Joshua Tree National Park iPhone App

Posted on | January 31, 2010 | No Comments

My first iPhone app is available in the iTunes App Store!  A few screen shots of iJoshuaTree:

Check out iJoshuaTree in the app store:

iJoshuaTree

Now all I need to do is 57 more to represent the rest of the National Parks … or 390 more to represent the entire National Park Service system.  Add that to my day job, trying to keep up this blog, have a life, etc.  It ain’t easy being an indie developer.

Check out my other website (currently under-construction, of course!) for more iPhone apps down the road:

www.iGreenEarth.com

Finding Flow in the New Year

Posted on | January 11, 2010 | No Comments

A year ago I celebrated the new year by jumping in a hole in the ice of a frozen lake in Minnesota.  The year that followed pretty much mirrored the experience.  2009 was filled with rushes of adrenaline followed by just trying to keep my head above water while swimming to the other side.

I raced around the country, completed my goal of road tripping all the lower 48 states, saved sea turtles while camping on the beach of Padre Island, hiked the Grand Canyon, went flying over the San Juan Islands, and much more that I have not blogged about.  While doing all of this the past year I have not lived anywhere for more than two months.  Until now.

January 2010 marks my third month of living in Berkeley.  The transition from living a nomadic lifestyle to becoming a Californian with no plans of leaving has been difficult to say the least — a bit like struggling to keep my head above water in a frozen lake in Minnesota.

I have finally emerged on the other side – climbed out of the hole in the ice and landed in “sunny” California.  And after all of the struggle I don’t know what to do with myself.  I feel like a fish out of water and can’t quite find my sea legs.

This year I rang in the new year in Tahoe and managed to capture a couple crappy photos on my iPhone before nearly being trampled by a drunken mob.

In the middle of drunken mob life is totally out of your control.  The only way out is to go with the flow and eventually emerge safely on the street.

If the pattern holds and this year mirrors the way I rang in the new year, 2010 will be the year of going with the flow and emerging from the pack.  Here’s to letting go and riding the wave in 2010.  Surfs up.

Life & Times in California

Posted on | December 5, 2009 | No Comments

I haven’t posted to my blog much lately because I have been spending way too much time sitting in front of my computer teaching myself how to develop iPhone apps.  I have a lot to say about the past few months — too much — to the point that I don’t even know where to start.

I have learned a ton in the past few months not only about how to code iPhone apps but also about Silicon Valley, start-ups, and recession economics.  And while I was on the road, I met numerous people that were budget traveling because it was cheaper and better for their spirits than paying high rents and getting depressed about not being able to find a job.

I have no plans of hitting the road and moving from California in the foreseeable future.  So in the spirit of the recession, I’m going to be sharing on my blog everything I learn about starting up an iPhone dev business and other experiments I have done in the past on location independent sources of income.

And, of course, I’ll still throw in some of my usual travel style posts about what makes California a great place not only to visit but to live, such as:

Exploring the lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore,

hiking with pelicans along the coastal cliffs near Santa Cruz

and imagining a brighter future on a bench along West Cliff in Santa Cruz.

Speed Road Trip Across America with My Feet

Posted on | October 3, 2009 | 2 Comments

When people ask me if I have any regrets about my travels I don’t really have any.  Sure there are things I would have done differently knowing what I know now, but I don’t have regrets.  The closest thing I have to a regret is that I wish I would have taken more pictures of my feet.

That may seem like a weird wish but of all the photos I have I get the most compliments on the ones of my feet.  So by popular demand here is a speed road trip across America with my feet in pictures:

I wonder where my feet will take me next.

Show & Tell: The Big Orange Dot

Posted on | September 22, 2009 | No Comments

Nothing screams tourist like walking around all day with a big orange dot on your chest.

[Note to Self: Remove big orange proof of admission dots immediately upon exiting the museum.]

