U.S. Family Getting Ready to Drive Around the World

Our family has been getting ready to drive around the world since 2018, when we discovered the overlanding lifestyle.

After two trips to Mexico—a combined 4,000 miles through the mainland (2019) and Baja Peninsula (2020)—we were more sure than ever about our global goal. In just a few days, my husband Eric and I will cross the border with our four-year-old son, Caspian. This border crossing on October 9, 2021, will mark the long-awaited start of our drive around the world.

Unlike our previous trips, we won’t be coming back anytime soon. We have set aside the next 10 to 15 years of our lives to drive around the world as a family. We’re in this for the long haul, with no time constraints or firm agenda.

We’ve actually been traveling full-time since 2014–almost eight years on the road without any house or property. But our vehicle-based life up until now has been restricted to North America. Now we’re taking everything we’ve learned and applying it to our new chapter.

Our home on wheels is a 2021 Jeep Gladiator, fitted with the Alu-Cab Canopy Camper. Over the past three years, we determined this size platform is perfect for our style of overland travel.

While it may seem small for a family of three, we can easily supplement our travels with Airbnb or hotel stays. In fact, because this vehicle was within our means and didn’t require us to carry debt around the world, we have more flexibility than ever.

How to follow our global journey

We won’t always have reliable Internet. Though we’ve tried to mentally (and logistically) prepare for this, we know our connectivity will probably be even less than we imagine.

Nonetheless, we are committed to sharing our drive around the world with our online community! Here are four ways you can join the journey.

Patreon

We quietly launched our Patreon account last week and are so grateful to the friends who have already joined on.

We are excited to offer special benefits to our patrons, like monthly expense reports and hand-written Christmas postcards from around the world. Gaia GPS is one of our sponsors, offering three-month premium memberships to select patron tiers.

Perhaps most significantly, Patreon is the first place we will visit when we have Internet. Our patrons will receive the best and most intimate access to us, as we experience this once-in-a-lifetime adventure as a family.

YouTube

YouTube will continue to be an active sharing platform for us. Our travel logs resume October 14 with our first video from Mexico! Expect to see a lot of our daily life and colorful discoveries, plus practical travel tips and overlanding guidance learned through our experience.

Our goal has always been to upload a YouTube video every Thursday. This shouldn’t be a problem over the next six months in Mexico, and we’ll do our best to post reliably as we enter Central America in 2022. Internet access will be our primary challenger, but we’ll continue to produce video offline and upload whenever we can, so at the end of the day you won’t miss a thing!

Hourless Life blog

We have been travel bloggers since 2014 when we started living on the road full-time. Though our writing regularity has waxed and waned through various seasons of life, our blog has always been an important outlet for sharing long-form content that doesn’t work as well on video.

Writing is my (Brittany’s) personal passion, so I hope to make time for HourlessLife.com articles on topics we’re asked about all the time, like our vehicle build and gear, working remotely, and Caspian’s education.

Hourless Life social media

We love our community on social media. We have active accounts on Instagram and Facebook, and also update Twitter and Pinterest for people who prefer those platforms.

Social media is usually more “real-time” than YouTube, at least by a few days. Again, this may change (almost definitely will change) as our Internet gets more spotty. Patreon will be your best bet for receiving regular, current updates about our travels. But we will never abandon our social media community!

Thank you to our gear sponsors and press friends

This journey is much bigger than the three of us. We are so grateful to the 27 companies that stand behind us as gear sponsors. We never imagined so many respected brands would become our partners. Please keep them in mind as you make purchasing choices to outfit your overlanding vehicle.

We’re also so grateful to the press outlets that have shared our story over the past few months. If you want more background about us, our plans, and how we got here, then we recommend you check out these podcast episodes, article features, and interviews.

We have more interviews scheduled for the near future, so check back later in October for updates.

Time to go

“Are you ready?”

“Are you nervous?”

We’ve received these questions repeatedly. I remind our inquisitive friends we’ve been getting ready to drive around the world for more than three years, since May 2018. Though a few logistics will be left unintended–they always are–we couldn’t be more ready to cross the border on October 9.

What a gift to live in 2021, with so much technology at our disposal, and be able to share our journey with you. Thank you for your support and company along the way.

Now strap on that seatbelt because you’re in for a wild ride!

Love. Explore. Study. Share

Eric + Brittany + Caspian | Hourless Life