wan·der·lust - noun - a strong desire to travel
Yes, wanderlust is a real word. First used in 1875, the term dates back to the German word wandern, which translates to hike or to wander. The desire to travel is a part of many of us. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Travels with a Donkey, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."
For the past two years we've been watching and listening to full time nomads on their YouTube channels and podcasts and learning from their journeys. We've been learning about how to adjust to a nomadic lifestyle by observing how others have adjusted. We prefer channels that show both the good and the "not-so-good" of having your home on wheels, a more realistic approach to our dream. Some of our favorite channels include Less Junk More Journey, Finding Our Someday, Changing Lanes, The Chick's Life, Elsa Rhae & Barron, and Keep Your Daydream. All of that research has culminated in MANY things including a map we call Wanderlusting, Let's Go There! To date, the map has 985 points of interest that include paid campsites, natural landmarks, breweries, trails, waterfalls, boat ramps, boondocking sites, and other odds & ends. This map has become a nice way for us to daydream and keep track of all of the things that we'd like our path to cross.
Something that we've heard repeated over and over again is that one of the biggest pitfalls in traveling fulltime it to burn out in the beginning. Adjusting from a normal vacation time period to a nomadic lifestyle takes some forethought and awareness. Its important to remind yourself that you don't need to be in a rush but you do need to develop some routine. Our hope for this map is that it will help guide us roughly in the direction we want to go and that it will remind us that we can plant ourselves in areas that contain points of interest and move on when we feel ready. Sometimes it's just nice to have a map to help you on your way.
Check out the Wanderlusting, Let's Go There! map by clicking the image below.
FYI, it takes a while for ALL the points of interest to load.
You may notice we have a few gaps in our map.
We'd love to hear your suggestions about points of interest that you think we should add!
Please send suggestions via our contact page and help our map grow.