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Our Overland Life Shares the Joys and Skills of Overlanding Full Time · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Overline Journal podcast. I am your host,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Scott Brady. I'm here with my co host Matt. Scott
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and Matt We're gonna have some fun gerlin life.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: We're here with Bretton Liz Past. People in the world
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: were super excited to have them on. We're going to
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: talk about their overland life. Not our overland life, but
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: your over the hours not man. Where did we start?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: So?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: How long ago did you guys really start living this
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: this fairly adventurous, very adventurous life.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: February of twenty nineteen when we hit the road.
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: It was full time.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: But before that we were out adventuring and exploring for
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: what three four years before that?
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And what area of the country were you living in.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: We were based in Gilbert and Mesa, so based out
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: of the Phoenix area. Okay, easy to branch off for
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: a weekend and then come back and get back to work.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And how long had you guys been living in that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: part of the country.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Twenty thirteen okay, and we were out in California before that.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And what's your backgrounds the two what were you doing professionally?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And where did you grow up?
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: She grew up in San Diego Nice. I was an
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Air Force brat, so okay, all over the world, like
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I was in Europe all the Berlin Wall was still
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: up and you know, just traveled all about for that
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: and then ended up my dad retired in Tucson. It
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: was his favorite place.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Did he lived?
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: Was that Davis Mothaw Davis retired there, and then I
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: moved to Phoenix for a bit, ended two other six,
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: went back to school in Santa Barbara for photography, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Liz's where I met.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: Liz, That's where we met.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were what were you in Santa Barbara
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: studying same.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: So we met at Brooks Institute. We were both studying photography.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: We met our second year, I think out.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Of three, it's a three year. It was a three year,
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: intense six semesters a year year around school. You had
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: seven weeks of class, one week off, and then you
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: started your next semester.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Wow, it was was intense, perfect, awesome. Well, photography was
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: your goal and what did you guys want to do?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: What was the goal with when you got out of photography?
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Did you want to go into film or did you
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: want to go into into being still photograph or what
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: was the goal.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: That's still photography. I wanted to do automotive fashion editorial,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: people in cars.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Basically, I was really more into still life and food photography.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's cool. The still life photographer is it's
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: it's incredible. Yeah, it's it isn't that art form and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: exercise in psychology and communication and all of that. I mean,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: for me, it's challenging doing that when I try, because
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I'm a larger person, so I used to have like
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: bigger lenses, and so I always try to minimize my
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: kit now, so it's not like the giant Canon White
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: with like the giant human like yeah, exactly, exactly. It's
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: so tough to you know, and of course you always
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: want to get permission from the locals before you take
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: their photo. But yeah, have some really good portraits. I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: do have a few. I take great photos of my buddies,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Like I've taken good shots at you and Sinway and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: people that are in my life. I do tend to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: take okay portraits.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: So let's go to twenty nineteen and let's talk about
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the lead up to getting on the road.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: So we had decided initially we were going to renovate
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: a vintage airstream. We had a lot of family members
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: and friends who, you know, someday when I retire, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: want to travel someday, you know, when I get there,
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Like when we're done, we're going to get this trailer.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: We're going to see the US and we're go to
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Canada and Mexico and see the world. And then so
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: many relatives of people in our lives, they'd get to
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: that point and health would get in the way or
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: something would just happen and they were no longer able
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: to do that, and they just went their whole life
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: working to that goal. And so we decided that, you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: we're young enough, we want to do that now, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: you know maybe when a world we'll get a job,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: you know, or whatever we have to do at that point.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: You know, that makes a lot, That makes a lot
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of sense.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Exact they totally dealed later. So we had been kind
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: of following some other airstream accounts and seeing people renovate
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: the older airstreams, and we started shopping around. We found
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: seventy six international overland or twenty seven footer because within
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: the price range we wanted to spend, and we started
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: renovating that to travel with and that was our goal.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: We're going to go, We're going to hit the world.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: We're going to at least go for a year. So
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: we need to Our plan was where we need to
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: get out of debt, we need to renovate this airstream
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: and then we'll go travel for a year and at
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: the end of that year we'll figure out what's next.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and let's talk with that kind of that financial
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: process of being able to get all the ducks in
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a road to do this, because I think that that's
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I think a really cool story that we were talking
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: about earlier than I'm sure a lot of people are
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: interested in. I mean, like, how are you able to
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: do it?
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: The big thing was picked up a job that I
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: knew would pay well, that I was going to hate,
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: and we set a five year leanner, so the commission
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: based type thing, and we're like, Okay, we can make
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: X amount of dollars over this period of time. We
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: can pay off our student loan debt, all the rest
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: of our debt, our vehicles, what have you? Still build
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: the airstream out, which we were able to do ourselves.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: It's not like we were hiring shops to do that.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: But then we had to make a lot of personal
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: sacrifices too.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You know, we were.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Still well, we also had a photography business, so we
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: were still running our photography business full time.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: We did portraiture and weddings and stuff.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: That and your job, you think allowed us the financial
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: side to pay off the debt and stuff. But then
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: we also we kind of like stopped eating out and
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: stopped going to the movies and kind of like sat
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: down and assessed all of our expenses and what like
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: what mattered.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Really deliberate with how you were doing it, how you
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: were spending the money.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, got rid of our cable and just had Netflix.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: And you know, if that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Start of all the subscription services were like, okay, we
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: have Amazon, we already pay for Amazon Prime, we have
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Prime TV shows, we have music, and canceled everything else.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Netflix, all that had to go, and you really needed
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Prime because you were ordering all this stuff. Was there
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: anything that surprised you that you you had you were
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: spending a lot more money on than you thought.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: That's coffee in the morning, Oh.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Laura just added that up. Yeah, it's a car. It
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: ends up almost being a car payment.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: So we found out that if I bought a Brevel
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Duel Boilerrispresso machine and my own grinder. We did the
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: math on it, and with what I was spending on
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: coffee in about a year and a half, it zeroed out. Yeah,
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: to equal out a year and half of buying coffee
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: out if I have my own espresso machines make at home, yeah, sure,
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: so then from then on I was just buying beans.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: We still have that espresso machine.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: We still have it.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Is it in the airstream.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: It was non negotiab but I really got its own
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: strapped down system.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I do. I use the espressos in all of the campers, Yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: because they're just so good, so good.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, coffee. Coffee was a big, big expense.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: It is crazy how much that stuff adds up.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: You just can't here seven bucks there, I mean twice.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: He's random subscriptions and stuff too, where it's like like
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: we had Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and then it's like random
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: photo subscriptions and editing.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Subscriptions, subscription and then you just you don't you know what.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I think the strategy with this is that they want
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: it to be just enough that you can kind of
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: forget about it, and it's just it's just it's just.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Chang chine change change every year.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Thirty days for free. And then you know it's like
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: only twenty nine dollars a year after that, no big.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Deal, or the five ninety nine or ninety nine a month.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, like that's not bad.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Then you're like, we see your pangs. We're like, oh,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I should cancel that. I mean, obviously twenty nineteen was
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: when you guys went went full time. We've known each
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: other longer than that, so, I mean you've been doing this,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: you know for a while you were kind of talking
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: how you know. One of the things that you did
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: to get on the road is that, you know, you
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: stopped going out on the weekends and you just started
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: going camping.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Because it was that much tank A guess, so we
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: had we asked, we'd have, we'd we had had a
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: sports car and a couple of other cars we got
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: rid of, ended up buying some jeeps and just on
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: the weekends we would go out. We realized that if
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: we stayed in town, it was going to be going
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: out to coffee in the morning or breakfast somewhere on Saturday.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: Someone wanted to go out to dinner Saturday night. You know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: if we're around Sunday. Ever, we wanted to go to
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: a bunch or something, so staying in town ended up
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: being more expensive than just buying some groceries that we
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: were going to get anyway, putting some gas in the
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: tank and going exploring Arizona or Sodona or up to
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: If it was hot in the summer, we'd go up
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: to the Rim or you sure get out of the heat.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: And that's just the great thing with Arizona. I mean,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: there's there's a lot of beautiful places in the world,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: but I think there's a few that are so accessible.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: It's your Arizona. It's two hours a year round in
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: the winter, explore down the desert. In the summer, get
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: up to the rim, and then just take off in
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: any direction. On the rim, it's pine trees and cool
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: tips and great nights. So it's an amazing state.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: For that's definitely.
