Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Interviewing Richard Giordano About the Joys of Overlanding, and a Simple Vehicle

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Interviewing Richard Giordano About the Joys of Overlanding, and a Simple Vehicle · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:05
Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here at the Overland Expo Mountain
0:09
Speaker 1: West and we're recording the podcast here in our camper.
0:12
Speaker 1: And we have a very interesting guest today, someone who's
0:15
Speaker 1: done a lot of international travel and has been very
0:18
Speaker 1: thoughtful in how he has prepared his vehicles. Richard Giardano.
0:21
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
0:24
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. I feel like I don't
0:26
Speaker 2: deserve to be here. Based on the legendary guests that
0:29
Speaker 2: you've had before me.
0:30
Speaker 1: You definitely deserve to be here. It's me that does
0:32
Speaker 1: not deserve any of this. I feel so lucky every day.
0:35
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm waking up in a dream the
0:37
Speaker 1: fact that I get to interview these great people and
0:39
Speaker 1: do the work that I do. So I think we're
0:41
Speaker 1: all really lucky one hundred percent. We're going to take
0:44
Speaker 1: a brief break and we will be right back. This
0:47
Speaker 1: week's episode is supported in part by i Caamper. They
0:51
Speaker 1: make innovative hardshell and soft sided riof tents that are
0:55
Speaker 1: designed to survive long term. Overland use their revolutionary X
0:59
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1:03
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1:07
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1:11
Speaker 1: another award winning design that provides a hardshell tent in
1:15
Speaker 1: the footprint of a much smaller clamshell model. This is
1:18
Speaker 1: the perfect solution for smaller vehicles or on vehicles where
1:22
Speaker 1: rackspace is dedicated to other systems. I Camper believes that
1:26
Speaker 1: the best times are those spent traveling, discovering the world
1:29
Speaker 1: with those you love most. You can find out more
1:32
Speaker 1: about their quality tents at icamper dot com. Yeah, and
1:36
Speaker 1: I remember, and I mentioned this when I interviewed Ashley Is.
1:39
Speaker 1: I remember starting to see your content coming out when
1:43
Speaker 1: you started your trip Desk to Glory, going all the
1:46
Speaker 1: way down to the tip of South America, and I
1:49
Speaker 1: remember one of the things that stood out to me
1:52
Speaker 1: was the quality of the editorial that you were producing
1:55
Speaker 1: and the quality of the images that you were producing,
1:57
Speaker 1: and also the fact that the vehicle that you shows
2:00
Speaker 1: was so accessible. It felt to me that it's the
2:03
Speaker 1: exact kind of story that we needed to have told
2:06
Speaker 1: in the industry, which is just go and do it
2:08
Speaker 1: and you don't have to have one hundred thousand dollars
2:11
Speaker 1: g wagon to go to the tip of South America,
2:13
Speaker 1: which you absolutely don't. In fact, it's probably the worst
2:16
Speaker 1: vehicle to do that with. What inspired you to pick
2:19
Speaker 1: the vehicle that you did to go all the way
2:22
Speaker 1: down to Panama?
2:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we went all the way down to Ushraia. Actually,
2:26
Speaker 2: but that's right. You went to Panama first and then
2:28
Speaker 2: you that's right. Yeah, but we took a nineteen ninety
2:31
Speaker 2: to at a pickup is a just four cylinder twenty
2:33
Speaker 2: two are five speed, super simple truck. The inspiration we
2:38
Speaker 2: had was that we that's all we knew. We saw
2:41
Speaker 2: people like Run Adventures and Home on the highway. Both
2:44
Speaker 2: of them had first Gen four runners and just slept
2:46
Speaker 2: in the back. And that's all I knew of international
2:49
Speaker 2: travel by vehicle. I didn't know it was called overlanding
2:51
Speaker 2: at the time. Sure, when I didn't really look too
2:54
Speaker 2: far beyond them, I saw the dangers in their sixty
2:56
Speaker 2: seven Folkswagen bus. I saw Louis and Lacy in their
3:00
Speaker 2: sixty series land Cruiser. Sure, so I was like, oh,
3:03
Speaker 2: old truck, simple to fix. And the one that we
3:07
Speaker 2: ended up taking was in my dad's backyard.
3:08
Speaker 1: Oh that was perfect.
3:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was sitting there my mom and her
3:12
Speaker 2: her husband for running a plumbing business, and then my
3:15
Speaker 2: sister used the truck as a as a run around
3:18
Speaker 2: vehicle for that business. So it always had like a
3:20
Speaker 2: heat pump in the back and pipe and everything just
3:23
Speaker 2: beat on. I don't know if the oil was ever
3:25
Speaker 2: changed in that period of time, and eventually it was
3:28
Speaker 2: just sitting in the backyard. Winch was cracked, leaking mold
3:32
Speaker 2: the inside, but we took a look at it and
3:34
Speaker 2: the frame was good and the body was good, and
3:36
Speaker 2: I thought, well, if all of these other couples can
3:38
Speaker 2: do it in their old hood is, surely we can too.
3:41
Speaker 2: So we had a two thousand Silverado at the time,
3:44
Speaker 2: and I wasn't super confident in that. And also I
3:47
Speaker 2: had never seen, you know, I'd never seen anybody take
3:49
Speaker 2: you know, domestic vehicle at that time down to South America.
3:52
Speaker 2: So we sold that, took that money, put it into
3:54
Speaker 2: the truck. We had a total of eight grand Canadian
3:57
Speaker 2: into it when we left, including a new lung block,
4:00
Speaker 2: new clutch, old menu suspension, and then yeah, we just
4:04
Speaker 2: threw a canopy on the back little CBT rooftop tent
4:07
Speaker 2: and by far the best thing we did was put
4:09
Speaker 2: the airb fridge in. But you know, we had eight
4:12
Speaker 2: thousand dollars Canadian at the time it was worth six
4:14
Speaker 2: grand American, so that's all we knew, and we did it.
4:18
Speaker 2: We threw rubber may containers in the back, actually had
4:20
Speaker 2: a suitcase. We didn't have any fancy Duffel bags or
4:24
Speaker 2: packing cubes or anything.
4:25
Speaker 1: Sure and amazingly, you guys make it all the way.
4:28
Speaker 2: To right with really no problems, which is kind of yeah,
4:32
Speaker 2: kind of crazy, But.
4:33
Speaker 1: Isn't that The irony of it is that maybe a
4:36
Speaker 1: lot of travelers delay leaving because they feel like they
4:41
Speaker 1: need X or Y, and really what is best done
4:44
Speaker 1: is to save that money for fuel and experiences along
4:48
Speaker 1: the way. I think one of the things that's been
4:50
Speaker 1: most helpful in recent years is seeing all of these
4:53
Speaker 1: trips that are being done with very standard vehicles. So
4:56
Speaker 1: there's been trips all the way down to Ushuaia that
4:59
Speaker 1: are done with it's a Honda Element, or with a
5:02
Speaker 1: just a passenger sedan, or like the French have been
5:04
Speaker 1: doing for decades, like an RV with their family on
5:07
Speaker 1: board and it's totally feasible to do that entire route
5:11
Speaker 1: with a standard vehicle, So starting off with an inexpensive
5:15
Speaker 1: Toyota pickup, which that variant of the Toyota was sold
5:19
Speaker 1: in many of those countries. It was before the Tacoma,
5:22
Speaker 1: so a twenty two are would have been very popular
5:25
Speaker 1: and parts would have been available. What a great choice.
5:28
Speaker 1: And the fact that it was just sitting in your
5:30
Speaker 1: mom's backyard.
5:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, just it was there as accessible and we just yeah,
5:35
Speaker 2: I worked on it for four weekends because it wasn't
5:37
Speaker 2: this wasn't in the same town that we lived in.
5:39
Speaker 2: So every weekend for four weekends went there worked on
5:42
Speaker 2: one project. So one once was swapped the engine, the
5:45
Speaker 2: next time was suspension, next time was put a canopy
5:48
Speaker 2: on a rooftop tent, and then the last weekend was
5:49
Speaker 2: just tiding up loose ends, doing electrical, a little bit
5:51
Speaker 2: of solar and we left. It's amazing we didn't have
5:54
Speaker 2: time to think about whether what we were doing was
5:56
Speaker 2: right or wrong, or if we had the right gear,
5:59
Speaker 2: or if we any of that. We just had a
6:01
Speaker 2: very limited amount of time before we wanted to leave,
6:03
Speaker 2: and nothing else really mattered.
6:05
Speaker 1: And it seems like that. You have a lot of
6:08
Speaker 1: personal interest in understanding how the vehicles, taking the time
6:13
Speaker 1: to get them prepared properly. What is some of the
6:16
Speaker 1: advice now that you've done that whole trip in a
6:19
Speaker 1: twenty two are Toyota pick up at the other end
6:21
Speaker 1: of it, What were the things that you changed about
6:24
Speaker 1: the vehicle that you most appreciated, and maybe what were
6:26
Speaker 1: some of the things that you would have done differently
6:29
Speaker 1: for the next time.
6:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the nice thing is that there is going
6:33
Speaker 2: to be a next time. We have a big trip planned. Well,
6:36
Speaker 2: we had one planned code long story, but it's you
6:39
Speaker 2: don't know things until you know them. And we had
6:42
Speaker 2: no idea when we first left what we needed versus
6:46
Speaker 2: what we wanted. We had seen that a rooftop tent
6:48
Speaker 2: was available that existed, I guess, and it gave us
6:52
Speaker 2: the opportunity to use the back for storage, for hiking
6:54
Speaker 2: gear and for any sort of other activities we wanted
6:57
Speaker 2: to do. We didn't know any better, and we left
7:00
Speaker 2: spent you know, eighteen months traveling out of that truck,
7:02
Speaker 2: even though it was definitely not perfect, and it wasn't organized,
7:06
Speaker 2: and it was a real pain sometimes access gear. Sure,
7:09
Speaker 2: so by far, the biggest thing we learned was the
7:12
Speaker 2: fridge is probably the most important thing that we that
7:14
Speaker 2: we installed, and that be organization is key. See really quickly,
7:19
Speaker 2: is that inside space is really really nice to have
7:23
Speaker 2: when you want to live on the road, when you're camping,
7:26
Speaker 2: and when you're when you have a choice of what
7:29
Speaker 2: kind of weather you want to be in. Rooftop ten
7:31
Speaker 2: is great and living outside is fantastic and probably the
7:34
Speaker 2: greatest part of that whole South America trip chasing summer
7:37
Speaker 2: living outside. Temperature was always moderate. We had maybe two
7:40
Speaker 2: weeks of rain in eighteen months.
