Nineteenth Nomadiversary: The Cat Distribution System Strikes Again!

Today marks NINETEEN years since I first set off on the road, trading a San Francisco high rise apartment and a Silicon Valley career for a life of adventure and exploration.

If I could travel back in time to give my pre-nomadic past self a glimpse of the future, I am not sure what facet of 2025 would prove to be the most brain bending unbelievable:

• That artificial Intelligence is replacing professional artists, programmers, musicians, and writers – yet these billion dollar supercomputers often hallucinate worse than Homer Simpson on Peyote, and occasionally even fail to answer questions like “What month is it?” correctly.

Or…

• That the United States is currently being dismantled for parts by an unelected car salesman known for cheating at video games and being an awful father, pulling the strings of a smarmy thin skinned former reality TV star. Meanwhile – we are seriously threatening war with Canada, annexation of Greenland, and conquest of Panama (!?!??) – and the Gulf of Mexico has now been pointlessly renamed the Gulf of WTF?!?!

Or…

• That I’d still be doing the nomad thing after 19 years – and that I’d have gone from being a solo nomad in a ridiculously small teardrop camper to traveling with my soulmate in a yacht, vintage bus, and van. And yet despite nineteen years of adventuring we still would not have managed any technomadic time in Europe, Southeast Asia, or even Baja – and we still don’t even own a zeppelin!

Ok – I think my past self might have considered option 3 the most believable… The rest – nope!

Overall – it has been a pretty amazing journey over these past 19 years.

But despite many great cruising adventures – this past year has been a particularly rough one.

Aside from the increasingly depressing global and domestic inanity – there is also a galaxy sized hole in my heart left from Kiki’s passing last summer.

A life without a cat in it is hardly a life.

Time to start living again.

The Cat Distribution System Strikes – Twice!

Cat’s are not adopted – they are assigned to worthy humans via the cosmic cat distribution system.

No one cat could ever replace the amazing Kikinator – but perhaps two could?

Introducing Nicolai and Lunita:

Aren’t they adorable?

And taking on responsibility for a cat and a kitten aren’t the only major shifts in our lives…

Hello, City Life!

I love spending time out in nature, and exploring the friendliness and charm of small towns.

Being able to explore far off the beaten path has been one of my favorite things about my past 19 years of nomadic adventures.

But I have also always absolutely loved the vibrant energy, diversity, and sheer magic of big cities.

True story: the primary reason I picked St. Joe’s Prep to go to for my first 1.5 years of high school wasn’t because of its top regional academic reputation, and it certainly wasn’t because of its religious affiliation.

I actually picked the school because it was located in the heart of Philadelphia – and I wanted to go there because I’d get to commute to school every day via commuter train and subway (or carpool), rather than hopping on a suburban New Jersey generic yellow school bus.

Clearly – cities have always called to me.

After Philadelphia – I wrapped up high school in Miami, went to college in St. Louis, and then moved to the tech-Mecca of San Francisco as soon as I was able.

While living in California I could have bought a house or rented a condo in the South Bay suburbs – but living in the City itself and commuting hours every day from SF to Silicon Valley was so absolutely worth it.

There is something that just absolutely energizes me about feeling the pulse and vibe of a city – the bigger the better.

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city

 – Rush, The Camera’s Eye

And the energy of city life is something that has been relatively hard to come by in my 19 years of nomadic life – particularly while traveling by RV.

So we’ve decide to make some changes.

Check out our bedroom view:

Living here there is SO much to explore – all within easy walking or biking distance.

An opera, symphony, ballet, museums, a world class zoo, running trails, art, food, culture!

Are we really ready to settle down and embrace city life?

Embracing The Power of And…

Yes!

And….

Why pick just one city?

Why fall in love with just two cats?

And why give up the awesomeness of nomadic life to focus on just a single place?

Those following along more closely keeping an eye on the Technomadia Facebook updates have probably realized this year’s nomadiversary post twist already…

We were only penthouse dwellers and the honored servants of Nicolai and Lunita for a brief period in Februray.

The Upside of the Downside

The one and only upside of losing Kiki last year is that it has opened the door for us to explore different styles of travel that we could never have considered when our lives revolved around her.

So we have started to dip our toes into doing just that.

We’ve begun mixing in AirBnB / VRBO stays into our #vanlife travels this winter – and it has proven to be a great way to mix things up, stretch out, and to consider stays in places RV’s (and cats) would not usually be welcome.

In the past two months, we’ve enjoyed using short term rentals to explore Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Charlotte, and Raleigh.

And in the future – we look forward to embracing other city and international adventures that just would not have been cat compatible too.

