Following our 6-week stint in Canyon Lake, TX where we spent some time hanging out with other full-time families and got to visit both San Antonio and Austin, we began to make our way the Petrified Forest in Arizona. During this trek, we hit some serious turbulence—literally.

Our first stop was in Fort Stockton, where we planned to stay for just a few days so we could do some school and work. But, during this time we faced 60 mph gusts while parked on a hilltop RV site. For two days, we stayed tucked in with the slides pulled in, hunkered down in very tight quarters. Then, in Alamogordo, NM—just outside White Sands National Park—we got caught in a full-blown dust storm. Wind gusts reached 50 mph, visibility dropped, and we spent the entire day inside, again tightly packed and just trying to stay calm.

And still… we kept moving forward.

Because when you’re chasing a destination, whether that’s during a family trip or within your business, you often have to weather a storm or two. In many cases, they are both adventures of a lifetime and you can’t just sail through unscathed.

Sometimes the journey is smooth—like stretches of I-10 or those rare, gentle drives where everything clicks (and I almost get to nap in the front seat because the ‘chucking’ is so limited). But other times? You’re navigating dust storms, repairs, delays, and exhaustion. (What is up with the bridge transitions along I-40 in Arizona?)

On one leg of the trip—between Roswell and the Painted Desert—we took a direct hit from 25 mph winds. It knocked a piece of our rig loose and required an on-the-fly repair. Huge thanks to RV Sales and Service shop outside Moriarity, AZ for the quick fix. Thankfully, it wasn’t major and only took an hour, but it was a reminder that when things get turbulent… something usually needs to be fixed in the aftermath.

But then we arrived.

We reached the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, unpacked and went out to explore the National Park—and it stopped us in our tracks. I hadn’t felt that sense of awe since we left Acadia last fall.

The beauty, the silence, the stillness. It was more breathtaking than we ever imagined. In that moment, the struggles become simply some memories we lived through. The destination more than made up for some bumps and bruises along the way.

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The Leadership Lessons

This isn’t just about travel. It’s about business.
Startups and small businesses go through this exact journey.

You hit turbulence. You lose sleep. You patch things mid-move. You clean up dust and damage. But you do it while holding your team together—and keeping everyone focused on the destination.

In business, it’s on the founder and leaders to:

• Stay calm in turbulence
• Plan ahead for chaos
• Shield our team from the mess when possible
• Involve them meaningfully when the time is right
• Reflect, recalibrate, and move forward with clarity

During those windstorms, we gave our kids sewing projects, played games, and finally watched Wicked (yes, the whole 2.5-hour movie!). We didn’t ignore the chaos—but we didn’t let it define us, either. When it passed, we talked about what had happened, explained the clean-up, and invited them to help. (Spoiler: they were excited to help, but mom had to take a breath – there’s a social post on that here.)

And just like that, we became stronger as a team—and I realized they could handle way more than I sometimes give them credit for.

In most cases, so can your team. And you’ll become much closer for that as well. I’ve had a few startups and worked with many more and one thing you’ll always notice – the bonds of the team are strong. They believe in the purpose and the destination. They weather the storms together. This doesn’t create a family, but it does build some unshakeable bonds in many cases.

So, trust them. Guide them. Talk openly about where you’re going and why. Then, take a moment to reflect on the journey and celebrate together when you reach your Painted Desert. Stand in awe of just how far you’ve come – together.

P.S. The aliens in Roswell infiltrated my brain to help me revive RExec so I could share these stories.