Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Amanda Zito on Embracing a Life of Adventure and Facing Anxiety Along the Way

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Amanda Zito on Embracing a Life of Adventure and Facing Anxiety Along the Way · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:10
Speaker 1: Well, thank you all for attending the Overland Journal podcast Live.
0:14
Speaker 1: I've got Amanda Zito as the Magpie Flies. Is that correct?
0:18
Speaker 2: Yes?
0:19
Speaker 1: Awesome, So thank you so much for being on the
0:22
Speaker 1: podcast with me today, and a special thanks to Nimble
0:25
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0:30
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0:35
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0:39
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0:44
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0:48
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0:53
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0:56
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1:00
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1:03
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1:06
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1:09
Speaker 1: dot com online, where you can email info at Nimble
1:13
Speaker 1: Vehicles dot com for more information. Thanks again, Nimble. Your
1:16
Speaker 1: story is fascinating and there's so much inspiration to be
1:20
Speaker 1: had from the things that you've accomplished, And one of
1:22
Speaker 1: the first things that come to mind for me is
1:25
Speaker 1: you've been a lifelong creative. What caused that transition for
1:28
Speaker 1: you to go from being a creative living in Montana
1:31
Speaker 1: now I'm going to clop on a motorcycle and start
1:34
Speaker 1: to go see the country.
1:35
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is I moved from Montana Portland
1:37
Speaker 3: in twenty ten to attend art school Nice. So that's
1:40
Speaker 3: how I got my bachelor's degree in fine arts. And
1:42
Speaker 3: as all true Roque college students understand, it costed a
1:46
Speaker 3: lot of money to go home, and I was homesick
1:48
Speaker 3: a lot. I had horses in Montana. I've always been
1:50
Speaker 3: a horse girl. Like you can stereotype me, that's fine,
1:52
Speaker 3: but at the time, I had this of a car
1:54
Speaker 3: and it cost almost four hundred dollars to go home
1:57
Speaker 3: and back and it was way too much, especially for
1:59
Speaker 3: the out that I wanted to go back and forth.
2:01
Speaker 3: So motorcycles were the next best thing two horses. So
2:04
Speaker 3: I started on a nineteen eighties Zukigs eight fifty to
2:07
Speaker 3: go from Portland and Montana and back. And that's also
2:10
Speaker 3: how I got into motorcycle camping because it couldn't afford
2:12
Speaker 3: a stay ahood.
2:13
Speaker 1: Oh, that makes so much sense. So it was necessity
2:15
Speaker 1: was the mother of invention for you?
2:17
Speaker 2: Hey?
2:18
Speaker 1: Yes, And at what point did you realize that I'm
2:20
Speaker 1: not just solving a financial solution by riding a motorcycle
2:24
Speaker 1: and you're like, I really like this. Yeah, what was
2:26
Speaker 1: the transition for you?
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Speaker 3: Part of it was just like being on the road
2:30
Speaker 3: and moving was the only time that I really alleviated
2:33
Speaker 3: my homesickness. And that was a really big problem for
2:35
Speaker 3: me for a long time. But if I was moving,
2:37
Speaker 3: if I was traveling, I didn't miss home so much.
2:40
Speaker 1: It is amazing how travel will do that because it's
2:43
Speaker 1: you're in the moment. Yes, you're solving problems, you're navigating,
2:47
Speaker 1: you're experiencing new connections, and a lot of times for me,
2:50
Speaker 1: it's just being in nature that it really does settle
2:54
Speaker 1: a lot of those things in us. Is that what
2:56
Speaker 1: you found?
2:57
Speaker 2: Well?
2:57
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, like camping and being in the woods really
3:00
Speaker 3: calmed me down. I have really bad anxiety. The more
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Speaker 3: time I can spend in the trees the better.
3:04
Speaker 1: Sure. Oh, it's it's well. I mean I think in Japan,
3:07
Speaker 1: don't they they'll actually give a a prescription of they
3:10
Speaker 1: call it nature bathing, and you just you go walk
3:12
Speaker 1: in the forest, yes, to help our soul settle a
3:16
Speaker 1: little bit, find that stillness that's so difficult in the
3:18
Speaker 1: modern day. So what else kind of inspired you to
3:21
Speaker 1: go a little bit further Because now you realize I'm
3:24
Speaker 1: enjoying this, I'm going back and forth to Montana, I'm
3:26
Speaker 1: seeing my family. What made you think about going to
3:29
Speaker 1: the next step and starting to document your journeys.
3:32
Speaker 3: As a combination of a lot of people. I think
3:33
Speaker 3: a lot of people are inspired by multiple multiple people.
3:36
Speaker 2: Right.
3:36
Speaker 3: So my grandmother traveled all over the country and she
3:39
Speaker 3: was my hero for most of my life. She's still
3:41
Speaker 3: my hero. Also kinga on her bike, I don't know,
3:44
Speaker 3: you know, amazing.
3:45
Speaker 2: She's incredible.
3:46
Speaker 3: And when I first found her, it was before she
3:48
Speaker 3: had even left Australia. She had dot the tour of
3:50
Speaker 3: oz right and had recorded that trip, and that was
3:53
Speaker 3: also part of the kick for me to start recording
3:55
Speaker 3: my own trips.
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Speaker 2: I was like, well, she's just like this montage of
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Speaker 2: her trip. I could do that.
3:59
Speaker 3: I can tell do that, and so that was a
4:01
Speaker 3: big kick for me. It was kinda and she's very inspiring.
4:04
Speaker 1: She is very inspiring. And one of the things that
4:06
Speaker 1: I really appreciate about the content that you produce is
4:10
Speaker 1: you've done a really nice job of maintaining that this
4:14
Speaker 1: is where I've come from, this is who I am.
