This is our story of how we met (our entire relationship has been while traveling together), our various forms of travel since 2006 and how we keep it funded.
We also have a quick start guide to our blog that we encourage you to check out if you're new here. We've been blogging our entire journey since 2006, so there's a lot of content and a lot of story to tell! Enjoy!
'T@bbed Browsing' days
April 2006 - July 2008
Chris had just left behind his Silicon Valley career to start pursuing his dreams of full time nomadism (solo) in a tiny 16' T@b Clamshell travel trailer on April 1, 2006.
He did this entirely by choice to leave behind corporate life for a bit, funded by savings & a sweet severance package - and live a fully mobile lifestyle.
His intentions were to travel a year by trailer while building up a tech consulting portfolio - using the Jeep he had traded his Prius for - and then switch to more international pursuits.
He was in part inspired by his good friend Steve Roberts' (who coined the word) pioneering technomadic adventures years before.
Meanwhile on the opposite coast in Florida, Cherie was running a custom software development business and was already working remotely as she engaged in personal & business travel. She also had a pop-up camper and enjoyed exploring Florida State Parks.
We first encountered each other in a Prius (yes, the hybrid car) forum shortly after Chris hit the road and discovered we had friends in common. Cherie had actually just purchased a new Prius and was intending to move to California later that year. Neither of us were looking for new major relationships at the time.
After months of correspondence, we finally met for the first time in October 2006 on an epic 27 hour first date. There was no doubt we were meant for each other, and started exploring the possibilities of how our lives might merge.
For our fourth date, in May 2007 - we set off on a 7-month trial run together (in the teardrop) that took us nearly 13,000 miles around the USA and back.
We only had 45 sq ft of living space, no bath facilities, refridgerator or air conditioning - but we had solar power, cellular internet and an exciting new relationship. We learned, that's all we *really* needed to be happy.
Well... kinda.
Read all our posts from this chapter (caution: we were very much just small time personal "friends & family" bloggers back then)
'Going Oliver The Place'
July 2008 - May 2011
During our 7 month cross country adventure in the T@b, we decided:
- We make excellent life partners, and had a life commitment ceremony while at Burning Man to be 'primary partners' and had all the proper legal documents drawn up to protect each other. With marriage equality now a reality, we also made it legal in 2017 - but we more strongly identify as partnered, not married.
- We wanted to continue traveling, so Cherie took a big financial loss on her house during the 'Great Recession' to get it sold.
- We needed a touch more space than the T@b offered, namely we wanted a dedicated bed & table area (a bathroom would be nice too).
We commissioned Oliver Travel Trailers to custom build us a 17' fiberglass travel trailer with as much solar and battery capacity as we could squeeze into it to continue our love of boondocking.
We now had a luxurious 80 sq ft of living space, a bathroom, refrigerator and air conditioning! We happily traveled full-time in our Oliver from July 2008 - November 2010, enjoying such a variety of locations.
The Oliver could go places most other RVs simply couldn't, and gave us everything we needed to live comfortably.
Our works lives fully merged too - Chris helping out in Cherie's business, working on consulting projects together and we dipped our toes in mobile app development.
But the space started to feel limiting to us - no comfortable desk space for working long hours (dinettes SUCK for this), it was uncomfortable for extended stays in one spot and Kiki (our cat) had adopted us along the way.
We started exploring what our next chapter would be. Shopping for a sail boat and contemplating international travel were our top contenders.
Read all our posts from this chapter (again, we weren't really public bloggers back then either)
Island life - The Virgin Islands
November 2010 - April 2011
In Fall 2010 we were parked in a cramped San Francisco RV Park, contemplating where to next.
And then popped up in our e-mail - a friend looking for someone to sublet her treehouse cottage on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands.
We thought we'd help get her in touch with some nomadic friends who could take advantage of the opportunity.. then thought, why not us??
We had never heard of St. John - but after confirming we could bring Kiki, there was internet and craft beer on island - it took us just a few hours to totally shift gears!
We did a rapid dash to Florida where we parked the Oliver for 5 months, and spent the winter in tropical paradise.
It was a prefect spot to focus deeply on some software development projects we had taken on - including launching our first major app Coverage?.
It also gave us the ability to check out the sailing lifestyle closer, still be in the US but get a bit of an international feel, enjoy lots of amazing hiking & snorkeling and contemplate life ahead.
