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:

It was also special time set aside to experience a new environment and escape a normal day. [...]]]> I remember before I went nomadic, that when I visited somewhere there was always internal pressure to ‘see it all’.  I was there for a defined amount of time, and there was rarely a sense of someday returning.

It was also special time set aside to experience a new environment and escape a normal day.  It felt like wasting an opportunity if I wasn’t cramming in as many tourist destinations as possible, sampling all the local foods and seeing all the scenic vistas.

As a result, I always came home feeling like I needed a recharge.  Vacation was spent constantly on the go.

Since combining life with full time travel, my desire to see everything has greatly diminished.  Very rarely do we seek out the tourist destinations in the places we visit.  And the things we do see come at a sustainable pace.

We’re not on vacation, after all.  We have to manage work hours, social time, time with each other, time apart, hobbies, fitness, cooking, chores, communication with loved ones and exploring a new place.

There was a shift that happened some time ago for me, where I stopped feeling like I was wasting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if I hadn’t checked everything off our list.  And I was curious how that would feel with a longer stay, like we’ve experienced these past 5 months on St. John.

When we came here, we thought – ‘We’ll actually have time to see it all!’.  We even made a list after first arriving off all the things we wanted to do.  It included:

Trunk Bay, St. John USVI

• Snorkel at St. John’s most iconic beach – Trunk Bay
• Take a day trip to Josh Van Dyke, in the British Virgin Islands.
• Hike the Reef Bay Trail
• Do lots of sailing
• Refresh our SCUBA certifications
• Take a weekend trip to Tortola and/or Virgin Gorda
• Do lots of island hopping
• Rent a Hobie catamaran
• Geocaching around St. John

Well, here we are, with a week left – and we’ve not yet checked all the items off our list.  Heck, we’ve yet to check a single one off our list.

Are we disappointed?  Not at all.  In our time here we have visited dozens of other gorgeous beaches that the tourists don’t immediately head towards.  We hiked many other trails.  We’ve gotten our water fix with amazing snorkeling and haven’t felt as called to needing SCUBA diving to see amazing reefs.  We’ve only gotten over to St. Thomas a couple times to run errands and haven’t felt much call to leave St. John.

And most importantly, we expanded our horizons and have done countless other things that weren’t on our list.

Tomorrow, we will attempt to get our sailing and island hopping fix, by taking a catamaran charter over to the BVIs.  We may just call that good.. and leave St. John with things left to do for next time.  And most importantly, we’ll leave refreshed, recharged and ready for whatever is calling us next (and no, we still have no clue what we’re doing next.)

We have just simply found we’re really content leaving things left to explore in the places we visit.. no matter the pace we’re on.

Why on earth would you want to leave St. John? You [...]]]> In just about a week, we will be ending our glorious winter in St. John, US Virgin Islands and returning to our little Oliver Travel Trailer parked in Florida.  As the day has grown nearer, we’ve had quite a few folks ask us :

Why on earth would you want to leave St. John? You seem so happy there!

Yes, St. John is awesome and has been the perfect place for us to be this season.

Its constant tropical breezes sure beat the heck out of the cold winter endured throughout most of the US.  The lovely clear water is so inviting for swimming and snorkeling.  There’s endless hiking opportunities. We’ve begun to feel a part of a community by making local friends.  There’s ample internet, abundant live music and made-on-island microbrew.

It is indeed a paradise, and we’d recommend this place to anyone. And we’d be tempted to return in the future.

But we are nomads.  We crave change in location, change in scenery, change in community and change in opportunity.

Five months has been the longest we’ve been still since before we set off nomadic.  And for sure, it was a much needed change of pace after the bouncing around we did last year. We’ve been able to focus deeply on several work projects.  We’ve been able to enjoy some much needed solitude. We’ve enjoyed spreading out a bit in our huge 400 sq ft treehouse digs here.

But it is time for change. It is time to embrace whatever adventure is next for us.

And as perfect a fit as St. John has been for us these past few months, we’re not on a mission of finding our ideal place to eventually settle down.

Our nomadic journey is one we intend to make last for as long as it feels right to us – we want to explore all the world has to offer. We want to impact positive change on the world. In nearly 5 years of full time travel, we’ve barely begun that journey.  And we certainly can’t do that by sitting on a little tropical island, isolated from much of the world.

Adjusting the pace as we need to keep nomadism sustainable will be a constant variable – sometimes we may only be in a location for a couple days, and sometimes for several months.   Just because we may slow down from time to time, does not mean that nomadism has become unattractive.

Not only do we crave a change of scenery, we crave changing up the pace too.

And besides.. not everywhere is perfect all the time.  Soon it will be hurricane season.  Seems like a great time to leave and discover what is our next perfect place.

We’re just getting around to processing through all the photos to share our experience. This post will concentrate on the Day of the Nomad events, and I’ll follow-up soon with a general SXSW wrap-up.

The [...]]]> Wow. SXSW was completely awesome, and we’ve been running full steam since returning the to Virgin Islands last Thursday.

We’re just getting around to processing through all the photos to share our experience. This post will concentrate on the Day of the Nomad events, and I’ll follow-up soon with a general SXSW wrap-up.

Cherie & Chris Present at SXSW on Technomadism

The Day of the Nomad on Sunday, March 13 was planned to be three parts from 11a – 4pm. However, the night went on until well after midnight.. and it was jam packed with more awesome (yes, we’ll use that word a lot this post) than we could have ever predicted.

Part 1: Technomadism Panel

This first event of the day was our official presentation on Technomadism – Becoming a Technology Enabled Nomad. We started the day off with three scheduling challenges.

First of all, Sunday was Daylight Savings Time – and after a SXSW Saturday evening, remembering to set the clocks and getting up an hour earlier to make a panel, doesn’t make everyone’s priority list. Secondly, our panel was directly up against one given given Tim Ferriss (of 4 Hour Work Week fame) and another with Chris Guillebeau (who we finally got to meet).

Tough competition to be up against, with topics that appeal to a similar audience and presenters with much more draw.

Technomadism Panel at SXSW

So, we were completely blown away that our room was still fairly full with about 40-50 attendees. That was an excellent sized group to have quality conversations about life on the road. And we had some excellent questions asked – ranging from health insurance, keeping online, travel friendly jobs, family, residency and so much more.

Many of these topics are covered in detail in our Answers to the Common Excuses eBook (still available on a ‘pay as you wish’ basis), which is kinda our textbook for the presentation.

Part 2: Making Money Panel

Up after us, Tynan and Jason Boehle presented on How to Make Money Traveling Around the World, right in the same room. So we were able to utilize the 30 minutes inbetween the presentations for mingling.   With a later time slot and their own draw of fans – their presentation was spilling out into the hallway.

Making Money While Traveling Panel - Tynan and Jason

Tynan totally rocked the house and led an awesome Q&A session.  Many of the same questions were asked as in our panel, and the topic definitely diverged from just being about making money.  So it was an awesome continuation of the day, and we were able to chime in to answer some of the logistical questions that we had covered earlier.

Part 3: Nomadic SXSW Meet-Up

Cherie & Chris host the SXSW Nomadic Meetup

Next up was relocating down the street to Casa Chapala, where Carmen of NuNomad had arranged their patio for a nomadic meet-up.  Even before the official start time, the patio was already filling up – and we had to kick folks out at the end.  All and all, I’d estimate we had about 100 folks meander through – which far exceeded my predictions.

But honestly, I didn’t have time to stop and count. There was so much awesome packed into one space, that it was difficult to keep up with everyone.  I know Chris and I were barely able to take a break to sip our margarita in between all of the conversations.

And the people who were there? It was an amazing collection of travel and lifestyle bloggers, and we’re completely besides ourselves that we managed to organize something that attracted so many awesome people.

Nomadic SXSW Meet-Up - Can you spot the travel bloggers?

Here’s the who’s-who’s list of attendees:

• Carmen Bolanas of NuNomad
• Andy Hayes of Sharing Travel Experience


Jenny and her skateboard

• Kim Mance of Go Galavanting
• Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere
• Jenny Leonard of Where is Jenny
• Matthew Knepes of Nomadic Matt
• Tynan
• Jason Boehle of Golden Book Traveler
• Mike Hedge of Jumping Book & As the Dust Settles
• Sam Morrow of Zen Nomads
• Philip Cambell of The Living Arc


Nomads Mingling

• Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months
• Nick Laborde of Locationless
• Adam, Courtney & Milli Baker of ManVsDebt & NomadBaby
• Karol Gadja of Ridiculously Extradorinary
• Kali & Christy of Technosyncratic
• Erica of OverYonderLust
• Bryan & Laurie Tighe of Budget Your Trip
• Brian & Maria of Trippin with Stanely


Adam & Milli

• Anis Salvesen from Tripping
• Zach Hale
• Jeanie Witcraft of Embracing Change
• Briana & Matt Schultz of Operation Tally-Ho
• Barry Pousman of RocketBoom
• Greg Monterrosa with MyLLC
• Jerri Stephenson of Do It While You’re Young
• Jessica Dally
• Mark Walsh of Barefoot Wallets
• Lincoln Adams of Habitation of Justice
• Markus of Living on Impulse

If you attended and you’re not on the list above – please do let us know!  I feel like we should have had a guest book to sign at the event and know that we didn’t get around to meeting even half the folks who came by.

