Tag: Nomad

Six Months Ago Today We Left Home

It was six months ago today, September 30, 2010, that we left ‘home’. We drove away from Roseville California to start living a nomadic lifestyle. What’s it been like? Are we ready to settle down? How’s Fiona doing?

It’s been good. Sure there have been some long days when we’ve been in the van all day and Fiona wants to be in a house with a bed. There have also been other times when she’s said she’s tired of being in a house and wants to get in the van and drive somewhere. Every morning she still gets up and when we ask her how she is, she says “happy”.

We’ve enjoyed meeting new people and meeting in person many that we had only known virtually. Our address book continues to grow with contact information of new acquaintances and business associates.

Are we ready to settle down? No!

Continue reading Six Months Ago Today We Left Home

Meet Other Traveling Families

Today we met other traveling families. I connected with these families on Twitter and found out they were in the Phoenix Arizona area at the same time as us. So we arranged to meet up at The Riparian Institute in Mesa for lunch today. Let me introduce you.

The Boyink family started traveling the same month as us, September 2010. We’re all getting ready to post our 6-month blog posts. You can read all about their family and travels at their blog. Joel especially enjoyed chatting with Mike about Mike’s book, Building an ExpressionEngine 2 Site.

Continue reading Meet Other Traveling Families

Change of Plans When Road Closes

We left Sunday afternoon to get a ‘head-start’. It’s great that we didn’t have a need to hurry or be in a particular place at a specific time. Because instead of making it to Phoenix by early Monday morning, we’re still in Bakersfield Monday morning. The Grapevine and other alternate route closed last night due to snow!

Walmart RV parking
RVs parking at Walmart

No problem! Not being in a hurry and not having other obligations, we just found the Walmart and parked nearby other families in their RVs. We actually got a decent night’s sleep. I didn’t find it much worse than sleeping in the second story apartment of our friend in Toronto. At her apartment we had to deal with traffic noise from the street and light from nearby buildings. At Walmart there wasn’t much traffic and the lights just made me feel safe.

This was the first time since we started traveling about six months ago that we’ve had to sleep in the van. We certainly don’t plan too make it a habit. But overall it just wasn’t bad at all. We got to wake up to a beautiful full moon.full moon

This morning we’ve learned the alternate route is clear. So we’re gonna try it. We’ll let you know how it works out.

BakersfieldSo we enjoyed our ‘stay’ in Bakersfield and getting to ‘see’ Buck Owens Crystal Palace.

Buck Owens Crystal Palace
Buck Owens Crystal Palace

Lessons From the Road #27 – Nomads Go

(The lessons are not in any kind of order. The numbers are just for fun.)

Coming up on six months on the road. The wedding is checked off our list. In preparation for tomorrow’s early morning start from Sashe cramento to Phoenix we started packing what could be left overnight in the van. Before we were halfway through the adrenaline-induced travel itch kicked in and we were talking about leaving today.

We left.

Continue reading Lessons From the Road #27 – Nomads Go

Coming Back Home – Where is Home?

Yesterday I read a post at another traveler’s blog discussing where home is. Being a nomad means we have no home in the traditional sense of the word. Our last home was a rental in Roseville California. Now when asked where is home, I answer, here – where we are right now.

Right now, today, home is in Mesa Arizona. Home is where ever my husband and daughter are at. Monday home will be in Roseville California through March 20th. So some may think I’m going back home. Yet California doesn’t feel like home anymore.

When we return to Mesa Arizona on March 21st, it will feel like I’m coming back home. At least for a while. Until we go ‘home’ to Rice Lake Wisconsin where Joel’s mom lives. Joel was born in Wisconsin so he’ll be going home in yet another sense.

Home here in Arizona for the past 7 weeks has been great. Our hosts and friends, the Wilson’s, have made us feel right at home. We all pitch in together to shop, cook, and clean. We enjoy watching movies together at the end of the day. Joel and Terry, both musicians and bass players, loved participating in FAWM during February and creating new songs.

