Latest / Her Journey Her Way / Can You Live in a Van and Pet Sit Full Time? Dawn Does.
Transcript
- Rita Gardner: You're a pet sitter and you live in a van. A woman with a little hobby farm hires you to watch her horses for the weekend. There's just one problem. You've never taken care of horses before. You pull in the night before and park up by the barn. And that's when she tells you the horse is sick, she's leaving in the morning, and the medicine it doesn't go in the mouth. I have some of the coolest friends on the planet. They left the comfort of their home, got out on the road, took the trips most people only talk about. I'm Rita and this is Her Journey Her Way, a She Travel Simple podcast. I've spent most of my adult life traveling. Here's what I learned. The places are beautiful, the people are better. Every one of my friends has a story, and every one of them knows something you're gonna want to know. That's what this is. Their stories. Their lessons, their way. Today I'm with Dawn. Now, Dawn is really special to me. She's from New Jersey, so I love that there's a Jersey girl in the house. So Dawn, why don't you say hi? Hi everyone, I'm Dawn. And Dawn, tell us ⁓ what you're driving. I have a Ram ProMaster. twenty five hundred. And how long have you had that for? I had that since March of last year. And what year is it? It is a twenty twenty one. Twenty twenty-one. Now when you bought it, did you buy it used? Was it already built out? I bought it used. A contractor had built it out for himself and his wife, ⁓ because they were doing contract work in North Carolina. And The thing that got me about this is it had two beds in it. So that was really important for me because my mother and I are very close and I could take her on trips with me. And the two beds was like a big selling point for me. That's actually how I got into buses because when I was looking for an RV after my RV went kaput, everything was set up for a queen-sized bed and two singles. And I said, Well, there's four singles that I want and nothing was built like that. So it was nice to yeah to that you actually found something you you really needed, which is odd with having two single beds. So currently you travel occasionally with your mom. Why don't you tell us when you first decided you wanted to get a van or a rig and start traveling in it? Yeah, so I had started a pet sitting business right after my divorce. And what I found was That I was staying in other people's homes. And I had an apartment at the time. And in a six month period, I only slept in my apartment 10 days. Wow. Yeah. So I thought, well, this is ridiculous. And I, you know, New Jersey is very expensive. The area I lived in is very expensive. So I, you know, said, let me get a van. And this way, in between pet sitting jobs, I can just travel ⁓ anywhere I want to go. What were you doing for income when you got divorced? I'm a registered nurse. So I was ⁓ working for pen medicine, actually in their IT department. Wow as a nurse informaticist. And so that was my main income. But the pet sitting was just like a side business for me. Subsequently I ⁓ decided this past June to quit my job, my nursing job. And just do the pet sitting full time. Now why don't you tell everybody how old you are? I am sixty years old. So you got divorced when you were how old? I was fifty-seven. So in the last three years you started a side hustle, which has now turned into my my full time. Yes. Wow, that's that's amazing. And ⁓ then As a result of all of that, you ended up buying a van. Yes. Cause you do travel anyway. Yes. You did travel, but you didn't do camper traveling. What kind of traveling did you do? I didn't do c camper traveling. I I did camp a lot when I was younger, but my ex did not like camping. So that kind of for twenty years I didn't camp at all. I'm in the same boat. The first time we used our camper was when we broke up. Yeah. That's exactly it. The the first thing I did was go out camping, you know. And That was it. I was that's what we first thing I did is I put mushrooms in my food. I bought a jar of nuts because he hated those things. Exactly. You just like to everything. And I've always loved traveling. I've like traveled to Spain, Portugal, I've gone to Italy. ⁓ so I've been all over ⁓ France, all over like Europe, and pretty much all over the US as well. But the the van gives me freedom. Yeah. You know, it gives me so much more freedom. Like I can wake up one day and say, I'm gonna go to Vermont, which I did a couple weeks ago. So I went, I grabbed my mother and went to Vermont. You