Read all our posts from this chapter (again, we were more personal bloggers during this phase)
Vintage Bus
Full Time: June 2011 - March 2017
Part-Time: 2017 - ??
Our time in the USVI taught us:
- While boating called us strongly, we weren't at the right time in our careers to make the leap. Still working 9-5 with intense internet needs just wouldn't be compatible with our dreams of sailing quite yet.
- We did still want to be nomadic & travel - but having our lives focused on a cat could make that difficult without bringing our own home. RVing continued to make perfect sense as our US land home base.
- But it was time for more comfort and would need something larger.
- We wanted RVing to be our home base to launch off for other adventures - we love mixing it up.
We anticipated taking several months to search out our options (already tempted by vintage buses), but as soon as we mentally made the shift - we immediately we got an unsolicited offer to sell the Oliver at a price we couldn't ignore.
We delivered our Oliver with about a week's notice, borrowed a small motorhome from a friend on the way and then jumped on Amtrak with a month long rail pass to travel the country in search of a vintage bus.
It was hectic and crazy, we had no plan, didn't know terribly much about buses and we trusted completely in serendipity that we would be lead to where we needed to be.
In late June 2011, in the 115+ degree desert heat of southern Arizona - we found Zephyr. A 1961 GM PD-4106, 35' bus conversion that had sat still for many years.
She had already been converted to be a livable RV, and we made modifications over the years as we traveled to make her our ideal high tech decadent home on wheels.
From June 2011 to March 2017, Zephyr was our full time home on land - much longer than we ever anticipated before shaking it up again.
During this time we had transitioned away from custom software development after the passing of Cherie's dad (her business partner) and consulted for some pretty major RV-related projects (helping found RVillage and Xscapers). We also had grown tired of answering so many questions for free about how we stayed connected to keep working remotely, so we launched the Mobile Internet Resource Center - which quickly became our professional focus.
We now split our travels in Zephyr (based on her own RV lot in Arizona) and our other forms of travel that we've since added.
Cruising by Motor Yacht: March 2017 - ??
While we've managed to get a month or two a year away from the RV for other adventures, it was time to get serious about pursing our boating dreams.
While sailing still called us, coastal cruising while still remaining accessible to friends & family called us more (and keeping a strong internet connection).
We selected the The Great Loop - a circumnavigation of the eastern portion of North America - traveling via intracoastal waterways, canals, rivers and lakes. A sailboat wasn't ideal for this, so we dove into power boats.
After a several month boat-hunt, in March 2017 we purchased m/v Y-Not - a 1999 Bayliner 4788 motor yacht .
Y-Not was intended to be our spring & summer home on water as we embark on slowly exploring the The Great Loop. However, cruising in general has really suited us and we're less focused on the 'the Loop' and more on enjoying a comfortable condo on the water that can move between awesome locations. And a little pandemic shifted things for us, and we were thankful to have an amazing floating condo to ride it out.
Van Life: May 2019 - ??
As we would be splitting our time RVing with Zephyr now in AZ and cruising the east coast, we needed a way to get between them. Our Mini Cooper that we had towed behind the bus was showing its age and was quite uncomfortable for cross country road trips between the bus and boat.
So we decided to try a van conversion as our shuttle craft in-between - to enjoy more leisurely cross country camping trips, and as our daily driver from both mobile home bases that could be parked in normal parking lots.
In May 2019 - we acquired a 2016 Winnebago Travato we named Cooper, and we liked it so much that in 2020 we upgraded to a fully loaded blue 2020.5 Winnebago Travato GL we named Blooper (blue Cooper).
We actually generally end up dong 4-6 months van adventures each year, sometimes spending more time traveling in Blooper than the bus or van. Turns out, we really love being nimble in smaller RVs - huh, right back to our roots!
Our worklife
We've not been on vacation. We're not taking a gap year(s). We worked remotely full time up until the end of 2022, when we cut back to part-time (semi retired?).
We initially took our high tech careers on the road with us (tech consulting and software development).. and have morphed our careers over the years to adapting our skillsets to providing resources for our community.
Everything we've done together is under our business partnership - Two Steps Beyond.
Our projects have ranged from mobile app development, technology advising, market research, advising tech start-ups, technical writing & journalism and orchestrating unique product launch strategies.