4:16
Speaker 1: These are the positive things that are happening. These are
4:18
Speaker 1: the negative things that are happening. One of the concerns
4:20
Speaker 1: that I think all of us have in this industry
4:23
Speaker 1: is that we don't want to misrepresent the experience. But
4:25
Speaker 1: there are days that I'm exhausted. Yes, there are days
4:28
Speaker 1: that I feel frustrated. There are days that I'm lost. Yes,
4:31
Speaker 1: there are days that those things happen. And I think
4:34
Speaker 1: you've done a really nice job of helping people understand
4:37
Speaker 1: that absolutely this is amazing, But bad things happen. We're
4:41
Speaker 1: challenging things happen. Challenging things happen. What are some challenges
4:44
Speaker 1: that you encountered early on that you learned how to solve,
4:48
Speaker 1: that you found your kind of rhythm to get around them.
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Speaker 3: Well, in the early days, I was still traveling on
4:53
Speaker 3: my nineteen eighties Suzuki and eighties a bike that's forty
4:57
Speaker 3: years old that hasn't been treated very well, has a
4:59
Speaker 3: lot of mechanical issues sounds like me yeah, and so
5:03
Speaker 3: I uh. In twenty sixteen, I had a loop of Montana.
5:05
Speaker 3: I did six thousand miles and was on the road
5:08
Speaker 3: for two and a half months. Pretty much every other
5:09
Speaker 3: day that bike broke down, and it was very overwhelming
5:12
Speaker 3: at first. Being in the middle of nowhere Montana. I
5:15
Speaker 3: couldn't afford to pay a mechanic, so I had to
5:17
Speaker 3: figure it all out my own. Sure, of course, I
5:19
Speaker 3: carried my Bible with me, which was like the Chiltern
5:21
Speaker 3: or the climber Manual for my bike, which is a
5:24
Speaker 3: mechanic mechanic handbook. So I laid out everything and vivid
5:28
Speaker 3: detail about how you're supposed to fix stuff. So my
5:31
Speaker 3: throttle cable got messed up in northeast Montana, I had
5:33
Speaker 3: to fix that. My petcock broke in eastern Montana. I
5:36
Speaker 3: spent a week in a tiny town in eastern Montana.
5:40
Speaker 1: Would you lose all your fuel? It all poured out?
5:42
Speaker 2: It didn't all pour out.
5:43
Speaker 3: A little piece of metal got stuck in my petcock,
5:45
Speaker 3: so fuel couldn't even go through the line. Got it
5:47
Speaker 3: got Yes, that was a whole thing, But mostly it
5:50
Speaker 3: taught me like when problems do arise.
5:52
Speaker 2: You just have to breathe.
5:53
Speaker 3: It's okay to freak out, like it's totally okay to
5:55
Speaker 3: have a little meltdown, let yourself cry, breave your original plans.
6:00
Speaker 3: That's also necessary, and then take a deep breath and
6:04
Speaker 3: then you tackle one thing at a time. What is
6:06
Speaker 3: the immediate problem. We take care of that first. The
6:08
Speaker 3: next stuff can come after that, and that's really important
6:10
Speaker 3: as staying as post of the moment as possible and
6:13
Speaker 3: worry about the future after the problem is dealt with.
6:15
Speaker 1: That's one of the things that I've noticed when people
6:17
Speaker 1: make the transition from being a tourist a traveler is
6:21
Speaker 1: when they accept the fact that things are not going
6:23
Speaker 1: to go according to plan. As tourists, when we travel,
6:26
Speaker 1: we're on a schedule. We've got to get from here
6:27
Speaker 1: to here in this hotel, and this is when we
6:29
Speaker 1: fly out. But it sounds like you made that transition
6:32
Speaker 1: at that time. Yes, well, originally just the means to
6:34
Speaker 1: get to see family, and then as a tourist and
6:37
Speaker 1: then as a traveler, what are some other things that
6:39
Speaker 1: you have learned as a traveler that you now bring
6:42
Speaker 1: into your day to day.
6:43
Speaker 3: Dealing with my anxiety in a strange place. I do
6:46
Speaker 3: have anxiety attacks, and they sneak up on you in
6:48
Speaker 3: the least convenient times. Kind of the nature of anxiety
6:51
Speaker 3: and panic attacks. When I'm at home, it's very not easy.
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Speaker 3: It's simpler to deal with a panic attack because I
6:56
Speaker 3: have my safe corner, and I go to my safe
6:58
Speaker 3: corner and I breathe through it and myself down and
7:00
Speaker 3: just let it happen. It's much harder to do in
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Speaker 3: a strange place, like when you're out on the road.
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Speaker 3: Having a panic attack at any point is extremely inconvenient
7:08
Speaker 3: and can sometimes be very dangerous. Right, And so learning
7:12
Speaker 3: box breasts, learning my own way to deal with my anxiety,
7:15
Speaker 3: because everybody deals with it in a different way, and
7:17
Speaker 3: some things work for some people and some things don't.
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Speaker 3: Sometimes taking box breast and forcing yourself to breathe can
7:22
Speaker 3: make it worse. It's just a matter of trying to
7:24
Speaker 3: go through the different ways to handle your anxiety and
7:26
Speaker 3: figuring out what works for you.
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Speaker 2: So for me, it's pulling over immediately.
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Speaker 3: As soon as I start to feel it, sure as
7:32
Speaker 3: so long as there's the shoulder right.
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Speaker 1: What do you normally start to feel happening? This may
7:36
Speaker 1: be helpful for those listening that are experiencing something somewhere.
7:40
Speaker 1: What are you finding early on that happens.
