Roadschooling kids
Digital creator
Army vets 🇺🇸 We skipped to the good part ➻ life’s too short to stay put 🚐 Raising kiddos on purpose & with purpose 🙌🏼 Out here livin’ life & doin’ it!
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-sunsets-please/id1665377151
Other Episodes You May Enjoy:
08: Living Life On Their Terms Through God’s Lead with Kristy Janzen
06: Uncover the Story of How Brenda Left Suburbia for Self-Sufficiency
03: The Life-Changing Adventure of Living Full-Time in an RV
HERE’S WHAT I USE:
Filmed using StreamYard:
https://streamyard.com/pal/5952940241846272
Zeewer Mic & Stand
https://amzn.to/3IMQ0qE
Edited with DaVinci Resolve 18 (Free version)
Podcast hosted on BuzzSprout:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=167351
YouTube Metrics tracked with TubeBuddy:
https://www.tubebuddy.com/moresunsetsplease
Get Organized all in one place with AirTable:
https://airtable.com/invite/r/LyGkZs6O
Keep Everyone in the Know with ConvertKit Email:
https://convertkit.com?lmref=UfpqoA
Get Social & Scheduled with Metricool:
https://i.mtr.cool/KNIZTF
Easiest Website Hosting with Host Gator – get 65% off!
https://referral.hostgator.com/s/Kate
Looking for more, check out our Amazon Storefront:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/moresunsetsplease
SUPPORT THE SHOW
If you’d like to help our podcast, https://www.buymeacoffee.com/moresunsets buy a “coffee” or step up with a monthly donation to keep these stories being shared.
We also accept Venmo @moresunsetsplease
************
Make sure to subscribe for new episodes each week with a new person or family, sharing their stories of how they stepped outside of the box to live life on their terms.
************
Quotable Moments from Follow Those Rogues
[00:58:30] That’s our idea. At this point, that we will probably travel 50 percent in the year at a minimum maybe less, maybe more, but that’s kind of our goal long term.
[00:35:36] Recently, we’ve come to know that we have not been the most vigilant with our maintenance. Our preventative maintenance.
[00:32:55] But we decided to go for it. And the amount of work to get it to, like, Yes. Come through our home.
[01:07:12] Our dry weight to fill weight, we had, like, almost 5000 pounds that’s a lot I work with, which is a ton because an average, I think, 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom house weighs 2500.
[00:34:19] We’re so used to, oh, don’t mind my messy house and there’s a shoe out of place. Right? Like, Sorry. What? No. That’s okay. But it’s like we have to pre apologize for living life.
[00:24:09] And the second you put food on a plate that somebody made from their home or they brought it from the store because they didn’t know, like, whatever. It’s just that gathering around food, it just it’s next level.
[01:04:02] I will live in a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny trailer. As long as it has a bathroom in my own kitchen, I’m good.
[00:52:09] And you’re doing it 24 7 together. But it’s worth it. It’s worth and and again, you really you really get to decide every day over and over again that yeah. You’re still the 1 I choose to stay married to.
[00:50:46] You have to choose each other again over and over and over every day.
[01:02:02] And you are literally figuring it out as you go. And it is the scariest and most empowering and most exciting thing ever, every day of it, and it’s worth it. And it’s perfect. It’s so perfect. It’s so true.
[00:51:32] I think once, you know, the 7 year itch that they always talk about, I think when you hit 7 years, you should have to live full time in an RV together.
[00:19:11] But it’s also very interesting because my husband and I were both military, so we’ve deployed. And we’ve literally lived inside plywood boxes, smaller than my RV bedroom, you know. So it’s not that we couldn’t. It’s that the idea of doing that on purpose were intentionally felt crazy to us after all that we had, you know, worked 4. And kind of that, like, look, we’ve made it. We’ve got all the toys. We’ve got all the things. We’re doing well. And to just intentionally give that up. That was the, I think, the hardest part for us.
[00:08:42] We have struggled in our travels to really find a good solid structure or a foundation. To life. And so I think that the stationary time will be impactful and that will kinda get it together and figure out what life looks like just on a day to day because we never got to do that when my husband stopped working, and then we started homeschooling and all the things at once, plus the travel.
[00:54:31] All of these things just keep telling us, you know, we don’t have tomorrow. We’re not promised tomorrow. And if we want to do this, we have to do it. If we want to follow our dreams, we need to follow them now.
[01:02:29] You can jump in and do little bits and test the waters. Yeah. You might want to. You might wanna test those waters.