know And how old's your mother? She's doing this. My mother's eighty. Exactly. So that's that's fantastic. And she loves it. She actually loves it. At first, when I first bought it and said I'm not gonna have an apartment, I'm not gonna have a home base, my mother thought I lost my mind. Like where am I gonna sleep? I'm like, I'll find a place. I know people with farms, you know. I do a lot of mooch docking. Yes. ⁓ in addition to mooch docking, how else do you camp? Do you go to campsites or I do a lot of state parks. I do a lot of harvest hose and boondockers welcome. Yeah. So we brought that up a few episodes ago too ⁓ with Lizzie. Her favorite place to go is Cracker Barrel and Harvest Hose. Yeah. And ⁓ Nikki. She's also a big Harvest Host person. So I love Harvest Host. And how long have you had Harvest Host? ⁓ I got Harvest Host when I got the ban. ⁓ So interestingly, I got it in 2018 when it was forty nine dollars. And I'm locked in at I'm locked in at forty nine dollars. And I can't even yeah, and I can't even get boondockers because if I do they'll wanna up my price. So Yeah. So so far I'm sticking with that forty nine dollars, even if I don't go. Yeah. So tell me about what it's like pet sitting. with your van. And how did you build that business to now practically be your full-time? Really? Just word of mouth. And I got really lucky. I had a woman that had a little hobby farm and I had no experience with horses. And she said, would you watch my horses for a weekend? It just so happened that her horse got sick the day before she left. And prior to going into IT, I was an ICU nurse. So not much bothers me. And so she's like, I don't know if you're gonna be able to take care of this horse. You're gonna have to give it flagell ⁓ rectally. Yeah. And I was like, Okay, I can do that. So ever since then I've had her, she's gotten me business. ⁓ I have a couple doctors that have used me. ⁓ I've gone down to ⁓ South Carolina. I took a three-week trip down to South Carolina to watch birds. Wow. Yeah. So tell me everything that you've watched. Birds, horses. I'm assuming cats and dogs. Birds, horses, cats and dogs, all sorts of sizes of dogs and multiple dogs. Like I had one woman I watched three golden retrievers for. Wow. And I had to walk them. So that was over that was fun. How do you express to these people that yes I can do they already know you're in a van and that you're gonna be coming and not stay ⁓ yes. I make sure they know that I have a van. You just need a level place to park. I just need a level place to park. A lot of times they have a guest room, I stay in their house 'cause they want me to stay in their home. So I'll stay in their house sometimes. A lot of times like with the farm, I'll go over there like the night before. I'll park ⁓ up by the barn and you know, when they leave in the morning I'm right there to take care of everything. And I would assume, and maybe I'm wrong, but I assume a lot of people are like, ⁓ this is great. We don't have to get food for her and set everything up and clean the house. Yeah, exactly. It's just it's just there ready to go for you. Yeah. ⁓ wow, that's fantastic. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the van. I've been in it for ⁓ it's a year and a half I've had it now. Okay. Right. And you and I met a year ago by weird circumstances. Cause I had put out there that if anybody wanted to get together ⁓ that you know a lot of people I knew were struggling going out for the very first time. Yeah. And I had put it out there on Facebook and then I decided to I was having company myself. So then I said, Okay, well we're not gonna be going to this campground but if you want to come to my home and stay, you could and you showed up. Yes. Yes. I happened to be driving through your area and I thought I'm just gonna show up. Yeah, and you just showed up You must have been nervous, but we were how did we react do you remember how we reacted? ⁓ my gosh, everybody was so friendly, so wonderful. At that point I couldn't back the van up and and your house ha w ⁓ well Yep, it's a it's a downhill windy road and we had so many people at the bottom in the driveway parking area that you couldn't once you got down you couldn't turn around. So you pretty much had to back down so you had a way to get out. 