We are driving around the world. Right now.

[Hourless Life]

Hello fellow Overland Bound members! ( This thread updated 11/20/22 to reflect our current position in the journey around the world)

We're are driving around the world, and wanted to share (uncensored) the journey with our fellow like-minded adventurers. As we add to this thread, we hope to share all of the victories as well as the trials and tribulations of the journey.



(Photo credit: Amber Baldwin / Story Chasing)

Who we are:
We are an American family of 3 who are attempting to drive around the world (Currently in Cartagena, Colombia in South America as of 11/6/22). We entered the overland community in 2018. We have completed numerous loops around the United States. We've also ventured 4000+ miles into the interior of Mexico, and 2000 miles throughout the Baja peninsula.

We are now on a long-term, full-time, global overland journey.

For those that have attended Overland Expo events, you may have attended some of the classes or panels we've participated in and have heard some of our story. For those that don't know us...

A little bit more about us:
We're Eric, Brittany, and Caspian Highland. We've been traveling full-time throughout North America since February 2014 (as of this writing we are on our 9th year of full-time travel) owning no home or property. Our son Caspian joined the adventure in 2016 by going straight from the birthing room of the hospital to the Jeep.

I (Eric) am a 20 year veteran of the United States Coast Guard, also worked at the King County Sheriff's Office (Seattle, WA) and Texas Department of Public Safety (Austin, TX) before retiring fully in 2011. And by retired I mean that after my "retirement" my wife and I started several companies and were self-employed for nearly a decade to make our dream a reality. We've sold the businesses to help us build out our global overland vehicle and begin this journey.

My wife Brittany is an incredible woman, an insatiable adventurer, an avid writer, and actively writes articles for various companies and brands. Incidentally, she has started contributing articles to Expedition Portal and has been writing articles for Winnebago for quite some time.

Our family motto:
L.E.S.S. Which stands for Love, Explore, Study, Share. It is what we hope to do with our journey. Love on others, Explore the world around us, Study voraciously the culture and history of the people and places we visit, and Share what we've learned with those who have interest.

Our philosophy:
I tell people all the time, "We're not independently wealthy, but we're incredibly rich." These past years of full-time travel have really opened our eyes to the enormity of the world around us, and the beauty of the people within it. We've been blessed to experience many astounding things during our years of travel, and we look forward to much more on a global scale. To us, this is the definition of being "rich." We can always make more money, but we can never make more time.

How our journey has unfolded (a brief chronology):
February 2014 - Lived in Austin, Texas, sold pretty much everything we owned and moved into an RV.
February 2014 - Started an RV Blog to document that journey called RV Wanderlust.
June 2016 - Purchased a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon we dubbed "GUARDIAN."
June 2016 - Started a Jeep blog to document that journey called Jeepsies.
December 2016 - Our son Caspian joined the party.
June 2018 - Brittany tells me she wants to overland around the world. Yes this was her idea.
December 2018 - Sold our RV and moved into our Jeep.
January 2019 - Made our first international overland journey, 2000 miles through the interior of Mexico.
March 2019 - Purchased another, smaller RV we dubbed "BASECAMP"
January 2020 - Made the decision to drive around the world and began planning for this adventure.
February 2020 - Made our second international overland journey 2000 miles through Baja Mexico.
July 2020 - Sold most of our business holdings and dropped our income significantly to free ourselves up.
November 2020 - Launched our (hopefully final brand) Hourless Life to document our global journey.

Our immediate plans for the future:
January 2021 - Purchase our global overlanding vehicle. (COMPLETED: February 2, 2021) (Picked up the Gladiator May 31, 2021)
February 2021 - Launch our YouTube Channel for the global journey. (First video released February 24, 2021)
May to July 2021 - Finish the buildout of our global vehicle and field test in the USA. (Starting Build June 1, 2021)
June 2021 - Leave our current overland vehicle "GUARDIAN" stored in the Denver, CO area. (Stored June 25, 2021)
August 2021 - Showcase the Gladiator build and speak at Overland Expo Mountain West in Loveland, Colorado. (Completed August 29, 2021)
September 2021 - Showcase the Gladiator build and speak at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona. (Completed September 26, 2021)
October 2021 - Cross the border into Mexico Interior. (Completed October 9, 2021)
October 2021 to April 2022 - Live in the interior of Mexico, preparing for our journey through Central and South America. (Completed 3/24/22)
April 2022 - Cross into Central America. Belize being the first country.
November 2022 - Shipped our vehicle from Panama City, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia to start the South American continent. (CURRENT)

The Plan After South America:
The plan as it stands now, is that once we've enjoyed Central and South America, that we'll ship our vehicle to South Africa and drive up either the East (easier) or West (ridiculously challenging) Coast of Africa. From there into Europe and then across the Old Silk Road to Asia. Then we'll probably ship the vehicle back to the States, and fly to Australia and either buy, rent, or borrow a vehicle in Australia to enjoy that continent. Then we'll return home having driven through all 6 habitable continents. We anticipate this journey will take 10-15 years.

