Published: November 14, 2008 11:41 pm         

BERNIE HORNICK | Family spending year traveling country in RV

Nathan Swartz may be a person or he may simply be a series of 0s and 1s in computer code.

I’ll never know for sure.

I’ve only communicated with “Nathan” by e-mail.

But I’m pretty sure he’s real because other, more diligent, reporters actually have spoken with and written about him.

I didn’t want to. And this time it’s not because of laziness.

You see, Nate, a Nanty Glo native, and family are traveling the country for a year living, working and homeschooling out of an RV.

So I thought it fitting that I would only interview Nate – a Web page designer – on the fly in cyberspace.

“I personally prefer the online route, as it saves me cell phone minutes and lets people take care of business when most convenient,’’ Nate writes.

He and his family – South African wife Olivia and son Tristan – are doing their own thing for a year. They never got the memo that hippie culture faded along with tattered blue jeans around about 1973.

“I really wouldn’t call us hippies, but I wouldn’t be offended if someone else did,” he said. “I thought they were just a myth. Like unicorns or fiscally conservative Republicans.”

Nate, 29; Olivia, 31, also a Web designer who he met online; and Tristan, 7, took off in August.

They’ve been to West Virginia, Kentucky and Memphis, Tenn., and, at last check, were getting comfy in Austin, Texas.

What’s the point?

“We just love to travel,” Dad writes. “I started to realize that taking two or three weeks to drive around the country just wasn’t enough. There’s too much, ‘Oooh, that looks cool! But we need to drive another 500 miles today,’ kind of stuff.

“We’re living simply and with few possessions in a complicated nation too often focused on consumerism.”

Besides, you might be better off without that 40-hour-a-week, $50,000 job if you get $51,000 in debt, he wryly observes.

Yeah, but you can get on each other’s nerves living in such close quarters. And what happens when the budget gets tight?

“If things get cramped in the RV, we can just take a bike ride or go to work at a local cafe or even just a nearby picnic table,” said this modern-day Jack Kerouac.

Nate is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Central Cambria High School. His father and stepmom, Ray and Laurie Swartz, live in Belsano and his mom and stepdad, Sharon and Mike Edwards, are from Ebensburg.

Go to tumblewagon.com to keep apprised of the family’s escapades. Their site says, “The U.S. has 3.5 million square miles, while our RV is approximately 115 square feet. That leaves a lot of room for the backyard.”

Before his Dad could hit the “send’’ key, Tristan had a shoutout.

“Tristan would like the entire world to know that he’s playing with GI Joes right now, and they are awesome,” Nate writes.

“He’d also like to say ‘Hi!’ to his cousin Jay Jay Zimmerman in Nicktown. Olivia has no comment at this time. :)’’

After Austin, the crew likely will follow the sunset into the desert.

Nate doesn’t know where – or if – the family finally will set anchor.

“To be honest, though, I haven’t ever had a very easy time staying put anyway,” said Nate, hitting the send key and daydreaming out the Winnebago window.



Bernie Hornick is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat.

     

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