[00:56:06] We don’t have all the time in the world. And we’ve got this 1 precious day. In each day when we wake up, we have that precious day. We have that 1 day, that 1 moment to impact our children and to impact each other and to build something bigger than us.
[00:26:27] We’re talking about the big things. We are getting to the nitty gritty. Who are you? Do I have time to invest in this or not?
[00:41:11] That’s probably 1 of the coolest highs because it’s literally something you cannot do in a standard way of living. Absolutely. You can’t you can’t just hey, friend, I’m gonna come live in your driveway.
[00:14:14] And I felt for about a year almost a year and a half. I was just at a loss. I don’t know why we’re doing this. I don’t know what we’re doing this for.
[00:55:47] I don’t want that grind. I don’t want to have to work and work and work. For what, just so that I can have a roof over my head so that my kids can have all the cool toys or whatever.
[00:19:56] The relationships have been difficult at times because we’re together all the time. We have to really work on our relationships constantly because there’s not, oh, sudden, has been off to work, oh, when the kids off to school, mom’s night out, all of that. We’re together all the time. And part of that is we really want that though.
[00:00:35] These are just some of the stories of those who have jumped outside the box and living life on their terms.
[00:48:54] It’s a whole other marriage in this lifestyle than it is in your classic house where you’re both working.
[00:08:09] We actually are going to be stationary for 6 months coming up here starting in May. And it’s going to be I mean, it’s going to be completely different than anything we’ve done so far. And we’re kind of excited, kind of nervous because like, you know, we don’t want to enjoy it too much. Mhmm. Because then if we enjoy it too much, are we still gonna wanna keep moving?
[00:57:12] And to have everybody have their role in the team and work together versus what we’re typically told in society that you know, parents have their roles, kids have their roles, now go do them individually.
[00:43:17] Niagara Falls was another 1 that totally I was overwhelmed by it. I did not expect it to be what it was at all.
[00:23:15] That fellowship time to me was so important.
[00:48:06] Watching him grow and evolve into you know, a human that has his own personality and his own likes and dislikes has been a lot of fun.
[01:05:12] And we want to, like, just go in, all in. And they’re gonna need their space as teenagers. So we knew we went into separate space and the 18 foot garage seemed like a great deal because we could have more kids if we wanted.
[01:06:44] I have them or the Internet goes down? I have them. Yeah. Those ones because I’m not getting rid of them.
[00:10:30] There’s something about once you get traveling, it’s so hard to not do it again. It’s so hard, especially when your home is with you, everywhere you go. It just makes it even better. It’s like the icing on the best cake that you already had. Now you got icing on it too.
[00:25:20] The fellowship in this community and lifestyle is just It’s next level. And it’s next level. It makes it so amazing.
[00:31:14] Because if you’re striving for that, it’s just unrealistic — Yeah. — for most people. At least it is for us. We’ve got little kids. And the second, they’re up in the morning. The house is a mess.
[00:59:00] And we just really want to build something bigger that people can connect with, and we wanna teach people.
[00:04:45] We made the decision in June of 20 18 I say I say October of 20 17 just because I think it was kind of implanted and that was gonna happen 1 way or another.
[00:02:34] Originally, the idea came in 20 17 we had I had been laid off in 2014 after brain surgery. And then right after that, my husband was laid off. We were government contractors. So that kinda comes with the territory.
[00:36:46] Okay, we need to be better about that, more diligent.
[00:44:50] And it’s so powerful to see too because they’re just massive. Absolutely massive. And the amount of strength of that water coming over the falls and to hear it and feel it that close, is phenomenal.
[00:38:18] But if you had like a broken door in the house, you wouldn’t be like that’s it. I’m gonna never buy a house again, I’m gonna go live in a Harvey.
[00:53:43] If you can make it happen, do it. Like, 1 of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t do the things I wanted to do.
[00:17:37] I’d love to see the big picture right now, but it’s not our time to see the big picture yet. So we just keep going because you know there’s design work in hand here.
[00:11:30] That 3 and 3 quarters is very important to him.
[00:27:16] And, you know, what’s your relationship with God? What’s it not? What’s it, you know, all these things?
[00:27:58] The relationships in this community are worth it.
[00:31:56] Or is it better to just have our peace and that they’re having fun and they’re learning and they’re engaging and they’re interacting with each other and building their friendship with each other I’ll take that all day any day.
[00:47:42] They’re not just better humans.
[01:06:53] The kids have so many books and Micah’s collection of all things. His collection is huge.
