After an extended stay in Florida catching up with family and friends, checking out sail boats and making new friends – we decided to head on to Austin to be in the area while SXSW Interactive was going on.

With so many bloggers [...]]]> Time Frame: March 7 – 21, 2010
Miles Driven: 1229

After an extended stay in Florida catching up with family and friends, checking out sail boats and making new friends – we decided to head on to Austin to be in the area while SXSW Interactive was going on.

With so many bloggers and friends planning to be there, we decided to splurge and booked the last RV spot we could find in Austin. We also decided to just wing it, and not actually buy badges – instead relying on serendipity to social network our way around.

And on a bit of a whim.. off we set, taking backroads whenever feasible.

Manatee Springs State Park – Chiefland, FL

We made our way west, aiming to find the western most road north out of Florida, exploring an area of Florida neither of us had been in much before.   Just about when we were ready to call it a day, we saw a park sign for Manatee Springs State Park. A quick confirmation that there was camping in the park with our handy RV Camping in State Parks book, and off we set in hopes of making it to the gate before the park office closed.

We totally scored by making it just in time, and were assigned a beautiful camp site and set off for a hike around the lagoon at sunset.  The campground is also close by the manatee viewing area, and we caught sight of a few swimming around in the morning. Unfortunately, due to high waters, swimming with them was off limits during our stay.

New Orleans

In the morning we continued our drive west, boondocking overnight in Pensacola. We drove the coastal route along the Florida panhandle, and got to witness the chaotic kick off of spring break in Panama City Beach.

We had decided before we left Orlando that we’d like to treat ourselves to a couple days in New Orleans, as neither of us had been back there since Katrina. Researching camping options online surfaced the French Quarter RV Resort, located just on the edge of the French Quarter.  While pricey , we decided being able to walk to everywhere  was worth it.  The resort itself was nice – huge spaces, a central courtyard with private bath suites, an ice machine and a hot tub.  It was a nice departure from our normal style of boondocking and public campgrounds.

We spent a couple days wandering around the French Quarter and the Frenchman area. On our way into town, we happened to catch a tweet from Carl Nelson, and remembered that he had recently settled in NOLA.  Carl immediately offered to meet up with us while we were in town.  He directed us to a jazz club, where we marveled at his awesome Lindy Hop swing dance talents.   Carl is also known as the Dance Nomad, and teaches swing dance around the world and online.  It turned out that Carl was heading to SXSW, and would also be ‘not’ attending like us.

Houston

On our way west, we were contacted by Rasheed Hooda of Present Day Nomads, who had done a feature on us last year. He invited us to dinner and to street camp in front of his home in Houston on our way into Austin. Perfect timing!

After a drive-break stop in Avery Island, Louisiana for a tour of the Tabasco Factory – we arrived to join Rasheed for an evening of very yummy Pakistani food, and great conversations.

In the morning, Rasheed shared with us how he’s currently making his income – by twisting balloon animals!  He left the corporate world to find something that brought him joy. And, it’s a portable business model that he plans to take on the road with him as a nomad eventually.

He shared with us that at first, when people asked him how much a balloon animal cost, he quoted a price of $2-3.  And, as one would expect, he received just about that. A while back he started answering the question with ‘Pay whatever you think it’s worth’.  He’s now averaging $5-10 an animal.

Something to think about, for sure.  We tend to undervalue ourselves.

Austin – SXSW

And then.. our arrival to Austin!  We pretty much hit the ground running, attending various SXSW Interactive social events we were invited to.

First off was breakfast hosted by our friend and podcaster Ewan Spence at Magnolia Cafe (yum). We were immediately seated with Dave Delaney (part of the Griffin road trip to SXSW), Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents) and C. C. Chapman (Campfire Creative) – we indulged in gingerbread chocolate chip pancakes while talking about life on the road with mobile technology.

Next was the Location Independent Professionals MeetUp, where we got to rendezvous again with the fabulous Cath Duncan (who we met last year when our paths crossed in Colorado) and Carl Nelson.  We also finally met many other location independent folks we had been corresponding with, including: Jon Woodward, Andy Hayes of Sharing Travel Experiences, Mike Boyink, Adam Baker (Man Vs Debt) and a video chat with Lea Woodward, who stayed back in the UK.  Our breakfast meetup ended up going well into the afternoon, and we followed a string of serendipity, and ended up attending SXSW social events well into the late evening.

We got to spend a lot of time with our friend Kaye Porter, and help her map out her next business venture, and ended up crossing paths repeatedly with Carl, Andy and Cath. We ended up meeting many more fabulous people – including Pace and Kyeli of FreakRevolution,  Ali Hale of Aliventures, Nathalie Lussier of Raw Foods Witch, Kelly of Sticky eBooks and a whole crew of author’s of Thrivable.

