23. Home Base + Escape Hatch
We were parked on a remote dirt road in our campervan. Middle of nowhere. Dark out. We had water, warmth, everything we needed.
But something felt OFF. Not unsafe—just unsettled. Like the space itself had this restless quality we couldn't name.
That ability to READ a place? To sense whether it holds you or unsettles you? That's not quirk. That's ancestral inheritance.
As an AuDHDer, it’s easy to feel trapped between two impossible choices: stay in one place and feel stagnant, or live the nomadic life and feel dysregulated.
But what if there's a third option?
This episode explores how to structure geographic flexibility that honors both your ADHD's need for novelty and your Autism's need for predictability—from extended annual stays to seasonal migration patterns to having a mobile option when you need to pop out.
In This Episode:
Multi-base living isn't constant movement—it's having multiple places that genuinely feel like home
Geographic flexibility honors both ADHD's need for novelty and Autism's need for predictability
Seasonal migration is ancient human practice, not modern instability
"Same bed, different place" provides novelty WITH predictability
Your nervous system knows what it needs—follow the body knowing, not the cultural blueprint
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WHAT THIS ISN'T
This isn't about selling everything and living out of a backpack. It's not about constant movement or adopting the nomad identity or van life aesthetic.
It's not about designing your life the way you've seen influencers do it.
When I used the term "nomadic," people probably pictured travel vloggers who average only 3 nights per bed. Constant new locations. Always moving.
That's not us. I'm trying to sleep in just a few beds for the entire year.
Early in my business, I followed the Suitcase Entrepreneur dream—not beholden to one place, working from your laptop, traveling the world. It sounded cool. But living fully out of a suitcase always sounded stressful to me. Full of executive function drain and without nervous system stability.
If the only options were staying in one place all the time OR doing constant travel, I'd be an unhappy AuDHDer.
This is about finding the balance between your ADHD brain getting stagnant living in one place 365 days a year and your Autistic brain having the stability to feel grounded.
OUR FIVE-YEAR EVOLUTION
Phase 1: Corner Suite Plus Oregon House (2020-2022)
When our landlord gave notice in 2020, we moved into my parents' house “temporarily”. A few months in, we also rented a house in Oregon while my partner built his product-based business.
For the next couple years, we bounced between Oregon and Vegas—month or two here, month or two there. I loved that Oregon house. But winters? Pacific Northwest grey left us depressed. So we'd spend more time in Vegas in winter, Oregon in summer.
This is when we started multi-base living without realizing it. We had TWO actual homes. Not traveling between places—LIVING in both.
Phase 2: The Warehouse "Apartment" (2023-2024)
When the business outgrew the house basement, we needed a dedicated warehouse. We let go of the house to shift funds to warehouse rent.
From that point forward, when in Oregon, we lived in our van pulled into the warehouse. Showers over the warehouse drain. CrossFit gym on the other side of our wall. We built a "kitchen" and "living room" in the corner.
It looked weird. It's not perfect for my brain—all those shelving stacks visually short-circuit me. But it worked as a creative stop-gap.
Phase 3: Extended Van Travel
We've also spent months at a time actually traveling. Not bouncing between two known locations. Being on the road. Learning what regulates versus dysregulates us.
The pattern we naturally gravitated toward? Never ONLY rooted or ONLY moving. That's been the key.
Present Day: Home Base Plus Mobile Option
A year ago, we bought an intergenerational house with my parents in Vegas. Our own 900-square-foot apartment with complete autonomy.
This is our HOME BASE now. Our roots. But we still have the van parked out front for weekend pop-outs. Still have regular Oregon trips. Still spent a month traveling over the holidays.
And we still have our eye toward a second home base in Oregon for seasonal migration—summers there, winters here.
This isn't "between homes." This is having multiple home bases by design.
WHY GEOGRAPHIC FLEXIBILITY MATTERS FOR AUDHD
Our ADHD needs novelty, movement, change to stay engaged. Our Autism needs predictability, sameness, known routines to feel safe.
Most people see where you live as a choice between opposites: Stay put OR move. Structure OR flow.
But geographic flexibility? This is one way to honor BOTH.
The ADHD side gets different environments. New inputs. Movement that prevents stagnation.
The Autistic side gets returning to the same places. Known beds. Familiar sensory environments. Predictable rotation patterns.