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Speaker 3: My heart rate increases, Okay, that's the first time for
7:44
Speaker 3: me personally. And then I start to get like there's
7:46
Speaker 3: a big tension in my chest and then it walls
7:49
Speaker 3: up this way and it kind of goes into my
7:50
Speaker 3: sinuses and I start to cry, and then my brain
7:52
Speaker 3: is like, why are we doing this?
7:53
Speaker 2: This is it?
7:54
Speaker 3: Okay, this isn't safe. And that's like part of anxiety
7:56
Speaker 3: and panic attacks is that your body is like, this
7:58
Speaker 3: isn't safe.
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Speaker 2: We can't have a panic attack, will be in danger.
8:01
Speaker 1: And does that that amplifies it?
8:02
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's like a cycle that makes it so
8:05
Speaker 3: much worse.
8:05
Speaker 1: Well so for someone that's traveling that's experiencing anxiety in
8:09
Speaker 1: a similar way you talked about, was it box breath
8:12
Speaker 1: box breath? Yeah?
8:13
Speaker 3: Can you describe that you're taking a moment and closing
8:15
Speaker 3: your eyes, making sure that you're grounded as much as
8:17
Speaker 3: possible if you can take off your boots and touch
8:20
Speaker 3: like the ground with your feet. That helps me personally,
8:22
Speaker 3: and closing your eyes and taking a moment and be
8:24
Speaker 3: like everything will be okay, not that it's okay right now.
8:27
Speaker 2: It's not okay right now, but it will be okay.
8:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, depends on your lungs. Some people can like hold
8:32
Speaker 3: their breath for force four beats, some can do it
8:35
Speaker 3: for eight. For me, I count to one, two, three,
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Speaker 3: four inhaling, fold it for four, exhale for four, and
8:41
Speaker 3: do that over and over again until it starts to
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Speaker 3: relax you.
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Speaker 1: And are there other things that you find and you're
8:46
Speaker 1: traveling that help with that with help with the anxiety.
8:49
Speaker 3: Trying to make as much of your setup feel like
8:52
Speaker 3: home as possible. And that's part of the reason I
8:54
Speaker 3: like camping so much, because my tent feels like my home.
8:57
Speaker 3: Everything has its place, everything goes where it's supposed to be.
9:01
Speaker 3: It's like playing house when you're a kid. Right, Sure,
9:03
Speaker 3: if you have a big cardboard box, you had your
9:05
Speaker 3: bed area, you had your little side table, those kinds
9:08
Speaker 3: of things, And so I do that in my tent.
9:10
Speaker 3: So I have my bed, I have a little side table,
9:12
Speaker 3: I have where my clothes go, where my bathroom is,
9:14
Speaker 3: which is just my toiletry kit that goes up and old.
9:16
Speaker 2: My tent has little pockets.
9:18
Speaker 3: Sure, so if I can create a safe space that
9:21
Speaker 3: I can make anywhere.
9:23
Speaker 2: It helps so much.
9:24
Speaker 1: Well, and that's it's incredible that you have you found
9:27
Speaker 1: these tools. I mean, that's really impressive, and it's not
9:30
Speaker 1: stopped you seeing what you want to see. No, when
9:32
Speaker 1: I read through your bio, you you took a big
9:35
Speaker 1: trip around the country. Can you share what well? First
9:38
Speaker 1: of all, what inspired you to do that? And then
9:40
Speaker 1: where did you go?
9:41
Speaker 3: First?
9:41
Speaker 1: One of the second one, the first one, the first
9:43
Speaker 1: big trip.
9:44
Speaker 3: The first one where I went from Port Logan to
9:47
Speaker 3: North Carolina and I came back. I did that on
9:49
Speaker 3: my twenty sixteen cebefive hunterd CKS. Honestly, my answer is
9:53
Speaker 3: kind of shallow. But I just had not spent much
9:55
Speaker 3: time on the eastern half of States. I bought a
9:57
Speaker 3: scratch off map and I scratched off everywhere that I
10:00
Speaker 3: had been, and it was like the whole western half
10:02
Speaker 3: of the United States, a couple of little states in
10:04
Speaker 3: the South. But I had not spent like any time
10:07
Speaker 3: on the eastern half United States.
10:08
Speaker 2: And I was like, I.
10:09
Speaker 3: Should if I'm like educating people about getting outdoors, I
10:12
Speaker 3: should have experience on the other half of our country.
10:14
Speaker 1: Right, Sure, And what did you think it was what
10:16
Speaker 1: was the takeaway?
10:17
Speaker 2: So much different than over here?
10:19
Speaker 3: For sure, the East does have public lands, but they're
10:22
Speaker 3: smaller and they're more compact, and access is kind of
10:25
Speaker 3: harder than it is over here.
10:26
Speaker 1: It's more difficult to find places to camp.
10:28
Speaker 3: Yes, definitely made me respect the challenges that a lot
10:31
Speaker 3: of my YouTube audience has because they're from the East
10:34
Speaker 3: Coast in trying to find places to access they were outdoors.
10:37
Speaker 1: And what tools did you find that helped you find campsites?
10:40
Speaker 2: All of the apps?
10:41
Speaker 1: Okay, so many apps? What's your favorite app?
10:44
Speaker 3: Well, I'm biased because I'm sponsored by on ex off Road, Okay,
10:48
Speaker 3: but I was using it for quite a while before
10:50
Speaker 3: they sponsored me. That was part of the reason they
10:52
Speaker 3: sponsored me, because I was already very fluent in the
10:54
Speaker 3: app and I loved it. There are, of course, other
10:57
Speaker 3: apps like Gaya and those kinds of things that I
10:59
Speaker 3: overland I oh randerly, yes, but specifically to show you
11:02
Speaker 3: the property boundaries of public versus private land, Onyx and Gaya,
11:06
Speaker 3: and I think the public lands at will show you
11:08
Speaker 3: the borders between public and private land, and that's also
11:11
Speaker 3: very important to know, especially in the western half United States.
