About

I grew up in England and have always enjoyed traveling and exploring the world. So in 2014, I jumped at an opportunity to move to California and start a new chapter of my life in America.

I’ve always been very scientifically minded, studying Theoretical Physics at the University of York. My professional career has been in software engineering and product management, but I also enjoy making things as a hobby - including software, DIY, woodworking, electronics and now, our house!

On a day-to-day basis, I am responsible for our blog - both the website itself which I built, as well as all the blog posts you read. I really enjoy sharing the details of what we’re up to, in the hope that people will find it interesting and maybe even learn something! In addition, I offer consulting - both product and technology consulting for companies, as well as individual consulting on topics like RV solar . You can also check out my personal website for more technical content: www.mattknight.io

I’m from Latvia, a small country in eastern Europe. I moved to the US to attend Smith College in Massachusetts where I double majored in Computer Science and Math.

It wasn’t all serious though - I took some fun classes like Introduction to Wilderness Skills, learned to roll in a kayak, and took an epic spring break trip backpacking in Utah. After college I moved to San Francisco for my dream job working for a tech company as a software engineer. I still managed to travel though - including a 3 month break around the world, hiking to the top of Mount Fuji, cycling up a volcano in Bali, and road-tripping in France.

I’m our video editor, and really enjoy making the videos we upload to our YouTube channel. If you haven’t seen it yet then go check it out, and subscribe!

We met just 10 days after Matt moved to San Francisco, while playing squash at a social round-robin night. For our first few dates we took it in turns to organize surprise dates which should have been a sign of how our relationship would turn into a never-ending adventure!

While living in California we tried to be as adventurous as possible. Together we have cycled around Lake Tahoe (72 miles)...twice! We skied in 4 different states, took an Amtrak train almost all the way across the country, road-tripped as far as Montana and Colorado, crossed the Mojave desert in our truck, backpacked in Yosemite and managed to visit 23 National Parks!

But it still wasn’t enough. So in 2018 we decided to take things to the next level...

It was while on an epic 10-day road trip to see some of Utah’s National Parks that the idea was born - what if we set out to explore all the National Park Units in the US?

We began researching the idea and it soon became obvious that doing it while living and working in California was impractical - we had to hit the road. So in July 2018 we left our 4-bedroom house in the Bay Area and moved into our 25ft travel trailer and began exploring!

Our progress was slow, but steady. Our goal wasn’t simply to check each one off on a list, but to explore each one - to learn what made it unique, and appreciate its merits. After 2 years we had explored about 40 National Park Units.

We never set out to be live full-time in an RV - it was just the best way for us to visit the National Parks. But it didn’t take us long to embrace the RVer lifestyle - spending most of our time in the desert southwest. We met some amazing people on the road and had a lot of fun!

We were in Arizona when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Many of the National Parks closed, and suddenly we felt very vulnerable in the RV - public lands were closing, and we had no home base if things got worse. Our plan was never to RV forever and perhaps this was the right time to find somewhere to call home.

In late 2020 we headed to the northeast US to see the fall colors with a plan to spend the winter there. If we could endure a cold New England winter in our RV, maybe we would be cut out to live there too!

So that’s exactly what we did. After spending about a month in New Hampshire, we found a quaint, family-run campground in Vermont to spend the winter. It was while there that we fell in love with Vermont. We wanted to live there.

We spent the winter skiing and exploring Vermont, but also searching for land. Once again we wanted to do things the adventurous way - we didn’t want to buy a house, we wanted to build our own home!

In the summer of 2021, we bought 40+ acres of forested hillside in central Vermont. Our goal is to build a healthy, sustainable and high-efficiency Passive House, fully equipped with the latest self-hosted, DIY home automation technology. And we want to do as much as possible by ourselves.

We haven’t abandoned our goal of visiting the National Parks, or exploring the US with our RV. We’re still living full-time in our RV while we build our house, and we look forward to exploring not just the local area, but further afield too.

Sound interesting? Then check out our YouTube channel or subscribe to our newsletter and follow along!