7:41
Speaker 1: Wow.
7:42
Speaker 2: When you don't have the choice to travel during those
7:45
Speaker 2: specific summer fall, spring months, being able to get inside
7:49
Speaker 2: the camp or when the weather gets bad and be
7:51
Speaker 2: comfortable and have a little home, is it's priceless.
7:55
Speaker 1: Or even not advertising that you're camping. Yeah, Because one,
7:59
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times you encountered this, but
8:01
Speaker 1: oftentimes your day gets interrupted, something happens, You get a
8:05
Speaker 1: flat tire or something on the vehicle needs to be
8:08
Speaker 1: worked on, or you need to do some paperwork for
8:10
Speaker 1: the next border crossing or whatever, and then you don't
8:12
Speaker 1: make it to where you wanted to arrive at so
8:14
Speaker 1: then you're sleeping in the gas station parking lot. And
8:17
Speaker 1: the challenge with a rooften in that case is now
8:19
Speaker 1: you've advertised to everyone that I'm camping.
8:22
Speaker 2: We spent many many nights in gas station parking lots
8:25
Speaker 2: throughout South America. Sure, even with our future setup, we're
8:28
Speaker 2: doing a wedge camper, go fast camper. At least it's
8:30
Speaker 2: within his own footprint as opposed to the soft shell
8:33
Speaker 2: rooftop tent that we had that folds open. We're taking
8:35
Speaker 2: up two parking spots. Sure, we're feeling very vulnerable inside,
8:39
Speaker 2: and it's nice to be a little bit secretive and
8:42
Speaker 2: be able to do everything we want within the actual vehicle.
8:44
Speaker 1: And I never encountered anything that made me feel unsafe.
8:49
Speaker 1: It was more just once you advertise that you're camping,
8:52
Speaker 1: then the locals are interested and they're curious about They
8:54
Speaker 1: always come out what you're doing, and they you know,
8:57
Speaker 1: they'll you'll feel them climbing up the ladder to go,
9:00
Speaker 1: you know, check things out, kind of like what we're
9:01
Speaker 1: experiencing at Overland Expo. Here, we have to put a
9:04
Speaker 1: big sign on the door that says that we're on
9:06
Speaker 1: air because otherwise everyone would want to come and see
9:09
Speaker 1: the camper. And it's the same thing when we're traveling
9:12
Speaker 1: is that the locals are curious, which I think is amazing.
9:14
Speaker 1: But there's times when you do need to rest and
9:17
Speaker 1: you're tired from the day's activities and you want to
9:19
Speaker 1: get some sleep, and not advertising that you're camping is
9:22
Speaker 1: a good thing.
9:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm pretty introverted, so I recharge by being
9:26
Speaker 2: alone urbit even with Ashley, and by doing things there's quiet,
9:30
Speaker 2: I'm not distracted. So sometimes it can be exhausting, even
9:34
Speaker 2: though they are always great experiences when we meet everybody,
9:37
Speaker 2: it's nice to, you know, have a little bit of
9:38
Speaker 2: a choice of when we do meet people. Yeah.
9:40
Speaker 1: I think one of my most favorite ones was on
9:42
Speaker 1: the Northern Route of Mongolia. And I wake up in
9:45
Speaker 1: my tent in the morning and I'm kind of getting
9:47
Speaker 1: ready for the day. A little tent, little nemo airbeam tent,
9:50
Speaker 1: and this little Mongolian kid just like crawls in and
9:54
Speaker 1: just sits at the end of the of the of
9:56
Speaker 1: the tent and just sat sat there and watched me,
9:59
Speaker 1: you know, pack up my sleeping bag and everything. And
10:01
Speaker 1: at first it was a little i mean I was
10:03
Speaker 1: not concerned at all, and he was very quiet, and
10:06
Speaker 1: he just sat there and watched me. And then I
10:08
Speaker 1: realized that that is how they live in their gers.
10:11
Speaker 1: The whole family is in a tent, and they would
10:14
Speaker 1: all that personal space would be very different for them.
10:17
Speaker 1: And this was very normal to him. This is a
10:19
Speaker 1: really weird looking ger, this little lime green tent, and
10:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to go check out and see what this
10:25
Speaker 1: person's doing. And actually it was one of the highlights
10:28
Speaker 1: of the trip for me was to have that interaction
10:30
Speaker 1: that felt very natural to him. And it became natural
10:34
Speaker 1: to me to understand that I'm in a different place.
10:36
Speaker 1: So it is nice to have those local interactions. But
10:39
Speaker 1: it sounds like that Ashley, and you are interested in
10:43
Speaker 1: making this also a place where you work, Yes, and
10:46
Speaker 1: you need to be productive when you're on the road.
10:48
Speaker 1: So before we get into that, because I do want
10:50
Speaker 1: to talk about that, but let's talk a little bit
10:51
Speaker 1: more about So it sounds like the roof tent in
10:53
Speaker 1: some ways was great, but you learned that you wanted
10:56
Speaker 1: to have some inside space to retreat to. What were
10:59
Speaker 1: some of the things that you learned from that trip.
11:02
Speaker 2: The biggest thing is that when overlanding, the biggest thing
11:05
Speaker 2: that you need is the ability to adapt, and whether
11:08
Speaker 2: that is to a timeline that's gone awry, or whether
11:11
Speaker 2: that's to your vehicle that maybe something's not working properly,
11:14
Speaker 2: or maybe you're not as organized in a way that
11:16
Speaker 2: you feel that you should be. You can change absolutely
11:19
Speaker 2: everything on the road. It doesn't have to be It
11:21
Speaker 2: definitely doesn't have to be perfect before you leave. I
11:24
Speaker 2: did plenty of modifications to our truck, added a drawer
11:27
Speaker 2: system and the campground in Ecuador. You know, you don't
11:31
Speaker 2: always have access to every to materials and so on,
11:35
Speaker 2: but when you go to a major city, almost everything
11:37
Speaker 2: you'd ever want is there. There's always a four by
11:39
Speaker 2: four shop. You can always get an extra snash strap,
11:41
Speaker 2: you can get more OH shackles, shackles, so there's always
11:45
Speaker 2: something that you can at your kit or change along
11:48
Speaker 2: the way. You don't have to be perfect before you leave.
11:51
Speaker 1: That's such important advice. And maybe even you experienced this
11:55
Speaker 1: as well, is that you find yourself getting rid of
11:57
Speaker 1: things as you're traveling along because you left with more
12:00
Speaker 1: than you needed.
12:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of and that's I guess. Another
12:03
Speaker 2: thing is that once you go and do it. You
12:05
Speaker 2: actually know what you need and you have We have
12:08
Speaker 2: so much more confidence this time in making those decisions
12:11
Speaker 2: because we'd live on the road for eighteen months that
12:14
Speaker 2: we don't have to second guess, Oh, do we need
12:17
Speaker 2: four max tracks or we need two Max tracks. Sure,
12:20
Speaker 2: we mostly used our max tracks on other people, but
12:22
Speaker 2: when we did have them, they were valuable to use
12:25
Speaker 2: on ourselves. But I'm okay with taking two and saving
12:27
Speaker 2: the weight. Sure of having a full set, but that's
12:30
Speaker 2: because of the way we travel. I know that we
12:33
Speaker 2: don't take a necessary risk on more by ourselves because
12:36
Speaker 2: I would rather be making it to the next town
12:38
Speaker 2: so we can have dinner and enjoy this free food
12:41
Speaker 2: and so on, rather than doing like an especially technical trail.
12:44
Speaker 2: Being prepared enough and having the skills to know that
12:47
Speaker 2: between airing down significantly, adding some MAX tracks and having
12:51
Speaker 2: a recovery strap that we can use if we that
12:53
Speaker 2: we can use if we need to hail a local. Sure,
12:57
Speaker 2: there are ways around everything, so.
12:58
Speaker 1: You could always make a plan, or the locals will
13:00
Speaker 1: all show up and you push the truck out.
13:02
Speaker 2: I mean, it's exactly.
13:03
Speaker 1: It's funny how you or they'll bring along a oxen
13:06
Speaker 1: and pull you out that way. The number of times
13:09
Speaker 1: that overlanders have been rescued by livestock is I think
13:11
Speaker 1: is pretty awesome. Or a little local tractor, you know,
13:14
Speaker 1: they drive it out there on the beach and pull
13:16
Speaker 1: you out, And I think that that is it's so
13:19
Speaker 1: important to remember that on a remote technical trail in
13:22
Speaker 1: North America, you typically do want to have that kind
13:25
Speaker 1: of equipment because it can be very challenging. Like that's
13:28
Speaker 1: one of the benefits of travel in North America is
13:30
Speaker 1: that you can purposefully go out and look for something difficult,
13:33
Speaker 1: which I think is great to keep our skills tuned up.
13:35
Speaker 1: But I also find that when I travel internationally, I stop,
13:39
Speaker 1: I start backing off on the risk because if something breaks,
13:42
Speaker 1: it's just going to be very disruptive. It's going to
13:44
Speaker 1: be hard to find parts where you've got to have
13:46
Speaker 1: them shipped in, and it's a lot more difficult to
13:50
Speaker 1: repair vehicles in the developing world.
13:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, we met some good friends that had a pins
13:54
Speaker 2: gower with a swap BNW engine and when that was
13:57
Speaker 2: a new build and they crossed the Sahara and everything,
14:00
Speaker 2: it was fantastic. But I think both the times that
14:02
Speaker 2: we met them in South America. They're waiting on parts,
14:04
Speaker 2: and yeah, we just try to avoid that as much
14:07
Speaker 2: as possible, as long as we can disrupt the travel
14:10
Speaker 2: as little as possible. It keeps me happy, keeps Ashley happy,
14:13
Speaker 2: and we can just get sure.
14:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what else? What else did you find on
14:19
Speaker 1: that particular truck that you really liked? At the end
14:22
Speaker 1: of it, you were really happy with it, that you
14:24
Speaker 1: were glad you brought it along.
