Hatching their pirate plans - yar!	Johnny on his moped	Jenn and Hunter
Like all good pirates, they fly the Jolly Roger	Boondocking on the way to Christmas with family	Sunset at Long Point Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida
Pirate Cat "the cat" chills with food and water nearby	Pirate Cat, Hunter, stakes his claim in the princess seat	Johnny and Jenn modified their sofa table
Johnny and Jenn bought their camper from Conibear RV Center in Lakeland, Florida	Conibear's inventory of Arctic Fox and Host campers	Pirate treasure found with Johnny's metal detector

Here’s the plan; quit your job, sell everything, and hit the road full time in a truck camper.  For some of us, that sounds like an impossible dream, to others it would be a nightmare.

For Johnny and Jenn, it was all part of the plan.  But unlike so many who may talk of cubicle escape and adventure, Johnny and Jenn are out there, right now, enjoying their freedom.  How did this happen?  Are the making it?  Are they crazy?

This is a story about two thirty somethings who have just embarked on much more than a truck camping trip.  They’re out to prove, to themselves and others, that life outside of the confines of nine-to-five work and accepted social patterns is not only possible, but awesome.  Go Johnny and Jenn.  Go.

TCM: Where did the idea for quitting your jobs and hitting the road come from?

Johnny: Basically, we were both pretty put off by the upper management of the company that acquired the company we were working for. I don't remember which of us said it at this point, but either Jenn or I threw out the Chris Farley quote from Saturday Night Live, “living in a van down by the river!" Amazingly enough, the other person said, "You know, that's not such a bad idea."

From there, we were both just playing with the idea. We'd spend the day reading blogs from people who were actually living in vans. We'd spend two or three days researching solar electrical systems, plumbing, etc. At one time, I was actively considering a bread truck with a portable air conditioner, a composting toilet, and some sort of gray water recycling system.  Eventually, we began to take the concept seriously enough to just go out and look at some used RV's.

Jenn: I was losing satisfaction with my career. When the company that we worked for was bought out, they changed the way it was run from a well oiled machine to a fumbling bureaucracy.  It was time for an exit strategy.  While I used to passionately obsess over it, I was pretty sure that I didn't want to be a Unix Administrator anymore. I wanted something simpler. So when the idea of traveling in a van came up, I thought it would be a great way to see what else is out there.

TCM: What exactly was the plan?  Has it changed?

Johnny: I'm not sure there ever was a real plan. There was just a nebulous concept of getting away from our current lifestyle and doing something different. Not just a new career, but something drastically different from the things most people do with their lives.

In order to make that happen, we figured we would need to lower our living expenses considerably. Additionally, we'd need some form of income as we traveled. And honestly, that is roughly the entire 'plan'.  Make more money than we spend, one way or another. If we fail to do so, then try to wind up somewhere we can get 'real jobs' again before we run out of savings.

Jenn: The plan is a work in progress. It’s constantly changing. As Johnny mentioned, we had planned on buying something used; either a van, or a bread truck, or a Class A, or a Class C.  Finally we wound up in a truck camper. We were going to use alternative things like portable air conditioners, composting toilets, and water recycling systems. None of that panned out.  Lots changed.  But, the underlying plan continues on; to enjoy the heck out of ourselves and experience everything we can.

TCM: Where did the name Hitek Homeless come from?

Johnny: I don't know. Possibly from years of reading cyberpunk genre novels. I just like the way it sounds. It reminds me of the homeless camp in Spain a decade or so back. I forget the name of the city this happened in, but a major telecom laid off an enormous amount of people. Many of them were unable to find replacement jobs. Within a few months, there was this cardboard city in a downtown park. They had electricity and Internet access, but no plumbing.

TCM: What did your friends and family say when you were making your plans?

Johnny: We didn't tell more than a handful of friends until after we were gone. That was the hardest part. We'd been working with the same people for about four years and for about nine months were planning this huge, exciting, life-changing trip... and we couldn’t tell anybody!

