Filed under: Design, etc, News & Trends
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ditch the house, fire your boss, quit the rat race and set out on the open road? Our writer spoke to three nomadic families who swapped stability for freedom and fun.
It might sound like some impossible, romantic fantasy, but there are any number of people living that dream right now.
Tony and Jennifer Miller
Currently residing in: Oaxaca, Mexico
Living like nomads since: 2008
Tony and Jennifer Miller and their four children (shown above) have been on the road full-time since 2008. They have been to Mexico and Hawaii multiple times, and, last year, they traveled by bicycle across Europe and much of North Africa. This years itinerary will take them through Central America. I caught up with Jennifer, who blogs about the experience on
Edventure Project, in the state of
Oaxaca in Mexico.
"We decided that rather than spending our time working to get more stuff, we'd invest in our relationships, and in giving our kids an education in the whole world instead of just in a classroom," says Jennifer. "Once we got everyone toilet trained, we sold our house and all of our stuff and hit the road."
Before they first took off, Tony and Jennifer spent two full years preparing, planning and saving. "Our first whole year was funded from our savings," says Jennifer. While they were in Africa, Tony launched his own business,
Fahrsoft, which specializes in database design and implementation. He also develops
iPhone applications. Jennifer is a freelance writer for the home education and travel markets. "We find a balance between working on the road and taking contracts in one location for a few months at a time," she says. "We have found that living a 'location independent' lifestyle only costs us about half of what our 'static' life did."
According to Jennifer, one of the best things about living on the road full time is that they have friends everywhere. And staying connected with them is easy thanks to the Internet. "We carry two computers with us (for work and schooling) and the kids have
iPods with internet capability for keeping up with their friends. Wherever we are we miss people... but we're always making new friends," she says. Plus they have had several friends and family members join them on the road for part of their trip. "Grandma and Gramps flew to Africa last winter to camp with us for three weeks on the Sahara!"
But don't think the Miller's life is just one continual vacation. "The same difficulties and daily challenges that exist at home exist on the road," says Jennifer. "Feeding, educating and keeping a roof overhead, not to mention hand washing clothes for six people every other day in a bucket, are very real, not-so-glamorous, parts of our lives."
The day I interview Jennifer, the family are camped in an agave field on a mountainside above Oaxaca in Mexico. Ezra, 7, is copying a paragraph about
Diego Rivera into his journal. The other children are up a tree. Tony is working on an iPhone app. for an insurance company in the U.S. "I walked two miles into town to drop off laundry," says Jennifer. "i didn't feel like hand-washing today, and I was unable to find any meat, or ice. I did, however, get a liter of fresh squeezed orange juice in a plastic bag with a straw in it, and half a kilo of tortillas with re-fried beans for lunch."
For the Miller's, the benefits of their on-the-go lifestyle outweigh the difficulties by far, especially the family togetherness. "Our kids really like each other and they like us, even the 13 year old (maybe especially the 13 year old!)," says Jennifer. "Their education is a huge benefit too. Our kids are all at or above grade level in the usual subjects, but they've also walked through geography, history, culture, language and literature in a way that they never could have from home."
The other major benefit is that Jennifer and Tony get to live life together instead of being pulled in two different directions with careers, kids and crazy schedules. "We are rarely more than a hundred yards from one another and we work together every single day toward a very concrete and common goal," she says.
Wade and Chaya Miller
Currently residing in: Dominican Republic
Living like nomads together since: 2007
Wade Miller has been traveling full-time since he was 18. His path has taken him all over Asia, North Africa, North, Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East. He traveled solo until he met his wife, Chaya, in 2007, and now the three of them -- they have a six-month-old daughter Petra -- travel as a family. You can follow their travels on their blog
Vagabond Journey. (Family pictured above.)
On the phone from the Dominican Republic, Wade, who grew up on a farm, says he began traveling as soon as he finished high school. That was 11 years ago. "Before leaving [the farm] my grandfather took me aside and gave me my first lesson in budget travel: 'If you ever get hungry,' he said, 'just go behind a doughnut shop.'"
Wade imagined he would be the penniless wanderer flicking the bird at the rest of society. "I thought that traveling the world as a vagabond would mean panhandling for food and sleeping in ditches," he says. "I had no idea that I could live as well as I do. Traveling has actually taught me responsibility, the value of hardwork, and all of those other [seemingly] lame lessons that your parents try to instill in you."
In 2000, Wade traveled abroad for the first time, to Ecuador. It was there that he learned how to do archaeology fieldwork at a
Florida Atlantic University field school. This soon became the trade that really gave him his wings. "The money that I could make from working as a field archaeologist for three months a year was usually enough to keep me traveling for the remaining nine," he says.