14:25
Speaker 2: I was happy that when we brought a truck that
14:27
Speaker 2: had three hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on it, that
14:29
Speaker 2: I really didn't have to do anything to it other
14:31
Speaker 2: than basic maintenance. And basic maintenance includes tyrod, ends and
14:35
Speaker 2: all joints. Because we traveled such long distances and on
14:38
Speaker 2: pretty bad washboard roads, we didn't have any major failures.
14:41
Speaker 2: We just listened to what the truck was saying to us.
14:43
Speaker 2: It was making a weird noise or knocking or squeaking,
14:45
Speaker 2: you pay attention to it, and we treated it like
14:49
Speaker 2: a part of our family, and it helped get us
14:53
Speaker 2: all the way down to the bottom of South America
14:54
Speaker 2: and back.
14:55
Speaker 1: Did you have a daily or a weekly maintenance schedule
14:59
Speaker 1: or inspections go for the truck. Did you have a
15:01
Speaker 1: way that you did that with regularity or did you
15:03
Speaker 1: have a process behind that.
15:04
Speaker 2: It wasn't strict, but I'm just constantly looking under the
15:08
Speaker 2: vehicles see if there's a leak, or constantly feeling to
15:11
Speaker 2: see how the steering is changing, or if the if
15:13
Speaker 2: the tires are cupping. Everything on that truck is It's
15:17
Speaker 2: quite nice because most of the mechanical pieces are quite visible,
15:20
Speaker 2: so I can just like keep my eye on things
15:22
Speaker 2: and see if there are any major symptoms of something
15:26
Speaker 2: going wrong. But definitely not. It wasn't like a strict,
15:29
Speaker 2: regular schedule, but it was pretty often. Yeah, anytime we
15:32
Speaker 2: had a grass campground underneath checking everything out, or any
15:36
Speaker 2: chance we were in anytime we were in a major city,
15:38
Speaker 2: even if you know we weren't ready for any maintenance,
15:41
Speaker 2: we'd get all changed, do that and then be able
15:44
Speaker 2: to put the truck up on a lift or at
15:45
Speaker 2: least on ramps, just to get underneath, take a look
15:48
Speaker 2: at it and continue on from there.
15:49
Speaker 1: Did you find that repair parts spare parts for that
15:53
Speaker 1: truck was available in South America?
15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we had an issue with our clutch that
15:58
Speaker 2: failed that I think it was forty two or three
16:00
Speaker 2: d re Celsius and Panama and we were stopping go
16:02
Speaker 2: traffic for four hours and that kind of finished off
16:05
Speaker 2: the clutch at the time. And we went to Iguana
16:08
Speaker 2: four by four in Baranquilla and Colombia. Yeah, and they
16:12
Speaker 2: pulled the truck apart, pulled the clutch out rand a
16:13
Speaker 2: toyt I grabbed a new clutch and threw it in.
16:16
Speaker 2: We rebuilt the clutch master at the same time. Parts
16:18
Speaker 2: were available. Brakes were always available, tyro. It ends there
16:21
Speaker 2: was never a time we had to wait for parts.
16:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted four x four. I've got great memories
16:24
Speaker 1: of that place too, So yeah, cool spot in Colombia.
16:27
Speaker 1: I don't know that they're still doing that anymore, but
16:29
Speaker 1: I think they even ended up with a shop in
16:31
Speaker 1: Bogata for a while too. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You
16:35
Speaker 1: can find those local four drive shops because there's enthusiasts
16:38
Speaker 1: everywhere that want to go out and explore in their
16:40
Speaker 1: land cruiser or whatever, and you can find those those
16:43
Speaker 1: little shops to get that work done.
16:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know the right ones to choose. So
16:48
Speaker 2: we were in Lima at the time and were at
16:50
Speaker 2: one one time and we needed to get tyroed it
16:53
Speaker 2: and swapped out. And we went to this one shop
16:55
Speaker 2: and we rolled in and there were three trucks that
16:57
Speaker 2: had total chaos, long travel and kings and is a
17:00
Speaker 2: Broncho with a swapped in, a classic Bronco with a
17:03
Speaker 2: swapped and jin, a bunch of f Jack bruisers, and
17:05
Speaker 2: a bunch of land cruises. And I was like, Okay,
17:06
Speaker 2: this is a spot I want to make sure I
17:08
Speaker 2: trust that we can get the work done here.
17:10
Speaker 1: Yeah.
17:10
Speaker 2: And then there are other places where you like, well,
17:12
Speaker 2: maybe we'll just pass by and see what else we
17:14
Speaker 2: can find.
17:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I keep going exactly. And when you brought the
17:18
Speaker 1: truck back, you did do a like a complete refresh
17:21
Speaker 1: on it.
17:21
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:22
Speaker 1: And I'm asking these questions just because of how much
17:25
Speaker 1: I appreciated your vehicle. I just I thought it was
17:28
Speaker 1: such a charming solution and you were so thoughtful in
17:31
Speaker 1: the way that you modified it. So I'm just curious
17:33
Speaker 1: when you got back, what were the major changes that
17:35
Speaker 1: you made and has that been a positive thing for
17:38
Speaker 1: the vehicle.
17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've always been into cars and my hot
17:42
Speaker 2: rods and trucks and stuff like that, but I've never
17:44
Speaker 2: had a good excuse to modify them until now. Yeah,
17:48
Speaker 2: and again, anybody listening, probably the best bet is to
17:51
Speaker 2: take a vehicle that's as stock as possible around the world,
17:53
Speaker 2: because it's more than capable. Almost any vehicle is perfectly
17:56
Speaker 2: capable to drive around the world. I don't know, I
17:59
Speaker 2: just I wanted to try some new things, and especially
18:02
Speaker 2: after coming back from South America, I had a lot
18:04
Speaker 2: of ideas of kind of like wishless dream type things
18:07
Speaker 2: I wanted to try out. Yeah, each come with pros
18:08
Speaker 2: and cons. Yeah, So we ended up doing I told
18:11
Speaker 2: the whole truck apart in terms of all of the
18:13
Speaker 2: camping accessories stripped off, the camper or the camper shell,
18:17
Speaker 2: and the rooftop tent. The old Manus suspension was pretty
18:20
Speaker 2: worn out after you know, one hundred and twenty one
18:23
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty thousand kilometers and like all of being
18:26
Speaker 2: fully loaded and sure and on rough roads. I knew
18:28
Speaker 2: we wanted some inside living space, and we also knew
18:31
Speaker 2: that we wanted to take this truck on the next adventure.
18:33
Speaker 2: And part of that was that, regardless of how much
18:35
Speaker 2: time and money and effort we spent building it, still
18:38
Speaker 2: a thirty year old truck. Sure, it's accessible. If we
18:42
Speaker 2: can take this, you can take your two thousand Tacoma
18:44
Speaker 2: or Forerunner or Corolla or whatever you want to take
18:47
Speaker 2: around the world. It's a dumb old truck and I
18:49
Speaker 2: love it, so we wanted to keep on driving it.
18:52
Speaker 2: Plus it's small and it fits in every major city
18:54
Speaker 2: that we've ever been in, so that's a major consideration.
18:57
Speaker 1: I think there's also a lot to be said for
19:00
Speaker 1: going into debt not having a huge expense. During the
19:04
Speaker 1: interview with Ashley, she really focused on the fact that
19:07
Speaker 1: when you guys were when you came back from Central America,
19:10
Speaker 1: everything you spent money on you related it to a
19:12
Speaker 1: day of travel. If you look at buying a new vehicle,
19:15
Speaker 1: that could be years of travel. It's a big expense
19:19
Speaker 1: to buy a new vehicle and to outfit it properly.
19:22
Speaker 1: So by using a truck that you already have, you've
19:24
Speaker 1: gained now potentially years on the road by not having
19:28
Speaker 1: that expense. And I think also if you want to
19:31
Speaker 1: go into Africa, there's the carnate a passage. So if
19:34
Speaker 1: you want to go into Mongolia on your silk road trip,
19:37
Speaker 1: there's a carne that's required for that a carne on
19:39
Speaker 1: a thirty year old Toyota is cheap. A carne on
19:43
Speaker 1: a brand new gladiator or whatever else is extremely expensive.
19:47
Speaker 2: And not to mention that most of the time we
19:49
Speaker 2: can't get insurance on our vehicle, so we wanted to
19:51
Speaker 2: take something that forbid we get an accident, it's catastrophic
19:54
Speaker 2: and you know, we have to leave a vehicle there,
19:56
Speaker 2: or if for catch it on fire or forgets stolen,
19:58
Speaker 2: we can just take our backpacks and continue traveling.
20:01
Speaker 1: Maybe buy a couple of local motorcycles and off you go.
20:04
Speaker 2: Exactly. They're like, we can go to Russia and have
20:06
Speaker 2: a couple of vans or yeah, whatever it is, and yeah,
20:09
Speaker 2: there's there are plenty of ways to do it. We
20:10
Speaker 2: can do by foot, we can yeah, just get out
20:12
Speaker 2: and travel. However, we multiple different ways, but that was
20:15
Speaker 2: definitely one of the ways of thinking, try to take
20:17
Speaker 2: something we already had. We didn't have to spend any
20:19
Speaker 2: money on it except for the changes that we made.
20:22
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's fun to take pictures of, so
20:24
Speaker 2: it's be honest, it looks it looks.
20:25
Speaker 1: Great in photos. I can't think of anyone that would
20:27
Speaker 1: ever look at that vehicle and not just be charmed
20:30
Speaker 1: by it. I mean you even if they don't like
20:32
Speaker 1: Toyota's maybe they're a land rover person, but seeing a
20:34
Speaker 1: classic Toyota pick up going around the world is cool.
20:38
Speaker 2: I Mean, we've had conversations at every gas station that
20:41
Speaker 2: we've ever stopped at from here to Argentina. Sure, it
20:44
Speaker 2: doesn't matter whether people are like, I've had a pickup,
20:46
Speaker 2: I've had a high locks. It's a conversation starter and
20:48
Speaker 2: it's fun, yeah for sure. But yeah, so coming back,
20:51
Speaker 2: we wanted to make some changes to make it more
20:54
Speaker 2: comfortable both on like driving on road and off road.