Our heads are still spinning after all the awesome new friends we met!

We ended SXSW the same way we started it – breakfast with Ewan at Magnolia Cafe.  We then stopped by our campground for him to tell Kiki scary stories before dropping him off at the airport to return to Scotland.

And that’s just our first week in Austin…  stay tuned for our anticipated upcoming plans.

After an extended month long winter and holiday stop in St. Louis visiting Chris’ family, it was time to head south for the remainder of the winter. Cherie previously lived in Florida for 12 years before we hit the road, and that’s where [...]]]> Time frame: January 20 – February 20, 2010
Miles Driven: 1776

After an extended month long winter and holiday stop in St. Louis visiting Chris’ family, it was time to head south for the remainder of the winter. Cherie previously lived in Florida for 12 years before we hit the road, and that’s where her parents and a lot of our friends live. We knew we’d be in for a hectic schedule of trying to fit seeing everyone in.  We started our adventure south on January 20, 2010.

Atlanta

Our first planned stop would be in Atlanta, a place we never seem to get enough time in as we’re alway just passing through. However we wanted to be sure to stop in and see Diane and Jill, who own a T@b clamshell twin to our former home on wheels. We used to be able to park at their place, but with our slightly larger Oliver Travel Trailer, we weren’t certain our trailer would still fit in their back lot.

And then serendipity happened.  We received a well timed e-mail from someone who almost camped with us at Camp Nomadia the very first year we brought the camp together. Dale was formerly a nomad, but he ended up camping elsewhere and we only got to meet briefly at Burning Man 2008.  Before he switched camps, he had made up some awesome caribineer/flashlight/bottle openers with ‘Camp Nomadia’ printed on them. He gifted us a handful, and they’ve been quite useful. Especially for lightpainting!

As it turns out, Dale has since settled in Atlanta, and invited us to stop in – citing he had plenty of parking space.  His directions ended with ‘park anywhere on the tennis court’ – which raised an eyebrow.  So thus we parked, intending to only stay a couple nights, on his tennis court in front of his airplane hanger converted loft.  It was awesome to get to know Dale and compare stories from the road, Burning Man and geekery. Our intended couple night stay turned into 5 nights (see what we mean about Nomadic Standard Time?) until we figured we really did need to be on our way.

While in Atlanta, we also got to meet up with Diane, however Jill was sick. We also got to make a new friend, who was introduced to us via a mutual friend in California. We went to an independent artists fundraiser and saw a cool afro-celt band play.

Tomoka State Park

After coming off of our intense month working at Amazon.com, holidays, cold weather in St. Louis and our unexpected social time in Atlanta – we were craving some alone time with just the three of us before heading into more social time. One thing we’ve found in our travels is that if we want time for ourselves, we have to carve it out.

So we selected one of our favorite campgrounds in Florida – Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach. It was one of our destinations when we were first trying out nomadic life together back in early 2007. We love it for it’s authentic Florida hammocks and nicely wooded campsites along the waterway.

We got some relaxing and alone time in. However, one thing about state parks in the middle of the week, is that we’re not the only interesting people traveling through. We ended up meeting two other traveling couples.  They were closer to traditional retirement age than us – but what was interesting, is that in each couple, one of them was earning an income by being online professors. They were each using mobile technology to explore their wanderlust, visit their families and keep funded.  It’s so inspiring to encounter so many people exploring these mobile lifestyles before retirement.

Titusville

Next stop was Titusville, primarily to visit with Cherie’s ex and her former cat, Alma.  Cherie and Fritz dissolved as a couple primarily because they were simply on different life paths – Cherie wanting more mobility and adventure, and Fritz wanting to settle into one spot and focus on planning for retirement with a stable career.  Their solution was to seek what they both wanted in life and remain close friends.. instead of getting bitter and angry over it.  It was wonderful to see just how happy they were now that they were well into their chosen paths.

We did split our time down in Melbourne, staying with Cherie’s parents a few nights.  Unfortunately, they live in one of those neighborhoods where they don’t allow RVs, so we opted to stay in their guest room while we left our camper at Fritz’. It’s worth it to get quality time!

While in Titusville, we noticed that the last planned night shuttle launch was planned, and ended up being temporary neighbors with the delightfully awesome nomadic Louis and Sean of Our Oddyssey. We were part of ‘Camp STS-130′ – an amazing temporary RV city that forms around launch time.

James and his partner Maria came over from Tampa – he’s better known as @NomadRIP, to join the fun. We look forward to many future rendezvouses with all these like minded folks.

