Cherie and Chris of Technomadia are a nomadic couple in their mid-30s who both gave up their homes to embark on a full-time “technomadic” adventure in a small solar powered travel trailer, with a kitten no less! They live, work and play full time on the road, embracing nomadic serendipity wherever they go. Here is what a week-in-the-life of Cherie & Chris looks like:
This post was originally published in 2009. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
Sunday
We’ve spent the weekend at Lakes of Fire, a regional Burning Man event being held in western Michigan. Last night the event culminated with a spectacular effigy burn of a double-masted sailing ship – the S.S. Bacon. In addition to the burning Bacon, we witnessed lots of other fire performance and art on display, and there was plenty of music and dancing too.
The energy this morning at the festival starts out subdued, with folks milling about, waking up late after a night of partying, sipping coffee, sharing bacon (what is it with bacon?) with their neighbors, and getting the energy up to start packing.
We had had a late night. Cherie crashed somewhere around 3am after spending the evening visiting various theme camps. Chris stayed out even later, and he joined in a drum circle until the sky was starting to get light. We slept in until around 10am, and awoke to greet our campmates – several folks we had met two weeks prior at the St. Louis area regional burn, the Gateway Burn.
Camped next to us is Kele, a long time dear friend of Cherie’s that we brought with us to Lakes of Fire – her first exposure to Burning Man culture. We check in with her to see what she thought of the experience, and she tells us that she is already making plans for attending future events, constructing costumes, and doing more discovering of herself. Mission accomplished. Kele is a morning person, and has already been up for several hours and mostly has her tent packed away. Fortunately packing up our Oliver trailer is a quick and easy task, and soon we are ready to hit the road as well.
We wish our fellow campmates a fond ‘good bye for now’, exchange contact info, and express hope for future path crossings. We’ll see some of them in the Nevada desert in late August at the main Burning Man event. Then the three of us make way for the gate, and say good bye to the exodus staff. We then drive back to Northern Indiana, where Kele lives – stopping for lunch along the way.
We arrive back to her house late afternoon, and unload the Jeep and her contents from the trailer. There’s a mad rush for use of the shower. Refreshed, we all relax on the couch, Chris promptly napping for a couple of hours to recover from the long hours driving.
Kele and Cherie merge their kitchens and come up with dinner for the evening.
Monday
After a long weekend of fire and art and community, Monday marks a return to the default world of consumerism and jobs, otherwise known as “reality camp”. We had been staying with Kele for over a week, and our thoughts are now turning to when we should start moving to our next destination – Philadelphia. An online follower has contacted us with an invite to attend a 4th of July backyard music jam that he hosts, that that enticement has us considering leaving sooner rather than later.
Chris works busily away on finishing back-ups of our computers, researching camera upgrades for us, and testing a product sent to us for review on our blog. Cherie spends the day with some client communications to firm up a training class she’ll be teaching in two weeks in Washington, DC.
Kiki meanwhile enjoys running around Kele’s basement, and goes on a murderous rampage killing 8 mice. <!!!>
We tentatively set a departure date of Wednesday to hit the road eastward.
Tuesday
We plan to spend a leisurely day catching up on project and getting the Jeep re-packed so that we will be ready to hit the road the next day. We also aim to run a couple of errands to restock our supplies.
But then we then get a call from Chris’ parents, who happen to be driving home from Baltimore to St. Louis. Not knowing exactly where we are at, they want to know if a rendezvous for dinner is possible. We bring up Google maps and decide that aiming for meeting near Dayton, Ohio this evening is actually feasible if we hit the road ASAP. We hurry up and finish the packing, prepare one last lunch with merged kitchens with Kele – and then depart southward.
We take the backroads, enjoying country scenery the entire way, checking in with Chris’ folks during the day to keep on a convergent path. Our rendezvous point for dinner turns out to be 40 miles west of Dayton. We enjoy a nice meal with them, catching up on the couple of weeks since we left their place in St. Louis. It’s a quick, but very worthwhile visit. We love the flexibility to take advantage of sudden opportunities that nomadic life gives us, and we take advantage of it whenever we can.
We pull up a free overnight parking website and eye a spot east of Dayton to spend the night.
Wednesday
It’s July already? When did that happen!