20:57
Speaker 2: And then also in part we did our best to
20:59
Speaker 2: try to keep the try as light as possible because
21:01
Speaker 2: it puts something like sixty five forest power down to
21:03
Speaker 2: the wheels, keeping GVWR in mind, but really just keeping
21:08
Speaker 2: in mind how slow we would go uphills if this
21:10
Speaker 2: thing was heavy. Sure, it was a pretty key factor
21:13
Speaker 2: and a lot of decisions that we made. Being more
21:15
Speaker 2: organized than we were before was key inside living space
21:18
Speaker 2: also key in terms of just having like privacy, comfort
21:22
Speaker 2: and ability to work inside. And then we just had
21:24
Speaker 2: to fit There are a few other things that just
21:26
Speaker 2: like in the truck, itself in terms of the interior.
21:29
Speaker 2: So we added a lock box and our toughy center
21:32
Speaker 2: console in the middle, so we have more locking storage,
21:34
Speaker 2: sure and comfort, lace, arrest our arm. More cup holders important, Yeah,
21:37
Speaker 2: we did. There were only two cup holders before and
21:39
Speaker 2: they held the tiniest little disposable coffee cups, so we
21:43
Speaker 2: wanted to make some sure we had something that would
21:44
Speaker 2: hold one leader nal gene.
21:46
Speaker 1: Sure.
21:46
Speaker 2: We added better seats because the thirty year old seats
21:49
Speaker 2: were pretty worn out, pretty much had no support. So yeah,
21:52
Speaker 2: we just made the interior a little bit more livable.
21:54
Speaker 2: It's nothing compared to a new truck, but after a
21:57
Speaker 2: few days on the road, you kind of forget what
21:58
Speaker 2: a new truck feels like.
22:00
Speaker 1: You don't miss the heated seeds, right, don't miss any seats.
22:03
Speaker 2: I missed the air conditioning. It doesn't have air conditioning. Okay,
22:07
Speaker 2: that would be worth there were some sweaty days, I
22:12
Speaker 2: can imagine.
22:13
Speaker 1: Wow.
22:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, so then yeah, so we had to go fast
22:15
Speaker 2: camper and a goose gear l shaped bench with a
22:18
Speaker 2: couple drawers because I really wanted to be able to
22:20
Speaker 2: access anything fairly quickly, and most of the time I
22:23
Speaker 2: want to access gear in one motion, as opposed to
22:26
Speaker 2: the way we did it before, where I would have
22:28
Speaker 2: to move for rubber maintainers in a duffel bag and
22:30
Speaker 2: a suitcase out of the way to access tools. So
22:32
Speaker 2: if I need to access a wrench to just a
22:35
Speaker 2: check a couple of bolts, just open a side panel,
22:37
Speaker 2: pull up the tool, roll check a couple of things,
22:39
Speaker 2: put it away. It doesn't take twenty minutes. It takes
22:42
Speaker 2: two minutes.
22:42
Speaker 1: Sure, that makes sense.
22:43
Speaker 2: So adding up like taking what we had before, which
22:46
Speaker 2: was super inefficient, and making something a little bit more
22:48
Speaker 2: efficient in terms of usability was very key. One of
22:51
Speaker 2: the things that we did a calculation on was how
22:55
Speaker 2: much time we'd save setting up camp with this new
22:57
Speaker 2: camper versus with the soft shell top tent, And with
23:01
Speaker 2: eighteen months on the road, we would have saved twenty
23:04
Speaker 2: four hours of time with the simple go fast to
23:07
Speaker 2: push up your hardshell tent versus a soft.
23:10
Speaker 1: Shell I think a lot of people don't know that
23:12
Speaker 1: when they buy a soft shell roof tent is that
23:15
Speaker 1: they can be a huge effort to put away. Yeah,
23:18
Speaker 1: and especially the ones that have the zippered covers when
23:21
Speaker 1: they're brand new, they work fine. So the first couple
23:23
Speaker 1: of times you use it, it's no problem. But once
23:25
Speaker 1: you get a little bit of dust and a little
23:27
Speaker 1: bit of sun exposure and they become brittle and you're
23:29
Speaker 1: fighting where it gets cold and the cover shrinks yep,
23:33
Speaker 1: and you're fighting those zippers. Yeah, you can easily spend
23:36
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes putting our way a soft shell
23:39
Speaker 1: roof tent easily.
23:40
Speaker 2: I just felt like I felt my fingertips just from
23:43
Speaker 2: the memory of putting those tents away in the cold.
23:46
Speaker 2: So it's a lot of work. It is.
23:48
Speaker 1: They are, they are, And we were talking about that
23:51
Speaker 1: actually before we started recording, about how we've seen the
23:54
Speaker 1: shift from the soft shell tents towards the hard shell
23:57
Speaker 1: and that's because they are so much easier to put
23:59
Speaker 1: up and to take down. Of course, the downside is
24:02
Speaker 1: that they're a big investment, and that is always something
24:06
Speaker 1: worth considering.
24:06
Speaker 2: Depends how much you're going to use it, Yeah, and
24:08
Speaker 2: if you're going to use it every day for two years,
24:10
Speaker 2: separate that investment over seven hundred days. It's not so bad.
24:14
Speaker 1: But I find in the podcast that it's almost always
24:17
Speaker 1: the same consistent answers. Those that have lived on the
24:20
Speaker 1: road with a roof tent. They come back, and the
24:22
Speaker 1: next vehicle always includes something that they live inside instead
24:26
Speaker 1: of living around or on top of the vehicle. And
24:28
Speaker 1: I think I think that that just simply comes down
24:31
Speaker 1: to there's some frustration in trying to access that one
24:35
Speaker 1: tool that you need because it's buried under fifteen different things,
24:38
Speaker 1: or you get stuck in that bad weather for a
24:41
Speaker 1: week or two weeks and it starts to really affect
24:44
Speaker 1: the trip. And that's why I believe that a lot
24:46
Speaker 1: of long term travelers end up even if it's something
24:49
Speaker 1: very simple, like if you look at land Cruising Adventures
24:51
Speaker 1: that they are living inside of a forty five ye
24:55
Speaker 1: land cruiser amazing. Yeah, oh yeah, they are awesome humans,
24:58
Speaker 1: like such cool firing people, right, Yeah, But they do
25:02
Speaker 1: have a way to live inside that land cruiser to
25:04
Speaker 1: get out of the weather, yeah, and to have their
25:08
Speaker 1: own little personal space, which I think is a good idea.
25:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, And sometimes you just don't know until you've done it.
25:13
Speaker 2: And I remember on Expedition Portal, I was kind of
25:16
Speaker 2: discussing what I was doing to the truck and Luis
25:19
Speaker 2: Getter asked what I was doing for inside living space
25:21
Speaker 2: and I said, Oh, we don't need it, it's fine,
25:23
Speaker 2: We're going camping. And I constantly remind him that he
25:26
Speaker 2: was right. Yes, we should have really focused on that,
25:29
Speaker 2: but it was fine. We survived. I got a good
25:32
Speaker 2: core workout every time I opened and closed that that tent. Sure,
25:35
Speaker 2: and now we can actually speak to that experience and
25:38
Speaker 2: without struggling a little bit. You can't. You know, if
25:41
Speaker 2: you don't have the experience, you can't discuss it with
25:44
Speaker 2: other people. And it's nice to have that opportunity to
25:46
Speaker 2: do so.
25:46
Speaker 1: For sure, and it is good to struggle. I think
25:49
Speaker 1: that we were.
25:50
Speaker 2: Enjoy things better that way.
25:51
Speaker 1: I think we've worked hard, too hard sometimes removing the struggles,
25:55
Speaker 1: because just recently on the on the sailing trip that
25:58
Speaker 1: I did, I just didn't know what I was doing,
25:59
Speaker 1: and I had to remind the people on the boat
26:02
Speaker 1: that did know what they were doing that if I
26:04
Speaker 1: don't struggle, if I don't fight with this and learn it,
26:07
Speaker 1: if you just keep doing it, I will never get better.
26:10
Speaker 1: I'll never figure it out. And I needed to struggle.
26:12
Speaker 1: And I think that that's true from the trips, is
26:15
Speaker 1: that you come back and you realize I need to
26:17
Speaker 1: have a fridge, and I'm probably not going to put
26:19
Speaker 1: a soft shell tent on top of my truck. Yeah
26:21
Speaker 1: for the next trip. Yeah, So you're right. Those those
26:23
Speaker 1: and those are great memories too, writ Those are.
26:26
Speaker 2: The stories that of all the things that have got
26:28
Speaker 2: went wrong and the struggles and all of that. Those
26:30
Speaker 2: are the best stories in the moment. They're not always
26:33
Speaker 2: the things that you're having the most fun with. But yeah, right,
26:36
Speaker 2: But we don't have a lot of we have a
26:38
Speaker 2: lot of memories of great times on the road, but
26:40
Speaker 2: they don't make for good stories all the time.
26:42
Speaker 1: True, yeah, true. And now for a quick break from
26:48
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26:52
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27:39
Speaker 1: off right now, thanks on X. Now, what did you
27:44
Speaker 1: do to address the suspension for the additional weight? And
27:48
Speaker 1: you talked about suspension changes.
27:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is the dumbest thing I did, but
27:52
Speaker 2: the thing I wanted to do the most. Let's do
27:55
Speaker 2: a long travel suspension system on the truck. Part of
27:58
Speaker 2: that was that there are only so many options with
28:00
Speaker 2: these try to pickups. It's about torsion bars, so you
28:05
Speaker 2: can unlike the newer trucks with coil overs or at
28:09
Speaker 2: least struts and so on that there's only so much
28:11
Speaker 2: you can do with them other than putting old men
28:14
Speaker 2: EMU torsion bar and nitro charger shocks on it. Sure,
28:18
Speaker 2: to be honest, it worked absolutely perfect for what we did.
28:22
Speaker 2: The values fantastic, no maintenance, no noise, you just set it,
28:26
Speaker 2: you forget it, and you just go on your merry
28:28
Speaker 2: way and you explore and you travels and it's great. Yeah.
28:31
Speaker 2: So I did a plus three and a quarter inch
28:33
Speaker 2: long travel kit from Total Chaos and two and a
28:35
Speaker 2: half inch icon shocks front rear that are adjustable and
28:38
Speaker 2: secondaries in the front. And it's so dumb to put
28:40
Speaker 2: race car parts on a long term truck, like traveling truck.
