Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / GonDirtin on Traveling with Dogs, Overland Kitchen Staples, and their 70-Series Land Cruiser Troopy Build

Transcript

GonDirtin on Traveling with Dogs, Overland Kitchen Staples, and their 70-Series Land Cruiser Troopy Build · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal Podcast. My name
0:09
Speaker 1: is Ashley Jordano and I'm senior editor at Overland Journal
0:12
Speaker 1: and Expedition Portal. I'm very excited to be here at
0:15
Speaker 1: Overlent Expo West in flag Staff, Arizona and the Black
0:20
Speaker 1: Series podcast studio with two very special guests, Carissa and
0:24
Speaker 1: Limburg of Gone Dirton. Hello, Bye, welcome to the show.
0:29
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on. I'm so excited to have
0:31
Speaker 1: you guys.
0:32
Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
0:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, you so much excited.
0:36
Speaker 1: There's so much to talk about because you guys do
0:39
Speaker 1: amazing photography, have a background and automotive photography, have really
0:44
Speaker 1: cool vehicles, have two really beautiful dogs, make delicious food.
0:49
Speaker 1: So it's hot. I'm like, where do we start?
0:51
Speaker 2: But a lot of things.
0:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So let's start with the origin story. I guess, like,
0:56
Speaker 1: how did you guys get into the Overland World special.
1:00
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1:03
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1:42
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1:43
Speaker 2: When we first met, we both are automoi photographers, right,
1:46
Speaker 2: and we both work out of LA And when you
1:49
Speaker 2: work in automoive photographer or in what we would say
1:51
Speaker 2: in production in LA, it's a very hustle and bustle,
1:53
Speaker 2: and so I was like, bam, bam bambam, always the
1:55
Speaker 2: next thing, and we it just kept compounding with us
1:57
Speaker 2: more and more and more and more. And we love
2:00
Speaker 2: we do, but there we also need breaks, and we've
2:02
Speaker 2: realized we needed breaks, and so we would take our
2:04
Speaker 2: car at the time, just a regular four door sedan
2:06
Speaker 2: and pack of our camera gear and then just drive
2:08
Speaker 2: off into who knows where, right, and more and more
2:10
Speaker 2: we did that and more and more realized we needed
2:12
Speaker 2: to do it, not just as like we liked to
2:14
Speaker 2: do it, but we needed it, like we craved it.
2:16
Speaker 2: One thing led to another, and we started hearing about like, oh,
2:19
Speaker 2: we should see if we go on this trail. Oh,
2:21
Speaker 2: but we can't because have a car. Next thing, you know,
2:23
Speaker 2: we start looking on Craigslist and we picked up a
2:25
Speaker 2: Mitsubishi Montero and not knowing anything about it other than
2:28
Speaker 2: like it was far by four yeah, also.
2:29
Speaker 3: Carrying camera gear. We always carried a lot and it
2:32
Speaker 3: was kind of overflowing in our suv or sedan, and
2:35
Speaker 3: we were like, we need an suv and we could
2:37
Speaker 3: use it for camping. This would be perfect combination, just
2:39
Speaker 3: to like have something that could fit everything.
2:41
Speaker 2: Just get out. I mean, originally we wanted a land
2:44
Speaker 2: cruiser like everybody else, but then we realized that there
2:46
Speaker 2: was far reaching out out of our price range and
2:49
Speaker 2: we got a five thousand dollars vehicle that we have
2:51
Speaker 2: seen like a good portion of the country with.
2:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, Montera is awesome because you still get heated seats,
2:56
Speaker 3: it has a rear locking diff and woral drive. But
2:59
Speaker 3: everything we need all for five grant.
3:01
Speaker 1: It was great, amazing, So did you kind of accessorize
3:04
Speaker 1: right away or did you learn what you needed and
3:06
Speaker 1: then went from there or how did that develop?
3:09
Speaker 2: I think we continued to ground camp or while even
3:11
Speaker 2: with the montero, but we started to realize that, okay,
3:14
Speaker 2: working in or living out of the back of the
3:16
Speaker 2: montero started to become a priority. And like we had
3:18
Speaker 2: bosco boxes then, and then we had stacked on everything
3:20
Speaker 2: from the top of that, and then we're like, okay,
3:21
Speaker 2: this sucks to pack up camp every single day. What
3:23
Speaker 2: can we do? And then at the time, like this
3:25
Speaker 2: is like what eight years ago probably at this point
3:27
Speaker 2: that was kind of the infancy of kind of this,
3:29
Speaker 2: and I would say, this industry has been around for
3:30
Speaker 2: so long, but we started hearing about it maybe eight
3:33
Speaker 2: years ago, right, and then rooftop ten started becoming a thing,
3:35
Speaker 2: and then all these other things started becoming a thing.
3:37
Speaker 2: We had a vehicle that no one really worked on
3:38
Speaker 2: too or didn't. There was not much aftermarket support, but
3:40
Speaker 2: we needed certain things and we did it as on
3:43
Speaker 2: a per need basis.
3:44
Speaker 1: Right, gotcha?
3:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, So rack came on to put things on top
3:47
Speaker 2: of the rack and then eventually like all right, let's
3:49
Speaker 2: get a use rooftop ten. We picked up a used
3:50
Speaker 2: rooftop ten built out the back a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
3:53
Speaker 2: one thing next to another.
3:54
Speaker 3: I feel like once we started dialing that in, we
3:56
Speaker 3: were itching to go out longer trips, go further way,
4:00
Speaker 3: and it just felt like way more attainable. Whenever we
4:03
Speaker 3: started figuring out, like how how we needed our things organized,
4:06
Speaker 3: having the rooftop tent on top was nice where I
4:08
Speaker 3: don't know, we just felt more safe too in a
4:10
Speaker 3: way in certain areas of the country.
4:12
Speaker 2: Not not just that, but the rooftop tent you could
4:14
Speaker 2: sleep in colder temperatures and it's more comfortable use you're
4:17
Speaker 2: off the ground.
4:17
Speaker 3: We were doing some like nineteen degree ground tint stuff
4:20
Speaker 3: and we were.
4:20
Speaker 2: Like that hurts so bad.
4:23
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, So how did the four x four changer
4:26
Speaker 1: experience of traveling around us?
4:29
Speaker 2: It changed it in the sense that there was no
4:32
Speaker 2: wall that kept us from anywhere, right, And that's the
4:35
Speaker 2: most important thing, I think, not that we go out
4:37
Speaker 2: and see card trails. It's just us. It's just look
4:39
Speaker 2: on Google Mass like, hey, let's go there, and without
4:41
Speaker 2: thinking that we can go there because we know we can't, right,
4:44
Speaker 2: and that that just opens up all the doors.
4:46
Speaker 1: Were you traveling with your any animals at that time
4:49
Speaker 1: or did that come later.
4:50
Speaker 3: At that time, we had Kaya, so we traveled with
4:52
Speaker 3: one dog, and she loved it. She just loves running
4:55
Speaker 3: around and having a good time in nature, and she
4:57
Speaker 3: would just look for lizards under rocks and she loved
5:00
Speaker 3: coming out with us just as much. I mean.
5:02
Speaker 2: And also, Kaya is a she and she's fifteen pounds.
5:06
Speaker 2: She's ten this year.
5:07
Speaker 3: She's ten this year. But even like hiking, she out
5:09
Speaker 3: hikes us most of the time. Like we would take
5:11
Speaker 3: her backpacking and I'm just like dying, and.
5:13
Speaker 2: She's like, let's keep going.
5:15
Speaker 3: So she's a little adventure dog. Now we have Stella,
5:18
Speaker 3: so we travel with two dogs.
5:19
Speaker 1: What kind of dog and Stella We.