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: Lucky for that being so close to so much stuff.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was a good unlined insanity, you know.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: I mean we're full time, working a job, full time
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: running a business, photography business, and then even shooting on
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: weekends sometimes, so one or two weekends a month, you know,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: just get out, get in the trees, fresh air. It
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: was kind of that little taste of what we were
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: working towards.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: So for people that are, you know, kind of trying
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: to do something like this and getting their ducks in
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: a row financially and getting their lives in a row,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: what's some advice that you'd give them.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: I think focusing on the debt was probably the hardest
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: thing at first. The student loans that I had were
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: quite sizeable, and they were over one hundred grands loan debt.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: There were a lot of separate private loans and how
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: it's the guy that does all that get out of
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: debt stuff, the big coach. He's like, go after your
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: highest interest, great card, And for me that didn't make
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: any sense. I went for the lowest dollar amount debt
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: that I had and got rid of that payment, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: then so then that amount of money could go towards
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: the next one. And so it was just chipping away
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: at those smaller dollar amounts and leaving the higher ones
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: for later, so that it freed up that payment as
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: long as you were disciplined with that money, putting it
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: towards the next principle, and then saving up so you
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: could just boom right a check for that, boom, right,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: a check for that, and just really working hard and
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: focusing and knocking those things out, getting rid of individual
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: payments versus getting overwhelmed with the whole mountain of debt
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: that you have.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: And then once it's gone, it changes your life. It's huge,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it changes your life.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I remember that about my student loans is like you'd
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: have one student loan that was really like it seemed
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: like it was multiples the way it would kind of
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: work out for each year. Yeah, And that was honestly
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: what I did as well as I'm like, okay, this
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: one was fifteen hundred dollars for you know, books that
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I had been paying interest on for however long, right,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: and then you just knocked that out. What was the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: date again that you guys left.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: I remember the exactly as February is, beginning.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Of February twenty nineteen.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: So when we left, we had the ton that we
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: were looking for a flippack for, and then we had
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: her tacoma that I think when we left just had
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: the bedrails.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: In the time.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we have abuilt to put on there.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we had that and the thunder was always
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: going to be the tow vehicle for the airstream, but
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: we wanted to have camper set up on the tundra,
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: so we had been looking. We had a couple a
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: friend of the footback we were looking for one. We
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: found one in February when we left. We found one
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: in California, up in the Central Coast. Bought it, put
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: it on the truck, drove down to our parents' house.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: I built it out the interior in four days and
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: her parents' driveway went to the American Avengers Desert Rendezvous
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: and then we were off from there. Cool and so
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: we just built it out and mostly stayed the same
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: configuration I built in the first four days for the
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: two years we drove it. But we also drove for
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: three months with the airstream. And after three months of
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: traveling with the airstream, we're like, Okay, we're done with
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: this anchor. We can't camp where we want to camp. Like,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: it's comfortable, it's beautiful, it's amazing, yeah, but it won't
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: get us where we want to go. It's like it
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: went into storage.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: With friends that buy airstreams, is that they really like
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: in Cordeza.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: So we did it.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Chris Cordens did it for a while. It does seem
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: there a little bit. Well, it's a big train low
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and everything that comes with that, and so so I
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: want to get in. I want to get into the
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: mind of you. That first week that you guys left,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: was that stressful? Was there jubilation of this new life
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: and excitement? How did you feel?