Part 4: The Night Continued

Post Nomadic Meetup

There was another meet-up scheduled after ours, so we moved the nomadic convergence to the front porch – where more conversations continued on.

Nomad Dinner - Nomadic Matt meets Amtrekker

Ready for food, we then took it to dinner – with a table of awesome. Brett from Amtrekker also joined in, it was fun to converge with him for the third time during our respective travels.

Some of nomads then meandered until midnight – crashing parties and continuing the goodness… but you won’t find those stories revealed here *grin*.

Conclusion:  We were left buzzing with energy from Day of the Nomad, and we’re still pinching ourselves that it really happened.

Chris and my brother, Ken

And with as awesome as all these fellow nomads are, I do have to say that the highlight for me was having my brother Ken (who lives in Austin, where we grew up, and hosted us) join us for the entire day.  Many thanks to him and our long time family friend (and soon to be  nomad) John Schexnaydre for taking so many pics for us while we soaked in the awesome day!

We’re so excited.. and also intimidated.. to be entering so much chaos after 4 months of glorious chill time on a remote tropical island in a town of population 500.  What a way to come out [...]]]> This afternoon we will be on our way to Austin, where we’re presenting at SXSW this weekend!

We’re so excited.. and also intimidated.. to be entering so much chaos after 4 months of glorious chill time on a remote tropical island in a town of population 500.  What a way to come out of hiding from the world!

We anticipate this blog space will be pretty quiet until our return, unless we find time and something worthy to report on.  Otherwise, we’ll be focusing on meeting up with dozens of other bloggers, twitter friends and nomads.

For those also attending (or unattending, as we did last year) SXSW, here’s our schedule:

As SXSW scheduled our session and another nomad-related topic right after ours, and we’re hosting a Nomadic Meet-up later that afternoon…

We’re (un)officially declared Sunday at SXSW Interactive to be the ‘Day of the Nomad’.

Sunday, March 13 – ‘The Day of the Nomad’ at SXSW

11a – SXSW Session: ‘Technomadism – Becoming a Technology Enabled Nomad‘ hosted by Cherie & Chris of Technomadia

12:30 – SXSW Session: ’How to Make Money While Traveling Around the World‘ hosted by Jason Boehle & Tynan

(Both sessions will be held at the Marriott Courtyard, Rio Grande B at 300 East 4th Street – 1 block west of the convention center)

2 – 4p Nomadic SXSW Meetup (SXSW Badge NOT required)

Many thanks to folks at NuNomad for arranging for the meet-up space on the patio of Casa Chapala @ 101 San Jacinto Blvd.

We’re leaving the rest up to serendipity.  We’ll be in Austin from March 11 – 16 – if you’d like to get together while we’re there, give us a shout on Twitter or E-mail.

With many thanks to those who have contributed to our eBook (Answers to the Common Excuses Not To Travel Full-Time) we’ve raised about $600 that we’re putting towards our SXSW travel costs. We’re very appreciative of the support to continue inspiring others about nomadic lifestyles (we fund our own lifestyle from our software development and technical consulting business – not from blogging, speaking or eBooks).

Attending SXSW with an iPhone or iPad?  We’ve just released a special FREE version of our Coverage? app  - Coverage: Austin – with detailed cellular coverage maps for Austin for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.  We hope this will be helpful for SXSW attendees to know where in town they’re likely to find the best mobile bandwidth for their devices.

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.

And sure, it is true that some folks are guilty of overusing these superlatives to describe things that are truthfully rather mundane. It may occasionally [...]]]> Since the start of the new year, I’ve seen a several prominent bloggers and tweeters asking that the words ‘Epic’ and ‘Awesome’ be removed from the blogging vocabulary in 2011.

And sure, it is true that some folks are guilty of overusing these superlatives to describe things that are truthfully rather mundane. It may occasionally actually be “epic guacamole”, but if every batch starts having more adjectives attached than avocados inside, the words start to lose meaning.

Worse yet is when these superlatives get tacked on to every new marketing campaign or eProduct being offered like a stack of condiments piled high on a sandwich. Do you want to sign up for the latest super epic amazing life-changing course of the week, with a bit of awesome sauce on the side? Don’t worry if you miss it, next month it will be even more epically awesome!

It’s time to eliminate all this epic nonsense once and for all. Enough is enough, right?

Wrong.

We actually strive to have ‘Epic’ and ‘Awesome’ as regular parts of our vocabulary, by aiming to fill our lives with things worthy of being called epic and awesome. This is a most worthy pursuit indeed!

Let’s take epic back.  Instead of diluting the word with mundanity, actively seek out having more epic and awesome experiences in your life that deserve these sorts of labels, and then inspire others by sharing them!

Epic: adjective – grand in scale or character

Epic – Grand on your OWN scale!

What is epic for one person may be mundane or completely undesirable for another.  Don’t let others define what is epic for you.

To be epic, you don’t have to:

Single handledly row across the Pacific Ocean

Build a monumental mountain in the desert

Build a 70′ sailing ship by  hand in your backyard, miles from the nearest water

Design and build the world’s largest koosh ball

Decide to sell everything you own and pay down your massive debt

Sail around the world while having and raising a family

Build a gothic cathedral in a desert

Live full time on the road in a 16′ long box on wheels

Vow not to return home until you have completed your bucket list

Volunteer full time in a third world country

These are of course all genuinely epic and inspiring accomplishments. And we are proud to have heard so many of these incredible stories first hand, straight from the people who have lived them.

But these are their stories, not yours.

Epic doesn’t mean you have outdo someone else’s epic accomplishment – this isn’t a competition.

The only person you’re challenging is yourself – to actually put into action following the path that is calling you.  Make uncompromised room and space for your passions and goals – and being willing to step outside what is safe and comfortable to make them happen. Live with conscious intent to make your priorities your priorities.

• If you’re currently a couch potato – training to complete your first 5K might be an epic voyage of self discovery for you.
• If you’re currently bored and unmotivated with a 9-5 job, perhaps starting a side business or drastically switching careers is the epic journey to embark on next.
• If you’re currently feeling held back by shyness, perhaps your epic journey involves challenging yourself to strike up a conversation with a different stranger every day.
• If your calling is perpetual travel, perhaps selling most of your stuff, finding a nomad-compatible source of income and hitting the road is the start of your epic journey.
• If you want to go earn some extra letters to put after your name, perhaps restructuring your life to finance more education and putting focus on going back to school to study your passions is your epic journey.
• If your mind is feeling overwhelmed, perhaps challenging yourself to an extended silent meditation retreat will be a life-changing quest.
• If you get too lost in making plans to allow for random experiences, perhaps Taking the Serendipity Challenge could be an epic adventure for you.
• And if you are called to the culinary arts, perhaps your quest really is to create the most epic batch of guacamole this world has ever tasted.

It doesn’t need to be epic to anyone else, only to you. Find your ‘epic’, and invite it into your life!

Swtiching gears takes momentum

Most people I’ve encountered have dreams, aspirations and goals. Some big, some small.  But building up the momentum to make them a priorioty is often hard.

The day-to-day drugery of chores, errands, expanding work weeks, kids and more leaves us too exhausted to even approach the things we really want. It’s easy to make excuses for why we can’t put our passions ahead of other things that seem essential, but then instead find ourselves jusitfying engrossing ourselves in a video game, a TV series, endless web surfing, repetively checking our Facebook feed  - or other time sucking activities.

When tackling a long term project, such as going back to school, training for a marathon, starting a business or elsewise, how easy is it to put off with an attitude like:

‘That’ll take so long! I’ll be in my 40s by the time I’m done!!’

To that I challenge you to ask yourself  - ‘How old will you be in 4 years if you didn’t go back to school?’.

The choice is yours now to start embarking on your path towards the future you want.  The future will be here whether you’re doing the same old things or not.

Go ahead – be Epic!

So instead of letting a few naysayers tell us to remove the word ‘Epic’ from our vocabulary – I say, let’s strive to have more truly epic experiences in our lives!  Invite epic to become a more regular part of your vocabulary.

Make your OWN dreams come true, no matter what they are – there is nothing more epic than that.

We’re currently formulating our next epic adventure in our own journey.  What will yours be?

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.

Here’s a resource list of some online nomadic communities we’ve stumbled into and utilize:

NuNomad Tribe

Just opened is a tribe from the [...]]]> It seems recently that we as digitally nomadic travelers have been gifted with some invaluable resources to connect with each other to share tips, resources, inspiration and support.