'Cause you were leaving the next you were the first one to leave the next day. And ⁓ but I remember the way that I remember, we were like cheering like there's a new person coming. This is fantastic. It was fantastic. And we gave you the lowdown on the Schoolie Swarm, right? Because that's ⁓ Yes. ⁓ Michelle and Travis Matson who run the Schoolie Swarm were there. Yes. And yeah, we gave the lowdown on on what it was like to come to a Schoolie Swarm. And then what was it about a week or two later was a Schoolie Swarm, but you were going You were traveling with your mom. Mm-hmm. Tell us about that. You traveled and then you then I Yeah. I traveled. ⁓ my mother and I went to Tennessee. Well, I went to I went to Cape Cod, picked up my mother on the way back from Cape Cod, and then we drove to Tennessee. And then when I got back from Tennessee, I just I came up to for schoolie swarm for the last three days. Right. Yeah. But before that, where were you? ⁓ we went to Italy. Yeah. Yeah, we went to Italy. Yes. Yes, we went to Italy. So aside from that trip traveling with your mom, when you traveled abroad, did you travel solo or did you travel with a group? How did that Well, that trip to Italy it was a cruise. My mom won a free cruise. ⁓ wow. Yeah. To Italy. To Italy. ⁓ so you in the Mediterranean. We were in the Mediterranean, yes. Yeah. So she she won a free cruise and actually she got another free cruise. What? Yes. Yep. ⁓ don't ask me how my mother does this, but She won another one and we're going to Greece next year. Nice. Yes. So ⁓ Yeah. How exciting is that? It's very exciting. It's very exciting. And she's a great travel companion, you know. ⁓ wonderful. Yeah. I mean, we had an inside cab like the free cruise, it's an inside cabin and s yeah, you're about an inch and a half away from each other at all times. Yeah. I worked out. But but after all those trips, Cape Cod, Tennessee, Italy, I ended up it like saying, Okay, I'm gonna make the drive up a New York and and see what this is about. See what that schoolie swarm is about. And when you got here, how did it feel to you? Like what were you thinking when you Well, you know, I was very nervous. My big nervous thing was where do I park? I don't want to be in someone's space. And I and I'm like, I don't know where to park, I don't know where to go. I need to be in the full sun because I'm solar. I was just nervous about that because just not knowing anyone and not wanting to be in anyone's space. Now today I just drove in and pulled in and ⁓ yeah, this is old hat for you, right? It's like I'm like whatever. It's been a year and a half and you're you're like if they don't want me there, they can tell me to move. And I'll go buy someplace else. So that's the thing. So right now we're doing this podcast at the Bainbridge Schoolie Swarm and it's probably been close to a year that I've seen you. But I think it's wonderful that we just pick up right where we left off. And I'm I'm sure you'll see that when you see the other people that you've met previously. Yeah. Now were you able to meet a lot of people coming in just for the last few days? No, not not as many as I would have liked to, but I mean, you and Terry and and Scott, you know, I got I kind of got to know you guys really well. ⁓ a couple other people, Abby, you know, so I mean it you know, it was it was it was nice. So a lot of people say they come to a schoolie swarm for only a couple of days, but they wish they had come for the whole nine days. That's exactly how I felt. And so this time I booked for the full stay. For the full stay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I told ⁓ Michelle, I said, if you need me to volunteer to do anything, you know, just so I can put myself out there and get to meet people, you know. Yeah, let me that's a very good point, Dawn, because a lot of people go to an event and they just sit right outside their rig. waiting for everything to come to them. And I have found personally that when you go to an event and even if it's your first time, you can go up to the people running it and say, I'd like to help out because that's really where you get to meet people and meet ⁓ on a deeper level. Exactly. Exactly. One thing I've noticed and maybe touched on this with your mom is that when you explain to people that you live in a van and they don't live in a van or a bus or a box truck or an ambulance or a camper. Yeah. They don't get it. No, they don't. And but then there are this certain people who find it very fascinating and wish they could do that. Yeah. You know, I've I've met a lot of people that I wish I had the guts to just do that. You know, I wish I had the guts to just like quit my job. I'm not of retirement age, you know. I mean, you have a whole nother level of like insurance and all that stuff that you have to think about. Yeah. So, you know, people either