Our Hearts:
We have been inspired by those that have gone before us, and we hope to be inspiring, empowering, and encouraging to others. We don't do this for recognition, we do this because we choose this life. We all get one shot at this wild and precious life, and we hope to experience the world for all that we can.

We hope to get to know some of the members of this community, and to share a day or two with you along our journey should our paths cross.

Follow:
If you'd like to get to know us, you can follow here on the platform of your choice:

Website: hourlesslife.com
Patreon: Hourless Life Patreon
YouTube: Hourless Life
Instagram: @hourlesslife
Facebook: Hourless Life
Twitter: @hourlesslife
Pinterest: Hourless Life

Our Jeep Gladiator Overlanding Build Video Series:
Here is the introduction video to our overlanding build. The vehicle will be on display at Overland Expo Mountain West and Overland Expo West 2021:




Our Sponsors:
In the interest of transparency with the Overland Bound community, I want to share that we have been gear sponsored by several companies for our global journey:

1. Goose Gear
2. RedArc Electronics
3. Alu-Cab
4. WARN Industries
5. Rigid Industries
6. EQUIPT Expedition Outfitters
7. Kuhl Clothing
8. Juniper Overland
9. Red Oxx
10. Lifesaver
11. Midland USA
12. Cascadia 4x4
13. Blue Ridge Overland Gear
14. GoTreads
15. Just Jeeps of Austin Texas
16. Thunderbox USA
17. Renogy Solar
18. DMOS Collective
19. Sonoran Expedition Collective
20. Long Range America
21. TeraFlex
22. MaxTrax / Adventure Imports
23. 67 Designs
24. OK4WD
25. GP Factor
26. Dobinsons Suspension
27. GAIA GPS

Final Thoughts On Our Initial In Progress Adventures Thread:
This is really happening! We're so excited to finally be on this journey! Our first video from our global overland journey was posted on October 14, 2021:


Obviously the elephant in the room is COVID-19. But since we don't know how things will progress, we'll have to re-evaluate as we come closer to crossing each individual country. Having said that, we must move forward.

If you have any questions for us, please comment below. We love getting to know others with similar passions and we hope you'll come along for the ride. I'll be updating this thread as we continue this journey. Thanks for reading!

Eric + Brittany + Caspian Highland | Hourless Life
Love. Explore Study. Share.

#OB14045

 

[grubworm]

very cool! appreciate y'all sharing your adventure with us and look forward to seeing your future travels.
best wishes and God bless!

 

[Hourless Life]

very cool! appreciate y'all sharing your adventure with us and look forward to seeing your future travels.
best wishes and God bless!

Thanks grubworm. We are definitely looking forward to it. Right now we're in heavy logistics mode as we are preparing to sell Basecamp (our RV) and purchase the vehicle which we'll take around the world. The next step after that is the build out of the vehicle which will take place in 4 different locations: Denver, CO, Tucson, AZ, Albuquerque, NM and Austin, TX.

Eric

 

[Get Out GO]

Looking forward to your travels! Not planning to document it on YouTube?

 

[terryg]

Great introduction. I look forward to following you. Wondering if Caspian's middle initial is "C" :-)

 

[Hourless Life]

Looking forward to your travels! Not planning to document it on YouTube?

So for years the folks who have been following us have been asking for video.

Like a brick wall, I've refused to budge on the issue.

There are several reasons for my reluctancy if I'm honest:

1. Skill: I don't have the skill or the know how to edit video. Sure I can push a record button, but that's about as far as I've been willing (or able) to take it.
2. Priorities: I've always wanted to be present where we are, and not miss the special moments for the sake of having to capture footage. Simply put I haven't wanted to live my life through a lens.
3. Time: When I say we travel fulltime, I mean we move. Last year we spent the night in over 150 different locations in a single year spanning 3 countries, and thousands upon thousands of miles. I've always been concerned about how much time I'll have to spend editing video to make something worth watching.
4. Space and Weight: Because we travel fulltime as a family of 3, we are very conscientious everything we add to the vehicle. We have to be four season ready and terrain ready 100% of the time. So space is at a premium in our rig and weight of any equipment we add goes against our spreadsheet for payload considerations.

BUT...

