Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh & Lola Mccray
Hi Josh & Lola, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started with an eviction notice.Of course this wasn’t your typical didn’t pay eviction. This was a we are selling the property and need you out within 2 weeks. Now 2 weeks for a urn of 6 isn’t a lot of time when you have no place to go or any family near by. So where did that put us? Scrambling and searching for a place for rent. Now all of this was taken place post COVID. So that could only mean one thing the rent was gonna be sky high and darn near impossible to find for a large family. Keep in mind that the kids were in school and we both were working full-time jobs. Two weeks had passed and we had no where to go(Josh had at the last minute found us a place to stay). Not an apartment or a rental home but a hotel( which was an extended stay). Not and ideal situation for a family of six huh,but it was better than sleeping in the car.
Fast forward what was suppose to be a month or two turned into 6 months ,we had spent Thanksgiving,Christmas and New Years in the hotel all while still conducting a normal everyday life( work, school, activities and birthdays)
To put it plain we were getting tired and needed a place of our own. We know longer wanted to pay rent or have to give our hard earn money to someone else with them being in charge of our moves. So what did we do? Lola came to us with the idea of buying a RV.
Now we had never been in one or even known anyone with one ,but we had always said that one day we would own one and one day had finally came.
Knowing we didn’t want any debt we turned to Facebook marketplace. Lola found the RV but Josh was on the road(truck driver) and she and the kids had to go and look at it and make the decision. Now there were other people in line who wanted to purchase and she had to think quick. She told the guy that we would put down half and then come back the next day and put down the remainder and pick it up ( knowing that we could have been scammed we went forth ,but with one stipulation that he had to take down the RV listing) Now that we had found the perfect for us RV we then had to figure out where we were going to park it. By the way we also didn’t have a truck to pull it. U-Haul to the rescue. We rented a U-Haul pickup truck and took the Rv to a Wal-mart to sleep for the night until we could find a permanent spot.
With the kids in school and both of us working we were now living at a RV resort living our new life. But something was missing. Five months into RV living we decided to take the kids out of school and homeschool also while quitting our jobs( Josh a truck driver and Lola a teacher) and hit the road full-time.
Present day, we have been to over 8 states ,all while tent camping ,hiking,visiting different parks and living life our way on our terms and motivating others to live life on their terms. And encouraging blacks to get out and explore the world. We have started a podcast called the black nomad family and also have Instagram ,TikTok,Facebook and a Youtube channel. We are livingthemccrayway.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Every now and then you get that 1% that doesn’t except how you are living your life. At our first work camping spot we cam across an individual that came across the 1%, he singled us out calling us You People and in this the cops were called. Honestly as a young black rving family this is our normal reality. The RV world is not saturated with African American families.
We have had to deal with the questions of when will we get back to a normal life and people not excepting that this is our life and how we choose to live it is up to us.
We have had to teach our kids that because they are always the only black children at the campground that they have to carry themselves a certain way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We travel from state to state staying there for about 4 months while work camping ( which is working at a RV park while living on site for free or a small fee) while we explore that state and town then moving on to the next state.
We are also content creators.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.livingthemccrayway.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingthemccrayway
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085843454376
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@livingthemccrayway6
- TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@livingthemccrayway
- Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theblacknomadfamily
