If you want to know a little bit about the girl behind the blog, you’ve stumbled upon the right section of this website. There are a few things it might be helpful to know about me, so I’m going to use this space to paint a picture of who I am and how I adopted this lifestyle.
The Girl
My given name is Stacia. My grandfather and many close relatives have always referred to me as “Bug”. My trail family knows me as Tinkerbell (aka Tink). I grew up on a farm in a rural, dusty southern Georgia town, spending my evenings and weekends exploring the woods around my family’s land. After high school I attended the University of Georgia, where I obtained a Bachelor’s and eventually a Master’s degree in Agriculture. It was in college that I met and fell in love with my first Standard Poodle (more later) and developed a passion for dog training. I even worked as a professional dog trainer for a few years, and raised guide dog puppies for The Guide Dog Foundation for almost a decade . It was also during undergrad that I visited the North Carolina mountains for the first time and sparked an interest that would turn into a lifestyle.
In April, 2015, I blew off my Master’s graduation ceremony to instead hike the Appalachian Trail. I intended to thru-hike (completion in 1 year) the 2,189 mile long footpath that runs from Georgia to Maine. I had never really been camping before I turned 25. My family “camped” in a pop-up camper for a few days in Key West, FL when I was a child, and my dad or grandpa took me “camping” on a sandbar near our river house when I was very, very young. Otherwise, I was a total newb. But, I went on ONE single backpacking trip in the spring of 2014 and I was hooked for life. {Click HERE to read about that miserable exciting trip and my decision-making process for choosing to camp in a hammock or a tent.}
During the summer of 2015, I hiked on the Appalachian Trail for two months before a fractured foot forced me off trail. Sixty-one days in the woods, showering irregularly, walking a really stupid amount (700 miles, approximately) and meeting the coolest people I’ve ever met in my life changed me. This adventure ignited a fire in me that won’t die. I need more.
I spent the next 11 months working as wilderness field instructor and a high-school teacher. I was trying to figure out which direction I was heading. Ultimately and unexpectedly, I found myself back on trail, attempting to thru-hike again in 2016. I hiked for another three months before injuries in my feet once again forced me off trail. Since then I’ve been existing in a state of inner turmoil, anxious for my next adventure and longing for a lifestyle that feeds my wanderlust.
This whole long story brings me to this blog. My 2016 thru-hike attempt left a lot of time for reflection. Lots of research on jobs that allow travel led me to pursue a career in nursing. I spent two years working as an administrative assistant for North America Diving Dogs, living in a small travel trailer full-time and traveling up and down the east coast while saving money for nursing school and knocking out my prerequisites online between dog shows. I then spent 20 months living in southern Georgia again, attending East Georgia State College as a full-time nursing student and working crappy restaurant jobs and a CNA job that paid pennies on the weekends. I had no money, I had no friends, I didn’t even have my dogs. Pressing pause on my life and attending nursing school at age 30, moving back in with my mom, leaving the mountains I had fallen in love with, and putting my nose to the grind to get that license to practice nursing was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But I did it. I graduated nursing school in December of 2019 at the age of 31 and moved to Asheville, NC for my first nursing job… just in time for a global pandemic.
For two years I worked first at a level 2 trauma center in Asheville and then at a rural critical access emergency department in Franklin, NC. I was biding my time until I could gain the required two years of experience to start travel nursing. Finally, in February of 2022, six years after the idea of travel nursing was initially planted in my mind, four years after I was accepted to nursing school, two years after I graduated with a nursing degree and became licensed, I took my first travel nursing contract.
So who am I? I’m a single, solo gal in my 30’s pursuing dreams bigger than I can grasp at times. I’m fat, imperfect, and learning as I go. I’m smart, ambitious, and like to pretend I’m fearless. I’m giving this life the shot it deserves at being awesome – won’t you come along for the journey?
The Dog
Shooter, registered name “Tintlet Fall For A Shooting Star”, was my best friend in the whole world for 12.5 years. I met him when he was a mere two days old and he stole my heart from day one. He came home with me at 7 weeks old and we began a lifetime of adventures together. Shooter was a strong, loyal, protective, and ultra-cuddly companion- everything a good dog should be.
Shooter left this world on June 28th, 2025, one year exactly to the date after his “big” sister/bestie Sookie passed. A pheochromocytoma, a rare adrenal tumor, took him from me. He only had one bad day– his last day. We were having adventures up until the very end.
The Rig
Wonda the Wonder Truck
While in nursing school, my beloved, paid-for Ford Sport-Trac — lovingly dubbed “The AT Dawg”– to whom I was very emotionally attached, finally gave out. It had almost 200k miles and a host of problems. I had no money, but my school was 45 minutes one way from where I lived and I HAD to have reliable transportation. So, against all my better judgment, I used part of my student loan money and what little I had in savings to purchase a very very used 10 year old Ford Escape. The car was in great shape, and she got me everywhere I needed to go for the next two years. However, as I approached the time in my life where I would once again need to tow a small travel trailer, and where I would be traveling full-time, I needed a more reliable vehicle that I could trust. My dream car for years had been a Toyota 4Runner, and in July 2021, I walked into a Toyota dealership and walked out with a nearly $900/month car payment– but I finally had the ride of my dreams and a job that paid well enough to afford it.
The Tiny Home On Wheels
When I set out looking for a camper, there were a few criteria IÂ knew it had to meet.
- Small
- Simple
- Affordable
Early on I set my sights on fiberglass campers. I love the simple, no-nonsense design of a fiberglass shell with only the essentials inside. Fiberglass campers are small by nature – they have to be in order to maintain their structural integrity. They are simple out of necessity – without the added space of slide-outs and square footage, every inch matters. They are designed to maximize efficient use of space.
In January 2017, I purchased a very used nearly 30 year old Casita Spirit Deluxe that my dad and I renovated and I proceeded to live in for two years. I ultimately sold my Frozen Margarita Casita after nursing school, because I didn’t have a place to park her or a vehicle to tow her with. I’ve regretted that decision ever since, and decided to order a new Casita in 2022. This time, my little egg would be custom-built, exactly to my specifications, and would be brand new when I finally got to meet her.
Enter the MaryAnne to my Wonda. In January 2023, my mom, her partner, and I made the long haul from Florida to Rice, Texas to visit the Casita Travel Trailers manufacturing plant and pick up my new home on wheels. I immediately loved this new Casita just as much if not more than I’d loved my old one. She was shiny and new and everything WORKED. I’ve now been living “part time full time” in the Casita for nearly 3 years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You can read all about my initial decision to purchase a Casita HERE.
And that is a condensed version of the last two decades of my life! Be sure to check out the blog for in-depth posts about the topics mentioned above.
Still She Roams 