Who Are These People

mark – 21 October, 2014

We are a travelling family of three… and a cat. We’re in our 30’s which is a bit uncommon as far as full time RVers go. There isn’t too much more of interest than that. We aren’t hippies or artists. We take internet, tv watching and the quality of things and people we surround ourselves with seriously. We aren’t always politically correct. We are generally thick skinned and we don’t dance around self-centered whiners. We are almost always joking around and above all we are very pragmatic. My name is Mark and this is my introverted girlfriend - SO. As in significant other. If you ever meet us she has no problem sharing her and child’s name but on the website they can be anonymous (since it will always be me writing anyway).

When it comes to our motorhome, cars, and other stuff, we have Lamborghini tastes on 1985 Toyota Corolla budget so we try to make fiscally responsible yet high end purchases and try to save money later on. We have never and will never buy a vehicle new (though SO’s tastes differ on this subject). We tend to do everything we can from a maintenance and repair perspective ourselves. I’ve rebuilt engines in cars and I swapped the transmission in the Winnebago in a weekend without a lift or transmission jack (as it turns out the issue wasn’t the transmission… poo). We post any gotchas we find going about these tasks on our website.

I run a tech company. I basically offer ²⁴⁄₇ management of small to medium business IT infrastructure. AKA you can call me to do some forensic analysis when your registers get hacked (or contract me to prevent it to begin with), keep servers and desktops up to date and secure, setup new servers, etc. I develop custom software solutions for clients in the casino gaming and retail industries. I’ve found the best success from being highly competent in all areas of the product lifecycle. I deliver completed products with excellent cost saving hardware, OS, and software selections completed and confgured properly. My racing and gaming clients love me because they can give me a (sometimes huge) task and they don’t have to hold my hand all the way through. I do web work, desktop apps, kiosk, and mobile on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. I am particularly awesome at integration of modern systems with archaic platforms like that old AS/400 sitting in the corner of your office. If you need anything, no matter how big or small, by all means get in touch! Being mobile means I can be on site for months if necessary at project launch no matter where you are in the country!

I collect and play with vintage Atari computers. I’ve never met anyone in person who understands this hobby ;) I dabble with embedded hardware development and have a fascination for home automation. I’m almost always tinkering with a new idea or system that might make my life easier.

We love BMW’s, our Foretravel motorhome, our Lexus toad. I love and she tolerates my motorcycle obsession. I hit the track whenever I can in my supercharged 1996 BMW M3. We both love trance music and I love some more esoteric metal and alternative bands (and a lot of mainstream ones as well). We’re both major foodies but I have a difficult time getting her to stray from chains - generally because meals from smaller places tend to be really amazing or really crappy and she can’t stand the really crappy ones.

We originally had a 1998 Winnebago Adventurer 32’ motorhome which was very inexpensive and served as our “do we really want to do this?” vehicle. Recently we upgraded to our 1999 Foretravel U320 4200 tandem axle diesel pusher. This is our “yes, we really do want to do this” vehicle.

Getting from the boring 9 to 5 with a giant 2400 square foot house to living in an RV is also a story in and amongst itself which I will try to detail on the site as well. When I do, I’ll link to them from this page.

Last modified: 21 October, 2014
Created: 22 April, 2013