We’re conditioned in our society to acquire stuff. Our culture and economy often seems to revolve around this quest. And no matter how large a space we have, we can easily fill that space with stuff.  It seems to be a universal law – the amount of [...]]]>

<— Read Chapter 2: Affording Full Time Travel

We’re conditioned in our society to acquire stuff. Our culture and economy often seems to revolve around this quest. And no matter how large a space we have, we can easily fill that space with stuff.  It seems to be a universal law – the amount of stuff you have expands to fill all available space.

The acquisition of stuff can easily end up consuming our space and our lives, cluttering our homes, our budgets and our minds.

We pay to acquire it, pay to house it, pay to store it when we run out of room, and pay to move it when we seemingly inevitably upgrade to a larger place.

Repeat this cycle a few times, until the day comes when your next of kin get stuck with paying once again to dispose of it all.

For those wanting to travel full time for an extended amount of time, breaking the acquisition cycle is essential. You just simply can’t take it all with you. With valued media collections, cherished family heirlooms and closets full of unending wardrobe choices, letting go can seem like an insurmountable task. We’re just so conditioned to have stuff around us.

One key is realizing that stuff needs us more than we need it.

If you’re determined to embrace a life with the simplicity of less stuff – you can do it. It is never too late to break free from the endless acquisition cycle. The biggest block is typically one of social conditioning and attaching sentimental value to inanimate objects.

Setting your Goal

There are a lot of extreme minimalists out there who blog about the joys of owning extremely few possessions – capping yourself at “100 things” or less, or even traveling with no luggage whatsoever. And often, your “stuff” limit may be constrained by the amount of space that is physically available – such as living in an RV or traveling via a backpack.

Packed for 5 Months in the USVI - 2 Suitcases

Goals are great, and they definitely give one motivation and discipline to keep their amount of stuff in check.  And these sorts of goals can be a fun experiment to see if you can do it for a short term.  When we moved to the US Virgin Islands for a 5 months, we set a goal of only checking  two bags weighing no more than 100 lbs. And we were successful in meeting this goal while still comfortably having everything we’d need to live and set up our household & office.  And in our first year of travel together, we compressed both of our lives to live & travel in a 16′ travel trailer with only 45 sq ft of living space. It was an awesome experiment to see just how little we could do without (including plumbing!) while still feeling comfortable and abundant.

But don’t feel you need to set a goal that seems unrealistic for you. Set a goal to live the life you want by consciously choosing how much power stuff has over you. Choose goals that meet your objectives. Some stuff has a very legitimate role in our lives, serving a useful function and adding value. And other things are just anchors holding you back.

The trick if finding what those things are, and jettisoning them.

An Approach to Purging

There’s many aways to approach purging your stuff. And there’s really no right or wrong way – just want works for you.

My trick to approaching purging is to set up a process that avoids overwhelm. Don’t try to think of your entire house as a singular project to get done.

Instead, focus on one area at a time by dividing up the purge process into sessions. Each of these sessions should be manageable within the span of a couple of hours, something that can be tackled with a feeling of fairly immediate accomplishment.

You can tackle a session once a week, or several a day – the pace is up to you and your objectives.

For each session, I followed a framework that looked something like this 7-step process:

1) Pick an Area! Pick just one area – perhaps a closet, a dresser, a drawer, a cabinet, a hutch, a filing cabinet, etc.  Set an attainable goal to purge a certain percentage this session, such as trimming away 20% of my socks. Keep in mind that you can return to do more in future sessions – it is better to work in phases than to get paralyzed trying to do too much at once!

2) Divide and Conquer! Divide things into three piles (mental or physical):

a) Stuff you see as essential must-keeps.

b) Stuff you regularly use.

c) Stuff you rarely use, touch or appreciate (this pile should be much bigger than the others – if it’s not, you haven’t made the mental shift yet.)

3) Further Divisions! Put your essential pile to the side for now, focusing on your rarely used and regularly used piles. While keeping them separate,  sub-divide things up into logical categories (using clothing as an example: pants, sweaters, ties, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, etc. or work clothes, lounge clothes, exercise clothes, dress up clothes, etc.)

4) Rotational Purge. Start going through each of your rarely used piles in rotation with a goal to purge a certain number of items from each pile. If you’re unsure if you should purge or keep an item, ask yourself these questions:

• Does this item serve a unique purpose in my life that can’t be met by another item I am keeping?
• Do I find myself not using this item as often as I should because it doesn’t exactly meet my criteria? (continuing the clothing example – I don’t have anything to wear with this color, there’s a stain, the fabric isn’t comfy, the fit isn’t perfect..etc.)
• Does this item bring me joy and delight?

In this process, you may find some things you not only don’t want to purge, but want to move to the must-keep pile.

After you’ve completed going through all your piles once, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself!

5) Switch the focus. Do a few more rounds on the rarely used piles each time increasing the number of items you purge.  Then repeat the above steps with less aggressiveness on your regularly used stuff (ie. instead of purging 4 items each round, may be you only purge 2).  Or if your goal is bring more variety into your life, such as a wardrobe, perhaps you’re feeling ready to intentionally weed out the “old standbys” you regularly grab for.

6) Combine. Switch back and forth from your regular and rarely used piles until it feels you’ve achieved your initial goal. Combine the piles to get a sense of what you’re actually down to.  Purge more as desired.

7) Reassess Essentials. Now turn your attention to the pile of stuff you initially deemed essential.  In all likely hood, some of them no longer will seem as essential now that you’re in full on purge mode. Don’t be afraid to purge from this pile now.

Generally at this point, purging has become a virus and you’re on a roll shedding like crazy. Most folks I coach can hardly help themselves doubling their purge goal for the session!

You’ve successfully avoided initial overwhelm by starting with simple easy to reach goals that aren’t as scary as ‘get rid of 99% of everything!’  With each round, the brain adjusts, and it becomes easier and easier to want to get rid of things.

You get good at making quick judgements of ‘will I ever really use this??’ ‘is it worth the space??’ ‘does it serve its function?’ ‘is it bringing joy and delight to my life?’

Set up an area somewhere in your home to stage all the stuff you’re getting rid of… because next, you have to figure out where it goes.

How to get rid of it

Now that you’ve started purging down to stuff you love, how do you get rid of the rest?  There are several options, each with varying levels of effort involved.  You’ll probably find that a combination of approaches is appropriate.

• Trash It / Burn It – Sometimes, it seems the easier way to make stuff disappear is to simply file it away in a dumpster. And while quickly freeing, it’s also the least responsible way to deal with the hole we dug ourselves into. I strongly urge you to consider other ways, except for the stuff that really is of no value to anyone.
• 

  Taking another load to the post office during my purge.

  Sell It - With resources such as eBay, Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace, classified ads, etc., getting cash for your stuff is viable and may help fund your upcoming adventure. It takes a bit of effort to make listings and complete transactions however. You’ll have to become a proficient shipper & packer if you’re mailing packages, and you’ll be constantly setting up appointments (that often get broken) for people to come and view your stuff.  When dealing with in person transactions, you’ll also quite likely get in the role of becoming a negotiator.  When you’re dealing with a household of stuff, it is going to become overwhelming at some point. I made it a game and had a good deal of fun with it. Don’t stress about making top dollar – the key to purging is speed and efficiency.  And be ready to give in when the overwhelm approaches. You may even want to consider hiring an estate liquidator who will come in and handle the entire process for you.

• Donate It - Some stuff is just too much effort to sell, and the tax write off and/or goodwill generated is worth more than the potential cash you can get. Donating to a favored charity is an awesome way to go.  Just remember to properly document your donations so you can get the proper tax credit if you itemize your returns.
• Freecycle It - Freecycle.org is site dedicated to Freecycling – freely giving things to those who can make better use of it. Each Freecycle group is locally organized, so the results can vary quite a bit. It can also be a bit of a pain, as you’re essentially putting in similar listing efforts as selling the items, and even though no cash is exchanging hands you still having to arrange to complete transactions.  Nothing is more frustrating than going out of your way to meet a Freecycle recipient only to have them change their mind at the last minute or not show up, leaving you with both the item and wasted time. But when you do find an appreciative new home for your stuff, it is mentally rewarding!

Journal from my 'House Cooling Party'. Everyone wrote what they were taking and what it would be used for.

• House Cooling Party – Some stuff, we just don’t want. But it may not be easy to sell, and may have more sentimental value attached than we want for it to go into the hands of strangers. For these items, I offer up the suggestion of a ‘House Cooling Party’.  The object here is social time with your friends before you venture off, but unlike a traditional house warming party, at a house cooling party all the guests are required to choose and take gifts from you household. This is a great way to find an appreciative new home for artwork and other hard-to-sell treasures, and it is especially efficient at clearing away the half-empty bottles from behind the bar! And bonus, when you come back to visit your friends in your travels, you also get to visit your treasured stuff displayed in their homes.
• Digitize Stuff – To reduce the amount of paper you have, consider having documents that are still relevant digitized. You can scan them yourself, or hire a service that does this. Photos, music, movies, etc. can all be converted or purchased as digital media, requiring only a large hard drive to store it. And if you are responsible with backups, digitized data has a much longer life expectancy than treasures stored in a damp and musty garage.
• Indefinite Loans - And for some items that we might eventually want back in our lives at a future date, such as beloved furniture, artwork, etc. – consider loaning it to trusted friends for an indefinite period of time. I was able to help a dear friend furnish her new home with my family’s heirloom teak dining room furniture, and still reserved my rights to take the pieces back should I ever ’settle down’ again or my friend can no longer make use of it. Be willing however to let go of these items if something should happen to them.
• Store It - For everything else that you just can’t part with, such as childhood mementos, family heirlooms and stuff you absolutely want should you settle down again  – compact it down as small as possible and store it.  We have a few boxes tucked away in a family basement, and we also keep a small storage unit in Sacramento that we have set up as walk-in closet – allowing us easy access to periodically “check out” books, movies, flying equipment and Burning Man gear. But we haven’t managed to stop by in over a year now, and we are looking forward to ditching the storage unit entirely this year.

Whichever ways you decide to go, give yourself ample time to complete the process, but do give yourself a hard deadline – circle a date on the calendar, tell your friends, and hold yourself to it!

It took me in total about 2 months to shed myself of everything in responsible and sane ways. For instance, I made goals for myself such as  “Today I will go through all documents from 1995-2000, and reduce my hanging wardrobe by 40%.”

Chris knew that he needed a deadline to motivate him, so when he decided to go nomadic he actually “evicted himself” by giving two-month notice on his apartment, before he even had researched a trailer or a tow vehicle to move into!  But having an immovable date on the calendar is exactly what he needed to be forced into action – turning his dreams into reality.

Don’t Pretend it is Easy

It may be physically easy enough to haul a garage full of boxes to Goodwill, or to dump years’ worth of old files into a shredder. But don’t force yourself to pretend that all this letting go is emotionally easy. You’ve held on to your stuff for a reason, and you need to honor your attachments and give yourself the emotional space to let go.

Some of the stuff we kept after purging.

It may seem silly – but you might just literally need to say goodbye. For example, take photos of yourself wearing all your dorky T-shirts one final time. Or make a video of you saying what you liked about each piece of artwork in your home.

For other things, doing some sort of personal ritual might be appropriate. For example, Chris took boxes of files with him to Burning Man his first year on the road, and added them to a burn pile on the final night – releasing years of mental baggage from his past jobs and life.

No matter what it is that is holding you down, there is a way to break free of it. Take the time and find it.

Life with Less Stuff

Even if you’re not embarking on full time travel, shedding yourself of stuff has lots of benefits.   You’ll have less cluttered space, which is usually much calmer and recharging. You may even be able to substantially downscale your living space and reduce costs.

And once you break the cycle of needing to acquire for acquisitions sake, you’ll find a lot more room in your budget – as you carefully consider stuff you bring into your life and space.

Riding the rails for a month - with just a backpack each.

Once you have the stuff you own concentrated down to stuff you love and value, you’ll find you value and use them even more.  On the positive side, this means your favorite sweater becomes one of your only sweaters. On the negative side, your favorite stuff may get more use and degrade faster than before.  You may spend more time maintaining the stuff you own because it’s used more, and difficult to replace with something as perfect.

Another thing that having less stuff has introduced me to is thrift shopping for my wardrobe. With a very limited space for clothing, and a strong appreciation for variety in my wardrobe, planning to replace a portion of my wardrobe regularly at a thrift store is both fun and very affordable.

When living in a small space and keeping hyper mobile, generally to buy something new you simply have to toss something old to make room for it.

The shedding never ends however. Even once you get all your stuff down to what you can carry with you – it’s a good idea to re-evaluate what you’re traveling with after you’ve been on the road a few months. It’s really not until you’ve lived a fully mobile life that you comprehend what your style is.  You’ll probably find that a decent percentage of the stuff you thought you just had to have with you, never gets touched.  It’s time to toss it and lighten the load.