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Well, it was kind of cheating the first week because
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: we came back from California, picked up the airstream and
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: then our first stop was Sedona, and like all of
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: our friends from Phoenix came up and camped with us
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: first week, so it didn't really feel real that we
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: were on the road.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: So cool though, it was a great sund off, like
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: they all just came up. We had we had found
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: a spot. It wasn't as busy as it is now,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: so we found a great spot view of the Red Rocks.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Airstream was there for a full week and yeah, friends
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: can a visit it and camped and had campfires and
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: that's gotten so busy.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, right now, it's mental.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: We me and Caleb went camping over there with some
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: friends maybe a month or two ago, and they've they've
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: completely restructured. How all of that is done now. It's
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: like you have these kind of group camping areas which
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: can actually lead to a really cool experience. We ended
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: up camping by like these like college kids from the
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Midwest that were on like a spiritual journey and there
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: was like a guy with a crystal bowl sound. It
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: was cool. You know, it was a cool experience. I'm
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: going to take it for what it was. But Sedona's
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: definitely changed. Another spot there you showed us.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no more what Yeah, there's no signage anymore.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: There's no camping signage there, Like they really have locked
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: down a lot of that area. But it was getting
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I mean there, it was getting like crazy.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I remember we would drive is that our spot
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: and it was just people on top of people on
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: top of people like yeah, yeah, pretty tough.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So were you guys? I guess I asked the question
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: because there's always there's two types. There's either people that
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: are like so relieved to leave the old life behind
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: and start start new, or things go wrong and you're
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: getting on the road and it's like, oh, I forgot this,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I forgot this, got this, I forgot this.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Things went. I mean, I guess it's twofold things went wrong,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: and because.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: It's the real it's the realization of a goal that
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: you guys had for so long, right, I mean it
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: was this whole process of pain on the debt and
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: all this stuff. I mean, that's a transformative kind of experience.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. My feelings right away were just relief. And honestly,
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: it was just a full decompression from all the work
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: and the go go, go, go go to just kind
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: of sit and be like I could read a book
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: for the next two hours, or I could just sit
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: here and do nothing for the next few hours if
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: I wanted. Like, it was just I almost didn't know
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: what to do with myself. Yeah, but then the solar
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: wasn't working right, and the batteries were kind of weird,
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: and so we had to like pull the battery out
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: of the airstream and run the flag staff and like
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: put it on a big charge and swapped out bad
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: the house batteries and so like there's all those systems
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: that we had been doing small trips and checking. But
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: as soon as we were out and we're like four
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: days in, now something's going wrong that you didn't foresee
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: in your you know, a couple days or somewhere else.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we hadn't installed our solar right, so we ended
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: up nuking the batteries. Yeah, and then it kept happening
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: and we ended up having to go out of our
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: way to Court Site to some solar builds, and one told.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Us about this guy that's like the gourroh.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, of Court Site, but they've got and you can
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: park right on site. They've got power plugins and stuff and.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Camped in like overnight while they're out there trying to
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: fix their stuff.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Well, that's cool.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: There's a bunch of trails over there too.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: There are some great Cofa trails.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: It's beautiful and I know what you're talking about the
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: rock spot. It's really really really pretty.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Cofa is gorgeous and there's there's really not.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: A lot of those, but it's beautiful.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It is. Yeah, there's not a lot of campers that
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: get out too deep into the Cofa because all the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: roads are fairly rough. So one question I have is,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: you guys have traveled now with so many different kinds
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: of vehicles. So you've got currently you have E three
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: point fifty and you've got a four runner with a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: roof ten that looked like on there is that right,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And then you had an airstream or still do, and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and then you had a Tacoma and you had some
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: jeeps and you had a tundra with a flip pack
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: on it. So look back on all of this time
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: living in these things, what was kind of the sweet spot?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Like if even if it's not what you're using right now,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: what ended up being the ones or or the takeaways
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: that you think the listeners can really learn from.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Flip pack and the tundra was an outstanding desert setup.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: It's great for the desert, it's great for warmer it's
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: great for cold tempts. But I mean wet weather, it's horrible.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: We did fourteen days in Cannona basically straight rain, and
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: we had what we called the coffin set up in
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: the back, which was like our kitchen was on one side,
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: the couch slid out to a bed, and the two
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: of us and three dogs slept back there for like
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: fourteen days straight.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when it was closed, Yeah.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: You can really open it because you can open the
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: flip pack and get rained on and you've got to
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: rain fly. But you're sitting there until it dries out
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: because if you close it as soon as you close it,
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: the tent saturates. Everything's wet. You can be in wet weather,
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: you can be in snow, you can be in all
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: of that, but you've got to dry it out or
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: be somewhere where it's going.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: To dry out.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: But that vehicle really was the game changer for us,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Like that's we started with the airstream for three months.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: We're frustrated because it was like we'd be camping with
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: all these people and then looking at these trails going
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: like but I want to camp up there, or I
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: want to camp on that ridge or what's down that road,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: and it's just you can't drag.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: The airstream there.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Then we stored it and got in the Tundra with
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: the flippack, and I followed with the Tacoma and it
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: was the Tundra in the flip pack that like that
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: allowed us to get all the places we wanted and
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: like that, we couldn't have stayed out.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: I think without it.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like that because living on the road
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: or remote work has enabled so many people to do
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that that in my experience, you have to have that
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: next level of capability in order to get that remote
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: experience anymore. I mean, like five point twenty five off
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: of you know, outside of Sedona, there is eight hundred
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: people camped out there. I mean it feels like eight
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: hundred people.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: It's a lot. And I think anywhere that, you know,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: don't don't underestimate the places that you can get a
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: fifth wheel with a dedicated with a dedicated ruy.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's places we took the airstream which didn't have
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: but yeah.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: Building up rock piles and putting max tracks out and
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: like making ramps to get so you don't drag the
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: hitch of the tail end.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Sure, we definitely had a few of those very long
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: trips to get it where we wanted to.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: So, Liz, you made the decision to drive your own vehicle,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: which I think is kind of one of the things
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: that makes you guys as a traveling couple so unique
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: and I and I really appreciate because no one likes
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: being a passenger in life. Yeah, what was the I
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: mean other than just saying I didn't want to be
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: a passenger?
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: What?
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: How?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Where? What? Why?
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Talk to you about that?
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: A combination of things.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: So I've always been a driver, I've always loved vehicles,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: and so when we got jeeps, we got Ajeep which
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: was mine to start with, and then Brett was always
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: driving on the weekend, so I ended up sending him
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: an ad for his own jeep. So pretty early on
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: we ended up with two jeeps and we were out
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: every weekend wheeling them because I don't like passengering, I
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: like driving, and we enjoy the experience of both being
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: drivers together. So when it came to this adventure of
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: hitting the road, it was like I was really struggling with.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: Like giving up my vehicle and giving up driving.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we kind of came to the conclusion that
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: it made sense to have a smaller vehicle to go
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: kind of like search down roads, check out campsites, that
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: kind of thing. But I also like to go on
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: solo goals, girls trips and like go meet up with
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: the girls, So I wanted to be able to have
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: something that like, wherever we're at, I can hop in
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: go meet my girls two states away or six hours
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: and go on a trip for a week and then
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: come back.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: And it kind of worked for both of us because
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: then Brett could take it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: If he wanted to, but it was mostly mostly I
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: would take the Tacoma and go off on.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Trips well, and you could like if you just need
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a moment, you just want to go, yeah, drive and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: go see a museum that is like something totally off
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the wall that your partner's not interested or whatever, you
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: can go or just to.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Get out of the same box together.