5:21
Speaker 3: Think she's a dash out mixed with a Golden Retriever.
5:24
Speaker 2: And she's sixteen pounds, so they're the exact same size.
5:27
Speaker 2: And they love playing together amazing.
5:28
Speaker 1: So they were both in the roof tap ten at
5:30
Speaker 1: one point.
5:30
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, nice, they love it. I mean, honestly, it's
5:33
Speaker 3: like another little area of warmth. Stella would sleep at
5:36
Speaker 3: our feet and I would just put my feet right
5:38
Speaker 3: up against her belly. It's perfect nice.
5:40
Speaker 1: Do you have any like tips or recommendations or I
5:43
Speaker 1: don't know, life hacks for traveling with dogs.
5:46
Speaker 2: What we realize is our dogs get messy and they
5:48
Speaker 2: get dirty. And there's also actually a lot of self
5:51
Speaker 2: washed dog wash places. They just go into small towns
5:54
Speaker 2: and they have used pay whatever it is, and then
5:56
Speaker 2: you wash your dog yourself. Yeah, so that's that's really nice,
6:00
Speaker 2: especially because Kai gets some things and Estella is now
6:03
Speaker 2: getting into things too.
6:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.
6:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's not like we have to do
6:05
Speaker 3: it for every trip. It's just sometimes like we've camped
6:08
Speaker 3: at a lake before when we were with you and
6:09
Speaker 3: Richard camped at that lake and there was a dead
6:11
Speaker 3: fish and kaya rolled all over it and I was like,
6:14
Speaker 3: you were now sleeping downstairs. We're not coming up. There's
6:17
Speaker 3: no way. So then like after we left and we
6:19
Speaker 3: had it, I think to another event, stopped at a
6:22
Speaker 3: place where we could wash them off and it was great.
6:24
Speaker 2: I think just Google maps is great for that and
6:25
Speaker 2: you just look it for golf dog wash or whatever,
6:28
Speaker 2: and it's really good. Just back of the mine thing.
6:30
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, like long drives, they sleep most of the time.
6:32
Speaker 3: They're not too anxious, which is great, and Kai is
6:35
Speaker 3: a little anxious. But I mean, just like we need
6:37
Speaker 3: to stop and stretch at our feet, so to the dog.
6:39
Speaker 3: So we try to make sure like they get their
6:40
Speaker 3: walks in every few breaks that we have to take.
6:43
Speaker 3: So I mean, you just accept that it takes a
6:44
Speaker 3: little longer to get somewhere because you are taking a
6:46
Speaker 3: few more stops just in case they need to stretch
6:48
Speaker 3: out and their's stuff.
6:49
Speaker 2: And also the fact that we also simplify their diets
6:52
Speaker 2: whenever we are on the road for a good while,
6:54
Speaker 2: I cooked food for Kaya and it was just like
6:57
Speaker 2: cooked chicken with some vegetables, like just nothing else. Now
7:00
Speaker 2: we just traveled just dry food because it is a
7:02
Speaker 2: lot simpler, and she's okay with it. It was a
7:04
Speaker 2: little bit of a transition, but she's now very much
7:06
Speaker 2: okay with eating just dry food. Yeah, and it just
7:08
Speaker 2: makes life so much easier.
7:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:09
Speaker 2: Nice.
7:10
Speaker 1: Did you always photograph your vehicle and the scenery when
7:13
Speaker 1: you were out or did that kind of like transition
7:15
Speaker 1: from your job to like extracurricular kind of photography which
7:19
Speaker 1: has then led into other opportunities.
7:22
Speaker 3: I feel like we always shot whenever we went out hiking.
7:25
Speaker 3: It's kind of hard. Like, both of us are professional
7:27
Speaker 3: automotive photographers, so we were always shooting even before we
7:30
Speaker 3: shot cars.
7:31
Speaker 2: We both got into the industry doing what we do
7:33
Speaker 2: by shooting our own cars right even way long before.
7:36
Speaker 2: So like Rissa had a Maza R seven and I
7:39
Speaker 2: had a Maza Miyada and we both shot those way
7:43
Speaker 2: before we even considered it a career.
7:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and so us going out and taking a
7:47
Speaker 3: break from LA and going hiking, we still like we
7:49
Speaker 3: found ourselves shooting just as much as we would for
7:52
Speaker 3: our regular careers. There's something different about shooting nature. It's
7:56
Speaker 3: really challenging. It's different than shooting like a subject, a
7:59
Speaker 3: car or model or anything like that because you have
8:02
Speaker 3: to wait for the light. It's it's such a patient game,
8:05
Speaker 3: have to really pay attention to your foreground, your middle ground,
8:08
Speaker 3: your background, how you're framing it. And I feel like
8:10
Speaker 3: it's such a challenge, and it's really nice to be
8:12
Speaker 3: out there to you're challenge to see differently than you
8:15
Speaker 3: ever see normally. It makes you almost feel like a hobbyist,
8:19
Speaker 3: Like even though we're professionals, getting outside and shooting nature,
8:22
Speaker 3: you feel like a newbe again. Yeah, And it's kind
8:25
Speaker 3: of nice. It's like a challenge.
8:27
Speaker 2: I will for sure admit that I suck at landscape photography, right,
8:30
Speaker 2: and I feel that, but like if you put a
8:32
Speaker 2: car in front of a landscape, then I could do
8:33
Speaker 2: all day long. But actually, landscape photography it's so difficult
8:36
Speaker 2: for us to wrap around and compared to our friends
8:39
Speaker 2: like overlanding America's like Ernesto is incredible at landscape photography. Yeah,
8:42
Speaker 2: he's has the patience for it. It's amazing. Yeah, what's the.
8:45
Speaker 1: Difficulty in the landscape photography compared.
8:48
Speaker 2: To it's It's one most important thing is the scene, right,
8:51
Speaker 2: you have to see a certain way, right, you have
8:53
Speaker 2: to see where your shot is, what is an interesting
8:55
Speaker 2: shot and things like that. And then the two is patients. Right,
8:57
Speaker 2: you have to wait for the light. You have to
8:58
Speaker 2: sit there who knows how long, like hours, right, waiting
9:01
Speaker 2: for the light and just might not work out sometimes, Yeah, which.
9:03
Speaker 3: We definitely find ourselves like not patient enough to fully
9:06
Speaker 3: wait for sunset, like the sun will dip. We're like,
9:08
Speaker 3: all right, shot it good, start walking back to the car.
9:10
Speaker 3: We look back, We're like, oh my gosh, it's like glowing. Now,
9:13
Speaker 3: why do we leave that happens.
9:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yea very but your majority of that is
9:16
Speaker 2: seeing though you have to see it differently because like
9:18
Speaker 2: we see cars all day long and we know how
9:20
Speaker 2: to see that, Like it's such an important photography like trade,
9:23
Speaker 2: but seeing landscape stuff is different.
9:25
Speaker 1: What tips would you give to people that want to
9:27
Speaker 1: improve their vehicle photography if they're out camping or overlanding
9:32
Speaker 1: or like, are there are certain angles that you want
9:34
Speaker 1: to choose or light hitting a vehicle in a certain way.
9:37
Speaker 1: Front three quarter shot seems very popular.
9:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, front three quarters, that's the money shot. Lighting. Yeah,
9:44
Speaker 3: just pay attention to your lighting. If the sun is out.
9:46
Speaker 3: Typically I like it to the side of the car,
9:49
Speaker 3: not fully backlit, just a little over to the side
9:51
Speaker 3: where it's casting down the whole side panel of the vehicle.
9:54
Speaker 3: If you're shooting like a front three quarter, then you
9:56
Speaker 3: have that nice side light coming in.