Here’s a resource list of some online nomadic communities we’ve stumbled into and utilize:

NuNomad Tribe

Just opened is a tribe from the awesome folks at NuNomad.com. They offer a place to set up a profile and join forum discussions and groups with other nomads, or those in the process of becoming nomadic. They also offer a classifieds section, to help nomads share information such as housing, services and resources. We definitely recommend poking your head in here – whether you’re currently on the road, or aiming to get there.

Technomads Google Group

Started by Sean Bonner after his Boing Boing announcement about going technomadic, this group is a fine collection of others looking to embrace a life of location independence and technology.  A lot of geeky talk about minimalism, travel and tech goes on there. We’ll forgive Sean for not giving much of a nod to those who have come before him in his revolution  (ahem – like the guy who coined the word),  as we sure do appreciate him using his presence to bring these folks together.

Location Independent Club

The folks who gained fame for the Location Independent Professionals movement (aka ‘LIP’) put a clubhouse on their website to serve as a forum discussion group for those seeking and living these lifestyles. It’s been sorta dead lately, maybe some new energy there would be good?

NuRvers

This one is specifically aimed at younger full-time RVers, primarily USA based. It’s a very active community, and their forums are a great place to get any question you have about living and working on the road answered. There’s also generally a couple physical gatherings each year that are organized there. Next up is their New Years party at Quartzite, Arizona (which we’re sad to miss.. this was our plan before coming to St. John.)

Travel Buddy

We were just alerted to this community, which links up travelers with locals and other travelers. You set up a profile, and then setup dates and locations of future travel, or even desired travel. You can then look up others who are traveling to the same place on the same date. One of the intentions of the site is for solo travels to be able to converge and share travel expenses and experiences… however it’s also quite useful for general nomadic rendezvouses. They also have seemingly active forums.

Women Go Solo Yahoo Group

Jennifer of Living In My Car recently started a Yahoo Group to connect with other women who want to travel solo, primarily via RV. It seems to be quite active.

Couchsurfing.Org

A site for matching travelers with available crash space in willing host’s home, also boosts active forums for travelers to connect and share resources. Everyone we’ve met who utilizes this site has amazing things to say about the community there.

Lonely Planet Thorn Tree and Matador Travel Community

While both of these sites are more focused on independent travel in general, their forums are great resources for connecting with other travelers and getting information about destinations.

Where else do you pull up a virtual chair and converse with fellow nomadic souls online?

And while I had already been running a small software company with [...]]]> When contemplating hitting the road full time as a nomadic adventurer, many folks consider starting a small business to fund their lifestyle. The freedom of working on your own terms just meshes well with a nomad’s life.

A bit about our small business

And while I had already been running a small software company with my parents before I hit the road, due to health insurance reasons, Chris and I opted to form a simple partnership in South Dakota.

In the past year, our business has picked up considerably. Not only are we now producing our own line of iPhone apps, I’ve also taken on managing some fairly large software development projects. A legal formation of a partnership just wasn’t the best choice anymore for us. So elected to form a LLC out of our little company.

The Meehle Law Firm

Over the summer while we were in Florida I was able to reconnect with an old friend, Suzanne Meehle, who several years ago quit her software career and fulfilled her goal of becoming an attorney. Not just any attorney tho, she had dreams of helping entrepreneurs and small businesses, a long time passion of hers. A serial entrepreneur herself, she knows the struggles well of launching a new business.

After a few years of practice in a more traditional firm, she has started her own firm. However, she’s doing it differently.

She’s launched The Meehle Law Firm as a location independent small business service. No fancy office, no bookshelves full of expensive law books and no high priced suits. Instead, she’s utilizing technology to work from wherever she wants, maintains a virtual law library and serves the needs of her clients.

And, I’m proud to say – we selected Suzanne to be our company’s attorney. With her background, her proficiency with utilizing technology to get work done, her passion for small business and her own location independence – she’s a perfect fit for understanding our needs. She guided us through setting up our little company as an LLC in Florida – handling everything online and remotely.

During our brief stop in Florida before heading to St. John, I got to catch up with her again to talk about how she’s taking her own business regionally nomadic, and about some legal considerations that location independent folks should make when setting up their own businesses.

If you’re considering starting a small business without a physical location – you should definitely watch this video interview.

Direct link to the video interview.

Labels are best when they are descriptions, not prescriptions.

Whenever I’m exploring a new hobby, lifestyle or professional pursuit, I tend to take on the labels associated with it to relate the experience to others.  Terms like nomad, technomad, RVer, geek, location independent, fire dancer, traveler, blogger are labels that [...]]]> I’ve often told folks that:

Labels are best when they are descriptions, not prescriptions.

Whenever I’m exploring a new hobby, lifestyle or professional pursuit, I tend to take on the labels associated with it to relate the experience to others.  Terms like nomad, technomad, RVer, geek, location independent, fire dancer, traveler, blogger are labels that I actively use to describe myself to others – and labels I tend to see folks use to describe me.   And that’s what they are – descriptions that fit current choices I’ve made in my life.

It’s important however to not get caught up in allowing labels to automatically prescribe how the future will be for you.

Why do I bring this up?

In the past couple of weeks we’ve had a number of folks respond to our announcement of subletting for 5 months this winter in St. John as some sort of drastic departure from our nomadic lifestyle.  We’ve had some folks actually try to strip away our ‘nomad’ label, and say that we’re going ‘semi-nomadic’, ‘settling down’, ‘taking a break’, ‘going on a vacation’ or that we somehow no longer qualify as real nomads.

Whereas we don’t see it that way at all.

It is precisely because we’ve designed our lives to be fully mobile and nomadic that we were even able to jump on this opportunity.  We view the opportunity as firmly fitting into our chosen technomadic lifestyle, just taking on a different modality of travel, lodging and substrate.  It’s a new challenge, a change of pace and gives us opportunity to explore future forms of nomadism (such as our longer term goal of sailing).  Many a nomad takes up temporary residence at amazing places around the world while they focus on career, community, spirituality, hobbies, volunteerism, etc. Many nomads switch up their modality of mobility from time to time.

It’s not at all outside the nomad lifestyle to consider doing exactly what we’re doing this winter.

We view our current RVer label as purely descriptive of our style of travel for the past several years. We never set out to be only RVing nomads. RVing is a style of travel that best fit our lives at the time, we have loved the balance between travel & home it provides and it may very well fit our lives in the future.  But at the root of our being, we are both full of wanderlust. When we met 4 years ago, it was the pursuit of exploration via various modalities that attracted us to each other.  Being technomadic is far more of a label that we continue to choose to let drive our choices – and conscious living trumps even that.

I think that because so much of our writings and involvements online has been based around our experience as RVing nomads, that a lot of folks associate RVing as being a core label for us, and how they view who we are. We’ve even had the term ‘technomad’ reflected back to us as meaning traveling via RV with tech – which it’s not. And I think we started more strongly aligning ourselves with RVing being an active and prescriptive part of our social description. And indeed, our next adventure is a departure from RVing and what that label has been for us.

Our new user icon: Look! No RV!

I’ve started changing how we present ourselves in subtle ways – such as switching out our user icons to not include a picture of our uber cool trailer, and bringing more focus to the technomadic and lifestyle designing side of ourselves.

The lesson to be learned is to not allow ourselves to get trapped by even our own consciously selected labels.  Always be agile, willing to explore and reach beyond yourself. Just because you’re doing something today, does not necessarily mean it has to define your tomorrow. And that’s the awesome thing about living a consciously constructed life – you can always change your mind!

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.

When we signed up to host the August Digital Nomad Blog Carnival (a roving round-up of blog posts submitted relevant to digital nomads), we didn’t anticipate the connectivity issues we’d have in the past few weeks.  So, as a result – we didn’t have nearly the ability to pimp out the carnival as we [...]]]>

When we signed up to host the August Digital Nomad Blog Carnival (a roving round-up of blog posts submitted relevant to digital nomads), we didn’t anticipate the connectivity issues we’d have in the past few weeks.  So, as a result – we didn’t have nearly the ability to pimp out the carnival as we would have liked to get more quality submissions, as we’ve been basically in digital survival mode as we’ve traversed Nebraska, Colorado and Utah.  More on that later, unless you’ve been following our Twitter Stream and know all the juicy details already .
As a result, we had a good number of spam submissions… but there were a few gems to share with you today!
Afraid I haven’t really had time to read over the entries and personalize my descriptions as we’re grossly behind on so many projects and the deadline is here today!  So I’m using the default listing format so that we can get this up and  hopefully I’ve taken out all the spam.

Lifestyle Design

Technology & Gadgets

Travel Tips

We went to the Miami International Boat Show, picked the brains of some great sailing nomads, and worked on defining what we wanted in our ideal floating home.

Noticing our interest, [...]]]> Back in February, Cherie and I did some dreaming around taking the next phase of our technomadic wanderings out to sea.

We went to the Miami International Boat Show, picked the brains of some great sailing nomads, and worked on defining what we wanted in our ideal floating home.

Noticing our interest, my mom (thank you!) surprised us by sending us a DVD documentary she had stumbled upon about the adventures of a sailing family, and we finally got around to watching Ice Blink this week.