Fiona right now is making peanut butter cookies with Virgie. She loves both Terry and Virgie and they have made her feel very special while we’ve been here.

We’re very grateful to the Wilsons for hosting us these past 7 weeks. We’re happy they want us to come back to house sit in March while they’re on vacation. It will be nice to have a place to ourselves for a couple of weeks in a place where we feel comfortable and AT HOME!

Reflection: consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose

I’m sure all our fans and readers out there are eager for a new post. We’ve noticed that when we post daily we have more visitors to the site. When we’re settled in a bit and nothing new is posted, there’s no reason for you all to come stop by, visit and say hi. So here’s my post dedicated to all our loyal readers – thank you!

Merriam Webster defines reflection (one definition) as: consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose. Today I’m taking a bit of time to reflect, or consider, what we’ve been doing as nomads, the purpose of it and how we continue to adapt to our nomadic life.

When we left from home in California September 30, 2010, we had a destination in mind – Montreal (actually about an hour outside of the city). We knew we had friends graciously awaiting us to stay with them for a few weeks and we wanted to be sure we had time to get there, visit, and get out again before the snow stuck to the ground. As a result we had a rather hurried trip from California to Canada and did not get to spend much time along the way visiting with friends and neglected to spend as much time in our business as we needed.

Once we knew we had a few weeks in Quebec, we settled in and started reconnecting and got busy with work again. Now that we’re leaving Quebec in 6 days to head back to California, we’re planning to take more time visiting with people on the way back. We also need to spend time in our businesses each day. So to all our gracious hosts – thank you! We do plan to spend more time visiting with you. Please remember too that we will need time each day to get down to business as well. That’s how we’ll afford gas so we can make it to your place. :)

One reason we chose to live a nomadic life is that we love having control of our time and schedule. We love being able to work from anywhere, teaching Fiona along the way, connecting with new prospects and clients in person. Sometimes things come up that require us to adapt and that’s okay. I keep reminding myself to live this moment and not worry about the next.

What are some of the things we’ve been able to do and plan to do in the coming months? Remember, our goal is to continue to be able to work from wherever we’re at. It’s not our goal to be sight seeing adventurers. Of course we’d love to be able to see some sights. But getting to know people is so much more important to us.

We’ve connected with some great people as we’ve traveled. Some we knew from online business connections and other we’ve met in places we’ve stayed. It’s been great staying with Cristina Favreau and her family here in Quebec. Not only has Fiona made great friends with her children, Joel and I have been able to help her with her business ideas. Another new connection we made was with Sonja Stiefel. She’s an artist we met in New Mexico and has since become a client.

We’ll be staying for a bit with Joel’s mom again in Wisconsin during November. We’ll be back in Roseville, California for about a week the first part of December. Then we head down to San Diego to be with my mom since she needs knee surgery. We’ll be updating you soon with a complete itinerary.

We’re Almost There

We leave the day after tomorrow – finally! We’ve been going non-stop for over four weeks preparing for our nomadic life. I’m so glad we’re almost there – ready to drive away. We need a nice long drive to unwind and let go of all the stress!

Today and tomorrow we finish getting things ready. James and Rachelle will come over Wednesday afternoon to say goodbye. Then Thursday morning we pack the van and drive off to Phoenix.

Our first stop will be for two nights in Phoenix, Arizona. We will be staying with our friends, Terry and Virgie Wilson, who recently moved from Roseville. Then a night in New Mexico to stay with Sonja. The next night in Colorado with a former workmate of Joel’s. On Monday October 4th we will reconnect with Joel’s Uncle Denny and then stay with Mimi and her family in South Dakota. Mimi is a virtual assistant who we met in person a few weeks ago when she came to visit her sisters in Sacramento.

Fiona will get to meet her grandma, Joel’s mom. We’ll stay with her three nights and then with our friend Charlie in Michigan. Finally we’ll stay one night in Ottawa with Shawn and finally arrive in Montreal on October 13th.

Stay tuned for updates as we travel!