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: I think it kept our sanity because we do.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: You know, we're driving, getting moving everything like six hours
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: or long periods and it's like I can listen to
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: my podcast or my music and Brett can listen to
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: whatever he wants, or he can be on the phone
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: type people like when we're in the same car together,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: it would kind of drive us a little crazy. So
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I think that extended our travel a lot. In our
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: sanity together.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I think that's what drove us crazy on our on
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: our last long trip. Like Laura and I are very
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: capable of being and can find space together. We love
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: each other. There's no problems there or anything, but you know,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: too hours sometimes it's just like Okay, you're going to
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: stay here and I'm going to go to this bar
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: and we're not going to see each other for two
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: hours and we're not going to be more than five
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: feet from each other. Okay, let's do that.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: And she's right, I mean give you, giving you that
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: time to just do what it is you do in
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: the car by yourself. I mean everybody kind of travels
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: a little differently. And you know, you got to think
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: most couples are either ones at home all day doing
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: house stuff and the other ones at work, and so
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: they naturally have that time apart when you're traveling full time. Yeah,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: you're right, you're in a box. Yeah, twenty four to seven.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: Well, I'll see one more thing.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: It allowed us because we were so used to traveling
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: with groups and always having multiple vehicles. When we did,
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: it allowed us to get further out, just like when
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: we we were solo. We knew we weren't going to
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: be traveling with people all the time. And having two vehicles,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: it's like, all right, well we have.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: A peace of mind that like it have a safety net.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Exactly one of them breaks down, we got to go
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: run into town like we have.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: There could take on more risks.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Somebody get stuck, you can pull them out, like so
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: we felt safe. You could like go do.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: You could get the airstream down down the dirt road.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: And even with we'll go we'd get you know, there's
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: some snow drifts were plying through. Okay, we're good. We
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: still have the two vehicles. If you don't make it
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: through to a hook a lineup, drag you back or
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: we had winches as well.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Once we drop the airstream, we just started running trails too.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Like we'd be out for a week at a time,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: like we'd load the fridges and we would just find
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: some trails and we would go and we'd camp and
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: we wouldn't see anyone, just the two of us running
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: the vehicles together.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: And it was awesome because we.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Were running the BDRs and trucks.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: It went tundra, yeah, then airstream, then van.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: It was airstream pulled by well. We had our first
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: gen Tundra, we initially bought it with we bought a
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: second gen Tundro while we were remodeling it, and then
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: we found we were getting ready to lift wheels, tires, everything.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: Found a lower mile different second gen Tundra that was
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: already lifted wheels, tires, bumpers, winch everything for way less
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: than it was going to cost us to build with
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: half the miles. So then we transferred to that Tundra
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: that was our main tow vehicle, so we had that
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: with that, got the flippack, the flippack, and then we
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: had her Tacoma and then we dropped the airstoom. We
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: just had the Tundra and the Tacoma. At one point
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: we even stored the Tacoma, Canada and stuff we just
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: did in the tundra. Yeah, and then two years in
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: the tundra, we started looking for the van. Yeah, and
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: then we found the van and then we're going.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: We were really looking for the van.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: We were Initially it was always an idea.
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, van has.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Always been on our radar and we'd circle around to them.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: But another friend was looking for a van and they
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: had found a couple of vans and showed Brett the
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: one we.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Just get, the white one. The last time we camped together.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It was that Jillian when she just got hers.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: We got them around the same time.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, so we they were looking for more They
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: wanted it more built, like ready to go van. When
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: we were looking with her husband at the same time,
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: we were looking sending each other vans we found he
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: found the one that I that I have now, but
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: it was a moto van when I bought it. So
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: it had two back seeds. It was white on white
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: on white on white, white roof rack, white steps, white
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: bumpers with like bronze wheels. It was and it was
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: deep in the heart of Midland, Texas, so very poorly advertised,
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: very so.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: You got a good deal, very good, so incredibly let's
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: talk about the van. Let's go van life for a
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: little bit. I love these.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Is it a diesels V ten V ten V ten
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So it's a newer one, well, the diesels.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: That are available in that era. If you're in an
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: older one, you probably get a seven three, but yeah,
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: newer twenty twelve like ours six to oh yeah, and
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: so so you get a bulletin of bulletproof and spend
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: a bunch of money for the best. When you start
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: penciling it out, you might as well just pay for
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: the V ten desk. They put them in every U
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: haul truck.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly, and they're so really it's five fifty ft pounds
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: of to work, YEA mean, and what kind of gas
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: milege did you get in that.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: Nine to eleven with the trailer? And you're not going
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: to get that much more.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: It's like sixteen out of thee because diesels what I mean,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: let's let's generalize for the purpose conversation, it's about twenty
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: to twenty five percent more. And the servicing costs. You know,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: you're talking three hundred dollars oil changes if you're getting
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: it done, you know, I mean, it's one hundred and
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: fifty dollars in the oil right now.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: It doesn't really, it doesn't really.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: It takes six and a half court six point two courts, Yeah,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: of oil, and so I just run you know, one
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: synthetic in there.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're supposed to be pretty reliable. I've heard
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: they've been pretty reliable.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: But are that the only thing that's an issue is
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: the spark plugs. And what it is is people would
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: wait to change the plugs once the engine's cooled, and
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: so there's a change in the manifold side and the
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: end up destroying threads on them and cracking the top
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: off and leaving the rest of the spark plug in
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: the whole. The kind of mechanics trick is they go
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: out and bring the engine up to temperature and then
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: they pull the plugs when the motors hot. That's like
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: the big that and the field rill pops off. If
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: you don't keep it torque down. It's gonna be easy stuff. Yeah,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: once you know what you're dealing with. And that's like
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: you're changing plugs all the time.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: I mean I always I use with that motor, used
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: the U haul, you know, comparison.
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: To it, it's in there.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Six fifty just can't break. Like clearly they've done the math.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely, it's just a workhourse of a motor. It
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: gets a job done.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: So then what did you guys do to that thing?
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: Mostly we did the interior build out. It had a
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: basic electrical setup already. It had, like I said, had
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: the two seats had full down TVs.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I had a little cabinet inside it was I put.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: The cabinet in. So we basically took the Tundra and
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: I went bought the van, brought it back to our
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: parents again, which is like the workyard in their parents driveway,
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: And so I brought it there and I dismantled in
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: San Diego.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: In San Diego, oh, not a bad place to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: working on a car to drive the of course.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I just disassembled the Tundra's cabinetry set up.
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: I used these hammer together aluminum one inch box to
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: me and hammer together connectors and I just cut what
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: I needed and re engineered it for the van and
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: did our temporary setup, took the bench and made it
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: into an actual bed and again I think it took
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: us a week to get it built out. It was
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: configured at that point, and then we just took off
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: in it. Yeah, so stored the thunder again.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: And I think that's one of the coolest things about
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: you guys, is you do almost all of the work
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: yourself as much as I can.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and not well, because you've got to be able
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to fix it. That's the problem. Is like, even if
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you don't want to do the work on your overland vehicle,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: you're better off because you're going to end up having
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: to work on it anyways. Like if you're traveling in
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: your vehicle full time and you're remote, you're going to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: touch every system on that car, whether you like it
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: or not. So you might as well have been the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: one that ran the wires the first time, because it's like, oh,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I know where the blue one goes. Because you're going
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: to remember.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: You might as well might as well work on it
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: yourself if you can, and if you can't figure it out,
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: there's always YouTube view for.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Sure, oh for sure. Or you've got a friend that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: can help you with this system and another one that
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: can help you with that system, and then you learn
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a lot as you go along, because you're going to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: end up digging into it no matter what. You know.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: One of the things I was like, like, you'll randomly
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: get text for me, like, hey, where are you guys?