Ice Blink is a documentary about the Martin family, “a conventional family of five living a very unconventional life afloat”.

The story begins in the late-80′s when a young Dave Martin set off to circle the the globe in his small 25′ sailboat. Along the way he met and married his life partner Jaja, and together they had three children (in a 25′ boat!!!) and many adventures during their seven year circumnavigation.

Eventually the Martin’s upgraded to a larger 33′ boat, and after two years ashore in 1997 the family set sail again to explore more northerly waters. Most of the footage in Ice Blink chronicles the family’s explorations of these arctic waters, and the photography and video is stunning. The ice filled seas and swimming polar bears certainly make a sharp contrast to the more typical tropical cruising photos!

The Martin Family in Greenland

But despite the beautiful photography and video footage, we actually found a lot of interview portions of Ice Blink to be a bit… Boring…

But only boring to us because we have spent so much time of our own answering the exact same frequently asked questions, and we could almost echo the same answers the Martins were giving ourselves. We already know how important it is to just get out and go – and that the details will work themselves out along the way.

But if you are in need of motivation and inspiration to hit the road or the waves, Ice Blink’s look at the Martin family provides a great case study of how it can be done – starting with little more than an old boat, a thirst for adventure, and a willingness to jump into the unknown.

Here is a preview video from Ice Blink:

I particularly appreciated Dave’s stories about how he trusted that he would be able to pick up work along the way to fund the voyage. For example, he turned menial work in a meat packing plant into the rewarding opportunity to spend a year overhauling the plant owner’s boat. And a friend’s advice to “take pictures even if you can’t afford the film” eventually led to the Martin’s selling photographs professionally.

Indeed, if you trust in Nomadic Serendipity, things tend to have a way of working out – often in ways that you least expect it!

I also appreciated the way that the Martin’s explained how you must often pass through the challenging “zeros” to truly reach and appreciate the epic “tens” experiences on the other side. I think this reflects an element of challenge and reward that is present in crossing an ocean that is somewhat lacking in our more predictable and controllable land-based adventures.

Speaking of our own boat aspirations… I’ve been daydreaming about sailing again lately (must be the salt air here in Florida), but we still haven’t firmed up what our own next steps might be. Hopefully we will be able to make it to Seattle later this year to get some time-on-water with our technomad friends Steve and Sky. And maybe this winter we will try to take some sailing lessons and/or do some chartering to get more experience. If we both discover that sailing feels like the right next step, perhaps this time next year we will be sailing north up the Intercoastal to explore the Great Loop…

A nomad must get proficient at the art of saying good-bye – for you are always arriving and soon after leaving. Unless one can become detached emotionally enough, it’s going to tug at heartstrings.

For me, I [...]]]> May I take a moment and share with you something that is not easy about our traveling lifestyle?

A nomad must get proficient at the art of saying good-bye – for you are always arriving and soon after leaving. Unless one can become detached emotionally enough, it’s going to tug at heartstrings.

For me, I choose to not to strive for detachment – for meeting and connecting with people is a big part of the adventure. I would much rather have a deep friendship that I miss, than not allowing a connection to be made for fear of loss. Most of the time I can say my goodbyes without tears and sorrow, for I know my travels will eventually bring me back around to visit. For I know that technology allows me to stay in touch with the people we connect with in ways not previously possible.

However, this past month has been a particularly difficult one in terms of trying to keep good-byes cheerful. We have been positively swimming in abundance of awesome connections. Between all of the amazing nomads we shared community with at the NuRVers Gathering, family and some particularly special new friendships made here in Texas, each good-bye we’ve made has been like slowly pulling a bandage off. Each tug grabs at our hearts a little more, and the tears are becoming more and more difficult to hold back.

These connections have been an unusual departure from our norm – both in terms of how many we’ve made and the depth we’ve had opportunity to explore. With our sometimes short stopovers, there’s generally not time to get below the surface level of initial friendship. However, for the past two and half months, we’ve been somewhat still in the Austin area of Texas to concentrate on launching our first iPhone app – State Lines. This has had the unexpected side effect of opening doors to forging friendships that now have intentions to last a life time.

In many ways, these depths of connection have been an element in our lives that has been missing. We have not only been saying good-bye to amazing inspiring people – we’ve been mourning the impending loss of sense of close community. I’ve honestly not felt quite like this since I left my community in Florida to hit the road 3 years ago. Leaving the Austin area on Thursday is going to one of the most difficult departures we’ve had to make yet.

I don’t view this is a bad thing, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It is instead a magnificent reminder of my core inspiration to be out here on the road. To connect deeply. And that I have.

Traveling around the USA, you likely have had some of the same experiences we have…

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”

The one thing [...]]]> This month’s introduction to nomads will be focused on the 17 nomadic households that we’ve been neighbors with over the past month here at the fantastic Hill Shade RV Park in Gonzales, TX for the NuRVers Gathering.  We come from all walks of life, and from all over the place.

We had everyone at the gathering draw their route since the last gathering. This group gets around!

The one thing we all seem to share in common is our passion for the road and not waiting until retirement to just do it!

We’d love for you to meet all our amazing new friends (some who we’ve profiled before), who each have an inspiring story to tell. Listed in order of arrival…  meet the Days of Nu 2 attendess:

	Sara, Matt, Bella and Lucy / Happy Janssens The Janssen family started out on the road about 3 years ago on the Live Lightly tour, and then settled back in Montana thinking they were done with the road. After the birth of Lucy, they decided they were meant for the road and headed back out.  Their gorgeous RV is run on straight veggie oil, and part of their income is derived on doing veggie oil conversions for others.
	Chris & Cherie / Technomadia That’s us!  Chris has been on the road full time for just over four years after leaving behind his Silicon Valley job, and Cherie joined him in May 2007 after selling her house in Florida. They live out of a 17′ solar equipped fiberglass egg – doing remote software development and technical consulting.
	Chris, Becky & Nora / Tao of Long The Long family has been on the road for about 2 years after living in New England and trying to make their artistic careers thrive. While they continue to find ways to fund their travels with Chris’ amazing sculpting skills and Becky’s painting – Chris is currently a traveling cookware salesman.
	Tara, Justin & Zeb / Organic Sister This group just left their base in Las Vegas about 2 months ago, and is just getting started. They travel in a 1970s small Winnebego, converted to run off veggie oil and solar.  They originally thought they’d travel around for a year until they found ‘home’.. but may be discovering that the road is really home.  Justin is a skilled carpenter and Tara is a massage therapist who just launched an Unschooling Coaching business.
	Sam & Tracy / ZenNomads These two left on the road about 6 months ago after their grown kids moved away from their base in Florida – finally free to explore their dreams of travel. Sam is a software developer and system administrator, and is able to work remotely on the road. Tracy was a preschool teacher, which isn’t a very mobile career – so now she takes care of Sam, their two dogs and their turtle.
	Jonathan & Dasy  / WeGoFar These two gave up their high pressure IT careers in the Washington DC area last summer, rented their house out and decided to hit the road for a year or two.  They pick up consulting contract work as they go.
	Jim & Rene / Live. Work. Dream. About three years ago Jim & Rene sold their home and business in California to explore the road with their three-legged dog Jerry. Jerry passed away, and they bought a summer home in Colorado. They now travel the winter months in the south with their new three legged family member, Wyatt – running their Tripawds business providing support for three legged animals.
	Michael & Shonda / RV Her Michael and Shonda have been on the road a few months, and travel around running their business doing eLearning for crime scene clean-up, and speaking at seminars.
	Ben / Where is Ben & Karen / Pegasus0880 Ben has been on the road full time for just over four years, touring in his rock star Prevost bus. He’s a Photoshop master, teaching and training along the way as well as exploring his artistic photographer side. Karen, a graphic artist, just joined him at the beginning of the year – working with her employer to convert her existing job to be mobile.
	Kevin & Angie / Chillaxnet Kev & Ang have been on the road full time for over 4 years. Kev is a web application developer who works remotely from his sweet mobile office setup. Ang has a full time job keeping him in line. These awesome folks are also the founders of NuRVers and we’re ever so grateful for their vision and dedication to our community.
	Damien & Michele / Remiks Jewelry These two have been on the road full time for over 7 years, and fund their travels by making and selling jewelry. They sell both at fairs across the country, as well as through their Etsy online store.
	Jennifer / Living in my car Jennifer just bought her first RV literally weeks before the rally, and by the end of May – she’ll be departing on her first solo RV adventure to the Artic Circle!  She’ll continue to work remotely helping administer the small business her husband and her run. While she’ll be doing the driving solo, her husband is planning to fly out to rendezvous with her at various stops along her adventure.
	Steve, Beverly & Slade This family has put their house in Texas up for sale, and is itching to figure out what their ideal home on wheels will look like. They were able to pick up a lot of useful information at NuRVers.  They hope to hit the road soon, and are still considering what their source of income will be.  Steve is currently a fierier (horse shoer), and thinks he might be able to convert that to a mobile career. Hopefully they’ll soon open a blog to share their adventures with us!
	Joey Claire / Nomad Me After 12 years of owning an RV as a temporary office and crash pad while managing her restaurants, this was Joey’s first RV adventure and rally!  She’s going full time as a single solo traveler, and ramping up her art business.  She intends to convert her RV to a mobile art studio. A long time sufferer of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, Joey is proof that single women of any age can travel on their own!   (It should be no surprise that Jennifer and Joey are sisters… both these women are downright courageous!). Joey’s new blog should be online soon…
	Gillian, Kwamena and Efua / Intense Lives This single mom and her kids made a surprise last minute addition to the rally. The family has been nomadic for many years, but this is their first time traveling by RV for these past few months. And they’re loving it!   Gillian has been living off the sale of her business, but is currently ramping up a writing career to continue funding their travels.
	Skipper, Selena and Levi / Peace of Parsley This family has just purchased their RV, and are in process of converting it to be their full time home. They currently make organic products (salves, etc) that they sell at farmer’s markets on weekends – and intend to take the business on the road with them.
	Brice & Rose / Tacky Texans The youngest folks at the rally just purchased and moved into their 1970s Avion trailer literally days before the rally. They’re currently parked in Austin and transitioning their lives to live on the road full time. They aim to be fully mobile by the beginning of next year.

