Vicarious Nomads
You may not be in a position to drop everything and travel the world. (We might not either, but we're talking about you right now.) If you'd like to participate vicariously, your financial support of this adventure will help us to document it, and hopefully show that even today (perhaps especially today) a family can choose where and how to live.
We're not expensive folks. Even the smallest amount will make a very real difference.
Must Have Been That Wrong Turn at Albuquerque
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Joel D Canfield posted this in Challenges, Reasons on 2 September 2010
I wrote a few days ago that the real challenges are inside us; the journey simply exposes them.
Here’s my challenge: guilt.
And I don’t even know, for certain, why.
I feel like I’m cheating the system. Living without the cost of a house and its utilities is less expensive. I know a lot of people who’d travel if only their significant other wanted to, or the kids were older or not born yet or whatever; if only they had a job that blah blah blah.
Everyone I talk to says, how nice for you. Some of them seem to mean, that’s great; how can I make it better? But I feel, sometimes, like there’s a subtext of, sure, you get to go driving all over creation, dragging your wife and little girl along, while the rest of us have to have a real job and be mature and keep civilisation from collapsing.
Continue reading The Real Challenge
is yes.
Sue just gave 30-day notice on the house. She’d already called the phone company and pulled the plug. The two adult children living with us intend to be living elsewhere before the end of [...]
. . . work gets done. For us, at least.
The place we’re staying, we haven’t been able to connect to their wireless network. I have an idea what might be up, but it’d probably be more work to test than it’s worth for the 16 hours we’ll still be there.
So we’re in the WIred Monk coffee shop, using Mary-Lee and Cheri’s wireless and electricity and restroom.
We bought a cuppa tea and an Italian soda this morning. Since we’ve been back this afternoon (we walked home for lunch) we haven’t bought anything yet, but we will. They even came over and asked if we’d like cups and ice for the water we brought for ourselves. It definitely did not sound like “You’re using our free internet. You should buy something.”
Continue reading Where There’s Internet . . .
Joel D Canfield posted this in Challenges, Reasons on 22 August 2010
We are not ascetics. We love good food and wine (well, Sue’s pancreas has decided she can’t have alcohol any more, but she loves the smell) and we prefer nice furniture to garage sale stuff. We like a comfortable life and nice things.
Clearly, though, folks who are doing their best to divest themselves of stuff aren’t focused on said stuff too much.
Our goal is a simple lifestyle. This doesn’t mean living on crummy food or in dingy basements. (Consider that some of our best alcoholic beverages originated in monasteries.) It’s about choosing which stuff needs to be nice, and which stuff doesn’t matter.
Continue reading Desire for a Flood
Joel D Canfield posted this in Challenges, Reasons on 8 August 2010
Ken has been a good friend to our family for many years. He’s a deep thinker with a sense of humour skewed in directions we like. He sent this as an email, and at Sue’s request is allowing us to post it here.
The nomadic lifestyle took awhile to sink in with me but I’m on-board now. I cannot say whether it is an absurd idea or brilliant but I suspect it is a bit of both. Here is what I like about it:
- It serves that inner voice in many of us to live life with gusto
- It also serves the inner voice that speaks to our wanderlust (But we may need to be aware of too many inner voices as we may end up on medication:)
- A chance to meet people and REALLY get to know them
- I think you and Sue have the brainpower and personality to pull this off
- The world has become very virtualized and there are not many things you cannot do over the Internet
- Freedom, not total freedom, but freedom to a degree that most industrialized people will not voluntarily seek
- Exposing Fiona to an unconventional and rich array of experiences, I suspect she will grow up to be a different sort of person and I can’t wait to see
- I would hope there is a potential through your website to catch an audience that may fuel you both spiritually and financially
- If you can be successful, I would think you would achieve a comfort with living your life in a predatory world and not fear the future. (See Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
Continue reading Guest Post: Ken Grossman on Brilliance and Absurdity
I’ve whined about my laptop. Yesterday at Brad and Krisy’s, I lost the wireless connection in the antique wireless card. Got to Caitlyn’s today, and it still refuses to connect. Since I’ve made my living as a network technician in the past, I’m confident it ain’t my fault. I think the wireless card or other internal watchamajiggy is dead, like the two batteries.
I’m typing this on an iBook G4, which though it’s nearly 5 years old is more powerful than any computer I own. Yes, the powerful Dell Precision Workstation I use for my audio and video editing, PhotoShopping and all that, is a tad puny compared to this little beast.
Continue reading Laptop Problem Solved, Methinks
Joel D Canfield posted this in Challenges, Planning on 1 August 2010
(Please place tongue firmly in cheek before reading.)
Dear Person Who Cares,
It has come to my attention that travelers attempting to use Interstate 5 to get from, say, the coastal area near Hoquiam to get to, oh, I don’t know, the community of Arlington, north of Everett, by way of Tacoma, are being re-routed to Silverdale, just north of Bremerton (which, incidentally, is nowhere hear Arlington. Okay, it’s near, there just happens to be a gap in the highway which the locals refer to as ‘Puget Sound’.)
This may come as a surprise to you, but many of the people traveling north on I-5 are doing so intentionally. When they are, without warning or notice, shunted onto Washington State Highway 16, which, though it does turn into the equally lovely Highway 3, still provides little in the way of satisfaction to the Arlington-bound traveler, it is both confusing and wasteful, both as regards to time and natural resources.
Continue reading Open Letter to the Department of Transportation, State of Washington
Sue L Canfield posted this in Planning on 31 July 2010
We’re really enjoying ourselves and finding our way from town to town is going just fine. Finding our way in how we manage things is a learning process. We’ve discovered that it’s not always convenient to find internet access when we want and that Joel’s laptop batteries aren’t worth much. So we’ll have to find a way to get better batteries or something.
At the moment we’re at a Borders Book Store in Tacoma WA. We had a wonderful breakfast made by Jenny Fisher in Hoquiam – potatoes, sausage, fresh fruit. Thank you Jenny for your hospitality! I’ve caught up on the most important stuff. Fiona found a book or two to read quietly in the book store while mommy and daddy work on our laptops. Actually Joel’s getting ready to have his over-size cup of Chamomile tea from the Seattle’s Best Coffee shop. He needs it to relax after the frustrations of his laptop batteries dying.
Continue reading Finding Our Way
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