The hardest thing about full-time travel

Hear us out on this one. Full-time travel has a lot of perks, but one major drawback: loneliness. Here’s the emotional journey we typically take:

Joy: “This is so much fun! You know who would really enjoy this? (Insert friend’s name)!!”

Longing: “I miss hanging out with them. Have you talked to them lately?”

Sadness: “It’s hard not having friends nearby.”

Resignation: “It was the same in Latin America. It was good when we had roommates or when we were taking classes, but otherwise it was hard to make friends.”

Doubt: “I mean, as long as this is our life, it’ll be like this. If we stayed in one place for a while, it would be easier.”

Stubbornness: “I love the life we’ve built. I don’t want to go back to how it was. Why should we have to go backwards?”

Exasperation: “Besides, before we never saw our friends anyway. All of us were just at work all the time. If we went back to San Francisco, it would be the same.”

*NEW!* Grief: “Before we at least we had Holly to keep us company. I miss that girl.”

Gratitude: “It’s a good thing we like each other a lot!”

Determination: “There’s got to be some way we can meet other people who are like us.”

Curiosity: “But how?”

How to Meet Other Digital Nomads

Meeting other nomads is inherently challenging because everyone involved is nomadic. Plus, we have good friends we stay in touch with and don’t want to replace. What we’re really looking for are people to hang out with.

Here are ideas we’re exploring so far:

• Meetup.com: Do people do these?
• #nomads: It’s a digital nomad chat community where you can find other digital nomads locally. However, it looks like it’s mainly people abroad.
• When staying at Airbnbs, look for shared living spaces so we have roommates to chat with.
• Maybe when we’re passing through cities we could stay in hostels.

Any other ideas?? Please share. Maybe these photos from Savannah will get your creative juices flowing.

 

Just a Savannah street

 

Downtown Savannah architecture

 

The Savannah River separates Georgia and South Carolina

 

River Street in the historic district

 

Savannah City Hall

 

James Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia as the 13th colony, a refuge for Britain’s poor, and a buffer between the British to the north and the Spanish to the south

 

The Foxy Loxy Cafe, recommended by one of my LinkedIn blog readers

 

Bikes parked outside one of the many Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) buildings; I’m sure their students would have edited this photo way better than me

 

The beach at Tybee Island, one of Georgia’s many barrier islands

 

Mid-morning at Whitemarsh Preserve

 

The waterfront in Beaufort, South Carolina

 

Chris barbecued some delicious chicken that we ate with buttermilk biscuits and roasted carrots and parsnips — too bad our friends weren’t there to partake!