The NuRVers Days of Nu 2 Gathering was an amazing event, with some very amazing people.

We were able to conduct indepth video interviews with most of these folks, and are excited to be working on two different documentaries with the footage.  One we’ll debut here and for the NuRVers community for you to learn more about life on the road and how we all make it work. And another for a Digital Nomad documentary that Almost Fearless is ramping up, for which she is currently accepting donations towards.

——-

We’d like to send many thanks to Sara Janssen for her beautiful photography at the event and for allowing us to share it with you. Her images are featured above for each nomadic household and group shot used as the header image.

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.

Boyink Advenures – The Boyink family is preparing to depart in an RV in September 2010 for a year long (or perhaps more) US road trip.

Man Vs [...]]]> Another amazing month of encountering more nomadic-minded folks sharing their taless online.  We invite you to meet some of them too:

Boyink Advenures – The Boyink family is preparing to depart in an RV in September 2010 for a year long (or perhaps more) US road trip.

Man Vs Debt - Adam Baker and his family were deep in debt. They put their minds towards paying it off, selling everything and traveling the world. Adam approached us at SXSW last month, as they’re considering travel via RV in the future.

Drop of Change – Carl Nelson teaches Lindy Hop swing dance to fund his travels. Currently, he’s based himself out of New Orleans.

Tacky  Texans – Brice and Rose are an awesome young couple we recently met who just purchased their first RV and will be moving into it by the first of May. They’ll stick around Austin for now, with intentions of hitting the road in about a year.

Nerd Nomad – Joe departed the Silicon Valley in a 33′ RV at the beginning of 2010 to explore tech work and living on the road.

Tricknor Tribe – For anyone who says that having kids means you can’t travel full time – you need to check this group out. A family of 13 (11 kids) traveling the US via RV.   Yes – you read that right – 11 kids.

Life in the Right Lane – Andy and Lori met while working at a camp for kids with cancer, and are now traveling by RV around the country.

This Open Road – Robyn decided there really is no perfect time, and has put purposeful intentions towards hiking the Appalachian Trail and then teaching English as a second language overseas.

All of these awesome nomads have been added to our growing List of Nomads – which I seriously need to put some effort into better organizing.

If you know of other nomads with blogs or are one yourself (even if you’re aspiring to be ) don’t be shy about introducing yourself! We’d love to feature you in an upcoming post like this one.

With a home that moves and no place that we consider a single home base, we were curious as to where [...]]]> The timing was perfect, just as I was researching how full time travelers should make sure they get counted in US 2010 Census, a census enumerator shows up at our campsite in Austin, TX.

With a home that moves and no place that we consider a single home base, we were curious as to where we’d be counted.  

Being Counted in the US Census 2010 at our Campground

Not so, according to the US Census.  The census has defined a concept of ‘usual residence’ – the place where people live and sleep most of the time. This is not necessarily someone’s legal domicile or voting address.

For those of us who a usual residence can’t be determined – because there is no such concept as ‘most of the time’  - they have a special rule:

People who do not have a usual residence, or cannot determine a usual residence, should be counted where they are on Census Day.

You can read more about usual residence rules and how they might apply to your unique situation on the US Census’s website.

They Know About Us

The US Census Transitory Location Questionnaire

We were quite surprised, and impressed, when a census enumerator knocked on our door at a state park campground in Texas this morning. We were expecting to eventually receive our form in the mail when it was forwarded to us from South Dakota and figure it out from there.

We were double impressed that the Census actually has a specific Transitory Location Questionnaire just for us location independent folks, that even mentions RVs, boats and rooms.  This questionnaire makes none of the usual assumptions about location, and is indeed tailored to our lifestyle.   And our enumerator was well versed on how to record us transient nomads, and was happy to give us a blank copy to make this blog post.

It was pretty simple, on question 7 that asks if the person lives anywhere else for any of the listed reasons, there’s a ‘For Another Reason’ option. The enumertor then follows up by filling in the ‘Notes’ section on the form.

Select 'For Another Reason' to be counted as a nomad!

Full Time RV Travelers – Does not stay in one location most of the time

So, for the 2010 Census, we’ll be marked at Austin, TX – which I don’t mind too much as I grew up here. We were warned that when we move on to Gonzalez later next week, it’s quite possible we’ll be called upon again – and we should just tell them we were counted already.

It is a shame that there is no way to count location independent folks without tying them to a specific momentary location – as I do think it’s important for the government to be more aware of just how many of us are selecting mobile lifestyles these days.

But at least they’ve aware of us, and going above and beyond to make sure we’re counted. After all, they want to include ‘People staying here on April 1, 2010 who have no permanent place to live.’

Yup, that’s us! (Kiki was quite disappointed that they don’t count cats.)

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!

As our February has been full [...]]]> It’s that time again.. when we share with you some cool fellow nomadic folks we’ve discovered lately, and tempt you into spending all your free time being inspired. Writing these posts has become quite a joy for me, and keeps me constantly on the prowl for other like minds.

As our February has been full of exploring the possibility of a future nautical component to our nomadism, here are some amazing sailing nomads who have been wonderfully helpful in answering our questions:

Nautical Nomads

Cindy’s Island – Cindy & Gray were introduced to us via a mutual acquaintance, and it just happened that they were moored nearby in Florida. We spent a delightful afternoon getting a tour of Cindy’s Island, their full time live aboard monohull boat, and picking their brains.

It’s Irie – Leisbet & Mark where introduced to us via Gray & Cindy, who are also living full time aboard a catamaran named Irie. Previously, they were full time RVers. We’re looking forward to getting to know these two.

Zach Aboard – A boy. A boat. A life afloat.  This nomadic family lives aboard a gorgeous catamaran, raising their young son.

Christine – We met Christine at Strictly Sail in Miami last month. She’s been doing epic sailing and live aboard for many many years, and we had a delightful time hearing about her adventures.

Bumfuzzle – These two have been mentioned several times to us now that we’re blogging about our sailing aspirations. Many years ago on a lark, they bought a sailboat with no prior experience and spent 4 years circling the globe.  And then they got a small VW van and toured 28 countries in Europe.  Now they just had a daughter a couple months ago, and are living in Mexico.

Dramanauts – We talk about Steve, the original technomad, a lot – who is massively geeking out his own epic sailboat, Nomadness.  However, he’s not alone on his journey.  Growing tired of Steve perfecting his boat, Sky has now procured her own sailing vessel, Dervish, and two are the start of the Technomadic Flotilla.  Their two boat system seems perfect for them!

Land Nomads

Happy Janssens – Matt, Sara, Bella and Lucy are a modern nomadic family.  In 2007 they set off on the Live Lightly Tour, and are now back on the road full time.  Their motorhome is powered by veggie oil, and they fund themselves by doing photography, veggie oil conversions and RV remodeling as they travel. We can’t wait to meet them soon at the NuRVer’s Gathering!

Our Take on Freedom – Jay & Amy are an adventurous and creative duo.  They recently wrote to several Caribbean resorts, and managed to get hired on to teach classes in exchange for free room and board.  When their job is up this summer, they’re getting an RV and heading to Burning Man (we’re hoping they’ll join us at Camp Nomadia!).

Appetite 4 Adventure – Johnny Biscuit bought a 17′ Casita last year (similar to our Oliver) to set out doing comedy (he blogged about it under Comedy Bailout). At the end of his year, he decided to keep going.

Drifting Focus – Kelsey is a mid-20s adventurer who has crafted a life well suited to her wanderlust and photography passions. She’s been able to balance a romantic relationship that includes a home base with her pursuits of solo travel.

RamonaCreel –  Ramona and Matt full time in an Airstream. Like us, they’re childfree by choice, believe in simplicity, being debt free and are under 40. Ramona is a personal organizing coach, which helps fund their travels.

