I dreamed of living a nomadic life for many years and on September 30th 2015 I left Austin Texas to live a life of slow travel. Starting out with a long-term road trip around the USA and Canada, I am not sure where or when my lifestyle experiment with location independent living will end.
As of September 2017 I have traveled over 25,000 miles (over 40,000 km) in 2 years on the road.
As of September 2018 I traveled over 45,000 miles (over 72,000 km) and after 3 years roadtripping I finally made it to the east coast! Year 4 of nomad life started with exploring the beautiful and historical area of St Augustine Florida.
Up to September 2019 I traveled over 62,000 miles (100,000 km) and completed my 4th year of this long-term road trip.
In my fifth year on the road I planned to roam the South and Southwest USA, explore many of California’s national parks, and drive across Canada from Tofino to Newfoundland. Of course 2020 did not turn out as planned. I was in Tucson when all my carefully planned travels in California and Oregon started getting cancelled. I thought the whole Covid thing would only last a couple of months so I stayed in Arizona, moving up to Prescott and then Flagstaff.
Everything I need fits in my 2009 Toyota Yaris
Preparing for location independent life
Read highlights of my first 6 months of nomad life, road tripping from Austin Texas to Portland Oregon.
The most time consuming thing about switching to a nomadic lifestyle was the getting rid of stuff stage. It was like having a part-time job each evening. I spent hours reviewing documents and sorting the papers I wanted to scan, keep, shred, or toss in the recycle bin.
It felt great to get organized and have all my documents scanned. It also gave me a bit of anxiety in the beginning. Changing up routines can be scary.
I am booking most of my accommodation with Airbnb and I have also used VRBO and booked a short term stay directly through an apartment complex – that took a lot of extra paperwork!
While I rarely shop, my newest purchase is a tent so that I can start camping instead of staying in hotels especially when I visit state, provincial, or national parks. Camping is a lot cheaper than hotels so that helps my travel budget. And it should be fun!
What is the biggest challenge of nomad life?
The biggest challenge with nomad life so far has been trouble with internet access. In both instances the Airbnb hosts told me that previous guests had trouble with internet, but they didn’t resolve the problem as no one seemed too stressed about no internet. They did finally get the internet working for me. I do get stressed out (and grumpy) when I have no internet! And coffee shops are not a practical internet option for my bookkeeping business.
I started researching co-working spaces as a backup internet plan while I’m on this long-term road trip adventure. In Tucson I visited Connect Coworking and they gave me a tour of the space. I was impressed. Definitely a viable option for a work space with secure high-speed internet in Tucson.
I am keeping my schedule (for previously on-site) client work basically the same as when I lived in Austin Texas. The main reason is so that my clients can rely on a set schedule for when I will be working on their bookkeeping.
The other reason is that I need some sort of order and discipline with my schedule, otherwise I would procrastinate and never get any work done. And I already have enough temptation to go out and play instead of work!
I wrote about my plan for the first year of nomadic life but the list below has the most up to date info on my past nomad homes and future nomad locations.
USA and Canada Road Trip Stops
September 2015 to December 2015 Road Trip
September 30 to October 13, 2015 – Alpine Texas and Big Bend National Park
October 13 – 15 – Las Cruces New Mexico (only two days in New Mexico?!?! I know…I must return!)
October – November – Tucson Arizona was definitely a fun place and great for hiking. There’s a ton of cool places to visit all around Tucson no matter which direction you drive.
December 2015 – Palm Springs California – mountains, hiking, art, mid-century modern architecture, great restaurants – I loved Palm Springs!
2016 Road Trip USA and Canada
January 2016 – Carpinteria California – surf town south of Santa Barbara – beautiful! I got to visit the Monarch Butterflies over wintering in Goleta and spent a lot of time visiting the beaches around Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. My sister flew down from Canada to visit me for a few days too so that was fun.
February – Oakland California – bay area just doesn’t do it for me – not sure why, it just doesn’t float my boat. I did love the food scene and I found some cool hikes to do around Oakland. I visited San Francisco again and it’s still not one of my favorite cities.
March – Portland Oregon – reminds me of Austin but with MUCH better road planning, great hiking and day trips.
April – Port Townsend Washington – wonderful Victorian era buildings, great location for exploring Olympic National Park, also close enough to Seattle for a weekend trip.
May – Vancouver British Columbia
June to early August – Lake Louise, Banff, and Calgary Alberta
September – Bozeman, Montana; Fort Collins Colorado; Santa Fe New Mexico
October – November – Alpine and Austin Texas
December 2016 – Lafayette Louisiana
2017 Road Trip USA and Canada
January 2017 – Oxford Mississippi
February – Birmingham Alabama
March – Lexington Kentucky
April – August – Calgary Alberta (helping out my 85 year old dad)
September – Des Moines Iowa
October – Lafayette Louisiana (2nd stay here) looking forward to Festival Acadiens et Creoles
November – Austin Texas
December – Palm Springs – 3 weeks of sun and desert before winter in Calgary :)
December 2017 – Christmas and New Year’s in Calgary to visit my dad and siblings and friends
2018 Road Trip USA and Canada
January to May 2018 Lafayette Louisiana for a third visit! I decided I want to be around for Mardi Gras in February, and Festival International in April, and to New Orleans for 2nd weekend of Jazz & Heritage Festival in May.
May – I made stops in Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park on my road trip back to Calgary to visit family and friends for the summer.