think I'm nuts or they think You're a baddie. I'm a bad or you're a superhero, right? Like one or the other. It's one or the other. So I say, ⁓ you can do it. You're just pretty much choosing not to, right? So if you're sitting home on that couch and you're thinking, I can't do that. I wish I could do what she does, what would you say to that person? I would say Give it a try. Even if you just rent a van or rent an RV or rent a vehicle. ⁓ or even if you just used your SUV and throw a mattress in it and take it out. I mean, I did that before I got the van. I wanted to see if I could like be alone in a vehicle by myself in a park. So I just went to the pine barrens into a dispersed camping site and just went solo by myself in the middle of the pines with nobody around. I went. in March, there was nobody booked there and I just did it by myself. I you just gotta try it. And what's the worst thing? If I got scared, you know, I could just get in my car and leave. Yeah. You know? Yeah, exactly. Like if there was something like scary about it, or if the Jersey Devil was coming after me I could just get in my car and vamos you know? Right. So in the last year and a half since you have gotten a van, what would you say are some of the biggest lessons you've learned? not to use my microwave, my hot water heater, my air conditioner when it's dark out. Right, 'cause you have solar. I have solar. Yeah. I've I have solar. I mean I do have the ability to plug into, you know, Like shore power. But dispersed camping in the pine barrens is not gonna give you. You know and I'm too cheap to pay for. But yeah. Well, I think we all are. So how much do you think you've paid for camping in the last year and a half? ⁓ not that much because the dispersed camping in the pine marrons, it's five dollars for a New Jersey resident, you know, per night. So that's that's very inexpensive. I do that mostly if I'm gonna go to a campground. Otherwise I do a lot, like I said, a lot of mooch docking. ⁓ I have friends that have farms. I my cousin has a farm down in South Jersey. So I've done that. I've gone out to Pennsylvania and I've a friend that has like an empty lot next to her house. And I've just used the empty lot. And so what have you learned about yourself in the last year and a half? That I can do a lot more than I thought I could. You know, ⁓ things aren't as scary. ⁓ I have a lot more grit than I than I thought I did. 'Cause going into this, I I mean I was afraid. Like when I but first went to your house and met you, I was still afraid. I was afraid to go anywhere by myself or alone, you know. I've still little tentative some places, you know. Right. But I try to keep it as safe as I can. Well, I suppose the same thing if you'd have come to my house with a group of people and You didn't like it, you could have I would have gone. If it felt uncomfortable, but I mean it was instant. Even just when I backed in and you guys were all standing on your deck, like looking down, cheering me on and you know, I think Michelle came out and helped me back up. Like telling me and you were you were there Like for the you weren't alone. Yeah. You didn't have to do this by yourself, being judged by a group of people far away. And I would imagine, like that's how I think. I every time I d drive through a town with my bus, I keep thinking that everybody is calling their neighbor going, look at this fool coming through our small town and like I I just feel like everybody's like hating me because I can't get up to seventy miles an hour fast enough or things like that. Yeah, and my build's real heavy and the ProMasters aren't known for their best transmission. I really put a toll on it. Like in the Smoky Mountains, I really put a toll on that. ⁓ I w I was up in Vermont and ⁓ I More hills. More hills and I ended up driving up a hill that I found out was like it was just straight up. It was straight up a gravel road. And it was like, you know, I think I can, I think I Yeah. I've said that a few times myself. I think I was only going five miles an hour up that hill. So before you couldn't you couldn't back in, so now you're much better at backing. I'm not the best. I'll admit that I'm not the best at backing up. You know. ⁓ It it's a really tight spot. Like I will just ⁓ you know, hopefully someone's around. So why a van and why not a bus or an R V? the van was compact. It fits in a parking spot. That made it easier. Like I said, I pet sit, a lot of driveways, short driveways, you know. ⁓ and the fact that it's just easier for me to maneuver A b bus I'm fascinated with. I'm