9:58
Speaker 2: And then I would say it's also vehicle dependent. Yeah, right,
10:00
Speaker 2: So like a modern vehicle, she's completely different than an
10:03
Speaker 2: old vehicle. Sometimes an old vehicle will look great at
10:05
Speaker 2: high noon, right, then an old the same modern car
10:08
Speaker 2: would just look like crap? Is it? The shape of
10:09
Speaker 2: the vehicle, So it's a shaping. Yeah, it's a body lines,
10:12
Speaker 2: body lines, and then just how like the sculptors sculpted
10:15
Speaker 2: the bodies of the modern cars and stuff like that,
10:16
Speaker 2: and how light falls on it. It just really depends.
10:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's fun to play with foreground elements too.
10:21
Speaker 3: We don't just focus on the car. Take a step
10:23
Speaker 3: back and observe, like certain formations of rocks around the area.
10:26
Speaker 3: See if you can frame it in a different way
10:28
Speaker 3: where it's it's not just like the car is front
10:30
Speaker 3: and center to your camera, Like, take a step back
10:32
Speaker 3: and play with different elements of the environment.
10:35
Speaker 1: Nice good advice.
10:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I always say small truck shots are always
10:39
Speaker 2: the best meaning because you get to see the whole
10:40
Speaker 2: landscape instruct is just part of it. Aeah, right, And
10:43
Speaker 2: that tells the story because you're so small in everything.
10:45
Speaker 2: And we love that.
10:46
Speaker 1: That's true because I guess if you have a beautiful
10:49
Speaker 1: front three quarter shot, it doesn't necessarily tell the story
10:52
Speaker 1: of what's happening in the situation.
10:54
Speaker 2: For front three quarters, we always call that the centerfold shot, yes,
10:57
Speaker 2: because that is like just a money shot, right, that's
10:59
Speaker 2: what everyone wants to see. You won't open up the
11:01
Speaker 2: magazine and that's it, right, But I think it's more
11:03
Speaker 2: grand to see the whole landscape because that's what we're
11:05
Speaker 2: out there for, right when we have cool vehicles and
11:07
Speaker 2: we have cool trucks, but the trucks is literally the
11:09
Speaker 2: paintbrush to get us out there, right, absolutely.
11:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had some experience in editorial like writing.
11:15
Speaker 2: I did, right, Yes, yeah, yeah. I was a professional
11:18
Speaker 2: logger for a website called speed hunters dot com for
11:20
Speaker 2: i'd say eight years, and I traveled the world covering
11:23
Speaker 2: car culture around the world. It was interesting. I traveled
11:25
Speaker 2: at the end of my towards the end of my
11:27
Speaker 2: time there, I traveled with a three hundred to three
11:29
Speaker 2: hundred twenty is a year.
11:30
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, what did you learn from that experience?
11:33
Speaker 2: The same experience that I've learned when coming to like
11:36
Speaker 2: the overlanding community, is it's all about the people. That's
11:39
Speaker 2: the most important thing. Like, no matter what car it is,
11:42
Speaker 2: this car is nothing about the person.
11:43
Speaker 3: Right.
11:44
Speaker 2: You have a beautiful car, you can look at it
11:45
Speaker 2: and say that's really cool, but you have the story
11:47
Speaker 2: behind it and that becomes so much more. That was
11:49
Speaker 2: my first run into professional writing, and I absolutely tanked it, right,
11:53
Speaker 2: And I was young and I didn't really know how
11:56
Speaker 2: to write, and I was kind of just thrown into it.
11:58
Speaker 1: Right.
11:59
Speaker 2: It was really difficult, highly difficult. But now I'm doing
12:02
Speaker 2: more writing now and it's just so easy. It just
12:04
Speaker 2: comes out. It's just now that works with practiced, with practice,
12:07
Speaker 2: it just got to grind it out.
12:08
Speaker 1: And then, Carissa, you can get on the tools, can
12:11
Speaker 1: get in that vehicle. And you've done so many different
12:14
Speaker 1: modifications and maintenance. And how did you start out with
12:18
Speaker 1: doing that?
12:18
Speaker 3: I grew up at a shop in Texas. My family
12:21
Speaker 3: has a car audio shop, so I always grew up
12:23
Speaker 3: around cars. And my brother had a car growing up,
12:26
Speaker 3: and he's two years older than me, so when he
12:28
Speaker 3: was sixteen, he was always wrenching and I would just
12:30
Speaker 3: like watch him and his friends. I was kind of
12:32
Speaker 3: part of his friend group as well, and we would
12:34
Speaker 3: just work on cars all the time. So I learned
12:36
Speaker 3: a lot. I got a Rotary as my first car
12:38
Speaker 3: to drive. It's funny. I always wanted like a Mustang,
12:40
Speaker 3: and my grandpa was like, don't get an old sixty
12:43
Speaker 3: seven Mustang or sixty nine Mustang. You're gonna have nothing
12:46
Speaker 3: but problems. And then I get a Rotary, which is
12:48
Speaker 3: even less reliable than all of that, and the engine
12:52
Speaker 3: held within like a year of old owning it. So
12:54
Speaker 3: that's where I've really learned a lot of my mechanics
12:57
Speaker 3: was rebuilding that engine and building it pretty much from
12:59
Speaker 3: the crowd.
13:00
Speaker 2: Also side note, it is five hundred horsepower that she
13:03
Speaker 2: built with on eighty five and then for fifty on
13:05
Speaker 2: pumpcasts and my Miata is ninety horsepower.
13:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been a fun experience, though, you know, coming
13:13
Speaker 3: from like the rotary world, I definitely know that engine
13:16
Speaker 3: much better than I do the land Cruiser even the Montero.
13:19
Speaker 3: Like I never worked on a piston motor, so I
13:22
Speaker 3: don't know if I could say I can like fix
13:24
Speaker 3: anything like that, but regular maintenance, like I definitely can
13:27
Speaker 3: walk around before we hit a trip and make sure
13:29
Speaker 3: everything looks good.
13:30
Speaker 1: Those experiences kind of lead to how you decided what
13:34
Speaker 1: you were going to do with the Montero or is
13:36
Speaker 1: it more like lifestyle.
13:37
Speaker 2: Base the Montero is this is like a natural thing.
13:40
Speaker 2: It just kind of happened, right. We never even thought about,
13:43
Speaker 2: like never think about maybe where you could call us
13:45
Speaker 2: near sighted almost as in we never think about the
13:47
Speaker 2: future that far. We think about what's going to happen
13:51
Speaker 2: the next day or what we want to do in
13:53
Speaker 2: the near the coming days. We never planned too far ahead,
13:55
Speaker 2: and that ethos kind of goes into the Montero and
13:58
Speaker 2: we never just thought, oh, this is what we want
14:00
Speaker 2: to do with the Montero, or we just did it
14:01
Speaker 2: and then we came back from somewhere like, oh it
14:03
Speaker 2: was just fix this because it wasn't working right right.
14:05
Speaker 1: So what were some of your favorite kind of modifications
14:08
Speaker 1: with that vehicle? I mean, life easier or you just
14:11
Speaker 1: enjoyed the biggest thing.
14:13
Speaker 2: The biggest first change was switching from a cooler to
14:15
Speaker 2: a fridge, and so we had an airb fridge first
14:18
Speaker 2: and then switched over to medic fridge and that was like,
14:21
Speaker 2: by far the greatest upgrade that you could ever have.
14:24
Speaker 3: From just like a cooler.
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, we just came from a cooler. Yeah yeah, yeah.
14:27
Speaker 2: Our vegetables are always soggy and we hated it and
14:30
Speaker 2: we tried to work our way around it.
