We LOVE Rinna & James’s story and the Sox Experience. They knew the life they wanted to create and they DID IT! They believe in making stuff happen, so there was no stopping them when they decided to hit the road full time. The switch to “working to Live” and becoming minimalists has been life changing for this young family from SA – Meet the Stockings Family… Real Stories | Real Families…
We are the Stockings Family – James, Rinna, Zade & Molly. Originally from Coobowie down the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula in SA where we built our “forever home” and started our family. Sox worked in the Grain Industry & I was a new stay at home mum. A fantastic opportunity became available for a promotion and relocation and so our family up and transferred to Port Lincoln where we lived for 3 and a half years prior to taking off to travel Australia. We had our second child here to complete our family and life was wonderful.
In late Sept 2016 we borrowed our parents camper trailer and set off to WA on a 3 week long holiday with the purpose of a family annual gathering in Narrogin WA. Our kids both under 3 and one in the middle of toilet training were absolute legends in the car, loved to help set up the camper, loved the freedom of exploring a new camp spot and were all rounded happier kids and naturally, on holidays we were happier parents “Why aren’t we doing this?” we thought to ourselves! Of course we then started imagining how great it would be to travel full time and where we would go and how we could see ourselves making it work and before we knew it were were creating it!
We started thinking about it more and more, planning, doing the “What ifs’ and playing out scenarios we may come across and how we would manage. First I had made it clear if it was going to happen then we needed a caravan, after we were broken into in the camper trailer while we slept one night there is no way I wanted to be that vulnerable and the idea of a door I could lock was an absolute dealbreaker. Then we started selling everything that wouldn’t fit in a caravan, including our home back on Yorkes – we became minimalists and wow was it invigorating! We found we had so much “stuff” that we didn’t need, use or give us any Joy so between the local sale pages on good old Facebook, garage sales and donations to the local op shop we had gone from owning enough stuff to furnish a 3 bedroom home to only what we could fit into our caravan…..life changing!
I went back to work in hospitality working evenings and with Sox working days we were like passing ships in the night saving every penny we could. We needed to buy a caravan so we sold our second car and started window shopping for the van that would take us around Oz. We found a van within our budget which we picked up in May 2017 and moved out of our rental home and into the van in the local caravan park in Pt Lincoln. We were still paying our mortgage back on Yorkes and a rental in lincoln so by moving into the park we started saving towards our goal.
We started our journey in Jan 2018 with a Jayco Expanda 16.49-3 that we had lived in – mostly in one spot, for 9mths prior to taking off. After 5mths of travelling we knew we were committed to travel life long term and realised we needed to change our van setup – the most pivotal point for us was the kids having their own bed! We researched hard for a bunk van with a seperate toilet shower (the combo is ok but full-time on the road was wearing thin), diesel heater and an oven. We traded the Jayco on a New Age Road Owl in May 2018 whilst travelling through Victoria. Crazy it seems but yes we basically parked the vans next to each other and transferred everything we owned in a few short hours all while also trying to learn about how this new modern van worked – eeekkkk!
Our Tow vehicle when we left was a Toyota Hilux SR5 with tub and canopy but in Dec 2018 we also changed our rig to a secondhand but later model Toyota Hilux. We couldn’t beat the Hilux for fuel economy and we wanted a bigger towing capacity and away from the tub/canopy so got a tray top so we can put a custom canopy on when the money…I mean time is right *insert eye roll*
Our name The Sox Experience is because we want just that…..an Experience! We aren’t doing a big ring around the coast of Australia, we are more so zig, zag and looping our way around each state as we reach it, in whatever order that is in, and in no such timeframe. We want to experience as much of this travel life as we can while we can. We are definitely working to top up the funds and if that means we travel to where the work is then so be it. We also aren’t chasing jobs that pay millions we are looking for something we probably haven’t done much of as long as the job satisfaction is high – we are working to live and not the other way round anymore.
We are massive advocates for being where your feet are and enjoying the NOW – big believers in thinking about what we want, creating it and then making it happen. We want an experience – if there is an opportunity to help grow our souls and open the eyes of our little Soxs to what’s really out there in our beautiful country then that’s where you will find us!
When do we plan to stop………NEVER hahahaha. Our biggest goal is to be able to continue this lifestyle sustainably! That has its challenges and risks but ones we are willing to experience. As long as there is work out there and country to see we will endeavour to keep travelling.
Our children are also the reason we do this – to spend valuable time with them while we can, before they are too cool for us hahah just kidding, but as long as they are happy and wanting to travel this country with us then we will keep on enjoying the experience!
You can follow Rinna, James and the kids over on FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
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