And we’ve also found that we like to change it up frequently, and regularly re-tool our arsenal of stuff to match our current traveling preferences.  When we make such transitions, going through everything and re-purging is such a freeing experience and a bit of ritual to mark changes in our traveling life.  And, because we keep on top of it – it’s generally not an overwhelming experience.

My story of shedding stuff

My path to shedding my stuff started long before I embarked on full time travel. It was the gift from a friend of the book The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture by Dell deChant that awakened me to the consumerism cycle that is akin to a cosmological religious practice in our culture.  I started to become much more conscious of my spending habits and the stuff I acquired. It had to have a needed purpose, and not just fulfilling what seems like a spiritual and/or emotional need.

Cherie - The Purge Genie (My shipping station).

And then while living on the east coast of Florida in 2004, I experienced three back-to-back mandatory evacuations of my beachside home due to hurricanes.  There’s something about packing up everything you deem essential into your car and leaving your home behind facing impending doom that really forces you to evaluate what stuff really matters. So when Chris proposed that I hit the road full time with him in early 2007, it was an easy transition – as I had already done the mental work.

Inside of a couple months I shed myself of about about 70% of my possessions and left my home behind, putting it on the market to hopefully sell.  I purged through old financial records that long ago needed to be tossed, stripped my wardrobe down to fit inside a small box, sold off books/movies/music that I hadn’t touched in years, shed old technology that was obsolete for my life – and hit the road with just what I needed (and a few grand in cash from selling stuff.)  It was easy, and even fun, to purge as I utilized eBay, Amazon Marketplace, Craigslist, Freecycle and donating to local charities.

With each item gone, my world seemed a shade brighter and freer. My house did sell a year later, and I shed the remaining stuff in quick order – leaving me with just what I carry with me, and a few boxes that I leave at Chris’ parents basement.

I actually found a lot of joy in the purging process, and for a while – experimented with running a professional consulting and purging service that I called ‘Purge Genie’.  I would help people go through their stuff, decide what was worthwhile trying to sell, and then sell it for them.  I got really good at managing eBay, Amazon and Craigslist – and became quite an expert packer. Eventually, I got over the charm of it because dealing with other people’s stuff by moving it into my space became a burden to my own happiness.  But it was fun way to help people escape their clutter.  (Incidentally, I still own the domain name and have all supporting business aspects built – if this sounds like a fun business idea to you, let’s talk! I’m ready to shed my shedding business.)

<— Read Chapter 2: Affording Full Time Travel

Resources:

Sell Your Crap – Adam Baker’s of Man vs. Debt very comprehensive eBook about selling your stuff via eBay, Amazon and Craigslist. He covers everything you need to know about being a successful seller and getting rid of all of your crap. Adam walks you through step-by-step in setting up your accounts, writing listings that sell and pricing your crap.  Highly recommended.

Getting Rid of It: The Step-by-step Guide for Eliminating the Clutter in Your Life (Live the Good Life) - Kindle book by fellow nomads Betsy & Warren Talbot that goes step-by-step in more detail than I covered in this chapter about the purging process.

No Excuses: Go Nomadic

This article is part of an ongoing series answering the common excuses folks give us for why they’re not pursing their dreams of full time travel.  We launched this series a few years ago as Answers to the Common Excuses - and are in the process of massively updating it.  We’ll be releasing newly updated & expanded chapters over the coming months.  We’ll be addressing topics like: Affording It, Family, Pets, Logistics, Healthcare, Community, Keeping Connected and more.

Read the whole series:  No Excuses: Go Nomadic

eBook version - This blog series is also available as convenient eBook. We offer this compilation on a ‘pay as you wish’ basis, and will be keeping it updated with the blog series.  We don’t aim to make a living off our blog, but a little support to keep the blog going is always appreciated (buying the eBook is kinda like taking us out for a beer).

Cost: Pay As You Wish (really… just set the price!)

PDF Format

Once I get past the ‘ouch’ or ‘you should see a doctor about that’ or ‘add some fiber to your diet!’ comments – then I explain.

I haven’t used shampoo in over four years.

I think [...]]]>

Four Years Shampoo Free - Look, No Maggots!!

I love the look on people’s faces when I tell them I’ve been no-poo for over 4 years now.

Once I get past the ‘ouch’ or ‘you should see a doctor about that’ or ‘add some fiber to your diet!’ comments – then I explain.

I haven’t used shampoo in over four years.

I think the image that conjurs up is unruly matted dreads or maggot ridden smelly tangly manes.  Which is not how my naturally curly red (enhanced) hair looks.  And actually, my hair has never been healthier and more manageable than since I went shampoo-free.

Notice I didn’t say I don’t wash my hair.   Instead, I use a combination of baking soda and diluted apple cider vinegar as the primary cleansing for my hair.

I posted on this topic at my two year mark of being poo-free, and thought this would be a great time to update it.  As not only two years later do I still not own a bottle of shampoo, my partner-in-crime (with his shoulder blade length enviable straight silky hair) has also been poo-free for many years now too.

How it started

It originally started when I came back from my first Burning Man in 2007, and my hair was ultra dry, brittle and frizzy. It was also a few months after first hitting the road full time. And after months of traveling in a 16′ trailer without any plumbing, I wasn’t able to keep up with a regular regiment of shampoo, rinse, repeat.  The combination had done its damage.

Yellowstone National Park - 2007. Just before going poo-free. (Ok, the wind might help make it look worse than it was.)

My hair had always had ups and downs of being frizzy and unmanageable – but this was a new low.  No amount of conditioner, trimming or treatments was fixing it.  I came to the conclusion that I either needed to cut it off and let it regrow, or try something drastically different to restore it. A friend happened to post that she was trying this thing called ‘nopoo’ to help control her frizzy hair, so I decided I had nothing to lose, gave it a shot and never looked back.

The benefits of going Shampoo Free

I learned that not only do we humans not actually need shampoo, it’s unhealthy for us! Shampoo is a detergent and literally strips our hair of natural oils, then requiring replacement of those oils with conditioners and treatments. It becomes an endless cycle of cleaning, damaging and restoring.  Shampoo also contains lots of chemicals, including mineral oils (that are byproducts of oil distillation) and sodium lauryl sulfate (which is on the material data sheet as a chemical that you should avoid body contact with).

The more I embraced a no-poo lifestyle, I learned that there are many benefits – especially for us full time nomads.

Here’s just some of the benefits I’ve enjoyed for the past 4-years:

1. Significantly improved the health of my hair – my hair used to be frizzy and I frequently had bad hair days.
2. Saves me tons of money (I spend only a buck or two a month on hair care).
3. Saves me tons of time – a quick shower is all I need on most days.
4. Reduced impact on the environment – so many less chemicals I’m leaching into the water supply, and less plastic use too.
5. Better for my overall health.
6. Removed myself one more step from the consumerist economy of health and beauty ‘aids’.
7. Endless supply of jokes about poo.
8. Saving water!

And that last one, water conservation, is an important one when living in an RV or any off-grid lifestyle.

In the past, our RVs had small holding tanks (none in the T@b, 38 gallons in the Oliver) – so saving water was essential for our off-grid lifestyles.  In the Oliver, with us both being poo-free – we were able to make that 38 galloons regularly last 2 or more weeks at a time.  Now with the bus, we have 100 gallons of fresh water capacity – it’s like an oasis in here!

Going shampoo free allows us to just rinse or dampen our hair daily to pull a brush through it, and then do our no-poo routine a few times a month.  With no bubbles to rinse out, I use very little water even on my washing days.

Myths about No-Poo

Over the years, I’ve heard lots of excuses as to why people won’t give shampoo-free a try.  Here’s some of them:

It’s gross and people who don’t shampoo smell

We bath and shower regularly, our clothes are clean and our hair smells, feels and looks clean! Whenever I tell a hair stylist that I’m poo-free, they’re intrigued and tell me that my hair is some of the healthiest & cleanest they’ve seen.  I even had one tell me that if I ever need it – she’d testify that I don’t have maggots living in my tresses.  If I ever see you in person, just ask – I’ll let you touch and smell my no-poo hair. (And no, your hair won’t smell like salad dressing either – the apple cider vinegar rinses out clean smelling.)

It only works for curly hair

While using less shampoo is indeed good for lots of folks with naturally curly hair, no-poo can work for a wide range of hair types.  Chris and I have just about complete opposite hair types (mine naturally curly, his silky straight) – and it works great for both of us.

I can’t style or color my hair if I go no-poo

Totally not true.  Going no-poo only means going shampoo free – it does not mean going style-free.  My hair’s natural color is a boring dark strawberry blonde – but I love to play with colors!  The past several years I’ve been doing vibrants reds.  I’ve used everything from cheap department store kits, henna and professional stuff that I use at home. I follow the directions on the package (realizing that using a hair color is not necessarily healthy or in line with the benefits of a poo-free life) and then rinse thoroughly.

I then avoid using my cleansing regiment for a week or so, to let the color set as much as possible. I condition often to help restore my hair to healthy.   And yes, I do use conditioners in my hair when I feel my hair needs them.

I tried it once… it was awful!

Yup, if you try it once or only for a week or so – it is simply gross and awful.  You see, shampoo strips our hair of our natural oils – and it takes time for our scalps to find its balance when we take away that stripping cycle.   The first 2 or 3 weeks of transition are the worst. Our scalp is still overcompensating on oil production, and our hair is adapting.  It really does take a solid month or more of being poo-free to see the benefits.  During that time, I wore my hair up a lot and just got through it.  I started out using more baking soda & apple cider vinegar than I do now (I used to use it a couple times a week… now perhaps a couple times a month.)

What’s the routine?

My hair care regiment - Baking Soda & Apple Cider Vinegar

For me, I wet my hair and pour about a teaspoon or two of baking soda in my palm. Let a little bit of water turn it into a paste and scrub it all over my hair and scalp. I let it sit for about a minute while I soap up my body, and then rinse.  The baking soda is the cleaning part – it cleans and neutralizes odors.

I follow up (sometime a couple days later, sometimes at the same time – I’ve just learned to read my hair and what it needs when) with about a cup or so of diluted solution of apple cider vinegar and water. Generally I dilute 1 part AVC to 3 parts water – but I don’t measure. The AVC is what gets rid of build up – stuff from your environment or any products you might use.

Sometimes, depending on the climate I’m in I may also use a conditioner to give my hair some extra moisture. I’ve also found that a couple drops of jojoba oil smoothed into my hair does tremendous awesome things in dry climates.

There’s really no right or wrong recipe. I’ve just learned to feel what my hair needs and adjust based on the current climate I’m in or what damage I’ve done to my hair recently (coloring, Burning Man, being in the desert, etc.).

If you have additional questions or want to learn more: This is the original post I learned about poo-free from that gives tons more information and ideas.

When [...]]]>

<—-  Read Chapter 1: Jobs, Careers and Income Sources for Travelers
Read Chapter 3: Purge your Stuff, Shed the Anchors  —>

When you add up the airfare, hotel costs, parking, car rental, dining out, attraction tickets, tours, pina coladas, pet sitters and more – a typical American 1 week vacation adds up, often astronomically.  Even if you shop for sales and bargains, many folks need to save up for months, or even years, to manage a single memorable week-long trip.

And then they return home both exhausted and broke.

The overall numbers get even more unpleasant when you consider that while on vacation you still keep paying your normal living costs as well – the bills for your rent or mortgage, utilities, lawn maintenance, debt payments, pest control, security system, etc.

When a lot of folks contemplate a life of full time travel, they mentally calculate what their last weeklong vacation cost, multiply that by 52, and immediately conclude that they will never be able to afford it.

They’re wrong.

Traveling full time as a lifestyle isn’t the same as going on vacation full time.

Being nomadic is just as much a lifestyle choice as residing in the suburbs, an urban loft or a rural farm.

When you design your life to travel full time, your travels costs take the place of a lot of your previous housing costs… providing you are willing to leave your former fixed base behind.

Redefine Travel

Travel doesn’t have to cost a fortune, as long as you don’t equate travel with paying for a luxury resort or flying first class all the time. There are many ways to travel that are more affordable, even if you are planning to circumnavigate the world.  Lonely Planet estimates that you can travel the world for as little as $14,000/year if you make efforts to keep your costs under control.

