No We Are Not Retired: The Technology that Allows us to be Full-Timers

[Lani Pokrana]

We just passed our four month mark of full-timing in our 2008 23' International CCD. When my husband came up with this whole plan in January, I thought he was crazy. I asked (often), "You want to sell everything? Are you insane?". Then, one day, sitting in my cubicle, I thought, "Hmmm...actually, he might be on to something." So, in May 2009, I finished graduate school, quit my job, and took on the huge task of selling our belongings. Our furniture left our home in no time thanks to Craigslist. The little things, those things that take up a lot of space, that were used once and then put in a drawer never to be used again, were a bit more challenging. But, after about 6 consecutive days of yard sales (my own personal Hell) and several trips to donation centers, we rid our home of the majority of our belongings. The few remaining items that we chose to keep went to storage and on June 1, 2009, we left Virginia and set off on this crazy adventure, having never owned a travel trailer nor towed a vehicle. Yeah...it's been entertaining.

So, how as 30-somethings are we able to pack up and travel full-time? We get a lot of strange looks in the campgrounds when we say we are full-timers. Puzzled, people ask, "Are you retired"? No, we aren't retired. My husband is incredibly fortunate in that he has a job doing technology and web-based work for an organization located in Atlanta. Prior to our full-timing, he worked from our home in Virginia. When he proposed this idea to his office, the argument was that the work will still get done, it's just that our backyard will look different every week. Thankfully, they supported his idea and we are very fortunate to have this opportunity.

We absolutely love this lifestyle but there are definitely challenges, primarily with technology Since our internet and phone are vital to our ability to be full-timers, our biggest priority is to make sure we have internet connections wherever we go. This has limited our choices along the way (i.e. staying outside of Glacier National Park rather than IN the National Park.) We travel with our Verizon MiFi and so far, the little gadget has worked tremendously...most of the time. There are places that we would love to go (the more remote regions and even into to many of the National Parks) but Verizon will not follow us there. Before choosing our next destination, we always make sure to check the Verizon coverage map and even then, we are not always guaranteed strong coverage.

What I love about the MiFi is that it allows us to have up to five computers access the wireless connection. It has worked incredibly and suits our needs. It allows five gigabytes of usage per month. With us both using our computers Monday through Friday, eight hours a day, we have not yet exceeded the usage limit. We do, however, limit ourselves: absolutely no movies or video watching online. So, with sadness, I said goodbye to Netflix.

When possible, we use the campground's wireless connection although in many parks, the connection is too slow for my husband to work effectively. Lastly, for backup, we made a difficult decision and purchased an expensive tripod satellite unit in hopes that we could rely primarily on that in more remote regions. It remains our biggest challenge. Sadly, it has not yet worked for us...but we continue to be hopeful and give it a try at most locations. Currently, we are hoping to meet up with a satellite dealer who can advise us as to what we are doing wrong. For now, Verizon remains our lifeline to the office in Atlanta and the Verizon Wireless page is one of my most-visited bookmarked pages. If you have any suggestions for the satellite or for other technology that you think works better, please let us know, we are always on the lookout for ways to make sure we can continue this lifestyle.

And, feel free to drop in on our blog, Aluminum Bliss, where we talk about our weekly destinations, the mistakes we make, the random encounters we have, and where we share our pictures of the beautiful places we have seen. Safe travels everyone!

[Rich Luhr]

Try St Brendan's Isle for mail forwarding if you don't mind a Florida address. We use them and recommend them. https://www.sbimailservice.com/

[Lani Pokrana]

Thanks Rich! Glad to hear the General Deliver is working for you. Will definitely need to change our current system. (We have a family member receiving our mail currently as that was one area we had no clues how to handle.) Right now, my Netflix account is on hold as I was hopeful we could work something out. Thanks for the comment and suggestion! Very helpful!

[Rich Luhr]

Lani, you don't have to say goodbye to Netflix! We've used it for four years on the road. Yes, streaming movies over your Verizon Mifi won't work well and it will eat up your monthly data allocation. But we just have DVD's mailed to our mail forwarding service and watch those on the laptops. We pick up the mail every two weeks from General Delivery at the nearest post office. Works great!