14:31
Speaker 3: And it was fine for weekends, but then we started
14:34
Speaker 3: going out longer. Since we're freelancers, we were like, oh,
14:37
Speaker 3: we don't have to go out on like a Friday
14:39
Speaker 3: to Sunday sort of thing. We could just like push
14:41
Speaker 3: our shoots towards the end of the week instead of
14:43
Speaker 3: the beginning of the week and like take a little
14:44
Speaker 3: bit longer of a trip and then we'd have like
14:46
Speaker 3: soggy badgies and everything. Oh so I would say, that's
14:49
Speaker 3: definitely like it was such a such a treat to
14:51
Speaker 3: really have.
14:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then on second that would be the drawer
14:55
Speaker 2: build out and then the kitchen build out on top
14:57
Speaker 2: of that, which then started leading us to cooking better
14:59
Speaker 2: and all that stuf. And it was just more enjoyable
15:01
Speaker 2: to cook out there and great.
15:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And honestly, going from the rooftop tint we had,
15:05
Speaker 3: we had just like the kind how do you shell?
15:08
Speaker 2: I guess you could call it a clam show where
15:09
Speaker 2: you have.
15:09
Speaker 3: To like unfold it and then you like put all
15:12
Speaker 3: of the steaks in and everything. And then we went
15:14
Speaker 3: to a hard shell roof tent and it was like
15:16
Speaker 3: a game changer. It would take us usually like an
15:18
Speaker 3: hour to break down camp, and then we got the
15:20
Speaker 3: hard shell rooftop tent where you just close and latch
15:23
Speaker 3: it and it would take us like five minutes to
15:25
Speaker 3: leave the camp. It was great.
15:27
Speaker 2: It was fantastic.
15:27
Speaker 4: Yes.
15:27
Speaker 1: Nice. What are some of your favorite trips that you
15:30
Speaker 1: took in that vehicle? It's probably hard to that.
15:32
Speaker 2: I would say we did an Escalante trip early on,
15:35
Speaker 2: and that was kind of our our first foray into
15:38
Speaker 2: actual public land, I guess. I mean, we always did
15:40
Speaker 2: like three ninety five and Loan Pine and all that
15:43
Speaker 2: and California, but like for some reason, we went to
15:46
Speaker 2: Escalante and it just really opened our eyes of just
15:50
Speaker 2: how much land there is and how vast and how
15:52
Speaker 2: beautiful it is. And I think to me that that's
15:54
Speaker 2: one that always sticks in my mind.
15:55
Speaker 3: Mine's Grand Teton. Yeah, we drove out to Grant Teeton's
15:59
Speaker 3: actually for a photo shoot. We were shooting in the
16:01
Speaker 3: National Park for Dodge, and we're like, we might as
16:03
Speaker 3: well drive. We would have flown normally for a job,
16:05
Speaker 3: but we were like, we have them Ontaro, now let's
16:07
Speaker 3: make this a road trip. So we drove to the
16:09
Speaker 3: Grand Tetons and then after the job, we camped out
16:12
Speaker 3: there for like a week, and then we drove to
16:14
Speaker 3: the Pacific Northwest, right we did.
16:16
Speaker 2: We did Titons and then we did a Yellowstone as well. Yeah,
16:18
Speaker 2: the same trip.
16:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we had a geas or west to.
16:21
Speaker 2: West to Pacific northwest.
16:23
Speaker 3: And it was it was incredible, and just being in
16:25
Speaker 3: the forest and the Grand Tetons, we basically all saw
16:28
Speaker 3: all four seasons in one day. Whenever we got to camp,
16:30
Speaker 3: it was beautiful and sunny and you saw like a
16:33
Speaker 3: flowers and green and then like an hour or two later,
16:36
Speaker 3: snow started dumping, and it was just it was magical, and.
16:40
Speaker 2: It was snow started falling, and it was June, like
16:42
Speaker 2: late June probably, Yeah, So it was just really cool
16:45
Speaker 2: as magical.
16:46
Speaker 1: Nice. And you guys have some international travel under your
16:48
Speaker 1: belts as well well. Obviously for your job you traveled
16:51
Speaker 1: quite a bit. Did you do some personal trips that
16:53
Speaker 1: were really memorable.
16:55
Speaker 2: We've been to Vietnam together three times. I would say
16:57
Speaker 2: that's one of our most memorable countries, not just because
17:00
Speaker 2: I'm Vietnamese, but because the country itself is just gorgeous.
17:03
Speaker 2: It's a gorgeous, gorgeous country with beautiful people and absolutely
17:06
Speaker 2: delicious food. The combination of all those things is like
17:08
Speaker 2: not just like outside country gorgeous, but like city gorgeous.
17:11
Speaker 2: It's own right now.
17:12
Speaker 3: It's thrilling. I remember whenever we were first trying to
17:14
Speaker 3: go to Vietnam, I was unsure if I wanted to go.
17:17
Speaker 3: We'd watch Anthony Bourdain shows and stuff, and You'd be like,
17:19
Speaker 3: look at all the food, and I'd look and I'd
17:21
Speaker 3: be like, it all looks so like dirtie, Do I
17:23
Speaker 3: want to go here? And then we went and my
17:26
Speaker 3: life was completely changed. I fell in love with it.
17:29
Speaker 3: Just being on the scooters and going in the streets.
17:32
Speaker 3: You'd smell the foods and have coffee every morning and
17:35
Speaker 3: it was just such a blast. We re rode in
17:37
Speaker 3: the countryside on little motorcycles or what do you call
17:40
Speaker 3: those scooters, went to like rice fields and we'd be
17:44
Speaker 3: on our scooters. We actually slid off of one of
17:46
Speaker 3: the scooters because the rice fields is all rocky and
17:48
Speaker 3: it was just so freeing. It was awesome. Highly recommend
17:52
Speaker 3: Vietnam go to Southeast Asia ASA.
17:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it is an amazing country.
17:56
Speaker 3: And cheap, Oh my gosh. I mean the two of
17:58
Speaker 3: us for two weeks, two two hundred and fifty dollars
18:02
Speaker 3: for hotel, lights in between areas of the country, scooter rentals, food,
18:08
Speaker 3: all of it, two hundred fifty dollars for two weeks.
18:10
Speaker 2: For two of us is insane.
18:11
Speaker 1: I got to go back.
18:13
Speaker 3: I'm ready right now.
18:15
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So you guys traveled in near Montero for
18:18
Speaker 1: how quite a while?
18:20
Speaker 3: Yeah?
18:20
Speaker 4: Five years?
18:21
Speaker 2: Five six years?
18:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and then at some point you decided that
18:24
Speaker 1: you were ready for a change.
18:25
Speaker 2: Yes, So actually it was was it that Tetans trip
18:28
Speaker 2: or it was the I think it was.
18:30
Speaker 3: Maybe a different trip after that, but it wasn't the
18:32
Speaker 3: Pacific North.
18:32
Speaker 2: It was okay. So it was my birthday and we
18:35
Speaker 2: were somewhere I forgot where exactly, and it was raining
18:39
Speaker 2: and cold, and we pulled in the camp. We stopped
18:42
Speaker 2: by a grocery store on the way to two camp,
18:44
Speaker 2: and Bristol bought me a birthday cake. Right we sat
18:46
Speaker 2: out the awning just to be outside, and we had it.
18:48
Speaker 2: I blew my candles and we immediately just went straight
18:51
Speaker 2: inside the two front seats of the Montero to get
18:53
Speaker 2: out of the cold because it was so cold, wet
18:55
Speaker 2: and wet.
18:56
Speaker 3: It was raining, it was freezing. So we jumped in
18:58
Speaker 3: the front seats and we had our birthday cake.
19:01
Speaker 2: And we had our birthday cake in front seats and
19:02
Speaker 2: then we were just like, you need something different. We
19:04
Speaker 2: need to have something that we could just be inside.