Some more affordable choices to consider for full time traveling include:

• RVing – Putting your house on wheels gives you the benefits of always being at home and always being in a state of travel. You wake up in your own bed every morning, it just happens to frequently be parked somewhere new.  RVs suitable for traveling & living in can be purchased in just about any size range and on any budget – from a couple thousand dollars on up into the millions.  You can choose to stay in campgrounds, RV Parks or optimize your free boondocking skills. Yes, you have fuel costs in a gas-guzzling huge vehicle – but you have complete control over how many miles you drive in a year to balance that.
• Cruising / Boating - Many travelers hear the siren song of the seas, and choose to buy a boat and live life on the water. Sailing is a great way to go, as you can limit your fuel costs as long as you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere. If you learn to do your own maintenance, live-aboard sailing can be surprisingly affordable.
• Minimalist Travel – Backpacking, tent camping, staying at hostels, budget motels and/or Couchsurfing are all ways to see the world at a quicker pace while reducing the cost of lodging.
• Subletting, renting and/or house-sitting - Longer term rentals on places, or exchanging care taking for free lodging, are a lot more obtainable (and more comfortable) than short nightly rentals of hotel rooms or hostels.  You won’t get your nomad membership card taken away if you don’t change locations every week.
• Seasonal/Temp Work – Some seasonal and temporary jobs provide accommodations. Some examples include seasonal work at tourist destinations, hosting at campgrounds, teaching English as a second language, taking part in a harvest, peak season vacation area temp jobs and more. If lodging is provided, you don’t need to earn a lot to afford staying in an exotic locale.
• Volunteering – Some longer term volunteer jobs provide accommodations, and perhaps even food.  WWOOFing (volunteering on organic farms across the world) and other positions are great opportunities!
• Travel Slower - Constantly hopping around places means paying a higher nightly rate for campgrounds & hotels, and lots of transportation costs. Staying longer at your destinations allows you more time at a location to immerse yourself, and spreads out the major costs.  Sometimes monthly rates for a place are barely more than the weekly rate, a huge savings if you aren’t in a rush to move on. Besides, us mobile workers do need to carve out time to work!

The key is to distance yourself from the idea that travel has to be a luxury vacation. Nor does it have to be a minimalist frugal pursuit.

There is a balance to be struck for every conceivable budget.

Get rid of unneeded expenses 

It’s amazing how much more affordable life is when you’re not paying for a lot of the things that we tend to accept as being default costs of living.

Imagine what your budget would be like if you kept income coming in, and you cut out all of your housing expenses? What are you currently paying for rent or mortgage, insurance, property taxes, upkeep and utilities?  What if that was instead your monthly travel budget – how much could you do with that?

If you own your home, that may mean selling your house or renting it out – perhaps not as easy to do in this economy. But if you want it to happen, it will.  If you have a lease on something, it is even easier to allow your obligation to expire.

Unless you’re ready to purge absolutely everything, you’ll probably find that you’ll need storage space somewhere – either by paying for a commercial unit or utilizing a friend’s basement. I highly recommend considering shedding yourself of as much stuff as possible if you’re considering traveling indefinitely.   Paying for storage space for stuff you’re unlikely to ever need again is kind of silly – but you may not be ready to purge the last of your anchors until you’ve fully embraced full time travel for a while.

Debts

It goes without saying, debts are a huge anchor – whether or not you’re considering travel.

It is important to structure your life to pay off any you have and avoid accumulating them in the first place.  I know it may seem insurmountable, but once you put your mind to do it, it’s achievable and freeing.

When you’re preparing for a nomadic lifestyle, seriously consider every purchase you make from this moment forward. Remember, you’ll soon be deciding how you’ll dispose of the item .. or you will be (perhaps literally) carrying it with you.  Switch now to buying less stuff, and put that money towards your debts or savings.

However, if you have debts – don’t let them necessarily keep you back from pursuing your dreams of travel.  If you’re paying your debts and living costs now, the travel costs are basically going to replace your living costs – and could even be less.  You’ll just have to account for what your total cost of living on the road will be, including your debt repayments.

To ditch or not ditch the house?

Many homeowners who are pondering a nomadic lifestyle are faced with the decision of what to do with their home.  Sell it or rent it out?

Selling

If you’re sure you’re done with a stationary home and ready to be mobile for the foreseeable future, ditching the house is probably a logical solution.  Call up some real estate agents in your area and develop a plan to aggressively sell your house.   Stop thinking of it as ‘home’ and concentrate on your life of mobility ahead.

Unfortunately, in most markets, real estate prices are still quite depressed – and selling a home may be a costly proposition.  You may even have to take a loss on the property to get out of the mortgage obligation, or negotiate with your lender to consider other options.

Consult with several real estate agents in your area as to what they think your home can realistically sell for, and in what time frame.  If you need a higher price, it may take significantly longer to find the right buyer.  Consider what the total cost of continuing to pay all of your housing costs will be while you keep your house on the market.  You may come to determine that in the interest of getting on with your life already, taking that loss upfront may enable you to drop your asking price and get the house sold quicker.  You might even consider taking out a personal loan to cover the loss, so you can get out of your house and on the road.

Renting

If you’re not quite sure if the nomadic life will be for you long term, or you have other reasons to hang on to your property – keeping your house may be in your best interest.  You can rent out the house to cover at least part of the cost in the meantime.

The downside to renting out your house is that now you’re suddenly working a part time job as an absentee landlord while simultaneously trying to explore a mobile lifestyle.  Do you really want to be dealing with late rent payments and broken water heaters while adapting to your new life of adventure?  Hiring a competent local property manager may be an expense that is well worth it.

Another consideration is that rental prices in your area may not currently be enough to cover the cost of upkeeping your home. You may end up shelling out some cash to secure your homestead while you’re gone.  It’s totally up to you if that’s worth the freedom you’ll gain or not.

Typical costs of Travel

Folks always want to know what it costs to travel full-time. And honestly, it will vary so drastically based upon the kind of travel you’re doing and your personal style that there is no simple answer.

A solo traveler comfortable with a back-pack, a train pass and couchsurfing is going to be able to travel much cheaper than a couple who desires swank downtown lofts, first class airfare and gourmet dining.  A family traveling in a high end motorcoach staying at commercial RV resorts is going to have different costs than a family traveling via bicycles and pitching tents.

In general however, here are some considerations that greatly impact the costs:

• Modality of Travel:  Will you be getting around by hitchhiking, car, RV, train, plane, boat, bicycle?  What is the fuel efficiency of your RV, and how many miles do you plan to traverse a month?  Is your travel flexible enough to take advantage of deals, ride-shares, and are you willing to invest the effort to maximize frequent flier programs?
• Pace of Travel:  Do you plan to move around a lot, thus having more transportation costs and lodging logistics?  Or do you want to settle down in one spot for a month or more? Slower travels allows you to take advantage of monthly rentals and spreads out your transportation costs, and leaves you with more time to explore a location instead of figuring out logistics for your next destination.
• Lodging Preferences: Where do you want to sleep at night?  Is staying on stranger’s couches or in dorm room style hostels sustainable for you long term?  Do you require a lot of space and privacy in your home base, or will a super tiny converted van do the trick?  Do you want to park your RV in populated areas with amenities, or do you want to stay out in the boonies far away from other people?
• Live like a tourist or a local?: Do you want to embrace how the locals live, and adapt your experience to what is more affordable..  or are you budgeting for tourist attraction tickets and eating western fare no matter the cost?

Our Costs

Our pre-nomad situations

Before Chris went nomadic, he had a Silicon Valley job that afforded him a penthouse apartment in downtown San Francisco. Chris evicted himself at the end of his lease, bought a small travel trailer and Jeep, and hit the road.

I was living beachside on Florida’s Space Coast in a 3 bedroom / 2 bath house I co-owned with a housemate who was also ready to move on.  The housing market was crashing faster than most other places in the country due to hurricanes and the space shuttle program coming to an end.  I quickly went from having sizable equity in the house, to being upside down in it.  We calculated the costs of keeping the house for 2 more years, and set that as the loss we were willing to take to give us the freedom to move on. Once we made that mental shift, it took less than a month to sell at a price we could stomach. Even though my savings account took quite a hit, it was incredibly liberating.

Travel Costs

To be completely upfront – we’re not on a mission to be as frugal and minimalist as possible – that’s just not our driving force. We’re both skilled high tech entrepreneurs with the capacity to earn as much as we’re willing to work.  By avoiding making financial commitments wherever possible we have the flexibility to be lazy bums when we want to, and take on inspiring projects when we feel so called.

That said, neither of us is independently wealthy.  We have moderate savings and investments, but certainly not enough to never have to work again.

We are however completely debt free.

We have a mix of fixed costs each month that include our connectivity, insurance and a storage unit (ugh).  And then we have costs that can vary quite a bit each month based on what we’re doing – fuel & transportation, lodging, campground fees, eating, airfare, rail fare, entertainment, laundry and technology.

We do mix up our pace and style of travel often – and presently we’re traveling the US in a pimped out converted vintage bus.

We love variety though and have integrated in a 5-month stay on a tropical island, extended travel by rail and minimalist RVing in a tiny 16′ travel trailer.

Our costs have varied from $1000 – $4000/month over the years.

Since 2009 we’ve published our monthly travel cost log.

You CAN afford it!

If you really embrace nomadic living as a lifestyle, you will find it surprisingly easy to afford.

Shed your debts, stop paying for a home base, and stop thinking of travel as an expensive indulgence. Once you’ve managed the transition, you will find that life can be rich with experience and yet extremely affordable as well.

<—-  Read Chapter 1: Jobs, Careers and Income Sources for Travelers
Read Chapter 3: Purge your Stuff, Shed the Anchors  —>

Resources:

Travel full-time for less than $14,000 per year. – An excellent article by professional hobo Nora Dunn, about how to keep full time world traveling inexpensive.

Strategies for Affording Long Term Travel - The folks over at Two Backpakers One World share their tips on saving money and affording long term travel.

Nomadic Matt – Matt Knepes has been budget traveling the world for many years, and shares many of his tips and strategies on his blog and in his various eBooks.

You vs. Debt - Man vs. Debt’s Adam Baker has put together a 6 week course to help those struggling with debt develop and keep to a plan to get out of it.  Keep an eye on when the next class is open.

Travel Hacking Cartel - Run by travel hacker extrodinaire, Chris Guillebeau, this monthly membership club tracks frequent flier & hotel programs for deals to build up your free travel accounts without traveling.  (We tried it for a couple months, and it was more effort than we were willing to put in.. but it might be worthwhile.)

No Excuses: Go Nomadic

This article is part of an ongoing series answering the common excuses folks give us for why they’re not pursing their dreams of full time travel.  We launched this series a few years ago as Answers to the Common Excuses - and are in the process of massively updating it.  We’ll be releasing newly updated & expanded chapters over the coming months.  We’ll be addressing topics like: Affording It, Family, Pets, Logistics, Healthcare, Community, Keeping Connected and more.

Read the whole series:  No Excuses: Go Nomadic

eBook version - This blog series is also available as convenient eBook. We offer this compilation on a ‘pay as you wish’ basis, and will be keeping it updated with the blog series.  We don’t aim to make a living off our blog, but a little support to keep the blog going is always appreciated (buying the eBook is kinda like taking us out for a beer).

Cost: Pay As You Wish (really… just set the price!)

PDF Format

They crave a slower pace to more fully immerse themselves in different cultures and experiences. More opportunity to enjoy quality time with far flung friends and family. [...]]]> Many people have dreams of long term travel, something that is more than the typical 1-2 week vacation a couple times a year (or every couple of years!).

They crave a slower pace to more fully immerse themselves in different cultures and experiences. More opportunity to enjoy quality time with far flung friends and family. A chance for ever broadening horizons, not constrained by a “back to work” deadline.

That sort of long term travel is generally thought of as reserved for:

• Retirement – when life savings, pensions and social security can cover the expenses, and one has completed a career and put that phase of life behind them.
• Before career – fresh out of school before one commits to a career and family, taking a few months or years to explore the world.
• In between careers – when a current careers is no longer rewarding, quit, take off and travel for a while before re-entering the workforce.

Essentially, extended travel is often to the exclusion of work or career. It’s something you do after you’ve ended a career, or in-between phases of life.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with these approaches.  Taking time in-between life chapters, and focusing on travel, can give one very deep insights into themselves and the world. Valuable stuff.

But what if now is when you want to travel, not some distant post-retirement future when your health and physical capabilities may no longer be up for the experience?

What if a year just isn’t enough to experience the world?

There is another option.

Combining Career and Travel

Not many of us are in a position to entirely quit the workforce, retire early and sustain our desired lifestyle. Some of us actually enjoy working, embrace our careers, and aren’t itching to escape them. And others, despite vigilant financial planning, haven’t been able to acquire enough savings to travel without some sort of supplemental income.

Our generation, Gen-X, in particular was brought up believing that social security likely wouldn’t be around by the time we reach a traditional retirement age. The old concept of retirement just doesn’t play into many of our generation’s long term plans.  Some of us are pursuing a sustainable work/life balance that can last our entire life.  We’d rather fully enjoy our lives now, instead of putting off our dreams for some future that may not exist for us.

There are certainly many careers that are not apt to a full time traveling lifestyle.  For those passionate about such a career path, that is reason enough to put off full-time travel. In the meantime, find ways to integrate in purposeful travel into your vacation time, sabbaticals, and/or by creatively extending business related trips.

You might be surprised at how much flexibility you actually have – many part-time nomads manage to negotiate time-off (without pay) to turn the typical two week American vacation into two or more months off each year. You never know until you ask, or sometimes issue an ultimatum.

But if you’re not on a stationary career track that inspires you, and travel is calling you louder, perhaps it’s time to explore creative ways to re-think how you might make it work.