After years of fielding questions about how we keep online as we travel and work remotely, in 2013 wrote The Mobile Internet Handbook and soon after launched the Mobile Internet Resource Center.
It's all community funded via our premium membership program (no advertising, sponsorships or selling 'stuff'), so we can remain unbiased in providing content about the options for keeping connected as a nomad.
Running the resource center is now our primary professional focus, and we have an entire team that helps us make it possible.
Our travels have also inspired a line of incredibly useful travel apps (Coverage?, State Lines and US Public Lands) to solve challenges we encountered on the road. We initially developed the apps ourselves, but have shifted to partnering with a developer.
Despite common assumption - we don't consider our sharing under the 'Technomadia' brand to be work - this is has always been a hobby for us.
While we know we could monetize the heck out of our content here as many content creators have successfully done, we prefer not to. We just simply want to keep this fun, never feel pressured to HAVE to share to keep fuel in our tanks or to just churn out advertising laden content. Yes, we do get some trickle of affiliate income, but nothing more than beer money.
We've also been known to take on short term intense projects over the years:
- Packing boxes at Amazon.com during the holiday rush
- Volunteering full time to run a presidential campaign field office in rural Nevada
- Orchestrating a guerilla marking launch of the iPhone travel app HearPlanet at Macword 2009 (involving organizing a week long party on a double decker bus)
- Volunteering as interpretive lighthouse hosts in Oregon
- Becoming 'Launch Specialists' of a new social network for RVers called RVillage.
- Helping the Escapees RV Club return to their roots by launching the Xscapers club-within-a-club, to provide resources to working aged RVers.
Starting in 2023, we aim to be working minimal hours and taking more time just for ourselves and enjoying our travels. We'll see where we go from there!
Thanks for all the helpful tips and advice you provide on your web pages. I find it interesting.
Hi guys, great stuff, I haven’t read all that much yet but thought I’d say g’day anyway.
We also worked in IT and at the age of 45 sold everything, built a motorhome and hit the road. In our case it was more retirement but we have done a few jobs along the way.
For example lately I’ve been designing the hardware for an industrial monitoring and control system for a Brazilian company and I did a embedded software library for an Australian company. Plus I wrote and photographed articles for magazine for a few years.
The current technology makes it possible to do all that from just about anywhere we like. You gotta love that.
Unlike you we started large (34 feet), rebuilt that to something smaller (25 feet) and are now about to build something even smaller on a 4×4 Landcruiser (about 8 feet), but we’ll probably be keeping the 25′ motorhome and using the 4×4 as a holiday house for when the incredible stress of the lifestyle gets too much and we have to get away 🙂
I asked the question if you were a designer and PHP developer couple in a post on another page, because in one of your videos you say you are a designer and a developer. After reading this page I understand more about what you do.
I constantly look for stories on You Tube about how people make a living on the road. I’m intrigued with off-grid, minimalistic life styles.
You two have a good thing going. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Keith – welcome. The videos you are referring to is probably our ‘Ramblings’ series (https://www.technomadia.com/ramblings) in which we have interviewed other working on the road folks. Check them out, lots of great stories there. Enjoy! (And no, we’re not PHP developers.)
We came across your website while looking into full-time rv’ing. My husband and I are about 3 months away from starting this lifestyle. The house goes on the market on 5/30 and we will leave when it sells. We are very excited to start a new life on the road. Wish us Luck!!!
Hoping your house sells swiftly and smoothly! See you out there somewhere.
I just found your site via a link on the Escapees’ forum. Just finished watching your YouTube chat about realistic expectations (Pace and Kylie). Many thanks for the great info and opinions. I’m 57, hubby is 60 and a lung cancer survivor who has cancer screenings every 3 months so we can’t wander
far from the hospital for very long time periods. However, there is nothing like sitting in a hospital for 5 weeks straight, wondering if your mate is going to live or die, to make you realize Life Is Short!! What are we waiting on??? So, we’re selling the house, buying a Class A and planning to hit the road this Spring (2013). Maybe we’ll love it, maybe we’ll hate it but at least we will know we tried it. And it gives our son, family and friends loads of stuff to talk about, ie: “Do you think we should have them committed to a mental hospital?” Hey – dance in the wind when you can, you may not get another chance!