28:44
Speaker 2: But I just wanted to see what would be like.
28:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you had fun with it, and.
28:47
Speaker 2: And I wanted the comfort performance. We put some sixty
28:51
Speaker 2: three inch Chevy springs in the rear that were custom
28:53
Speaker 2: made to handle the weight of the camper and and
28:57
Speaker 2: all of our gear, plus being significantly longer springs and
29:00
Speaker 2: the factory ones, it's quite soft ride while being controlled.
29:03
Speaker 2: I took all of the things I wanted out of
29:06
Speaker 2: that suspension system and also took the things that I
29:08
Speaker 2: didn't want, which were a little bit more maintenance and
29:10
Speaker 2: more noise through the polybushings. And knowing that well ahead
29:13
Speaker 2: of time, I was happy to make the decision.
29:15
Speaker 1: And how did you address the track with with the
29:17
Speaker 1: rear axle?
29:18
Speaker 2: I just I currently, well, a couple of things. I
29:20
Speaker 2: felt like I performed pretty well with the track with
29:24
Speaker 2: as it was, But I put a one inch or
29:27
Speaker 2: one and a half inch wheel spacer in the rear, just
29:29
Speaker 2: some quality rear wheel spacers with the hub hub centered
29:33
Speaker 2: wing rings, just to keep that centered and fairly strong.
29:38
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily like running wheel spacers, but I also
29:41
Speaker 2: happy running that rear axle. I don't need to put
29:43
Speaker 2: a wider rear axle in, so the rear axle is
29:46
Speaker 2: still a little bit narrower than the front, but it
29:48
Speaker 2: seems to track better that way along faster roads, which
29:51
Speaker 2: we find ourselves on a lot. I know that some
29:53
Speaker 2: people have issues in deep mud and in snow and
29:57
Speaker 2: so on when you have a different track within the rear.
30:00
Speaker 2: I have never really found that as a big problem
30:01
Speaker 2: for us, So I'm taking the good with the bad.
30:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the only times that I've noticed it
30:06
Speaker 1: would be sand you notice it quite a bit, and
30:09
Speaker 1: mud you particularly notice it because then maybe the front
30:12
Speaker 1: tires in one rut and the rears fighting against another one.
30:16
Speaker 1: That's the only times that I really found that to
30:18
Speaker 1: be for sure challenge. But I looked at some photos
30:21
Speaker 1: of it with the new suspension on there. It looks awesome,
30:23
Speaker 1: it looks awesome, it performs awesome. A positive thing about
30:27
Speaker 1: it is that even though it requires maintenance, it is
30:29
Speaker 1: all very very easily field serviceable as you don't need
30:33
Speaker 1: anything except a couple of wrenches in sockets, and you
30:35
Speaker 1: can take the whole thing apart and replace spher Koba
30:38
Speaker 1: bushings or misalimas spacers or Uni ball is super easy
30:41
Speaker 1: to replace. One thing we did was left the lower
30:44
Speaker 1: ball joint in and all of the factory steering components,
30:47
Speaker 1: so all genuine Toyota lower ball joints and tyrot ends,
30:51
Speaker 1: all the pitm in arm.
30:53
Speaker 2: The idler arm is a total chaos idler arm. But
30:55
Speaker 2: that's only because I went through three factory ones on
30:58
Speaker 2: our trip. There's just a weak point in the system
31:00
Speaker 2: when you are running washboard roads with larger tires and
31:03
Speaker 2: a heavyweight. Where I could I use factory components for
31:06
Speaker 2: the longevity, and where I couldn't, I lived with it.
31:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, just bring some spares. Talk a little bit about
31:11
Speaker 1: your next trip. You or you've prepared the truck to go,
31:15
Speaker 1: at least to Europe. Where do you guys want to go?
31:17
Speaker 2: And so the goals. So we moved out of our
31:20
Speaker 2: apartment in February end of February twenty twenty with the
31:25
Speaker 2: plans to ship our truck to Europe and drive east through.
31:28
Speaker 2: I'll probably go down to Morocco, go east through EU,
31:30
Speaker 2: Central Asia, Russia, South Korea, Japan. We have this idea
31:34
Speaker 2: that we want to bring the truck back home to
31:36
Speaker 2: where it was built in Japan, and that was the
31:38
Speaker 2: first place that actually and I ever traveled, so we
31:40
Speaker 2: want to go back and explore it a little bit,
31:41
Speaker 2: a little bit more. But yeah, so moved out of
31:43
Speaker 2: our place. February twenty fourth, twenty twenty, we did a
31:46
Speaker 2: trip up to tak Jaktuch with with xoverland. By the
31:48
Speaker 2: time we made it back, COVID was in full effect
31:51
Speaker 2: and plans got derailed. So we are waiting until we're
31:55
Speaker 2: fairly confident that overland travel through at least a few
31:59
Speaker 2: countries that we want to start in Europe is feasible
32:02
Speaker 2: and and not dangerous, and that would be welcomed. I
32:06
Speaker 2: don't want to go start traveling around if people are
32:09
Speaker 2: struggling to survive.
32:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're feeling fearful, yeah being there exactly.
32:14
Speaker 2: So if they feel fearful of a of a traveler
32:17
Speaker 2: wandering about, and especially the way we travel, where you know,
32:19
Speaker 2: we're traveling through multiple countries and seeing everybody, talking as
32:22
Speaker 2: many people as we can. Yeah, it's a we could
32:26
Speaker 2: spread all sorts of things. So we just want to
32:27
Speaker 2: make sure that everybody, everybody that we see is comfortable,
32:30
Speaker 2: and we'd be happy seeing us, I guess. And then
32:33
Speaker 2: on top of that, knowing that we can actually make
32:35
Speaker 2: it through borders and get a get our vehicle imported
32:37
Speaker 2: and all the rest of it.
32:38
Speaker 1: Well, that's very honorable that you and Ashley are taking
32:42
Speaker 1: into consideration the locals.
32:44
Speaker 2: They're the most important part of the travel. It's it's
32:47
Speaker 2: meeting the people and eating their food and learning their culture.
32:50
Speaker 2: If we were going to go travel and not see
32:53
Speaker 2: them and not talk to them and not eat their food,
32:55
Speaker 2: we could just watch it on TV.
32:57
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I think those are definitely the highlight is
33:00
Speaker 1: meeting them where they are. And if we come in
33:04
Speaker 1: as a foreign traveler into their country during a pandemic,
33:07
Speaker 1: I could see why that would be that would be
33:10
Speaker 1: fearful for them. You know, even when this was all
33:13
Speaker 1: kicking off and I was in South Africa going into Swaziland,
33:16
Speaker 1: I remember the officials or even kind of like trying
33:19
Speaker 1: to maintain they didn't know exactly, they just knew that
33:22
Speaker 1: they wanted to be far away from this foreigner and
33:26
Speaker 1: they probably didn't even know the concept of social distancing.
33:30
Speaker 1: I didn't either, we were all figuring it out. But
33:33
Speaker 1: that is a natural human instinct to get away from
33:36
Speaker 1: something that could be threatening to them. And when I
33:38
Speaker 1: got back from that trip, I realized that I wasn't
33:41
Speaker 1: going to travel in Africa anymore. I needed to get
33:43
Speaker 1: home because it felt it felt like I was putting
33:45
Speaker 1: unnecessary pressure on someone else. Yeah, sure, because they needed
33:48
Speaker 1: to do their job. Their job was to let me
33:50
Speaker 1: into their country. Their borders were not closed. But I
33:54
Speaker 1: can understand why they would be very fearful of someone
33:56
Speaker 1: who came from across the nocean and flew in with
34:00
Speaker 1: who knows what, So.
34:01
Speaker 2: You are the unknown.
34:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. So that's really thoughtful of you guys to
34:04
Speaker 1: consider that in your travels going forward.
34:06
Speaker 2: So we'll just wait. Well, we've adapted, as usual to
34:10
Speaker 2: a new schedule. I think we're going to try to
34:12
Speaker 2: get our truck across the border from Canada into the
34:14
Speaker 2: US and just kind of do a little zigzig rout
34:16
Speaker 2: down through the Western States and go down to Expert
34:18
Speaker 2: West and just see some friends and travel some backcountry
34:22
Speaker 2: here that a little different than back home.
34:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I'll do that in the meantime, and
34:26
Speaker 1: you've taken up a lot more more and more photography
34:29
Speaker 1: and video work. You did all of that work around
34:32
Speaker 1: the solo series for Expedition Overland, which you guys did
34:35
Speaker 1: such a great job.
34:36
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. It was It was fun and the
34:38
Speaker 2: whole time we were wondering if it was going to
34:40
Speaker 2: be interesting at all.
34:42
Speaker 1: That one photo of you guys setting up the camper
34:45
Speaker 1: and that in those conditions was its epic. I mean
34:48
Speaker 1: it looked like something out of you know, Star Wars.
34:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. There were a few times like that
34:53
Speaker 2: where I was glad that we were filming for an
34:56
Speaker 2: episode because instead of being you know, upset that are
35:00
Speaker 2: fearful or complaining about the situation we were in, I
35:04
Speaker 2: was like, yes, to film this and like show that
35:06
Speaker 2: we're doing something. Yeah, for sure, show the struggle. Yeah,
35:09
Speaker 2: oh so that helps help get us through for sure.
35:12
Speaker 1: What advice would you have for people that are are
35:15
Speaker 1: hoping to begin documenting their own adventures, maybe for their
35:19
Speaker 1: their own goals of being able to work from the road.
35:22
Speaker 1: What did you learn in capturing that solo series that
35:26
Speaker 1: you you think would be good advice? What kind of
35:27
Speaker 1: equipment did you use what did you learn along that way?
35:30
Speaker 2: So that's a great question because it's something we didn't
35:32
Speaker 2: do in South America. We didn't film any video. We
35:34
Speaker 2: shot a lot of photos and that was wearing at times,
35:38
Speaker 2: sharing our entire journey. Sometimes you just don't want to
35:40
Speaker 2: take the camera out. You just want to enjoy a
35:41
Speaker 2: place for the way it is. Yeah, So having the
35:44
Speaker 2: opportunity to go up to Talk Talk Tech and film
35:47
Speaker 2: that solo series for Clay and Rochelle, it was a
35:49
Speaker 2: really really good learning experience to film as much as
35:52
Speaker 2: we can and to show, don't tell, I guess, try
35:56
Speaker 2: to show what we're doing, why who are meeting, and
36:01
Speaker 2: just have the opportunity to edit in the like ones
36:05
Speaker 2: we actually get back and we can do some post
36:06
Speaker 2: production edit all the stories together in a way that's
36:09
Speaker 2: cohesive and makes sense and is all encompassing of the
36:13
Speaker 2: story we want to tell. It requires a lot of filming.
