For all the awesome that 2014 was in terms of productivity, adventure and community – we paid for it in spades in 2015.
We came into the year on a high. We were creating things, things that mattered and were being well received.
By spring time Xscapers was launched to the world, and our role shifted to our own travels revolving around being present at their events across the country.
With the summer ahead having no such events on the calendar – we decided upon putting our vintage bus in an RV shop for an overdue paint job and a few upgrades.
And while that work was being done – we’d go off on a new kind of adventure. Traveling around Alaska by cruise ship, train, hitchhiking (with friends) and a rental RV.
It was an amazing 7-week adventure living out of backbacks that quickly turned stressful when we stopped receiving progress reports on Zephyr.
We cut our trip short and returned to Indiana to discover a mess. Things had gone terribly wrong, the project stalled out and it was looking like a long road ahead to get our bus back on the road. If she ever could.
We ended up moving on site to become project managers to get things back on track – which was a full time job in itself. We had a deadline, the first Xscapers Convergence was on the books – and we needed to be there.
We pushed. We were still advising to RVillage, working with Xscapers and our own Mobile Internet Resource Center was growing leaps and bounds. Our mobile apps needed updating.
We got Zephyr done in the nick of time and made a manic drive to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.
We co-hosted the first Xscaper’s convergence – our baby. We were ‘on’ for 10 days straight – a miracle even if we weren’t already exhausted. While getting up at the butt crack of dawn to volunteer helping launch balloons.
An absolutely amazing experience we highly recommend (the balloon part, not the going there stressed part) – but it took every last ounce of energy left in us to be there. And then some.
We retreated to recharge on our own afterwards.
But then, it not only rained – it poured. It stormed.
An enticing data plan we had covered at MIRC, with lots of caveats, imploded in major ways (anyone remember Omnilynx?). And while we know what the carriers do is far outside our control – we had no spoons left to handle the overload of questions, accusations and pressure.
We were already at our breaking point, and this toppled it.
We had been at full speed for a year creating and launching things. The bus project and stress of potentially never getting our house back, was still there. An RV mattress we had accepted for evaluation was awful and we weren’t sleeping well.
And I discovered I hadn’t yet taken the time to work through the grief of losing my dad – and in fact, had probably been hiding from it for nearly two years by immersing myself in distractions.
Our own relationship was at its highest stress point we had ever encountered.
Our mental breakdown was anything but graceful. It’s one of my ugliest memories of myself, ever.
But at least we were able to recognize we had to retreat. Re-organize. And re-build. We were now in a similar state to Zephyr as this photo shows. And we probably had been for a while.
We took some down time. We even took a little time apart. We made changes.
We officially resigned from RVillage and Xscapers. We partnered with an app developer to take over our 3 mobile apps going forward.
We decided to focus on MIRC professionally. And would soon also realize it needed more than just us focusing on it. We needed help and started building a team (which today is a team of 8 ).
Our lesson of 2015? We have a breaking point, we all do. And we ignored it and pushed beyond. It left scars and triggers when things start to feel overwhelming again. Maybe we needed to experience that, so we won’t ever allow it to happen again.
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:
This was the first full year that I followed you guys. The bus work was a tough thing to go through go with all the other things you had going on. The important thing about tough times of any kind is that you learn from it and grew from it. I think you both did that well!
Hi Cherie,
Just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading all of the posts in this series. Thank you for sharing them. You are such an inspiration. Honored to have you and Chris as friends.
We feel so fortunate to count you guys as our dear friends too!
When you were redoing the Zephyr is when I must’ve started following you. That was almost as trying experience as your boat work done in Miami. Thank you for posting this as I have enjoyed reading all of your posts.
Thankfully, the experience with the bus helped prepare us for the realities of the Miami experience.
Oh boy…I do remember all of this. And you were also doing blogs/blogs and Travelogs, too! I have no clue how you did it but. Just know you inspired so many people to get out on the road! We followed the bus reno with great anticipation and had picked out our RV of choice and started shopping for dealers at this time. Man that was all so crazy! You survived! And, I think you handled it well! Thanks for sharing.
I sometime forget we also blogged all this things happening in real time too.. but thankful we did. If not only for our own retrospection.
Thanks for sharing your “dark times” along with all the good that you share.
Glad you emerged with a new frame of mind and hope you always remember the lesson you learned. Take time for yourself.