19:08
Speaker 3: And then honestly, the tease from the gods happened whenever
19:10
Speaker 3: we were in outside of Oregon, and we had already
19:15
Speaker 3: at that point. We were like, okay, we know we
19:16
Speaker 3: want something different, we know we want interior space, but
19:19
Speaker 3: we don't want to go too big. And we're up
19:21
Speaker 3: in the tent. We just poured some miso soup out
19:23
Speaker 3: of like a little.
19:24
Speaker 2: And it was another cold night when we were early
19:27
Speaker 2: into the tent and we're rooftop and then and it
19:29
Speaker 2: was just cramped and you could.
19:30
Speaker 3: Tell rain was coming, so were and it was still early,
19:32
Speaker 3: like rain was about to hit. So we're like, okay,
19:34
Speaker 3: let's go up. We'll have some meso soup. And then
19:36
Speaker 3: we're down this road where we haven't seen a car
19:38
Speaker 3: for a while, and we hear something coming.
19:41
Speaker 2: It's a We're like, what is.
19:43
Speaker 3: That some diesel? And then we like kind of unzipped
19:45
Speaker 3: the window and you only see the two lights. I'm like, oh,
19:48
Speaker 3: I don't know, like maybe they're just coming to camp too.
19:50
Speaker 3: And then they get a little closer and it's a
19:52
Speaker 3: land Cruiser troopy and we just lose our stuff. We're like,
19:55
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, the gods are literally teasing us right now,
19:58
Speaker 3: because that's obviously what we had in our vision of
20:01
Speaker 3: what we wanted. And we were like, this is it,
20:03
Speaker 3: Like this is a sign we need to make it happen.
20:05
Speaker 2: And from that point on we were just like, well,
20:07
Speaker 2: could we do to get a trooper? Yeah, that's all
20:08
Speaker 2: it was.
20:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were already kind of looking at that time,
20:11
Speaker 3: but it was just a slow process of finding the
20:13
Speaker 3: right one for us. And then after that, I was like,
20:15
Speaker 3: it's time that I start looking. And I went really
20:18
Speaker 3: ham on, just digging and searching for one in different countries, and.
20:23
Speaker 2: We found one, found one in Australia in Darwin, Australia,
20:25
Speaker 2: and put our money down and shipped it over.
20:28
Speaker 1: And yeah, how did you find it? How? What kind
20:31
Speaker 1: of research?
20:31
Speaker 4: Pc?
20:32
Speaker 2: This is the most Carissa question ever.
20:34
Speaker 3: I'm all for finding a good deal, let's be real, No,
20:37
Speaker 3: but I was. I was looking in every country. I
20:39
Speaker 3: had different apps that were kind of like auto Trader
20:41
Speaker 3: for South America. I'd refresh them every day. I had
20:44
Speaker 3: probably thirty plus tabs open on my computer that I
20:46
Speaker 3: refresh every day. And I looked in Dubai in the
20:48
Speaker 3: Middle East. I looked in Australia, looked in Japan, I
20:51
Speaker 3: looked in Europe, and I would just be refreshing to
20:53
Speaker 3: see if a land cruiser would get posted it. I
20:55
Speaker 3: definitely would see different ones get posted and I'd inquire
20:58
Speaker 3: with a few. And then I was invited to a
21:00
Speaker 3: group actually by Ernesto with over Land in Americas. He
21:02
Speaker 3: invited me to this Australian Facebook group and got on
21:05
Speaker 3: that and a lot of guys post their rigs there
21:08
Speaker 3: and I found one and I was like, Burk, this
21:10
Speaker 3: might be the one. It's perfect. It has the dual
21:12
Speaker 3: fuel tanks, it's diesel, it's a one HD, it's straight six,
21:16
Speaker 3: it checked all of the boxes, no rust, all that
21:18
Speaker 3: good stuff. Wasn't built out, so it was ready for
21:21
Speaker 3: anything that we wanted to do to it. And then
21:23
Speaker 3: that's when the process started from there. Thanks Facebook, the
21:28
Speaker 3: power of social media seriously awesome. But we had people
21:31
Speaker 3: looking for probably about a year and a half for us,
21:34
Speaker 3: and then whenever that whole troop encounter and Oregon happened,
21:37
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, I want to find something really soon,
21:40
Speaker 3: and so that's whenever I went in and I just
21:42
Speaker 3: started refreshing every day.
21:43
Speaker 1: How long did it take for it to ship over?
21:45
Speaker 3: We bought it in August of twenty twenty and it
21:48
Speaker 3: got here in December of twenty twenty, which was just
21:50
Speaker 3: before the container low up Insanity and Long Beach and
21:55
Speaker 3: pretty much every port in the United States, but especially
21:58
Speaker 3: Long Beach. That's where we're based in Law Beach, and
22:00
Speaker 3: we would just see the boats piling up, and at
22:02
Speaker 3: that time we had already bought the troopy. But we're
22:05
Speaker 3: really lucky it happened when it did, because a truck
22:07
Speaker 3: could have been sitting just right across from us, just
22:10
Speaker 3: in the ocean, unable to load for like months. Yeah.
22:12
Speaker 1: What's the make and model of it?
22:14
Speaker 3: In year?
22:14
Speaker 2: It's a nineteen ninety four Toyota Landkrui, a troop carrier RV,
22:18
Speaker 2: not true, sure what the RV guns for.
22:19
Speaker 3: There's a couple couple.
22:20
Speaker 1: Options, and then you set out to convert it.
22:24
Speaker 2: Pop top, yeah, we did pop top into your space.
22:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
22:27
Speaker 2: Full electrical. We have flumbing for the first time in
22:29
Speaker 2: our lives, electrical water heater and then diesel heater as well.
22:34
Speaker 2: And life is too luxurious almost now, it's almost too good.
22:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's very good. It was a fun process
22:40
Speaker 3: though we've never done any sort of build out like that.
22:43
Speaker 3: And whenever we got it it was basically empty. It
22:46
Speaker 3: had two draores in it. We pulled them out and
22:48
Speaker 3: we went to Texas, which is where my family's shop
22:50
Speaker 3: is and Pro. Thanks Hypro, Thanks mom and dad for
22:53
Speaker 3: making space for us. So we were taking a spot
22:56
Speaker 3: in the shop for three months. It took us to
22:58
Speaker 3: build the truck out. We start arted in like arch
23:01
Speaker 3: I think, and then by the time we started getting
23:03
Speaker 3: to finishing, it was becoming so hot. We needed to
23:06
Speaker 3: start working again because we did take the time off
23:08
Speaker 3: to go there and build it out, and we were
23:10
Speaker 3: just like, we got to get out of this seat.
23:12
Speaker 3: This is becoming miserable.
23:13
Speaker 2: We got to finish this really soon.
23:15
Speaker 3: But we finished right on times perfect nice.
23:17
Speaker 1: Did you come across any complications along the way in
23:20
Speaker 1: terms of any I don't know anything. I mean, was
23:23
Speaker 1: it smooth sailing for the build out?
23:25
Speaker 3: Like it was actually pretty smooth.
23:26
Speaker 2: The buildout itself was smooth, but then we ran into
23:28
Speaker 2: what you call used car issues right and on the
23:31
Speaker 2: drive home from Texas to back to California, after everything
23:34
Speaker 2: was built out, our transmission went out. We eventually had
23:37
Speaker 2: to get the rebuilt.
23:37
Speaker 3: I left that morning and that afternoon we got broke
23:40
Speaker 3: down and literally the middle of nowhere, Texas. We were
23:43
Speaker 3: so excited, were like, first night, we're going to camp
23:45
Speaker 3: in somewhere nice. It's going to be great. And then
23:48
Speaker 3: we tried to turn around and it would not go
23:50
Speaker 3: into gear. It wouldn't move, and we're like, okay, great, Yeah, we're.
