Monday, September 16, 2024, 7:13:46AM EDT
No. After several attempts over two years to make DNB living work I’ve concluded that for most professionals—including remote tech workers—there is just too much to manage to maintain a DNB life and not slowly decline. Instead, focusing on a good daily routine for most of the year with ample opportunity to get out and mini-adventures on the weekends is much more fun and sustainable. Then, occasionally going for a very large, multi-week adventure is doable and more enjoyable because I can really prepare for it and look forward to it as a goal. The whole not knowing where you are going to sleep each night, which is arguably the entire point of adventure cycling, the “adventure” of not having all the answers in advance, completely destroys every aspect of stability needed to hold down most jobs. Plus carrying around all the stuff required to work from the road really makes riding the bike not fun at all. But the biggest hindrance is the requirement to be near civilization in order to charge up all the gear once a day. This defeats all the fun of adventure cycling by forcing routes to be compatible. Compared to organizing a remote bike adventure once a year or two completely off the grid (like Tour Divide) and there’s really no comparison.
It was a fun experiment. I did learn that I can completely live out of my Subaru and work reliably anywhere. That’s not hard at all. I did it this year and only stayed in a hotel twice, the second time was because I had Covid. I might do another road tour again.
Saturday, August 10, 2024, 10:25:22AM EDT
I now think that the elite DNB weekly schedule is the only one I am interested in. It allows a 200-400 mile distance between work-camp locations where I live and work luxuriously worry-free for 40 hours. When combined with a 600 dollar per week work-camp lodging budget, and a 30 dollar a day food budget the stress of the logistics becomes minimal, in fact, it becomes more of a work vacation than anything. I just have to have a general route in mind and plan work-camp locations intentionally. The fact that I’m working while living as a digital nomad only during four Spring/Summer/Fall months (Jun 1st - Oct 1st) means I have more money to spend. During the rest of the time I can build up my fitness and financial budget to handle the next glorious season.
4000/month * 4 months = 16,000
At 10 mph average pace for 36 hours that’s 360 miles per week or 4680 miles of total range, enough to cover any major route in North America including the GDMBR, TransAmerica Trail, and the TAT off-road tail.
Friday, August 9, 2024, 9:56:39AM EDT
Yesterday’s tropical storm and multiple flash flood warnings really established a bunch of conditions for being able to answer this question with a “yes”. As much as I tried to stay in the tent and stay dry, I had to go out and set the Starlink so that I could work from within the tent. Even a short time outside in such a deluge means that everything inside the tent is going to get a minimal shower once I make it back into the tent. And there is no towel to dry off with once inside.Ironically, I was able to get a lot done once I was setup with the laptop because there isn’t anything else to really do, at all, except wait for the rain to pass, which took 24 hours at least. I could not attend any meetings, however, because it was simply impossible to communicate from within the tent with rain falling on it. The Starlink Mini really struggled in that rainstorm, but did well enough that I could continue to work and chat.
The biggest lesson learned is that if there is a national weather advisory it is best to just find a building to work from for that day. This limits the remote range of a DNB on regular working days. In fact, I’m beginning to conclude that most DNBs will need to arrange to work from a solid location during the work week. This means arranging lodging in advance that will sustain the entire work day for the next 28-48 hours. This removes a lot of the spontaneity of DNB living, but makes for a reliable, less stressful means of employment and getting an honest days work done. There’s always the option to take a day off in the extreme case (such as yesterday) but these should not be the norm.
Wednesday, August 7, 2024, 5:15:52PM EDT
I had Covid last week and it clearly tainted by emotional judgement with regard to DNB sustainability. This week it doesn’t seem to be nearly the problem it seemed to be then. It also seems like managing traffic is far more doable now that my bike is a very manageable weight, even with eight power banks, a Starlink Mini, and a 16” Macbook Pro.
Sunday, August 4, 2024, 7:36:48PM EDT
I no longer think DNB living is sustainable. This is my second significant test and I didn’t even really get many hours on the bike to test it. While I believe we have conquered the Internet connectivity challenge, the cost of lodging and emotional strain being away from home are just too high (for me). The appeal of DNB living remains getting outside, staying healthy, meeting new people, and seeing new things. All of this can be accomplished by simply riding the bike to one of a few different interesting locations and working there for the day, but coming home at night, or maybe camping over one night, or two. My DNB life has mostly transcended into a daily commute to wherever I feel like working that day. Then, sometimes I can drive to places within a couple of hours and work there for that week.
The Starlink Mini has likely put living and working from the bike very close to the realm of possibility, just not for someone who also likes to livestream for any significant amount of time per day (unless livestreaming is significantly limited).
In December 2023 I realized the limiter was the hotspot. They are just not reliable for real work. The Starlink G3 proved to get around that, but the 60 lbs of weight required for just one work day made it not realistic.
Now with the Mini overcoming the weight limitation the only remaining hurdle is being tethered to power sources. Carrying solar is not worth the impact. It’s best to move fast in order to get to a plug outlet. The method of charging the Mini (USB battery bricks) is more portable and last longer than the heavy battery for the G3, but it is also slower to charge requiring at least four hours to get a full charge (per battery).
Assuming a six-hour workday (making up the rest on the weekend or more when recharging) that requires two Baseus 65w 30,000 mAh bricks per day just for the Starlink to maintain a good work connection. A Macbook Pro M3 16” lasts 17 hours on a single charge, just about enough for three six-hour workdays. Plus the bricks can be used to charge the Macbook as well. This seems to put three unplugged remote work-days to be the maximum, more than enough for those average weekend trail explorations.
Adding one brick per day makes livestreaming possible for four hours.
Between eating form the super market and Taco Bell and McDonald’s on resupply days food costs really are not any different than if living in an apartment.
Unlike a bikepacking trip, DNB living requires staying places that cost a lot of money—especially during tourist season. It is easy to blow a 1000 monthly lodging budget by visiting the wrong place at the wrong time.
There is no escaping biking in bad traffic if you truly want to live and work while traveling only by bike. Pretty much every single power outlet is on or around pavement used to get to it. This is never fun. If you are lucky, you’ll pay 20 dollars a night for the privilege of having a plug at your camp site.
Living on the road as a digital nomad (by bike or car) takes a huge emotional toll on anyone with any friends or family. This is why most YouTubers eventually give up “van life” rather unceremoniously. These people report feeling “stagnant” and disconnected, even when caravanning around with a lot of others living the same way. Being nomadic means you are always invading someone (or something) else’s turf, you are the foreigner. That’s the point. You are wandering and exploring, but you don’t have a party or tribe to do it with you.
By nature, humans are not solo, nomadic creatures. We are pack animals, like dogs, highly communal. We cannot survive emotionally and physically without a tribe. The most famous nomadic peoples (Tibetans and Native Americans) always had their extended families with them. After two weeks all I wanted to do was reconnect with my children and family. The spectacular vistas and interesting lands lost all appeal compared to being with those I love. It’s not “home sickness” it is just our nature. While soldiers and some professions require humans to be away from those they love, its always the promise of a return that makes it special. Willingly leaving those people for an extended amount of time very quickly loses all appeal, for anyone.
I’ve seen everything interesting in the US that I really care to see. That’s the simple truth. I really just want to see the Redwoods of California. Destination trips are much more appealing to me (and have been more appealing to most people). While I really want to do the White Rim trail again I would always prefer to do that with someone else. Even my desire to do the GDMBR has completely vanished unless I’m going to ride it with someone else.
In fact, that only thing that truly motivates me is thinking about touring Europe by bike. That is something that could easily re-ignite the DNB desires since I have so much yet to see over there and lodging and camping are so much easier.