All of these awesome nomads have been added to our growing List of Nomads – which I seriously need to put some effort into better organizing.

If you know of other nomads with blogs or are one yourself (even if you’re aspiring to be ) don’t be shy about introducing yourself! We’d love to feature you in an upcoming post like this one.

But after spending some time at the Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sailing event, the idea of relocating at least part of the year onto a liveaboard is starting to [...]]]> Only a week ago, the thought of Cherie and I sailing off into the sunset was a “certainly, but someday” sort of thing.

But after spending some time at the Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sailing event, the idea of relocating at least part of the year onto a liveaboard is starting to seem more real.

In the few days since the boat show, we’ve both shown signs of ‘boat fever’ – surfing boat listings and dreaming of life on the water. We even managed to route from Miami to Orlando by way of the Florida Keys (only a slight detour) to spend an afternoon checking out a rather sweet used Gemini 3000 catamaran. And yesterday, thanks to an introduction from an online friend, we further detoured to Stuart Florida to meet up with Cindy & Gray of Cindy’s Island to tour their boat and hear stories of their past few years on the water.

We’ve been soaking up insight, experience, and advice – and over a beer at a dockside bar a few nights ago Cherie and I started working on our first draft of the things that we are looking for in our ideal home afloat. Thoughts and feedback appreciated:

Boat Size & Type:

• Sail! — We both a drawn to sailboats. Even the nicest motor-cruiser isn’t really that interesting to us. Whatever we get, it must have a mast!



• Monohull or Catamaran? — A week ago we were feeling strongly drawn toward catamarans. But after seeing some really nice monohull cabin layouts (like the sweet Catalina 375), now it really is a tossup.
• Sailing Optimized / Light Wind Capable — We want a boat that is fun to sail, and which is not overly dependent upon its engine. Too many sailboats seem to spend way too much of their time cruising under power. We are not all that concerned about going fast, but would like a boat that can sail (slowly) even in light wind.
• Cruising Area — It would be nice to get a boat that would be capable of setting off to circumnavigate the world, but at the very least we want a boat that can handle coastal cruising up both coasts of North America. We want to be able to sail the Pacific Northwest, San Francisco Bay, Baja, the Caribbean, Florida, the Atlantic Coast, and all points in between – including through the Panama Canal.
• “Thin Water” Capable — All catamarans can handle shallow water exploration. But if we get a monohull, I don’t want to be confined to deeper waters. A “Shoal Draft” capable monohull that draws less than 5′ would be great. Less than 4′ would be even better. Less than 3′ would be amazing. And less than 2′ is incredible. But… To get shallow water capability, we do not want to sacrifice too much stability in the process. Finding the sweet spot will be key.
• Length — It seems like 30′ – 40′ is the sweet spot for a liveaboard cruiser. The Gemini 3000 (30′) we saw on Monday is definitely a livable size for a catamaran, and the 37′ Catalina we toured at the boat show was a great size for a monohull. Whatever size we get, we want it to be sailable singlehandedly by one person.
• Width — It would be nice to be able to fit into a standard slip. But what size is considered “standard” in most marinas? The Gemini 3000 is 14′ wide and seems a practical width. Many other catamarans are probably too wide to avoid extra marina fees.
• Mast Height — In addition to coastal offshore cruising, we want to be able to cruise the Intercoastal Waterway (55′ – 65′ mast height limit), the “Great Loop“, and maybe even explore the Okeechobee Waterway (49′ mast height limit) across Florida. To do the inland sections of the Great Loop we will have to be able to drop the mast to clear a 19′ bridge near Chicago. If our above water height can be reduced to less than 15′, we can cruise the entire Erie canal!
• Strong Bones — We want a solid boat that is built to last. An older used boat with a proven pedigree is preferable to a shiny newer boat that will be falling apart in just a few years.
• Photogenic — A sailboat is a work of art. We are photographers and travel bloggers. Of course we want a boat that will look good in pictures… *grin*

Layout, Comfort, & Storage:

• Cabins — A lot of boats seem designed for the charter market, with three or four or even more small cabins and space overall to sleep twelve or more. We want a boat designed for a couple, with one large and comfy master cabin, and just one private guest cabin so that we can have space to take on a friend for an extended stay as crew. If the boat has more than two cabins, the surplus will be converted into storage or geekery.



• Heads — Again because of the charter market, a lot of boats seem to have two or even three bathrooms. We only want one. Any extras are just wasted space and something extra to clean.
• Headroom — We will need at least 6′ headroom in all the primary interior spaces. I don’t want to live in a home where I have to spend a lot of time hunched over.
• Dry Inside — Some boats leak a little. Others are known for being “wet” on the inside. Considering how important our electronics and our comfort are, we want a boat the excels at keeping the interior space cozy and dry.
• No Carpet Headliner — One of the things we most disliked about the Casita travel trailer was its use of a fuzzy carpet headliner. Carpet gets musty over time, and it is near impossible to clean. In contrast, we really love the bright and low maintenance fiberglass gelcoat interior of our Oliver. We want something just as durable and easy to keep clean in a boat.
• Comfortable “Boondocking” at Anchor — A lot of cruising boats seem designed for marina hopping, always ending each day plugged into shore power at the next marina. Bah. While RV’ing we prefer extended boondocking, and while sailing we would like a boat that is happy to spend extended periods of time away from dock.



• Inside / Outside Dining — Seating for six would be great – it would be nice to have space to actually entertain guests. Being able to entertain both inside and outside is important too.
• Screens & Shade — Having a way to shade and screen the deck would be great. Bugs – not so great.
• Workspace With A View — We will continue to spend a lot of time every day working on our computers – and we want the view from our workspace to be inspiring. A lot of monohulls seem to be overly dark inside with not enough windows to let in light or a view. No matter what, we want to have a great view from our main workspace without needing to bring our laptops up on deck!
• A View To Movies — We will want to be able to mount at least a 24″ screen (and appropriate speakers) for movie watching. Having the screen on a swing arm so that it can be position for use with our laptops as well is great.
• Storage — Onboard we will want a place to store a decent dingy, two foldable bikes, and eventually some dive gear as well. And of course, we want enough food and clothing storage to be able to last a while without needing to wash or restock.
• Cat Friendly — We will need a place to tuck Kiki’s litter box that is both out of the way and accessible for cleaning.
• Climate Control — Will we want an air conditioner while at dock? What about some sort of heater when anchored out on cold nights? A good set of ventilation fans and hatches is a must, of course.
• Paper Towel Holder — Cherie reminds me that there must be a good place to keep paper towels handy – something all too often overlooked.

Geekery, Systems & Electronics:

• Solar Power — We will need space to mount 250-500 watts of solar panels where they will get minimal shade from the boom or mast, and a MPPT capable charge controller. A wind power generator might make a nice addition too.
• Battery Capacity — We will need space for at least 200-600 amp hours of AGM storage batteries.
• Battery Charging — We will want a large enough alternator on the engine to quickly charge the batteries, and/or a generator that can handle the job. We will also want a nice sized sine wave inverter / charger on board.
• Water — We will want space to someday add a water maker, and large enough fresh water tanks to last a while without. And of course, we will need a hot water heater and a filtration system for our drinking water.
• Antennas — We will eventually want antennas in the mast for SSB radio, long range WiFi, a cell phone booster, and television reception. Having space to eventually add radar is probably a good idea too.



• Space For Geekery — We will need space to mount a chart plotter, various radios, and all sorts of other technology. The more accessible and easy to work with the wiring spaces are, the better.
• Easy Maintenance & Upgrades — Too many boats seem to be incredibly poorly designed when it comes to doing maintenance and upgrades. The engine should be easily accessible. Wiring should be accessible, well labeled, and with space for new runs. Plumbing and tanks should be reachable, and well labeled. And so on… You shouldn’t have to destroy pretty woodwork to get at the internal systems. I’d rather leave off the “pretty” entirely, and instead focus on intelligent functionality and easy access.

That’s the list we came up with – the ideal. Now we need to start debating the tradeoffs, and figuring out where we are willing to compromise and where we are not.

And of course, we want it at all as affordably as possible to maintain our current debt-free lifestyle. Fortunately we’ve heard plenty of stories lately of great used boats selling for a fraction of what the same aged boat would have sold for a few years ago.

A new boat on the other hand probably does not make any financial sense.

Any thoughts? Things we are missing? Suggested additions or deletions?

And most importantly – please point us towards any boats that come close to meeting our needs!

Anyone who helps us find our perfect cruising home will get a “finders fee” of a nice bottle of rum, and an invitation on board to sail with us.

Ahoy, anyone?

Though these events have traditionally been very distinct, the no-longer-appropriately-named “Strictly Sail” has unfortunately now been devoured by the vastly larger powerboat focused Miami International Boat Show. To [...]]]> As planned, we spent Saturday and Sunday this past weekend at the Miami International Boat Show and the co-located sailing focused Strictly Sail Miami.

