This time we are serious...seriously

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

In November 2006, Lauren and I had a plan. We would buy a 30' Airstream and drive off into the sunset. We bought it in January, had it hauled up from Alabama and put it on a friend's land. It sat there for three months. We camped in it 3-4 times and even learned how to winterize it in 20 degrees weather. We didn't even have a truck that could pull this mobile living experience. But we were proud.

In March 2007, I had an opportunity to apply to my current job. I went through with it because I wasn't convinced that I had any value to offer this world in the way of professional skills. This job would give me the opportunity to really develop my resume. So we sold the Airstream in the summer of 2007 and put aside our RV nomad dream. Understandably, a piece of Lauren's kind and patient heart, was broken. :(

One year later in March 2008, we had an opportunity to buy land. This opportunity stemmed from one of our ultimate dreams of living on a piece of land with our closest friends, working together on a huge garden, sharing resources such as lawn mowers and cleaning supplies, while each still owning their own home on this shared earth. (Note: We would all make our own money and only put a % into a joint pot.) We would watch our children grow-up together. Our dream for the land was to build a "green" house and live in an RV while it was being built. Well, the land deal fell through a month later...but the RV idea stuck. (Note: We blame the land for renewing our lust for small space adventure. :) Also, we still expect to have our land dream come true..who is game?)

5 feet shorter, we bought our second Airstream in April 2008. And we love it!

The Plan: Yesterday afternoon, Lauren and I received a signed lease agreement from tenants who will move into our house on August 15th. In the meantime, Lauren and I will sell most of our belongings (minus the few sentimental ones that will be stored for safe keep), tie up loose ends in our jobs, and prepare to leave our wonderful Richmond life.

Departure Date: We will leave Richmond sometime between September 18-October 18th. Between August 15-Departure we will make camp in Richmond to save extra money and finish a couple of events happening at our jobs.

How long will we be gone? We have no clue. We have made this an open-ended journey so that we are flexible and open to life's many adventures.

How can we afford this? As the year has progressed, so has the graphic and web design business. Lauren has been freelancing under the name “Artisan Design Group” for the last 2.5 years. Over the last 7 months, we made a commitment to see if we could grow the business and I decided to hop on board. Officially, I am responsible for business development and Lauren is the creative director. So far, so good. (Before we started doing this, Lauren asked if we should go ahead and start counseling for precautionary reasons. :)) We have clients all over the country and design is a business that can cross all geographic boundaries and time zones. Also, through this experience, we will only have to fund 1/4 of our current expenses, which significantly decreases the extra pressure associated with getting a business up and running. I am still amazed that it is even possible to cut this much of our budget.

WWOOF: Since I have known Lauren (10 years now, wow!) she has always said, "One of my life goals is to do WWOOF" (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). In exchange for part-time work, Lauren and I are going to receive "Room and Board" from various organic farms across the country. The farms will provide us with all meals and let us park the Airstream on their land with electric and water hook-ups (most of the time) in exchange for us helping them run their farms, CSAs, farmers markets, and sustainable communities. We will be getting a horticulture degree without having to step into another school. To learn more about WWOOF please visit http://www.wwoofusa.org/.

A couple of Snow Birds in the Florida Keys: Although we are currently confirming plans to either work in MA, NY, or CT between Sept 22-Oct. 13th, our first confirmed farming experience will be at: http://www.pikarco.com/. Starting Nov. 1, We will work for four months at the bottom of Florida near Miami, the Keys, and the Everglades! This way we will dodge the snow and start working on our tans! (not that either of us tan.)

What about Gas Prices? As we grow our business, we realize the importance of making decisions with great care and consideration for our community. There is a"green" movement in the design industry that has encouraged us to write "green" into our own mission statement in order to integrate our values into all aspects of our lives. With that said, we couldn't justify towing an Airstream and just wasting a bunch of gas "just 'cause". So, as a way to work with this issue, we bought a diesel truck and will turn it into a "grease" truck. We are currently in the process of having an engineer convert our truck into a vehicle that runs off of waste veggie oil. The kit will include an on-board filtering system (two-tank system) so that when we are on the road, we can filter from our car. Also, unlike the image that a lot of people have of RVing, we aren't going to be hopping from place to place every day. Instead we will spend between 1-4 months at each location. We'll have our bikes and we'll work to minimize our driving as much as possible. Going from a 1600 sq. ft. house to less then 200 sq. ft of living will automatically reduce our carbon footprint. In addition, we will only use propane and solar energy to power our life when we are "off the grid" and without utilities.

To learn more about veggie oil: http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/

All and All: We don't know what is in store for us. What we do know is that there is NO WAY we are going to back out of this trip again because we know there will only be a THIRD Airstream in our future. :) At this point, we just need to get it out of our system. So, stay tuned for more posts concerning the trip, our route, plans, etc. Also, we are working on a new website for the business and a new branding campaign. We'll be posting it on here when we launch!

Thank you for all of your support! Be prepared for us to visit!