Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime - Mark Twain
Tree and I met at a wine tasting party in Las Vegas and quickly discovered a mutual passion for each other and all things decadent, irreverent, funny, foreign, spicy and inspiring. During our first couple years, Tree spent his days rock climbing while I finished my degree in Literature at UCLA. In January of 2008, Tree had a serious climbing accident that landed him in a wheelchair for 6 months. I graduated from school and landed a lucrative sales job that would soon make me miserable- that is, until I got laid-off during the recession. This was a scary and trying chapter of our life, but today we can see the blessing. It forced us to take a deep look at our values, our life path, and ourselves. Through this reflection we decided that we didn’t want to be slaves to consumerism, debt and possessions. We gave up the American Dream to pursue Our Dream. We wanted freedom, and we wanted to explore the world. We discovered that we are nomads!
Tree and I met at a wine tasting party in Las Vegas and quickly discovered a mutual passion for each other and all things decadent, irreverent, funny, foreign, spicy and inspiring. During our first couple years, Tree spent his days rock climbing while I finished my degree in Literature at UCLA. In January of 2008, Tree had a serious climbing accident that landed him in a wheelchair for 6 months. I graduated from school and landed a lucrative sales job that would soon make me miserable- that is, until I got laid-off during the recession. This was a scary and trying chapter of our life, but today we can see the blessing. It forced us to take a deep look at our values, our life path, and ourselves. Through this reflection we decided that we didn’t want to be slaves to consumerism, debt and possessions. We gave up the American Dream to pursue Our Dream. We wanted freedom, and we wanted to explore the world. We discovered that we are nomads!Nomad - A member of a tribe that has no permanent abode but moves about from place to place, usually seasonally and following a route according to the state of surroundings
The transformation was underway. We converted our Sprinter van into a fulltime live-in unit. Then, we gave up our apartment and sold all of our material belongings that wouldn’t fit inside the van, and we moved in! It was one of the best days of our lives. We stretched our nomad wings by traveling to Cuba, a place we wanted to see before Castro dies. Then, we went wine tasting from Los Angeles to Canada for six months because that’s just a great idea. In the middle we took 16 days off of wine tasting to solo raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon where we got engaged at the bottom of Lava rapids!
Our Nomad dreams got bigger when Tree, Kiki, and I crossed the border into Baja, Mexico on October 11, 2010. Right now we are driving down the Pan American Highway to Tierra del Fuego (the end of Argentina and the farthest tip of South America). From there we’ll ship the van by boat to Europe where we plan to continue driving around the world. After that, maybe a sailboat? We’re not sure. All we know for certain is that we love our minimalist, modern nomadic lifestyle, and we hope to keep traveling, learning, loving, sharing, and exploring for the rest of our lives. Our daily spiritual practice is to let the state of our surroundings determine our path, to live a simple life in the state of “flow,” and to encourage loving kindness in ourselves and others. Somewhere along the way, we’ll probably add another member to our small tribe.Much love to all of you, and thank you for sharing in our experiences.
We invite you to leave comments on the blog! We love hearing from you.
-Stevie, Tree and Kiki
Update: We got married on the beach at Playa El Tunco, El Salvador, on Feb.16th, 2011. Click here to read about our special day!
Update: We have definitely decided and declared our intent to drive around the world. Read more here.
-Stevie, Tree and Kiki
Update: We got married on the beach at Playa El Tunco, El Salvador, on Feb.16th, 2011. Click here to read about our special day!
Update: We have definitely decided and declared our intent to drive around the world. Read more here.
Hey guys, received your Twitter ‘follow’ out of the blue, think what you are doing is great. I’ve travelled in my time but nowhere as adventurous as you two, good on ye.
Ron
Me siento MUY FELIZ de haberlos conocido y de ser parte de esta experiencia, aunque se via intrnet. Quizás muchos de nosotros quisieramos tener el CORAJE de tomar una decisión asi: dejar todo, viajar, compartir la vida y el mundo con todos. Bueno, algunos estan para hacer eso, otros estamos para recibir a los que lo hacen y darles nuestro amor cuando pasen. Eso está bueno también. Reciban todo mi amor, cariño y admiración. Es hermoso sentir como viven cada instante y la dedicación a Soleil y sus necesidade inmediatas, a las que ustedes siempre estan atentos para cubrir. Ella es afortunada por los padres que tiene, y ustedes han sido bendecidos con ese angelito. Aqui en Arequipa tienen un espacio siempre, por si la vida los vuelve a traer por estos lares: nuestra casa (sumando a Italo y a Francesca) y nuestro corazón es de ustedes. Nos vemos por la ruta. Besosssssssssssssss. Lilis
So sweet to meet you both and Soleil at the tree house! I hope our paths cross again, here or there. With love, Caroline
Hey Caroline – it was great to meet you. Hope we see you again!