That is so incredibly true, life is indeed short. My father is currently on hospice, after a 2.5 year battle with lung cancer. I so wish he had done more of what he wanted in the year in between his first diagnosis/treatment and when it returned. So I definitely concur, get out there and take advantage of the time you know you have! Life can change in an instant.
Oh WOW! I have just stumbled onto your site! I have a few days/weeks to catch up with all you have written. I am a grey (tech)nomad, not for work,just for pleasure and entertainment. So much more to learn.
Great Story, Great encouragement for my 67YO body, (wise 33YO mind, 1000 YO soul) to go Fully full time now. I retired in ’93 due to cancers, but survived against all odds. My “plumbing” is very “after-market” but in 20 years it’s never needed any “plumber”. Not in least scared of future cancers. I’ve planned a life like y’all’s for 30 years & owned 4 various travel units. I’m a single GWM. I’m Spiritually oriented, and a life of solitary celibacy, reading, travel, meditation, eating simply, simplicity orienting my future, IS the way I’m called to live. Y’all are very lucky (OR Spiritually Chosen) to have each other on the same wavelength. My gay peers aren’t usually able to, or into my life choices, per above. So, my companions are my 5 kids (got all recently, a bluenose Pitbull, his lifemate, a female Rottie, a PIT-Lab mix female, a Shar-Pei male, & a German Shephard/Terrier mix). All I rescued & all love road travel. My big pickup is rigged for their accessing the crew cab/capped rear while moving. I’ve divided the rear into upper (for the kids/lower for stuff). I have a 17′ 2008 Casita,(roof A/C), bought new at Factory, and never used! Never had me in TT/they in PU at nite. They’ve never been in TT with me, too small. We’ll try it,but likely I’ll get a 26′ used bumper pull to accommodate us inside, nightly, + I don’t want them cold at nite in PU. ANY IDEAS THERE? Will keep my modest home for an unknowable future, looked after by a nearby son. Living on SS with no debt, I’m blessed in too many ways to count. I love to read, meditate, Internet (have an HTC Evo 4G phone with hotspot), and driving, stay in Natl. & State Parks & be kind in all my doins. Continued good life to y’all! IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN A GOOD DEAL ON A PERFECT CASITA, LET ME KNOW. $10,000.Paid $19K back in ’08.I’m in DFW tx.
Hi Mike.. thanks for stopping by. If you drop by the http://www.fiberglassrv.com forums, they have a free classified area for fiberglass RV owners. You should have no problem finding a loving new home for your Casita. And pssst… they hold their value much better than that 🙂 Best wishes!
thanks Cherie!
hello Cherie and Chris,
I would to know who is your insurance carrier on your motorhome. We have a 1983 Prevost and we have Progressive and every year our insurance kept going up. Most of the insurance companies will not insured a motorhome that is over 20 years old. Thank you. Hope you can give an info.
Merlyn
Our agent was able to place us with GMAC. If yours was self converted, you may need to get special allowance for it, like we did. But if it was professionally converted they seem to be pretty easy going. However, all insurance goes up every year – that seems to be a standard feature.
Inspiring story. Love it!
What a delight to find people for whom life is for living. To meet you, who have broken out of the monotony of most peoples’ daily grind, and enjoy all that is there to be enjoyed, thrills me.
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences, many of which parallel my own, ‘cept I am older, and was really put down for those choices.
What I do now is the greatest gift I have given my life, and I cannot wait to get up each morning to see what that new day holds for me.
Hope our paths cross someday, and we can sit over a cup of tea and some biscuits.
Beautiful story! We’re suffering from the current desire to move out of our VW Bus (we’ve got a 10 year old, a 1 year old and our dog, all of us were living in it before our current situation of renting…argh I hate even saying the word…a place in Asheville, NC) and get a little more space. Tiny, simple living is the only way to go in my opinion, but as we become more and more people (baby #3 on the way) it’s kind of becoming a necessity.
Absolutely love what you guys are doing and can’t wait to hear more.
Have you guys touched base with the Baker’s by chance? They’re another location independent family that are currently renting up in Asheville. Check out http://www.manvsdebt.com – awesome folks who you should totally connect with.
Super tiny living spaces are great, but they also need to be comfortable enough to provide happiness. We loved our micro tiny spaces, but after many years – we are loving the size & space of our bus. It fits our style these days of parking in a spot for a bit.