We look at the distance between Dayton and Philadelphia, as well as our emerging social plans, and decide to evoke our new ‘Two Night Rule’ – which says that anytime we stop to stay somewhere that is not just quickly passing through, we stay for at least two nights. Even with longer driving days, having at least one full stopped day in between is fabulous. We check a map and notice there are several suitable campgrounds in central Pennsylvania near the midpoint of our route.
We send out a call for recommendations to Twitter, and get a lot of advice, but nothing close to our target area. We keep moving eastward, trusting that nomadic serendipity will manifest something great for us.
We stop on the side of the road in a small town right near the PA /WV border to check our maps to narrow down our possible evening destinations. A couple in a truck pulls up to us to ask about our uber cool trailer – it often tends to attract curiosity. They see our maps spread out, and they ask if there’s any help they can provide. so we ask them for camping recommendations. They point out two of their favorite state campgrounds in the mountains of central PA along our route. Nomadic serendipity has once again provided for us!
We check out the first state park, and the camping area is sort of boring – nothing remarkable about it, just a bunch of gravel spots in the middle of a field. We like more character in a place we’re paying for. So we move to the next park, further up the mountain. It is beautiful – much more our style. We pick out a grassy spot on top of a hill with a great view. We choose a cheaper spot without hook-ups (as our solar panels provide our electricity), and pay for our first night’s camping.
We make dinner, check e-mail and such, and then load up a Netflix DVD (Juno – a very cute movie) into the Mac Mini. We watch from bed on our large 24” LCD panel, and then fall asleep listening to the gentle rain outside.
Thursday
Today is mostly a work day – we have lots to catch up on. We do some blog posting, some video editing, research some technology, and handle communication with clients. We also indulge in hot showers at the bathhouse.
4th of July campers are starting to arrive and claim their spots for the holiday weekend. A large group sets up right next to us with several dogs and young kids. We’re glad we’re moving on in the morning.
We take a long walk through the campground, capture photos for our campground review, and spend the evening relaxing online. The wireless connection via our Sprint EVDO data card is fast and very usable.
Friday
We have a leisurely wake-up, check e-mail and twitter and then pull up the landing gear on the trailer… and off we go eastward towards Philadelphia. For the first half of the journey, we take scenic back roads, avoiding traffic and the turnpike.
We see a sign for the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial, and make a snap decision to detour a few miles to visit it. It’s chilling to see the pastoral crash site, and the impromptu memorial to the brave heroes whose sacrifice made 9/11 less of a tragedy than it could have been.
We then venture on towards Philly, eventually joining up with the turnpike as the urban congestion starts to grow, making the back roads less enjoyable.
We arrive at our destination mid-afternoon. Our planned home for the next week is in the side driveway of a dear friend’s hundred year old home just north of the city. This is what we consider a perfect spot – an off-street place to park that fits our trailer perfectly, located right by a train station making access to the rest of the city easy.
Chris expertly backs the trailer in, despite the very narrow and crowded streets. The impressed neighbors actually applaud him. We then catch up with our friend over BBQ dinner, and then end the evening with all of us watching the classic Miyazaki animated film “Howl’s Moving Castle” before retiring to bed.
Saturday (July 4th)
Most of our day is spent working on our own chores. Our host works in her garden, and we work online doing various projects. It’s nice to have a down, catch up day and make our temporary nest.
In the afternoon the three of us head over to meet our new online friend. He is hosting his annual 4th of July yard party and jam session in huge park-like yard behind his 300+ year old home in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. It soon hits us at that we’re celebrating the 4th of July at a home that saw our country born. There’s a delicious local hoppy IPA beer on tap, and talented musicians jamming away, including some of the original members of Todd Rundgren’s band – The Nazz.
New friends, an old friend, great music, good beer, and even some backyard fireworks – a perfect way to celebrate. A week ago we didn’t even know what city we would be in for the Fourth of July. Yet once again, trusting in nomadic serendipity has resulted in a fabulous (and yet in many ways fairly typical) week.
As usual, Chris and Cherie will shortly be attending the annual Burning Man festival, as part of their CampNomadia theme camp for fellow nomads. After that, they’re planning on heading down to southern California, Las Vegas, then…who knows!
Chris and Cherie sound like they have a great lifestyle. I am jealous! 🙂
I would love to go to burning man one of these years. Maybe a couple years spent touring North America is in the cards.
Woohoo! Miyazaki rocks! Go see his newest, Ponyo, which just opened in theaters this past weekend! (No, I’m not a fan :D)