Retrospective: 2009 – Community

Leaving friends, family and community behind to hit the road is honestly, tough.

As an introvert, I crave a few close deep connections over lots of lighter ones. And I value continuity and regular interaction.

And I didn’t have much of that left in Florida when I met Chris. Much of my own community had moved away, so I was already contemplating moving myself. Instead, I met and joined Chris on the road.

Back in the early days, there weren’t many working aged folks out here. Or if they were, no easy way to find them. Although we were already online, blogging and experimenting with new platforms like Twitter and Facebook, social media wasn’t something many used yet. Not like today.

Meeting new people, especially like minded ones – was not easy. And we did visit friends who lived all over the country.

We quickly found that nomadic life, at least at the pace we were doing it, does enable time with many. But not much time with any.

And that wasn’t scratching my itch. My deep desire for continuity in my close relationships.

To make nomadic life sustainable for us, we had to adapt.

Adapt our definition of community to include always saying hello and until next time. Find ways to find our people and bring them together.

This panollage was an artistic collaboration with friend Ben Willmore, and to me – nicely showcases the fragmented approach to commununity we’d have to learn to shift towards.

He was the first fellow working on the road RVing nomad we met. He ironically hit the road solo about the same time Chris did in 2006. It was not until 2009 that we had opportunity to spend time together. And we, along with his amazing wife he also met in his travels, still meet up across the country today.

Community became such an important driving motivation to our travels and where we put our energy.
We thankfully found the NuRVers group (now pretty inactive), a community coming together of other younger folks on the road (hooray, we weren’t alone!).

We founded a camp for nomads at Burning Man called Camp Nomadia that we hosted for many years. We hosted multiple larger lengthy meet-ups with an open invite to our followers to come live in community with us for a month or two.

Which led to us getting involved with helping launch both RVillage and Xscapers (both thriving communities today in the RV space).

Thankfully, our own personal network of friends expanded over the years – from people we visit in our travels, followers who reach out to meet up, to fellow nomads we encounter.

We’ve enjoyed traveling in little neighborhoods with dear nomadic friends for months at a time – where we can embrace the day-to-day sharing of community with wanderlust.

It’s not always easy however. The ebb and flow of the feeling of a connected community in nomadic life can be a rollercoaster at times. While we know these nomadic friendships can pick right up where we left off, and we’re constantly connecting and making new friends – we also are constantly missing friends who have made a mark on our lives.

I’ve always said, and still maintain, that one day my desire for an intentional long term community may one day override my thirst for wanderlust.

But that was the lesson we most learned in 2009 – is adapting how we approached community. A lot was sparked that year for us, that we hope has helped others not have to experience what we did those first couple years on the road.

These days, no nomad needs to feel alone, unless they want to.

Technomadia 15 Years Retrospective Series

In the lead up to Cherie's 15th Nomadiversary on May 10, 2022 - she shared a retrospective post for each year with a lesson about nomadic life and our own journey.

Here's a video recap of the series (caution, it's over 50m long!):

And here are the individual chapters of this series:

Retrospective: 2007 – Overcoming Obstacles

Retrospective: 2008 – Scarcity vs Abundance