Family Overlanding During Covid-19 From a 2wd Ford Ranger with a Walmart special tent, as a young married couple, to an Adventure Trailers Horizon towed behind a fully built Toyota Tacoma, with a newborn and a toddler, we have made several adaptions in our overlanding setups through the years. Our changes have been largely based upon a combination of budget, space and planned destinations. As our boys, now 11 and 13, continued to grow, we found ourselves once again contemplating a change. This time around however, an entirely new and unexpected change would affect our build and our travel. Early this year, we decided to list our 2015 Toyota Tacoma for sale, just hoping to gauge some interest. As the interest level peaked, we began planning out our next build. We knew we wanted to go full-size, so the search began. After a bit more research and scouring the country for just the right truck, we found the perfect Toyota Tundra for our needs, and we jumped on the deal. A four-hour drive from our home in East Tennessee took us to a dealership in Birmingham, Alabama. During our wait for paperwork processing, we watched the news as school systems and local governments began to announce closures on that rainy March afternoon. Covid-19 had now become a reality for most of the US. 18
As each day passed by, the news became flooded with stories of the pandemic. Schools closed, businesses closed, flights were canceled and the world quickly became a different place. The sure thing interest in our Tacoma began to wither, and we worried that we had made a mistake. Fortunately, we were already a home school family, and I worked from home as an independent contractor, so the initial impacts did not affect us greatly. Churches began to close, restaurants closed, and even basketball courts began removing rims. The urban environment was practically shutting down, and everyone was feeling the impact.