11:13
Speaker 3: If you do any dispersed camping, to know what kind
11:16
Speaker 3: of land you're on so that you're following the rules
11:18
Speaker 3: appropriate to that organization.
11:20
Speaker 1: And that is one thing that's really useful on X
11:23
Speaker 1: just knowing that you're on state lands. Some states require
11:26
Speaker 1: permits to be on on state land. Knowing if you've
11:29
Speaker 1: ventured in the private land accidentally. Yeah, that's really helpful,
11:32
Speaker 1: definitely for sure. What other things did you find about
11:35
Speaker 1: traveling in that area that are different from the Pacific Northwest?
11:38
Speaker 1: What gear did you need that was different? What solutions
11:41
Speaker 1: did you find that worked well?
11:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought that I was prepared coming from the
11:44
Speaker 3: Pacific Northwest and we have a lot of rain. That's true,
11:46
Speaker 3: but I obviously did not do a good enough job
11:48
Speaker 3: waterproofing my tent. I hit a massive downpour in West
11:52
Speaker 3: Virginia and like.
11:53
Speaker 2: My tent like not totally flooded, but there.
11:55
Speaker 3: Was moisture in my tent because the area that I
11:58
Speaker 3: was in was a slight but I didn't see because
12:01
Speaker 3: there was hey all over the campsite and I was like,
12:04
Speaker 3: why is there hay here? Right, it's because it floods.
12:07
Speaker 3: My tent was in a slight depression. The water went
12:09
Speaker 3: under and over, my footprint soaked through my bathtub.
12:13
Speaker 1: So you finished this trip out east, and now you
12:16
Speaker 1: are planning a bigger trip, which the next one I
12:18
Speaker 1: think is kind of around the country as it looked
12:20
Speaker 1: like in.
12:21
Speaker 2: That one I did that wasn't march, okay?
12:23
Speaker 1: And what did you learn from the first trip out
12:26
Speaker 1: east that you changed? Did you change your bike over
12:28
Speaker 1: the things that you changed about your travels for your
12:31
Speaker 1: equipment when you did the bigger trip. We're going to
12:33
Speaker 1: take a brief break and we will be right back.
12:36
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13:24
Speaker 3: There was a couple of upgrades I did. I got
13:26
Speaker 3: new brakes, but that was my bike needed that. I
13:29
Speaker 3: added a Pelican case to my bike so I could
13:32
Speaker 3: bring my laptop along with me. Obviously this my whole
13:34
Speaker 3: job is to be a content creator, and I knew
13:36
Speaker 3: that I needed more than.
13:37
Speaker 2: Just a tablet to be able to do my job.
13:39
Speaker 3: On this trip, I added a Pelican case to the
13:41
Speaker 3: logo drack of my bike and I mount my camping
13:43
Speaker 3: double on top of that. The Pelican case protects my laptop.
13:46
Speaker 3: Make sure that it's all nice and safe. It's lockable.
13:48
Speaker 3: I add extra locks onto it. A big upgrade for
13:50
Speaker 3: me was I added called a Moto jug to my
13:53
Speaker 3: bike for hydration. I normally carry a highdition backpack. I've
13:56
Speaker 3: done that for ages. On the first Conscerto trip, I
13:59
Speaker 3: started to get back pain. I was wearing it every
14:01
Speaker 3: single day, NonStop, and that's two and a half liters
14:05
Speaker 3: and water is like some of the heavy things that
14:07
Speaker 3: you could wear. So I add a motor drug which
14:09
Speaker 3: is one gallon and it's a stainles steel container and
14:11
Speaker 3: it sits in like this fabric and it sits on
14:13
Speaker 3: the pasture pick of my bike. And then there's a
14:15
Speaker 3: hose that come up at the top. So why did
14:16
Speaker 3: you do is pull it? There's no way on your body.
14:18
Speaker 3: I stayed way more hydrated.
14:20
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
14:21
Speaker 1: I used I used to have like a camelback I
14:24
Speaker 1: would wear and I was talking to a car rider
14:27
Speaker 1: and he said, well, first of all, put the weight
14:29
Speaker 1: on the mule, yes, which is the bike. And he said,
14:31
Speaker 1: the bigger problem is that it closes off all the
14:33
Speaker 1: ventilation for your back, the back of your jacket, so
14:36
Speaker 1: it could really you know, include all of the airflow
14:39
Speaker 1: through there and block that. Often. I thought, it's a
14:41
Speaker 1: really good life, so I've not done that since then.
14:43
Speaker 1: It's a good observation. Life changing, isn't It changes a lot?
14:46
Speaker 1: It changes a lot. So when you're camping remote, how
14:49
Speaker 1: do you normally eat? What? What's your solution for that?
14:52
Speaker 3: I've become kind of obsessive about my camp kitchen. I
14:55
Speaker 3: used to just really rely on like hand soups because
14:58
Speaker 3: it couldn't afford to hydrate all the time because they
15:01
Speaker 3: become kind of expensive.
15:02
Speaker 2: Sure, that's what you're eating most of the time.
15:04
Speaker 3: Also allowed to hydrate, meals tend to have a lot
15:06
Speaker 3: of sodium or preservatives in them. There are wonderful companies
15:09
Speaker 3: now that have removed those kinds of things, which is
15:12
Speaker 3: super awesome.
15:13
Speaker 1: Is there one that you like, Packet Grimy.
15:14
Speaker 2: I think they're based out of Texas.
