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.

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

Things we didn’t see any of:

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

Though we have been full time RV dwellers for years now, neither of us had ever been to an actual RV show. When we saw that “one of the largest public RV shows in the country” would be happening last week while we were still in St. Louis, we knew that we would have to check it out.

Mobile Luxury: Kitchen Island, Huge Living Room, and Fake Fireplace

We were hoping to get exposed to variety of RV’s of different sizes and styles, and to check out a wide range of the latest products and technologies for mobile living.

We ended up being disappointed.

The RVs on display did not reflect nearly the breadth of RV’ing style and quality that we had hoped to see. Instead of variety, the St. Louis RV Show offered up aisle after aisle of fairly forgettable cookie-cutter box style trailers, oversized fifth wheels, and slide-out-laden class A’s.

Only a handful of smaller travel trailers were on display, and there were no camper vans, bus conversions, fiberglass trailers, or truck campers to be seen anywhere on the show floor.

If you were hoping to be exposed to a breadth of choices, this was not the show to come to.

We did however get a chance to ogle at some over the top RV’s optimized for hosting epic tailgate parties, and others designed to be luxury condos on wheels pushing the boundaries of ostentatious excess to new extremes.

Though nothing we saw fit out personal style of travel, it was nice to spend an afternoon checking out a few of the more impressive designs.

Here are a few things that caught our eye…

With many of the premium models costing upwards of $100,000, it is no surprise that a lot of emphasis is placed on recreating all the comforts of home while on the road. But I was disappointed in how rare an emphasis on intelligent design, practicality, longevity, or quality seemed to be.

For example – why worry about being able to open up your refrigerator door without cranking out the slideouts, if it means that you can have an elegant island in your kitchen? And why bother with energy efficient lights or space on board for more than a single battery when you’ll need to be perpetually plugged in to a 50amp circuit full time for your dual rooftop air conditioners?

We saw RV’s with dual kitchens (indoor and outdoor), dual bathrooms, three or more giant screen televisions (including outdoors), fake fireplaces, ceiling fans, elevated back porches, and cavernous cargo holds… Many of the toy haulers even found space for a dedicated beer fridge in the garage area!

One brand was using the tagline “Leave Nothing Behind” – and that was indeed a design philosophy on display at the show.

There were only a few RV’s at the show that were suited for full time living on the road, and there was nothing at all on display that was suitable for “boondocking” or operating off grid. Solar panels and power efficient technologies were completely absent.

For those wanting less emphasis on square footage, the smaller and easier to tow RV’s on display disappointingly tended not to have tanks or electrical systems worthy of more than a weekend away from power hookups.

And while there were plenty of “bargain” smaller designs on display, the lack of quality in construction and the pervasive smell of formaldehyde when you stepped aboard made it clear that with most of the cheaper models you were getting what you paid for.

One standout design was the ultralight Quicksilver CampLite. The all aluminum body and frame should last years longer than most traditional plywood & steel RV designs. And the sub 2000lb empty weight should allow for towing by even some cars!

One of the larger fifth wheels we toured actually had a built in beer tap in the “man cave” second living room that the garage in the back transformed into once you pulled your ATV’s out. Imagine – two living rooms, two bathrooms, two fridges, beer on tap, and a garage – all in a single RV!

And while having quality microbrews on draft is something that our Oliver lacks, we ultimately didn’t see much at the show to excite our technomadic souls. And in the end, there was nothing that left us fantasizing about upgrading from our Oliver.

One final disappointment was the vendor area. I was surprised with how little we could find of interest to full-time RV’ers. Instead of solar panels and satellite internet systems, there was an out-of-place preponderance of home-show style booths. Basements? Bathrooms? Aluminum siding? Kitchen remodeling? Dog training?!?

The only appealing thing we managed to find in the entire vending area was a very clever but way overpriced 50′ long wind-up collapsible water hose. After spending hours looking at all the mobile monuments to inefficiency, seeing an actual space efficient design – wow!