[00:29:32] We wouldn’t be going to any campfires. We wouldn’t be meeting people. We wouldn’t be adventuring out and exploring the national parks because I would be so worried about what our house looks like or our home looks like.
[Unknown] We are committed to having hosting, bring your own dinner, family meal. Every Friday where we invite anybody that we’ve met that week and say, hey, come, share, dinner together as a family.
[00:07:46] Yes. It’s so true because when you sit still in this life, you feel like you’re not doing it right. And then once you get going, you’re like, can’t keep up. It’s exciting and there’s so much to see and do, but you feel like you can’t keep up with the rest of life because you’re busy focusing on them, moving in the exploring.
[01:06:09] And it really extends our square footage a lot. And I think that’s why we were able to go from the mansion, not the mansion. But such a huge house and still feel comfortable like we had enough space.
[00:48:16] I think that my husband and I’s relationship has been tested a lot more. But as a result of that, being tested, I think it’s a lot stronger as well.
[00:37:35] That was kind of like our first. Oh, no. Our home, like, This is the end of the world.
[00:11:55] I wish I woulda listened. I don’t wanna be a grown up. I wanna be a kid again.
[00:39:19] What’s been the best thing ever that you’re like, I can’t believe we get to do this.
[00:58:03] I guess, you know, like, you have a place. You have a place in this world. You have a place in our family and you are so, so, so important.
[00:14:55] I woke up with this idea in my head. And I stayed up because I couldn’t fall back asleep because it was just working through my head so much.
[00:42:28] I cried when I saw it in person. I had always just I’m like, oh, cool. Yay. Whatever, devil’s tower, I guess, we can go. Like, I had no real, like, desire or anything that stood out to me about it that I needed to be there, but we went and I cried.
[00:33:42] I see this isn’t done. I see this, like, raw whatever, like, what’s going on, talk to us, and it was actually really neat to actually speak about our plans and our intentions for kind of the renovations we’re working on.
[00:21:56] And it’s like, wow. But here we are. We eat every breakfast together and every dinner together. Lunches I mean, it’s come and go here and there. You know, I not every lunch, but we are eating everything together. We’re sharing that community.
[00:45:06] Being at the base of the falls where the mist is causing all the little rainbows is magical. Yeah. So magical.
[00:28:41] The biggest thing is that we let go of expectations.
[00:12:25] He’s gonna have a wild ride for the next 15 years. No more hold on tight.
[00:15:44] And he’s like, that’s insane, probably not, but sure, whatever.
[00:07:01] It has been hard, like super hard, but also super incredible. So it has really just been a roller coaster in our relationship as a family, in our relationship with others, the learning curve that comes with having never even been.
[00:46:50] We have noticed that the kids are so much more kid-ish. I don’t know if that really, like, makes a lot of sense, but they have just this curiosity and this joy about them every day, and they find the most seemingly mundane things to be exciting.
[00:20:57] Everybody ships off to all their different places during the day. And then we come home at night, and then you’re supposed to go to all the sports and all the activities and all the gatherings and Well, where’s the time for family? Like actual time for family? That’s not just Saturday morning cartoons around the TV.
[00:03:50] I came up with this idea while people are living in RVs. I know, hon, it’s weird. But maybe we could do it.
[00:16:32] The only way that I could ever describe it is that God put this together for us. And he wove this story for us.
[00:00:00] I was just at a loss. I don’t know why we’re doing this. I don’t know what we’re doing this for. And I guess we’re gonna do it. And especially when it was so those really hard days and then some days were easier, but it was difficult. So because I didn’t know why we were doing it and it was hard.
[Unknown] And we live in this Instagram worthy world. And when we see even other full time families who are putting things on Instagram. It can be really challenging to remember that what they’re putting on Instagram is probably not what their everyday life looks like.
[00:40:32] It was like the most magical thing ever, the most random thing, like, to say I met a stranger on the Internet and now we’re friends and I’m going to visit her in Maine of all places.
[00:03:11] And he was offered a different position for far less wage than we were expecting and it kind of kicked us in the gut and took our brother away.
[01:00:37] Last summer, the last conversation in person that I had with my brother was that he was just so freaking proud of us. Is like you’re doing something that’s insane. It’s unusual. It’s crazy, but you don’t care. And you’re doing it.
[00:03:35] And now we’re making 23 percent of what we made when we moved into this home.
[01:01:06] Just do it. Like, every single bit of it is going to make you uncomfortable, and every single bit of it is gonna be scary. You just keep putting 1 foot in front of the next, and you won’t know what you’re doing.
