EXCHANGE: Normal family leaves to spend year in RV
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) - The Pritts family has definitely left Normal.
Monday afternoon, the family said goodbye to relatives and friends, piled into a recreational vehicle called Someday and drove to northwest Indiana, the first stop on a yearlong journey from coast to coast.
"(We're) trying to figure our new normal," the family posted to its blog at normal2wander.com on Thursday.
The trip is a "radical sabbatical" for Jeff and Marci Pritts of Normal; their kids, 11-year-old Wayne and 8-year-old Dorothy; their dogs, Fitz and Onix; and their cat, Afro.
"We saw a lot of our friends with kids running this crazy, hectic lifestyle, and the family dinner went away. That started making me think, 'How do we spend quality time as a family while we still have time?' Jeff said. "Everybody says, 'Someday I'd like to travel the world.' This is our someday."
After saving for a decade, the couple finally felt comfortable leaving their jobs - Jeff was general manager at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Normal, and Marci was executive director of the Arizona-based Kurt Warner First Things First Foundation, a charity founded by the former NFL quarterback - pulling the kids out of school and hitting the road.
The family has a few key resources: "friends with long driveways and small trees," Jeff said, who will host the RV; state and national parks with RV camping; and Marriott International's Quarter Century Club, which Jeff entered for working 25 years there as of March.
The club allows members to stay for free on weekends at any Marriott hotel, once per year per location, and during the week at timeshare properties. The family has some planned stays, and the policy is a safety valve as well.
"Whenever one of us needs a break from being in these confined (RV) quarters, we can head in and stay in the hotel and have a peaceful night," Jeff said.
"And a real shower," Marci added.
Jeff said the club was essential for making the trip work financially. He declined to specify how much the family will spend but said, "The one rule of thumb we learned was, 'Whatever you currently spend is what you'll spend on the road.'"
The couple even plans to let the kids plan some days' activities and budget.
Marci said the couple wanted to take the trip before their kids got too old to uproot. Both attended Grove Elementary School and played local travel sports.
"They're old enough to remember the trip but young enough that they're not all about friends. They still like hanging out with mom and dad occasionally," Marci said with a laugh.
Marci plans to "road school" the kids, teaching lessons at the RV's kitchen table and reinforcing them with visits to historic sites.
"We use the example of Gettysburg a lot," Jeff said. "They'll read about it, and we'll go physically hike the trails of the battlefields. ... Those experiences will be 10 times as useful as reading about it in school."
Other stops on the trip include Ontario, Canada; upstate New York; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and North Carolina. Those are in the first three months, which is as far out as the family's posted itinerary goes on the blog; others will follow the "outline of the country," Marci said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls," Wayne said. Dorothy agreed and added Mount Rushmore is on the to-do list.
"The place I'm most excited about is an RV campground on Staten Island. Supposedly we'll have views of the Statue of Liberty. I can't wait to sit in my camp chair with a cup of coffee, looking at Lady Liberty," Marci said.
Along the way, the family will be updating the website with photos, blog posts and stats, including miles traveled, stops visited and new friends made.
"A friend asked me, 'What if you have four questions you ask everybody?' I don't know what they are. Maybe it will be, 'What's your someday?'" Jeff said.
The site also includes a contact page, and the family invites people to suggest stops on the trip. Jeff said their priority is "what is local and what is unique."
When asked what the family will do after a year, Jeff said, "that's the big question that's unknown," but "we love this town" and "everybody is right here for us," including relatives in Normal, Chicago and St. Louis.
"Marci's job was going to be done. Maybe it's not now," Jeff said. "They've invited me back to the company with John Q. Hammons (Hotels and Resorts), but not to this hotel, (or) I could do a career change. ... We're very confident we both have an opportunity to find a great new challenge in life."
Whatever the next step is, both Jeff and Marci said they're looking forward to working on their next someday.
"Hopefully she and I do our own sabbatical when they're in college," he said.
"We can even visit them at college," Marci added.
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Source: The (Bloomington) Pantagraph, http://bit.ly/1ZWisXA
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Information from: The Pantagraph, http://www.pantagraph.com