15:15
Speaker 3: Okay, they're my favorite.
15:17
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good to know.
15:19
Speaker 3: They do tend there's a little bit expensive. I think
15:21
Speaker 3: their meals start about fourteen dollars. Of course that's two servings,
15:25
Speaker 3: so you could definitely split them up if you wanted to,
15:27
Speaker 3: But I knew that that wasn't sustainable for me long term,
15:29
Speaker 3: for all of the meals on the road.
15:31
Speaker 2: If I started branching out.
15:32
Speaker 3: I learned how to make pasta in a pot like
15:34
Speaker 3: one pot Pasta's They're super easy. And then I started
15:37
Speaker 3: making more complicated things. I learned how to make rice
15:39
Speaker 3: in my campstoe, which is very tricky.
15:42
Speaker 1: I can imagine. Yeah, never done that, and.
15:45
Speaker 2: Like making a little sturfry.
15:46
Speaker 3: So now I have a skillet and a pot so
15:49
Speaker 3: that I could like start rice. Let it hydrate on
15:52
Speaker 3: the side and then make a sturfry in my skillet.
15:54
Speaker 3: Most of the time, my meals end up being vegetarians,
15:56
Speaker 3: so that I don't have to worry about keeping meat
15:58
Speaker 3: at a safe temperature, don't. I don't carry a cooler
16:00
Speaker 3: or anything else, So most of my meals are shelf
16:03
Speaker 3: stable or last a couple days because I'll stop at
16:05
Speaker 3: a grocery store and pick up fresh vegetables and cook
16:08
Speaker 3: them at camp. And most hardy vegetables will last like
16:11
Speaker 3: two to three days on the motorcycle if you pack
16:13
Speaker 3: them correctly.
16:13
Speaker 1: And what do you do to help them directly?
16:16
Speaker 3: If it's some more fragile vegetables like cherry tomatoes and
16:19
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff, if you get the cherry tomatoes
16:21
Speaker 3: in like the plastic pack that way, it doesn't get crushed.
16:23
Speaker 2: I have soft bags, so that's something I have to
16:25
Speaker 2: worry about.
16:26
Speaker 3: Broccoli, if you can wrap it in kind of like
16:28
Speaker 3: a damp paper towel, it will last a little bit longer,
16:30
Speaker 3: especially the hotter that it gets outside. If you could
16:33
Speaker 3: like wrap them in something moist, it sure helps it
16:35
Speaker 3: stay a little bit longer.
16:36
Speaker 2: Carrots are very.
16:37
Speaker 3: Hearty, they'll last on the bike for like a week,
16:39
Speaker 3: same thing with potatoes.
16:40
Speaker 1: And have you found that eating better has helped you
16:43
Speaker 1: stay out longer?
16:44
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, I've always had stomach problems, so I've always
16:48
Speaker 3: kind of pay attention to what I'm eating. So making
16:50
Speaker 3: sure that I'm consuming way more vegetables and greens and
16:53
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff as like one make me felt
16:55
Speaker 3: so much better and like I can ride longer during
16:58
Speaker 3: the day without starting to feel bogged down and that
17:00
Speaker 3: kind of stuff.
17:00
Speaker 2: I don't know if you had.
17:01
Speaker 3: A day where you ate just like way too much
17:03
Speaker 3: jerky and you can see it like.
17:05
Speaker 1: I'm dehydrating from the inside out. Yes, I've probably done
17:08
Speaker 1: that more times than I should admit it.
17:11
Speaker 3: And like the other benefit of eating a lot of
17:13
Speaker 3: vegetables on the road is that you're also hydrating from
17:15
Speaker 3: the vegetables as well. We all as outdoor people, I'm sure,
17:18
Speaker 3: have a struggle with being hydrated. You just cannot get
17:21
Speaker 3: enough water into your body. Electrolytes, of course, are very
17:23
Speaker 3: very important, and a lot of people know that. But
17:25
Speaker 3: like being able to also being hydrated from the food
17:28
Speaker 3: that you're consuming is awesome, And.
17:29
Speaker 1: It's hard to carry enough water motorcycle. Yes, they're very
17:32
Speaker 1: payload sensitive. And yeah, and then once you go off road,
17:35
Speaker 1: the heavier the bike is the more chance, definitely, which
17:37
Speaker 1: leads me to a question. When you started writing, were
17:40
Speaker 1: you mostly on pavement and then started to introduce off
17:44
Speaker 1: road writing. Did you have any experience off road writing
17:46
Speaker 1: when you were younger? What were some of the things
17:48
Speaker 1: that helped you? Because I see a lot of your
17:50
Speaker 1: photos now you are getting further off road, crossing streams,
17:53
Speaker 1: it's awesome, it's awesome. What kind of what was the
17:56
Speaker 1: prog progress for you to feel more comfortable solo writing
18:00
Speaker 1: off roads?
18:00
Speaker 3: I started going off road with that nineteen eighty Suzuki
18:03
Speaker 3: just because I didn't know any better. It was like,
18:05
Speaker 3: I want to go to that place, and the fact
18:06
Speaker 3: that it was gravel didn't face me when I started writing.
18:09
Speaker 3: I didn't really know anybody else who rode, so I
18:12
Speaker 3: didn't get any of like that fear of like dirt
18:15
Speaker 3: or rocks or anything like that. Involved My grandpa rode,
18:18
Speaker 3: but he only rode with me a couple times, and
18:20
Speaker 3: when I did ride with him, he's like, gravel is
18:22
Speaker 3: the same as pavement, just go a little bit slower.
18:25
Speaker 2: You know.