23:54
Speaker 2: Really excited to get out of Texas, just because Texas
23:56
Speaker 2: doesn't have public land, and just to get into New
23:58
Speaker 2: Mexico and then just be on public land for first
24:00
Speaker 2: time in our pop top and the build out, and
24:03
Speaker 2: we really excited about that.
24:04
Speaker 3: But honestly, it worked out just as fast as it
24:06
Speaker 3: could have because we were able to get a trailer
24:09
Speaker 3: and get towed. If we had been in the middle
24:10
Speaker 3: of nowhere, it would have been way harder. So right, yeah,
24:13
Speaker 3: everything happens when it should. I guess yes.
24:16
Speaker 1: How has that interior space changed things for you on
24:20
Speaker 1: the road?
24:20
Speaker 2: I would say the biggest negative the interior space does
24:23
Speaker 2: is that you enjoy it too much, Especially as an introvert,
24:26
Speaker 2: you just want to get away and having such a
24:29
Speaker 2: comfortable space to be in. You just gravitate towards that is,
24:32
Speaker 2: like I want my book or whatever, right, And because
24:34
Speaker 2: of that, we find ourselves not going outside as much
24:37
Speaker 2: all the time. Yes, right, So that's the biggest negative.
24:40
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it does still take us
24:42
Speaker 2: to those places that we do want to go, and
24:44
Speaker 2: then we're not. When we're not doing like those days
24:46
Speaker 2: we're just at camp and just hanging out, we are
24:48
Speaker 2: outside and it's amazing. And then when the weather does
24:51
Speaker 2: roll in, then we are inside. We have the option
24:53
Speaker 2: to be inside. So the negative of just gravitating towards
24:56
Speaker 2: the interior space is a small negative, but I would
24:59
Speaker 2: say overall it's an incredible, like life changing thing.
25:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I love it. We have way more space.
25:04
Speaker 3: Whenever we're somewhere and it's like pouring rain or anything,
25:07
Speaker 3: we can just sit up on the couch and be comfortable,
25:09
Speaker 3: which is really great. Even with the Montero, you were
25:12
Speaker 3: like one hundred percent outside, so you had to get
25:14
Speaker 3: out your camp chairs, you had to put out the awning,
25:16
Speaker 3: all that good stuff. And with the Troopy, I'm like,
25:18
Speaker 3: I don't even have to go get my chair, Like,
25:20
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna sit right here and look out the
25:21
Speaker 3: window and it's amazing.
25:23
Speaker 2: Yeah. I called the moving cabin, right, so because it's
25:25
Speaker 2: this cabin that could just always move and you look
25:27
Speaker 2: out the window and the view always change it. So
25:29
Speaker 2: it's nice not to have to set up camp all
25:31
Speaker 2: the time. Just op it and you're good.
25:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've really enjoyed it.
25:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and awesome. It's almost I would say it's it's
25:36
Speaker 2: so good, it's like spoiling.
25:38
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:38
Speaker 1: Nice. And you guys took a trip to Baja recently
25:41
Speaker 1: and was that kind of like the first longer trip
25:44
Speaker 1: that you had done in the Troopee.
25:45
Speaker 3: It was, yes, yeah, yeah, we'd only done shorter breakdown
25:48
Speaker 3: trips like week weekends, mostly week.
25:51
Speaker 2: And Baja was amazing. We found out so a couple
25:53
Speaker 2: of things like whenever you're on these longer trips, you
25:55
Speaker 2: find things out about your rig that you never knew before.
25:58
Speaker 4: Right.
25:58
Speaker 2: So one of those things is we want to get
26:00
Speaker 2: rid of our bullbar that came with the troop Bee
26:02
Speaker 2: for so long, because one, we don't like to look
26:04
Speaker 2: of it, and we wanted just a cleaner look up
26:05
Speaker 2: front and then to the weight. Right, But we went
26:08
Speaker 2: on the Baja trip and we realized that we used
26:10
Speaker 2: the bullbars every single day for laundry.
26:12
Speaker 3: Yeah. Right. A couple our friends were like, man, we're
26:14
Speaker 3: really jealous you have places to put your towels in swimsuits.
26:17
Speaker 2: Now that that has happened, we don't want to get
26:19
Speaker 2: rid of it. Is it worth the wait? Probably not?
26:21
Speaker 2: But it's better than stringing up a laundry line somewhere,
26:23
Speaker 2: and sometimes you don't have anywhere to string u laundry lines.
26:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I personally, I'm okay with it because
26:28
Speaker 3: the peace of mind in case, like an animal does
26:30
Speaker 3: cross the road, you know, you just never know, and
26:32
Speaker 3: it's nice to have that extra production for sure. Nice.
26:34
Speaker 1: Were there any kind of like organizational things that you
26:38
Speaker 1: changed during that trip just to make accessing things inside easy?
26:41
Speaker 2: Oh for sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah,
26:44
Speaker 2: we realized that where we originally thought we would put
26:46
Speaker 2: our clothes that completely changed and easier access because we
26:49
Speaker 2: realize that's something we get every day, and the things
26:51
Speaker 2: that you reach for every day, you want to make
26:53
Speaker 2: it easier.
26:54
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, and things we need to add, like we
26:55
Speaker 3: were originally going to add like a hose for a
26:58
Speaker 3: shower and we never did that during the build out
27:00
Speaker 3: because we were just we were trying to finish everything
27:02
Speaker 3: in Texas as quickly as possible. By the time we
27:04
Speaker 3: got to plumbing, we were like, let's just make it
27:05
Speaker 3: simple and deal with it later. And then in Baja,
27:08
Speaker 3: we were like kind of rigging up like this thing
27:10
Speaker 3: that would go to the sink and you just stick
27:12
Speaker 3: it in the sink and it becomes like a little
27:13
Speaker 3: shower head. And now I'm like, we really need to
27:16
Speaker 3: just do a shower head because it wasn't the most
27:18
Speaker 3: convenient thing to do, so we figured that out too nice.
27:21
Speaker 3: Saha was incredible. We loved it so much. I want
27:24
Speaker 3: to go back, for sure. All the wells and everything
27:26
Speaker 3: that we saw just from our campsites, they would be
27:29
Speaker 3: breaching all day long, and we were like this insane.
27:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a magical place. That's for sure. Like food landscape.
27:35
Speaker 2: It's one of those combinations again like Vietnam, right, it's
27:37
Speaker 2: food landscape people. Even the cities, like the towns that
27:40
Speaker 2: you cross through, and they're just gorgeous towns.
27:42
Speaker 3: We brought so much cann food with us because we're like, Okay,
27:45
Speaker 3: we're going to be somewhere and we're not going to
27:46
Speaker 3: leave and it ended up being we moved a lot
27:48
Speaker 3: more than we thought we would, but we ate tacos
27:50
Speaker 3: almost every day. We barely touched our food or even cooked,
27:53
Speaker 3: so we were spoiled with all the local food.
27:56
Speaker 1: Speaking of being spoiled by food, you guys have been
27:59
Speaker 1: in the Domanic booth cooking out meals every day here
28:02
Speaker 1: at Expost has been so amazing for me running around
28:06
Speaker 1: just to be like, oh, we just stop buy and
28:09
Speaker 1: get some really really delicious, thoughtfully made with love food
28:13
Speaker 1: and really enjoying it and taking a minute to enjoy
28:16
Speaker 1: it has been such a pleasure. But you guys, food
28:18
Speaker 1: is like integral, it seems to your travels and what
28:21
Speaker 1: you do. Has that always been the case or is
28:24
Speaker 1: this something that has kind of occurred over time.
28:26
Speaker 2: It's definitely something I over time.
28:29
Speaker 3: I don't know. Man, Limperg loves food.
