Living The McCray Way

The world is not black and white, so why when you choose to do something different from the racial norms you’re seen as trying to be like another race. Nothing is set to just one race or one culture. When we decided to buy a RV(recreational vehicle), and travel fulltime while also homeschooling our children, some of our fellow kin folk of our race didn’t give us love and warmth, they gave us side eyes and the “y’all living that white life.” Just to fill you in a bit, we both had steady careers (teacher and truck driver), children were in school, after school activities, going to church multiply times a week, and living in a house (with steady bills). Our previous lifestyle had us stressed out and moving so fast that we were missing out on living. We were becoming robots and living the societal norm with little to no money left after bills. When covid hit, the housing market took a big hit. Our landlord decided to sell the house we were renting and so in turn that left us having to either pay a higher rent (that was not worth the house) or moving out and look for another place to live. We had to make a choice, but to our surprise we were being forced to move out in less time than we had expected which is the normal 30 days. Basically, they were evicting us because they wanted to renovate the house and sell it out. We had to scramble to find some place for 6 of us and that was not going to be easy. With having to move out so fast we ended up moving into an extended stay hotel until we found a place to call home. Was it ideal, no, but was it accommodating, yes for the time being. What was supposed to be a few short weeks turned into months (because nothing we were looking at was fitting into our budget or the neighborhood was not meeting our standards). Mama bear and Pappa bear along with the littles were getting tired of being in the extended stay, mainly mama. This is where buying a rv came into play. Mama bear came up with the idea of buying one and being stationary at a campground. Now the search begins. Come to find out, rv dealers were not going to be an option because those prices were not something that we wanted to pay. We wanted to go the debt free no payment route. Facebook marketplace was our go to place of business. Buying used is just as good as new or even better because you can make it your own. Now in no way do we bash the ones whose chose to buy new off the lot, but we knew that wasn’t the way we wanted to go. Now buying used was not a walk in the park either, it was like a scavenger hunt. From going to the rv lots and looking around, we knew what we needed for us to fit perfectly as a family. We just needed to find it in our price range. We had considered even traveling to other states if we had found something. But after searching every day for about a month we finally found the perfect fit and it was in our area. Now the tricky part was several other people were also looking and had inquired about it as well, but like everything is the world money speaks volume and because we were willing to come the same day and look at it and put down a down payment until we were able to pick up the next day. He was able to get it. Now giving a downpayment to someone who is not a business is a huge risk and to say we were not on the fence would be an understatement, but our intuition was telling us that this was the right move. The seller immediately took it off of the marketplace site which also made this less trenching. The next day we rented a uhaul truck (yup we rented a truck because we did not have one but that did not stop us), picked it up. Now we had to figure out a campground to settle down in. After calling all over Jacksonville, Florida and getting nowhere, we found the perfect spot that we ended up calling home for 6 months. Pecan Park Rv resort became home, and we met so many people who gave us the assurance that this was the right choice for us. Now we both were still working, and the children were still in school so that meant we were still hustling and bustling with little to no time for each other. During that summer of 2022, we decided to travel with papa bear as he worked (owner operator truck driver). This is where we got the taste for traveling the world and seeing all that it has to offer. Summer had to come to an end and that meant school would be back for the kids and Mama bear(teacher). As the time got closer for Mama bear to return to prep her class, she got a late notice that her school would not be ready to open so she would have to go to a different school, and this was something I did not want to do as it was changing the path for the kids pick up and after school time. It was this that made us end up pulling the kids and beginning to homeschool. The kids were usure as to they loved being with friends, but we knew that this would be beneficial for us all. Now here we are a year and a half later and we are fulltime and loving every minute. We always say what was supposed to break us made us. No, you don’t see many of our race living this lifestyle but we’re here to tell them and more that no matter what you choose in life, do it as long as it gives you joy. Find Your Own Way!