Story 32 | Idle Theorists

Kit and JR (@idletheorybus)

For the past five years, Kit and J.R. have been traveling the American road full-time in their 1976 VW Bus named, Sunshine, camping in deserts and forests, while occasionally working on farms.

Kit saw Sunshine in a Kmart parking lot back in 2008 and fell in love.  Sunshine allowed them to occasionally escape from the city to the mountains, and in 2009. Kit and J.R. took a cross-country road trip.  By 2010, they were sick of working long hours in an over-crowded city and decided to reform their lives by moving into their bus for a year, leaving typical society in the dust. Friends called them homeless; insane. Family refused to speak to them.  But Kit and J.R. felt that their lives were lacking idle time and so they set out on the road intent on doing nothing at all.

Realizing that they had to work eventually, they began learning how to better balance work, leisure and idle time: a life-long process.  J.R. is a photographer and videographer. Kit is an author and illustrator. Together they have traveled  through 45 of the lower 48 states, driven up into Canada and down to Mexico. They seek out the remote, silent places. Forever chasing what wildness remains, those spaces where they can hear coyotes or listen to the wind and connect with their inner natures. Wherever Kit and J.R. find themselves in their VW bus is home.  And they keep their traveling home super simple, no modifications, no roof rack, no refrigerator, no exterior storage, just a cook-stove and a countertop, no frills.

"Everything we own, travels with us in the bus," Kit says.  "Knowing that we can live on so few possessions is freeing, because we know that joy is attainable no matter what happens to us financially.  Our Idle Theory has helped us accept that, because in accepting idle time and pursuing leisure time, we have learned that we don’t need to overwork in order to justify ourselves."

Last year Kit and J.R. published a book about their adventures titled, "Orange Is Optimism."

For more on Kit and J.R.'s journey to a reformed life follow them on Instagram @idletheorybus