A Travel Path Podcast

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

05:37 What Did Your Travel and Work Life Look Like?

08:06 How Did Your Plans Change?

09:21 Money Saving Tips

10:26 How Did You Find Campsites?

13:06 Recreation.gov

14:11 How Do You Travel with Children?

17:06 What is the Junior Ranger Program?

20:06 Did Bringing a Child on Your Road Trip Hold You Back from Anything?

21:47 The Impact of Travel at an Early Age

22:06 Get Your Child's Input

22:51 Bringing Your Dog to National Parks

24:19 How Long Did It Take to Plan Your Road Trip?

26:41 Homeschooling Tips

30:36 Travel Frustrations

32:41 What Was Your Coolest Travel Experience?

34:36 What Is One Thing You Can't Live Without While Traveling?

35:06 How Did You Transition Back to "Normal" Life?

36:06 How Did You Take Care of Your House?

37:22 What is One Thing Someone Could do to Get Started with a Road Trip?

39:26 What Are Your Favorite YouTube Travel Channels?

Laura and Jason on Social:

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Olympic National Park Video

5 Tips for Hiking with Kids

75 Day Road Trip Playlist

We had a great time chatting Laura, Jason, and special guest Alexis during this episode of The Travel Path Podcast! In today's show you will hear all about:

👪How to make it possible to take an extended 75-day road trip WITH kids, as well as some tips on keeping them happy and sane during those long drives

🏕️Big camping tips on how to find last minute campsites in popular areas

🏠What it's like to transition back to normal life after taking such a long trip

And more!

Read the Blog:

https://atravelpath.com/road-trip-with-kids/

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

Previous Episodes Mentioned:

Episode 8: Andy and Rachel

Channels:

Happily Ever Hanks (inspired Alexis to be a travel nurse)

Live 2 Journey

Keep Your Daydream

Long Long Honeymoon

Finding Your Someday

Less Junk More Journey (inspired them to record)

Links:

30' Flying Cloud Airstream

Abeka Home School Program

Devil's Garden Campground

Recreation.gov

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

he Jason and Laura thank you for joining hope and I for episode 13 of the travel path podcast listen thank you for having us been great watching all your videos and yeah we look forward to answering some questions yeah likewise so we know you on YouTube as Adventures of Mom Dad girl and a little white dog which is pretty self-explanatory but for those who aren't familiar you guys took an epic 75-day road trip from your home state of Michigan all the way out to California you went to 19 States 17 national parks and you upload content to your channel on just educational and informative videos on your trip including one video on five tips for hiking with children and I want to dive into that quite a bit on the show today about traveling with children I think there's a lot of misbelief and questions about the possibility of doing extended travel and extended road trips with kids but why don't we first start by having you share a little about yourselves yes so we've actually we're coming up on our 20th wedding anniversary um at the end of January and we' always loved traveling that was kind of one thing that brought us together um we met online and I saw that he loved the outdoors he loved biking and I was like okay I like this guy and so we are that was kind of like the core of our relationship we loveed you know we live in Michigan and Michigan has you know beautiful destinations for a long weekend trips so we do that a lot we've been out to Maine we went to Hawaii we've been to Alaska we go down to Florida a lot because we have family down there and so at traveling is kind of always been like our core and when we had a daughter we had we had her after eight years of marriage right or 10 or nine somewhere around there eight nine years of marriage and then we had a daughter and there's this baby and it was hard to travel at first it took us a whole year to finally get out there again and then we went to Mao Island staying in the Grand Hotel which is like a super nice hotel so that was like the start of her travel was like this luxury hotel and then after we did that we're like you know what it's not so bad you you know you go a little slower you have to always have food available I think that's the one big thing with any age of child is always have food they're always hungry and most of the time if they're cranky eat him a snack you know that's what I feel about it doesn't stop when you're a child exactly I like like most people we started tent camping um and then we upgraded to a popup in about 2005 or six we had that for many years and we really used that a lot um that was kind of how we really started our journey down the RV travel Road I guess you can say um we were camping in our tent walking around looking at all the campers and like oh wow that looks really nice but how did they afford it you know we're in our 20s and you know tent camping and still having fun but kind of dreaming of that day when we you know could get our own camper and then yeah we really used our popup a lot yeah if you would have told me I'd have an Airstream and driving all over the country you know Towing it 20 years ago go out of it you're crazy cuz I I didn't like the idea even pulling a trailer really but even the popup I was not a big fan of it and just after a while you you figure things out and get over it and one thing leads to another and then here we are and now we can't get enough of it it's like anytime we have oh look there's four days off let's go somewhere where we want to go I'm already learning a ton here because I thought you guys just did this long 75 Day Road Trip you guys have been traveling for a long time so we could spend all day talking about travel I do want to talk and kind of narrow down on this road trip I think a lot of people this like a road trip like this is something a lot of people have on a bucket list and especially doing with a kid um so during this road trip what did your travel and work life look like so we actually because we don't work remotely we really had to take time off work and Jason was wanting to switch careers and so it was like this perfect opportunity to say well hey instead of jumping right into the next job why don't we take some time we've always wanted to go out west you know it was kind of it felt unattainable to us us because you want to have a certain amount of time to go out there so we really it was never really in our thoughts of Future travel but it kind of just happened and then with 2020 shutting everything down we were able to save up like a whole Year's worth of travel funds so we didn't even really plan to like um save money for this trip because we just naturally saved it because 2020 kept us home so so then we had the budget we had this sense of like it was just a golden opportunity was yeah it just really out everything everything worked out for us and not to say you you couldn't plan for it it was funny the urge of going west like we really planned we had everything planned out from Michigan all the way to Glacier National Park we were in Glacier National Park for two weeks and then we were just kind of mosy on back to Michigan maybe go through North Dakota the Upper Peninsula and you know just kind of head back home but then we were just like we kept looking we're like oh well Washington's not that far away that far like okay let's just go to Washington we'll just go to Washington and then we'll come back that's that's what we said then we're out and Washington and we're like oh the Oregon coast looks really cool and we looked we're like it's only a few more hours let's just go to the Oregon coast and then I was like I've always wanted to travel California ju and see the Redwoods so then we're like Okay and like every little tiny thing so that's why like like right now at this point on our YouTube videos we're kind of at that point where we're starting to head down the coast things move really fast because he's just checking for Reser you know cancellations we're we're here one night we're here two nights the rest of the journey back was like really fast because we kept like having this ansy itch of like we got to keep going for farther and farther well the big thing too was Alexis really wanted to be back at uh in Michigan for her birthday to spend it at Dunes Harbor Campground so they've always gone there for her birthdays and I'm like are you sure that's really where you want to be we're like we're in