There are generally two different ways to go about earning an income while traveling.

First, find work that naturally integrates in travel.

Or, design a “location independent” career that involves work that can be done primarily remotely, letting you work from wherever you are.

Here are some examples to get you thinking…

Careers with Travel Built In

A nomadic life based on following the work is nothing new at all – it’s been part of human culture since the earliest adventurers got the itch to explore the world around them.

There are many career paths that can require, or be adapted to, travel as a core component of them.

• Artists & Jewelers
• Musicians
• Seasonal Workers
• Festival Workers
• Truck Drivers
• Migrant Workers (harvests, oil fields, etc.)
• Construction and Craftsmanship
• Contract Medical Staff (nurses, doctors, technicians, etc.)
• Journalism
• Photographers
• Cruise Ship Staff
• Fishing or Boat Crewing
• Military Service
• Traveling Sales
• Therapists & Body Workers
• Hair Stylists & Cosmeticians
• Tattoo Artist
• House & Pet Sitters
• Tour Guides
• Amusement Park Staff
• Providing Services (cleaning, organizing, computer setup, handyman, etc.)
• Repair & Technician Work
• Temp Workers
• Performance Artists (balloon twisters, dancers, comedians, gymnasts, fire swallowers, etc.)
• Conference Speakers
• Trainers & Teachers
• Teaching English as a Second Language
• Volunteer Jobs (that cover some living expenses)
• Consultants & Designers
• Workamping  (exchanging services for RV parking and/or pay)

Many of these career paths could utilize travel as part of the means of getting to a work site, but often may require adjusting your travel plans to meet the schedules of work obligations (military service!). You may have to strike a balance that works for you between giving up control of your schedule and destinations, and having work that actually pays you to see the world.

Other nomadic career paths allow for travel totally in your control, but you need to have faith that you can show up to a location and market yourself to find gigs.

There are some jobs (particularly in remote areas – such as oil fields, fishing or mining) that offer a rotating schedule of intense periods of work (weeks to months at a time) then lots of time off. Taking a job that involves such hard intense work for a month straight may be grueling, but it is balanced out with time off to travel extensively before you need to return.

One nomad we know has spent the past few years working the seasons in Antarctica as support staff at McMurdough Station. His long stretches spent living on the ice is balanced with seasons spent full-time on the road exploring other parts of the world.

Working Remotely

With the advent of wireless broadband, there’s a whole new class of mobile careers available. They’re digital nomads and location independent professionals - or as we prefer to call ourselves, technomads.

Some examples of careers that can be done remotely from anywhere with decent connectivity might include:

• Programmers
• Developers
• IT managers
• Database managers
• Bookkeepers / Accountants / CPAs
• Lawyers
• Personal Assistants
• Web Designers
• Writers
• Editors
• Bloggers
• Podcasters
• Photo & Videography Work
• Affiliate Sales
• Social Media Specialists
• Product Evangelists
• Bargain Hunting & Re-Selling Online
• Online Products & Stores
• Graphic Designers
• Online Professors
• Personal and Professional Coaches
• Consultants & Advisors
• Freelance Writers
• Customer Support
• Agents (travel, insurance, etc.)
• Investors / Traders
• Transcriptionists
• Translators
• Researchers / Information Providers

These are folks who can utilize technology to take the office with them untethered by ethernet cables and phone lines. Sometimes people pursuing digital nomadism have existing gigs lined up before they hit the road, and sometimes they search for remote working compatible gigs as needed by searching outsourcing job boards such as:

http://www.craigslist.org
http://www.elance.com
http://www.odesk.com
http://www.vworker.com

We’ve had friends who are IT consultants who took their lives completely mobile and actually didn’t tell their clients for months of the change. After all, who really knows (or cares) where the phone physically rings or where code is written?

The above lists certainly aren’t comprehensive of the options. It’s limited only to your creativity and passions.

What skills and interests do you have?  How can you adapt your skills into a job that allows you the level of travel you desire?

Brainstorm, and don’t let anyone tell you your idea isn’t worthwhile exploring.

Entrepreneur vs Employee?

Working on the beach (it's overrated, by the way)

There seems to be a common misconception that to be location independent, you have to be a self-employed, freelancing, entrepreneur.  This is not necessarily true.  While a self-disciplined motivated individual can do quite well being self-employed in a location independent career, it’s certainly not the only way.

As the world has become more and more virtual, and the economy has forced more companies to scale back on the costs of maintaining real estate, more traditional workplaces are becoming keen on allowing their employees to transition to becoming remote teleworkers. So why not take it a step further, and work from anywhere?

Some companies have even gone entirely virtual – with no fixed office at all.

One company run by a friend of ours has employees all over the world who only ever see each other at their quarterly week-long working retreats, always held in an exotic new city so that when the team comes together they can bond by mixing work and play.

Of course, not all positions are going to be able to be done remotely, particularly factoring the uncertainties that come with working while traveling. However if you have a job that you think you could do from anywhere, you might want to consider coming up with a proposal for your boss.

Don’t expect your employer to jump right on the opportunity, and expect that you may have to prove you can do it by perhaps starting with working from home a couple days a week.  It is possible however, and really all depends on how open minded your workplace is and how critical your role is to your organization. It likely won’t be an overnight transition, but if you like your current career and job but just want to do it from anywhere – think creatively on how you can make it happen.

If you are willing to negotiate a lower salary in return for fewer mandated office hours and more travel flexibility, you might be surprised as to what your bosses might agree to.

On the other hand, not working for someone as an employee is very freeing.  It also means being quite disciplined and resourceful to both find work and keep your clients happy, as well as figuring out all of the logistics of running  a company – paperwork, taxes, healthcare, insurance, etc.

If you’ve never run your own business before, it may be daunting to approach learning the ropes while also adapting to a fully mobile lifestyle. How much of a change you’re up for is going to vary quite a bit by person, skills and tolerance.

Working less or working smarter?

After Timothy Ferris’ book The Four Hour Work Week came out, a bunch of folks got the notion that they could set up online businesses, outsource the bulk of the work, and only work 4 hours a week while earning a bunch of cash and playing the rest of the time.

Sure, it may be possible for some, and there’s good stuff in Tim’s book that can really help folks think differently about the role work plays in their life.  Just don’t get the idea that life as a nomad is always a full time vacation.  It takes a lot of work to set up and maintain a passive income stream – so much so that for most it’s really hard to call what they end up doing all that passive.

Most of the mobile working nomads we’ve encountered don’t have a life of complete leisure or a passive income stream.  True, we may not be always working a typical 40+-hour work week plus commute, but we are putting in productive hours with deliverables.  We just tend to do it smartly without all the wasted time that tends to come with an office life.

Many of us are working in careers that inspire us in some way, better the world and that we actually enjoy. And we’re doing it from amazing places with ever-changing amazing office views.  Instead of ending our workday (or night) and coming home to the same ole routine, we have a new location waiting for us to explore!

We’ve encountered such a variety of ways people make it work – from working a fairly normal work day, to those that work in waves of intense 12-15 hour days for a few weeks then coast for months after that.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it.  Just make sure it’s YOUR way.

Our Mobile Careers

Working for ourselves, and working remotely, is the primary route that Chris and I have taken.

I’ve been location independent since 1994 when I started taking over my family’s software development company, running it from my beachside home in Florida. I used to tease my clients when they called that I could be working from anywhere – by the pool or the beach.  Then I started taking it further.

When I needed to travel for work, I’d tack on personal days to explore, taking advantage of the majority of the travel costs having already been covered. Then I started taking longer personal trips where I integrated in a remote work day, and used my off-time to explore.  It worked well, and remarkably, I found I rarely felt the desire to take a conventional dedicated vacation.

I liked the balance of travel just being a regular part of my life and having the flexibility to just go with little need for pre-planning.

And I’ve never felt like I needed to escape my career – I already built something I loved.

When I met my lifemate Chris in 2006 (who was already living as a full time nomad), it all came together for me to totally remove myself from a fixed homebase and office, and I started the process of shifting my life to become fully mobile.

Before going nomadic, Chris had a career in the mobile technology industry – most recently having worked for Palm and PalmSource as their Director of Competitive Analysis (aka ‘Chief Spy’), traveling the world to keep tabs on the entire mobile tech industry. It was truly a job too good to give up until Palm  & Palm Source imploded. He had already long ago decided that this would be his last job for a big company, and his lay off propelled him to finally jump into something he always wanted to do – become a technomad.

Today, Chris and I together do various technology and strategy consulting as we travel via our partnership Two Steps Beyond LLC, mainly only taking on projects that inspire us and which are fun! I continue to work for many of my long term clients, and we’ve begun developing our own line of travel related mobile apps. We’ve also taken on several intense short term gigs that have included: advising tech start-ups, orchestrating new product launches, doing intensive market research, providing market insight to investors, selling our photography and travel videography, and writing for tech journals.

And when we have lulls in our workload, we’ve been known to take on temporary gigs outside our norm just to explore new things, such as workamping for a month at Amazon.com packing boxes during their peak holiday season.

We like to shake it up, explore new avenues of income, and most of all – have fun!

Read Chapter 2: Affording Full Time Travel —->

Resources:

A Practical Guide To Going Digital - Christine Gilbert over at AlmostFearless.com provides some amazing resources and inspiration. This eBook gives a lot of information working remotely and digitally.

25 Career Ideas to Design Your Location Independent Lifestyle - Carmen Bolanos, co-founder of NuNomad.com, put together an awesome round up of 25 mobile careers using examples of real nomads he has interviewed.

Work for RVers and Campers - Website maintained by a couple who has been full-timing for nearly 20 years and earning an income while they travel.

Digital Nomad Academy - An online program run by Cody McKibben to help those wanting to be a digital nomads set up and explore business ideas to create a mobile friendly career. Targeted to the entrepreneur minded who has yet to figure out how to make it work.

Reaching Escape Velocity - The original Technomad, Steve Roberts, shares how he used sponsors, the media, volunteers, and “other potent forces” to enable and afford his own massively ambitious technomadic undertakings.  If your planned adventures are audacious enough to draw this sort of attention, you need this book.

No Excuses: Go Nomadic

This article is part of an ongoing series answering the common excuses folks give us for why they’re not pursing their dreams of full time travel.  We launched this series a few years ago as Answers to the Common Excuses - and are in the process of massively updating it.  We’ll be releasing newly updated & expanded chapters over the coming months.  We’ll be addressing topics like: Affording It, Family, Pets, Logistics, Healthcare, Community, Keeping Connected and more.

Read the whole series:  No Excuses: Go Nomadic

eBook version - This blog series is also available as convenient eBook. We offer this compilation on a ‘pay as you wish’ basis, and will be keeping it updated with the blog series.  We don’t aim to make a living off our blog, but a little support to keep the blog going is always appreciated (buying the eBook is kinda like taking us out for a beer).

Cost: Pay As You Wish (really… just set the price!)

PDF Format

To which we of course reply ‘Then why aren’t you doing it too?’.

Over the years, we’ve compiled our responses to the common excuses that folks give us to that question, some [...]]]> Oftentimes when folks hear that we’ve been traveling full-time for so many years – we get the response of ‘You’re living my dream!’.

To which we of course reply ‘Then why aren’t you doing it too?’.

Over the years, we’ve compiled our responses to the common excuses that folks give us to that question, some very valid. We aim to share examples of others overcoming the challenges, our own stories and share resources to assist.   This will be a growing series, so please do check back to see what we’ve added.

We have greatly expanded and updated this series, and now offer it as a ‘Pay as you Wish’ eBook. By downloading and chipping in for the eBook, you are helping us fund our efforts to continue presenting this sort of information to those seeking it.  Thank you!

Currently in this series:

Excuse #1: Jobs/Career – Choose careers that are nomad friendly!
Excuse #2: Affording it - It can be far more affordable than you think!
Excuse #3: Stuff – Stuff is anchor, learn to live with what you really need
Excuse #4: Family - Travel can be an education for kids and keep you more connected to family
Excuse #5: Environmental Impact - You can travel and lower your ecological footprint on the world
Excuse #6: Pets - Some forms of travel are more pet friendly than others
Excuse #7: Community – Being nomadic opens up new opportunity for community
Excuse #8: Romance/Companionship – From solo travel to dealing with a partner who doesn’t share your wanderlust
Excuse #9: Logistics – How to handle mail, voting, taxes and banking – the mundane logistics.

Excuse #10: Healthcare – Considerations for health insurance when you travel full time.

Excuse #11: Overwhelm - Tips for handling the daunting tasks ahead of you for preparing your life to be mobile.
Excuse #12: Lack of Continuity - How to find services on the road when you need them

Excuse #13: Safety – Being mobile really doesn’t have more risky than being stationary – just different.

Excuse #14: Connectivity - How to stay connected online while in motion full time.

Excuse #15: Feeling Held Back (available only in the eBook!)
Excuse #16: Being a Homebody – Yes, you can be a homebody and travel full time!