28:33
Speaker 2: No, I do love eating food.
28:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, I get like twenty five pounds. When
28:38
Speaker 3: I met you, we had cream barbecue at least twice
28:40
Speaker 3: a week. So you love food. You've made me really
28:42
Speaker 3: really love food.
28:43
Speaker 2: I didn't take cooking seriously until I met Carissa. For
28:46
Speaker 2: some reason, I don't know why. I've always cooked and
28:48
Speaker 2: then I've always enjoyed cooking, but I didn't take it
28:50
Speaker 2: seriously until we met and we started dating, and then
28:52
Speaker 2: when we started going out camping, I started to realize
28:55
Speaker 2: that I didn't want to eat what was normally traditional
28:58
Speaker 2: camping food, right, you would call it the chili's and
29:00
Speaker 2: the corn breads and the steaks and the mountain man breakfasts,
29:05
Speaker 2: you know, the staples like them. And I didn't want
29:06
Speaker 2: to eat that because that's stuff that we didn't crave.
29:09
Speaker 2: We crave like Vietnamese food, we craved Porean food, this
29:11
Speaker 2: everything right, a Mexican food too, and and and it's
29:14
Speaker 2: just yeah, so because of that, we wanted to eat
29:17
Speaker 2: what we craved out when we were out, and I
29:19
Speaker 2: did what I could to facilitate that, I guess. And
29:21
Speaker 2: there was a giant learning process to do that.
29:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, take me through that was this like a YouTube,
29:26
Speaker 1: slash blog, slash recipe books or like specific ingredients that
29:30
Speaker 1: you started with a lot.
29:32
Speaker 2: Of my learning wasn't from recipes or anything. It was
29:35
Speaker 2: actually from watching YouTube street food tours. Oh yeah, I
29:40
Speaker 2: got a lot of because when whenever you see street
29:43
Speaker 2: food vendors, they have to cook things as quick as possible,
29:45
Speaker 2: as good as possible in a very short amount of time.
29:48
Speaker 2: I watch a ton of like India Street Food Tours
29:50
Speaker 2: and see how they did it, and then Asia Street
29:53
Speaker 2: Food Tours and all that other stuff, and you get
29:55
Speaker 2: certain techniques from these videos that I would apply. So, like, say,
29:58
Speaker 2: like whenever we make full camp, instead of having a
30:01
Speaker 2: long brew of seven to eight hours or whatever, to
30:04
Speaker 2: make an actual full broth, I would actually just buy
30:06
Speaker 2: bone broth from the store and then I would cut
30:08
Speaker 2: the time because I used the bone broth, it went
30:11
Speaker 2: from eight hours to two hours, right, and it was
30:12
Speaker 2: freaking delicious. Yeah. So it's just like the little things
30:15
Speaker 2: like that. In terms of ingredients, I had to simplify
30:18
Speaker 2: a lot of the things that we crave. I always
30:20
Speaker 2: thought in my head, I have to have one exotic
30:23
Speaker 2: ingredient and everything else has to be easy because you
30:25
Speaker 2: can't get like, say, some special Korean thing in the
30:28
Speaker 2: middle of nowhere. So I carry fish sauce full time.
30:30
Speaker 2: I carry soy sauce full time. And those are like
30:32
Speaker 2: what I call special ingredients that make life easier on
30:35
Speaker 2: the road. These are integral ingredients for certain meals, right,
30:38
Speaker 2: And it's also ingredients that could be spread out to
30:40
Speaker 2: other meals. Right, So I like, for example, I use
30:43
Speaker 2: fish sauce to make spreetti sauce.
30:44
Speaker 1: Right.
30:45
Speaker 2: Where that thought process comes from is that it's the
30:47
Speaker 2: Italian mentality. They put anchovies into the red sauce, right,
30:50
Speaker 2: instead of carrying a can of anchovies that I used once,
30:53
Speaker 2: might as well just use juice of anchovies. And it's
30:55
Speaker 2: accusing genius.
30:57
Speaker 1: I think one time we were out with you guys,
30:59
Speaker 1: camping with you guys, and I think it was scrambled
31:02
Speaker 1: eggs with fish fish sauce, and we were like, this
31:04
Speaker 1: is delicious. Yeah, yeah, it's such a smart thing to carry.
31:07
Speaker 2: It's incredibly smart. Like, and I always tell people that
31:10
Speaker 2: think about how nomadic people long ago traveled and what
31:13
Speaker 2: they did and how they made food good just for
31:16
Speaker 2: what they did, and because of that, that's how that's
31:19
Speaker 2: how I stopped my pantry, right, So, and it's worked
31:21
Speaker 2: out so nice.
31:23
Speaker 1: What are some other staples that you usually bring with you?
31:26
Speaker 2: So I always carry some sort so I like fish sauce,
31:29
Speaker 2: soy sauce, and then I always always have to carry
31:31
Speaker 2: an acid of some form. But I always carry rice
31:33
Speaker 2: wine vinegar because for me, rice wine. Vinegar is very
31:35
Speaker 2: versatile because I could do quick pickles and then I
31:37
Speaker 2: could do I can make carryockey sauce if I wanted to,
31:40
Speaker 2: like just some scratch and make a soup, and soup
31:42
Speaker 2: sometimes needs an acid. I have an acid. So having
31:45
Speaker 2: the acid is so important, especially like when you taste
31:48
Speaker 2: something and you go, it needs something. And every time
31:51
Speaker 2: you say that to yourself and you try that it
31:53
Speaker 2: needs an acid. No, no if ends or butts right.
31:55
Speaker 2: And the other thing that we carry is not sponsored,
31:57
Speaker 2: but a true lime, crystallized lime packets. Those things have
32:00
Speaker 2: been a game changer for us. It comes in little
32:02
Speaker 2: packets and they're there for flavoring water and it's just
32:05
Speaker 2: literally crystallized lime juice. And I use it to make
32:08
Speaker 2: some vij's, I use it to make Vitnamese fish sauce,
32:11
Speaker 2: and it's just it's incredible. And I don't have to
32:13
Speaker 2: have limes all the time now.
32:15
Speaker 3: I mean we travel with with fresh produce. Weimes we're out.
32:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes we're out, or sometimes we're long out, long
32:20
Speaker 2: enough where you don't have And also it's another option
32:23
Speaker 2: of an acid. And then another thing I'd say, like
32:25
Speaker 2: we always care sugars and then gri.
32:27
Speaker 3: And chili's and it's labeled k pop chili.
32:29
Speaker 2: That's true. Yeah, And so I do like a kim cheese,
32:32
Speaker 2: like very quick cucumber chim kim cheese. And I make
32:35
Speaker 2: bodi which is a creen army stew, and that requires
32:37
Speaker 2: been pepper. So the creen pepper things that I would
32:39
Speaker 2: say is very sweet to us because that's stuff stuff
32:42
Speaker 2: that we like to cook and eat. So yeah, I
32:44
Speaker 2: love it.
32:45
Speaker 1: Are there any recurring dishes or are you always innovating? Like,
32:49
Speaker 1: is there a go to?
32:50
Speaker 2: The go to is always, uh, for sure, So it's
32:53
Speaker 2: crean army stew.
32:54
Speaker 4: This content is brought to you by Overland Journal, our
32:57
Speaker 4: premium quality print publication. The magazine was founded in two
33:00
Speaker 4: thousand and six with the goal of providing independent equipment
33:04
Speaker 4: and vehicle reviews, along with the most stunning adventures and photography.
33:09
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33:12
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33:37
Speaker 3: It's easy because it's one pot too. It's less clean up, yeah,
33:40
Speaker 3: which is great, and it's so easy. You just take
33:42
Speaker 3: ramen noodles.
33:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's raw news. But then can I
33:45
Speaker 2: do a history lesson.
