You leave the family in place and the best breadwinner in the family hits the road to find work. I was only home 69 days in 2001 after we relocated to Pocatello, ID in December 2000. I was home 10 days between Jan 1, 2002 and April 12, 2002. The paying work was a contract in San Diego. I paid my parents for a room. By January 2001, my wife was picked up as a dispatcher at the local police department. It is only $24K/yr, but it covers the ongoing cost of keeping two kids in college.
My company laid me off in June. I had 377 hours of vacation accrued. It took 6 weeks to track down $3 million is now work. I resumed full time employment with 280 hours vacation on the books and a nice backlog of work in Detroit and Dayton, OH. In September, I was able to wrap up a contract that was in the negotition phase for 18 months. Another $1.1 million in work for the company. 492 hours of direct contract coverage for me.
From mid-August to mid-November 2002, I was "on the road". I'll be back in Dayton again starting January 12th. You go where you can find work.