36:16
Speaker 2: It requires thinking ahead every night of of things that
36:19
Speaker 2: we want to capture, batteries, all of that stuff. So
36:25
Speaker 2: the first thing was like story, because the story is
36:27
Speaker 2: the most important part of this. If you don't have
36:29
Speaker 2: a story to tell, and then the content is not interesting,
36:32
Speaker 2: nobody'll watch it. And if you're doing it for yourself
36:34
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. If you're doing it for your family, whatever,
36:36
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. But for us, we were doing it
36:39
Speaker 2: for expedition overland. We really really wanted to be able
36:41
Speaker 2: to tell a compelling story. So every night I would
36:44
Speaker 2: write down notes of what we did that day, notes
36:47
Speaker 2: of what we filmed, where I think, where I thought
36:48
Speaker 2: the story was going to go. If I thought that
36:50
Speaker 2: the story was going to go in a certain direction,
36:51
Speaker 2: I would make notes for things to film the next day.
36:54
Speaker 2: If something was starting to fail, if we were having
36:56
Speaker 2: trouble with the cold weather, like closing the habitat or whatever,
37:00
Speaker 2: and we didn't really film it properly the first day,
37:02
Speaker 2: we'll film me better the next day. And we have
37:05
Speaker 2: chances to do that all on the road. You don't
37:07
Speaker 2: have a chance to do that when you get home, right,
37:08
Speaker 2: so you get all those pickup shots the next day
37:10
Speaker 2: instead of not ever having them.
37:12
Speaker 1: That's great advice to think about what is the story
37:14
Speaker 1: that you wanted to tell when you started the trip
37:17
Speaker 1: up to tuck tyuk Tuck. What was the story that
37:19
Speaker 1: you wanted to tell? I think there are a few things.
37:22
Speaker 1: One thing was sure we were in a fully built
37:24
Speaker 1: out expedition of Atlanta Coma, but we're just two people
37:27
Speaker 1: in a truck driving north to Tuck. We didn't end
37:29
Speaker 1: up using any recovery gear. We didn't do anything special,
37:32
Speaker 1: We didn't do any technical trails. Most of them were
37:34
Speaker 1: all closed because of snow.
37:35
Speaker 2: Anyways, we just wanted to show that you can go
37:38
Speaker 2: and you can enjoy these places without You don't just
37:40
Speaker 2: spend too much money. You don't have to do a
37:43
Speaker 2: crazy route. You can just go and travel and see
37:46
Speaker 2: these places. It doesn't have to be complicated. Yeah, we
37:49
Speaker 2: met plenty of people going up the Dempster Highway in
37:52
Speaker 2: minivans with jerry canstrap to the roof and a couple
37:55
Speaker 2: of spare tires in the back. We met a couple
37:57
Speaker 2: in a Chevy Equinox from Jamaica were going up to
38:01
Speaker 2: normal wells to be in their work as nurses. And
38:05
Speaker 2: you know they've never dealt they've never been in the
38:06
Speaker 2: snow before. Sure, so they got helped out by the
38:08
Speaker 2: truck drivers on that road, like pulled out a snow
38:11
Speaker 2: dress multiple times. Sure, so you can be unprepared, I'd
38:14
Speaker 2: recommend being prepared. In a few different ways, but you
38:17
Speaker 2: can be unprepared and you will find help. Yeah.
38:20
Speaker 1: I've always thought that, you know, because you'll often those
38:23
Speaker 1: of us who like toyotas will will oftentimes see someone
38:26
Speaker 1: in a in a land Rover, let's say, and they're
38:28
Speaker 1: breaking down all the time, and you think, ah, there's
38:30
Speaker 1: the must be such a struggle for them and everything.
38:32
Speaker 1: But then a few years ago I realized that also
38:36
Speaker 1: because I've had a lot of land Rovers and I've
38:37
Speaker 1: had a lot of struggles with them, but I realized
38:39
Speaker 1: that I oftentimes had some of the best memories in
38:42
Speaker 1: a land Rover because I was constantly interacting with locals
38:46
Speaker 1: and overcoming challenges and figuring out a way to fix
38:49
Speaker 1: the car. And I think that if we if we
38:52
Speaker 1: should always prepare in a way that keeps us safe
38:55
Speaker 1: or that meets the expectation of our travel partner, but
38:58
Speaker 1: allowing for things to go wrong and allowing to not
39:02
Speaker 1: be over prepared for a little bit of serendipity to occur,
39:05
Speaker 1: I think that that really adds to the trip.
39:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even if it's not, if you're not even
39:09
Speaker 2: if you're not just allowing things to go wrong all
39:11
Speaker 2: the time, but just accepting that they went wrong and
39:14
Speaker 2: seeing where that leads is it goes a long way.
39:17
Speaker 2: We had some fantastic times in South America with mechanics
39:20
Speaker 2: that we met who had invite us into their home,
39:23
Speaker 2: to their finka, to whatever, and have shared amazing meals
39:26
Speaker 2: and amazing stories with people we never would have other
39:29
Speaker 2: men otherwise, Matt.
39:30
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the important reminder for all of us
39:32
Speaker 1: that travel is to go into the day and go
39:35
Speaker 1: into the trip with the mindset of things are going
39:37
Speaker 1: to go wrong, yep. And that is why I'm doing this.
39:40
Speaker 1: It's why I want to go on an adventure, and
39:42
Speaker 1: an adventure the definition of it is just an undertaking
39:46
Speaker 1: with an unknown outcome. And if we come into it
39:49
Speaker 1: with the mindset of I don't know how this is
39:51
Speaker 1: going to go, things are going to go wrong. Things
39:53
Speaker 1: that I've spent a lot of money on are probably
39:55
Speaker 1: going to break, or I'm going to lose them, or
39:57
Speaker 1: they're going to get stolen, or I'm going to realize
39:59
Speaker 1: I don't want them. And those can all be sources
40:02
Speaker 1: of frustration for us if we allow them to be.
40:04
Speaker 1: And maybe that's the most important consideration when we travel
40:08
Speaker 1: is just accepting the fact that things are going to
40:10
Speaker 1: go sideways, sometimes really bad. But that's also why we
40:14
Speaker 1: chose to leave, is to have an adventure.
40:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, and things are going to go wrong at home too,
40:18
Speaker 2: so it's nice to get out of the bubble and
40:20
Speaker 2: the comfort and see the world and the things that
40:22
Speaker 2: go wrong are usually not that bad. But yeah, saying that,
40:26
Speaker 2: everybody that we met in South America didn't matter what
40:29
Speaker 2: vehicle they had, whether it was a ninety three four
40:31
Speaker 2: run or that was totally stock on ball tires or
40:33
Speaker 2: a brand new sportsmobile or Xpekamper or whatever it was,
40:37
Speaker 2: everybody had some sort of mechanical issue. It didn't matter
40:40
Speaker 2: how well prepared you were before we left. Somebody's having
40:42
Speaker 2: some sort of issue and that's okay. And everybody sorted
40:45
Speaker 2: it out, made the trip as far as they wanted
40:47
Speaker 2: to go, and safely made it home. So it's yeah,
40:50
Speaker 2: just on definitely to keep in mind.
40:51
Speaker 1: I mean, even a land cruiser, if you beat on
40:53
Speaker 1: it long enough, eventually things are gonna exactly, things are
40:56
Speaker 1: going to failure, or you're going to get a puncture,
40:58
Speaker 1: or you're going to get lost, or you're going to
41:00
Speaker 1: have a medical issue that you're going to have to
41:02
Speaker 1: go to the local clinic to try to get worked out.
41:04
Speaker 2: And they run out of diesel or yeah, sure, who
41:07
Speaker 2: knows what it is. But again, try to You've got
41:09
Speaker 2: to try to keep in mind that those are the
41:10
Speaker 2: stories that you hold on to and like you tell
41:12
Speaker 2: over and over again to the next strip, which we've
41:14
Speaker 2: been doing a lot because it's been a while.
41:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I'm so excited for your next journey. I mean,
41:19
Speaker 1: the Silk Road will be wonderful.
41:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we just can't wait to share that a
41:25
Speaker 2: little bit more. And that's why we're trying to get
41:27
Speaker 2: more and more into the filming and give Pep a
41:30
Speaker 2: little bit of a glimpse of what travel on the
41:31
Speaker 2: road is actually like. Try not sugarcoat anything, show the
41:34
Speaker 2: struggles without complaining, and just show the people and the
41:38
Speaker 2: cultures and landscapes and all these things are a little
41:41
Speaker 2: bit different from home, and that show them not scary.
41:43
Speaker 2: It's a nice place to be.
41:44
Speaker 1: And I asked Ashley how she what kind of work
41:47
Speaker 1: she was going to do from the road. What in
41:49
Speaker 1: your mind, the way that you've kind of constructed your
41:52
Speaker 1: career that dovetails with travel, what is going to be
41:55
Speaker 1: your focus going forward and what have you found works
41:58
Speaker 1: well for you to make a living on the road.
42:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we can step back to the South America
42:03
Speaker 2: for two more seconds. Let's keep on doing that. But
42:05
Speaker 2: when we left, Ashley was paralegal. I was a mechanical
42:08
Speaker 2: engineering technologist. We worked downtown in different firms, We lived
42:11
Speaker 2: downtown Vancouver, and that's all we knew. We didn't know
42:15
Speaker 2: that there was another way to make money, you know,
42:17
Speaker 2: there was an opportunity to make money on the road.
42:19
Speaker 2: And we started running into more and more people as
42:21
Speaker 2: we've traveled that we're working remotely, and we made that
42:24
Speaker 2: a goal for this time between when we got back
42:27
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen to now, to be able to slowly
42:30
Speaker 2: transition into something that is easy enough to do from
42:33
Speaker 2: the road and sustainable, because if we can continually make
42:37
Speaker 2: enough money to survive and even better save money on
42:40
Speaker 2: the road, there's not a reason to come back until
42:42
Speaker 2: we want to come see family and take a little break.
