Recent Blog Articles

Waking up from the American Dream

Ashley Longnecker / March 03, 2015

Are you excited?

This is a question I have been asked over and over for the last 5 months since we made our traveling plans known. 

These last 5 months have flown by. There has been so much organizing, selling, painting, preparing and planning going on that I sometimes just stop and have to remember to breathe. Every now and then I’ll find myself trying to think about what it will be like when we are actually out of the house and living everyday in our 5th wheel. But it’s hard. I’ve never slept in a 5th wheel let alone stayed in one, ever. This is a whole new experience for our family. We’ve never pulled a 42 foot trailer behind a truck. We’ve never tried to cram 6 people’s belongings into a 420 sqft space. 

Good iPad Games for Your Kids: Part 1

Jonathan Longnecker / February 10, 2015

Hey, you know what's fun? Grabbing one of those crappy free games on the App Store and letting your kids try to play it. It's jam packed full of annoying ads, game play mechanics that require in app purchases and so many popups there's no way you could possibly enjoy playing it, let alone your kids (who keep accidentally tapping the wrong thing and ending up in a web browser with some ad or in the App Store trying to get them to buy another app).

I lied. This is not fun. This isn't how games are supposed to be. 

I remember throwing a cartridge into my Nintento or Sega Genesis (yeah I'm old) and just losing myself in the graphics, music, story and game play. You know, back when games were fun? 

Recently I've become determined to make sure my kids know what a good game is. The first step was to grab this awesome Sega Gensis with 80 games built in! That's right, you can play Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog or Vectorman all from this one console. It's pretty cool!

The second step was to find fun, high quality games for our iPad without in-app purchases. Also said games may not involve endlessly running or flinging animals from a slingshot over and over again.

In the words of Barney Stinson, "Challenge accepted!" Here's a few of the best games we've played over the last year or so. They're not free or cheap, but they're great games you can play with your kids on the iPad. Great graphics, engaging story, thought-provoking puzzles and blistering action. We hope you love them as much as we do.

Leo's Fortune

Code:Rad - Revoltech Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Jonathan Longnecker / January 31, 2015

In case you missed it, we're big Ninja Turtle fans in the Longnecker household. I grew up with them, and now my kids are obsessed. We've watched just about every movie and television season we can get our hands on. And of course we've got all the toys. I'm pretty sure we have every action figure you can get. Or at least we thought we did.

Recently I ran across these bad boys from a Japanese company called Revoltech (seriously, it's all in Japanese). Not only are the a near perfect sculpt of the turtles from the 2012 Nickelodeon series, but they are dang near infinitely poseable and come with amazing detailed weapons. Shoot, you can even pose their eyes or white them out for battle mode. Rad!

I showed them to the kids, explaining that getting something like this wouldn't really be a toy you would play with all the time since they're delicate. But they still wanted them.

So we surprised them for Christmas this year and got the whole set. Or maybe I bought them for myself. Anyway.

Podcast Interview: People I Almost Know

Jonathan Longnecker / January 20, 2015

Have you been wondering what some of the thinking is behind our decision to travel full time? Good news! Michelle Moran of "People I Almost Know" interviewed us for her podcast and asked us for you :)

In all seriousness, we were honored to be a part of her show and get to talk about some of the crazy things we're planning. It was a blast!

If you want to listen to the episode go check it out. Enjoy!

Code:Rad - 1767 Designs

Ashley Longnecker / January 16, 2015

Guys, you know I love old wood and you know I love good design, so when both of those worlds collide, you get 1767 Designs. He takes old wood from homes in the Nashville area and creates rad pieces of art.

Sometimes, tables, headboards, but his unique style is one that you won’t forget once you check out his site. Follow him on Instagram and buy some rad art that will make your guests swoon. Well done, sir. Well done!