Family, Friends & Fame in Austin

Wow.. what a whirlwind of a visit to Austin. When booking more than a week in a single location, it always feels like we’ll have all the time in the world to fit in work, social time and exploring. Then it goes by so quickly.

There were several reasons for this visit to Austin that nicely aligned.  It was Easter weekend, it was the 2nd anniversary of my father’s passing.. and it was the debut screening of The Wireless Generation documentary we’re in.

So, here’s a quick wrap up of some of our Austin adventures this visit..

Family Reunion

My mom decided to drive in from Florida to coincide with our visit to Austin, creating the perfect family reunion around these special occasions.  My brother and his girlfriend, who live in Austin, hosted my mom and we stayed at nearby McKinney Falls State Park (our review).

We intentionally kept this visit mostly focused on family. With our limited time in the area and how long it had been since we were all in one place together, that’s where our hearts belonged.

We spent lots of time together hanging out, and enjoyed many adventures hiking, chasing wildflowers, eating (lots of eating), bowling and just catching up. And of course, there was a celebration of my dad’s life.

It was completely awesome, and memories we’ll all treasure for a lifetime.

I truly am blessed with a wonderful family, all of whom I’m proud to also call friends.

Friends

We always know when coming into Austin we have a great confluence of friends (and friends yet to be made) in the area. Anytime we announce we’re heading to Austin, we get an outpouring of support and invitations to meet up. One of these seasons, we just need to plan a couple months in town and be able to immerse ourselves in this sort of community.

The town also attracts a wide diversity of creative people (which is one reason I love it so much), so it’s a frequent landing and launching point for many of our nomadic (and wannabe nomadic) peers.

Our dear friends Sam & Tracy and new friend Lynn (@hello_casita) we met in Tucson joined us at one of our favorite campgrounds in south Austin. Our buddies Travis & Mel (Xscapers) and Lynn’s um-sweetie Chris (@out_of_the_corner) also recently joined the enclave.

It’s been super fun to come home from outings with family and have a built in little nomadic neighborhood to chill amongst. There’s been converged meals and casual hangouts, just the way we like it!

After my mom headed back to Florida, we had a little more free time for socializing. Without much planning at all, our little neighborhood reached out to some of the nomads we knew who were in the area and invited them over last evening.

It was awesome to also finally meet up with Brandon & Kerensa of Drive. Dive. Devour (a SCUBA diving passionate couple working as designers remotely as they roam), Heath & Alyssa of Hourly America (a super cool documenatry project where Heath is working with SnagAJob.com to work an hourly paying job in each of the 50 states as a full time RVer) and Malia Lane (who has been a solo full time RVer since 2001 – she’s super inspiring!!).

What a crew we had.. and so much laughter shared!!

Fame – Documentary Screening

Five years ago, some fellow digital nomads Christine & Drew Gilbert of the popular travel blog AlmostFearless.com had an idea to travel the world and film a documentary about people working remotely. They had never done anything like it before, and set off.

They joined our Burning Man theme camp for nomads (called Camp Nomadia) in 2010 to do some filming, and interviewed us there.  And then filmed a bunch more interviews around the world for the next year.

Other than contributing to their Kickstarter campaign a couple years ago, we had pretty much forgotten about the documentary until they announced the film tour last year. When we learned our footage made the final cut, we were caught off guard.

After all, they filmed a lot of people doing some pretty inspiring travel around the world… and well, we’re just us. But how cool to have US based RVers included amongst the global digital nomad landscape!

We were a tad nervous going to the screening – having not much recollection at all as to what we said during our interview. With it being filmed at Burning Man, we also had the thought of … were we wearing something tasteful? Heck, were we wearing clothes at all??

Before the screening we put out word about a casual meet-up in the bar attached to the Alamo Drafthouse where the film would be shown. We had quite the turn out, and it was super fun to meet up with Drew again as well as many others.

And then we were all seated in the packed 33-seat screening room. The lights go dim, and the film starts.

We gotta say, Drew & Christine did an awesome job with the documentary. It highlights some pretty inspiring people who made big changes in their lives to pursue their versions of happiness instead of following default paths in life.

It was also pretty surreal to see our heads 25′ tall on the big screen talking about our life on the road in a 17′ travel trailer.

What an experience… our few minutes of fame.

As to if we were wearing clothes or said anything intelligent in our interview… well, you’ll just have to catch the film yourself.

The film will be released on DVD and download on June 1st, and they are taking pre-orders now.  We highly recommend it, and not just because we’re in it. It truly is well done and inspiring.

What’s Next?

Whew, I think that wraps up our time in Austin pretty well. With the high humidity and heat index rising.. combined with increasingly terrible traffic, we’re ready to start heading north.

We have an appointment on Monday morning just north of Austin to get our smashed windshield replaced. From there, we’re going to start meandering towards St. Louis by the end of the month.  My mom is flying in to spend some time with Chris’ parents (yes, our awesome parents all like each other), so we’ve decided to join them.

Our route up to St. Louis is unplanned. We know we need to find a spot to stop for a few days and get caught up on some gear testing and writing.

After St. Louis.. well, we have some interesting plans shaping up. We’re excited to share our summer adventure with you soon and perhaps you’ll have some further ideas to make it even more awesome.