This series has been greatly expanded - and is now available as a convenient 'pay as you wish' eBook!

What other excuses do you have, or have you encountered?  Reply in the comments, and we’ll address those too.

And what is that question?  Usually it’s something along the lines of:

One  that surprised us was a follower who thought our monthly expenses that we log were shockingly high.

He goes around the courtyard asking the short term tourists where they’re visiting [...]]]> A week or so ago we were attending a small musical performance not far from our seasonal rental cottage on St. John.  As entertainers often do to generate repoire and energy with their audience, the main singer asks where people are from.

He goes around the courtyard asking the short term tourists where they’re visiting from – Virginia, Maine, Ohio.

Then he comes around to us.  We look at each other, considering which reply we’ll give.. this time.

We shrug and point to the mountain behind us.

But it’s not a completely accurate answer.

Sure, for right now – we’re staying on St. John. But we’re not really locals – we know we’re moving on come spring to wherever our next destination might be. So we’re not making commitments to the local community beyond our intended stay.

And we’re not really tourists or visitors – we’re functioning and interacting with day-to-day life here. We deal with refilling propane tanks and drinking water, know where to park in town, deal with vehicle inspections, have a local mailing address and get a local’s discount.

Most folks when they travel have a home, somewhere they identify with as ‘living’ at, somewhere they will return to when their trip is over.  Answering the ‘where are you from?’ question has a quick concise answer for them. It’s printed on their return ticket.

For us perpetual nomads, there is no easy answer, and we sometimes fumble to find the right words.

How do we sum up that we have no home base – but yet, we’re not homeless.  That we’re currently staying down the road, but we’re not just visiting, nor intending to live in the general area long term. That the destination printed on our next ticket is just that, our next destination. And often, that ticket hasn’t even been purchased yet…

We embrace not having a quick and easy answer to the question ‘where are you from?’.

When we travel via RV, and we get asked about where we are from when the RV is in sight, it’s always fun to just point to our  little travel trailer.  It’s much easier for people to grasp our example of living nomadically when they can physically see wheels serving as the foundation of our home.  At that point the ‘where’s home’ question no longer needs to be answered with a city name, or a state.

Staying on St. John as seasonal transients has been an interesting experiment in terminology.  It’s kinda meta, actually. As now we’re nomadically living away from our nomadic home on wheels, that we may or may not actually return to.

When asked where we’re from, we commonly will ask in return for a definition of ‘from’.

• Do you mean where our legal address is?
• Do you mean where we’re sleeping tonight?
• Do you mean where we last were and where our RV is parked?
• Do you mean where we grew up?

Folks on St. John are pretty good about understanding seasonal visitors to the island since many folks snowbird down here during the winter and then return ‘home’ come spring.  And with a large full time cruising community that moors in the bays of the island, there’s a pretty strong grasp of mobile living here too.   So it’s been fairly easy to describe our situation to folks here without causing too much confusion.

But it’s never a quick answer like ‘California’.

We live nowhere. We live everywhere.

Part of being nomadic is embracing this.

Coverage provides an at-a-glance “universal” coverage map by interactively overlaying the coverage maps from the four major nationwide US cellular providers.

We came up for the idea last summer when we set up camp in a beautiful field of wildflowers [...]]]> \

We are beyond excited to present our newest iPhone/iPad app: Coverage?

Coverage provides an at-a-glance “universal” coverage map by interactively overlaying the coverage maps from the four major nationwide US cellular providers.

We came up for the idea last summer when we set up camp in a beautiful field of wildflowers along the continental divide in Colorado with strong AT&T and Sprint signals. We planned to spend a few days catching up on work, until AT&T notified us that we had used up our 24MB “Off Network” allowance for the month, and Sprint emailed us to let us know that our Aircard had exceeded their 300MB Roaming cap. Yet neither our iPhone, iPad, or Sprint Aircard in our Macs gave us any indication we were “roaming” until after we were notified that we would be shut off until the end of the month.

If only there were an easy way to look up where we might be roaming, and where the nearest 3G might be, without needing to go online to do it….

And thus Coverage was born.

Checking each individual provider’s coverage maps can be done – but there had to be an easier way! When you don’t have a signal, it’s near impossible to determine where you might next get one.

Us bandwidth junkies just sometimes need to know when we’ll get our next hit.

We designed Coverage to be simple, easy, and genuinely useful. Here’s some of what makes it great:

• Easily know before you go: Avoid having to check each provider’s coverage map individually to know where you’re most likely to keep connected.
• No internet needed: All overlay maps are stored locally, so you can check where coverage is most likely to be found even when you have none.
• Urban and rural maps: The maps cover the entire continental USA for AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile.
• Know where to roam: View 4G, 3G, 2G and roaming areas as separate overlays, focus on the coverage type you need.
• Universal App: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and IPad – iOS 4.2 and higher.

Here’s a quick video demo we made that tells the story behind the app, and gives some real world examples of how Coverage? can be useful:

Direct link to the video demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNNzUtjgJIo

Bask in the joys of mobile bandwidth while avoiding the sorrows of roaming usage caps and absent signal.

Get it now, before you need it – just 1.99.

Use Coverage to determine which direction is best to head towards, which route is likely to keep you the most connected in your travels or determing if you’ll be likely to have signal on your next trip.

Winner – ‘Most Useful App’ – iOSDevCamp 2010

The groundwork for Coverage was built at iOSDevCamp 2010, and was named ‘Most Useful App’ of the conference.  We are absolutely thrilled and honored to have won this award for our idea, and are excited to be at last releasing the finished app to the world.

 “Pretty simple, but also rather handy.” – Gizmodo, 1/11/11

Note that the maps in Coverage are our own interpretations of the coverage reported by each carrier. You should not rely on the maps in Coverage to be perfectly precise nor comprehsively up to date, though we intend to regularly update them.

We can of course make no promises as to where you’ll *actually* get signal. The goal of Coverage is to give you an indication of where you’re most likely to catch a wave, not provide neighborhood level precision.

So… Got Coverage?

Get it now, before you need it – just 1.99.

We released the first version of this guide in [...]]]> Whether you plan in advance for your camping or wing it, here are the tools that we use in our search for ideal camp spots. Unfortunately, there does not yet seem to be one unified resource listing all camping opportunities, so we utilize many different resources.

We released the first version of this guide in November 2009, and it’s time for an update, as there are many new resources available today!

Types of Camping

It’s good to first have some familiarity with the types of camping available:

Commercial/Private Campgrounds: Privately owned and operated campgrounds, they can be easy to find. They offer a full range of amenities; from bathhouses, laundry, WiFi, hook-ups, pools, hot tubs, recreation activities, gas/propane, stores and cable TV. These also come at a price, and can be quite crowded leaving little to no room between rigs. There are also membership RV Park clubs that you can join and have access to their park systems.

Public Campgrounds: These a government run (city, county, state and national) recreational parks that provide developed camping. The amenities and costs vary widely from just providing a spot to park with a picnic table to full bathhouses and electrical hook-ups, so do your research first if you have requirements. They’re usually a bit off the beaten path in gorgeous non-crowded places and less expensive than commercial campgrounds. Of course, some states with budget crunches have increased their rates to higher than surrounding private options.

Boondocking/Dispersed Camping: Boondocking refers to camping without provided amenities. Some public lands allow for dispersed camping, which are not developed campsites. The rules vary by agency and location, but generally you just need to find a spot off the road, away from water and leave no trace. Popular boondocking spots have primitive roads or worn trails leading to them.  Other boondocking options include staying overnight in Wal*Mart, Flying J, truck stops, rest areas or city roads.

Check Maps

Online Maps

We primarily use Google Maps on our iPhones & iPad and a Garmin StreetPilot 2720 for our navigating, and will utilize these resources to scope out potential camping locations. Sometimes, just doing a location based search for ‘campground’ or ‘RV Park’ will yield results for us, and then we can further research options from there.

Paper Maps

Yes, even in a digital age – paper maps can be a valuable resource.  Some maps are quite good about marking public campgrounds, even if only with a symbol.  We carry the Rand McNally Road Atlas 2010,USA/Canada/Mexico with us, as well as a variety of state maps we pick up at welcome centers when we cross into new states and AAA maps.

You’ll still need to research the area to find out the name of the campground. We’ve also found it’s quite often the case that national forests have far more developed campgrounds than maps show, and talking to a ranger is most helpful.

Computer Maps

When we first started out, we used Microsoft Streets & Trips on our laptops, but have since found that we hardly ever use it anymore given the number of other resources now available.  This can be a great option however if you don’t have internet access to browse maps online, and many of them also offer GPS navigation.

Mobile Applications

When we first starting looking for iPhone apps to create on our own – a campground locater was tops on our list. At the time, we could find no decent options.  More recently however, there seem to be a bunch of them – and we’ve been trying out several.  There still does not seem to be one single app that does everything – but there are some promising options.  We find ourselves using a combination of apps on our iPhone depending on the situation and type of camping or overnight parking we’re looking for.

	RVParking.com – Free This app has more than 18,000 listings in their database, which is also accessible online at their awesome RVParking.com park review site.  Both the website and app are newer, and the database is still being fleshed out.  We’ve found many duplicates, bad addresses, missing parks, and listings for mobile home parks that don’t allow RVs – but they are actively improving this by hiring factcheckers, and are actively listening to user feedback to improve the service. They do have a unique angle that we’re really excited about – integrating in full park info, user reviews, photos and profiles. We’ve been enjoying leaving reviews, and would love to see this website adopted by others.  If it can get a lot of following, it stands to be an excellent central source for finding RV Parking information on the go. And as a free app – it’s definitely worth checking out (just be prepared to do a bit of fact checking until the database gets cleaned up.)
	Camp & RV by Allstays – $3.99 This app features a wide variety of RV camping and overnight options – including some public campgrounds, private campgrounds, KOAs, truck stops, Walmarts (including those that don’t allow overnighting), rest areas (including wifi & RV dump availability) and RV repair & parts stores.  Each category shows up on maps with nicely labeled pins so you can quickly scan for what you need. The interface is fairly intuitive, and we like that the maps auto update with camping options as you scroll around.   We’ve found a fair amount of discrepancies in the database, and a lot of missing campgrounds, so it is not entirely comprehensive.  The app has built in feedback to the developer to submit corrections.  As this is the only app that tracks free overnight parking options, we mainly use this app when we’re in transit and just in need of a place to sleep for the night.
	Campwhere – $5.99 This app only covers public campgrounds – including city, county, national, state, forest service, BLM and Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds.  Since this is our preferred camping style, this app has been a great tool for us to quickly find our public camping options. The database seems pretty comprehensive and accurate, and smartly leaves off campgrounds that are not accessible by vehicle. In the map view, each type of campground is displayed in a different color. The user interface is so incredibly well done, that we wish they had a version that was completely comprehensive of all camping & overnight options so we could only use one app.  There is not much information to be found for each campground listing aside from the number of sites they have, coordinates, weather forcast and web link.  The app would be more useful if it listed amenities provided, prices and more.  Overall, for finding public camping options, this is our top choice app – especially since the app now also works full-screen on the iPad.

If the three apps above could be merged into one comprehensive, user friendly app – we’d be very happy campers! (The above links are affiliate links, we’ll get a small cut if you buy via them – but we only recommend products we actually love.)

Check for Free/Cheap Campgrounds

Free ACOE Camping near Junction City, KS

There are places where you can legally stay for free or very cheap. These are a mix of boondocking and developed campsites—usually run by small cities (to attract tourists), counties or national services. Some of these have been our most spectacular campsites along our journey.

Some retail locations—where allowed by local ordinances—have also opened their parking lots to overnight stays by RVers, most well known being Wal*Mart, Travel Centers and Casinos. Also, in many states, staying overnight in a rest stop is permissible. Sometimes, you can get away with parking on a public street for a night or two.

Some of our favorite resources for finding free camping:

OvernightRVParking – A collaborative resource of places for free or cheap overnight parking locations. The cost is $24.95 a year to join (and then you get free extensions when you add information to the database). Our favorite parts about this site are that they show the parking spots on a map (very useful) and provide very detailed information that is double checked by the site’s administrator. Unfortunately, with their subscription price – we’re concerned that this resource will be come less useful as less people will pay for access and contribute towards the data (we find the price highly worthwhile). For now, a very comprehensive listing – and we’d love to see their database released as a mobile phone application for easier access while on the go.  If you decide to join, mention you heard about it from Technomadia, and they’ll give us BOTH a free extra month of service.

FreeCampgrounds.com—a searchable database of free and under $10 camping locations, entered in by other campers. Many listings also have reviews and additional tips on finding the place and confirmations of details.  This is a free resource run by RVBookstore.com (who does advertise their books throughout the site), and information is not fact checked by anyone – so be sure to read follow-up comments and double check information.

FreeCampsites.net – A well designed site with interactive maps cataloging free camping by state run by fellow younger RVers.  We love that they utilize maps to find locations. They concentrate on listing scenic public spots, as opposed to retail parking lots for convenient overnight stays enroute.

