Nomad exploring life wherever I am
In my last job, one of the more challenging projects I managed was upgrading a lot of really old hardware. I needed specs of the old hardware and the new and how the one set mapped to the other. Someone told me to go talk to a woman in AWS who had just stood up three data centers in Asia, so I wrote her an email and asked for her help. I was going to be in DC in a few weeks, where she was based, so we agreed to meet. She showed up for the meeting impeccably dressed, while…
Should I Stay or Should I Go? As a full-time vagabond, that’s been the refrain of my last few weeks. States are unlocking, people are starting to get out of their homes. But, and this is a huge but, is this the right thing to do? Is it the right thing for *me* to do? That’s really the question. I’ve said it before that I’m a firm believer in data-driven decisions whenever possible. The data, though, can be, and often is, a mess. The US is a huge country, and data is collected differently in every county, every state. In…
On May 2, 2015, I bought a Subaru Outback 3.6R. It was the first step in my nascent plan to retire early, buy a tiny trailer, and travel the country. As you can see by the photo on our first day, I was happy to meet Bella. If you must know, her full name was Isabella, the Blue Bird of Happiness, although Bella was what I called her most of the time. In April 2016, Bella and I drove from Seattle to Quebec to meet Breeze and complete another big step in the vagabond plan. Fitted out with a Torklift…
tl;dr: I’m fine. Trailer is mostly fine. Subaru is driveable. And the whiskey bottle didn’t break either 🙂 In the beginning While driving from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Fort Davis, Texas last week, I ran into with gusty winds with no warning, had a sway situation, and went off the road about 10 miles away from Fort Davis. Before I left that morning, I had read the weather forecast closely, as I always do. The winds around Ford Davis were predicted to be 15-20 miles an hour. I’d driven many times in wind like that, so I wasn’t worried. As…
It’s a new year (and a new decade, whee!) so time to look back at my Vagabond Life in 2019 and celebrate the stats! States Visited Only two new states this year: Montana (three nights in Missoula) and Ohio (a one-nighter at a KOA in transit from PA to CO, but it still counts). So my count is now up to 40 out of 48 states (because I’m never driving to Alaska and the Alto can’t swim to Hawaii). This year’s map includes Canada, since I hit up British Columbia (mostly Vancouver Island). Let’s be honest, though, and admit that…