Lingards ready for trip to USA

An adventuring Lincolnshire family is all ready to take on the next leg of their once-in-a-lifetime travels.
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Back in November, we brought you the inspirational story of the Lingard family - dad Ben, mum Natalie and children Millie, eight, six-year-old Henry and Bree, four - who sold their home and all their possessions and set off in their caravan on their adventures around Europe in April last year.

Due to travel restrictions, the Lingards, from Tetney, had to stay within the UK initially so they travelled the UK before heading into Europe in June 2021 and visited an incredible 13 countries, including Switzerland, France, Budapest, Austria and Slovenia.

The decision to sell everything and live their dream of travelling the world came after Natalie sadly lost her parents and step-mum to cancer in 2018 - all within six weeks of each other and when Natalie was on maternity leave with their youngest daughter.

The family had to return to the UK at the end of October, and stayed with Ben’s parents until they set off for the next leg of their trip, and they are scheduled to leave today (Wednesday January 12) all being well.

It hasn’t been an easy journey for the Lingards since coming back to Tetney, however, as they were due to leave for New York last Thursday (January 6) but the Covid-19 restrictions in the state threw them a curve ball or two.

Natalie explained: “We found out just before Christmas that the policy in New York is that any child over five must be vaccinated to go into any indoor venues, including restaurants. Children in the UK are not vaccinated at this young age so we decided that we would not visit New York and would instead fly to Florida.”

The Lingards managed to change their flights to take them into the Sunshine State, but then Natalie caught Covid and had to isolate from Boxing Day onwards in a bid to stop the rest of the family catching it so they could still fly on the January 6.

Unfortunately, two days later Millie caught the virus and then Henry too, so they had to change their flights again to fly out today.

All being well, the plan is for the family to fly into Orlando and pick up an RV - recreational vehicle - which will take the family to Jacksonville, the Carolina states, Georgia, then towards the Everglades followed by Key West and up to Miami before heading back to Florida to meet friends from the UK.

“Then in March, we will be flying from California to Australia via Hawaii, which we are very excited about as Australia is a bucket list place for us,” Natalie said.

For those who want to throw caution to the wind and go travelling as the Lingards have, Natalie said her best advice is to just do it:

“Our best advice for people wanting to do the same or similar is there is never a right time, and you will never feel like you have enough money so you just have to take the chance,” said Natalie.

“We sold everything that we own and we also work online while we travel. Having a job that you can do on line while you travel is really beneficial as you can fund your adventure while you are on it - I have trained to teach English and Ben works in Health & Safety.

“I once read a quote that said ‘And then there is the most dangerous risk of all: the risk of spending your whole life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later”.

“We live by this quote because we have learnt first hand that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed so follow your dreams today, while you can.”

To follow the Lingard family’s adventures, visit www.facebook.com/LingardFamilyAdventures