33:46
Speaker 1: Of Oh my gosh, yes please?
33:47
Speaker 2: Okay, So the story of Buddhajig Green Armies Do is
33:51
Speaker 2: a story of American occupation after the Korean War. Americans
33:54
Speaker 2: occupied the DMZ and then everywhere near the DMZ, and
33:57
Speaker 2: after the war all locals actually didn't have a lot
33:59
Speaker 2: of fresh proteins, like no, there's no cows or anything
34:02
Speaker 2: or pigs, because it all went to the soldiers. And
34:04
Speaker 2: because they didn't have any proteins, they did what they
34:06
Speaker 2: could to get proteins. And at the time, the only
34:09
Speaker 2: place to get proteins with their American bases, And so
34:11
Speaker 2: they would arder with the Americans with what they had
34:14
Speaker 2: at the time for proteins. And at the time the
34:16
Speaker 2: proteins was hot dogs and spam, right, and they took
34:18
Speaker 2: those those proteins and they turned it into their own.
34:21
Speaker 2: They'd have this this dish, it's called kim chigi ge
34:23
Speaker 2: so it's a it's a Cretan stew with kimchi and
34:26
Speaker 2: instead of that, they took the same stuff with that
34:28
Speaker 2: and they put the spam into it and the hot
34:30
Speaker 2: dogs and American cheese, and it's now like a hugely
34:33
Speaker 2: famous Korean dish. I would say like number two to
34:35
Speaker 2: Korean barbecue in terms of notoriety of like if you
34:38
Speaker 2: talk about Korean food, if you talk about any culture
34:40
Speaker 2: and you talk about Crean food, it's like Crean barbecue
34:42
Speaker 2: and Crean army stews.
34:43
Speaker 1: So interesting how food and history intersect.
34:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, all over all the time, all the time. Yeah,
34:49
Speaker 2: I always like every time I do these like cooking demos,
34:51
Speaker 2: and like this is a story of American occupation in
34:53
Speaker 2: a different country. Like for instance, I would do here
34:56
Speaker 2: here at an expo, I did Okinawa tacoate rice and
34:59
Speaker 2: that was another same story of after World War two
35:02
Speaker 2: and all the other stuff. But yeah, I love that
35:04
Speaker 2: that aspect of food so interesting, so interesting, Yeah, yeah, amazing.
35:08
Speaker 2: And a lot of Vietnamese culture's food is because of
35:12
Speaker 2: French occupation, right, like the bag at and then the crapes,
35:15
Speaker 2: and then savory crapes, and then broth making from the
35:17
Speaker 2: French and all this other stuff. And so yeah, I
35:20
Speaker 2: can't get away from because I live it, right, I'm
35:21
Speaker 2: as part of by culture.
35:22
Speaker 3: So yeah, you love that stuff. You lotch that stuff
35:24
Speaker 3: all day.
35:25
Speaker 2: There's this meme and what I think CHRISA found is
35:28
Speaker 2: it's whenever you turn thirty five, you're either into what
35:31
Speaker 2: was it, little to history or smoking meats.
35:35
Speaker 3: Okay, I was like, this is so accurate.
35:38
Speaker 2: And so I'm both of those. Actually I love it.
35:43
Speaker 1: Well, thank you guys so much for sharing all that
35:46
Speaker 1: those tips with us. I'm sure people will have a
35:48
Speaker 1: good time trying to innovate with their cooking camp cooking
35:51
Speaker 1: because yeah, it can get repetitive, So.
35:53
Speaker 2: It could get repetitive. Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
35:55
Speaker 1: Nice. Okay, I'm going to ask you a question that
35:57
Speaker 1: I try to ask everybody on the podcast. If you
35:59
Speaker 1: could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?
36:02
Speaker 3: And why does it need to be overlanding?
36:04
Speaker 1: No, I don't know, it can be any type of
36:06
Speaker 1: travel anywhere.
36:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I would definitely jump on a flight in
36:09
Speaker 3: a heartbeat to Vietnam. We've been itching since COVID happened,
36:12
Speaker 3: Like we were planning to go and then COVID happened,
36:14
Speaker 3: So I mean, I'm ready.
36:15
Speaker 2: I would say the same thing. And also because I
36:17
Speaker 2: have a cousin that grew up in the States and
36:19
Speaker 2: now he lives now in Vietnam and he's he keeps
36:22
Speaker 2: in and over the course of COVID, he says, the
36:24
Speaker 2: country is modernizing so fast, and it's like a lot
36:27
Speaker 2: of it's disappearing, a lot of what we love, like
36:29
Speaker 2: street food's disappearing a little more and more and things
36:31
Speaker 2: like that.
36:32
Speaker 3: So four cars on the road, I mean, gosh, even
36:34
Speaker 3: between the three years that we went, we went year
36:36
Speaker 3: after year, and every year you could tell it was
36:38
Speaker 3: becoming so different just within those three years. So I
36:41
Speaker 3: can't imagine what it's like now.
36:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, modernization is a good thing, but we loved
36:45
Speaker 2: what we've experienced and we want to continue it before
36:47
Speaker 2: it dispears.
36:47
Speaker 1: Right, and preserving cultures and all that. Yeah, food and
36:51
Speaker 1: everything is so important.
36:53
Speaker 2: Cheese has never existed in Vietnamese culture until I'd say
36:56
Speaker 2: eight years ago, and now cheese is prevalent everywhere because
36:58
Speaker 2: it's just westernization.
36:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so cool, Thank you. Well, if listeners want
37:03
Speaker 1: to find you on the interwebs or wherever, where can
37:06
Speaker 1: they find you.
37:08
Speaker 2: We have in Instagram it's Gondurton, and we have a
37:11
Speaker 2: YouTube and it's Gondurton as well.
37:12
Speaker 1: It's all on gon Darton And you guys have some
37:14
Speaker 1: fabulous recipes on.
37:15
Speaker 2: Your website gondrt dot com. We have recipes and a
37:18
Speaker 2: couple of blogs, so yeah, mostly recipes up.
37:20
Speaker 1: Well, what's next for you too?
37:22
Speaker 3: After Overland Expo, we're planning to be on the road
37:24
Speaker 3: for a month, so we're hoping to head probably towards
37:27
Speaker 3: Glacier area. We haven't been to bamp so I don't
37:30
Speaker 3: know if we're going to cross through. We bought our
37:31
Speaker 3: we brought our passports, so we might.
37:33
Speaker 1: Visit Ashley please come visit me.
37:37
Speaker 3: And then yeah, later in the year, I will be
37:40
Speaker 3: hosting a trip in Chile and Argentina, so we'll be
37:43
Speaker 3: in South America later this year.
37:45
Speaker 2: Really, and we're trying to decide if we're going to
37:47
Speaker 2: shift the Trooper or not. And because we're going to
37:49
Speaker 2: be because of Chris's group ship in Chile, you might
37:53
Speaker 2: as well just stay out there, right, So that that
37:54
Speaker 2: was kind of thinking about doing three months ish in
37:57
Speaker 2: Chile Argentina. Nice exciting, trooper or no, We're going no
38:00
Speaker 2: matter what.
38:01
Speaker 1: Yes, fantastic. I'm excited to follow along with your adventures
38:06
Speaker 1: later this year, and I wanted to say thank you
38:08
Speaker 1: guys so much for coming on the Overland Journal podcast
38:11
Speaker 1: and chatting with me, and uh yeah, thank you so
38:13
Speaker 1: much for having us.
38:15
Speaker 3: We'll be following your adventures too.
38:17
Speaker 1: Thank you, and thank you to all the listeners for
38:20
Speaker 1: tuning into this episode of the Overland Journal podcast and
38:24
Speaker 1: we will see you next time.