The Story Behind Roadtrip Nation

The Story Behind Roadtrip Nation

Roadtrip Nation began in 2001 as an idea Mike, Nathan, Brian and Amanda, four friends fresh out of college, formed when they were not sure what to do with their lives. Initially, the scope of the plan was relatively small – climb aboard an old RV, paint it green, and traverse the country with the purpose of interviewing people who inspired them by living lives that centered around what was meaningful to them. Along the way, the four realized that the conversations that they were having on the road could not remain within the confines of their own RV, but held relevancy that could be shared with a world that was losing the know-how of living lives that pulse on personal passion rather than someone else’s expectations.

The original Roadtrip was a learning process for the whole team. With no experience driving an RV or handling a video camera (let alone editing footage for a documentary) and no contacts for setting up interviews, the friends relied on perseverance, dedication to making the road trip work, and their genuine belief in wanting to find their own road in life in order for the trip to be successful. And the team did discover that they could have a life built on what they loved – through the interviews and the Roadtrip process, Amanda found that her path was to be a teacher, and Mike, Nate and Brian discovered a passion for sharing their experiences from the road.

From there, Roadtrip Nation grew, first with the printing of a book and the making of a film about the original Roadtrip, The Open Road. The founders wanted to prove that anyone could do what they did – set up interviews, hit the open road, and share that experience – so they sent another team across the country in their green and blue RV. Continuing with the mission of constantly wanting to spread the Movement to as many people as possible, soon three Green RVs were making their way across the country each summer, and then across other countries. Still wanting to affect more people, Roadtrip Nation launched Independent Roadtrips, opening up the door to a D.I.Y. Roadtrip to anyone.

The most recent branch of Roadtrip Nation is RoadtripNation.org, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating educational resources around Roadtrip Nation’s Interview Archive. This division has developed an interactive and project-based curriculum for middle school, high school, and college students, The Roadtrip Nation Experience. The Experience takes education out of classrooms and into the real world using 21st century skills and activity-based learning.

The continuing mission of Roadtrip Nation is to get people to participate in the Movement by empowering them to find what they love, contacting people that live a life that inspires them, gather a team to interview those people in order to learn from their stories, and to share these experiences with others. The story of Roadtrip Nation is not complete – every day, more and more people become a part of it.