So, what’s up with you guys and all your vehicles?
We’ve always been big fans of going places. Kevin grew up flying in small airplanes with his parents, camping and road tripping in their camper/truck, and sailing Hobie Cats with his brother. I grew up camping all over the Western United States and sailing around Southern California. My mom had a sailboat, my grandpa had a sailboat, and a close family friend had a sailboat…so we did a lot of sailing!
Kevin and I bought our first Airstream in 2005 after many years of hiking and backpacking in the Pacific Northwest rain, showers, and drizzle, and several long cross-country road trips where we worked on the road from a tent using a candle lantern, with internet via a tethered Palm Treo smart phone. Once when we were in San Francisco for a conference, we visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and saw one of those first little 16′ Bambi CCDs with the interior designed by Christopher Deam and said “Hey! How about working in one of THOSE?” We started shopping for Airstreams and about a year later we decided on a 2005 22′ International (the one with the little desk in the back, dinette/kitchen in the middle, and bed up front). Over the next five years, we spent enough time in that Airstream to know that we loved it, but could really use a few more feet. In 2010 we traded it in for a 27’FB International. We believe it’s the perfect size and layout for us.
Since we started this blog in 2010, it has morphed a bit from being primarily an Airstream travel blog into a broader travel and lifestyle blog. We go places in the Airplane, in the Airstream, and now in a boat (we called her Airship, to stay on theme). We believe in not limiting ourselves to one form of recreational transportation, so you’ll see posts about all of it…boating, flying, cycling…and Airstreaming.
About Laura
I was born in Anchorage, Alaska. At age 5 I had my first serious road trip when my mom (at age 32) packed up my 2-year old brother, me, 3 standard poodles and 2 guinea pigs and drove the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway in an old International pickup truck with a drop-in camper (we called him Bumpin’ George) through Alaska and Canada, and then all the way to Southern California. Go mom!
I grew up in Southern California (Seal Beach) and moved to Portland in 1995 to go to art school. I have a degree in fine art (painting) but since about 2005 or so I’ve mostly focused on photographic portraiture. My work portfolio is here: www.domela.com if you’re interested.
Some of my favorite things are being on the water, long road trips, people with a sense of humor, good design, and inspiring people to pursue their dreams.
email: laura@domela.com
About Kevin
I was born in Texas, but I’ve worked hard to lose the accent. I lived there for about 30 years, moving to Portland in the late 1980s. I loved Portland and decided to settle in for the long haul. I have a degree in Electronic Engineering, and spent the first twenty years of my career working for big technology companies – mainly doing electronic design automation (EDA). In 2003, I started an online publication for electronic engineers (Electronic Engineering Journal), and that business continues today.
When I was young, my parents owned RVs, airplanes, and other toys for getting out and exploring the world. (They were both school teachers and had nice, long summer vacations to fill up.) Since we now have a business that can be operated from the road, we want to travel as much as possible – even if it means spending a lot of time working while on the road.
I find that doing the Riveted blog helps me enjoy travel more fully. I feel I need to pay more attention, take more photos, and experience more of what we’re seeing so I can help share it on the blog.
email: kevin@eejournal.com
Working on the Road
With all this travel we still have a business to run, and most of our time on the road is spent working. For this reason, we’ve really gone to town with the technology amenties on our Airstream (and soon will be doing the same to Airship). Internet, solar, extra batteries, data cards etc….all so we can be connected from most places. We run a publishing company (Electronic Engineering Journal), and we do it much of the time from the road. Laura’s been able to split up the studio photography (based in Portland) with more location work. It works well for us and we’re super proud of having crafted a fun and rewarding lifestyle that works with, well…work!
We realize that blogging about travel can often look “all fun all the time” but trust us, it’s not. This lifestyle (not only running your own business, but doing so from the road/water) is not for everyone. It’s full of risks, stress, pressure, and an enormous amount of responsibility. That said, we wouldn’t trade it for the world.