The launch was delayed an evening, but it was an amazing 4:14am launch of Shuttle Endevour.

Melbourne

We relocated down to Wickham Park, a county run park in Melbourne for a couple nights.  Chris’ parents are experimenting with being snowbirds on the west coast of Florida this winter, and came over for a fajita cookout at Cherie’s parents place.    Chris also took care of routine medical exams at our primary care physician in Melbourne, and we both had our routine eye exams.  While we have medical access all over the country via our individual health plans, we do prefer to establish providers in spots we consider ‘home bases’.

Orlando.. no.. now Miami!

At first we were planning to relocate to the Orlando area, where we have friends with several wooded acres who extend an open invite. However, we got hit with a Nautical Bug, and found our way to Miami instead to attend the Miami Internatational Boat Show.  Chris has written prolifically about this.

Following Nomadic Serendipity

The next week was an amazing ride of following the Ripples of Serendipity – which took us down to Marathon to check out an older catamaran we were intrigued by.

Then up to Jupiter Farms to meet with some awesome readers of our blog – Richard & Claire and Dave & Julie, and answer their questions about nomadism on wheels. Richard and Claire have a pig and backyard chickens, and we spent an evening combusting Christmas trees in their backyard firepit with their awesome sons, Glenn & Patrick.

Then serendipity decided we weren’t done yet, and handed us a connection to a similarly aged full time sailing couple, Gray and Cindy, who seemed happy to spend an afternoon sharing their lifestyle with us. It was great to be on the other side of the table, inquisiting someone else about a lifestyle we’re interested in embarking upon.

Orlando.. and beyond?

We finally found our way to the Orlando area, a full week after our original intentions.  We plan to stay here a week or so – get caught up on a bunch of projects, and just enjoy the solitude of our wooded nest camped next to great friends, Cec & Paula, who truly embrace our self sufficiency and temporary neighbor preference.

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Soon we’ll decide when we need to start heading to Texas. We’re still undecided about South by Southwest, mostly because we just can’t justify the high ticket cost.   If we make it to Austin by mid-March, we may just meet up with friends attending outside the event, and enjoy the ancillary festivals and events that apparently happen.  Perhaps next year we’ll submit a proposal for a Technomadic panel and try to get in as presenters.  At the very least, we need to make it to Central Texas by late April for the NuRVer‘s Gathering (or whatever they decide to call it) – a rally of other younger full time RVers.

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.

the [...]]]>

Camp STS-130 in Titusville, FL

Since Saturday afternoon, we’ve been camped along the Indian River in Titusville, Florida – right off Highway US 1.  We’ve been enjoying a completely awesome nomadic rendezvous with Sean Welsh and Louise Hornor of Our Odyssey as temporary neighbors (it’s our first in person meeting after years of cyber stalking each other around

Sean & Louise of Our Odyssey

the country.)  We’ll post most later about our time with them.

What we’re here for was to watch the last planned night shuttle launch. And one of the last five shuttle launches, period.

I lived on the Space Coast of Florida for 12 years before going nomadic. Stepping outside to watch a launch is an amazing part of everyday life here, and an experience that never gets old. I feel very blessed to have serendipitiously ended up back on the Space Coast, in the perfect area to watch this last night launch.

Only on two other occasions had I made the effort to get a close up view and see the entire launch from engine ignition.

Our view across the Indian River - VAB & Launch Pad

There’s been a temporary RV encampment here along US1 that has been fun to be part of, it’s been sort of a ‘Quartzite East’.  The City of Titusville allows free overnight camping on their owned land during a 36 hour window surrounding launch time, something we greatly appreciate!

And we have had the most spectacular of views.

The first attempt of the launch was scrubbed Sunday morning due to low clouds in the area. However, we had an awesome time hanging out with Sean and Louise.  Nomad-stalker, James Schipper and his partner Maria, also came over from the west coast of Florida for the launch and for our first in person meeting.  The four of us huddled all night long in our little Oliver Travel Trailer until the last minute no-go call.

This morning however, at 4:14am EST – all systems were GO (or GEAUX for you Saints fans!), and we witnessed an amazing launch. We also had the nomadic Browski family stop by for a bit before they headed on to their shuttle view hotel room.  The past couple days have been quie the nomadic tweetup!

We recorded video to share:

Direct link to the video for those on RSS/E-mail. By the way, this HD video was taken with my ultra compact Canon PowerShot SD780 – which I got back in July and am still totally loving.

I had a tear in my eye watching this magical moment of technological splendor, knowing that the shuttle program is soon coming to an end. And most likely, this will be the last shuttle launch I’ll ever get to witness in person.  What a beauty!