In The Beginning

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This is my first post on this Travel Blog site. My regular blog site is at www.livingandworkingfree.blogspot.com. While that site has covered much of my travel in the past, it’s really designed to be more about my living and working free philosophy (which is evolving to simply, “living free”) then the travel aspect of my lifestyle.

Last year I traveled about 16,000 miles around the U.S. The vast majority of the travel was on the ground by car. This year (2011), I’m hoping to increase the amount of miles I cover on the ground to more then 20,000 miles. Part of the plan for 2011 is to acquire a moderate sized (30’ to 34’) motor home and tow the recently acquired Ford Focus LX5 hatchback car behind it. Most of the point-to-point miles will be in the motor home. Once I’ve reached a predetermined regional destination, then the “toad” or “dinghy” car will provide the transportation around the region while the motor home will be the base of operations.

I will document my actual travel experience on this blog site and my living free philosophy thoughts on my other blog site. You’ll be able to reach either blog site from the other.

As I write this initial blog posting for this site, I’m sitting in the living room of a rental house in Palm Harbor, Florida. Today is January 6, 2011. I arrived here on December 31, 2010. I’ll be here through the month of January. This is a crossover trip in that it began at the end of 2010 and is the first trip of 2011. While I’m here in Florida I’ll be working on writing a book on Living Free, developing a series of seminars, workshops and in depth boot camps or retreats on Living Free. I’ll also be visiting a variety of friends I know from various aspects of my life. So, Palm Harbor and this house is similar to how I’ll be using the motor home. This is my base of operations. I’m sharing the house with three other people, friends, from Winchester, Virginia my home for the past 26 ½ years. While we may enjoy some experiences together, I’m quite comfortable venturing off solo and doing the things I choose to do. So, I have plenty to keep me busy and I’ll be seeing a lot of Florida while I’m here. I’ve already been to St. Augustine, passed through Marineland of Florida and enjoyed lunch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at Flagler Beach.

One other objective while I’m here in Florida is my final motor home research and narrowing down the number of units that I will choose from to just a very few. Florida has many, many RV dealers and thousands of pre-owned motor homes to choose from. So, I feel confident I’ll be able to wrap up my research and select a few likely candidates for my future “condo on wheels.”

I hope you enjoy my writings and gain some insights as I travel and share the places I see, the experiences I have and the people I meet along the way. Thanks for sharing my travels.

Ed Helvey
The Professional Nomad

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