Location:  The Dalles, OR

Feeling Minnesota on the Autumnal Equinox

Posted on | September 22, 2009 | No Comments

Autumn is my favorite season.  Or more accurately, autumn was my favorite season growing up in Minnesota.  Since then I have lived places that don’t really have seasons other than the rainy and dry season like Florida and California.  As much as I love Northern California, today I pine to go hiking in Northern Minnesota in all its autumnal glory.  Since I am 2000 miles away I’ll have to settle on a virtual autumnal equinox hike by looking at the photos of a late autumn road trip to St. Croix State Park from yesteryear.

Pictures are nice but I would rather be there.  I’m taking the red-eye to Minnesota on Friday to catch a little bit of autumn with family and friends.  See ya soon, Minnesota!

10 Year Solo Road Trip Anniversary: 9/9/99 – 09/09/09

Posted on | September 9, 2009 | 3 Comments

Ten years ago today I woke up in a tent by myself for the first time. I turned on the radio to hear the weather forecast and all the DJs were talking about was how all the computers were going to crash because it was 9/9/99. And when the weather was finally broadcast possible flurries and frost were in the forecast.

I would like to write how my first solo road trip in northern Minnesota 10 years ago was one of the best experiences of my life. But in actuality it kind of sucked. It was cold and drizzling, I got up to go to the bathroom in the drizzle twice during the night, and the next morning I woke up feeling exhausted since I hardly slept.

I’m not sure why I continued solo road tripping after that first night. I could have said I wasn’t cut out for it and opted to stay home and watch TV the next time I had some time off and no one wanted to go camping. But I chalked up the unpleasantness to inexperience and tried again.

The second time I went solo camping I was woke up in the middle of the night by raccoons fighting outside my tent. Imagine waking up to sounds like this and this right next to your head. Crank the volume up to the max to get the full effect.

Ah, the joys of camping. Despite those first few rough nights, curiosity and a love of outdoor adventure eventually won out and led me around the entire country solo camping. And while there were plenty more unpleasant nights (some good ones too), the journey as a whole was one of the best experiences of my life.

Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing now if I had given up on solo road tripping because of those first few rough nights ten years ago. Maybe I would be blogging about my favorite TV shows. Regardless, I would definitely be a much different person than I am today.

Today I woke up in a chair at the library where I fell asleep teaching myself how to write code for iPhone apps. This whole Silicon Valley iPhone developer / entrepreneur adventure is starting out just about as glamorously as my first solo camping adventures. But I’m sticking with it.

I wonder where I’ll wake up ten years from now.

5 Free iPhone Travel Apps

Posted on | September 4, 2009 | 1 Comment

I recently upgraded my crappy old cell phone that didn’t even have a camera to an iPhone.  All I can say is – I love my iPhone!  And I’m not sure how I managed without it.  All this time I could have been taking quick photos or videos, using the built in GPS when I was lost, and Yelping a quality restaurant nearby.  Oh well.  Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be thrifty especially when it comes to having the ultimate multi-functional travel device in your pocket.

So now I’m an Apple fangirl toting around an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.  The next logical step of course is to proclaim my love for the following free travel apps:

In a new city and need to find good place to eat nearby?  Yelp it. I loved Yelp on my laptop and I love it even more on my phone for easy access to reviews of nearby businesses.  I don’t even need to know where I am.  I just hit the geolocate button and it will map out where I am and directions to nearby businesses.

Need to check flight or hotel prices quickly?  Search 1000s of travel sites at Kayak.  Of course there are other travel price comparison sites (Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) you can check also if you like but their apps are either non-existent or have severely limited features at this time so you are just better off visiting the regular websites.

Make your friends jealous by sharing your travel photos with them on Facebook.  You can take photos and video on your phone and upload them instantly.  It is amazing how many people I hadn’t seen in years that I have met up with because they saw in my status updates that I was going to be in the same location as them.

Why do you need the Skype app when you can just make a call on your iPhone?  Because sometimes you go over your minutes or you are calling overseas.  Skype rules for cheap calls.  The only snafu: You can’t Skype over the 3G network so you have to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Take a spin around the a virtual globe with Google Earth.  A very cool app to zoom in from outer space to your current location or spin the globe and daydream about your next travel adventure.

The iPhone is an amazing multi-functional travel gadget.  The apps and hardware (longer battery life, please) are only going to get better.  Mobile is the future.