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Act I'm like, I always know that you're out. I
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: always love hanging and camming with you guys, Like you
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: kind of have this theory and you're like, it's almost
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: like you're the dude from The Big Lebowski in some
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: ways of campings. Yeah, it's a little warm, so we're
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: gonna head north.
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, if it's too hot.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: So talk to me about your like philosophy of travel
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: and where you go, because I think that that's a
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: really a really unique part of you guys.
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: I think the first part of our trip was we
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: just wanted to see everything. We wanted to see wild
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Camp as much as possible Western US.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: We're not planners, let's just put it that way.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: So we point to cool, but you're like on the
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: same It seems from the outside that you're on the
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: same You know, the same no plan kind of schedule. Yeah,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: so freeing and liberating and I'm jealous. Well so right
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: now God keeping dust.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: So right now we're Our main thing is if there's
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: an event or if we booked like a gig, like
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: a photo shoot or something like that, that can kind
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: of dictate the general area where we need to be.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: But generally, if we're just kind of bumming around an
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: area exploring, the temperature starts to get too hot, gets
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: into the mid seventies, we want to ride our bikes.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: That's too hot to leave the dogs in the van.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: We go up to the trees, you know, head to
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: the mountains, cool off, fine camp or find a couple
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: possibilities camp set up, base camp, explore that area. Starts
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: to get too cold down the mountains, we go back
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: down to the valleys where it's warmer. So the same
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: with weather or snow or any of that kind of weather,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: I mean weather and temperature.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Really dig your house moves, Yeah, where everyone move where
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the good weather weathers could.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: There's so much public land in the western US, it's
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: you know, easy to do. You know, this winter, we
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: did three weeks down in Baja for New Years, you know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: met up with some other traveling friends and the amount
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: of travelers and community that was down there. We linked
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: up with Dan and Marlene, who we followed on Instagram before.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: We even got the right before we get there.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: Chatted back and forth about airstream stuff and stayed in touch,
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: and they've been all over the world in the sprinter
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: and happened to be in Baja. They needed something from
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: San Diego, so we picked it up on the way
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: and brought them apart, and then we bummed around them
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: and the family for a couple of.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Weeks, just.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Everywhere. And they they've been on the podcast ye have Oh.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: Cool, that's awesome. Yeah, they're and they're wonderful people. The
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: kids are awesome.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally incredible.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: And then Graham and Luisa while we were down there
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: and get to spend a night them on the beach.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Just that kind of went with our flow of like
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: we don't we don't plan other than like we had
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: a plan that we were going to make it all
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: the way south to Cabo.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but everything in between was gravy, and so having
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: that flexibility to just oh, where we can go, we
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: don't have to be here by any day, Yeah, we
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: just have to be back in like three weeks. Great,
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: so we can haul to one point and then take
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: it easy. Or Hey, we're going this way. You want
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: to check this out? Cool, Yeah, let's go check out
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: that beach. Oh, let's go see the sea turtles launch. Great,
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: we'll go do that. Like, having that flexibility, not being
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: so rigid is kind of the way we like to
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: travel because it opens up possibilities to go do whatever
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: comes up.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I think that that's one of the things that I
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: appreciate most about you guys, is that you always seem
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: to be in a good mood and you're always just
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: going with the flow, and you're meeting people and you're
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: having those experiences you know, as travelers, and I just
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: think that that's great.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: Well, it's really fun too, because you'll you stay in touch.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: You know, social media has been great for that. You
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: meet other travelers community, You see people how kind of
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: how people or at least how they show you how
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: they travel, and maybe you meet up with them for
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: a night for camp and Okay, well we don't travel
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: the same way, and they'll they'll tear off and you'll
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: tear off. Or you do travel the same way, you
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: guys end up cuising around for a week checking out
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: the same things and then all we got to go
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: this way, we got it that way, and off you go.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: So it's just it really allows that ability to do that,
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: you know, and meet those people.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: I won't trade lives with you.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: I think you could do that. You could, Matt, you
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: can go. It's the interesting thing is is that it's possible,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: like we can make the choices in our life to
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: do these things. Yeah, you have to marry, and it's
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: also okay to not make those choices because everyone's life
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is supposed to be different. But you, guys, knew what
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you wanted and you actually changed your life to be
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: able to do it right. That is super impressive and
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: it's so rare the number of people that get to
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the end of their life and they never execute it
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: on that dream. So kind of like you said, be
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you know the old later, be old later, And really
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: it is about timing these points in our life where
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: when you're in your thirties you can do certain things
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: that you couldn't do if you're in your sixties or seventies.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And it's the same you kind of fix the stuff
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to the decade that's appropriate. And a lot of people
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: think I'm going to travel when I'm in my seventies,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and a lot of them can never get there. They
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: either never make it to begin with, or they don't
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: have the physical strength and energy.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: I need to go. Take different directions. Yeah, you get
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: a car accident that changes everything.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: It does.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: It's it could happen, like you guys are doing. You're
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: young enough, you're flexible, your your life is such that
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you can be outdoors, active doing the things that you
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: want to do at the right time in life.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: It's just like the balance with you guys has always
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: seemed really good. I don't know, from an outside perspective, it.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: Seems like it.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So now, how do you guys make a living
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: from the road.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: You have a couple of things. I like to pretty
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: much refer to it as shaking trees. Take a lot
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: of trees. Sure, see what falls out obviously with photographers
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: by trade, but we backed off of our photography business
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: and we went to travel quite a bit. We kept
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: a few of our bigger clients, and so we'll still
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: fly out or I'll get buy an airport and I'll
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: fly out, do a shoot and come back we'll edit
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: and upload and send that back. So we kept a
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: couple of big clients. We picked up a few in
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: the outdoor space doing some product photography, some stuff for
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: people's websites, things like that, So we added a few
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: while we were traveling, and it's really easy for us
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: to shoot lifestyle stuff while we're out. Yeah, sure, we're
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: out in the lifestyle, So that kind of picked up
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: from the photography side. We had the airstream, we were
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: paying to store it. We ended up finding a property
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: a year and a half ago, and so we started
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: basing our summers in Montana, so turned the airstream into
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: an airbnb in the summer months while we're there in
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: the summer months working on some projects kind of based
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: We started an off road adventure vehicle rental company through
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: basically using outdoors Y as the catalyst. But we have
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: three vehicles that people fly in and rent and the
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: vehicles are all paid off their free and clear, so
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: that works out pretty well for the short season there.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: Picked up working with on X off Road is their
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: trail guide ambassads, so we're out creating data for on
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: X off Road, and then through that we picked up
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: a job doing GISs data gaping and mapping for BLM land.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: So we're basically a field crew running around off road
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: and all day recording trails, photographing the landscape and no
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: condition of trail matchmate in Heaven.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and every you guys use the trimble units. Then
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: we use the Tremble units for that, and then and
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: then three sixty cameras as well. Now now the.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Little old tiny point and shoots, and we just at
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: every intersection, every intersection, and then we photograph the fencing conditions,
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: gate conditions, cattle guards, signage, you know, basically letting them
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: develop a full digital packet of what they have there
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: so then they can represent that back to BLM and
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: then BLM can manage the property from there. And then
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: also if there's new routes, So there's some of these
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: places they we have historical data we're looking at, and
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: some of the routes that they show on their maps,
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: nobody's driven that in years or it's very faint, and
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: so we have to kind of make the decision like
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: is that still a route or is that growing Like
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: the Earth, No one's going there. The Earth's taking that back.
