Home Office Highway was about using portable tools like a broadband access wireless Internet card and a laptop to tap into the “cloud” that computing is becoming.

But what if the cloud followed you around like (not to pick a lousy metaphor here) the cloud that surrounded Pig Pen in Peanuts. Toyota and Apple have partnered to ponder a solution that will bring ultimate portability.

Trend watcher and domainer Owen Frager at Frager Factor put it this way: “The vehicle is designed for a buyer group whose unique combination of lifestyle activities and vehicle needs requires a compact pickup offering good fuel economy, advanced functionality, maneuverability and unique styling in a durable package suitable for an active lifestyle … But here’s the juicy part. According to sources close to the review, the car will also launch the in-dashboard ME.COM cloud-access panel from Apple … the ME control panel would become the hub of all activity and provide secure access to any passenger’s server-based applications, data, mail, calendar and credentials and download to a hand-held device…” Read More »

What is “Home Office Highway”? It’s that experience where Vocation Meets Vacation on the open road. Where a home officer discovers how to make work work better, using everyday, off-the-shelf tools and technology, to replicate the home office in a 23-foot RV.

Check it out. And check back often. More to come…

A friend I’ve known for years happened across Home Office Highway recently. Jay Van Vechten, founder of Van Vechten & Co., a Boca Raton, Fla., marketing communications firm, was impressed — and especially non-plussed with his own experience with a recent airline trip. This is a guy who’s traveled by transAtlantic cruise liner, toured the world, and absolutely had it traditional travel.

Hence his comments below…

“Your trip sounds amazing. So much more interesting than flying these days.

“This past week I was in South Carolina. When I reached the airport in Columbus, the check in agent said my bag was 3 pounds overweight and would cost me $50.”

Jay thought he had the solution. Jay was wrong.

Read More »

Which road tracking and map tech to use was always a toss up in our car.

We’d traveled for years with traditional GPS devices, that British lass barking out orders and seemingly venting frustration whenever we’d ignore her suggested turns. She was good and reliable. As the kids always warned, “Trust the technology.”

Then along came the Verizon Wireless and its VZ Navigator Version 4 application.

Our “traditional” retail GPS would just tell us, “Make left in 2 miles.” No street name audibly announced (thought it’s there in print on the screen). I have to admit, though, the British voice was something last summer when we took an impromptu detour onto the Blue Ridge Parkway — and she couldn’t convince us to “Make the next available turn…” Frustrated, she was. Read More »

I have this uncle. We’ll call him Sam.

The 15th of every month, Sam wants a little scratch — whether I’m at my home office in South Florida, or playing road warrior somewhere along the Eastern Seaboard. Sam doesn’t really ask for his money. He doesn’t have to. I know to pay him — or else he’ll sic his business-suited henchmen on me. I’ll get a letter saying, “Mr. Zbar, You’re Delinquent.” The mere thought of raising his suspicions is enough to make any home office worker toe a very straight line.

Truth be told, I try to be a stickler about the money owed me, too. I want my money so I can pay myself, my vendors — and the Good Uncle.

Thus, making these two spokes in the money wheel of business spin in sync are core to running a successful enterprise.

Collections are no laughing matter. And tax payments are nothing to mess around with. And just because I’ll be on the road for three weeks doesn’t mean Uncle Sam won’t expect his estimated payroll tax payment, or I won’t expect my clients to pay me. Read More »

Alex Johnson is an ardent shedworker. From his home in St. Albans in England, Alex works from a shed — and blogs about the shedworking concept on Shedworking. He’s even written about it in the forthcoming book, Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution.

So when Alex and I got to talking about Home Office Highway, he commented on his summers spent working virtually at his in-laws place in Spain (those Europeans are SO cosmopolitan. I’m trying to have a little cosmo-mojo rub off on me by writing about Alex’s exploits).

I asked Alex to share his thoughts. Here’s what he had to say… Read More »

As I walked the aisle of my local Office Depot, I wondered what I would need for my home office road trip. Laptops and routers, storage devices (for paper, pixels and docs) and organizational stuff. Just like I worked from home, really.

But then I saw it, and knew I had to have it. Knew I’d be lost — or at least in an entangled mess — without it. Velcro cable straps and the Ativa Cable Burrito. Absolutely.

Yet my wife had other ideas. After asking her to peruse RV Vacations For Dummies, I inquired what the top three items she said were Must Bring accessories. Robbie whittled it down to one: rubber gloves. Anyone who’s seen RV with Robin Williams knows where Latex gloves would come in — though he needed a hazmat suit. (Robbie’s other two items were a broom and binoculars to spot low-cost fuel from a distance. One suggestion there: GasBuddy.com). Read More »

Home Office Highway isn’t the first to hit the road with a home office on wheels. The “Workamper” concept has been around for years.

Writing consultant and author Marcia Yudkin took a two-month sabbatical back in 2007 (albeit from the family sedan) — and her business never missed a step (check out her report).

The people at RV Sales of Broward travel the region and close deals from aboard the 42-foot Fleetwood Revolution RV-turned-mobile office pictured here. I just spoke with Marc Gilenson, who runs his mobile office-based consulting and business process re-engineering enterprise — and The Association of Entrepreneurs (MyBizUniverse.com) from his 32-foot Damon RV.

I’ve worked from the family minivan. And I’ll work from the ZRV — a 23-foot Fleetwood Jamboree. Check back soon for pix of an interior outfitted for business.

What does it take for you to work from the road? Some technology, the right mindset — and a free spirit. Have you got the right stuff?