Days End Directory - If you’re a member of Escapees.com (a great resource for full time RVers, even offering services like insurance, mail forwarding, etc), then for just $10 you can have access to this extensive directory of free camping options that is regularly maintained by other Escapees members.   (Note, we’ve personally not used this – but have heard great things about it from many trusted friends.)

Boondocking.org—Run by our friend and fellow nomadic-soul, Andrew Koransky, contains a database of coordinates to legal boondocking sites.

Some of these options require some familiarity with the area you’re in or going to, so be sure to know the names of local cities to help in your search.

Check Online Resources

Developed camping at Cedar Breaks National Monument

Of course, just searching online via your favorite search engine (Google being ours) yields great results!  We find a lot of our great camping by just searching for ‘free campground <city name>’ or ‘RV camping near <city name>’ or other such variations. You’ll find personal blog postings and websites that might mention great places people have found.

Here are some of the online resources that we’ve found to be quite useful for finding campgrounds:

Passport America – We just joined Passport America after many recommendations from fellow travelers as this being the only discount club worth joining. The club offers discounts (generally 50% off) at selected parks across the country.  Looking at their directory of campgrounds, they’re fairly well covered.  The membership is only $44/year, and we saved that just in our first use of the membership.  They also offer free mobile apps to help you located their membership parks.  The downside is, most participating parks have limits on when you can use the discount (such as a max of 3 nights, or not over holidays or peak times) – so always be sure to check the rules for any park you’re considering.  (If you purchase a membership using the above links, we’ll get a $10 credit for our next renewal.. thanks!)

RV Parking.com— This is a rather new site that we’re quite excited about. It allows users to browse for campgrounds and leave reviews. Unlike other review sites we’ve used, the reviews clearly indicate who left the review and point to their user profile – so you can better find reviewers who enjoy similar camping styles as you do. Our favorite feature is that they also have a free iPhone app to find campgrounds while you’re on the go. The database is still being fleshed out for accuracy – but once it is, we suspect this will be THE place to go to get reliable reviews and information on all sorts of campgrounds. Basically – if we were creating a RV Park guide, this would be how we’d do it. So come join us there, and leave reviews of your own to help contribute to this great project! So far.. it’s free!

State Park Guides—Most states have a central website that lists all their state parks, using Google to find them is generally quite easy. A lot of states have gone to using ReserveAmerica for their online reservations —which is another option for researching. Reserving your site (and paying the ‘convenience fee’) isn’t always necessary unless it’s peak season, a weekend, a popular spot or you just want to make absolutely sure you have a spot saved for you.

National Park Services— Use this search tool to find information on camping at National Parks (including National.Monuments, National Recreation Areas, etc.). Only a few national park campgrounds are reservable, and use recreation.gov to pre-book sites.

National Forestry Services—Use this site to look up a forest or grassland for information on both developed and dispersed camping options.

Recreation.gov- The source for reserving government run campsites. It generally only covers the more popular and reserveable campgrounds, so it’s not nearly comprehensive.

Army Corp of Engineers – These are some of the most under promoted campgrounds, and they’re usually quite spectacular —and free to cheap. You’ll have to use their website to track them down, and it’s often times not intuitive to do. Our trick is looking on maps for lakes and dams (where most ACOE campgrounds are), and then searching based on local cities and landmarks.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – A government agency managing land in many of the western states of the US. Dispersed camping is generally allowed on BLM land, unless otherwise noted and some even have developed campgrounds.

RV Park Reviews—The long time standard in finding RV Parks and reviews. An older and clunkier user interface than RVParking.com, but a wealth of history of reviews.

Useful Campground Books

We carry a set of campground books in our tow vehicle that give us a quick way to look up relevant information about public camping options we’re considering. Sometimes looking something up online is just more frustrating than it’s worth.  The books give us directions, amenities available, descriptions and prices.

The books we carry with us include:

AAA Campground Guides

RV Camping in State Parks

Corps Camping

Casino Camping – Guide to RV-Friendly Casinos – 4th Edition

National Park Service Camping Guide, 4th Edition

(Some links above are Amazon.com Affiliate links – if you end up purchasing some of the products we recommend, we’ll get a small cut of the purchase. We only recommend products we actually use ourselves.)

When all else fails: Trust Nomadic Serendipity

Sometimes, ideal camping spots just manifest themselves when we need them. There have been several times when we’ve found camping spots without actively looking for them – either by stopping and talking with locals and other travelers, following those handy little campground road signs or not being afraid to peak down a little dirt road into a forest.

Over the past years of full time travel, a frequent question we’re asked is: “What’s your favorite place so far?”   It’s become our least favorite question to be asked, and we’ve had to get creative in how we answer it.

I’ve always hated being asked to name my favorite of anything – colors, [...]]]>

Over the past years of full time travel, a frequent question we’re asked is: “What’s your favorite place so far?”   It’s become our least favorite question to be asked, and we’ve had to get creative in how we answer it.

I’ve always hated being asked to name my favorite of anything – colors, food, climates, movies, books, cars. Choosing just one as an ultimate favorite is painful. There’s generally always something to appreciate and take away from everything, and my favorite will vary depending upon the context.

When you’re traveling through somewhere – whether staying for a few hours or a few months – you learn that you don’t have to evaluate a place on what it doesn’t offer, but instead – what it does. A place doesn’t have to meet all of your criteria for what makes a place ideal – climate, scenery, culture, community, history, traffic, public transit and pace of life.  You begin to look at places differently, to find their hidden gems, what makes them unique and you seek out the beautiful in everything you encounter.

Being nomadic has given us the freedom to not have to choose a favorite place.  For if we had a singular favorite place, we’d likely just live there.

City Museum - St. Louis, Mo

No, our life is constructed for variety and we’re not looking for a singular place to eventually call home.  Different places speak to us in different ways – we love Utah for the dramatic changes in scenery, San Francisco for our diverse community and liberal culture, Black Rock City for it’s temporary nature, St. Louis for family & the unexpected, Austin for its Texas weirdness and great TexMex, Southern California for the people we know, etc, etc.

Why choose when you can have it all? Why look at things as ‘or’ when you can really have ‘and’?

So I think the next time I’m asked what my favorite place is so far, I’ll answer:

“Where ever I happen to be”

While our nomadic spirit is constant, our desire to be in actual motion waxes and wans. We go through periods of constant motion, a new place every night or two.  And then we crave stillness to absorb what is around us and concentrate on momentum in other areas of our lives.  And when the [...]]]>

While our nomadic spirit is constant, our desire to be in actual motion waxes and wans. We go through periods of constant motion, a new place every night or two.  And then we crave stillness to absorb what is around us and concentrate on momentum in other areas of our lives.  And when the nomad is still for too long, she eventually craves motion again.

It’s a nagging feeling that you’ve learned all you can for now at this location and you’re meant to be somewhere else, experiencing something new. It’s not a reflection of the current place at all – as great as the people are, as great as the scenery is, as perfect as the climate may be – it’s simply time to move on.

We’ve come to call that feeling the Nomadic Itch.

And its cure doesn’t come in a creme or pill form. When the itch hits, it’s simply time to move on. The nomad designs their life to be mobile for the ability to scratch that itch when it calls.

Nomads always know that nothing is permanent in their lives, and we must really appreciate the now. That’s why we sometimes feel compelled to fully embrace where we’re at, for we know the itch may flair up at anytime and we’ll be heading on down the road. Sometimes the feeling of unfinished business just doesn’t override the feeling of being still too long.

Some nomads may get the itch after just a couple days. Others may thrive best with several month long stays. Some have a lot of variability. There’s no formula for how much motion one must have to be a nomad.  The trick is being able to listen to yourself and find your own unique balance between motion and stillness, of routine and of change.

What’s your balance? How have you designed your life to respond to the itch when it hits?

In particular, pursuing a life of travel often comes with compromise. While living without a fixed address has many advantages, perpetually living on the road can be draining. For a taste of location independent freedom, you end up trading away the security of [...]]]> Breaking free from the templates of conventional living usually involves tradeoffs.

In particular, pursuing a life of travel often comes with compromise. While living without a fixed address has many advantages, perpetually living on the road can be draining. For a taste of location independent freedom, you end up trading away the security of a fixed home, a known place to work, and more.  Even the most hardcore traveler will eventually end up craving a night in his or her own bed.

But what if, despite the proverb.. you could take it with you?

For the past three years we have been doing exactly that.  Our home has wheels.

We have found that living in an RV has enabled us to embrace a fully technomadic lifestyle without compromising the freedom that comes from mobility, and without giving up the comforts of home.

We are never dependent upon expensive hotels, the uncertainty of couches or hostels, the fear of overstaying as a guest, or the lock-in of long-term rentals.

In our small geeked out and solar powered travel trailer, we can come to town for a day, or for months. We can stay in a driveway, or in the deep wilderness. And when we visit friends, we are temporary neighbors, not guests.

A few more of the advantages that help make it sustainable:

• Never Needing To Pack. Having your entire closet always with you means that you never need to play guessing games trying to figure out how to pack for the weather. We travel with a well thought out wardrobe, stocked kitchen, bathroom, bed, office, all our technology and more – and we also have room to bring along an airplane (powered paraglider), bikes, rollerblades, an inflatable kayak and other fun things. Living in a small RV combines radical life simplification with still having everything you want within arm’s reach.
  
• Location Flexibility. We’re able to check out new cities and towns without having to make a commitment or sign a lease, and very often we can even stay places for free by camping on public lands or with friends and family.   If we find we don’t like our neighborhood, we can literally hitch up and leave to find someplace better. And because we have solar power and sizable water and waste tanks, we are not even tied to the constraints of public utilities.
• Logistically Proven. Many of the logistical hurdles to living on the road full time in an RV have already been well pioneered by the sizable full time RVing retiree crowd. There are RV parks across the nation, mail forwarding services in many states, communities of other RV’ers, mobile volunteer opportunities, and even “workamping” jobs to help fund life on the road. (BTW – A great community of younger non-retiree RVers who are shaking the RVing template is NuRVers (link: http://www.nurvers.com).
• Variety of Experiences. We enjoy a life rich with variety – from urban stealth camping in the heart of major cities to scenic boondocking deep in a national forest. All the while we remain connected to friends, family, and clients via cellular internet.
• Incredibly Affordable. As long as you are willing to give up the cost of maintaining a “home base” somewhere, the RV’ing lifestyle can be incredibly affordable. In 2009, we spent less than $15,000 between the two of us for our 13,000 miles of travels across the country. This includes all of our fuel, camping fees, insurance, and cellular / internet service.

Of course, traveling by RV does have some limitations. The biggest constraint being where you can physically drive your rig.  For right now, we have been focusing on exploring the vastness of North America. But if you want a more global experience, you can ship your RV overseas, or buy / rent one on your next continent. And you can always park your home for a few months, grab a backpack, and hit a country or two that way.

All and all, we’ve found RV’ing to be an incredibly sustainable foundation for long term truly mobile lifestyle. It meets our desires for wanderlust, community and affordability. After three years of full time travel with no other home base, we feel we’re just getting started in our nomadic explorations.

We consider nomading with your house as the best of all worlds – we get to travel without ever needing to leave home.

Indeed, you can take it with you after all.

Header panolloge image courtesy of Ben Willmore.

We’ve discovered that escaping the stress that comes from rushing around to meet scheduled obligations opens one up to truly being in tune with what is around you in the moment. This allows you to truly [...]]]> We strive to live our lives embracing nomadic serendipity, and keeping our schedule on Nomadic Standard Time.

We’ve discovered that escaping the stress that comes from rushing around to meet scheduled obligations opens one up to truly being in tune with what is around you in the moment. This allows you to truly experience where you are at, instead of always being “just passing through” on your way to a destination.

As a rule, awesome things tend to happen when you’re not a slave to a pre-planned schedule.

As an example, by not having a specific schedule and nothing pending that we had to be at – our recent intentions of relocating to Orlando got wonderfully sidetracked by some fabulous ripples of serendipity.

None of this was planned for in advance, and if we had been trying to stick to our original intentions we would have missed out on it all.

Serendipity of this caliber is a normal occurrence for us. And we’d like to invite you to experience it.

Your Invitation to the Serendipity Challenge

You don’t have to sell your home, quit your job and take off around the world as a nomad to experience high-grade serendipity. Challenge yourself to invite serendipity into your life. It’s pretty simple if you can learn to embrace the mindset.

Here’s the challenge..

Make plans to not make plans.

Set aside a day, a weekend or part of an upcoming vacation. Your time can be pre-planned, or embarked on spontaneously. You can do this in your own neighborhood, or make it an adventure to somewhere new.  Make whatever arrangements you need to start and end the time period – such as transportation, budget and lodging.

And that’s where the planning stops.  No pre-scheduling shows. No pre-booking tours. No planning visits with friends or family. No pre-buying tickets. No making dining reservations.

Research all you like about what options you might have. Even set intentions for things you’d enjoy doing – but be fully open to them either happening or not happening.

