Hostess With the Most Less

Before going full-time nomad (I'm worried "feral" is a more apt description at this point), hosting family and friends (and sometimes strangers who left as friends) was a passion, and we did it frequently. If all the Instagram content is any indication, we live in a time where people loathe overnight and (gasp) longer guests, but for us, the more the merrier, the more often the better. We've always figured out a way to host, be it shoe-horning a six-person dining table and chairs in our tiny medieval-torture-walk-up first apartment in downtown Manhattan (come be our guest and luxuriate on the best air mattress money can buy!) to later building-with-our-own-hands a sizeable guest house when our farmhouse could no longer accommodate our hosting calendar (such a fantastic problem to have). We knew that for life on the road to work fully, we'd need a way to incorporate visitors along the way. (With one sizeable change now: If there's more than one person, they don't stay WITH us; they stay NEAR us. We love company, but we aren't masochists. Geez.)

Until now, we've only dipped our toes in hosting on the road. We were lucky enough to have my cousin and his family come for dinner when we were in Nashville. Like much of our family, they double as good friends (we really are lucky, aren't we?), and life is such that we have hardly seen them in the past year. Having them and their happy-go-lucky adorable baby girl (New litmus test for determining adorable babyness: Does Colan have an undeniable urge and newfound confidence to scoop them up?) was one of our absolute first favorites in our new life. We had another night of hosting in Palm Springs with one of my oldest, nearest and dearest, doesn't-matter-how-long-time-has-passed friends and only called it once our eyes had trouble staying open. (A little disappointing considering she and I were the queens of all-nighters back in the day during slumber parties on her waterbed.) Now in Sedona, we've taken off the training wheels and my parents, also known as "Momma and Don" or "T&D" or "Ma and Pa Kettle" have rented a cabin in our RV park and are visiting for a little over a week.

Even without sleeping under the same roof, all of its familiar feels are there. We experience new things, explore, laugh till our faces hurt. No matter how crazy the day, we end with dinner under the stars and a bonfire without a care in the world (except my mom wondering if that javelina will return). They only have to get themselves about a stone's throw away when the time comes, so no counting drinks here. (Reminder to look at aftermarket handrails for the entrance.) I've also adapted my cooking to minimize stress and time. (And clean-up. How I miss a dishwasher, let me count the ways!) I call it paint-by-numbers-cooking, and by the time we have company, I can mostly be on autopilot and not miss any hot gossip. For a couple of nights, it's been so windy that we have dinner and a movie inside. We've taken two chairs out of storage (The Basement), and our office-by-day turns into the world's coziest, most elbow room-less restaurant. We're crammed together and loving it. Our only real problem is figuring out how to keep my stepdad from falling asleep well before the movie ends, but that's been a problem since I was eight, so my hopes aren't high.

All of this is a reminder that you don't really need much more than the people when it comes to people, as long as they're the people you want to be with. (Follow that?) It helps that we're visiting beautiful tourist destinations constantly. Still, my guess is you can make almost any place fit those parameters if you're going to be with the individuals you inherently enjoy. We've got my aunt and uncle up next (meeting us in Texas in their brand new fifth wheel!), and then Colan's sister in New Orleans, then Colan's parents in the Florida Keys (they're using RVShare and will be staying in a rig much like ours). The rest of 2024 is filling up fast, and we hope 2025 will have so many people wanting to join at various points that it'll be as bustling as our beloved Bruyn lifestyle. Seeing our loved ones regularly is vital to giving this lifestyle permanence. So stop worrying about making everything perfect or convenient, and invite away! It makes being at home on the road feel like A Home. And remember, a good bonfire under the stars fixes a multitude of sins!

Hope to see you out there! -CL