Wired Magazine takes a look at the Nomadic Geek's lifestyle -- when the desk is exchanged for the driver seat of an RV or the dinette of an Airstream.

The good folks at Wired took a novel look at mobile home officing.

Where Home Office Highway hit the road in a C-Class RV, Wired’s take on “Nomadic Geeks” was to “Take Your Job and Shove It — Into an Airstream.”

Cell phones and swiping bandwidth. Biofuel and satellite reception. Very cool — and kinda high-tech.

One guy even said to do this full time you’d have to lower your fee in exchange for spotty availability (hey, we gotta explore the woods and hike the trails a little bit, no?).

“Yesterday’s freeloading hippie is today’s wireless world traveler,” they wrote. They “talked to some nomadic geeks to find out how to trade in your mortgage for flexible hours and an ever-changing, million-dollar view.”

Home Office Highway does the same — sans the million-dollar view and permanent vocation-meets-vacation lifestyle. Temp as our trip may be, the lessons learned and technology used make being a nomad a life-changing experience everytime you hit the road, Jack.

Imagine taking a three week trip. Then imagine packing the family — and home office — for that trip. The details are innumerable, intimidating and seemingly insurmountable.

From packing kids’ duffel bags for camp, and outfitting an RV for almost a month of workation, it’s a daunting task — for mom and dad alike. How to do it all? It reminds me of a quote I once got from someone when I asked what they wanted for the holidays? Overworked as she was, she said, “A clone, with insomnia.”

We’re eyeballing the RV with keen interest on where things should go for most effective ergonomics and functionality. Where should the home office be kept — when it’s not a home office? Where should the travelers’ stuff be stored on a vehicle with limited storage?

Thankfully, we have a few products that are helping organize the space. My Foray Mobile Office Workmate will stash one laptop almost all my accessories, and some files and paperwork. This way, when I’m ready to work, I just roll it out (from where yet, I still don’t know), open it up, pull out and power up the laptop, and — Voila! — I have an office.

I’ve put a batch of supplies behind the driver’s and passenger seats. One weatherproof storage container will stash all my printer paper, cartridges and the like. My inlaws — veteran RVers of more than 40 years — said to keep supplies in the shower stall, and fetch them as needed. Talk about maximizing space.

In tight quarters, whether it’s an RV-turned-home office or a Manhattan apartment or the corner of your den, the key is to improvise with a keen eye on functionality. We’ll make it happen.

I’m just waiting for the clone to show up.

As we prep, pack and panic to head out for three weeks on the road in the ZRV, it’s important to remember the essentials.

10. My Office Depot Christopher Lowell Collection Home Office Lean-To and Herman Miller Aeron “Around the Campfire” office chair.

9. The back-line to Tim, your Filipino buddy in the IT help desk overseas. Always there with some advice.

8. Raid, Off, citronella, flyswatters. I know how bad bugs can be in the Florida suburban summer. I can only imagine what they’ll be like in the actual outdoors — especially with the glow of the monitor to attract them like moths to the flame. Read More »

T-Minus four days until Home Office Highway hits the open road, and I still find myself in search of the must-have supplies. I have my latex gloves and Velcro straps. I have Purell (there’s actual germs in the woods!). And I have my harmonica and funky travel hat.

But in frenzied fashion befitting a home office denizen first-timing it in an RV, below is the rest of the stuff I believe I’ll need. Have other ideas? Let me know…

– Cable locks to secure laptops, and a travel pad lock to close my Mobile Workmate. A baseball bat would be nice, too.
– My must-have user IDs and passwords so I can blog, log on, bank and otherwise work and live on the road. Read More »

Plates and utensils? Check. Bedding and toiletries? Check. Clothes, food and other necessities? Check, check, check. Once the mainstays of an RV trip have been bought, gathered and stored, then you turn to the office supplies.

When I leave on a business trip, I try to remember all the accessories and accoutrements I’ll need — lest I go without something or have to buy a replacement on the road. But what will I need for a three-week RV trip that seeks to truly replicate the office?

Let’s review the stuff… Read More »

When I told people I was planning an RV trip, many envisioned Robin Williams’ movie RV. His character apparently drives into uncharted and adventurous highways.

I guess people envisioned similar adventures for the Zbar family’s Z-RV.

“Lola” the GPS warns him he’s “not on any marked road,” has he struggles to find a shortcut back to his family. He gets slathered in “fecal matter” when trying to dump “the rolling turd’s” tanks. He writes an entire presentation on his laptop from an RV camp’s restroom, only to find “No Signal” to transmit the document to his over-demanding boss back home. He then writes it using his BlackBerry, and suffers the same disconnected experience.

Some of the images were striking a familiar cord with me — someone who has worked from the road for years. Short of the fecal matter reference, I’ve frustrated GPS mavens by taking the Blue Ridge Parkway when she wanted us on the Interstate. And I’ve struggled to find a signal to send important emails back to clients.

Then, I discovered John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley: In Search of America, the dying author’s tale of a cross country journey into “America on the eve of a tumultuous decade.” I guess there’s a serious — and seriously introspective — take on RVing.

I found RV Vacations For Dummies and Over-the-Road Wireless for Dummies, both from Wiley. Then I read Marcia Yudkin’s Taking Your Business on the Road, a report on how to take your business on the road — and not have it suffer in the process.

Except for Magellan and Columbus, few “explorers” today find truly uncharted territory. As pragmatists advise, why reinvent the wheel? Or, in my case, the RV adventure…