So we packed up, drove up to Vancouver and spent a glorious three weeks [...]]]> A year ago I wrote about the beginnings of our adventure. Then I wasn’t sure exactly where we’d be in a year or if we’d even decide to leave behind a home and travel. I did know I wanted to do something different.

So we packed up, drove up to Vancouver and spent a glorious three weeks there. The trip made me realize the need for big change in our lives. I had gotten into a rut and the daily grind of getting up and sitting in our dark little home office wouldn’t cut it anymore. I needed to be outside, feeling the sun shine on my face, the wind blowing through my hair. I needed to spend time teaching Fiona about the great big outdoors.

It’s great to be able to go anywhere we want and to maintain our work and keep our clients happy. When our official “one year without a home” time comes at the end of September, I’ll write even more about all this has meant and how I feel. For today I want to thank all the wonderful clients we have who have worked with us even when we are so far apart. Below is just one testimonial from a satisfied client:

“I have been truly amazed that with all of Sue’s travels, I haven’t experienced any interruptions in service whatsoever. She has consistently delivered her services to the same great level I’ve come to expect, all since becoming a road warrior! I’m not sure I’d be so resilient, but she and Joel really know how to operate mobile businesses. Well done!” ~ Stephanie Chandler, Author, Speaker, Publisher,

P.S. Stephanie later emailed to say, “It really is remarkable how you’ve managed to go mobile with your businesses. That should be your next book!!” Guess we’ve got more work to do and another book to publish! :)

We’ve always had a rather flexible routine in our way of [...]]]> The challenge: maintaining a routine. Many wonder how it is possible to maintain a routine while traveling. There are especially concerns about some sort of routine for Fiona and her schooling. And of course our work. So what’s our routine and how do we maintain it?

We’ve always had a rather flexible routine in our way of life. Important things get done while allowing ourselves lots of spontaneity in life.

One of the most challenging things is arriving at a new place where we know we’re going to be for a few weeks and getting settled in. If we can settle in quickly, in a day or so, we can maintain our routine and get more done. We continue to work on that. One of the first things we do when we get to a new place is find the place we’re going to work and get our computers set up. Next we need to find a place for the books and materials Joel needs to refer to for his work.

Of course the days we’re traveling on the road we don’t have the same routine we have when we’re house sitting. But there are some constants even then. It’s very important that Fiona has our attention, particularly at bedtime. We always try to read with her and say her nightly prayers. One night a week we have a family night where we give special attention to her spiritual instruction. We often play games as well. Joel and I have developed the habit of reading some spiritual material together first thing in the morning over a cup of tea. This helps us feel closer to each other and to our Creator.

We’ll have to start some new routines once school begins again. I usually have Fiona sit with us wherever we’re working so I can supervise her school work. Some of it is done on the road as we drive. The important thing is that Fiona knows we’re always here for her. And that’s our routine.

Cutting cow’s milk and other products made from cow’s milk from his diet helped alleviate some of the allergy [...]]]> For years Joel’s chiropractor, Dr. Petrice Foxworthy of Cambridge Chiropractic, said that his hayfever-type allergies were probably aggravated by cow’s milk. About 18 months ago Joel switched to goat’s milk instead and found out Dr. Petrice was correct.

Cutting cow’s milk and other products made from cow’s milk from his diet helped alleviate some of the allergy sypmtoms. Now each morning in his tea he has a bit of goat’s milk. (Yes, we both drink tea the English way – with milk.) If he really wants some cheese, once in a while we’ll splurge and pay extra to get goat cheese. And the all-time favorite ice cream now is Coconut Bliss, Naked Almond Fudge.  It’s not cheap and so is a special occasional treat.

However, since we arrived in Rice Lake Wisconsin two weeks ago, Joel’s been without goat milk – until late Thursday night. We’ve spent the last two weeks searching for goat milk. We initially looked at the grocery store on Main Street and didn’t find any. After looking in the milk aisle, I was told by a store employee that if they had any it might be in the organic, natural food section at the other end of the store. But I didn’t find any there either.

Elsewhere we’ve often been able to find Meyenberg goat milk at Walmart. I tried there in Rice Lake and found none. Joel searched online hoping to find someplace in Barron County here that had it. He did find it in Chippewa Falls – an hour away! We didn’t want to spend the cost in gas to go that far for a quart of milk.

We found some local cheese shops we though might either carry it or be ablee to direct us to some – nope.  We asked everyone we met. Here in the heart of darily land you can find lots of cows – not so many goats and their milk.

We did find a little organic store that carried powdered goat’s milk. It wasn’t cheap and Joel had no idea how it would taste. He didn’t want to spend nearly $15 to find out he didn’t like it. So we kept searching.

Thursday night Joel and Fiona had sore throats and stayed home while I attended our local Bible study meeting. I was talking with a lady who used to get goat milk from a farmer’s goat for her son who was allergic to cow’s milk. She said that sh’ed seen goat’s milk at the local store, Market Place.  Now this was the initial store on Main Street where I had looked before. Yet she was sure she’d seen it there. So I figured I might as well pop in and look again and ask.