Home for a Hobo

Posted on | August 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

The most frequently asked question I get when I tell people I solo road tripped the United States and was a long-term traveler for 4 years is:

Where do you live?

There are an abundance of living arrangement options for the long-term traveler.  For me, long-term travel is more about what I do rather than where I sleep.  One of the downsides of long-term travel is that you never really have a home, more just like a place to stay for a while.  I have called numerous locations home for a while and my living arrangements have included a combination of the following:

Tent

When I first started traveling around the United States I camped at National and State Parks in a L.L. Bean 2 person dome tent.  After a couple years I upgraded to a smaller but lighter and more weather-proof North Face backpacking tent.

Camping is a good option for budget travellers.  There are even a few places you can camp for free.  And even if you’re not on a budget, camping at National Parks provides a completely different experience than staying at a hotel nearby.  Even if I was a millionaire, I would choose to camp at National Parks for the all-encompassing outdoor experience it provides. And then after hiking for a few days and getting all grubby, get cleaned up and pamper myself at a lodge for a night.

Car

There are times when I have been camping when I didn’t want to sleep in my tent so I opted for my car instead.  Like when it snows in the mountains in the middle of summer and I don’t want to deal with the cold and snow on my tent.  Or when the campgrounds are bear infested I would rather have peace of mind in a hard-sided vehicle instead of waking up at every sound of heavy footsteps.

In the past year I have experimented with occasionally sleeping at rest areas off of interstates in my car mostly because it is free and convenient. Sleeping in your car at rest areas works in a pinch and is an ultra-economic form of travel.  But sleeping your car gets old after a while.  Well, maybe unless your vehicle looks like this:

Hotels

I don’t stay at hotels very frequently when traveling mostly because they break your budget quickly.  But if you need a place to stay for more than a night or two most hotels offer reduced weekly or monthly rates.  I stayed at a hotel for a little over a month once and the lady the front desk was super excited to give me sizable refund since after a month you become a resident and don’t have to pay hotel tax.  Also, if you travel in what is considered an off-season for the location you are visiting the staff may be willing to negotiate a reduced rate for an extended stay.

Hostels

Hostels are the typical budget travelers accommodations.  Hostels are good for meeting people, but other than that I’m not a big fan of hostels.  They are typically loud, dirty, and sometimes can even cost as much as a hotel.  But staying at a hostel is a way better option than writing off your dream of traveling because it is too expensive.  And you will definitely meet some interesting people.

Employee Housing

There are an abundance of seasonal jobs that offer modest housing along with modest wages in exchange for work.  You’ll live where you work and most likely work long hours, making days off a much needed getaway.  Given the choice, I would rather get a higher paying seasonal job so I can bank some money for traveling and find cheap housing on Craigslist.

Craigslist Roommates

Craigslist is an excellent resource for finding short and long-term housing.  Many places will rent rooms month-to-month or even week-to-week so there is no lease to worry about.  And you can get a furnished room so there is no need to cart all your possessions around while traveling.

Of course you run the risk of having a roommate horror story.  The key to having a good experience with Craigslist is knowing what you are looking for and the right questions to ask.  Ask yourself what living style you are looking for and then find someone who fits that.  Don’t get desperate and take the first place you look at if it isn’t a good match.

Family, Friends, & House/Dog Sitting

After traveling for extended periods it is always fun to meet up with family and friends, share a few laughs, and recharge.  Thanks to everyone who let me crash for a day or two…or a couple months.  : )

There are an abundance of housing options available for long-term travelers.  Don’t let the fear of not knowing where you are going to live get in your way if you want to give long-term travel a try.  It really is more about the journey and the adventure than where you live.

Where’s the Mountain?

Posted on | August 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

Today when I was driving I looked to the southeast and momentarily thought to myself – “Where’s the mountain?”

And then I realized that I’m in California not Washington so I should stop trying to locate Mount Rainier on the horizon.  It has been a little over a week since I left Seattle for the Bay area but sometimes I still forget where I am.  Hopefully, soon I’ll stop looking for the Space Needle to orient myself in the city.

I am confused.

keep looking »

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