42:45
Speaker 2: So it's been a weird journey, I guess, trying to
42:48
Speaker 2: make that happen. The very first job I ever got
42:51
Speaker 2: that wasn't in the mechanical engineering field was for Toyota Canada.
42:55
Speaker 2: I made a decision based on just a few opportunities
42:58
Speaker 2: that we had of mind. Dave Connors races with Kingaro
43:02
Speaker 2: racing Kurt william and he offered multiple times for us
43:06
Speaker 2: to come down and join them for an event. I
43:08
Speaker 2: also had a friend, Aaron, who is an excellent videographer.
43:14
Speaker 2: I had a contact at Toyota Canada. So I wanted
43:16
Speaker 2: to mesh all of those together and go chase a
43:19
Speaker 2: race in Baja with Kungura and tell that story for
43:21
Speaker 2: Toyda Canada. And I decided that if I can make
43:24
Speaker 2: this happen, if I could get a contract produce this
43:26
Speaker 2: one video, this one twelve minute long documentary on a
43:31
Speaker 2: Baja one thousand race and why these guys race a
43:34
Speaker 2: land cruiser in Baja, that if I could, if I
43:37
Speaker 2: get a signed contract, I would quit my job and
43:40
Speaker 2: wouldn't go back until I ran out of other work
43:43
Speaker 2: or whatever it was. So that was in twenty seventeen
43:46
Speaker 2: and I haven't gone back to my engineering job since.
43:48
Speaker 2: I've just kind of scrounged up all sorts of different
43:51
Speaker 2: projects along the way, from more and more work with
43:53
Speaker 2: to Outa Canada to filming for Expedition Overland doing a
43:58
Speaker 2: lot of social media management well, so being able to
44:01
Speaker 2: work with X Overland in Nomadic Outfitters and working at
44:03
Speaker 2: the gear shop in Calgary, Alberta working with a little
44:06
Speaker 2: bit of sales and marketing remotely for them. That's a
44:08
Speaker 2: really fairly straightforward, sustainable way for me to work remotely.
44:13
Speaker 2: And then we've got some other things on the go
44:14
Speaker 2: where we're hoping to document our travels for not only
44:17
Speaker 2: for ourselves and for YouTube, but for for another big corporations.
44:21
Speaker 1: Oh good, Yeah, that's great.
44:23
Speaker 2: We've been talking about it for a long time and
44:24
Speaker 2: if it goes ahead to be really good.
44:26
Speaker 1: One of the things that I always like to ask
44:27
Speaker 1: for those working on the road, how do you set
44:30
Speaker 1: up your schedule to be able to be productive while
44:33
Speaker 1: you're traveling? What have you found works well for you? Like,
44:35
Speaker 1: what kind of an approach do you take towards that?
44:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're pretty new to it, but we're realizing
44:40
Speaker 2: very very quickly that we are going to have to
44:41
Speaker 2: travel very very slowly. Thankfully, we like doing that. We
44:45
Speaker 2: have spent like months at a time in Santiago or
44:49
Speaker 2: Juenos Aires whenever we wanted to settle down and just
44:52
Speaker 2: explore a city. So we're going to probably end up
44:55
Speaker 2: doing that quite a bit on this next trip. Stay
44:57
Speaker 2: in one place for a couple weeks at a time.
45:00
Speaker 2: We might have to work nine to five Monday to Friday,
45:02
Speaker 2: or twelve hour days or three days a week or
45:04
Speaker 2: whatever it is to get to get the work done
45:06
Speaker 2: and be relatively accessible via via email and slacking Asana
45:11
Speaker 2: and all those things. Sure, so if we have to
45:14
Speaker 2: travel slowly, we travel slowly, and it's going to be
45:17
Speaker 2: necessary for sure, based on how much work Ash he's
45:19
Speaker 2: doing for sure.
45:19
Speaker 1: Well, and it'll be interesting to hear what does end
45:22
Speaker 1: up working, Yeah, because everybody seems to be a little different.
45:26
Speaker 1: Chris Cordez and Brittany they they'll work Monday through Friday
45:30
Speaker 1: and then they or Monday through Thursday and then they
45:33
Speaker 1: travel on the weekends. And others they'll do it every
45:36
Speaker 1: other day, although or they'll work four or five hours
45:39
Speaker 1: in the morning and then be it back into travel mode.
45:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. I find myself the most efficient very early in
45:45
Speaker 2: the morning, when it's quiet and there are no distractions.
45:47
Speaker 2: So a lot of the time I'll get a five thirty,
45:49
Speaker 2: make a coffee. I can get three hours or four
45:52
Speaker 2: hours of work done before there are any distractions. Sure,
45:55
Speaker 2: So I find that that works really well for me.
45:57
Speaker 2: I also find that breaking up the day is are
46:00
Speaker 2: efficient for me as well. So if I work five
46:02
Speaker 2: hours in the morning and then we go take off
46:04
Speaker 2: and take a break and do some exploring for another
46:06
Speaker 2: four hours, go for a hike, go for a run,
46:08
Speaker 2: whatever it is, and then come back to it, I'm
46:10
Speaker 2: way more efficient than trying to struggle through a straight
46:12
Speaker 2: eight nine hours of work at a time.
46:14
Speaker 1: Sure, and with you both being in the vehicle, Like
46:17
Speaker 1: I find traveling with other people that I can do
46:21
Speaker 1: email and basic communications very well from the passenger seat,
46:25
Speaker 1: and that helps me stay up on communications and the
46:27
Speaker 1: best ways that I can. But then when I'm writing
46:30
Speaker 1: or if I'm working on something for the business, I
46:33
Speaker 1: do need that quiet time.
46:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I go on.
46:35
Speaker 1: If I try to do it any other way, it
46:38
Speaker 1: just ends up being a struggle. Yeah.
46:39
Speaker 2: I go into iPod mode a lot of the time
46:41
Speaker 2: where I just need to put the headphones on and
46:43
Speaker 2: edit photos or edit video or whatever it is and
46:46
Speaker 2: just get into it. That can be in the camper,
46:48
Speaker 2: or sometimes it's in an airbnb. Sometimes it's at a
46:51
Speaker 2: friend's house or somebody who's invited us in. Those are
46:54
Speaker 2: the special the times that I especially try to get
46:56
Speaker 2: work done in the morning. If we were at a
46:57
Speaker 2: friend's place, just get up early, don't I'd rather spend
47:00
Speaker 2: my time or their time a week with them. Sure,
47:03
Speaker 2: so I'll just get up super early, get a bunch
47:05
Speaker 2: of work done.
47:05
Speaker 1: And that's smart.
47:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we're a not afraid to. I think the
47:08
Speaker 2: big thing was that without investing a whole bunch of
47:11
Speaker 2: money into our truck, I don't feel like we need
47:13
Speaker 2: to stay in it all the time. I know it's
47:15
Speaker 2: okay to stay in an airbnb, do some laundry, be
47:18
Speaker 2: in a nice controlled area with air conditioning or whatever
47:21
Speaker 2: it is, get a whole bunch of work done very efficiently,
47:23
Speaker 2: and then hit the road again.
47:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's smart. Well, good luck with all that. Those
47:27
Speaker 1: are going to be big Those are going to be
47:28
Speaker 1: big changes. And how exciting to be able to travel
47:32
Speaker 1: in that way with Ashley, and that you both have
47:34
Speaker 1: your own skills that you bring to the table for
47:37
Speaker 1: all these different organizations.
47:38
Speaker 2: We're so so lucky that we like being two and
47:41
Speaker 2: a half feet apart from each other at all times.
47:44
Speaker 2: I don't think that's super super common. She's my best friend.
47:47
Speaker 2: I don't really need to spend time with a whole
47:49
Speaker 2: bunch of other people. Sure, as long as she's around
47:52
Speaker 2: and we have these It took a long time, I guess,
47:55
Speaker 2: and especially started once we started traveling, especially traveling over land.
48:00
Speaker 2: All of our interests started really overlapping, and now especially
48:03
Speaker 2: all the work starts overlapping. And it's so much fun.
48:06
Speaker 2: We've had a lot of opportunity to She'll write an article,
48:09
Speaker 2: I can shoot the photos for it. A little like
48:11
Speaker 2: power team heading out into the woods and beating people,
48:14
Speaker 2: and those are pretty fun experiences.
48:16
Speaker 1: If you were to give some advice to someone that
48:19
Speaker 1: is new to overlanding, if you were, what would be
48:22
Speaker 1: your top two or three pieces of advice that you
48:25
Speaker 1: would give them before they started their first journeys.
48:28
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'll tell you what we did. We threw
48:31
Speaker 2: our truck together in four weeks and we left and
48:34
Speaker 2: we had never used our fridge or our rooftop tent
48:37
Speaker 2: we took. We had no shakedown run, nothing. So that's
48:41
Speaker 2: one thing to do, whether you have a stock vehicle
48:43
Speaker 2: or whether you already have a built vehicle, just to
48:45
Speaker 2: go out and try it and see what works for
48:48
Speaker 2: you. You'll know pretty quickly within first couple of weekends, for
48:51
Speaker 2: a few weekends of camping whether you need to make
48:53
Speaker 2: a change or whether you don't need to make a change.
48:54
Speaker 2: Those are That's one of the big things, making sure
48:57
Speaker 2: that if you're going to be traveling to Central and
48:59
Speaker 2: so with America, try to learn as much of the
49:02
Speaker 2: language as you can. We missed out on so many
49:05
Speaker 2: opportunities because I didn't start learning Spanish until we got
49:08
Speaker 2: to Baja. Part of that was the expeditated process of
49:11
Speaker 2: wanting to leave as soon as possible and doing doing
49:14
Speaker 2: so from like making the decision and leaving three or
49:16
Speaker 2: four months later, we just never had enough time to
49:19
Speaker 2: do all the things and learn the language. We had
49:22
Speaker 2: some fantastic experiences once we got farther south into Central America,
49:26
Speaker 2: did some did some language courses and actually started to
49:29
Speaker 2: speak Spanish a little bit better.
49:30
Speaker 1: So you did a few immersion courses, Yeah, we did.
49:33
Speaker 1: How did that go? Where did you do those?
