Our Story

We believe the American dream should include the ultimate road trip.

We are intrepid travelers Tammy and Aaron Oesting and we take our dreams seriously. We have interpreted the Great American Road Trip to include the rest of the world: we started with the United States, spent half of 2014, all of 2015 and into 2016 in Europe and North Africa, and returned to explore more of North America.  

Two years before we departed, a series of unfortunate events almost grounded us from actualizing our dream.  Our house was condemned due to a hot-water leak insurance wouldn’t cover, a parent was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and our daughter was struggling with societal norms placed on her adolescence.  Instead, the challenges of rebuilding our home ourselves, losing a parent, and supporting our daughter Mali were a catalyst to take the leap and redefine what was important. 

Realizing we didn’t want to wait to fulfill our dreams, we quit our jobs, sold our house, gave away our belongings and bought sight-unseen a motorhome in the Netherlands.  This leap of course, took tremendous reflection, courage, planning, and some would say, a bit of crazy thinking!  

What we’re learning on our journey is shared here in Lands Remote.

Both our family lines brim with adventurers.   These pioneers fired our imaginations and set ablaze a curiosity that continues to burn brightly within us both expressing itself as insatiable wanderlust. Individually and together we have traveled to six continents, much of the United States, and we continually find places we’d like to go next. 

Our daughter never had a chance.  Her name Mali, was chosen from an atlas.  We traveled together for seven months until she returned to the United States to bloom into her young adult life on her own (Exit Interview with Mali Rain).  After being apart for a year and a half, we were reunited in New York and are currently pausing in Pittsburgh so Mali can finish high school. 

People often assume we must be wealthy to afford to travel as much as we have, but actually, as a teacher and a librarian, our salaries were not that large.  Living frugally and simply is how we afford to travel. 

We found there is a healthy camping culture in Europe but it is 99.9% used by Europeans.  Why don’t we meet Americans or other nationalities exploring Europe by campervan?  Lands Remote intends to change that by providing the resources and inspiration for RVers with European aspirations.  Upon returning to the United States, we found a wide range of campgrounds and lots of “boondocking” or free campsites!

We travel without an itinerary and are bound only by visa time restrictions and our budget.  This allows us to choose our next destination right up to the last minute.  Our proclivity to follow the opportunities that arise when traveling slow without an agenda leads to the question, “Where are they now?”

Follow us and find out what Lands Remote beckon us to next. Discover our impressions as we question assumptions and share valuable resources tempting you to follow YOUR dream. 

Your ultimate road trip is within your reach.

UPDATE December 2017:

Our days of wandering continue into 2018 with Aaron and I on the road in the United States growing our business, housesitting, and visiting friends and family.  Mali is now a freshman at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Colorado and enjoying life as an independent young person.

Mali Rain Oesting backed by Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, San Diego, California in February of 2017.

Our hiatus in writing for Lands Remote was due mostly with being 110% focused on launching and nurturing our Montessori professional development company ClassrooMechanics.  As you can see from our retrospectives of 2016 and 2017, we’re not lacking in adventure and travel, just in capturing it well to share with you. Now that our monetized baby is off the ground, we hope to shift our attention to this labor of love and the one we live daily, Lands Remote.