The Dogs Behind The Long Way Living
Every good road trip has a crew. Ours has four legs, mixed breeds, a combined age of nearly sixteen years, and an absolutely unhinged amount of personality packed into what will soon be a 13-foot trailer.
Before we talk about routes or gear or what it’s actually like to run a marketing agency from a campsite, you need to meet the dogs. They are, without question, the best thing about this whole operation. They are also the reason we needed a permanent bed in our trailer, because there was never a world where we were rebuilding a sleeping situation every night with these two involved.
Let me introduce you properly.
Verde — 14 Years Old
Verde came into my life in 2012 as a 12-week-old pittie mix rescue from Orlando, Florida. He was tiny and ridiculous and has been my shadow for the fourteen years since.
He is now 14 years old and I want to be very clear about who he is as a being: Verde is not a wise, dignified elder. He is your happiest grandpa. The one who is already up and ready to go when you suggest a walk, who will absolutely eat whatever you’re having, who finds the best patch of afternoon sun in any room and installs himself there for hours. He naps like it’s a competitive sport. He wakes up from those naps completely ready to do it all again.
The thing that gets me every single time — and has for fourteen years — is that Verde always looks back. On walks, on hikes, in parking lots. He’ll get a few steps ahead and then turn around to make sure we’re all still there. His whole deal is knowing his pack is close. I think about that a lot when I think about why we’re doing this trip the way we’re doing it — together, all of us, no one left behind.
He’s made it 14 years by being exactly himself, every single day. We should all be so consistent.
Quinn — 1.5 Years Old
Quinn’s story starts at Mercy Full Project in Tampa, where he spent months waiting. He’d been abandoned and, for reasons I will never fully understand, was consistently passed over. When we went to an adoption event in late September 2025, Quinn was the only dog there who was never taken out to meet a prospective family. Not once. While other dogs rotated through meet-and-greets, Quinn just… waited.
We took him out.
Then we took him home.
What I can tell you about Quinn, now that he’s been with us for a few months, is that he is insufferably sweet in the best possible way. He is a full-body-wiggle kind of dog. He loves to snuggle with a commitment that borders on professional. He is the bestest boy, and I will not be taking questions on this.
He and Verde have settled into a dynamic that is, honestly, pretty perfect. Verde is the slow-blink, sun-soaking, deeply unbothered grandpa. Quinn is the puppy who wants to be near him at all times and has approximately four times the energy. Verde tolerates this with great patience. Quinn worships him for it.
The fact that Quinn spent months at that rescue with no one stopping to meet him and then became this — this cuddly, joyful, completely devoted dog — says something about patience and about second chances that I’m still sitting with.
Robbie — Always With Us
There were three of them.
Robbie was our boxer, 14.5 years old, with the most expressive face you will ever see. He passed away in October 2025 after a long and brave fight with cancer. He isn’t with us physically on this trip. But he’s with us. That’s the only way I know how to say it and have it be true.
The Long Way Living has three co-pilots. Two of them will be in the trailer. One of them is everywhere else.
What Traveling With This Crew Actually Means
Here’s the practical reality: we are two people, two dogs, and a 13-foot trailer. One dog is 14 years old. One dog is 20 months old. They are both pittie mixes. They are both, at their core, complete goofballs.
We’ve thought a lot about what it means to travel with a senior dog. Verde is healthy and happy and shows every sign of being up for this — the walks, the new smells, the naps in different time zones. We’re being thoughtful about vet access on the road, about not overdoing it on any given day, about making sure he always has his patch of sun. We’ll write more about the logistics of senior dog travel as we figure them out in real time.
Quinn, for his part, has no concerns whatsoever. He is adapting to everything with the unearned confidence of a dog who has decided life is great and that’s simply that.
We leave in June. The trailer is being built. The dogs have no idea what’s coming, and honestly, we think they’re going to be great.
FOLLOW + WHAT’S NEXT
Follow along on Instagram and TikTok — @TheLongWayLiving — for Verde and Quinn content that will not be organized or professional but will be very, very good.
✨ Coming next: The Trailer Arrives — what it’s actually like to pick up your home on wheels for the first time. →