To see more from the St. Louis RV Show, check out our full photo set or slideshow on Flickr.

Also – for our advice on how to choose the style of mobile home that best suits you, be sure to check out Cherie’s guide to selecting a home on wheels.

The City Museum is no ordinary museum, however.  Sure, it is full of found things that are preserved. And it gets the ‘City’ part of its name because the found things are entirely from within municipal St. Louis.  But that’s where the museum part ends.. because this is definitely a place where you don’t just look. You touch. You crawl. You slide. You climb.

This place is what you might imagine would happen if you gave Peter Pan a blow torch.

Let’s start with the roof.. which has a praying mantis, ferris wheel and bus lurching over the corner.

And then there’s the MontroCity outdoor playscape sized for kids and adults which has a network of wrought iron slinkies and slides connecting two airplane fuselages, a fire engine and a castle turret.

And inside, you’ll be dazzled by whales, tunnels, slides, a circus, a skateless skate park and inner caverns with a 10 story circular staircase.. and slide!

Here’s a video we put together after two trips to the City Museum in the past month. I think it at least starts to capture just how awesome this place is.

Have I mentioned the City Museum is awesome yet?

Many thanks to our traveling friend, Matt Bell, who rendezvoused with us for one of our visits to the City Museum and allowed us to film him for this piece!

Indiania to St. Louis via Philadelphia & DC

Time Period: June 30 – July 29
Miles Driven: 1904

We had no plans for how to spend the summer. We had toyed with the idea of finding a nice campground in the Smokey Mountains and parking for several weeks to catch up on some work projects.  We had toyed with ducking into Canada and getting some international time under our wheels in a cooler climate.  But then one of Cherie’s clients called and asked if she could be in Washington DC in mid-July to teach a class. We looked at the calendar, and said yes!   So we booked time in Philadelphia with friends, and off we went.

Philadephia, Pennsylvania

On the day before we planned to leave Indiana, we got a call from Chris’s folks who were leaving Baltimore and headed back to St. Louis. We saw that there was an opportunity for a rendezvous, so we left a day early and met up with them outside of Dayton, OH for dinner. It’s wonderful to be able to take advantage of nomadic serendipity.

When then traversed across Ohio and Pennsylvania, stopping a couple of nights at Laurell Hill State Park, and then serendipitiously discovered the Flight 93 Memorial while driving around backroads.

We arrived in Philadelphia in time to attend a 4th of July party at a 300+ year old house that one of our followers invited us to attend. There was live music jamming and a hoppy local IPA beer on tap.  It was incredible to celebrate the 4th at a house that literally saw the birth of our nation.

We toured around Philadelphia, on actual assignment from TripFilms to produce a few video pieces on things to do and eat in the city. It was fun playing tourist and visiting the Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, Waterworks, Comcast’s Largest Television and more.  We also were blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with dear friends.  We both had friends in the area that pre-dated our relationship together, which always makes for a wonderful time of getting to know each other better via our past connections.

Washington, DC

Next up was our visit to our nation’s Capital. We found Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park to stay at, our first experience with staying at a RV park that dubbed itself a resort. It was close enough to Bethesda, that it made Cherie’s classes easy enough to teach.

Still on assignment from TripFilms, we played tourist in on the Mall in DC. We even got to meet up with a friend who was also on business from Florida and spend the evening catching up and visiting museums.  We also had the pleasure to meet Jonathan and Dasy of WeGoFar, who are about to set off on a long term nomadic RVing adventure! We can’t wait to rendezvous with them out on the road!

After DC, we relocated out to Reston, Virginia where there’s a reputable Jeep dealer – as we were due for our regular maintenance on our tow vehicle.  We took care of that.. and off we continued.

Appalachians

The Transformus regional Burning Man event was about to happen in Asheville, NC, and we had hopes that perhaps tickets to it would manifest for us. Unfortunately their ticketing process is not very nomad friendly – and we couldn’t find last minute tickets to attend.

