Last year as we were planning for Pete’s departure from his job, we set some travel objectives: we wanted to visit all 7 continents and all 50 states together. Where we had each individually been previously didn’t count. So when Pete resigned in June of 2011, we had a fairly comprehensive travel plan for our first six months of location independence mapped out.

Location independence to us means keeping a home base. Perhaps a purist would take issue with that, but we weren’t ready to go completely nomad. The rental townhouse we moved into last February required even more downsizing than we had done when combining two households, as the intervening five years had seen a bit of “clutter creep.” So we simplified our lifestyle by removing unused belongings even more, and now are on a mission to keep the clutter to a minimum. We’re loving this move! No yard work, snow removal or exterior maintenance – yeah! The main convenience is being able to go when we want; we just lock the door. Location independence also should mean few worries about what’s going on at home base when you’re traveling, whether it’s a road trip or an overseas excursion.

We’ve spent about 40% of our time away from home in these past six months. We headed up to the Wuebker cabin in northern Minnesota for the remainder of June, and then used a family wedding in Iowa as a springboard for a road trip (Close Encounters of the Western Kind) through South Dakota (Why Did My Teacher Make Me Read Giants in the Earth), Wyoming, Montana (Reclaiming Love in Your Business) and North Dakota, returning here the latter part of July.

Using PassingThru Travel for all the arrangements couldn’t have been easier – reservations were convenient to make and Preferred Customer pricing levels (are you signed up? it’s free and easy!) were great on the budget. One little logistical issue was easily attended to and resolved by a friendly, live representative while we waited over drinks in a cowboy bar. The rest of our experience has been smooth and reliable.

This road trip was remarkably hassle-free. We discovered how much we enjoyed location independence as a lifestyle. We also realized that flexibility in our travel arrangements and timing led to more meaningful experiences wherever we were. You can’t get to know a place overnight. Taking an extended road trip is a great way to get your travel buzz on during a recession when you might not be able to afford a more expensive alternative. Even a visit to a neighboring state – Minnesota to Michigan, for example – can be a great way to get out of your box and gain a different perspective.

In early August, I headed up to Lake Superior for a fun girls’ weekend with a friend. Later that month, Pete and I drove up the North Shore, through Ontario and around the top half of the Big Lake, re-entering the U.S. through Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Then it was across the Mackinac Bridge into the Lower Peninsula for Michigan family visiting and my high school reunion. We headed back to Minnesota by way of Galena, Illinois and enjoyed a delightful evening with my uncle and his partner in a French bistro. We enjoyed more cabin time through September, and then Pete returned to Michigan to meet up with my brother for an annual fishing trip out of Drummond Island, in northern Lake Huron.

In October, we were supposed to be in Romania, but some unexpectedly disappointing changes to the itinerary in the trip we had booked spurred us to cancel. Again, this was easy with PassingThru Travel’s DreamTrips – a full refund was credited to our bank account within 48 hours. This cancellation turned out to be more of a blessing – details and tasks pertaining to the estate of Pete’s parents added up into a time-consuming, and unexpectedly complicated personal commitment. It may not have been possible to pay such close attention to filings and deadlines from Eastern Europe.

We spent October and November at home, and then coordinated another road trip to Memphis (At the Crossroads of Blues and Rock’n'Roll) with a visit to Branson, MO in December, where Pete’s sisters had arranged for a condo rental. We hightailed it home just ahead of our six months anniversary of location independence with time to jump into holiday festivities with friends and family.

Throughout our first six months of location independence, we’ve managed to work almost every day we’ve been on the road, sometimes in interesting conditions. We learned quickly to look for the following amenities in a hotel room setup upon arrival:

• Strong, free wi-fi connection
• Workspace area sufficient for two – a larger conference-size table winds up being more versatile than a single desk for our purposes
• Electrics: microwave, coffee-maker, hairdryer, iron, etc.
• Extra pillows, towels and blankets

We’ve supplemented our laptops – a MacBook Air for me and a MacBook Pro for Pete – on the go by using our iPhones, and occasionally our NookColor e-readers, to remain connected. We picked up a well-priced, travel-sized printer, and a surge-protector power strip. (Some hotel rooms are sadly deficient in electrical outlets, or the interior furnishings are poorly planned around them.) All office equipment and files travel in a gusseted, rolling suitcase. We can easily duplicate almost any home office function on a road trip with this simple setup.

Six months into location independence and we’ve realized that we can fund this lifestyle in reasonable ways without compromising comfort (important to old people!) and safety. We’ve made good use of the Travel Hacking Cartel: in ten months we have accumulated about 70,000 points between various hotel rewards programs – enough for several free stays, all courtesy of the frequent notifications on new deals to earn free miles from the Cartel in my email inbox.

We’re putting those benefits to good use on our next trip in two weeks: Hawaii. This, obviously, won’t be another road trip, but it’s a significant milestone in our states goal. Neither Pete nor I have ever visited the Aloha State, and we thought the end of January/early February would be the perfect time for Minnesotans to do it! Plus, our airline mileage accounts “need” a trip of this length in order to jumpstart some redemptions I’ve planned to fund additional travel.

In late February, it’s back to Michigan for a visit with my brother and his family. A new grandnephew (another son for Buttercup Baby!) is expected to join his cousin, our grandniece who was born in July. A road trip to Michigan in winter isn’t necessarily a good cup of tea, so we’re exploring the possibility of taking the train, and renting a car for the few days we’ll be there.

While in Michigan, we’ll be sharing what we know about how to make location independence (Declaring Economic Independence) a practical reality with entrepreneurial relatives whose support and encouragement has been so wonderful.