But the highlight of our recent travels was finding the secret to getting loaner cat love – we signed up for TrustedHousesitters.com and managed to score an 8 day pet sit in a luxury penthouse apartment in the heart of Houston with the two lovable furballs pictured above.

City life and cat love?!?!  

*win*

Despite all the other madness in the world, that was a great way to start off 2025.

So What Next?

We aren’t ready to take on any new cats permanently any time soon.

There is too much to explore out there before we turn our focus back to full time pet love.

And we are certainly not ready to pick a city to dig roots into.

But we are ready to spend more time thinking creatively around what our style of technomadism looks like.

We are at the present moment transitioning back to Y-Not and are preparing for the boating season ahead.

In a few weeks we’ll be resuming our Great Loop, heading north into the Chesapeake. Who knows how far we’ll make it this year, perhaps all the way up to Canada before the cold winds start to blow?

Next winter – we’d love to actually make it out to Zephyr in Arizona.

Or maybe other international travel (or even life on board a cruise ship) might tempt us.

Particularly in our van season – we will be keeping our eye’s out for more potential pet sitting gigs.

The opportunity to combine cat (or dog) love with city life is something that we will always be eager to jump on – even internationally!

PS: If you sign up for TrustedHousesitters.com via this link, we get two additional months of membership – and you get 25% off.

Next year will be my twentieth nomadic.

Wow – what a protracted peculiar peripatetic pilgrimage its been…

Stay tuned for what’s next!

 

Nomadiversary Memory Lane:

Today (April 1st, 2025) is my nineteenth Nomadiversary!

19 years (!!!!) on the road and water…

Here are some links to my (mostly) annual past posts.

Step back in time and check out some of our past adventures:

• Eighteenth Nomadiversary (2024) — We announce an end to blogging and YouTube, and embrace TikTok.
• Seventeenth Nomadiversary (2023) — A Nomadiversary post co-written with AI – with some serious warnings about the risks of this emerging new technology. This post is pretty epic – check it out!
• Sixteenth Nomadiversary (2022) — A “Sweet 16” montage, chronicling my journey from fledgling nomad through today.
• Fifteenth Nomadiversary (2021) — Sharing about the magic of “5G” vaccines, and some of the people who have most inspired me over the years.
• Fourteenth Nomadiversary (2020) — Thoughts on being a nomad in a newly locked down, pandemic ravaged world.
• Thirteenth Nomadiversary (2019) — I explain how we move our Mini Cooper between ports using prototype self-driving technology, summoning the car to us remotely.
• Twelfth Nomadiversary (2018) — Some mathematical analysis of the future trends in boondocking, extraploting out a future with millions of boondockers fighting over every scrap of desert as the suburbs turn empty.
• Eleventh Nomadiversary (2017) — We contemplate some innovative ways to bring Zephyr along now that we are living part of the year on the water.
• Tenth Nomadiversary (2016) — I share my past history traveling with a powered paramotor, and our future plans to renovate a Zeppelin to be a flying RV. Meanwhile, we were actually already secretly starting our hunt for a boat.
• Ninth Nomadiversary (2015) — Sharing test results of LTTE boosters. Not to be confused with cellular LTE boosting, LTTE boosting (Libation: Technology Tribulation Elimination) is an even more critical element of a technomad’s tech arsenal.
• Eighth Nomadiversary (2014) — Way too swamped and stressed with launching RVillage and dealing with Millenicom madness to write anything wistful or witty.
• Seventh Nomadiversary (2013) — At last revealing the real reason I first decided to hit the road…
• Sixth Nomadiversary (2012) — Reminiscing about all the changes over the years.
• Fifth Nomadiversary (2011) — Giving up nomadism and buying a condo (not!) in the Virgin Islands.
• Fourth Nomadiversary (2010) — Discovering the secret prize that comes inside every box of wine.
• Third Nomadiversary (2009) — Camped on a beach near Malibu, watching dolphins frolic.
• Second Nomadiversary (2008) — Working with Cherie to custom design our Oliver, moving up from a trailer ideal for one to one made for two.
• First Nomadiversary (2007) — Preparing to set out with Cherie, reminiscing about my first very eventful year on the road — setting off solo and finding an amazing partner along the way.  (This links to my pre-Technomadia solo blog!)

BTW – If you enjoy my foolish writings, be sure to check last year’s post about the Starlink Plaid Data Plans over at the Mobile Internet Resource Center.

I have unlocked the post so that everyone can read the AI-generated details of “Potassium Justice” that we kept as a member’s only feature last year…

This year over at MIRC, team member Andrew McNabb has a special treat in store – he has the world exclusive scoop on the new GnomeLink technology for underground mobile internet.

Check it out!