18:25
Speaker 3: When I first started writing it, just like, well my
18:28
Speaker 3: campsites that way, I'm just going to go there was
18:29
Speaker 3: a little bit cautious.
18:30
Speaker 2: Of course. I don't ride nearly as like quickly as
18:33
Speaker 2: I do.
18:33
Speaker 3: Now.
18:33
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say fast.
18:34
Speaker 3: I'm not a fast rider off road, but definitely just
18:37
Speaker 3: like taking it slow, taking it easy. If I felt uncomfortable,
18:40
Speaker 3: I stop and I breathe and you keep going going.
18:43
Speaker 3: From the Suzuki, I got the CBE Rider decks and
18:46
Speaker 3: a Honda Shadow, a Cruizer bike and same thing. I
18:49
Speaker 3: did everything on the Cruiser that I did in the
18:51
Speaker 3: CBE because I didn't.
18:51
Speaker 2: Know any better.
18:52
Speaker 1: The bike that you travel on now, is it a
18:54
Speaker 1: CBE five?
18:55
Speaker 2: Yes?
18:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm borrowing an Africa Twin from Honda. Right now,
18:58
Speaker 3: I'm extremely spoiled. I don't know how I want to
19:00
Speaker 3: give that bike back.
19:01
Speaker 1: That's a different kind of motors.
19:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
19:03
Speaker 1: Is it the DCT or is it a manual transmit?
19:05
Speaker 2: Is the DCT?
19:06
Speaker 1: Yeah? What do you think of that?
19:07
Speaker 2: It has grown on me?
19:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, at first it's yes, why do I have an
19:12
Speaker 1: automatic transmission a motorcycle?
19:14
Speaker 3: First you're just like where is my clutch? But when
19:17
Speaker 3: you have to do long hauls and going through towns
19:19
Speaker 3: and stuff.
19:19
Speaker 1: It's really nice, yeah, or even really technical off road
19:23
Speaker 1: because it kind of works like a rose clutch and
19:25
Speaker 1: you can go really slow without stalling.
19:27
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, if you go up a hill, like I
19:29
Speaker 3: feel like a lot of that fear of like cutting
19:31
Speaker 3: out the engine halfway up the hill is totally gone.
19:33
Speaker 2: Now.
19:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you think that that is a direction that
19:36
Speaker 1: you would want to go something about that size, Now
19:38
Speaker 1: that you've written it longer, I think.
19:39
Speaker 3: That the Abgotwin is just like exactly what I need
19:43
Speaker 3: for what I do right now. It is definitely heavy,
19:45
Speaker 3: but I don't do a lot of super technical riding
19:48
Speaker 3: at the moment. I'm much more interested in like traveling
19:50
Speaker 3: seeing a lot of new things than I am about
19:52
Speaker 3: like trying to do really technical, difficult obstacles.
19:55
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, No, it totally makes sense. So,
19:57
Speaker 1: speaking of traveling and saying new things, what are some
20:00
Speaker 1: of your goals going forward? Where do you want to
20:03
Speaker 1: go next? Now that you've done these big loops in
20:05
Speaker 1: the US, what's next?
20:06
Speaker 3: A long term goal is to go to Alaska. Of course,
20:09
Speaker 3: I want to hit as many of the United States
20:12
Speaker 3: states as I can before trying to set my sites abroad.
20:15
Speaker 3: I do have the northeast of the United States to
20:17
Speaker 3: hit next than Alaska is after that.
20:20
Speaker 1: And do you think you would ride through Canada or
20:22
Speaker 1: would you take the ferry or what would be your plan?
20:24
Speaker 2: I think it's more cost effective to go through Canada.
20:26
Speaker 3: I did look at the ferry, and if I go
20:28
Speaker 3: to Alaska, I really want my brother to go with me,
20:30
Speaker 3: and for two bikes on the ferry, Like, don't quote me.
20:33
Speaker 3: I'm sure prices have changed, but when I looked at
20:35
Speaker 3: it, it was like five thousand dollars for two bikes. Yeah,
20:39
Speaker 3: And so going up through Canada would be much more
20:41
Speaker 3: cost effective. And I kind of want to go up
20:43
Speaker 3: to the Arctic Circle. Sure see that and then go
20:46
Speaker 3: back to the Tiaktuk Yeah.
20:47
Speaker 2: Nice.
20:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tuk Tiaktuk is amazing. And now that there's the
20:50
Speaker 1: summer road, it's much easier to do that on a motorcycle.
20:54
Speaker 1: You have to have study fires to do it before
20:56
Speaker 1: that on the ice roads.
20:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:00
Speaker 1: And a special thanks to Terran Designs for supporting this
21:03
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21:36
Speaker 1: dot com because you no longer have to look like
21:39
Speaker 1: you live out your vehicle when you actually live out
21:42
Speaker 1: of your vehicle. Thanks again, Terren. When you think about
21:46
Speaker 1: or when you talk to people that are interested in
21:49
Speaker 1: having this same experiences as you, what is some common
21:52
Speaker 1: pieces of advice that you give to you writers or
21:55
Speaker 1: people that want to maybe venture further. What's some advice
21:59
Speaker 1: that you tend to give.
22:00
Speaker 2: Patient with yourself.
22:00
Speaker 3: First off, like, just because you see other people online
22:03
Speaker 3: doing super difficult optacles doesn't mean that you have to.
22:06
Speaker 3: If it's not fun for you, there's no reason for
22:08
Speaker 3: you to be doing it. Also, to invest in good gear.
22:11
Speaker 3: I especially people who are getting started camping, whether for
22:14
Speaker 3: the first things that they turned to is big box
22:15
Speaker 3: stores because it's cheap and it's accessible. From my experience,
22:19
Speaker 3: I did do that and I regretted it almost immediately.
