About Me

About Me

Welcome! I’m Tonya, the voice behind the blog and 1/5 of the Traveling Prater’s! I’m wife of  nearly 20 years to my high school sweetheart, mom to three great teenagers and one rescued pound puppy. I love to travel, write, take pictures, and share travel tips and advice with anyone who asks.

Though my family had always enjoyed a road trip here and there, it wasn’t until seven years ago that our adventure really began. My husband was offered an opportunity to take his job on the road and we jumped at the chance. We spent many, many nights in various hotel rooms in places like Virginia Beach, Knoxville, and Atlanta.

In 2009, we finally realized our dream and bought a motor home which became our house on wheels for just over a year. We briefly settled back down in Huntsville, Alabama,  putting our full-time traveling on hold, before moving back to Ohio.

Though we are no longer “on the road” as a full-time RV family, we certainly don’t spend much time at home, instead, preferring to discover the US one state, roadside attraction, museum, zoo, battlefield or park at a time.

My blog, which originally began as a means to keep in touch with family and friends “back home in Ohio”, has gradually grown into a valuable resource for educational, family friendly travel. Since my husband and I have always educated our children at home, it’s only natural for me to place some emphasis on field trips and homeschooling.

Some of my articles include tips that I’ve learned on the road, ideas for saving money while traveling and reviews of the destinations that my family has visited and on occasion, I muse about the places we one day hope to visit.

Get More Bang for Your Buck: Hotel Savings

Reciprocal Memberships: Are they Really Worth It?

Field Trip Friday: Constitution Village

Cathedral Caverns in Alabama

The World’s Largest Bat, Louisville, Kentucky 

Ten Places I Want to Visit with My Son in NYC 

In addition to my site, I’ve been published in the Spring 2009 edition of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, have been a contributing author for Full Time Families Magazine and On the Company Porch, and I am a regular writer for The Homeschool Classroom, The Homeschool Village, and The Curriculum Choice.  My guest posts have appeared on RVParking.com, The 2:1 Conference, and a few other sites.

I also enjoy speaking to groups and have been a speaker at local homeschool support groups as well as CHEO, the Christian Home Educator’s of Ohio state conference, where I’ve spoken about Educational Travel and other topics pertaining to homeschooling.

My Family

My husband, Rod, is a wonderful hard-working, fun-loving kind of guy. He dreams of living life and striking it rich as a full-time treasure hunter. If you read about our gold panning excursions or diamond hunting expeditions, you can bet it's because he was feeling lucky!

Our oldest son, Nickolaus is the easy going, carefree, go anywhere child. I think he's always lived a life of adventure. He was our 'let's strap him in the car seat and go' child. Before his 1st birthday, he'd already been to Washington D.C., Virginia Beach and Niagara Falls, Canada twice. We could take him anywhere.

Then along came #2...anyone that has had more than one child can tell you that adding that extra child to a family is certainly an adjustment. Joshua was no exception. As easy going as Nickolaus is, Joshua is the opposite. He's certainly up for adventure, but he just needs a bit of time to warm up to the idea. He's also my outdoor loving, rough housing, spend-three-hours-at-the-gym-to- work-off-extra-energy-child.

My baby, Chelsea,  is often accused of being the quiet one in the family, but surprisingly she's the most outspoken. She also goofy and giddy and all those things you'd expect from a 15-year old girl. She once half-jokingly confided that when she grows up,  she’ll need therapy as a result of our RV adventure. That’s okay, I assured her that everyone needs therapy after their childhood.

Somehow along the way, the the kids convinced us they needed a puppy, so we found Vinnie or rather, Vincent Van Gogh. He is our adopted and abused pound puppy turned canine-traveler-extraordinaire. He has been a wonderful addition to our family for just over three years. During that time he's traveled nearly everywhere with us. Like the rest of the family, he's up for just about anything but especially enjoys going for rides in the van and taking walks.

There you have it, the lowdown on the Traveling Prater’s. Our life is at times challenging, constantly changing, but rarely boring. I wouldn't trade our adventure for anything!