My parents have been really supportive of the whole idea. They have always enjoyed traveling and have owned RVs of some sort as far back as I can remember. I think my Dad is actually jealous. After his second or third 'retirement', he took up truck driving. For about twenty years, he has been looking at the countryside, but hasn't had the kind of time to get to know it the way you do when you're full-timing.

Jenn: My mom and relatives were very supportive. My father was less so.  My father, who holds a PhD in law, was a big fan of his little girl having a steady career path.  Mom and dad have full-timed a lot of times themselves, but they waited until after my father retired to do the bulk of it. My mother is a traveling registered nurse and my father teaches school where ever they park. They have also owned a campground and had an RV of one kind or another, which sometimes served as a playhouse, the whole time I was growing up. I guess it’s just in my blood.

TCM: What do they say now?

Johnny: I think we make a lot of people a bit jealous. We've had quite a few people we haven't seen in a while offer up their driveways as campgrounds. I just hope we are able to keep in touch with some of the people we saw often when we lived nearby but see rarely now that we're traveling.

Jenn: Yup, jealous is a term that many people have often used. Those who were supportive still are. Those who weren't have accepted it. There are some folks who don't think that we will last a year in such a small place though. I hope they haven't made any bets, because it has been six months and I love living in the camper more every day.

TCM: What did it feel like when you actually quit and committed to your plan?

Johnny: A combination of breaking out of jail and being handed a full pardon as you go out the door. How else can you describe going to work every day, secretly planning an early pseudo-retirement and then finally accomplishing it?  Emancipation?  That's a pretty good word for it.

Jenn: On the last day, I got all sad and sentimental. I had been working with the same crew for almost five years. We were friends. We talked and went to lunch together. All of the sudden, I realized how much I was going to miss them.

Since we had already been living in the camper for a few months before I quit, it didn't really seem like it was really that different for the first few days. Then we had to rush up to Virginia and that felt like a normal vacation where you have a deadline and you take the interstates the whole way. The freedom has really just hit me since we came to the Smokies. It’s my favorite place, and I can stay as long as I want! I can't describe how great that feels. I want to wake up in the morning and seize the day. The other places that we had been so far on this journey had been due to obligation.

TCM: Why did you decide to not have a stick home and to go full-time?

Johnny: We were already living in a (much too large) apartment. I didn't see any reason to take on the unnecessary expense of a house while we're living in a camper.

Jenn: I moved often before this lifestyle. I haven't found a piece of property that I love enough to settle down yet.

TCM: What did you do with all of your stuff?

Johnny: We gave the majority of it away. Goodwill must have received thirty or forty garbage bags full of clothes. Anybody we knew that could use something we didn't need was welcome to come pick it up. On one occasion we delivered quite a lot of stuff to a friend of Jenn's out of town and rolled it into a weekend at a state park with them.

We gave thousands of dollars of technical books to the library under the assumption that almost all of the information can be found on the Internet if one knows where to look.

We sold some things, but we really didn't try very hard. In fact, we still have a couple of gaming computers in storage with my parents. Want to buy one?

Jenn: Craigslist curb alerts, Goodwill, family, friends, eBay, and a shredder. Craigslist is a godsend. It worked much better than Freecycle. People were so nice and grateful to get the stuff, and I was happy to know that it would continue to be used and not placed in the landfill. We did end up recycling some of the computer equipment that charities wouldn't take. I had looked at Amazon.com too, but the fees were too high and who knows when your stuff would actually sell.

TCM: How did you prepare for your adventure?

Johnny: Mostly I procrastinated. I did manage to do an exorbitant amount of research, but I'm not sure what percentage of it was practical.

