Introduction The pages that follow are a story and a handbook; a 'how-it-was" and "how-it-can-be" book. It's a link connecting ideals and choices from alternative lifestyles of the sixties, to the lifestyles that are evolving in this new millennium. It begins with the story of a bright, creative and well-educated suburban girl from the North Shore of Chicago, as she travels through the "detours" of the late sixties that led to The Back to the Land Movement. The book not only describes how many of us arrived at our rustic, antique homes in the country, but how we survived the surprising and unexpected physical challenges of the land and thrived to create active communities of artisans, craftspeople and young children who were filled with fresh air and "clean" organic food; we were 100% awake and alive. From life on the land, the story leads to the journey that followed the "country years," once the rivers of our dreams had subsided into streams. The return trip from rural homesteads back to the mainstream of "normal," high-tech society was about travelers who had been changed by the values and lessons learned on the land. After discovering the ability to create an alternative lifestyle and to prosper in our youth, the children of the counter-culture matured; we found ourselves, once again, using creative energy to carve out a new path and a new lifestyle in a world filled with new technologies. Telecommuting was borne out of necessity for many, but as the former "boomers" and "back-to-the-landers" emerged in the workforce of the nineties, we reviewed the available options and watched the winds of change blow across the landscape once again. Those of us who had our eyes open to new possibilities were touched and moved. Many of us were not convinced that 2-3 hours a day should be spent in a car, traveling to and from a job; we wanted options and another path for our daily commute and for our lives. The technology of the internet gave us tools that could create the new roads and new ways to work. This book is about growth and creativity; this book is about the freedom that we have to make changes and to leave our mark. This is a story about what can happen when we choose to take the other path.