While traveling, he obtained a B.A. degree while studying in five different countries. He also became TOEFL certified some time ago and now sometimes works as an English teacher. "I construct websites, and I have also found myself doing farm work, gardening and other menial jobs. I've tried to learn as many trades as I can, to increase my freedom to travel. I now I make most of my travel funds from writing on my website," he says.
In his early years of traveling, Wade was surprised to discover that it is vastly cheaper to travel the world than it is to stay at home. "A traveler only needs three things: food, shelter and transportation. I set the amount of $10 per day as my expense cap in 2001, and I have averaged around this mark ever since."
In the summer of 2006, he met Chaya for the first time in Costa Rica. They met again a month later completely at random at a farm on Omotepe Island in Nicaragua, and then again two years later in Brooklyn. The pair were married in the summer of 2009 and had their first baby before the season ended.
"The biggest drawbacks are that we are away from our families," says Wade. "Petra only occasionally gets to see her grandparents, her aunts, uncles and cousins. We don't have a solid base of operations or a support system for helping us raise our child, so everywhere we go we try to introduce her to other children and make friends with their parents. Right now, Petra has some little Dominican baby friends who she plays with as much as a six month old can."
Wade, Chaya and Petra have been in Sosua in the Dominican Republic for three weeks and already have friends all over town. "We're renting an apartment in a hotel that has a nice courtyard and pool, a short walk from two beaches. We have all the amenities and we are only paying around $22 a day for all three of us, including rent, food and baby supplies like diapers and wipes," says Wade. "Though we have to work a little to live this cheaply -- we cook all of our own meals, only eat the cheapest locally grown food, rented an apartment rather than hotel rooms, and we very rarely pay for anything recreational."
But, says Wade, the pros of life on the road far outweigh any inconveniences. "We meet all kinds of different people, learn different languages and about other cultures, see the sites of history in person rather than from books, and live our education directly. It's the best way to live that I know of."
Howard and Linda Payne
Currently residing in: Welaka, Florida
Living like nomads since: 2005
Howard and Linda Payne would agree. They have been living year-round in their fifth-wheel RV since 2005. Now, they keep a web site so others can learn more about full-time RV-ing, at
RV Dreams.
"Some people would call what we're doing a midlife crisis," says Howard when I speak to him from Welaka, Florida. He and Linda love to travel, and after they spent a couple of weeks in Alaska in 2004, out in the wilderness away from cell phones and newspapers they returned home "a little depressed."
"We had a nice house, a couple of cars, a country club membership, what a lot of people would consider the American dream, but it just wasn't enough for us," says Howard. "We'd come home at night and we were like roommates, we were so stressed out from our jobs."
The Payne's, both 41 at the time, were debt-free except for their mortgage. One day Linda suggested swapping the house for an RV. "A lot of the people we run into [these days] plan for this for 10, 15, 20 years, but it wasn't even on our radar. We started looking into how we could do it, and it happened very fast," says Howard.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2004, Howard researched how much it would cost and whether they could make a living on the road. By Christmas they had made a decision and in January 2005, they bought a 5th wheel and a truck. Howard gave six months notice at work, they sold the house in May, and by August they left Louisville and were on the road. "As soon as we figured out that we could get jobs on the road and keep track of all our expenses -- that we could make a living out here -- we started doing some heavy research, and it happened very fast," says Howard.
Before they set out, Howard developed the web site www.rv-dreams.com as a potential way to earn some money. "I took all the research I'd done in one month, and put it together so other people could have it all in one place," he says. Linda learned to make jewelry from some people she met in an RV park, and they sell that on the road, and online, and through a gallery in Louisville.
"We live what we call a moderate lifestyle -- you can do this for between $28 and $36,000 a year," says Howard.
Last summer they worked in
Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, after that they were at
Lake Almanor near Lassen Volcanic park in Northern California for 4 months. "This year we'll be working at a golf resort in Michigan...all the free golf we want to play," he says.
Do they miss anything about living in a house? "My wife misses the dishwasher, and we both miss the hot-tub we used to have, but nothing significant. Some people miss having a community in one place, but we find we have closer and more friends in the RV community than we did back home," says Howard. "I like to say it's like America used to be. People stop by and sit on your porch and talk. We just walk around the campground for 30 minutes and have 4 new friends, and stay in touch with them for a long time afterward. Its almost like we're in this underground utopia that nobody knows about."
People live differently all over the world. Don't miss:
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The Snail House
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Life in a Bubble
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The 747 House in Malibu
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