22:22
Speaker 3: So investing in really good gear, even if that's like
22:24
Speaker 3: a budget backpacking tent, you will be so much happier
22:27
Speaker 3: in the long run.
22:28
Speaker 1: Well, that's great advice. And one of the things that
22:31
Speaker 1: I found with motorcycling is you have to use lightweight gear, yes,
22:34
Speaker 1: and you have to spend some money in order to
22:36
Speaker 1: get something that is lightweight and durable. So what have
22:39
Speaker 1: you found are some things that have worked really well
22:42
Speaker 1: for you? What's part of your kit that you're like,
22:44
Speaker 1: this is my go to stuff.
22:45
Speaker 3: Life changing piece of gear for me was when I
22:48
Speaker 3: got my Big Agness Hint. It's a Copper Spur hbu
22:51
Speaker 3: Al two bike packing version big Igness, And I'm sure
22:54
Speaker 3: other companies do this as well. They have a series
22:57
Speaker 3: of bike packing tents. They're specific to like buy packing,
23:01
Speaker 3: not necessarily motorcycling, but it's perfect for our uses. And
23:04
Speaker 3: part of that is because the pole sections are broken
23:06
Speaker 3: down into twelve inch instead of like seventeen inches, and
23:09
Speaker 3: it's ultra light, so it packs down tiny, doesn't.
23:12
Speaker 2: Weigh very much.
23:13
Speaker 3: The Copper Spur is to a two percent tent and
23:15
Speaker 3: it's about the size that a normal one person tent
23:18
Speaker 3: would be like packed up.
23:19
Speaker 1: Has that held up? Well?
23:20
Speaker 2: Yes, I've had it for almost five years now.
23:22
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's a good tent. Yes, and nothing is
23:26
Speaker 3: broken and nothing is broken. I did have to patch
23:28
Speaker 3: one hole, but that was my fault, not the tent happens.
23:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's incredible. Okay, So what other things are like
23:34
Speaker 1: that that have been so impressive like that for you?
23:36
Speaker 3: Ceta Summit X series for their kitchen equipment has been real,
23:40
Speaker 3: really awesome. I used to carry around a stainless steel
23:42
Speaker 3: Stanley pot and I dropped when I had a tiger.
23:45
Speaker 3: I dropped it pretty heavily on a rock, and that
23:48
Speaker 3: Stanley potter is like caved in. It was a very
23:50
Speaker 3: trusty pot for a very long time, and it's a
23:52
Speaker 3: great option for people who need something like that. The
23:55
Speaker 3: Ceta Summit X line has like this xpot that collapses
23:59
Speaker 3: downnice and flat, and then they have the Alpha pan
24:02
Speaker 3: and the pot kind of nestles into them. And then
24:04
Speaker 3: I have a kettle on a cup and it sounds
24:06
Speaker 3: like a lot of stuff, but it pecks dound like
24:07
Speaker 3: this much because it all folds into each other. And
24:10
Speaker 3: I've dropped the bike multiple times. I think the alpha
24:12
Speaker 3: pan has like a small ding into it, but like
24:14
Speaker 3: nothing like the way that my Stanley pot like crunched in.
24:17
Speaker 3: Not saying that Stanley is bad, but that's what I did.
24:20
Speaker 1: Motorcycle just about anything hurts, Yes, definitely. After all of
24:25
Speaker 1: these journeys, what do you think you've learned most about
24:28
Speaker 1: yourself after all of that, I have.
24:29
Speaker 2: Grown so much, definitely.
24:31
Speaker 3: And I first first started writing, I would not talk
24:34
Speaker 3: to anybody when I left the house, I had made
24:36
Speaker 3: my map, and like even when I went to the
24:37
Speaker 3: gas station, I wouldn't talk to anybody. I would purposely
24:40
Speaker 3: go to gas stations where I could pay the pump
24:41
Speaker 3: and keep going.
24:42
Speaker 1: Right.
24:43
Speaker 3: When I did that big tour of Montana, one of
24:45
Speaker 3: my rules was that I wasn't allowed to use GPS.
24:48
Speaker 3: I only had to was allowed to use paper maps
24:50
Speaker 3: because I knew it would force me to talk to people,
24:54
Speaker 3: which was amazing. I met incredible humans.
24:56
Speaker 2: On that trip.
24:57
Speaker 1: Well, that's that's some great insights. You talk about starting
25:00
Speaker 1: to interact with others as you began to travel more.
25:03
Speaker 1: What have you most learned about other people in your journeys.
25:06
Speaker 2: Everybody has a story and they want to tell you.
25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. That's true, and sometimes they'll take half
25:12
Speaker 1: the day to do that.
25:13
Speaker 3: Yes, I've also developed an excellent skill of telling very
25:17
Speaker 3: kind old men that are telling me about their triumph
25:19
Speaker 3: that I have to.
25:20
Speaker 1: Go, Yeah, can you share that with me? Because I
25:23
Speaker 1: would like to know. I want to know what that
25:25
Speaker 1: magic is, what is working for you to just to
25:28
Speaker 1: graciously step out of a conversation.
25:30
Speaker 3: Kind of like not not and when they take up breath,
25:32
Speaker 3: you're like, I'm really really sorry, but I do have
25:34
Speaker 3: to meet some friends down the road.
25:36
Speaker 2: I am lovely to talk to you.
25:38
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a good one. I'll have to remember that
25:40
Speaker 1: even if the friends are very far down the road,
25:42
Speaker 1: like a week later. Yeah, still truthful. So that's good.
25:46
Speaker 1: That's great advice. One of the things that we really
25:49
Speaker 1: like to ask, and it's a selfish question to me,
25:52
Speaker 1: is the books that you've read or the books that
25:54
Speaker 1: have been inspiring for you and to share those.
