Three Months Still – How We’re Mixing It Up To Keep Sane

When we pulled into Sanford back in late March, we knew we were here for the long haul.

Even if the pandemic was appropriately flattened, we figured that would place us smack dab in the middle of hurricane season.  Sanford, being pretty well inland in Florida is a pretty safe spot to be for the season.

Well sure enough, three months later the pandemic rages on more fiercely than before. Especially here in Florida. It’s been a frightening week watching the number of cases rise as this state tried to get back to normal way too quickly last month (our opinion).

So while we’re seeing many nomads getting back on the move this summer, we just don’t feel comfortable doing so. For one, that hurricane season thing – we just don’t want to be in motion when we have a solid hurricane plan here (secure the boat in place, evacuate by van).

And two, even if we felt safe (for our own sakes and that of other communities) moving about the country – this just isn’t a time for exploring. And everywhere we could reasonably reach by boat this summer, we’ve already explored. The temptation just isn’t there.

We’re pretty content with our nomadic life being on pause.

And we’re keeping plenty busy.

So this is just a quick blog post update on what we’ve been up to.

Projects Projects Projects

There’s never a lack of projects on a boat. So we’ve been working on fixing things that need fixing. This weekend, it was tracing down leaks from the flybridge. Earlier, it was replacing parts of our toilet.

Fun fun fun.

There are many other projects we’d love to tackle during extended still time – like new carpeting and reupholstery of the couch. But we just don’t feel we can mentally put up with that much upheaval in our living space, or handle having contractors aboard.

But mostly, our boat is pretty darn livable. And we so appreciative of having our spacious condo on the water docked downtown.

Anchoring Out

Just because we’re at a dock, doesn’t mean we can’t get away. When the weather is nice, we pull away and go anchor out. Either on Lake Monroe, or heading down the river to small side creeks. It’s a great way to mix it up and be completely socially isolated.

And bonus, if we go out on the lake on a clear day with a launch scheduled at Cape Canaveral, we can get a pretty spectacular view.

But now we’re heading into the heat of summer, and it’s not as comfortable without running a generator non-stop. Which negates some of the magic of the experience. We kinda really like our unlimited air conditioning while at dock and easy access to take-out dining & growler refills.

And, our last excursion earlier this month won us our most extreme midge-storm – EVER. It kinda freaked us out and has us hesitant to go anchor out in untreated water anytime soon. We shared about this in our recent YouTube live, but will likely get a dedicated post/video out soon. Viewer discretion advised.

Van Trips

Florida State Parks opened back up about a month ago, and we have our Travato here with us as our daily (more like every other week) driver. So we’re getting out exploring nearby parks for short trips.

The park system has done a fantastic job with contact-free check-in. We just book and pay online, show up at the ranger station for a masked/protected check-in. And then go to our spot. Since most Florida state parks have huge well spaced sites, there’s pretty much no interaction with another person.

With our van, we can be self contained for 3 days without needing to utilize public facilities. We dump on the way out, and done.

It’s been a great way to get out in nature, get a hike in and Kiki absolutely LOVES camping. So it keeps her active and entertained.

Limited Socially Distanced Visits

With family in the area, and some close friends around too – we have been arranging safe feeling socially distanced masked visits. We keep these limited so there can be easy contact tracing if needed and mostly outdoors while maintaining safe distancing.

It’s been good for the soul to interact in person with actual people, not just videos on a Zoom call.

It’s all about that fine balance between risk and reward.

We’re excited for some upcoming camping trips with friends to combine socially distanced time and van trips.

Work Work Work

We’re busier than ever before helping our members, answering questions, doing interviews and creating content for the Mobile Internet Resource Center.

We are incredibly blessed that in this new normal we have a business model that is in demand and we can do so from home. More are working remotely, and more are buying RVs and boats for safer traveling.

And with technology constantly evolving, we’re busy tracking developments in 5G, Starlink satellite and more. We’ve been using our time to launch new features – such as our video course, an interactive sample setup explorer and curated resource collections.

Which honestly, having sometime to work on helps a lot to keep our sanity – but also feeds into my workaholic tendencies. At least my stress relief valve (creating stuff) is helping others in productive ways.

But I should probably try to find a new hobby or something, and spend less time in front of a computer screen.

Interviews & Such

It seems a lot of content creators are also using the time to create. And we’ve been asked to partake in several interviews, stories and virtual events.

Here’s some reason cool stuff we’ve done:

• TODAY —->> Geeks on Tour Button Show – Our long time friends Chris & Jim Guld asked us to be guests on their ‘What Does this Button Do’ weekly YouTube show – to update their audience on mobile internet topics. That goes live at 2pm E today, and you can catch it anytime as well.

• 

  RV Love’s ‘Hit the Road RV Summit’ – A couple weeks ago our friends Marc & Julie put together an incredible one-day virtual online summit bringing together several industry experts to help those gearing up to hit the road. We were honored to be involved in two of the sessions (our story, and mobile internet). The summit was free to attend the day of (already passed), but you can still snag an all-access pass.

• Campendium Profile – Our favorite campground review site asked us if they could tell our story of being nomads for 14 years now, as we’re apparently one of their top reviewers. This was a super fun interview, and we think Leigh did a fantastic job of telling our story. Probably one of our all time favorites.
• Rootless Living Magazine – This brand new magazine for digital nomads featured us in their second issue. And then followed up with a podcast interview that went live earlier this month. You can get a free digital subscription to the magazine, or get it in print.
• The RVers TV – Season 2 just wrapped up on Discovery Channel, and will soon be available for purchase in July on Apple, Amazon, etc. While we stepped back as co-hosts after Season 1 due to the logistics of trying to film for the show (we don’t like planning our lives around schedules) – we were in episode 2 of this season, and will continue to be occasional guests going forward when the stars align.
• The Good Vibe Collective – This group of nomads formed around community, positivity, support and good vibes invited us to be guests on their ‘talk show’ this week, where we talked about cellular boosters, satellite internet and 5G.

Whew.. I think that’s it.  We’re also trying to host YouTube Live events ourselves when time and mental energy allow – so be sure to be subscribed over there. They’re usually pretty spontaneous.

 

Wherever you are.. we hope your staying sane, safe and happy. These are crazy times.