Tampa, FloridaIn the far corner of the front yard of a large house in Florida, an RV rests, shaded by trees as clothing on a nearby line sways in the breeze. In this RV, Nat Geo explorer Thomas Henry "T.H." Culhane lives with his wife, Enas Culhane, almost entirely off the grid.

“We want to be that average American icon that says you can do this, but you may have to do it in stages,” he says.

“I said, ‘How do you have cold drinks?’ and they said, ‘God provides.” His grandparents, aunts, and uncles pointed toward a nearby mountain that had ice caps. An icy stream flowed down to their village, and in the water sat perfectly chilled bottles of Fanta.