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: But now over here there's a brand new route. This
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: is the way everybody goes. So we'll run the new route,
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: photograph the new route, we'll photograph the old route. It's reclaiming,
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: like nobody goes there anymore. And so it's just kind
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: of a decision you got to make and while you're
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: in the fly. Yeah, so it's it's an interesting gig.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: I bet that's cool because you get to do what
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: you want to do. Brings in revenue, brings in income. Yep,
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: that's awesome. They rent our vehicles from us, they pay
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: for all our fuel. So wow, you pay for two
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: hotels a week, So I mean it kind of added.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Oh cool, we get to do shower laundery, We'll get
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: any Yeah, So it's thanks Field. Now.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the questions that we do like
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: to ask when we have couples on the podcast is
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: tell me what you admire about your partner and then
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: same for you, like as travelers, what do you admire
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: about each other?
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: See, it has been and always had, like since I
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: met her, has been up for anything. Like when we
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: first started dating, it was I'm just going to come
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: pick you up, Like should I bring a sweater? I'm like, yeah,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: bring it, bring a jacket and like we just jump
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: in the car and go wine tasting, or we go
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: to the beach, or we'd go what I meet up
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: with some friends or do a barbecue, or she didn't
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: even know what you're doing. She was just yeah, let's go,
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: let's do it, let's go whatever. Like always it was
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: like I hadn't even really been camping when I met her.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: I had never been never been camping, so like she'd
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: never been camping, never been.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: Off roading when I met her, And so this I
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: always wanted to.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: This version developed with me, and she's always like just like, yeah,
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: let's do it, let's go Mexico. Took a couple of
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: years to talk her into at he's ten, yeah, but
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: now she's you know, she eventually said yes, and down
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: to Mexico we went, and now she's ready to do
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: a longer trip next year.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: So did you enjoy Mexico?
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: Yes? I loved it.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: The first couple of days I was still nervous and stuff,
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: and by I think day four or five, I was like, Okay,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: so next year when we come back, I'm like, all right,
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: can we spend three months next time? Like how do
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: we plan to like be here?
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: For like the entire winter. It's something, but it's.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Such a aha, it's such a great place to go
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: in the winter.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: It's magic.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really good. It's really good, and fortunately just
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: enough people are terrified of it that it isn't completely overrun.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: Don't go it's terri.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: How about the same question for you.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: I've always admired I guess you're always doing stuff and
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: like the adventurous spirit and just there's always something like go, go,
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: go go, and what's next, but not like, not in
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: an overwhelming way. It's just you're open to every opportunity
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: in a positive way.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Of like what's coming, Yeah, here, let's go do.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: Being negative takes a.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: Lot of energy, I know, you know, I know, I know,
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: like even when things are falling apart and we need
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: parts and like you have to do something on the
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: vehicle that you've never done, you're still basically positive about it.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Figure it out, get what we need, like amazing, yeah, yeah,
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: figure you just you're going to figure it out.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: You got to make a plan. So here's my thing.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: I get a lot of people that ask me whether
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: they're you know, they bought a sprinter and they're just
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: going out for weekends here or there, or they're planning
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: their first big trip of you know, a month or
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: more whenever. Let's talk about how you kind of plan
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: out your roots and more importantly, how you plan where
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: you're kind of camping and sleeping. Like, I know that
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: that's a very broad subject, but it's also one of
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: the biggest challenges of being stressor for most people in
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: my opinion, because I know, I mean, I know it
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: is for us. As you're driving and it's like, okay, cool, like,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: well where am I going to sleep? Between A and B.
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: We used to run a lot of different maps, So
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: I had a Venza and I would download maps for
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: certain areas we had. At the time, it was the
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: guy Rahima. I was like, oh, Heima's like an international platform.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I'll used Hima.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: And then they stopped us support.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: So that was kind of a punch. It was a bummer.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And so we had Hema and then we were
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: using four four fun tracks, and then so we had
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: all the all trails, and so I had this conglomeration
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: of different things to try and I overlanders not to
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: be discounted either, and so I'd have kind of these
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: conglomeration of things and one of the things I've liked
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: now is with on X has a land ownership part
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: of their mapping.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Software that's really helpful.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: You can click on any part of their map and
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: you know, if you're in BLM, you know, if you're
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: a national forest, you know, if there's no question of
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: state land trust, like you know that you can camp,
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: look for camp in those areas and you're going to
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: be able to camp in those areas. And so that's
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: kind of the first thing is like, okay, we're we're here.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: We're trying to get maybe you know, two hundred miles
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: away from where we are currently, like to explore this
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: area more. Well, okay, well when we get there, there's
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: going to be you know, we're going to cross over
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: through state land Trust. Right off the highway. There's some
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: you know, well established trails on satellite, you know, if
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: you have zooming in. And then from there it's learning
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: how to look at and read topo is huge because
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: you can look at a forest road on topo and
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: be like, okay, that's a steep shell road, Like you
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: can see the lines, you see how condensed they are,
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: you can see there's a trail, and then you'll see that,
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: you know, hey, the line's spread out real quick, and
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: then there's a big clearing. Odds are that's probably a
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: good place to camp. Or if it's the end of
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: a road, you know, you'll check on the topo and
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: you'll see, you know, there's a cliff or whatever, there's
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: a clearing and then there's a drop off and the
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: side of the clearing that's probably a good view spot.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: So just kind of looking at those spots. You do
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: get skunked from time to time. But running with the
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: second vehicle, if it's going to be a super narrow trail,
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: and up the van of the trailer and the dirt bikes,
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: she'll take the little chart, little vehicle, little truck, whatever
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: you got, run down it. And if she's in the
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: range radio back, Hey it's great, come on down. Room
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: to turn the rig around, and then that's camp. We'll
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: base there and explore. So just knowing land ownership, I
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: think is probably the very first and foremost thing to
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: determine where it is you're going to camp and spend
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: the night, and how you're going to travel, so you
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: can pick your areas, find your places your free land
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: to camp, and you can also pay for services, Like,
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: we're also on harvest Hosts, so every once in a
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: while year in somewhere that's you know Texas, it's super dense,
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: it's heavily populated. There's not a lot of free places
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: to camp. You're gonna jump on harvest Hosts or campendium
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: or any of those and you'll stay a brewery or
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: a winery. Hey they got bathrooms. Great is harvest Hosts?