49:35
Speaker 2: We did it, and I think that well, we didn't
49:37
Speaker 2: want to Guatemala, and we did one in beforehand in
49:40
Speaker 2: Guanawuato in Mexico.
49:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard that Wanawato has great and that what
49:43
Speaker 1: a cool little town that is.
49:44
Speaker 2: It was. Yeah, So we camped up on the hills
49:46
Speaker 2: with the dogs and the fireworks. So been there, you understand. Yeah,
49:49
Speaker 2: for a couple of weeks, walked down through into the
49:52
Speaker 2: town through the smog tunnels that they have and walked
49:55
Speaker 2: into town every single day.
49:57
Speaker 1: I love those tunnels too, they were so cool.
49:59
Speaker 2: They were very cool.
50:00
Speaker 1: And actually we actually camped at a fairly o it
50:02
Speaker 1: looked like a soccer field. It was a few miles
50:05
Speaker 1: out of town, so it was a different camp spot.
50:07
Speaker 1: But did you go to the Mosea delos Momia? Did? Yes?
50:10
Speaker 1: That freaked me out. I was so those that are listening,
50:15
Speaker 1: that's the museum of the Mummies. And there's a unique
50:19
Speaker 1: soil configuration in Wuanawato that allows for this rapid mummification.
50:25
Speaker 1: And if the families can't afford to keep up the
50:28
Speaker 1: grave pots plots, they just dig them up and put
50:30
Speaker 1: them on display. And I'm walking through this thing, which
50:33
Speaker 1: I'm already like a like a like a Harry Potter
50:35
Speaker 1: film is like an eleven for me. I'm like the
50:37
Speaker 1: scary scale. So I'm walking through this museum, trying to
50:41
Speaker 1: have an experience, and I came across like the little
50:43
Speaker 1: baby with its mouth open like it's screaming, and I
50:46
Speaker 1: could not get out of that place fast enough.
50:48
Speaker 2: I remember that it.
50:49
Speaker 1: Was such a There are.
50:51
Speaker 2: A few places like that along the road.
50:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so cool though, I mean, I mean,
50:54
Speaker 1: I would recommend that people go there, but if like
50:57
Speaker 1: I was terrified, I like could not get out of
50:59
Speaker 1: that place fast enough.
51:01
Speaker 2: Yes, so we spent the rest of our time in
51:03
Speaker 2: an Airbnb not being freaked out.
51:05
Speaker 1: Yeah it was great. Oh yeah, wanna Wato's gorgeous. I mean,
51:08
Speaker 1: what a beautiful town in the middle of Mexico and
51:10
Speaker 1: nobody knows about it mostly.
51:11
Speaker 2: Oh and the food and the street food was so amazing.
51:14
Speaker 2: We met this guy from Nelson, BC who started a
51:18
Speaker 2: restaurant there too, So we had a fancy, little raced
51:20
Speaker 2: restaurant in town and a little taste of home with
51:22
Speaker 2: a little bit of Mexico thrown in there.
51:23
Speaker 1: Nice.
51:24
Speaker 2: There's some good.
51:24
Speaker 1: Experiences that courtyard, and just the way that it's the
51:27
Speaker 1: whole place is built. It just feels like a little
51:30
Speaker 1: bit of Europe in a way. And it's just what
51:33
Speaker 1: a special little spot. Yeah.
51:34
Speaker 2: The colonial towns were very very interesting to go and explore.
51:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. And what other advice would you give people that
51:41
Speaker 1: are getting started with overlanding.
51:43
Speaker 2: I guess the thing is, don't be afraid to just
51:45
Speaker 2: go and learn. Don't make a schedule, don't say you're
51:48
Speaker 2: going to go for two years if you're not sure.
51:50
Speaker 2: If you're going to go for two years, you don't
51:51
Speaker 2: have to make any expectations for yourself for anybody else.
51:54
Speaker 2: You can just make a list of things that you
51:56
Speaker 2: need to go before, you need to do before you leave,
51:58
Speaker 2: check those things off. If you love it, keep going.
52:01
Speaker 2: If you don't love it, you stop. We have a
52:04
Speaker 2: couple close friends, Brina and Spencer. They built a little
52:08
Speaker 2: FJ forty up in Alaska, tore it all apart, put
52:10
Speaker 2: it together, put a rooftof tent on it, and by
52:12
Speaker 2: the time we met them in eastern Mexico they were done.
52:17
Speaker 2: They had enough of it. So they actually went down
52:19
Speaker 2: to Guatemala, bought a sailboat, sent their their forty back
52:24
Speaker 2: home to or back into Texas I think is where
52:26
Speaker 2: it ended up, and not Hawaii eventually. But they went
52:28
Speaker 2: and bought a sailboat and then sailed that home. Yeah,
52:31
Speaker 2: because they just felt way more comfortable sailing than they
52:33
Speaker 2: did in their Battles Trap forty series. Sure.
52:36
Speaker 1: Sure, And I think that's it's so key to remember
52:39
Speaker 1: that travel is so personal, is that it doesn't have
52:43
Speaker 1: to be a version of what you saw on YouTube
52:46
Speaker 1: or whatever. It can be your own version. And maybe
52:48
Speaker 1: it's that you like fast cars and you decided you
52:50
Speaker 1: want to drive a Porsche down to USHWAYA, which can
52:53
Speaker 1: totally be done. Yeah, can can totally be done. So
52:56
Speaker 1: I think traveling in the way that you want to
52:57
Speaker 1: travel is a really key piece of that.
53:00
Speaker 2: It'll change, like whether you change your significant other that
53:04
Speaker 2: you're traveling changes, or you have kids and they start
53:06
Speaker 2: to get older, it's going to change. So don't be
53:08
Speaker 2: afraid to just switch gears or change directions.
53:12
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, just keep doing what you want to do. Now,
53:14
Speaker 1: this is something that I like to ask and most
53:16
Speaker 1: of these podcasts. Do you have any favorite books or
53:20
Speaker 1: books that you've been reading recently that you think people
53:22
Speaker 1: would enjoy.
53:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, So books I've been reading recently, there's a book
53:27
Speaker 2: called A Voyage for mad Men't remember who the author is,
53:29
Speaker 2: but it's a story about the Golden Globe Race back
53:32
Speaker 2: in the sixties that one of the London newspapers put on,
53:35
Speaker 2: and it was a race around the world to see
53:36
Speaker 2: who was the first person to sail around the world
53:39
Speaker 2: unassisted without stopping, and who would do it the fastest.
53:42
Speaker 2: And the stories that are in that book from those
53:45
Speaker 2: guys that sailed alone around the world or part of
53:48
Speaker 2: the way around the world, just nothing we ever do
53:50
Speaker 2: will compare to that. Yeah, some pretty interesting stuff. And
53:54
Speaker 2: down there in the Southern Ocean.
53:56
Speaker 1: That one's on my short list, so thanks for bringing
53:57
Speaker 1: it up and reminding me.
53:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a fun one. And then another one I
54:00
Speaker 2: had read was The Monk of Mocha, and it was
54:04
Speaker 2: many American gentleman who decided that he wanted to go
54:07
Speaker 2: back to Yemen and start growing coffee. So he found
54:10
Speaker 2: these farmers that could I wanted to and could grow
54:13
Speaker 2: coffee and help them cultivate a little bit of a
54:17
Speaker 2: new business that was existing years ago. It's one of
54:20
Speaker 2: the first places that grew coffee and he wanted to
54:23
Speaker 2: bring that business back to life there. And it's a
54:25
Speaker 2: story about his travels there and getting stuck in some
54:28
Speaker 2: pretty serious conflict and has a lot of detail about
54:31
Speaker 2: where coffee came from and where it is now. So
54:33
Speaker 2: it kind of just took all of these things I'm
54:35
Speaker 2: very interested in and overlapped them together and it was something.
54:38
Speaker 1: I coffee and travel. Yeah, perfect, exactly.
54:40
Speaker 2: I think I think I read the book in two
54:42
Speaker 2: days because I just couldn't put it down.
54:43
Speaker 1: That's a good one. I love that. I love that. Richard.
54:46
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the podcast, and
54:48
Speaker 1: thank you for inspiring so many of us. Your travels,
54:52
Speaker 1: both Ashley and your travels have always been very inspiring
54:56
Speaker 1: to me. I think it's such an important story to
54:58
Speaker 1: be told. You guys are doing amazing work. So Richard,
55:02
Speaker 1: how do people find out more about you and your travels?
55:05
Speaker 2: Best way again we'll get in touch with us or
55:07
Speaker 2: see what we're up to is on Instagram. At desk
55:10
Speaker 2: to Glory we always check emails coming in from influideskaglory
55:14
Speaker 2: dot com as well. So anytime you have any questions
55:17
Speaker 2: or you just want to talk to somebody about traveling
55:19
Speaker 2: through Mexico, Central South America, or anything any questions whatsoever
55:23
Speaker 2: you have for us, just email influodeskaglory dot com and
55:25
Speaker 2: we can always hop on a zoom call or just
55:28
Speaker 2: email back and forth or meet you for coffee.
55:30
Speaker 1: Well, it's so important for people that are planning to
55:32
Speaker 1: do a trip like you mentioned, to be able to
55:35
Speaker 1: talk to someone who's actually done it. So it's just
55:38
Speaker 1: really thoughtful of you to be able to be available
55:40
Speaker 1: like that.
55:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the reason we're available is because there are
55:42
Speaker 2: other people that were available to us. Yeah, you know,
55:45
Speaker 2: we just pass it along. We had so so many
55:48
Speaker 2: people who are willing to give up some time just
55:50
Speaker 2: to give us a few bits of advice or a
55:52
Speaker 2: little encouragement along the way, and we're always always happy
55:55
Speaker 2: to do the same.
55:55
Speaker 1: Well, Richard, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
55:59
Speaker 1: Your journey and Ashley's journey has been such an inspiration
56:02
Speaker 1: to so many people and to me. I think that
56:05
Speaker 1: you guys have done it in such an open and
56:07
Speaker 1: authentic way, which the industry needs. They need to feel like,
56:11
Speaker 1: we all need to feel like we can go out
56:12
Speaker 1: and do it.
56:13
Speaker 2: Yeah you can. If we can do it, most people
56:15
Speaker 2: can do it.
56:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that thank you so much again for being
56:18
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and thank you all for listening, and
56:21
Speaker 1: we will talk to you next time.