August I drove from Calgary to Bridgewater Nova Scotia in 6 days, around 3,000 miles (5,000 km). This was my longest stretch of driving on my own. I booked cheap hotels/Airbnb in advance so I had to plan out each day of driving carefully.
August/September – with Bridgewater NS as my home base I explored a good bit of Nova Scotia, but I definitely want to return to see more.
September/October – finally made it out to see the fall foliage in New England! My nomad home was close to the beautiful coastal town of Belfast Maine, staying with an artist out in the woods but close to many coastal towns.
October/November – I spent 3 days driving from Maine to St Augustine Florida. The beaches in St Augustine are beautiful!
November – Lafayette Louisiana – gotta visit food and friends in Louisiana!
December 2018 – finishing up the year with a stay in Austin Texas, catching up with friends and clients and some great central TX hiking.
2019 Nomad Life USA Canada
January 2019 – I flew to Calgary to spend time with family. Then I fly out to Kitimat BC for 3 weeks to visit a friend and explore the BC coast. In winter! I saw lots of snow in Kitimat!
February – I flew back to Calgary for another week of family and friends and then back to Austin and enjoyed some of my favorite hikes in Austin.
March – Drive from Austin to Chattanooga TX with one night in Little Rock AR
April – Explored Tennessee and caught up on my writing in Chattanooga TN and took a trip to Georgia
May – Chattanooga TN to Calgary AB with one night in Hannibal MO – hometown of Mark Twain; one night in Avon MN – beautiful place I need to explore more; one night in Estevan SK Canada – not so beautiful but the people are friendly. I always enjoy my stops in Estevan.
June to early September – Calgary AB with trips to Waterton National Park, Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, Elk Island National Park, and 10 days in Golden BC exploring Yoho National Park, Revelstoke National Park, and Kootenay National Park.
September/October – Drive from Calgary AB to Cedar City UT in early September, with one night in Idaho Falls ID. I visited all 5 Utah National Parks and took a road trip to Page Arizona from Utah. Highlights of Page included touring the Glen Canyon Dam, sunrise at Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon. The hiking in southern Utah is amazing! Check out my Utah blog posts
October/November – Drive from Cedar City UT to Flagstaff AZ in mid-October with a stop at the Navajo Bridge – highly recommended!
November/December 2019 – Drive from Flagstaff AZ to Alpine TX in November, with two nights in Truth or Consequences NM soaking in the hot springs, hiking, and eating pie! I could only get 10 nights in Alpine because of the holidays so I moved onward to Austin TX until mid-December.
December 2019– In mid-December I drove from Austin TX to Rockport TX for a change of scene, beach walks and some birding on the Texas coast.
2020 Road Trip USA and Move to Canada
January 2020 – I stayed in Rockport TX until mid-January then drove to one of my favorite cities in the US – Lafayette LA! I attended the Cinema on the Bayou (COTB) Film Festival and got to meet some of the directors, actors, and film crew for some of the movies. And I ate a lot of Cajun food!
February 2020 – From Lafayette LA to Alpine Texas. Originally, I planned to go east and drive to Newfoundland in the spring. But I found out that Maine is usually the last state in the lower 48 to experience spring weather. So now the plan is to go west in spring and up to Vancouver Island and drive across to New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland in the fall of 2020. My previous road trip across Canada took me from Calgary to Nova Scotia in 6 days – this one will take me a lot longer.
March 2020 – From Alpine TX I’ll drive to Tucson AZ and explore more of southern Arizona. Now that I do full-time travel blogging and only part-time bookkeeping, I have more time to see the area.
April 2020 – Short drive from Tucson to Prescott National Forest for some camping and hiking. Next I’m planning to visit six national parks in California, starting with Death Valley in mid-April. Well, the 2020 travel plans got crusthed by COVID-19 pandemic. Stayed in Prescott at an Airbnb for 6 weeks – lots of good hiking and beautiful lakes around Prescott AZ.
May 2020 – I moved to higher ground, Flagstaff Arizona is 7,000 ft elevation so it’s a bit cooler than Prescott – some would say in more ways than one LOL.
June/July 2020 – Flagstaff Arizona has tons of things to do nearby and it’s a good base for now. Waiting to see if I can get to Calgary to visit my family sometime this summer and drive to Nova Scotia in the fall.
August 2020 – I imported my car to Canada and moved to Calgary so I could visit family (and the Canadian Rocky Mountains).
2021 Road Trip Across Canada
I stayed in Calgary until mid-June of 2021 and then I hit the road traveling to Southern Alberta and then across Canada to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and finally Nova Scotia where I started housesitting for a friend. My previous cross-Canada road trip took only 6 days. This time I took it slower and spent 6 weeks driving from Calgary to Nova Scotia.
2022 Road Trip from Nova Scotia to Texas
Although I loved Nova Scotia the urge to roam took over once again. I drove out to Newfoundland to meet my sister in June and then explored more of Nova Scotia. Since my housesitting gig was finished I moved around more and stayed in Cape Breton, Truro, Wolfville, Halifax, and Clarks Harbour. In September 2022 I started a 2-month road trip from Nova Scotia to Texas.
November 2022 End of Nomad Life (for now)
After traveling around the New England states I headed south to Virginia and drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and stayed in Asheville North Carolina for a few weeks. Afterwards I continued west making stops in Gulf Shores Alabama, Lafayette Louisiana, and arriving in New Braunfels in mid-November. I actually signed a 1-year lease for an apartment in New Braunfels. So, nomad life is on hold for now. I am thinking about ditching the apartment and traveling around the world though…
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