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Does it have more availability lately? Because I hopped on
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: harvest Hosts during the pandemic and it was like you
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: could not find anything anywhere. Everything was always booked, and
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: that was kind of the reputation. You think it's gotten better.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Way better. Yeah, we've got we've we are so bad
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: with it, like we'll just roll in and be like, hey,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: you guys got another spot. But a lot of time
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: of rolleding where the only ones there.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: There's one other rig I think that was started in
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Prescott I think so nice. They had a Mitsubishi Fuso
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and drove around the world. Nice and they had a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: they had a couple you know, laundry mats here in
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Prescott Valley and that's what paid like all their expenses
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: while they traveled in it paid a manager and cool.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: They drove around the world in an Earth cruiser and
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: then they came up with that idea. Yeah. So they
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: were both very bright, they were attorneys, and they just
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: figured it out. Finally figured that out.
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: And that's the thing. It's it's not there's no one
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: golden ticket, there's no one app Like, depending on where
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: you are, what the density of the land is, there's
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: going to be irlander is going to work for some place,
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: campandium is going to work for some place. Sometimes. You know,
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: we haven't done it yet, but a lot of people
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: like to stay at Cracker Barrel or Walmart if they
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: have to. You know, yeah, sure, there's plenty of them
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: all out for overnight camping. But so there's a million
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: ways to do it and figure out how to get
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: where you want to go.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: It seems like that I Overlander has just now become
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the way for local authorities to what to shut down,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: because it's it's pretty incredible. If you try to use it,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: you show you show up at an I Overlander camp,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you know, indicated camp spot, and it'll always say no
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: camp not always a lot of times it says, especially
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: in really populated areas like California and stuff. It's almost
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: like they, you know, because it got overloved. You find
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: this one little pull off that takes you out to
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: the view over the ocean, and then it gets overloved.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: People don't clean up their camp sites, trash everywhere.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: But yeah, now I almost put in a little a
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: little bit more cagy with sharing that camp site information.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: I think so, but I think also international.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Oh I was gonna say with the we'll use it
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: just if we're in an unfamiliar area or you know,
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: traveling through as kind of just a point to then
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: like okay, people can camp here, and then you put
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: that into your on X and it's usually like okay,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: well there's other areas around so that point and like okay, cool,
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: there's more national forests, like oh, there's more BLM this way,
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: and then use that to then get somewhere further in.
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: So that's kind of how we've been using it more
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: than that.
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: Makes a lot of more than camping at that spot.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that totally makes sense with you guys
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: being in the vehicle, you know, and camping for so much.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: What have you guys found Our good solutions for cooking, hygiene, organizing,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: your gear because one of the one of the biggest
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: challenges is keeping things organized, because that can be a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: huge source of frustration between partners. So what have you
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: guys found that works well for kind of those concepts.
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: When I chop into the van back in Montana the
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: summer and add.
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: More on storage, We're still figuring that out.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, storage is huge, I think for because we start
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: traveling with the motorcycles. I think that storage having the
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: two bins on the front of the trailer that have
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: your jacket, your pants or helmet, your boots, your stinky
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: like moto gear, keeping that out of the living space
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: is a huge thing.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: All the roam cases have been helpful, Yeah, because we
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: use one of those on my.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Little truck to get a bunch of stuff that was
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: just floating around or recovery gear or random things. So
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: that was kind of Step one was really helpful. Having
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: the big ones for the motos and then inside we
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: use a lot of the like Step twenty two, like
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: smaller bags and really really like.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: The pole cubes or whatever, the little packing cubes so
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: you can underwear socks like we can have our own
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: separate little quick pullouts for T shirt, socks under or
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: whatever they do. Pants and jackets are I.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: Use them for journals for pens, like kind of everything
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: just needs organization and does it have.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: A little spot to label a little label and you
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: ride on with the sharpie.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: Perfect extra labels so you can perfect, get more and
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: put a new sharpie on it.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Because that's the other thing. Is I like when everything
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: looks like super organized and the same, you know, probably
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: because like I'm a photographer too, like we all have
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: like these visual needs around the way things are organized,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: but then you can't remember like which of the green
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: soft boxes right? Does this happen? So the label's nice.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: Well, the other thing, we know, the longer you're out,
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: the more stuff starts accumulating, so there have to be
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: a remove, donate, get rid of things. Of course we
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: end up out over the winter mostly so there's Christmas,
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: so there's like yet if I were to do with
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: that stuff, like oh do I just mail that home
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: or do I actually need that? Things like that where
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: you're like, okay, we'll not have accumulated stuff.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: Don't and reset, you know, donate things constantly kind of
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: recalibrate what you're bringing, why you need it, why you
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: have it, and go from there.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Sure, we don't travel nearly as much as you mean.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: I consider myself very lucky to be able to go
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: two three months a year. But I have this thing where,
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: whether you do it in like actuality or in your mind,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: you put a little red dot on all these items,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: and if that red dot, and you take it off
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: when you use it, and if there's items with red dots,
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: take them out.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a whole list of stuff that's not
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: coming with us next time. It's going to be left
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: in Mondana.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: You have to constantly keep evaluating what it is you're bringing,
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: why you're bringing it. You know, sure there's recovery year,
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: there's things like that that hopefully you don't ever have
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: to use it, but you want to have it in case.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, you know.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: But then there's all the rest of this stuff. You're like,
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: why do we have three fire pits with.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Us this year?
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: I know, we've got the gas propane one if there's
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: a fireband, so that makes sense, okay, But we've got
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: this little one that breaks down small and we can
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: cook on. And we've got this other one that doesn't
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: create much ash that sits up the ground, Like why
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: are we carrying like all these different We don't need
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: all this, We just need one solution.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: So well, I think the last thing I'd really like
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: to talk about, you know, you mentioned that you do,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: you know, chrips with your girlfriends and that kind of stuff.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: What kind of advice would you offer to solo women
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: travelers that are looking to get into this community and
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: starting to travel.
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: It's not as scary as it seems.
