When Jim and I told friends that we were staying on a farm with people we’d never met before, more than one person asked, “How do you know they’re not total psychos?” Well, my response to that is, “How do they know that we aren’t psychos?”

You don’t know.

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Last Saturday while waiting for the Space Shuttle to take off, a friendly camper introduced herself to me. Her name was Kim Cunningham, and she is a fulltiming mother and wife with three children who are traveling across America right now, in search of their next endeavor.

Kim (41), her husband Regis (47), daughter Jessica (15), son Regis III (9), and Seb (6), sold their principal home in Cody, Wyoming last May. Regis is a real estate investor who for the last 25 years has taken marginal homes, fixed them up, and turned them into money making opportunities. Kim was a Creative Memories consultant for 13 years, while working together with Regis to manage their properties. This year, they had planned to leave Cody, buy another fixer-upper in Pennsylvania and settle down for a while, but when in Pennsylvania, circumstances didn’t turn out as they’d hoped, so they decided to stay on the road and keep looking.

How does a family with three kids, four dogs and one cat do it?

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Since June, we’ve been searching for the ideal place to live and start a business. We are talking to locals in towns across America, interviewing and taking notes, trying to get a feel for places that might come close to what we consider “perfect.”

But is all this work just a waste of energy? Are we searching for a utopia that doesn’t exist?

Tell us: What factors make up your ideal community?

As we tack on the miles, we keep seeking these answers.

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This is Ken, my brother in law’s Father. Here he is recently in his front yard in Belgium, Wisconsin. Jim and I visited Ken and his wife Arleen, back in August.

We really loved that area of Wisconsin, and we want to go back to check it out as a possibility for permanent relocation, but definitely not anytime soon.

This is us, on the beach at Port Canaveral, Florida very early Sunday morning (K, not my best picture, but it was early!).

So, where would you rather be right now?

As we drove into St. Augustine, Florida we had a memorable introduction to the diversity, disparity and delicate fragile environment that makes up Florida.

We left the scrubby forests of the mid-state, and drove East to an area filled with sparkling blue water, lush, green oversized jungle plants, giant birds, and communities living in poverty right next to decadent housing developments that are closing in on all of this natural beauty. Northern coastal Florida is a land of contrasts.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
– St. Augustine”

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St. Augustine was a lovely town filled with ancient ghosts, artifacts and tourists. It seems affordable compared to elsewhere in the state. But it still felt crowded, and its small town charm is in danger thanks to big box stores that surround the historic downtown area. I hope that it the kitschy charm and open coastal areas can last.

Due to some false LH2 ECO sensor readings, the STS-122 mission launch was scrubbed yesterday delaying Space Shuttle Atlantis from taking off until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.

We intend to stay one more day here in Jetty Park in hope that the countdown will continue as planned. If not, we will head on to our obligations at the farm in Vero Beach about an hour south. The view of takeoff won’t be nearly as spectacular there, but we’ve postponed our workamping stay long enough already.

In the meantime, here are some scenes from our first day in Florida …

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And here is something I realized after our first night at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch Florida State Park …

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As the RV industry knows, baby boomers are becoming the largest group of fulltime RVers out there. Sure enough, in most places, Jim and I have been the youngest adults at the campground (Jim’s 41, I’m 38), That is, until we met Chris and Liz (ages 35 and 30). Finally, we randomly met two people from our generation who have also said Adios to careers and the conventional life.

As we sat around the campfire in Myrtle Beach, the four of us wondered how many fulltime travelers are in our age bracket. So I turned to RV.Net Forums to do an informal survey of RVers. Check out these great stories people are telling.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface; there are tons of offbeat travelers out there; Backpackers, train hoppers, hitchhikers, hippies driving converted school buses, you name it. These guys make us RVers look really conventional, but personally, I’ll take the security of my rig anyday.

Does that mean I’m getting old?

It’s amazing what kind of events can unfold when you decide to go somewhere else at the last minute.

We left Safe Harbor yesterday, not sure where we were staying just knowing that we were heading south to the Redneck Riviera . . .Myrtle Beach.

Along the way, I picked two campgrounds out of the Woodalls Directory — a private one, and a state park. When we got to Myrtle, and saw what a heinous tacky place it is, I pointed Jim to the state park, thinking it might be a little more down to earth than “Pirateland Campground.”

At the state park, we met Chris and Elizabeth, two 30-something urban refugees from New York City, who chucked all of their stuff, bought a rig, and headed out into the unknown for a year. Just. Like. Us. They don’t have kids. He’s a tech geek. She’s a PR writer. They were sick of the urban jungle and their careers, so they saved their dough and split. Just. Like. Us!

Chris and Liz are not only new RVers, but they are new campers. For two people who had never even been camping before hitting the road, they’ve really gotten into it and seem like old (young!) pros. Very impressive.

We hung out and shared stories over wine, beer and Turkey Day desserts, probably being too loud, and having a great time. The four of us are heading to Florida on our own timelines, but we will definitely hook up at some point to let the libations and road trip stories start all over again.

One of the best things about a long sabbatical and being on the road is that after a while, you start to let your guard down, which lets great people and events come into your life. We are so glad that Chris and Elizabeth came into ours.

A while back, we were dreaming about what kind of business we would operate next, and came across an ad for this nifty dog kennel business for sale, just north of the Saugerties / Woodstock area in New York. Recently, we stopped by to check it out. The owners were kind enough to give us a tour. But as much as we’d love to stop everything and start working with dogs full time, we kept our promise to hold off on decisions for the next few months. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in a great home based business in a rural area, check it out:

One of the best parts about this trip has been getting to know people, and hearing their unique stories. Sometimes, we meet people who have overcome so much adversity in life, it makes us ashamed to have ever felt an ounce of self-pity over our own trivial challenges.

Last weekend, we met such a person. Well, a family really. While staying at the McDowell Nature Reserve outside of Charlotte, we met Annette Protani and five of her six kids who were camped out next to us. Annette and her kids started calling their RV home when they left Houston back in August, in search of a new town in which to lay down some roots. Read the rest of this entry »