Now, as you mentioned, we are getting ready to drive around the world. And one of my friends mentioned how nice it is to have photos (of which we have thousands upon thousands) but he also said that we're missing the gem of recording our journey for our son who has been a fulltime traveler since birth and he may appreciate having a recording of his parents investing this time in him, and the adventures he had as a child. That struck a heartstring with me. Maybe I was just being too selfish and lazy and making up excuses as to why not to do video. But maybe my concerns also had legitimacy.

Either way, I've decided to take baby steps into video. So we'll see what happens, But I still wanted to make sure that I addressed my above listed concerns. So here's what I'm going to try, and why I've picked the gear that I'll be using in the attempt at getting into video. Don't hold your breath, it isn't that impressive.

Bottom line, whatever gear we use has to be small and compact, it has to be fairly monkeyproof when it came to editing, and it has to not be a chore, but hopefully a hobby that i could get into while on the road.

Video Camera: DJI Osmo Pocket (the original often referred to as Osmo Pocket 1)
Second Camera iPhone X: My "B" roll camera (don't judge me)
Video Editing Software: iMovie (It's free on my Macbook Pro, and I've heard it's fairly easy to use. I think they are talking about people who already have some sort of basic video editing knowledge. It doesn't look that simple to me, but I'm willing to try and go through some tutorials online about how to use it.)

My wife bought me the Osmo Pocket over a year ago and to be honest it has literally just collected dust. But after my convo with my friend about doing it for our son, there was a spark of interest on my part.

So I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to see what I can do with it. But again, we'll see how it goes. We don't do what we do to be instafamous or popular. We do what we do because we choose this lifestyle and want to experience it. But as I stated in my opening introduction, part of our heart is to share. So I'm really hoping that we'll be able to add some video to the documentation of our articles.

Having said all of this, if anyone reads my drivel and has a really good iMovie tutorial for complete noobs to video editing, I'd appreciate a link!

~ Eric

 

[Hourless Life]

Great introduction. I look forward to following you. Wondering if Caspian's middle initial is "C" :-)

Nope, not C. His full name is Caspian Theodore Highland

Caspian after the Caspian Sea, Theodore after Theodore Roosevelt who is one the historical figures we admire (despite his flaws which we all have) and Highland, well... because he's my son.

 

[terryg]

Nope, not C. His full name is Caspian Theodore Highland

Caspian after the Caspian Sea, Theodore after Theodore Roosevelt who is one the historical figures we admire (despite his flaws which we all have) and Highland, well... because he's my son.

Yeah, that's why I said "C" - Caspian C... :-)

 

[Hourless Life]

Yeah, that's why I said "C" - Caspian C... :-)

Man forgive me I haven't gotten enough sleep. It took me a second. ~ E

 

[Hourless Life]

I wrote this in my journal on November 20th. Kind of gives a bit of insight to my state of mind as we prepare for this journey.

Thought Journal 001 - 11/20/20

As we prepare for this global overland adventure, so many thoughts are racing through my head. You'd think that after 7 years of full-time travel, I'd have it all together, but truth be told I don't. I've learned quite a bit about this lifestyle, but I've been comfortable in the relative familiarness of my country and surrounding nations.

I marvel at those who have gone before, those who have dared to dream big, and further, taken their dreams into action. I actively seek out those who have taken the leap to shed the comfort of their surroundings and set out for the great unknown. I want to know them, to share a campfire with them, to soak in their experience and knowledge, to siphon their wisdom.

Today, we are in Pensacola, Florida. Tomorrow we head for Semmes, Alabama to meet up with some like-minded adventurers and break bread with them. Right now I'm in "sponge mode" literally soaking every ounce of wisdom and insight I can from those who have been down the road a bit further than I. I take every opportunity presented to me to spend time with anyone who may be helpful to us as we prepare for this journey.

This journey weighs heavily and lightly on me at the same time. There is so much liberty in dispossessing yourself of material things. There is great anticipation of the vastness of the world and the beauty that lies within it. There are so many unknowns. I take comfort in the fact that no matter where I go, someone has already been; and that through the medium of online communication, I am able to at least reach out to them in the hopes that they'll reach back.

I honestly believe that if I were doing this alone, or even just with my better half, I wouldn't be as trepidatious; if I'm being transparent. To have my (currently 3 year old) son along for the journey multiplies a certain protectiveness that I feel is ingrained into all creatures. I want him to see the world, I want him to experience it for himself, and not let others (or the media) dictate what he should think of our global neighbors. If my personal travel experience bears out, he will find that most people around the globe are kind and hospitable, caring and beautiful people. I hope this is what he gains from this experience. Time will tell.

We have made some strides that are "no-take back" strides toward this journey. This actually feels amazing. It is like leaping off the edge of a rock into a lake below. You haven't quite hit the water yet, but there is no going back. It's an incredible feeling really. There is something about knowing you've not only made a decision but took an action.