So, we started our eastward trek and decided to spend some time in the Appalachians. Off we headed to Shenendoah National Park for a couple nights.  We loved the scenic drive (sorry Lonely Planet, we don’t concur with your ’scenic drive to end all scenic drives’ evaluation.. but it was pretty nice).

Next, we went into the Blueridge Parkway, which was even more scenic and less untouched.  We stayed a night there, and then started meandering through the mountains westward.

We stumbled upon the Breaks Interstate Park, run by both Virginia and Kentucky.  We ended up staying two nights, as we scored a nice secluded spot with excellent cellular broadband signal!

St. Louis

We explored our options for our westward trek, and decided to go ahead and route through St. Louis again to spend some more time with Chris’ folks. Afterall, they are awesome.

We spent a week at their place, and got to catch up with new friends we made recently at Gateway Burn.

We explored the City Museum, Hobo University and Chris ordered a new MacbookPro and got situated with it.

After St. Louis, we continued our trek westward following the Missouri River.

After a couple of weeks of our adventures being driven on visiting family in Texas and St. Louis, our attentions turned to social time with new and old friends. We had found some regional Burning Man events to attend, and even rendezvoused with another friend and took him road tripping with us.

Gateway Burn – Potosi, MO

We took a jaunt down to Potosi, MO to attend the St. Louis regional Burning Man style event called Gateway Burn. We figured it would be an excellent way to meet some awesome people in the St. Louis area, so that next time we’re visiting the area we have people other than family to visit.

It had been raining lots, and the land the event was held on was very primitive. A lot of vehicles where having difficulty getting in. When we arrived, they stationed a huge 4×4 truck with a tow rope at the top of the hill, in case we got stuck. But Chris mastered pulling our Oliver up a muddy slippery hill with ease with our 4×4 Jeep – and everyone watching was suitably impressed. We spent most of the event giving tours of our Oliver – which was a great way to meet folks.

And did we ever meet some great folks!  We’re looking forward to future visits to St. Louis to not only spend quality time with family, but further develop a community there.

Midwest Couchsurfing Roadtrip

Our good friend Matt Bell was just finishing up his 4.5 month sabbatical world trip, and decided to join us in the midwest before heading home to San Francisco. We promised him a midwest roadtrip so that he could also get a taste of what full time technomadic life is like for us.  It was also our first time taking on a passenger in our travels.  We picked Matt up at a local hostel upon our return from Gateway Burn, and then swept him away to Chris’ father’s Flag Day celebration at the local Elks. A fitting reintroduction to America, we think.

We also took Matt to explore to totally uber awesome City Museum in St. Louis. And then we packed up the Oliver and converted the space around for sleeping a third.

Is it still Couchsurfing if the couch is moving?

Matt booked his flight out of Chicago, so we took a 3 day meandering tour up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers – exploring riverside towns along the way.

Northern Indiana & Chicago

We dropped Matt off for his flight in Chicago, and then headed to our friends place in northern Indiana. She had ample trailer parking for us.  I knew Kele back when I lived in Florida, and it’s been a true pleasure to be able to stay close to her by rendezvousing in our travels.

We took a day and trained into Chicago to meet up with some other friends from Florida, Sterling and Melissa.  Melissa is now living in the Chicago area, and Sterling just happened to be up visiting. We also rendezvoused with them last year while they were vacationing in Las Vegas.   While in Chicago, Chris also upgraded his iPhone to the new 3G S.

Lakes of Fire – Lacota, Michigan

One of our purposes for our visit to this region was to attend the Lakes of Fire regional Burning Man event in western Michigan – and introduce Kele to the community. It would be her first Burning Man experience.

We had also met quite a number of folks at Gateway Burn who were heading up to Lakes of Fire, so we formed an impromptu theme camp with them. It was awesome to spend more time getting to know these folks!  Lakes of Fire was a much larger event – about 500 people, and extremely well run. We had a blast, and Kele really seemed to click with it all.

We headed back to Kele’s place for a couple of days to decompress and catch up.

Next up..  we headed to Philadelphia and Washington DC… but those stories will come later.