Though these events have traditionally been very distinct, the no-longer-appropriately-named “Strictly Sail” has unfortunately now been devoured by the vastly larger powerboat focused Miami International Boat Show. To our disappointment, there were only two docks featuring sailboats at the show. And to make matters worse, the two docks were 1.5 miles apart – requiring a trip on a water taxi (that ran just once an hour?!!?) or a shuttle bus trip to get between them.

Nevertheless, we had a great time checking out boats and the expo on Saturday, and on Sunday spending a day attending the Strictly Sailing seminars.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Miami International Boat Show was huge – filling up every nook and cranny of the Miami Beach Convention Center and a vast area outdoors as well. We couldn’t have seen it all if we had spent all five days at the show. And since we were eager to get to the sailboats, we ended up not staying long at the main expo area at all.

We did check out practical things for our current RV life as well as our future boating aspirations, such as folding bikes and inflatable kayaks:

And some rather odd items, like a floating dog (why not for cats?) bed and an “instant” wine chiller:

There was also lots of cool gadgetry to be found, such as dive masks with integrated cameras, and solar powered refrigerators:

I was really pleased to see so much “green” technology on display at the show, particularly in the separate expo area targeting sailors. In sharp contrast to the RV Show that we went to last month, here we found lots of solar panels, LED lighting, wind generators, and more.

The expo areas was fun, but the real reason we were at the show was to check out some sailboats, so after lunch we hopped the shuttle bus over to the marina to check out the action on the docks.

The boat we most wanted to see was the Gemini 105Mc catamaran, and it mostly lived up to our expectations:



The 34′ long Gemini has an incredibly well laid out interior, and it is perfectly sized for a single traveling couple with space for occasional guests. We really loved the hanging couch on the back that also serves as a solar panel mount.

The other catamaran that really impressed us was the innovative little TomCat 9.7:


The 32′ TomCat packs a lot into an even smaller space than the Gemini. The layout feels extra spacious because there is so little dividing up the interior space – the kitchen, main salon, and master stateroom are all open to each other with only curtains for separation. It reminds me of the interior layout of our Oliver in that regard.

All of the other catamarans on display were overly large, and packed with cabins for the charter market. And while a large salon area is nice, and we like the idea of a raised upstairs galley – a boat featuring up to FOUR bathrooms is not anything that we would want even if we could somehow afford such a monster.

After running out of catamarans to look at, we then turned our focus towards the monohulls.

Most of the models on display were either tiny day sailers, or cruisers vastly too large to interest us. When we asked why so few 30′ – 40′ boats were on display we were told that it was because the “middle class has stopped buying sailboats” and that only the most extravagant yachts were worthwhile to bring out to the boat shows. Interesting.

One of the monohulls that did catch our eye was the incredibly innovative Seaward 32RK:


Thanks to its retractable keel design, the Seaward 32RK can operate in less than two feet of water. It has a large, comfortable, well designed interior. And it is actually even trailerable!

The other boat that really impressed us was the beautifully designed Catalina 375:


More than any other boat that we toured, the interior layout of the Catalina 375 felt like it would make for a comfortable long-term home. We started the weekend biased towards catamarans, but thanks to the Catalina we left it completely open to a monohull as well.

Despite fewer sailboats on display than we had hoped to see, our trip to the boat show served its purpose well. We now have a much better idea around the sizes, layouts, brands, and features that felt best to us. Armed with this research, we’ve already started to begin distilling down what we want in our ideal boat.

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To see many more photos from our trip to the boat show, check out our full photo set or slideshow on Flickr.

We’ve imagined someday running across a cruising couple who might want to “swap houses” for a few monhs – trading a chance to explore the open road in our land [...]]]> While we love our land-based nomadic lifestyle, Cherie and I have both long fantasized about taking to the high seas for some extended aquatic adventuring.

We’ve imagined someday running across a cruising couple who might want to “swap houses” for a few monhs – trading a chance to explore the open road in our land yacht while we spend some time getting our feet wet in theirs. Or we could dock our Oliver for a while, and maybe buy a boat of our own to begin exploring seasonally.

Cherie sailing the 'Wilde Ride' in 2004

We’ve had cruising on our “hypothetical future adventures” list for as long as we’ve known each other, and individually the idea of a liveaboard sailboat has haunted us even longer.

It really isn’t so much a question of if, but when.

Thanks to the down economy, the used boat market is ripe with amazing deals right now. In some cases (as seen this week on Craigslist) people are literally giving old boats away – “haul it off our lot and you can have it”. And our dear friend and fellow technomad Steve Roberts and his partner Sky just scored an amazing deal on a liveaboard-worthy boat for well under $10k, adding a second boat to their technomadic flotilla and inspiring us with what is possible on even the tightest budget.

We dream of eventually joining Sky and Steve in a floating community, but first we need to figure out what sort of boat we want, and what we can afford. We aren’t anywhere close to being actively boat hunting, but if the perfect boat comes along in the next year or so we want to be ready to jump.

And until then, we can start learning, gaining some experience, and fantasizing about future adventures.

To gather up some fuel for the fires of imagination – we are heading down this weekend to visit the Miami International Boat Show and in particular, the sailing focused Strictly Sail Miami.

We are hoping to check out the latest and greatest in new boats (like the sweet looking Gemini 105Mc Catamaran) so that we can have a better sense for what we want in a used boat. Catamaran or monohull? How big? What things are must haves? What things could we do without?

You can only learn so much on the internet. But nothing can actually compare to actually standing onboard to get a sense for what feels right.

There are also a lot of interesting sounding seminars that we plan to check out.

We will report back next week on what we thought of the show. I am really interested in contrasting this giant boat show with the RV Show that we went to last month in St. Louis.

In the meantime, advice on all things nautical, and in particular things to see and check out at the boat show are appreciated. Are any of our readers out there past, present, or future cruisers?

Abandon The Cube - Mike and Lauren quit their jobs, and are traveling the world. They’re currently preparing to be part of the Mongol Rally, and are [...]]]> We’ve been blessed recently to virtually encounter other inspiring folks embarking on lives of conscious intent involving nomadism. I’d like to introduce you to them:

Abandon The Cube - Mike and Lauren quit their jobs, and are traveling the world. They’re currently preparing to be part of the Mongol Rally, and are looking for sponsors.

Freely Living Life – The McLeod’s are a family of four traveling the US in an RV, roadschooling their young kids. They just started a blog to share their journey.

Activated Storytellers – Dennis and Kimberly Goza left their home in San Francisco in 1992 with their son Zephyr (who was still in diapers) to perform professionally at schools and libraries across the United States. The Goza family performed together as “The Act!vated Storytellers” since Zephyr was about 4 years old. In May of 2008, Zephyr decided to retire when he turned 18, however Dennis and Kimberly are still traveling full time  and performing via RV.

Airstream Fairtales – After 2 years splitting time between hotels, an apartment in Venice Beach and a house in San Francisco – Stu made a change. He sold his house in San Francisco, bailed on Venice Beach and bought an Airstream as his home base.

Vantramps – Mike & Heidi met much like us – online, via a vehicle forum while they were each already exploring full time life on the road as individuals. They got hitched last summer and are now embarking on travel in a class B van together.

Levity Ahead - Adolfo and Vicki are giving up their stationary life in Austin, TX and hitting the road full time in an Airstream they call the Silver Whale.

Travel Fables – Not attached to any mode of travel, Dale will don his backpack for a wilderness adventure, travel abroad or will hook up to his travel trailer and explore.

World Wide Wonderment - Jon is 33, and on a year’s leave of absence from his job to explore the world.

All of these awesome nomads have been added to our growing List of Nomads.

If you know of other nomads with blogs or are one yourself – even if you’re aspiring to be – don’t be shy about introducing yourself! We’d love to feature you in an upcoming post like this one.

Knowing only that About Schmidt was about a retired Jack Nicholson taking a road trip across country in an RV, I had somehow ended up [...]]]> Presumably because it prominently features an RV, I have had a few people mention About Schmidt to me over the past few years as a movie I might like.

Knowing only that About Schmidt was about a retired Jack Nicholson taking a road trip across country in an RV, I had somehow ended up with the impression that the movie would be a Meet the Parents style screwball seniors comedy, perhaps with a bittersweet twist. Needless to say – About Schmidt wasn’t high up on my “to see” list.

Fortunately, while passing through Atlanta recently Cherie spotted the DVD lying out on our hosts coffee table, and mentioned that it was one of her personal inspirations towards leading a nomadic life. We ended up watching it that evening, and I am so glad that we did. Rarely has a movie so thoroughly exceeded my expectations – I was honestly blown away.

About Schmidt is not a comedy, nor is it entirely tragic. The film is a character study, looking deep into the character of Warren Schmidt, and in the process casting a harsh and unflattering light onto the superficialities and isolation of modern life.

Jack Nicholson’s performance as Schmidt was Oscar nominated, and he should have won. His was an acting tour de force filled with subtlety and emotion. Kathy Bates was also deservedly nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Director Alexander Payne does a fabulous job using imagery, framing, color, perspective, and focus to give every scene a certain look and a sense of emotion that I found captivating. His Golden Globe winning screenplay is refreshingly clever, and not at all formulaic.