That's why 3 nights per bed doesn't work for us. Our nervous systems like to revisit the same beds. The van lets us travel WITH our bed.
"Same bed, different place" = novelty WITH predictability. Both needs met at once.
WHAT THIS CAN LOOK LIKE
Seasonal migration: Summers one place, winters another. Two functioning home bases you rotate between with predictable rhythm.
Extended annual stays: That family cabin you go to every July for six weeks.
Dual residency: Living somewhere six months, somewhere else six months.
Home base plus mobile option: Rooted place AND ability to pop out.
The key? These aren't VISITS. These are places you actually LIVE.
The Van as Regulation Tool
A couple weeks ago, I was on my period, tired, had completed all my work. I wanted to rest but couldn't in my home environment. I felt unsettled—that kinetic energy.
So I went into the van with my laptop, game console, iPad. Something about being in there—the contained, minimalist energy. No house projects visible. Not a lot of options pulling at me.
I organized Instagram highlights, did light creative tasks, played a game. Then I was ready to go back inside.
The van has become a regulation space. Not just transportation.
MAKING IT WORK FOR AUDHD BRAINS
Portable Anchors: Specific routines that travel with you. Same morning sequence. Sensory comfort items—our bedding, lighting, familiar sounds. Your personal settling rituals.
There's a Ukrainian folk tradition to bring soil from your homeland when you travel. A pouch of earth from the place that is YOURS. A physical reminder that says "I'm still connected to where I came from."
For you, that might be: a small jar of soil from your yard, photos of ancestors, a specific object that travels everywhere, the pillow from your bed.
What matters is bringing what grounds you along for the journey.
Predictable Rhythms: Known rotation patterns—not winging it. Established home bases—not constantly new places. Time to settle before moving again.
We're not embracing chaos. We're creating structure that can MOVE with us.
Nervous System Assessment: That kinetic energy check—trusting when something feels off. Knowing your capacity. How long you can move versus when you need to root.
Returning to Known Places: We're not constantly seeking NEW locations. We go back to the same camp sites. Take the same routes. The van is literally the same bed traveling with us.
That familiarity is what makes the movement sustainable. We're not tourists. We're inhabitants of multiple places.
THE ANCESTRAL PATTERN
For hundreds of thousands of years—long before settled agriculture, long before permanent villages—our ancestors moved seasonally.
Not wandering aimlessly. They had known territories they returned to year after year. Summer camps. Winter villages. Multi-site living where different locations served different purposes.
Anthropologists call this seasonal rounds—predictable circuits through different territories at different times of year.
Following animal migrations. Harvesting plants when ripe. Moving to where resources were abundant each season. Winter camps in protected valleys. Summer camps near fishing grounds.
Bodies KNOWING when it was time to move. Reading weather patterns. Animal behavior. Plant cycles. These weren't random wanderings. These were KNOWN territories.
Why AuDHD Brains Might Have Thrived
Our ADHD side needs novelty. Environmental change. Following dopamine where it leads.
Our Autistic side needs deep familiarity. Returning to known patterns. Sensory attunement to environment.
In seasonal movement context, these aren't deficits. These are design features.
The person who NOTICES: "The air feels different, storm coming, we should move to the protected valley."
The person who THRIVES on: Summer camp stimulation, winter camp quietness. Knowing multiple landscapes intimately. Returning to the SAME summer spot year after year—predictability within movement.
That Autistic sensory sensitivity? In modern settled life, it feels like a burden. In seasonal movement? It's ESSENTIAL INTELLIGENCE. The person who feels the cold coming early. Who knows when it's time to leave the summer grounds.
My easily-overheated system that needs to escape Vegas summer? My sensitivity to Oregon's grey winters? That's not weakness. That's my body KNOWING what it needs to thrive.
THE KEY INSIGHT
When I started bouncing around between my parents' place and Oregon—I didn't have language for any of this. I didn't even know the term AuDHD yet.
But my body knew. It knew staying in one place felt like stagnation. It knew I needed the movement AND the returning.
I was following seasonal rounds without having words for it. Following patterns my nervous system remembered even when my conscious mind had no framework.
For hundreds of thousands of years, humans moved seasonally. They were inhabitants of multiple places. They followed what their bodies needed. They moved with rhythm, not chaos.
Staying in one place year-round? That's recent. That's the experiment.
Following seasons? That's ancient. That's what bodies remember.