Nomadic Travel: What Are We Really Doing?

You’ve heard that the Canfield family is going to travel and live a nomadic lifestyle. What does that mean? What are we really doing? Let me explain.

We are no longer renting a place to live. We’re packing our Kia Sedona minivan with our clothing, Joel’s musical instruments and equipment, important books and papers, Fiona’s books, toys and school books. The few important possessions we want to hold on to but don’t need on a daily basis are being stored by our close friends. They’ve also told us that anytime we’re back in the Sacramento area we have a place to stay with them.

We’re taking our packed van and we’re going to travel the U.S. and Canada for the next year or two.  We’d like to spend extended periods of time in one area or location before moving on to another location. That would allow us time to get to know an area and the people. To accommodate that we have plans to house sit for people who need someone to care for their house and even their pets while they’re away for an extended period of time – perhaps vacationing or traveling themselves. Our house sitting service provides the homeowner with peace  of mind and provides us a place to stay and work. So no, we do not charge a fee for this service.

How will we make money? The way we always do. We will continue to run our virtual businesses as we always have – creating and maintaining websites, running my virtual assistant business, coaching and training new and aspiring virtual assistants, writing books, helping people find their ‘why’.

Will this be a good thing for Fiona? We think so. Already she’s made new friends in British Columbia. And in October she’ll get to meet her great Uncle Denny and Grandma Mumsie who’s never seen her. She’ll learn about places, people, different cultures – not just from a book, but from real life experiences. We will continue to read the Bible with Fiona at bed time and teach her God’s values. She’s going to meet other members of our worldwide spiritual brotherhood and make new friends.

How long will we do this? Who knows. When we decide to stop, we’ll let you know.

I’m sure you have other questions. We’d love to answer them for you. So just post your question in the comment section and we’ll post our reply.

Meet the Nomad Canfields at Waves Coffee Shops in British Columbia

While we’re here in BC we plan to visit, if possible, all the Waves Coffee Shops in BC.  Here’s your chance to meet the Nomad Canfield Family in person! Today, August 5th, we’ll be at the Waves on Columbia in New Westminster from 11:30 am to 12:30. On Monday, August 9th,  you can find us at the Waves in Burnaby at Kingsway & Edmonds from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. We hope you can stop by and chat for a while. We love to meet new people!

Sponsors and Supporters and Everyone Wins

I’ve been busy working with individuals and businesses who would like to sponsor and support our efforts to work while on the road. This week I’m specifically working with those who want to sponsor and support the workshop for virtual assistants we are planning in August in Vancouver. We are working to create a situation where each sponsors and supporter receives as much value from their support of our efforts as we receive. That way everyone wins!

So here are some things I’m working on this week to gain support for our trip to host a workshop for virtual assistants in Vancouver.

  • Contacted 4 organizations related to the virtual assistant industry for sponsorship in exchange for promoting their organizations in every way possible
  • Contacted an additional organization we do business with to discuss possible sponsorship
  • Contacted individuals who are willing to contribute physical product, such as a book or CD, for give aways at the workshop in exchange for promoting their services and product. We already have 2 confirmed and are awaiting details to announce shortly.
  • Contacted Virtual Assistants around the world asking to support the cause by purchasing one or more of our products for Virtual Assistants, such as the book The Commonsense Virtual Assistant – Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee, or the workbook, Building Blocks: Succeed as a Chief Virtual Officer, in exchange for promoting their businesses.

There has been great response to date and lots of support and well wishers. Donations are beginning to come in and those who are not able to give monetary support are asking how else they can support the cause.  Here are ways you can show your support.

  1. Click that Donate button on the left and make a donation of any amount.
  2. Click on the Store button on the navigation bar and make a purchase. More items will be added soon.
  3. Follow us on Twitter (@NomadCanfields) and retweet our posts.
  4. Share this blog with everyone you know and mention it on Facebook.

Thank you to those of you who have already shown your support in some way or another! Watch for updates daily. We’ll be acknowledging our supports on our Shout Outs and Ballyhoo page.