By way of a recap, Steve and I met in passing at a campground in Austria this past summer while bicycling.  He began his bicycle touring adventure in Ethiopia, then flew to Greece and bike up through the Balkan countries over the Austrian Alps to where I met him (www.untraveledworld.com).  I married my bicycle last March, 2014, then cycled down the coast of Northern California, and then flew into Paris and was cycling east through Europe and about to cross the Alps when I met Steve. Thus, we were heading opposite directions when we met in passing in a campground in Austria.  We continued on in our respective directions but a twist of fate had us reconvene in England a month later. We began cycling together in the south of England and then in Scotland.   We have been together ever since (I blogged about all that on previous entries on this blog).

I was working on two major projects from my bicycle throughout my eight months on my bike — writing my dissertation and piloting Semester on Cycle (http://quest4zest.org/semester-on-cycle/).  Upon finishing up my dissertation, Steve and I opted to land back in San Francisco.  Steve got a nifty new job as a computer engineer that allows him to work remote from anywhere so long as he is plugged into the internet M-F from 9-5.  I am currently unemployed but actively applying for faculty positions throughout the US and continuing to write up my research into journal articles.  It was wonderful to spend time with friends in SF and LA, but it was also quite the expensive place to be for an unemployed gal.  The timing seemed right to launch onto the road again to experiment with the potential of living and working remotely.  The jobs I’m applying for all have start dates in mid-August, so we figured that leaving March 1 would give us about six months to live inexpensively (camping) and explore places in the US that we’ve always wanted to see or spend more time at — like National Parks — and do some bicycle advocacy and community building along the way!

On February 1, 2015, we decided to pull the trigger.  We gave up our respective monthly leases and began planning and  packing with the aim of being on the road by March 1.  In the next blog article, we’ll get detailed about our planning and launch.  There are lots of unknowns and challenges with this here project…but we’re up for the experiment and intend to share our experiences along the way.  For now we are car camping (meaning car, tent, and bringing bikes), but ultimately want to know whether we can live and work remotely from our bicycles — that is happily and comfortably.  For any of you who might consider doing such a thing, we’re going to tell it all…what does it take to work remotely in terms of gear?  How inexpensive or expensive is this idea?  Is it more or less stressful than stationary living?  Is this good or bad for our relationship?  How do we connect with people and build community along the way?  How do we engage in effective bicycle advocacy from the road?  What’s the ideal remote work set up?   Do you have other questions that you want answered? Please contact us!  We are thankful to have you all along for the journey.