fascinated with some of these builds I see on on people's buses. I they do gorgeous builds. And I thought I would want a bus, but I like the maneuverability of the van. And I like it's stealth. It's more stealthy. There's a lot of them around. Yeah. I mean I I've slept on the street in Borden Town in New Jersey. Yeah. You know? So I've slept on a street and I've not felt uncomfortable, you know. And it's finding because that's a working class neighborhood. There's a million vans in the in the neighborhood. So one more white van just blends right in. Yeah. You know? And ⁓ so you have solar and you have the ability to plug in. Yeah. And I have a D C to D C inverter. So it'll charge while I'm driving as well. ⁓ fantastic. Yeah. And what how what do you do for water? Do you have a water tank? I yeah, but I have a thirty gallon water tank. ⁓ you have thirty gallon ⁓ fresh water tank and a twenty gallon grey water tank. And what and what do you use for a toilet? I have a LeVo dry plush toilet. And tell me what that means. So it's and and everybody and everybody else who does it know. That's like that's like a diaper genie. It you put a cartridge in and it's like Mylar and you hit a button and then it just wraps it up. Okay. Yeah. Spins it. Spins it and into the bag and then y you get about seventeen flushes out of it. I've never like pooped in my bed. There's no solids in it. No, it's all liquid. But and I use like ⁓ like one of the ⁓ the powders that'll like gel it. Like gel it. So so you don't put solids in it, but not every time you use it you you flush it, right? You let it sit. I let it I let it sit. I was going to say I'm like seventeen times a day. I know I no no that would be that would be one night. I mean I ⁓ would I would g go to a cartridge at night and th they're not like inexpensive. And if I'm going out for just a couple of days, I actually would just use a bag. You know? I would just use a bag and Okay, 'cause that's an option as well. Just use a bag. ⁓ fantastic. Now, what do you have for cooking in your van? So I don't have much for cooking in my van and I have a very tiny dorm refrigerator as well. So I don't have a lot of storage for food. I find that to be a downfall sometimes. I have a microwave. ⁓ and I have a just a regular camp stove that I'll use. Outside or outside outside. I won't use it inside. No. So that's really all I have for cooking is a microwave and that. But then I bought ⁓ a friend of mine's daughter went to college and it's like a little dorm ramen cooker and it's really low wattage. and it works really good because you can like Stir fry in it. ⁓ nice. Yeah, 'cause so I can heat up chicken and it doesn't draw a ton of power. I did think, okay, I'm gonna use an Instapot. Yeah, that didn't work out for me. because of the power or because of too much like cooking. It didn't it's too much like cooking. And also that was the time that I had used the microwave and pot water it was dark out, dark and gloomy and yeah, and I You thought, ⁓ I'll make some soup and the instant pot and Yeah. And then it was really dark and gloomy. Because you had no power. I'm lucky the way he set it up, it's two battery banks. It's like two hundred amp hours of of lithium battery on one bank and then two hundred on the other. He doesn't ha he didn't run all four hundred. Okay. Yeah. So if you're watching and you see one getting low, you kind you kinda know like ⁓ that's good. It does it. It's not like you wake up one day and go, ⁓ my gosh, I'm completely out. Yeah. Whereas case you just gotta go to the reserve. And how do you take care of heat? Well, we know you have air conditioning, which is electric, but how do you do heat and hot water? Okay. So I have ⁓ Bosch, like the mini Bosch four point seven ⁓ gallon hot water heater. Okay. Yeah. So I have that and that's plugged in. That's electric. Yeah, it's electric. So you don't have any propane. I have no propane. And my gas, ⁓ the one good thing about the ProMaster is you can tie into the ProMaster gas tank for heat. So you have a diesel heater, which is really a gas heater. I a gas heater. Yeah, I've gas heater. You have a gas diesel heater? I have a gas diesel heater, yeah. It just doesn't sound right to say a gas heater when everybody says a diesel heater. Yeah. You have a gas diesel heater. Yeah. I can say that. That's exactly what it is. And it works really well. ⁓ a couple things with that, and I've slept in it like 15 degree weather and it would get really warm in there. ⁓ the one thing I could say about it is you have to be level. It does not work if you are