Let go of your need for planning. No commitments. No obligations. No expectations. None. Nada. Zilch. If you put anything on a calendar besides your arrival and departure information – you’re probably planning too much. Remove yourself as far as you’re comfortable from anything that resembles pre-planning. And then remove a little more.

If you’re ready for more advanced serendipity, you even might even want to forgo booking a rental car or hotel, or book your departure from a different city (and maybe not the transportation inbetween). Really escape the filters of pre-planning.

Once your serendipity window opens – take off your watch and go experience.  If you’re unsure how to get started, try some of these ideas:

• Take a walk around your immediate environment
• Go visit a museum or attraction in the local area
• Hop on the nearest public transit and randomly pick a stop
• Get out a set of dice or a coin (real or digital) and let them decide which turns you take
• Crowdsource serendipity by taking a Twitter/Facebook poll of your followers
• Grab a camera, pick a topic (‘yellow things’, ‘children playing’, ‘found art’, etc.) and go explore with an intent to capture.

If you start to feel rushed, remind yourself that there is no schedule to keep. You have nowhere you have to be, no obligations looming over your head trying to keep you on task.  If something catches your eye, move closer to hear, smell, feel and see it better. Stop and not only smell the roses, but photograph them, marvel at them.

See people mingling about?  Be open to conversation without fear of distraction from where you need to be next. Allowing the possibility that serendipity may speak to you via interactions with others. Who knows where you might end up?

Your mission is to experience what comes about when you don’t have a mission.

Be in tune with the sometimes subtle invitations serendipity presents… and remember, you have to be present to win.

Once you’ve taken the Serendipity Challenge, we’d love to hear about your experience.  If you blog about your experience – please send us a link to the post.  Or feel free to write us directly about your experience.  We’ll be featuring a collection of these inspiring stories!

We’re here to stand up and say – being a Domestic Nomad is an equally [...]]]> If you read the blogs of a lot of self-proclaimed nomads, lifestyle designers and location independent professionals – you could easily get a sense that international travel and global nomadism is the holy grail of every long term perpetual traveler.

We’re here to stand up and say – being a Domestic Nomad is an equally valid form of vagabonding.

Last year the fabulous website NuNomad.com featured a roundtable discussion with several prominent nomadic entrepreneurs, exploring the topic of what it takes to be a long term nomad.

In my comments on the article, I pointed out that they had only gotten contributions from folks exploring worldwide travel – and that the whole universe of domestic nomadism was being ignored. As a result, Carmen from NuNomad contacted me and asked if we’d be interested in being interviewed about our style of domestic RV nomadism. The interview was just published this past week.

Now don’t get us wrong – we love global travel (and have done plenty of it ourselves), and we admire those who have made it work as a sustainable lifestyle.

But traveling internationally is not the only way to embrace nomadism, nor is it the “ultimate” way to strive for. Domestic travel can be just as rewarding, and it is often vastly easier, more practical, and better suited to craft into a sustainable lifestyle.

For many, traveling the world full time ends up feeling more like an extended vacation or a prolonged break from normal life than something that feels truly sustainable. For some, international roaming ends up being a gap experience between major life transitions, or becomes a search for a new home to settle down at. And a lot of people struggle with the hurdles and roadblocks of being away from their home country, such as work visa issues, difficulty with the fine line between travel & vacation or a sense of disconnection from friends, family, and community.

Some do make it work, certainly. But many who try report hitting walls of unsustainability.

For those craving a fully mobile lifestyle, there are ways to embrace nomadism without dealing with the challenges of perpetual international travel.

Embracing nomadism or a location independent lifestyle doesn’t have to be a ‘permanent home’ vs ‘conquer the world’ proposition.

When we set out, our intention was to create a lifestyle of full time mobility that could be unending. International travel is fabulous, but there are extra challenges that can decrease the sustainability of it. Domestic full time travel has given us freedom of mobility, while keeping us accessible to family, friends, work, and (ever critical) easy and affordable wireless bandwidth.

In domestic travel, we are managing to fulfill our wanderlust, without compromising on sustainability or community – and after almost 3 years of full time travel, we feel we’re just getting started. The good ole US of A has an amazing amount of diversity, beauty and awesome things to keep us fulfilled. Heck, despite intentions otherwise – we’ve yet to find time to cross into Canada or Mexico!

One day, yes – we do intend to explore further afield. Perhaps we will head overland towards Central America, or downsize into backpacks for some extended globe trotting. Or maybe we will even trade our wheels for sails, and hit the open seas to spend some time with the now forming Technomad Sailing Flotilla.

But for now, there is no rush. Domestic nomading suites us just fine.

Whether you’re tired of the clutter, doing seasonal decluttering, wanting to make over your wardrobe or preparing your life for full mobility – purging [...]]]> Your closets are overflowing. Bookshelves disorganized. Cabinets of chaos.  You can’t see the top of your desk. You just simply have too much stuff. And most of it going unused.

Whether you’re tired of the clutter, doing seasonal decluttering, wanting to make over your wardrobe or preparing your life for full mobility – purging is both freeing and … scary.  I’ve discovered that I have a knack for it, and enjoy coaching people through the process. When I decided to scale down from a 1600 sq ft house and move into a shared 80 sq ft of mobile space, I had to get ultra efficient at purging my stuff.  I actually started a small side hobby business called Purge Genie that targets guiding people through this very task – and I’ve been putting the systems I found for myself to the test with others as I travel.

I find that most people get stuck when approaching purging. There is fear that you might one day need that ‘thing’, emotional attachments tied up with mementos, a societal training to be attached to acquire and collect stuff, misplaced value on stuff we may have spent a lot of money or resources on –  and the pure exhaustion that comes from approaching the task.

The first stumbling block is to recognize that purging is not a chore – but rather a mindset shift from seeing possessions as attachments to seeing stuff as baggage.  If you can make that shift, the rest can be a fun game!

My trick to approaching purging is to set up a process that avoids overwhelm. Don’t try to think of your entire house as a singular project to get done. Instead, focus on one area at a time by dividing up the purge process into sessions.

And then, follow these steps to begin your session:

1) Pick an Area! Pick just one area – perhaps a closet, a dresser, a drawer, a cabinet, a hutch, a filing cabinet, etc.  Set an attainable goal to purge a certain percentage this session (such as 20 to 40% – knowing you can do future sessions.).

2) Divide and Conquer! Divide things into three piles (mental or physical):

a) Stuff you see as essential must-keeps

b) Stuff you regularly use and see as part of your normal rotation of use

c) Stuff you rarely use, touch or appreciate (this pile should be much bigger than the others – if it’s not, you haven’t made the mental shift yet.)

3) Further Divisions! Put your essential pile to the side for now, focusing on your rarely used and regularly used piles. While keeping them separate,  sub-divide things up into logical categories (using clothing as an example: pants, sweaters, ties, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, etc. or work clothes, lounge clothes, exercise clothes, dress up clothes, etc.)

4) Rotational Purge. Start going through each of your rarely used piles in rotation with a goal to purge a certain number of items from each pile. If you’re unsure if you should purge or keep an item, ask yourself these questions:

• • Does this item serve a firm unique purpose in my life that can’t be met by another item I am keeping?
  • Do I find myself not using this item as often as I should because it doesn’t exactly meet my criteria? (continuing the clothing example – I don’t have anything to wear with this color, the fabric more worn than I like, the fabric isn’t comfy, the fit isn’t perfect..etc.)
  • Does this item bring me joy and delight?

In this process, you may find some things you not only don’t want to purge, but want to move to the must-keep pile. After you’ve completed going through all your piles once, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself!

5) Switch the focus. Do a few more rounds on the rarely used piles each time increasing the number of items you purge.  Then repeat the above steps with less aggressiveness on your regular use stuff (ie. instead of purging 4 items each round, may be you only purge 2).  Or if your goal is bring more variety into your life, such as a wardrobe, perhaps you’re feeling more inclined to weed out the stuff you regularly grab for.

6) Combine. Switch back and forth from your regular and rarely used piles until it feels you’ve achieved your initial goal. Combine the piles to get a sense of what you’re actually down to.  Purge more as desired.

7) Reassess Essentials. Not turn your attention to the pile of stuff you initially deemed essential. In all likely hood, some of them no longer will seem as essential now that you’re in full on purge mode. Don’t be afraid to purge from this pile now.

Generally at this point, purging has become a virus and you’re on a role shedding like crazy. Most folks I coach can’t help but double their purge goal for the session and keep going. It becomes an addictive game with each item you shed rewarding you with a sense of freedom. You’ve successfully avoided initial overwhelm by starting with simple easy to reach goals that aren’t as scary as ‘get rid of a lot!’  With each round, the brain adjusts, and it becomes easier and easier to want to get rid of things. You get used to making quick judgements of ‘will I ever really use this??’ ‘is it worth the space??’ ‘does it serve its function?’ ‘is it bringing joy and delight to my life?’ .. and you get yourself down to a streamlined grouping of stuff you actually love and use.

The next step is of course, what do you do with all this purged stuff?  I have some tips in my ‘Answers to Common Excuses’ series.

But much of our nomadic lifestyle is motivated less by visiting cool places, and more by visiting cool [...]]]>

We can often fit unobtrusively in a driveway. (Sacramento)

Some people travel primarily to spend time visiting cool places. And we absolutely do love finding amazing campgrounds, quirky small towns, wonderful boondocking spots, stealth city camping, incredible scenic overlooks, and the thrill of visiting National Parks.

But much of our nomadic lifestyle is motivated less by visiting cool places, and more by visiting cool people. Nothing beats spending time hanging out with awesome folks, and when we have the opportunity we absolutely love being able to stay with family and friends (old and new) as we travel.

Staying with people gives us an opportunity to share stories, be part of a household, share meals and drink and get a local’s perspective on an area. And not to mention, it also helps keep our costs down.

However to the folks we stay with, hosting nomads who bring their own solar powered house with them is a bit different than hosting a more typical guest traveling through. Oftentimes when we arrive, we’re offered use of the guest bedroom so that we can sleep in a ‘real bed’ or ‘indoors’, and given invitation to help ourselves to anything in the fridge.

While we greatly appreciate the hospitality, what folks don’t immediately realize is that our trailer is our home and we’re not lacking in comfortable accommodations.  Unless there are unusual circumstances (such as zoning regulations that prevent us from sleeping in our RV), we will politely turn down offers of a guest room for the following reasons:

• We like our bed. It’s ours and what we’re used to – and it’s super comfy.
• We’re not anymore outdoors than you are – sleeping in our little home on wheels is not like camping in a tent. We’re watertight, have heating and ways to cool. We’re used to a variety of noise levels – from ultra silent to being in the middle of a 50,000 person party in the middle of the desert.
• Staying in a guest room requires us packing an overnight bag and thinking about everything we might need. It’s generally a lot of unnecessary hassle, and we end up making several trips to ‘move’ into a guest room from our house.
• We actually will get homesick not being in our house, especially with it parked so close by.
• We have a fully stocked kitchen with everything in it that we might like to eat or snack on. In fact, if you’re short on an ingredient, we might just have it.  Heck, we’d love to cook dinner for you too!

The best campgrounds are often backyards! (Indiana)

When we explain to our hosts to think of us more like a temporary neighbor than as a guest – it generally makes a lot more sense.  Our visit is really as typical everyday as it gets for us – we’re not taking time off of our normal life to be there. And we don’t want our hosts to go out of their way for us either. We really do prefer to feel like neighbors, and not guests that you need to play host to.

However, while we’re completely self-sufficient – we do appreciate sharing time and space. We love sharing in meals and having an opportunity to socialize and be part of a household. Other amenities we do not need but appreciate the use of include: a “real” shower, laundry facilities, wifi, a hose to top off our water tank, and a power cord if we’re parked in shade. And of course, we always love a soak in a hot tub. *grin*

So go ahead.. invite us over to be your temporary neighbors!

But now comes a potentially overwhelming decision – what kind of recreational vehicle will you choose to make into your full time home on wheels?  We’re often asked this question, and there is no [...]]]> So you’ve decided to become a nomad, and that taking your house with you is your ideal form of travel. Great!

But now comes a potentially overwhelming decision – what kind of recreational vehicle will you choose to make into your full time home on wheels?  We’re often asked this question, and there is no one right answer.

There are many resources out there which give a basic overview of the types of recreational vehicles available, and some of the tradeoffs associated with each. To get familiar with terms like “Class A” or “Travel Trailer”, check out these links:

http://rvforsaleguide.com/rv-types.htm

http://www.rv-coach.com/rv/types/classes/rv_types.html

Now that you know what’s available, here are some key consideration for choosing your ideal home on wheels.

Towable vs Driveable

The biggest decision you will make is likely be the choice between a towable trailer or an integrated driveable motorhome style RV.  There are advantages and drawbacks to both.

The Digital Vagabond's RV

In most states, it is illegal to cary passengers in a trailer. With a driveable unit on the other hand, your passengers can utilize the amenities while in transit. The bathroom and fridge are always available, even at 70mph.

