Ron’s short version · Why, how and when
We had the things people work for. What we did not have was time together.
This is Ron’s account of the decision that became Agnitti’s Adventures. Michelle’s own version is being gathered separately by SQ and will be added in her voice.
01 · WhyThe wake-up call came in Puebla.
In September 2001, Ron was in Puebla, Mexico, helping rebuild an Assemblies of God church when the September 11 attacks stopped flights home. The people his mission group had gone to help fed them, kept their hotel and bus arrangements going, did their laundry and cared for them until they could leave.
He returned to Massachusetts asking what his family was working so hard for. Ron was working more than twelve hours a day, Michelle worked another schedule, and some days they saw each other for only minutes. There were jobs, vehicles and a house—but little time to live as one family.
02 · HowA house became a DayBreak.
Michelle was shocked. The family had roots in their church, school, work, friends and relatives. Still, they found a Damon DayBreak at Lazydays in Seffner, Florida, flew down and drove it home on December 29, 2001. The house took longer than planned to sell. When it finally did, there was no easy retreat.
03 · WhenJuly 7, 2002 · 3:30 a.m.
Ron, Michelle, seven-year-old Nikole and six-year-old Zakary pulled away from Massachusetts. Their first destination was the Lockport and Niagara Falls area of New York. The children had not wanted to leave their people and familiar life, but waiting longer would only have made leaving harder.
04 · The truthThe road did not begin perfectly.
Ron does not claim that travel magically repaired the marriage or erased the hurt the family carried aboard. The beginning was difficult. Life became better once they found a rhythm: moving every two weeks or less, exploring together and learning how to handle ordinary days as one family.
05 · Daily lifeFour of everything and twenty dollars a day.
Four plates, four forks and four spoons. A twenty-dollar daily activity budget that rolled forward when it went unused. National Park and Six Flags passes. Private family campgrounds with pools, miniature golf and activities. Libraries supplied stacks of books and a precious internet connection. The children became Junior Rangers; the road became their school.
They also stayed with family and friends along the way. Ron remembers that they were safe and in God’s hands—being led by the Holy Spirit from one place to the next.
06 · Early family-web pioneersTaking the pictures, shooting video and getting the story online was an accomplishment of its own.
There were no travel apps and no dependable campground Wi-Fi. The family carried a laptop, sometimes connected through Cingular and used libraries wherever they could. Ron built the website and Places pages, fixed laptops and bartered his skills. Michelle drove, planned, homeschooled, kept everyone safe and wrote the journal. Nikole and Zakary had pages of their own.
“It was scary—what if? But we did it. We made it. We did the best we knew how. We are all still here. No one died.”