25:57
Speaker 3: I mean, like the cliche answer, but it is true,
26:00
Speaker 3: as I love Jupiter's Travels. Ted Simon is incredible, of course,
26:04
Speaker 3: Sam manicon incredible writer. Stories of a Motorcycle Gypsy by
26:08
Speaker 3: Tiffany I can't remember that last name, right, the rest
26:10
Speaker 3: of them are Oh, Graham makes incredible books. I can't
26:12
Speaker 3: remember his last name, right, No, yes.
26:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, they're great. Yes, Sam's books. That's the
26:17
Speaker 1: one I don't remember. It was the one in Africa
26:20
Speaker 1: and it opens with that story of him getting in
26:22
Speaker 1: that accent unbelief. Has that inspired you to write your.
26:25
Speaker 2: Own I've been thinking about it.
26:26
Speaker 1: Okay, that's good. That's good.
26:28
Speaker 3: I'm much better at visual storytelling than I am at
26:31
Speaker 3: the written word, so it'll probably be a bit off,
26:34
Speaker 3: like as time wise.
26:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Well, so now that you've got your your
26:38
Speaker 1: Alaska plans working out, we're just talking. You're talking about Alaska.
26:43
Speaker 1: What are the things do you hope to accomplish in
26:45
Speaker 1: the next couple of years? Maybe not even a location,
26:48
Speaker 1: but are there some things that you want to learn
26:49
Speaker 1: as a writer or as a writer.
26:51
Speaker 3: I mean, I would really love to improve and motorcycling.
26:54
Speaker 3: I think everybody should always strive to improve in that craft,
26:58
Speaker 3: no matter how old you are or how long you
27:00
Speaker 3: have been writing. So of course, like more dirt bike
27:03
Speaker 3: skills and that kind of stuff is in my future,
27:05
Speaker 3: trying to get better at those kinds of things.
27:07
Speaker 1: You're thinking about taking a training class.
27:09
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I took the SHEADB class last year ADB
27:13
Speaker 3: Woman and she add we're working together. I get on
27:16
Speaker 3: ad B Fest in South Dakota and I'm going back
27:18
Speaker 3: to that soon and so I'm superstruck for that. And
27:20
Speaker 3: working with Pat was amazing. I have like talked to
27:23
Speaker 3: other instructors in the past, we just never really clicked,
27:25
Speaker 3: so I didn't take their class, and working with Pat
27:27
Speaker 3: was incredible.
27:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the training on a motor sized key
27:31
Speaker 1: because it just gives it builds on that confidence. How
27:34
Speaker 1: do people find out more about you and your travels?
27:36
Speaker 1: We'll talk about all of your socials and all of
27:39
Speaker 1: the things.
27:39
Speaker 3: Well, the easy one is my website as the megpipelies
27:43
Speaker 3: dot com. So if you go there that it has
27:44
Speaker 3: all of the things. On YouTube, I'm as the Megpipelies
27:47
Speaker 3: and that's one of my more active social medias. I
27:50
Speaker 3: post there almost every Friday, and there's a couple of
27:52
Speaker 3: times during the summertime where I get on on a
27:55
Speaker 3: trip and I just can't make the next video. Almost
27:57
Speaker 3: every Friday I upload to YouTube as in my pipelies
28:00
Speaker 3: and then on Instagram, I'm at blind Thistle can't see
28:03
Speaker 3: the weeds that, of course I had before the whole
28:06
Speaker 3: YouTube thing happened.
28:08
Speaker 1: So you got to you got to tell me because
28:10
Speaker 1: I'm interested in the story. What brought you to calling
28:13
Speaker 1: it as the magpie lies?
28:14
Speaker 3: So that one's pretty simple. That one as the crow flies.
28:17
Speaker 3: Of course straight line we're traveling. That wasn't easy, but
28:20
Speaker 3: I don't really go straight to anywhere, okay. And we
28:23
Speaker 3: had megpies on our property growing up, Like a big
28:25
Speaker 3: flock came in every year. I grew up on a ranch,
28:28
Speaker 3: and so I love megpies. I thought they were the
28:31
Speaker 3: most beautiful birds. And if you've ever watched a megpie,
28:34
Speaker 3: they're kind of I mean like they like shiny things.
28:36
Speaker 2: So they'll come here and they'll.
28:37
Speaker 3: Obviously think that we're they're going to go that way,
28:39
Speaker 3: and then they see something and they're like, I want
28:41
Speaker 3: to go over there, and they want to go over
28:42
Speaker 3: there all over the place.
28:44
Speaker 1: That's me sounds like a perfect way to travel. So
28:47
Speaker 1: we're recording this at the Overland Expo. What are some
28:50
Speaker 1: things that you've seen at the show that you are
28:52
Speaker 1: really enjoying.
28:53
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, there's so much stuff. All the classes
28:55
Speaker 3: have been incredible. Yeah, I've honestly spent more time listening
28:59
Speaker 3: to other people's classes than I have walking around.
29:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, the people here are so inspiring, and I think
29:03
Speaker 1: I think the event does such a wonderful job of
29:06
Speaker 1: maintaining that balance between the equipment and the people that
29:10
Speaker 1: are actually out and doing it. Yes, I think that
29:13
Speaker 1: that's so important. Well, thank you so much for being
29:16
Speaker 1: on the podcast today and sharing your amazing stories and adventures.
29:22
Speaker 1: Keep it up and keep us up to date on
29:24
Speaker 1: how you're doing and where you're going, and we'll share
29:27
Speaker 1: that with the audience as well.
29:28
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me.
29:30
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Thanks for being here, Thank you all for attending.