Family on Bikes Vogel, Biking Across the World With Kids

Teaching Traveling: Today we chat with Nancy from the extremely famous and inspirational traveling Vogel family. If you haven’t heard what they’ve done, get ready to be shocked!

Nancy, tell us about your background.

Nancy: I grew up in Boise, Idaho and, after six long years in university, graduated with a degree in teaching. Immediately upon graduation, I headed off to Honduras to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer establishing resource room for handicapped children.

It was an exciting program as prior to that, handicapped kids had no opportunity to attend classes and were simply locked away in the homes. When I came back to the USA, I moved to the Navajo reservation and taught Special Ed there. It was wonderful to learn about the Native American cultures in my own country.

After that I taught Special Ed for a few years in Albuquerque, then switched over to elementary education and moved overseas. For the next twelve years I taught in international schools in Egypt, Ethiopia, Taiwan and Malaysia.

In 2006, my husband and I decided we were tired of spending all our time with other people’s kids and not enough with our own, so we quit our jobs and set out to see the world from the seat of a bicycle. Together as a family, we’ve now cycled 27,000 miles through fifteen countries.

TT: Amazing!!! Tell us more about your epic travels.

N: From 2008 – 2011, we rode our bikes from Alaska to Argentina. It was a journey that spanned nearly three years, 15 countries, and 17,300 miles. It was a remarkable experience for all four of us and we learned many life lessons that will help us tremendously in wherever life leads.

TT: How did you find this travel opportunity?

N: How did we find it? We made it. We met some other cyclists riding the length of the Americas and thought, “If they can do it, surely we can do it too.” So we did. No, it wasn’t easy. No, it wasn’t handed to us on a silver platter, but we made it happen.

TT: Love it!!! How did you find the money to fund this travel?

N: We are fortunate to own our house outright so we were able to rent the house and that paid for about half of our expenses. The rest we took out of our retirement account. The way we figured it, we would rather than the time with our children now, than to have a more comfortable retirement.

TT: Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly powerful.

N: I’ve been traveling for most of 28 years, so have LOTS of those moments. I think the most rewarding was the day I was walking through the market in Ecuador with my 11-year-old son. Davy looked at me and said, “Mom, why are Americans so afraid to travel? They think that as soon as they leave the USA, they’ll be robbed, hurt, or killed, but when I look around all I see are nice people. These people here aren’t hurting or robbing us – I don’t understand why so many people are afraid of them.”

I so wish more people understood the truth of his words. If we could overcome all the fears and prejudices and look at people as simply fellow inhabitants of our planet, I think the world would be a better place.

TT: Amen! Wise son! How have your travels impacted you as a teacher, and in your current career?

N: My travels impacted my teaching for 19 years! Whenever I traveled to a new place I always made a point of working what I saw and learned into my classes. Sometimes I had my kids do extensive units where we learned about other countries; sometimes it was just stories interjected here and there. But always, always, I tried to get my kids to look beyond the USA and understand we’re part of a great big connected world.

TT: Beautiful, and so important. How have your travels impacted you as a person?

N: They’ve defined me in more ways than one. Because I’ve been around so much, I understand that I am just a very, very small part of the whole. I see how all continents and countries fit together and how we’re all so interconnected. I can’t consider only America without seeing how my own country affects all the others.

TT: What advice do you have for other teachers who are dreaming of travel?

N: I don’t know anything about teaching English, but any professional certified teachers who are looking to teach in international schools should check out International School Services and Search Associates. There are some others, but these two will give you a good idea on how to get started.

And “Road-schooling” is another option.

Our boys were 10 when we set off from Alaska to cycle south.

They were 13 when we arrived in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America. We had spent three years cycling 17,300 miles through 15 countries.

TT: Thanks so much, Nancy!

What I LOVE about the story of the Vogel family is that it shows that anyone who puts their mind to travel can make it happen.

It IS possible to travel with young kids.

It IS possible to travel on a teacher’s salary.

It IS possible to have a wonderful, safe time in parts of the world that many people deem “too dangerous”, from Yemen to Mexico!

It IS possible to bicycle over 27,000 miles… with a family of four!

Thanks, Nancy and the Vogel family, for being such an inspiration to us.

Readers, what questions or comments do you have for this amazing world biker and teacher?