Some people like the extra security that comes from not ever needing to step outside of their vehicle, even when stopped. When you pull in somewhere for the night, you can literally crawl straight back into bed from your driver’s seat.

The downside of a motor home is that you give up on the flexibility of leaving your home behind. Many driveable units are large and have terrible fuel economy, making them exceedingly awkward for in-town errands if you find yourself staying in one location for a while. You also need to secure all your belongings for motion if you need to go into town for a grocery run.

To gain back some flexibility, many full-time RV’ers also have a smaller car/SUV that they tow behind their RV – called a toad – so that they can get around once they’re ‘there’.   This works, but your combined vehicle is now even larger, more expensive, harder to maneuver, and much harder to park. Foldable bikes or motor-scooters are a potential middle ground.

One other downside of a motorhome – if your rig ever has mechanical problems and needs to be in the shop, your entire house is also in the shop for the duration!

With a towable travel trailer on the other hand, you will need a tow vehicle that is hefty enough to pull your rig fully loaded. You will also need to be comfortable driving while towing – including backing up, breaking and keeping sway to a minimum. The advantages of a towable is that when you arrive someplace you just unhitch your rig and now your tow vehicle becomes your get around vehicle.

However, if you choose a trailer that is large and heavy, your tow vehicle may need to be quite large to handle the load. If your get-around vehicle is a huge truck, you will suffer from poor fuel economy all the time.

We chose a small trailer that could be towed by a relatively small SUV. Our tiny diesel Jeep Liberty gets close to 20MPG while towing, and over 25MPG when we are unhitched and roaming around town. This has proven to be a great balance for us.

One final thing – depending on how you’re set up, you may also find that skillful towing gives you more flexibility in maneuvering around tight corners or getting into tricky spots than a larger monolithic motorhome would be capable of.

With both options, you’ll also need to consider the fuel type – diesel or gas.

Budget

RVs can range in cost from a few hundred dollars for an older model that might need work to become functional, up into the millions for a brand new converted tour bus style set up.  The type of home you choose will likely be narrowed down significantly by your budget. To further make nomadism sustainable in the long run, we recommend considering what you can purchase in cash – as opposed to financing. The less debt you have, the more freedom you have.

Also consider the longer term costs – such as fuel economy versus how much driving you actually anticipate doing.  Also, consider what type of hook-ups your rig will require, which will determine the types of RV Parks and campgrounds you might need to pay for.  If you choose a rig that is highly dependent upon electricity to be functional, you’ll find yourself restricted to the type of overnight stays you can regularly utilize. Whereas if you have a rig designed to be power efficient, and even self sufficient (such as using solar and/or wind power) – you might be able to find a lot more free and cheap camping options.

Quality

Rendezvous with WhereIsBen.com's Bus at Burning Man

For a full time home on wheels, we highly recommend getting the highest quality construction you can afford.

Most RVs are not built to be lived in, rather they are built for weekend excursions and perhaps prolonged vacations. There’s a reason they’re called ‘Recreational Vehicles’ not ‘Homes on Wheels’. This means their quality is not usually up to par of a traditional house and most will quickly age with even moderate use.  Anything in motion is going to be subject to wear and tear more so than a stable home on a foundation.

Once you start shopping around for RVs, you’ll likely find that you can get massively large travel trailers and motorhomes with a lot of space for little money – but they don’t offer high quality appliances, effective insulation, comfortable sleeping & sitting space, well designed storage, good fuel economy, powered stabilizers, non-corrosive parts or cabinetry that will last. Most cheap RV’s are ready for the junk heap after only a few years, and they are constantly in need of expensive maintenance and repairs.

These cheaper RV’s are tolerable for a short term vacation, but for full time living – some of these headaches can make your nomadic experience downright unpleasant and unsustainable.

Your Travel Style

How you anticipate you’ll be traveling is a critical component to choosing your ideal rig. If you plan to stay at commercial RV Parks and mainly drive highways and interstates – than a larger rig that prefers to be plugged into hook-ups may be your ideal choice.  If you want to explore places  more off the beaten path, such as public parks and boondocking locations on public lands – you will want to find a rig that can go off grid for a few days at a time, and which is small enough to maneuver off the beaten path (literally!).   If you plan to be primarily boondocking and dry camping (not staying at park with hook-ups), having a rig with a renewable energy source and that is highly maneuverable is a top consideration.

Also, how much of the your travel you anticipate will be in motion versus making extended stops will play a role in your decision.  If you plan to be stopped for long periods of time, having a mobile home that is better suited to your living style may be more important. However, if you plan to be in motion a lot – looking for rigs that give you better fuel economy and easy setup may be more important.

Space

Rendezvous with Kev & Ang of NuRVers.com

How much room you think you need versus how much room you actually need are often two different things. When you first set off nomading, folks usually overestimate how much space they need.   Try to think about how you will use your space.  Do you like to cook and entertain?  Then having more of your space available for sitting, eating and socializing is probably more important – assuming you will have people to entertain during your travels.

Do you plan to work while you travel? What sort of office space do you need?  Do you need it dedicated as full-time office space, or can you collapse your worklife down and convert it over to eating/living space easily?  If you’re traveling alone, consider if you’ll ever have a guest on board or not.  If you’re traveling as a couple or family, consider how much personal space each person will need to keep their sanity.  Do you want a definite division between living space and sleeping space?  What about the bathroom facilities – how important is it to you to have a separate shower from your sink/toilet area – or can you imagine being ok with a wet bath that is highly efficient with space? Are you a homebody, or will be you using your mobile home more as a launching ground for explorations?

Also consider that while you’re stopped, the outside also becomes your space.  With good weather, setting up your office on a picnic table with a scenic view is an awesome experience.   If one companion needs alone time, the other can go hiking, biking or exploring.

New or Used

In today’s economy, you can come across some great deals on both new and used RVs. However, you’ll want to keep in mind what sort of customizations you might want to make – as it is unlikely that any RV you buy will come equipped exactly how you want it.  Sometimes converting a used RV is a lot easier and more affordable than tearing apart a brand new unit, and starting with an older base has the potential to give you a unique classic vintage look.  And sometimes, you can find a RV manufacturer who is willing to build your RV made-to-order exactly to your needs.  Whether it be upgrading the electrical system, putting your own personal touch or integrating in technical gear – you’re likely to want to change something about the rig you acquire.

When you start considering the type of RVs you want, visit dealer lots where you can tour a variety of styles all at once. Take note of what you like and don’t like.  You may also want to inquire with friends and family who own RVs to get their experiences, and perhaps even borrow theirs for a weekend to try it out.  If you opt to rent a RV, try to keep in mind that most rental RVs are low quality, fairly generic and not kindly used – so don’t base the experience off those factors alone.

Trial Period

Unless you’ve lived mobiley before, it’s almost impossible to predict exactly what your on the road needs will be. One piece of advice we can firmly offer is this – consider your first year or so on the road to be a trial phase. Don’t put all your resources into trying to construct your perfect RV. Instead, get something that you think will approximately meet your needs and hit the road sooner rather than later. Until you’ve been out there for at least several months, if not a year or so – you won’t really know what it is you really need. Traveling full time and living out of a home on wheels for an extended period of time will change the way you view your life, your space, your stuff and your concept of home. What you think you want now will change.

Embrace this, and use the first phase as an experiment in learning what your unique travel style is. Take note of the space, the amenities and how you actually travel.  Do you find yourself desiring a different layout? More or less space? Do you really use the microwave enough to merit the size it takes up?  Do you have enough battery power and tank capacity to meet your desired off grid time? Are you finding your rig size can fit in the places you want to go?

Our Decision Process

Our old T@B and current Oliver

Chris initially started off with a small 16′ Tab Clamshell travel trailer that he converted to run off solar. When we met and decided to travel together, we opted to continue traveling in his unit – even knowing it wouldn’t be exactly right for both of us. It gave us an opportunity to both test out our traveling together, as well as learning what type of RV might be more ideal for us. We quickly narrowed down that we needed slightly more space for the two of us living and working. But we wanted to remain small, maneuverable, light weight and self-sufficient.

So, we looked at smaller motorhomes and trailers – and didn’t really find anything at dealer lots that met our needs. We did narrow down that we loved the floor plan of the Casita Spirit Deluxe, a small fiberglass RV made by company in Texas. We thought that finding a slightly used one and customizing it with solar might be our best option. Then we found Oliver, who had taken the floor plan we loved, upgraded the quality significantly and was willing to build to order. It was a perfect meshing for our needs, and as we’ve found – a rarity in the RV business.

Over a year later of living full time in our Oliver – we couldn’t be happier.

Vacation:  a respite or a time of respite from something

We’re not taking a respite from anything, nevermind something.  Instead, we’re designing a lifestyle [...]]]> A common misconception about our technomadic lifestyle is that we’re on an extended vacation.  I think this comes from just how engrained the concept of travel is with being in vacation mode.

Vacation:  a respite or a time of respite from something

We’re not taking a respite from anything, nevermind something.  Instead, we’re designing a lifestyle that combines developing our careers, family & community, volunteerism, play and travel.  In other words, just because we’re traveling full-time does not mean we’re on an extended vacation, taking a gap from otherwise ‘normal’ life or retired from earning an income.

Our home office in Las Vegas.

What happens in Vegas..

This really hit home for last summer when we decided to route a rendezvous with some friends who were vacationing in Las Vegas.  For us, it was just a normal day  - working, running errands and exploring somewhere new.

For them, it was something they saved up and planned for. They were on respite from their daily life and where there to relax, party and indulge. They ate decadent meals three times a day, saw expensive shows nightly and bought souvenirs.

We found we had to quickly set boundaries for ourselves and make it clear – we couldn’t keep at their pace in spending and calorie consumption.

How a traveling lifestyle differs from vacation

Some other relevant distinctions between our lifestyle and a vacation might include:

• There’s no concept of being away from home when we’re visiting some place or people. We’re always home, and have everything with us to make us feel at home.
• We can’t devote our entire visit to being a tourist or hanging out.  We have work to accomplish, chores, relaxation, exercise and errands to attend to.  We don’t have a room attendant making our bed, or room service handling our meals and dishes. We don’t have the paper on hold to catch up on our news later, or our kitten being boarded and fed.  We don’t have all our work calls going to voice mail or being handled by a co-worker.
• We can’t always be eating out at favorite restaurants and having big meals every day. We have a budget and a waistline to be aware of.
• We don’t want to only go to touristy spots. These are occasional indulgences in our budget and time allocation – and besides, we’d much rather feel a city like the locals do.
• Our life is not one of constant leisure.  While we may have an awesome and always changing view, we’re not constantly lounging on a beach reading a good book and sipping fruity drinks served by cabana boys.
• When we visit a place, we’re not just there for fun. Sometimes we’re helping family and friends through a major life change, sometimes we’re working insane hours on a project, sometimes we’re sick in bed, sometimes we’re volunteering on a project.. and yes, sometimes, we have fun too.

Sound familiar?

Working on the banks of the Mississippi River

Our life is awesome, however!

Our lifestyle does afford us some amazing differences from what is considered a normal life. Such as instead of going to a movie or dinner with friends after work, we might be hiking the Grand Canyon, driving through the Petrified Forest, or getting a hot springs bath. Instead of working in a cubicle, we might be working on the banks of the Mississippi River or in a lush forest on a picnic table.

However, our travels are definitely not a respite from everyday life.

They are our everyday life.

And yes.. we do take vacations too.

However,  I’m also a bit of a homebody. As an introvert, I have limited reserves [...]]]> I love to travel, I always have. From a very early age, travel has been a part of my life. I love the experience of exploring a new place, meeting new people, sharing experiences and just getting out there.

However,  I’m also a bit of a homebody. As an introvert, I have limited reserves for actually being out there interacting with people, and need my recharge time at home.  And, I just like having a space that is mine.

The two – travel and being a homebody – seem like they would be at odds with each other. And frequently they would be when I had a physical house and I went away to travel. I’d come back from travel full of new experiences, but also exhausted from trying to cram so much in and also needing to catch up on general home life.

However, when I redefined my home to be a small travel trailer that went with me wherever I was – suddenly, the two became quite compatible.   I move my house to where I want or need to be, go out exploring and come back to home that very same day.  All my stuff is there in a familiar surrounding, and I can quickly get recharged.   And I also know that because I’m in an area for as long as I like, I’m not rushed to have to see it all in a set amount of time.

And when I’m in need of more extended recharge at home – or have a work project that I’m focused on completing -  I generally have a fabulous new view out my window that changes on a frequent basis.  I can experience being somewhere different without needing to go far from the house and office at all.

Everyday is travel and everyday is being at home.

And when I have the energy to do so (which is far more often), I have new and exciting experiences awaiting me just a few moments away from my front door.

And add on top of that, that exploring new places no longer requires packing/unpacking, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed or catch up chores when I return – I really can’t imagine a better merging of two otherwise seemingly conflicting desires!

I’m a nomadic homebody!