not level. You know. The heater or life in general, if you're not level. I I can work around being off level, but the heater needs to be level. Interesting. I would did not know that. Yeah. It needs now we all know. Thank you. Yeah. And the other thing is with the heater, and I forget the brand. ⁓ with this heater, you have to have over a half a tank of gas. So you're not going some like you're not pulling into somewhere with a quarter tank of gas and running your heater. It's just not it's gonna it'll throw air codes out for you. My guess is that when he put the hose in, he put it so it only went halfway down the tank and therefore not bleeding you dry of gasoline. Exactly. And then you go to start your ban and it doesn't start. Yeah. And then this age of gas being so expensive, I mean, like running it when it When it was like fifteen degrees, I probably only went through a gallon of gas. Good. You know. But like overnight, you know. Yeah, I know a few people who have diesel heaters and gas diesel heaters and they say the same thing that it's very efficient, doesn't use a whole lot of fuel and it heats up pretty fast. ⁓ it heats up instantaneously, you know. I've gone to sleep without it on just because it's still warm from the day and then I've woken up and it's been like thirty two degrees. I'm like I'm I'm not getting out. I'm under these covers. I need warmth, you know. Is the gas diesel heater your only heat source? It is my only heat source currently. I do have an electric blanket, like a regular electric blanket and you know, the regular plug into the wall one. I think I'd switch it out for like a twelve volt one. I like it just to get warm at first, you know. So when you acquired the van, when you bought the van, how much Did you change out on the van? You know what? I really haven't changed anything out on the van. Did you have any issues with what the man had done work wise? I did have an issue with the hot water heater. It cracked, but I think that was my user error and not his build. I think I didn't winterize it. I I just was with my first time winterizing it. I don't think I did it right. I went out. I was out somewhere camping, and all of a sudden I noticed that there's water underneath my bed and that's not a good thing. So I'm there with fans, I'm trying to get this thing dried out. You know In the winter. Yeah. Yeah. Well was it when quite quite winter is it yeah it was it was still well I guess winter was March. So Yeah. ⁓ water heaters have a at least mine has a diaphragm in it and they are very finicky. So the the second it it drops to thirty one point nine, you're gonna have trouble. So Yeah so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about it this winter. If I'm gonna try again to winterize it, I'm gonna probably ask somebody to help me with that process. Somebody that's familiar with it, see if somebody can like help me with how to do this. The guy who sold it to me actually gave me ⁓ a book and a manual of everything in the van. ⁓ that's fantastic. This is the fuse for this, this is where the fuse is for that. So I have a whole manual of the band. And he did come over one time after I drained the batteries dry. And he did come over that day and was kind of because I was like freaking out. So he just came over to comfort me. He was very nice. Him and his wife, very nice people. ⁓ that's that's very nice. That's really good to And and if I wanted to call him like n now, I could still call him up and if I had a question about the van and he would he would be So let's talk breakdowns. Have you had any breakdowns? The only thing that went was my my battery, the battery for the the van. ⁓ well, they go in everything. I know. Yeah. So that's good. So you've been pretty lucky for a year and a half, no? Yeah, that's wood. You can knock on that. Yeah, not knock with so far I've been lucky, you know. So far I've been very lucky with it. So tell me about the places in the van where you've gone and the places you'd like to go. I've driven down to ⁓ South Carolina. I've stopped in like Gettysburg. I've gone down through Virginia, West Virginia, ⁓ kind of the east coast I've pretty much have done. I've gone up like to Cape Cod, up that way. I want to go to Maine. ⁓ I love Maine. So I wanna take it for like a road trip through Maine. Like some next summer maybe. I'll do that. ⁓ then if you're going up to Maine, I'll recommend that you take as much time and do New Hampshire as well. Yes. Yes. It it's New Hampshire I find it's New Hampshire's beautiful. It is very beautiful. And I find a lot of people scream through it just to get to Maine. Yeah. And then they they miss all the wonderful things in New Hampshire. And Vermont's nice. Vermont. Yeah. Vermont I've taken it to a couple of times. I've taken it to Vermont, you know, but I would say just mostly the East Coast. I haven't gone all the way down to Florida and I haven't gone to Maine. What I wanna do really is make a trip west. Yeah, you have to do that at least once. Yeah. I want to make a trip west. Actually you probably have to do it twice. I know I go west and through the northern part and then I need to go west through the southern part. 