Friends, let’s be honest for a second, we all secretly want to be Digital Nomads who can travel the world unattached from the constraints of a 9-5 job (or in some cases a 60+ hour work week). Ohhhh the beauty of waking up on a beach in Thailand, the mountains of Peru or the outback of Australia then working when and where we want, what a life. Just the thought of it is so freeing and exciting – but completely unattainable for our current life. We would spend hours in a YouTube and Instagram rabbit hole watching vloggers, excuse me…influencers, and became jealous because we knew that was just not doable for us right now. How could a young couple (being in your 30’s is young right?) with 3 large dogs live that life?
Then we thought – what exactly IS a digital nomad? Wikipedia to the rescue.
“Digital nomads are people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally conduct their life in a nomadic manner…This is often accomplished through the use of devices that have wireless internet capabilities such as smartphone or mobile hotspots.”
That is when it hit us. With our new roles at work we are not location dependent, we have wireless capabilities and have the desire to explore. What about the dogs? With 3 dogs weighing in with at cumulative total of 150 pounds, jumping on planes and flying around the world was not going to happen, at least not for those three. But they do love car rides. Ding Ding Ding – Domestic travel for the win!
BOOM – Digital Nomads. It might be the unconventional approach but who says Digital Nomads have to be remote out of Bali or other international locations? We will be Remote In America.
- Campervan -We have always lusted over the #vanlife lifestyle, so this was the first option we looked into. WOW those are expensive and have little space for two humans and three large dogs. Plus, we need to have two dedicated workstations since we will both be working full time jobs that require monitors, etc. This option was out.
- RV – This would be perfect we thought, enough space for us and the dogs, two work areas, oh, and a bathroom. But what about when we just wanted to take a quick drive or get around in a big city? Driving a rig sounds terrible and we were not about to drive a RV and tow a car. This option was now out.
- Trailer – Why didn’t we think of this before?! We could buy a new car that could tow a trailer, genius. We had already been doing this all summer with Tracy (our pop-up camper) so we were almost pros. But what about WiFi, hmm. We need super reliable WiFi to work and then there was the concern about limiting ourselves to just staying in RV parks or boondocking. Plus, the cost of buying a new car and trailer. Option three was out.
- Short Term Rentals – There was no way we could afford this. But…why not investigate. To our surprise the cost for a monthly rental on AirBnb is about the same when you factor in everything we were already paying for each month compared to what comes included in a monthly short term rental.
- Rent or mortgage
- Water/Sewer
- Trash
- Cable/Wi-Fi
- Electricity
- Gas
Short Term Rental was a winner!
Our plan is to load up the Subaru to the gills and AirBnb hop around the country with weekend getaways to the surrounding outdoors. We will be staying a few weeks in each location and maybe more for the places we fall in love with. By staying in more of a permanent residency we will really get to dive into what it’s like to live there and, COVID permitting, meet some new friends along the way. We will be posting about each stop along the way so if you are in the area or have any recommendations please let us know! See you on the road soon!