The story behind the journey
Why they went. How they did it. What happened next.
This is Ron’s short version. Michelle’s own account is being gathered separately by SQ and will be added in her voice.
01 · The wake-up callIt began on a missions trip in Puebla, Mexico.
In September 2001, Ron was helping rebuild an Assemblies of God church when the September 11 attacks stopped flights home. The people his group had gone to help turned around and cared for them—providing food, keeping the hotel and bus arrangements going, doing laundry and helping until the Americans could return home.
Ron came back to Massachusetts looking at life differently. The family had the house, cars, vans and jobs people work for, but he felt they were living for those things instead of living together. He worked more than twelve hours a day, Michelle worked another schedule, and some days they saw each other for only minutes.
02 · The ideaMichelle was shocked.
She had just settled the family into a church and a life in Massachusetts. Leaving meant walking away from school, work, friends, church family and relatives. Nikole and Zakary did not want to leave either. They were seven and six, and change was big—but the longer the family waited, the harder leaving would become.
03 · Making it realA house became a Damon DayBreak.
Ron and Michelle found the motorhome at Lazydays in Seffner, Florida. Lazydays flew them down, and they drove it home on December 29, 2001. The house sold more slowly than expected. When it finally did, there was no comfortable retreat waiting behind them.
04 · DepartureJuly 7, 2002 · about 3:30 a.m.
Ron, Michelle, Nikole and Zakary left Massachusetts. Their first destination was the Lockport and Niagara Falls area of New York. From there, America became their address and the road became their school.
05 · The honest beginningA new view did not instantly fix old hurt.
Ron does not describe the family or marriage as perfect when the trip began. The early weeks were 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.
06 · Road lifeFour of everything. Twenty dollars a day.
They carried four plates, four forks and four spoons. Their twenty-dollar daily activity budget rolled forward when unused. National Park and Six Flags passes opened doors. Private family campgrounds brought pools, miniature golf, activities and safer surroundings. The children became Junior Rangers and learned state capitals, birds, flowers and history by being there.
07 · Led by the SpiritFamily and friends helped make the road feel safe.
The Agnittis 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. They visited churches across the country and understood the journey as more than an ordinary vacation.
08 · Early family-web pioneersTaking photographs, shooting video and keeping a traveling family 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.”