Jenn: Step one was to decide which vessel would fit our projected lifestyle the best. Then, we started hording money by not buying things that we didn't need.  We also stopped eating out. Those two changes in lifestyle were big steps. After we stopped bringing new items into the house, it was time to get the old ones out.  Once that was done, we just moved into the camper and continued to work for another five months during which we horded more money. I hear about folks who take ten years to plan for this. We only spent one. So far, I think we have done okay. We have savings, more money coming in than going out, park in some beautiful locations, and eat some great home cooked meals. Happier and healthier. I'm not sure we could have done any better with more time.

TCM: What was your original plan for funding?  What is it now?  Is that working?

Johnny: The original plan was to just live off our savings and go back to work in a few years. Later we began looking into various types of work camping and took direct control of our investments rather than leaving them in managed accounts.

We've only shifted from corporate salaried incomes recently, but so far we have worked a couple of events as food concessionaires. In the time that we've been managing our money directly, we've managed to earn more than our projected budget from investments. Between the two, I think we can pull this lifestyle off for quite a while as long as we budget properly and don't make too many big mistakes in the stock market.

Jenn: I would love to find additional interesting opportunities that provide a campsite and pay. Not just your normal work at the front counter at a campground stuff.

TCM: Why did you choose a truck camper after all of your research?

Johnny: What else can you buy on a budget that has four wheel drive, a diesel engine, and stay under thirty feet combined length? Truck campers just have so much going for them when you want to explore national forests or just narrow roads where you might not have an easy spot to turn around. Also, they're sexy.

Jenn: Dead sexy. Seriously, we have already, in our short time on the road, experienced numerous times when we had to turn around many miles down a dirt road. And, every single time that we have, we look at each other and someone says, “Aren't you glad we didn't pick a fiver, or a trailer?”  It’s the same thing on the days that we use four wheel drive. We sat around for hours upon hours trying to figure out which was least important to us: four wheel drive, decent fuel mileage, or enough room for us and the cats. We thought about an old Toyota Class C. But, since the engines are small and gassers, the torque in the mountains would have been troublesome. We picked a truck camper because:

1. We could place it on a newer diesel truck which would be reliable and give us decent fuel mileage.
2. We could place it on a vehicle with good clearance and four wheel drive.
3. We would only have one engine to maintain. No need for a toad.
4. Once we found a solid model with a slide, it was just the right size.
5. Less problems. My parents have always had trouble with their Class As, mostly with the drive train and tires.
6. It’s as versatile as we are and fits our adventurous lifestyle.

TCM: Tell us about your truck and camper.  Year, make, model, and any modifications for both.

Johnny: The truck is a 2001 Ford F-350 dually. We've upgraded the brakes a bit and added Timbrens. We've also added both front and rear cargo carriers to haul a moped and bicycle along with a few odds and ends.

The camper is a 2008 Arctic Fox 1140 wet bath. The wet bath gave us a lot more storage and I can actually turn around in it! We ordered it with a couch instead of a dinette. This really makes the camper seem more suitable for full-timing as it turns the area into more of a lounge. Jenn is great, but I'm not sure I could handle staring at her over a dinette table all day every day.

The only real modification we've made to the camper is replacing the enormous dining table that came stock with something about one-quarter of the size so we can actually use the couch.

Jenn: I got a great deal on a great truck, and thankfully we haven't had to do much to it.  The table mod was small, but it made a huge difference! Haven't missed the stock table for a second.

TCM: What’s the story behind the pirate flag?  Are you pirates?

Jenn: We have a cartoon on our blog that says it all. We are pirates, but in the roam around and make your own destiny sort of way. Not the board your vessel and take all of yer gold kind of way.

Johnny: Yarr! Give me yer gold!

TCM: You guys have a few interesting hobbies that we need to cover.  There are a few posts that discuss making banana booze, etc.  Are you moonshiners?

