A month in the life: Decompressing

Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado //

After four nights being parked in a city surrounded by light and noise, it feels eerily dark and quiet overnight.  At one point, I wake up in the night feeling entirely discombobulated.  Where am I?  It takes a moment to orient myself and remember where we relocated to.  This is a common experience I have, especially when I’m working on editing photos taken at other campsites.  I lose all orientation as to where the truck is currently parked.  

When I step outside at sunrise, I can’t help but be entertained by how the three rigs are parked.  We’re all spread apart and tucked into our own little corners of this large dispersed campsite.  After four days at Overland Expo, I know each one of us is craving our own space. We’re actually the only ones in the group that didn’t have our truck on display at the show.  Ben & Rebecca and Dan & Marlene were front and center all weekend, all while continuing to live out of their rig.  

It’s a slow start to the morning, but eventually, the six of us gather our chairs around Dan & Marlene’s truck.  To move on or stay for the day, that’s the question that kicks off the morning’s conversation.  In true nomad fashion, no one has any set plans.  There had been talk of moving on, but the motivation to do so is lacking.  We’re all enjoying each other’s company, and eventually, we each concludes that we’ll stay.  

Our chairs remain circled in front of Dan & Marlene’s truck all day.  One or two of us come and go at any given time to take a work call or address an email, but the day is largely spent decompressing together and sharing stories.  At the same time, because it’s a Tuesday after all, Dan & Marlene’s kids spend their day inside attending school.  Now teenagers, Ava, Mila, and Luka have spent their entire lives on the road.  I’m endlessly impressed by how Dan & Marlene have juggled traveling to multiple continents while raising kids.  

Today I notice a common thread that binds us full-time travelers.  None of us are independently wealthy.  From the outside looking in, the average person might make that assumption.  One might think, how else would you manage such a unique way of life that entirely rejects conformity?  We may not be independently wealthy, but every nomad I’ve ever met is a creative thinker.  We all reject the idea that living in a house, working a 9-5, and holding out for retirement is the only way to go about life.  

Living outside convention can get complicated at times, but we all have the determination to find a way that works for us in order to make the life we want possible.  Some people thrive (or find security) in the structure of a conventional lifestyle.  But something about us nomad-types leaves us feeling imprisoned by it.  We crave freedom, flexibility, spontaneity, and discovery.  And through hustle, determination, and out-of-the-box thinking, we know we can build a life around those priorities.  There’s only so much time we get here, and for us, the time to create the kind of life that lights us up inside is now.