Roger Ebert’s review sums up the genius of this film better than I can:

“About Schmidt” is essentially a portrait of a man without qualities, baffled by the emotions and needs of others. That Jack Nicholson makes this man so watchable is a tribute not only to his craft, but to his legend: Jack is so unlike Schmidt that his performance generates a certain awe. Another actor might have made the character too tragic or passive or empty, but Nicholson somehow finds within Schmidt a slowing developing hunger, a desire to start living now that the time is almost gone. … Most teenagers will probably not be drawn to this movie, but they should attend. Let it be a lesson to them. If they define their lives only in terms of a good job, a good paycheck and a comfortable suburban existence, they could end up like Schmidt, dead in the water.

Portraying that “slowly developing hunger” is at the core of About Schmidt, and it is clear to me now why Cherie cites this film as one of her inspirations.

Though the RV trip is actually secondary to the deeper story, every full time RV’er will find a touch of truth and inspiration in this story. And every wannabe traveler will find in Schmidt motivation to hit the road sooner rather than later. Don’t wait to start living your life!

Watching this film is watching masters at work. Go see it.

Rating: 5 stars!

PS: An earlier version of this review is featured on my personal LiveJournal blog. If you like my movie reviews, you can find many more posted here.

What Is Burning Man: Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, [...]]]> As many of you know, we journey to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert every year to participate in Burning Man.

What Is Burning Man: Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.

This year Burning Man runs from Aug 30 – Sept 6, and the art theme is “Metropolis: The Life of Cities“.

For the past two years, we’ve organized Camp Nomadia, a theme camp specifically for full time travelers (past, present, and future) to come together.

Last year, we had 70 like minds camped with us – it was *incredible*.

We’ve just started organizing efforts to put the camp together again for 2010 – and invite you to consider camping with us if you’re planning to attend Burning Man this year.

Clicking the graphic below will take you to our information page about the camp where you can find out more:

Camp Nomadia goes Regional

Nothing on earth (really!) compares to Burning Man itself, but the distance, cost, time commitment, overwhelming size, and extreme desert environment make the main event an epic journey that may beyond reach for some. Fortunately, there are now regional burns happening all over the country, and around the world.

For those who would like to get a taste of burner culture, we’d like to additionally extend an invitation to join us in creating Camp Nomadia at some of the regional Burns that we’re lining up to attend this year.

These events tend to be 3 or 4 nights long, and have only a few hundred folks at each. Regionals are like a single block of Black Rock City, and much less overwhelming.

The events we’re aiming to hit this year are:

• Interfuse – Kansas City area – April 29 – May 2
• Flipside – Austin, TX – May 27 – 31
• Gateway Burn – St. Louis / Central Missouri – June 10 – 13
• Lakes of Fire – Lacota, MI – June 24 – 27

The only one we’re 100% certain to be attending at this point is the Gateway Burn – as we just recently joined the planning staff of this event, having had such a great experience last year. This is a smaller regional burn with some really fabulous people who happen to LOVE us nomadic types. In fact, they loved us so much that they’re specifically aiming to be the first Nomad Certified Regional Event.

What does that mean? Well - in response to Kiki’s protest last year, they’ve decided to exempt us full time travelers from the usual “no pets rule”.  Kiki is excited to become a burner kitty this summer!  And, they have an easy electronic ticket system that doesn’t require a mailing address or making a commitment more than a week prior to attend.

We are hoping to lure as many nomads as we can to converge with us at the Gateway Burn this summer. With its low price (aprox $30), central location, great people, and RV friendly grounds – we feel that this is a great “Burning Man Lite” experience for those not ready or able to dive into the main event.

If you are at all interested, please consider joining us! We also keep a calendar with all the regional US Burning Man events we’ve discovered, as well as other events we’re considering.

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.

Fake Fireplaces, Giant TV's, Mobile Man Caves, Central Vacuum Systems

Solar Panels, Energy Efficient Lighting, Composting Toilets, Camper Vans

So in 2009, I kept a basic log of our fuel and camping fees for public display and just added in December’s numbers. In the process, I decided to add in some of our fixed costs that are [...]]]> A common question we get asked is ‘What is your average monthly cost to travel full time?’.

So in 2009, I kept a basic log of our fuel and camping fees for public display and just added in December’s numbers. In the process, I decided to add in some of our fixed costs that are necessary to our travels to better give folks a realistic cost of our full time travel.

Here’s the 2009 totals:

(For those on RSS or e-mail, you may need to click through to the full post to view the embedded Google Doc spreadsheet.)

Now keep in mind, I’m only reporting the costs specifically associated with our full time traveling. I’ve left off expenses that we’d incur anyway if we lived more stationary – such as food, clothing, entertainment, tech geekery, etc.  I figure that these expenses will vary by person anyway based on personal style, so what we spend isn’t really all that representative.

The combination of fuel and camping fees are the most equivalent living expense we have that replaced paying rent or a mortgage, which as you can see typically comes in less than moderate accommodations in a decent sized city.  At an average of $500/month, it’s about a 75% savings over my previous mortgage payment in Florida.

There are two fixed expenses that I did include, that are arguable if they’re travel specific or not.

• Connectivity: Our two cell phone bills and cellular data service are both expenses that we’d have regardless.  Even before I went on the road, I used my cell phone as my only phone line and maintained a data plan for mobile accessibility. However, since these expenses are so essential to enabling our life and work style  - I decided to include them as part of our fixed technomadic expenses.
• Insurance: Obviously. a full-timer’s RV policy is travel specific.  I included insurance on our tow vehicle (despite auto insurance being necessary for any vehicle owner) as a travel expense.  And I decided to include our health insurance plans – as prior to being nomadic, we were both covered by group plans paid by our employers (ok – so I’m my own employer, I’ve always technically paid my own.)  However, in order to secure coverage across the nation, we went with individual insurance that can’t be paid through our company.  Finding nationwide coverage that doesn’t penalize you for being geographically flexible is a challenge, for sure – and we’ll be addressing that in a future post. I’ve decided to include our self paid premiums as part of our travel expenses.

Other expenses that folks should keep in mind if considering a full time RVing lifestyle might include payments on your rig if you can’t purchase in cash. Ours is paid for, so we don’t have those sorts of expenses. For a more complete description of our monthly expenses and factors that influence our costs, refer to our Cost Log – which I generally keep up to date each month.

I found it rather serendipitously ironic that in 2009 we spent just over $13,000 and traveled just over 13,000 miles.  

So I suppose another way of expressing our travel cost is A buck a mile!  

Which to us.. seems like a pretty sweet deal for a life of full time travel!

You’ve seen us mention our [...]]]> Our life of full time travel has given us some amazing opportunities to make friends with some absolutely inspiring people. We’d like to take a moment and introduce you to a handful who are up to some amazing things this month!

	Sean Patrick Mahoney / http://www.seanpatrickmahoney.com You’ve seen us mention our amazing photographer and artist friend before. This month, he’s finally taking the leap and has released his brand new online gallery. It’s amazing stuff – and we don’t just say that because many of the photos feature us (he created header image of this post). Upcoming, Sean plans to introduce a blog about his techniques.
	Helene Lohr / http://windwoodstone.com Helene is an inspiring artist that we’re blessed to have gotten to know. She amazes us with just how quickly she can take an idea and turn it into breathtaking tangible art. She’s also launched her website this month, and is blogging about her journey into exploring textiles, photography, graphic design, paints and more.
	Lexie Arnold / http://www.lexmachinaphoto.com After a long time of corresponding online, we finally got to meet up with Lexie and her partner Emmy while we were workamping in Kansas last month (they’re younger full time RVers/nomads – like us) . Lexie is plowing full speed ahead exploring her artistic side as a photographer, and doing some amazing stuff with art photography.
	Emmy Jackson / http://www.emmyjackson.com Emmy is as inspiring as his soulmate, Lexie above. By trade he’s an auto industry writer and reviewer, he’s also exploring his incredible gift of writing in fiction, which you can purchase online as an eBook.
	Sandi Wheaton / http://sandiwheaton.com We’ve talked about our friend Sandi, who completed a Route 66 photo road trip last year. This month, she’s showing debuting some of her images at a gallery and is launching several other projects around her time on the road. Amazing and inspiring stuff!
	Karen Nace / http://karennace.blogspot.com Karen and our fellow technomadic friend Ben Willmore finally took their long time Facebook correspondence to an extended in person visit. Karen is taking the leap this month to join him indefinitely on his awesome bus to live the life of the nomad. We’re excited to welcome another nomad to the road, and congratulate these two for the companionship they’ve found in each other!
	James Aultman / AIDS/Lifecycle Our long time friend, James – is embarking on an inspiring mission this year. He’s dedicating himself to training up for a 7-day, 545 miles bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money to help end AIDS. We’re excited to be able to sponsor him in his goals, and encourage you to do so as well.