'Cause it's a lot. It's very, very big out there. There's a lot out there. Yes. And and a lot of time. It takes a lot of time. I mean, ⁓ I went just to the northern part for two months and I didn't stop I left New Jersey and I didn't my first stop was Wisconsin. Like I didn't see anything between here and Wisconsin. So in essence I started in Wisconsin and I went out to Oregon and Washington and came back to the upper peninsula. Yeah. So I was just doing that half in the north for two months and it I felt like I was flying through it. I think if I flew through any state, it would be Pennsylvania. ⁓ definitely fly through Pennsylvania because we're here. We could see that anytime. Yeah. I mean and and I've I've lived in Pennsylvania. I've been out to Pennsylvania with the van. It is so I mean th there I would just fly through. But after that I would After that, then you gotta stop at Lizzie's, who li you you'll know Lizzie from the podcast. You gotta stop at her place in Ohio. She's a great person from the community and you'll enjoy her. So the thing about you and Lizzie, what the two of you have in common is Mahjong. Mahjong. Mahjong. Let's talk Mahjong for a minute. Because this is a really funny story about Dawn and myself and Mahjong. So when Dawn had come to my home ⁓ with the group of us, my kids had come running out of the house saying, So and so has five kittens. Can we get them? And I said no. And my kids, which were very strategic, ⁓ which I thought they were very strategic, they said, ⁓ but we're gonna name them crack. Bam, dot, wind, and flower. And I about fell over and I said, ⁓ my gosh, that's brilliant. And I went to go explain to Dawn what yeah, what those and I said Mahjong. She knew what they they were talking about, because those are the tiles in Mahjong. And I can still see everybody jump up and whoop and be like, You play Mahjong. And then we were like, how? Cause this was the next day. And we were like, How did like we go through the whole night and then the morning and you were like about ready to leave. I think your van might have been warming up and we were like, and now we find out she plays mahjong. Yeah. Because that's been something we do here at the swarm. ⁓ Terry, who you mentioned earlier, she taught me how to play Mahjong and another lady how to play Mahjong and then the next thing you know, people are just learning Mahjong and And it's slightly addictive. So so that was pretty cool. I brought my mahjong set. ⁓ you did? Yes, I did. ⁓ I think we'll have to come to an abrupt end of this podcast so you and I can play a game. I brought my mahjong. I packed it up. Okay, fantastic. Well, thanks, Dawn, for coming out and sharing your stories and about pet sitting. So if you're on the East Coast and you have some fun animals That you would like Dawn to take care of and you're not so sure you want her in your house, well, guess what? She's got a van and she could probably accommodate you. And being a nurse, you you can administer medication. ⁓ yes. And I have I've administered plenty of medication. I have one cat, bathroom cat, that's what I call him. But he gets like, I don't know, twenty meds a day. Wow. He's going into renal failure, but and he was a feral cat. And it's clear that you genuinely care for these animals. ⁓ I love them. I mean, every time I see a Facebook post, ⁓ I think, is this her pet? You could you treat them like ⁓ yeah, you treat ⁓ like your kids, not just like pets. Yes. ⁓ I love every single one of them. ⁓ that's great. I mean I have to admit I do have a couple favorites. But now the truth comes out. But for the most part I love them all. So it's that's that's wild. Going from an ICU nurse to IT to pet sitting. Who to thunk. Yes. Yeah. And and now Mahjong in New Jersey we have in common. Yeah. That's fantastic. Okay, well if you want to learn more about on the road tips head on over to she travels simple dot com. This is her journey her way. Thanks for listening and be safe out there.