Autistic Travel & Nomad Living: Finding Stability in Instability on the Road

I thrive in environments where I can find enough predictability to have a reliable routine (one that keeps me centered). However, nomadic life is often unpredictable.

Welcome back to another Founding Member Friday!

Twice each month on Friday (sometimes on Thursdays), I put out an exclusive post like this one (often on a more intimate and personal topic OR featuring some of the training materials I’m teaching) that will be brought to you by and for our Founding Members.

The first part of this post is always FREE to everyone here on Substack, and the ending of the post is ONLY available to our Founding Members (as thanks for the extra support they give to make this blog possible).

We currently have twenty-one Founding Members. I won’t put them on the spot today, but you know who you are. I can’t thank you enough for your support.

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It has been requested that I share more of our journeys and lessons learned while traveling.

People are often curious about how being Autistic lends itself to nomadic styles of living (especially since many of us crave stability, and I am no different). 

I thrive in environments where I can find enough predictability to have a reliable routine (one that keeps me centered). However, nomadic life is often unpredictable, so unpredictable the unpredictability itself often becomes predictable. 

Living on the road can be chaotic, but there are some things I can rely on, and I cling to those familiar comforts. Traveling in an RV, we have our home (everywhere we go) and all the items one needs (though fewer amenities than some are used to). 

Photo of the front part of a tan and white RV on a Ford E450 van sitting on top of the SantaFe Mountians in NM

We have a refrigerator, furnace, water heater, stove, and oven that run on propane. Onboard, we also have a large battery to run lights and the fan for our furnace. We have 400 watts of solar energy and two portable batteries that can run most of our household items to ensure we don't run out of power. 

Even if we break down on the side of the road, I have my home office (that fits in a backpack) with me everywhere we go.

In the chaos of whatever is happening outside, life inside our RV goes on as I go about my day as usual, brewing water in my silver camp kettle to make instant coffee.

As we move from place to place, the scenery outside our windows and the places we play after work changes, but the world inside our home remains unaltered. 

Photo of David Rivera, setting up the Projector screen on the side of the RV in the Roswell, NM Desert.

I have my routines. I have my rituals. I still work - a LOT. 

Work is one thing that remains constant. 

Hi, my name is Lyric, and I'm a workaholic.

I work A LOT.

I work more than I want to.

I work as a way to distract myself from my problems and uncomfortable feelings and emotions. 

Founding members have access to the rest of this post as a thanks for their support.