A couple travels 25 states and over 60,000 miles in an Airstream with their PET GOAT named Frankie

A couple from North Carolina traveled tens of thousands of miles across the country in an RV, taking their goat Frankie with them.

“Frankie is a great travel companion,” artist Cate Battles, who is traveling with her husband Chad, recently told CNN Travel.

She explained this in an episode of the Discovery+ miniseries The Bond, which focused on the traveling gang, adding: “She’s incredibly smart and very curious. She is simply one of the most loving animals I have ever met.

“She is our ride or our death. She’s our adventure friend!’

In 2016, Cate and her husband Chad (pictured) hit the road with Frankie in a 1976 Airstream

The gang has since traveled more than 60,000 miles, traveling the country most of every year.

Cate admits she has “always been fascinated by goats” and was gifted Frankie, a pygmy-Nigerian pygmy mix, by a friend in 2014.

“Before Cate came, I was actually ambivalent about goats. “Didn’t even think of that!” Chad confessed on the show, adding that he didn’t even know about the plan to bring Frankie into the family.

“When Cate first brought Frankie home, I said, ‘No goats in the bed.’ “It didn’t take long!” he continued.

“Maybe one day?” Cate laughed along.

The couple, who have been married for 10 years, first started dating in 2016, shortly after Chad sold his bar in Asheville, North Carolina, when his children were off to college.

“We were thinking about what the next chapter of our lives would look like as we were empty nesters,” Cate told CNN Travel.

“So we decided to pick a new city and state and travel around a bit.”

For their country getaway, the couple purchased a nearly half-century-old 1976 Argosy Airstream and renovated it from the inside out.

The couple estimate they have traveled more than 60,000 miles with Frankie since 2016

Although Cate and Chad weren’t sure how Frankie would fare down the road, the goat was a natural explorer.

The Airstream’s exterior also now features a mural by Cate, inspired by the band’s travels and Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land.

Cate and Chad left Frankie behind on their first trip on the Airstream. This expedition lasted six months and culminated in the duo’s decision to relocate from Asheville to Grants Pass, Oregon in 2017.

Although they were initially nervous about how the goat would fare along the road, Frankie proved to be a born explorer.

“She is very easy to travel with.” We trained her pretty well since she was a little kid. So that’s always good,” Cate said.

This means they stop every few hours so Frankie can eat vegetables and stretch his legs – providing even more opportunities for daily exploration in the wilds of America.

The couple estimated they have covered more than 60,000 miles so far.

The group initially included Cate’s older cocker spaniel Maggie, who died in 2019

A few weeks ago, the couple welcomed their new rescue dog, Corndog, to the family

“Part of this lifestyle is that we are so hungry to learn new things, experience new things, new places, new people, new food, new landscapes, new flora,” Cate told The Bond.

“It’s not just natural places that we like to visit.” We also like to visit bizarre sights along the way: the biggest yo-yo in the world, Salvation Mountain or the biggest donkey in the world.

During the first few years of their road trip, the group was also accompanied by their older cocker spaniel, Maggie.

Sadly, the beloved pooch passed away in spring 2019, shortly after Frankie and Maggie appeared on The Dodo’s Odd Couples.

However, a few weeks ago the family welcomed a new rescue dog named Corndog to the family.

“Welcome home Corndog!” read the Instagram caption, revealing the adoption.

Lately, the multispecies family’s annual routine has been to spend most of the year at their home base in Grants Pass, while also setting aside at least a few months for travel.

Since beginning her adventures, Cate has also run a blog called Argosy Odyssey, modeled after the Airstream.

The blog moved to the Instagram account @argosyodyssey, which now has over 21,000 followers, many of whom are famous fans of Frankie.

Chad joked about the dynamic: “Frankie doesn’t live in our world, we live in Frankie’s world.”