Living in the Perfect Spot

A lot full time travelers seem to have a ‘thing’. Perhaps it’s a goal to visit all 50 states. To visit breweries. Sampling local foods. Exploring roadside attractions. Visiting all of the national parks.  Attending festivals. Volunteering. Living frugally. Capturing amazing photos.

We’ve never really had a stated mission or a goal in our travels… we like all those things and more. At our core, we’re both experience junkies, we like variety and not getting into patterns.

Over the past several months I’ve had a post rattling around in my noggin about what makes our ideal spot, such as what features we like at RV parks. I was talking this out with Chris the other evening and was unable to really nail it down.

It’s not a set of features necessarily that makes us happy, we’ve found no real consistency there – other than good internet of course.  But as we were sitting on the banks of Lake Huron enjoying an ideal camping spot with yet another million dollar view, we looked at each other and said ‘woah… we have a thing, don’t we?’

It’s been so consistent in our entire now 6+ year journey, that it was a bit shocking to only realize now. We have a thing.

We strive to live in perfect spots. Our baseline normal is pretty darn awesome.

It’s not always about a specific element, however. What is perfect revolves around the circumstances, the location, the situation. The perfect spot varies from day to day. And sometimes what is perfect for me may not be perfect for Chris, but he’ll get his turn tomorrow night.

Here’s some of the elements that may make a spot perfect for us:

• Views. A fantastic view will always win our hearts.  Views of water, amazing landscapes, big open pastures, bluffs, beautiful sunsets, trees, wild flowers, city skylines. We love a great view, and this usually is our number one criteria when selecting a spot.  Not access to a view down the road, we want a view from our home.  We’re such nomadic homebodies – we spend a good portion of our time at home, living our day and enjoying our direct surroundings.  We’ll put up with a lot for a great view – close by neighbors, being un level, being next to a public access, being ‘awning to awning’ with new friends.  Heck, we may even forgo an evening of a solid internet connection.. gasp.

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  Space. Open space around us is another feature that will add to our enjoyment. We prefer sites where we have at least one side of our rig with privacy from others, and of course more is better. We should have plenty of room to park our Mini, put out our awning, setup our anti-gravity chairs, the hammock, our BBQ grill and for Kiki to roam on her 18-foot leash without getting tangled under a neighbor’s axle (how does she *always* manage that??). And darn it, I should have plenty of space to hoop and do yoga!

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  Proximity. If we’re attending an event or wanting to explore something specific, then ease of access will likely trump all else. Parking on the grounds of a festival or rally is an awesome thing – we love being amongst the energy of others congregated for the same purpose. Campgrounds in (safe) urban centers with easy access to all that makes a city worth visiting is a favorite. Access to hiking trails and safe walking for keeping up with fitness is important to us as well. We’re not fans of being parked so far from things that we have to drive everywhere.  Despite having a tow behind vehicle, we prefer not to have to use it much – and love being able to walk to whatever is nearby.

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  Amenities. When we’re in need of them, amenities might make the perfect spot. A clean and efficient laundry room to get caught up. A swimming pool and 50Amps of power on a hot day. Fast WiFi. Hot Tub. Fresh water and sewer at site to casually fill and dump the tanks (usually once every 7-10 days).  If we’re plopping down for several weeks or months, then hook-ups at site become important. One of our favorite amenities was an onsite tiki bar with a communal high end grill. Pulling into a bus garage that allows us to stay in our home overnight while it’s being worked on, or invitations to utilize workspace & skills for getting bus projects done can also make a spot absolutely perfect.

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  People. Being near people we want to spend time with will always adjust our routing and preferences. We love invitations to driveway surf and park as temporary neighbors (Yes! Invite us over!), to have an opportunity to share in a slice of each other’s lives. We love rendezvousing with fellow nomads for a bit and enjoying a sense of neighborly community with our peers. We love pulling in to a city and spending ample quality time with family and friends without being ‘guests’.

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  Cost. And of course cost plays some role. It’s not very often that paying more necessarily equates to a more perfect spot. More often than not it is the inexpensive or even free locations that tend to wow us.  Not just because of the cost savings, but because they generally are the ones with the unobstructed view, more out in the nature or courtesy parked as temporary neighbors.   Combine free, great view and great cellular connectivity – and that’s our Technomad Trifecta! That said, sometimes it just costs to be where we want to be – and if a site shows promise of giving us the perfect spot feeling, we don’t hesitate to pay it. And if we’re just trying to make miles, free overnighting in a parking lot is perfection (but we try not to make that sort of pace a habit.)

 

Before we hit the road together, Chris had the perfect penthouse apartment smack dab in the middle of downtown San Francisco. I had a house in a perfect location beachside in Florida.  Our lives were pretty darn marvelous before we met and hit the road.

But we both were full of wanderlust with an urge to explore and experience variety in locations and settings. There’s no way we could afford to traditionally live in all the perfect spots we’d want to experience. They don’t call them million dollar views for nothing, after all.

So roaming with our house has perfectly meshed with our varietophilic ways.. allowing us to always be living in today’s perfect spot, usually for much cheaper than our previous stationary lives.

So that’s our ‘thing’. We seek out living in perfect spots. Always changing, always different.