Johnny: Well, it's a federal felony to operate an unlicensed still, so even if the answer was yes, I'd have to say no. What we are doing though is learning to counterfeit liquors/liqueurs by adding various flavors to grain alcohol. So far we've had excellent luck with Kahlua and banana liqueurs. Vodka is a pretty easy one of course, just add water. I currently have a bottle of 'whiskey' aging. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few months.

Jenn: I just enjoy making things. I am not very artistic, so I don't paint or write poems.  I like to make practical things. Though, I doubt many people these days would think that alcoholic beverages are too practical. The other practical stuff, like sewing, cooking, and crochet, are probably way too boring for your readers.

TCM: What’s the story behind the metal detecting?  Is that for fun or profit?

Johnny: Both! Well, hopefully. We originally bought the metal detector just to find lost arrows when we shoot outdoors. That being the case, of course, I don't think we've had to hunt for an arrow outdoors since we bought it.

Instead, we like to bring it along when we go to the beach so there's something to do besides just lay around and get sunburned. It's a lot more fun to walk up and down the beach digging holes and hoping to find treasure than it is to just sit on the beach and read or sleep.

Jenn: If it were only for profit, we sure would be hurting. Some day in the distant future it might pay for itself. So far, I think that it has found us a small fortune of five dollars. There are a lot of laws that prohibit us from using it the way we want to here on the east coast. I hear that the laws are more lax out west. Maybe we will find our fortune there.

TCM: You have two cats with you. Where does the litter box go?  And have you stepped on a tail or two?

Johnny: Usually it goes on the floor next to the couch. Jenn's side, of course.

Jenn: There's actually plenty of room for the litter box without impeding on my space. And the litter box gets cleaned and changed a lot more often than it used to in our stick home. I will also say that I would have a lot less cleaning to do if the kitties didn't come. They shed quite a bit. I don't think that I would recommend taking on a cat to someone who is thinking about this lifestyle, surely not two.

TCM: What would you tell yourselves if you could go back in time to the moment when you thought up this whole idea and adventure?

Johnny: You will never find a used RV in your price range without water damage. Oh, and why are you looking at 5th wheels and Class A's when you really want a truck camper?

Jenn: Well said. We wasted so much fuel and time checking out "perfect" campers that just seemed to develop huge issues when we arrived. On the other hand, it was a great experience. We learned so much about campers while we were looking for a used one. We can spot a water leak a mile away now. Thanks to that experience, I feel pretty confident in my ability to purchase a used camper.

TCM: Any fears or regrets about your adventure thus far?

Johnny: Not just no, hell no.

Jenn: Not doing it ten years earlier. Though, things wouldn't have been as comfortable since the money wouldn't have been there yet.

TCM: What’s your vision for where this adventure is going?  Take us into the future...

Johnny: Next summer, we're going to Alaska. Jenn's parents and mine are hopefully going although my Dad talks like he isn't sure they will be able to come.  My brother is coming along even if we make him sleep in a tent and ride on the roof rack.

For years now I've been saying I needed to go live in Mexico for a year and brush up on my Spanish. I never had any idea how I was going to manage this, but it's something I've wanted to do for the past ten years or so. Now, I have the freedom to accomplish this and I guess we'll find out if I was really serious about it.

I'm still halfway planning to write fiction, although I haven't written too much the past few months.

At this point, we have more than half a lifetime ahead of us and only a general idea how to get through it. Every older person we talk to tells us to get out and do it now while we're young enough to really enjoy seeing this beautiful world we live in. I plan to enjoy every minute of it while keeping an eye out for ways to make this trip last just a little bit longer.

Jenn: My plan is to not have plans. Okay, I have a couple of them. Alaska is one, visiting my Grandmother in Oregon for her 100th birthday next year, and some day, if I ever find a place that is so great that I just can't leave, I would like to homestead. But, in the short term, I just want to take it slow and see everything that I can. I feel that sometimes when you have too many plans, you lose sight of the present.

To follow Johnny and Jenn on their adventure, visit their website at http://hitekhomeless.blogspot.com/