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I end up doing a bunch of
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: like solo nights and stuff, and I thought that was
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: scary initially, but it's not as scary as I thought.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: And there's a lot of female groups and camp outs
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: and things to join, and it's like just just fine
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: one and just go out there. We're all in the
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: same boat of like feeling kind of weird about doing
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: this and being because there's not as many women in
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: the industry doing this kind of thing, so it's like
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: it always feels like where are my people, and like
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: I'm the odd one out, and we all kind of
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: seem to feel the same way. So it's like just
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: grab a group. We're all going to be like feeling
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: that same way where it's like, hey, we're just happy
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: you're here.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are there any.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Are there any resources for that Facebook group?
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: Sir, there's I'd say there's a bunch on Instagram. Jill's
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: got the Ladies' Night camp outs that she does. There's
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: been a bunch of spin offs from that, so I
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: know there's a group kind of that does them in
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Arizona that's a spin off from her group, and a
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: couple of different ones in California.
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: San Diego has a bunch of women's Where can.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: You find out about her campouts? Just through her Instagram?
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a Ladies Night camp out at Ladies Night
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: camp Out on Instagram or through her So she's got
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: that loss she does that.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: It's like building that community of people. It's really really
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: cool and so important.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: So definitely need it.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, super important.
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: And it's it's been amazing for her confidence, like not
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: even just aside from everything else, just her personal growth,
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: her personal confidence. Like I'm more than happy, like, yeah,
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: take the truck, go hang out with the girls, like
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: because it's huge growth for her and which is great
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: for us. So it's awesome.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: It's like guys always have guy trips. You have your
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: guys trips. It's just it's so healing for women. All
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: get together and you know, go do this and camp
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: and be in nature. Yeah, and we always eat good
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: food like we do tacos and fancy cheese boards and
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: wine and cocktails.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Like sounds perfect. Sometimes, of course it is exactly what
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: we do, that's right. One of the things that we
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: like to ask on the podcast if if someone was
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: getting new to overlanding, what would be the couple pieces
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: of advice, Like if you, in a way we're giving
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: advice to yourself in two thousand and fifteen, what would
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: you what would be the pieces of advice that you
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: would give that version of yourself or someone that was
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: new to travel and overlanding that was getting ready to
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: go go to.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: Walmart, get a tent, get a sleeping bag, get a cooler,
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: go and make sure you want to do it, Like
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: go camping, Like even if it's a campground if you've
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: never been, Like everything looks great online and all these
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: beautiful vestas in hues, but the nuts and bolts of it,
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: it's camping. It's really good. Fancy travel your feet, You're
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: still going to be dirty at the end of the Yeah,
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: you're you're gonna have to be dealing with food. You're
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: gonna have to cook, You're gonna have to like do
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: all this stuff. Make sure you actually want to do it.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: Get out there, spend some nights in a while. Here's
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: some weird noises in the woods. Like there's all kinds
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: of aspects of that. I think, maybe get over romanticized.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: But if you you make it through that part, then
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: slowly start, you know, get your vehicle capable. You know,
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: you can sleep in a tent for a long time
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: before you have to buy a rooftop tent. Sure you know,
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: and you don't have and you buy a rooftop ten.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: You can build a platform in your flash, Yeah you could.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: You can. You know, you've got a little suv or
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: wrap for take some plywood and make a sleeping platform
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: and put an air mattress in there. Like if you
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: want to see if you want to be more secure
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: in the VI, do that first. Like, there's a million
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: ways to do it. You don't have to go crazy,
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: but make sure you love doing it. And if it
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: bites you and takes hold, then ease into it. You know,
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: figure out your plan and go from there.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really sound advice because there's definitely a lot
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: of people and I'm going to say during the pandemic,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: when a lot of this blew up, they go out,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: they buy the two hundred thousand dollars sprinter win a
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Bigo Rebel or something, and three weeks later it's like
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: back on the dealer.
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: Lot when you could rent one of those. Yeah, you
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: can spend spend two grand or rented.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Yeats not for you rent something. Yeah, try fly up
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: to Montana and rent one of your trucks.
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: Yes, please roam came repete.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Any other thoughts that you'd have for advice.
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: I mean it's kind of along the same lines where
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: it's like you just don't need all the gear right away,
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: Like we went out and bought all, like all the
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: gear we needed, and then it's like, yeah, so it's
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: like we went out and bought the rooftop tent and
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: the awning and the like yettie cooler and all the
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: recovery gear and the Scottle, which we definitely needed. The
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: scattle was definitely and just like gear on gear on gear,
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: and then was going out and we found ourselves like
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: overloaded and ended up like slowly leaving more of it
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: at home and pearing down. So it's like I would
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: definitely kind of agree with the same thing. Well, and
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: find other people that want to do it.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: That's the thing too, Like we ended up getting a
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: real group good group of friends in Arizona, and it
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: was just we had friends that had off road vehicles
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: and we're like, we're going to go camping this week,
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: and like, cool, where are you going? Or we'll just
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: come don't We don't care where you're going. We're just
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: going somewhere. Great, let's go. And so we end up
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: developing before we left, just a really nice group of
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: about I'd say if everybody showed up to something, it'd
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: probably be ten rigs, and it was, but I mean
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: most of the time it was you know, two or
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: three rigs that would join us every weekend and they
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: were just like, we don't have to think, we have
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: to plan, we just have to show up and we'd
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: cook good dinners and go explore. And so like finding people,
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: just start doing it, and you're going to find like
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: many people that want to do it too.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Well. I love that there's so many like cars and
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: coffee events and stuff now too, there's like all over
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: the place.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: So yeah, you can really connect coop people. Yeah.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: I guess I never really thought of it that way
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: that maybe my we're talking maybe maybe a little too negative.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm just like, oh, you're just building this to
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: go sit in a parking lot. But maybe the angle
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: that I'd never had considered is well, that's how you're
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: going to network and meet the communities and find the
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: people to go out and maybe that's actually something that that.
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: Gets people to go out for Yeah. They maybe they're
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: just hoping somebody's like, hey, you want to go wherever
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: this weekend. Yeah, I'm like, oh, yeah, let's go. I
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: haven't used this big, huge rig I built. I want
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: to try it so to be a good connector.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: So how do people find out more about you and
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: your travels?
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: Mostly Instagram? Our Overland Life is where we primarily post.
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: Facebook of the same name. We do a little bit
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: of YouTube, but that wasn't really our focus when we
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: started traveling. We just really started to document our travels
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: for our family and friends and kind of grew a
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: little bit from there. And then she has at Lizzie
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: Kates as her account, and so she does a lot
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: of the girls trips and adventures and stuff on. There
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: is a good place to follow along with her. And
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: then if you if you want to come to Montana
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: run our trucks. It's Rome Camp. Repeat is our adventure
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: vehicle rental business.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, thank you both so much for being on
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the podcast. Thanks for us having us you guys. Yeah,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you next time.