Candace Pegg was living the American dream in a two-story, five-bedroom home when something unexpected happened: The American dream shifted. Pegg had only ever lived in North Carolina with her husband, Jake, and two children—8 and 11. But the pandemic disrupted their domestic bliss, and a life she long wanted became more like a life she wanted to escape.
“COVID brought out the devil in everybody,” she says, wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt as we stand in the clubhouse of Blue Water RV Resort in Freeport last fall. By early 2022, Pegg’s job in the medical field had beaten her down, and between Zoom classes and conflicting work schedules, elementary school was a mess. She and Jake had always wanted to see the world, but they had jobs and children—the anchors of adulthood. She started poking around a Facebook group called Full Time RV Living With Kids, a resource and advice forum with nearly 60,000 members.
That’s where she learned about Blue Water, a locale that appeared not so different from her town in North Carolina, a place of rural splendor about a 30-minute drive from the city. Bonus: The RV park was near the water, on the other side of a two-lane highway from the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by marshlands. “A tropical paradise for vacationing families, weekend warriors, snowbirds, and anyone seeking solace and adventure,” read the website, which boasted a private boat ramp, docks for fishing