Eric

 

[Seabee126]

Wow, this is amazing. Im so excited to follow y'all around on your journey!!!

 

[Hourless Life]

Sometimes you have to take a leap. It is just the way it is if you are going to actually put your dreams into motion. We've had to do this several times in our journey thus far and today is another one of those days.

This may seem nominal to some, but the reality is that this is a huge move for us in the direction of our dreams.

In the interest of full transparency, and so that we have a record of what we've done to make this dream a reality... today we finished preparing our Winnebago View 24J for sale. We really don't want to sell it as we love the unit. But we bought it 2 years ago knowing full well that we'd be selling it around this time.

Making decisions like this are the ones that really propel you forward along your journey. Effectively as of today we are "homeless" we don't have an RV to retreat to. We only have our Jeep Guardian.

Currently we are staying at Brittany's parents place in Corpus Christi, Texas because they want time with their grandson before we whisk him away on this journey and we want to spend time with them as well. But we are only here until the end of February. At that point we move into our Jeep fulltime and head toward Denver, CO where our global overland vehicle will be built.

Just this short update today, but hopefully an encouragement to others to not only make decisions, but take actions that force you towards your dreams. ~ Eric

 

[Autism Family Travels]

We are getting into video this year too. I am going to use vivtar "sport" 4k cameras. I am going to try to get 6 of them if they provide adequate imaging. I will be using my iphone 11 with a Ulanzi rig and anamorphic lens for all other video. I think it will be fine for what I need. Good luck with the video stuff.

 

[Hourless Life]

We are getting into video this year too. I am going to use vivtar "sport" 4k cameras. I am going to try to get 6 of them if they provide adequate imaging. I will be using my iphone 11 with a Ulanzi rig and anamorphic lens for all other video. I think it will be fine for what I need. Good luck with the video stuff.

You'd laugh at your own comment if you knew my video editing skills. I need a lot more than luck.

But definitely wish you the best in yours. For me it's really about capturing it for my son to be able to see the adventure he was on in the years he's too young to actually remember. So here's hoping. ~ E

 

[Autism Family Travels]

You'd laugh at your own comment if you knew my video editing skills. I need a lot more than luck.

But definitely wish you the best in yours. For me it's really about capturing it for my son to be able to see the adventure he was on in the years he's too young to actually remember. So here's hoping. ~ E

You will do fine I'm sure. Do a couple of pratice clips while waiting to go, and a bit of reading you will be fine, I am sure of it!

 

[M Rose]

@Hourless Life;

hey Eric. Glad to see you guys around still. How is your mom doing?

 

[Hourless Life]

@Hourless Life;

hey Eric. Glad to see you guys around still. How is your mom doing?

Hey Michael! Thanks for asking. She's doing much better now. We were able to get her house in order and put it up for rent. She transitioned into a beautiful and active Assisted Living facility and she seems much more active, happy, and cared for on a daily basis. So we're really thankful about that.

Appreciate the follow up. ~ E

 

[M Rose]

Thanks Eric for the update.

 

[Hourless Life]

Today we started making our first phone calls to Jeep dealerships in search of the elusive unicorn. Ultimately our build is so specific that we'll probably need to order it custom built via the factory through a dealership.

We are looking at a gas Jeep Gladiator Sport S with Max Tow Package w/ 4.10 Axle ratio, and the MOPAR trail rail system P/N 82215956. In addition other options are AT Tires, 3 piece hard top, 7.0" Uconnect display, popular equipment package, technology group, convenience group, and auxiliary switch group.

This setup will give us the maximum payload you can get in a Jeep Gladiator with an automatic transmission which is 1535lbs. With a standard transmission we could increase that to 1700lbs. But we are willing to sacrifice the 165lb difference for the convenience of an auto trans.

As of this writing with tax all in, we're looking at a ballpark of around $46,000 for the vehicle itself.

We were also blessed to have another gear sponsor join our team and we're really excited about this one. We can't say who just yet, but we'll share that soon. ~ E

 

[Hourless Life]

Our 10-15 year drive around the world is a massive undertaking.

Today we are thrilled to announce that EQUIPT Expedition Outfitters has become our newest gear sponsor and partner on this journey!

Because of cargo space and payload considerations, we have to be extremely selective about the gear we are using and carrying on this journey.
When presented with the opportunity to work with Paul and his crew at EQUIPT, we didn't hesitate for even a moment. They are a trusted company by so many in the overland industry, and we are humbled and honored to be added to those they have chosen to support.

The team at EQUIPT will be providing us with a National Luna 50L Legacy Fridge/Freezer for our global expedition. This is a huge blessing for our family and we couldn't be more appreciative.

More information to come as we continue making preparations for our vehicle build. ~ E