"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are Cat and Harry Harper.
I, Cat, got my first camera when I was 9 and have been on again, off again, in some form or another, a professional photographer. As a kid, my siblings and I were happily dragged around the US by my parents any chance they got. Road trips were an affordable way to take a vacation for the family. Harry’s family were a bit more international…it took me till I was in my 40’s to hit the “over the pond” countries…but he didn’t really road trip the US unless it was to visit family in another state. So, I was a traveler from early years, and he became one over our last 40 years together as I am now the one dragging us, our kids, and grandson, around the US.
While photography was my Art, it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I gave videography any thought at all. I’d begun watching YouTube as a way to, at least, armchair travel especially since all of our 2020 plans had been scrapped. I found lots of truly wonderful creators, like Keep Your Daydream (KYD) and Less Junk More Journey, who were living in an RV full time and making these wonderful Travel Vlogs. In December of that year I watched a KYD where Marc, a videographer, was told by his friend, a photographer, that the camera he was using to take videos also takes photographs too. My brain FLIPPED! I could have been making videos of our Adventures this whole time! Shortly after that we visited our favorite, sort of local, wildlife refuge to see the snow geese migration. As I was trying to capture the look and sound of this very active, joyful and funny flock of about 10 thousand snow geese so our kids could hear them I realized I had a HUGE goofy smile on my face…and Harry did too. It was THE turning point.
I started making videos soon after with Harry, as always, supporting me. He didn’t want to be ON camera but would happily go along with the process. Within weeks he was in front of the camera, behind the camera, helping make plans on where we would go and what we could see! We were HOOKED. Then I hit him with the BIG QUESTION. What would he think if we took his remote job on the road in an RV and made films full time? What did he think about becoming Nomads?
Obviously, he said YES! He really is my #1 supporter and fan! So, we worked for 5 years to get ourselves and our lives together, creating our Travel Vlog Channel on YouTube called “Traveling Cat Photos” and making about 20 films per year. But now we are finally here. It took a while so we could be in the position to hit the road full time. Sorting out 40 years worth of STUFF in our rented sticks and bricks was a huge obstacle in itself. Harry still works remote in the computer industry, as he has for the past 20 years, but we are hoping this new life of ours leads us to new working adventures as well as new places in the US that neither of us have ever been.
While we have rented or borrowed RV’s in the past we have never owned one…till now. So we are total newbies! Will this dream be wonderful? Will it be too hard or too isolating? Will the truck or RV break down too much to make it emotionally or financially viable? We have NO IDEA…and that’s part of the fun…part of the Adventure. We love that you are part of this Adventure…this new way of life. We hope you will leave comments, let us know other places to go, things to do, places to eat and camp. And if you see us “out in the wild”…SAY HI! We love meeting you guys!
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy exploring this website, grabbing some new recipes to try, making notes on new places to go see, catching up on some of our older videos and drop us some great recommendations for your part of the world so we can add them to our list! Yup, I have a spreadsheet going and I’m taking notes!
Thank you for supporting us and we hope you love joining us on the Adventures with our RV, Daisy!