After four months on the road, this week I find myself longing for home. It seems a lifetime ago that Mary and I began the self-evaluation that led to our decision to follow The Dirtbag Way, but it was only a little more than a year ago that we signed the papers and walked away from the house that had sheltered us for the past 10 years. I can honestly say I don’t often think of that building where we spent so much of our life, or the investments in time, energy, and financial resources that were required to update and maintain it. I don’t miss the place called home, I miss the feeling of it.
The home I seek is not a physical location. It is a state of being, a sense of settledness I can depend on no matter where I am. Freedom arises when home becomes not a place but a feeling. Home can be anywhere. In fleeting moments I have felt this in my life. My time on the mountain in Costa Rica was one of them.
Though I don’t plan on buying a house or renting an apartment again anytime soon, I will continue looking for home. I know that I can find home in a warm cup of coffee enjoyed while watching the sun rise over the desert, in the sound of a wave rolling up on the beach, or in the feel of my feet touching the ground on a mountain trail. Home is wherever I am if only I can learn to pay enough attention to notice.
“I was looking for no less than a new way of living in this world for our entire society,” says Clay Shank. “Like, ‘What’s the alternative to this capitalistic system that we have here? Today, we bring you “700,” the story of Clay Shank’s ambitious goal to find a new way of life and his unlikely method: skateboarding 700-miles through the state of California, hiking the 210-mile John Muir Trail, climbing Mt. Whitney and Half Dome and, all the while, capturing a video portrait of the people living in California. But, first, Clay had to learn to talk to strangers.
Since leaving Asheville back in May, 
Although it has been challenging at times, being homeless and living The Dirtbag Way has not gotten old yet. We will enjoy being in one location for a few months, but we have no intention of staying put long term anytime soon. The freedom and lightness we are experiencing right now is far more appealing to us than the weight of responsibility we were feeling as full-time employees and home owners. So as we wind down into a period of relative stability, thoughts of the next adventure will fill our days and our nights will be consumed with dreams of the road.