Nomads Rolling In

Ever since we hit the road together almost 3 years ago (wow – time flies!), I’ve dreamed of being part of a nomadic community – we all roll on our own paths, and have convergences from time to time to share stories, resources and friendship.  After an initial search for such a community, I was prepared to create the tools to bring it together.

And then a little over a year ago, I found NuRVers – a community already building of other non-retireed full time RVers traversing the country.   Perfect – someone had already done the work to lay the foundation!  It was already too late for us to change our plans to meetup with the group for their first gathering last spring.

The next one is happening in less than a week (April 22-26), in the foothills of the hillcountry of Texas just outside San Antonio. I bounced up and down with excitement that it would be held near to my hometown of Austin and we could combine the gathering with (not) attending SXSW.  We made it a priority to attend.

When we started looking into Hill Shade RV Park, the site picked for the rally – we became more and more intrigued. A little secluded park, 11 miles from the nearest city, run by an awesome sounding family unschooling their kids – and yet offered full hook-ups (including wifi) for only $300/month?  It sounded too good to be true, as we were both craving some uninterrupted time  to focus deeply on some work related projects.

I wrote Christine, one of the park’s co-owners, to confirm.  My response from her was fabulous – and I knew this was where we needed to be.   Since the beginning of April, we’ve been parked next to a field of wildflowers with a heard of cattle, and getting lots of stuff done.  There aren’t many distractions out here – except for the amazing people.

Every few days, another one of our roving tribe arrives – also with the idea of making it in early for the rally.  Right now, about half the rigs are already in, including the fabulous Happy Janssens, Organic Sister, Tao of Long and Zen Nomads (website coming soon!).  Our technomadic buddy, Ben Willmore and his new travelmate Karen Nace also made a surprise early visit last week, and will be back for the rally.   Our hosts at Hill Shade, Michael & Christine, feel like part of the group too.  More nomads are rumored to be making it in by Monday.  I suspect that only a couple folks will actually arrive on the official start date of the rally.. and we will completely consume this little gem of a park.

It’s a dream come true to be living in a little neighborhood of other younger nomadic folks – all of us spending our days doing our own things. Working, blogging, photo-editing, raising kids, etc.  And then we converge from time to time to break bread, share stories around the campfire, game or just share the details of our day together.

I suspect each day will get more amazing as more of our tribe rolls in.  The gathering itself will be one wild party – but it’s these days of living a daily life amongst our people that will create lasting memories for me.

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Speaking of opportunities for nomadic convergence and community – tickets for Gateway Burn go on sale later today.  Come join us near St. Louis from June 10-13 for this awesome regional Burning Man event. We’ll be organizing Camp Nomadia there, and already some awesome nomads have told us they’re making their way there!  This is a great opportunity for anyone wanting a taste of Burning Man culture without the epic adventure to get to Black Rock City.