Throughout this six months of location independence, we have solidified our work habits and strengthened our product offerings. In another post for the near future (certainly before we go to Michigan), we’ll be taking a look at how we’ve done with our strategy of revenue diversity to fund a lifestyle with location independence. We’ll be sharing how our income sources break down, and the progress we’ve made with our various business units.

Pete wants to return to Memphis for more in depth blues and music experience. From there we could branch off in any direction and tick off more states from our list. We would love if the Michigan relatives might be tempted to meet up with us somewhere (hint, hint), so perhaps that’s a topic of discussion we’ll take with us when we return to the cold!

All in all, this has been a fabulous decision. We talked yesterday about how it already seems so long ago that Pete had to commute to his employer. We love our current commute of just several steps into the next room! And we’re confident that the building momentum with our businesses is going to accomplish what we hope for down the road: an active lifestyle with residual income from various sources. Until then, check out Clues You Can Use in Our Services Page and Travel Resources.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful ride, and we’ll look forward to sharing more in additional posts!

Related articles

• My Three Words for 2012 (passingthru.com)
• Work and Travel – Making the Leap (businesstravellogue.com)
• Making Money Online: Be the Tortoise, Not the Hare (passingthru.com)
• What Our Move to Location Independence is Not (passingthru.com)

Location Independence: Road Trip Version is a post from: Passing Thru

>
We came to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore – miles of rock formations that appear to have been celestially painted, some rising more than 200 feet from the water’s surface. They can only be seen by water, and the cruise is breathtaking. The major formations have names and stories: Miner’s Castle, Caves of the Bloody Chiefs, Indian Head, Battleship Rock. Each is more spectacular than the last. We were spellbound with the imagery our minds created as we passed and the depth of the imaginary scenes was magnificent. The changing vistas were marvelous. All this was the result of mineral-laden water pouring into Lake Superior during the annual melts. See our Gallery for more of Peter’s photos. We were awestruck by what can only be described as the handiwork of God.

Munising’s laidback pleasantness was so comfortable that we found ourselves scheming to borrow more time. We took in an art festival, there was music scheduled in the park, plans for a benefit run, Friday fish fry, pasties to enjoy, and above all, friendly Yoopers made sure we had the best time possible.

We scored the best campsite at the municipal campground (906-387-3145) — right on the beach, with a great view of the islands, Grand and small. It was the perfect spot for a sunset bonfire, which was a special opportunity to reconnect with a long-lost cousin whose summer cabin was in the area. A thunderstorm and big lightning show blew in after we called it a night, yet all was calm the next morning as we awakened to the sound of the waves.

We ate up “scrumshuss vittles” and animated service at Dogpatch (906-387-9948) and enjoyed home cookin’ at Sidney’s (906-387-4067) a couple of great local watering-holes. We loved the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore, which has wi-fi should you need it. We visited the Alger County Heritage Center (906-387-4308), and were enthralled with an enormous World War II era scrapbook, lovingly rendered by a hometown girl while her brothers and friends were off to war. Were we to stay longer, we’d check out more of the Hiawatha National Forest (the visitor center is right in town), and add more waterfalls to our list of things to see (Munising has several within the city limits).

Every time we go somewhere I tend to fall in love with where we are, and imagine myself living there. Usually, I snap out of this tendency within a few days of returning home. Not this time. Chalk it up to the Michigan girl who’d been away for too long, or perhaps it was the splendid natural beauty, or the realization that the south shore of Lake Superior has the sandy beaches, or it definitely could have been that Yooper friendliness. Whatever it was, I’m still thinking that Munising would make for a fine, forever stay.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mysterious death at Pictured Rocks Park
• Looking Into Forever (passingthru.com)
• Things to Do and See in Michigan (michigan-travel.suite101.com)

MUNISING – A FINE FOREVER is a post from: Passing Thru

The other photo is just sad. Skinny little Dad and Edwin are dressed in rags, standing in the middle of a dusty road-bed, and my father is crying. No additional proof needed; it was a hard-scrabble life on a truck farm during the Depression. We felt lucky to have these two pictures, and there was a long gap between them and his high school graduation photo, taken before he left school to enter the Navy in 1945.

This summer I returned to my old hometown after a long absence. We walked into the musty main street bookstore, and there were a couple of guys leaning back on two legs of their chairs shooting the breeze. We languidly browsed through the local history section, skimming self-published bi-centennial commemoratives, organized by township. Little did we know one of them contained treasure: photos of classes at Brush Ridge School.

Brush Ridge was originally a one room log cabin built in 1857 in the wilds of Hope Township in West Michigan. Eighty years later, a photographer visited Evelyn Newland’s students in the newer school down the road from the original, which had been destroyed by fire. There are 15 kids in the 1937 class, squinting in the sunlight, holding triangles and stick instruments.

Third from the right in the back row is my 10-year-old father, identified in the caption as “Jack,” though his given name was John. Shyly, he looks into the camera, chin down, head forward. That look would play out in many of the pictures taken of him throughout his adult life. His shirt is neatly buttoned, his hair cropped and smooth, and his oversize pants must’ve been handed down.

It looks to be a warm sunny day, and the schoolyard grass is scrubby, although the school itself appears well-kept. Because Dad is in the rear, there is no way to prove the family story that the Meisenbach boys didn’t wear shoes to school if it was warm enough. Most of the kids are holding their rhythm band instruments as if they were foreign objects. Dad is no exception, though this is the only awkwardness we can see. He isn’t the tallest boy, and he appears quiet and easy-going. Just like I remember him.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ford marks 100th birthday of the Model T

FOUND AT BRUSH RIDGE IN 1937 is a post from: Passing Thru