At 9 pm Thursday night I walked the milk aisle at Marketplace and lo and behold I found goat milk! It’s by Poplar Hill in Minnesota. I was giddy with excitement! Yes, they do carry it. Apparently they were just out when I’d previously looked. And no one else in town appears to know that here you can find goat milk.

I came home as quickly as possible to share the good news and Joel immediately used goat milk in a hot bedtime drink.

At long last the search for goat milk in Rice Lake is over. Joel’s looking forward to tea in the morning again.

If our trip had gone as planned we would have missed all this. We would never have planned a trip which included being stuck in Bakersfield [...]]]> Tehachipi dusted with snow. A field full of jumbo jets in Mojave. The almost comically hard snow line above the desert. Our first night sleeping in a Walmart parking lot.

If our trip had gone as planned we would have missed all this. We would never have planned a trip which included being stuck in Bakersfield because the freeways were blocked due to snow.

You cannot plan for everything. Indeed, you should plan. But as every nomad knows no plan survives contact with the highway.

Discontent and unhappiness are caused by our refusal to acknowledge and accept what is. Call it serendipity, the universe, God. Embrace the adventures that happen all on their own.

Like most true stories, there’s just no way we could make this stuff up.

Anyway, we had a ball. We never would have planned most of the stuff we [...]]]> A few days ago Sue told you about being stuck over night in Bakersfield because the roads going south were closed because of the snow. Yes, in California, you can close the carotid artery of the state with snow, unlike, say, Wisconsin.

Anyway, we had a ball. We never would have planned most of the stuff we did on that drive; sleeping in the car in a WalMart parking lot, f’rinstance. We left early to get here early. Sue finally has contact lenses again instead of her outdated glasses, so she can drive at night and we would have. We’ve driven 25 hours with nothing but naps. I wouldn’t do it often, but we were so antsy to get going that we were ready to leave at 4:30pm Sunday, and drive ’til 7 the next morning. That’s not what happened.

What happened was that we discovered, again, that we can do pretty much anything, and if we can’t do it, we can survive it. We can’t control the weather or road closures, so instead, we controlled our reaction. We enjoyed the silliness of, after making it out of Canada, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and more last November, being snowbound in southern California fer cryin’ out loud.

We saw Tehachapi covered in snow. (Jerry and I are going to organise a business retreat there. Interested in some of the most humanistic, practical, fun business training in existence? Gimme a shout.)

We reminded ourselves that no one was waiting up for us. We had no deadline, only a goal, and a loose one. I drove under the speed limit. We stopped to look at stuff. Fiona trudged through snow in a Walgreen’s parking lot, just because she wanted to. We sat in a StarBUCKs in Bakersfield and just puttered while Fiona ate the free oatmeal one of the baristas gave her (“I’m a mom and I just thought she might like some; is that okay?” Um, yeah, you can give our little girl breakfast; sure!)

You can’t plan trips as great as the ones that happen on their own.

I noticed something as I drove. When I glanced at Sue, there were different lines on her face. For quite a while, they’ve been worry lines; stress lines. We’ve spent some time doing things we needed to do the past couple months; time getting ready for should instead of want. Now, the lines are smiles, peace, thoughts, prayers.

Lines on the map don’t mean much to me anymore; I can go anywhere and be happy. It’s what I read in my wife’s face that tells me whether we’re on the right path.

Up ’til now, everything has either been a dress rehearsal (our month in Vancouver) or a trip (to Montreal) or a temporary holding pattern until we had to go back. We always had to go back.

This time, there’s [...]]]> Leaving Sacramento after our daughter’s wedding, Sue pointed out that this was the real beginning of our nomadic life.

Up ’til now, everything has either been a dress rehearsal (our month in Vancouver) or a trip (to Montreal) or a temporary holding pattern until we had to go back. We always had to go back.

This time, there’s no back, only forth.

We’re not going somewhere we have to come back from. We don’t have any specific places we have to be, or be back to. Nothing to hold us to any particular spot on the planet. Nothing to do that isn’t exactly what we’ve chosen.

Joel braves 70mph winds at Bray Head, Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Our time here in Phoenix feels all too short, but before it ends in one week, we’ll have passed the 6-month mark in our nomadic life. The past 6 months have been the greatest period of change in my life, and in my head. I didn’t know it was possible to know Sue any better, and I do. I thought I knew where I was going with our business. Turns out that the greatest leap was to something that’s not a business at all, but a reason, so April 19th I’m launching a Great Big Thing that will be our primary business focus, despite the fact that it’s not a business at all.

During the past 6 months, I’ve forgiven myself for a lot of things. I’ve found things in my head that I didn’t even know were there, and found things I thought I’d lost. If we settled down in a little village somewhere tomorrow, I would still be changed irrevocably.

When you travel, the greatest discovery is yourself.