California we we made it back y we did it for her

reluctantly so how long did you originally plan for so was it 75 days you were just going to stick around the glacier area or did it just continue your trip continue going it did kind of continue because um the you know we didn't have like a budget per se but we had a certain amount of money we had to spend and so that money lasted us longer than I thought I thought oh wow we still have all this money left you know so let's keep going you know so because things out west were not nearly as expensive as I thought people always say oh the cost of living it's so expensive so I was prepared for high grocery bills and you know we didn't know for sure like you know camping reservations gas all those things and the fuel and stuff yeah fuel definitely was our biggest um purchase for sure but yeah the money stretched farther than um we planned that it was we were we were utilizing a lot of anytime I we we could and we did a lot we camped in the national parks and those range from you know 20 to $25 a night so it's what say saves a ton of money right there and and you're right in the Parks and it's ideal and we had travel with a generator we had one uh suitcase style solar panel with us and we learned real fast how long our batteries didn't last um we only had uh two lead acid batteries at the time you certainly don't hear very often people traveling they have more money than they expect to so in terms of we can jump ahead a little bit to like the travel hacks and money saving tips but it sounds like you were finding camping spots were there any other things you found useful in saving money during your trip well and just in making our own food instead of eating out you know eating out can cost a lot of money I mean just buying a beverage is three to5 dollar you know whereas if you eat at home or eat in your camper you know you're able to save a lot of money and there were honestly times that we only ate two meals a day and just snacked because we were just so busy like okay I guess we're e almonds for dinner again you know so honestly there were some days where like popping in you know a hot dog you know so the eating was definitely probably on the lower scale yeah I'd say so not that we starve but right we didn't starve but we certainly we're not big restaurant people anyways we did a lot of pbjs and you know ham wraps in the van on a budget yep that saves a lot of money I mean it saves a lot of money so now you brought up you were able to kind of adjust your schedule and you were flexible with where you were traveling and you were staying in National Parks did you have a hard time cuz we've talked to people who have had difficult times finding places to stay and some people have told us you need to like book campsites months and months and months ahead of time how easy was it for you to maneuver and just kind of freestyle it in terms of where you were sleeping we were very fortunate uh I did spend quite a bit of time you know on recreation.gov just every so often just keep looking for cancellations literally from Glacier all the way till we got home that that's how we found our spots all right so literally half of the 75 days were just and that's why they were a lot of times only one or two nights whereas earlier in our trip like we had the two weeks in Glacier and then we able we're able to get two weeks in Washington because we found a first come for serf site on at South Beach which was really nice that's probably one of the biggest tips I give too is you try to find the area that you're going to um and lot out west there's so many first come first serve opportunities if you can get get some place for one or two nights go out and check out the the first come first serve and you'd be surprised how easy it is getting some of those right especially when you start talking to um this the manager there and letting him know yeah the camp poost um because we actually had one night at kaylock we only had the one night booked at kaylock and then we had like two at the whole river rainforest we were after the one night we like we asked the r the ranger there you know are there any first come first serve opportunities and they said oh yeah just right down the road at South Beach we just drove down there and you know as you start talking to people you know everyone who camps is always really nice too and somebody another couple saw that we were kind of looking around and they're like hey are you looking to Camp here we're like well yeah and she said we're actually going to leave here in like 30 minutes so that was Ocean Front too ocean right on the Pacific Ocean so so she's like well you guys want to hang out here because and Jason's like he just he went back himself to get the camper Alexa stayed on the site to you know hold it for us and then we're like we were I think we did seven nights at first and then we're like we need to stay here longer and we did five more nights that was only $2 yeah 20 there's no hookups or anything but I mean right on the Pacific Ocean it was so pretty it so it sounds like just recreation.gov we'll put a link in the show notes for that and then just being persistent constantly checking it people do last minute cancellations and just being on it to be to pick that up yeah I think early morning didn't you find like you did pretty good early morning I was just trying to utilize whenever I can get a signal too because that's sort of thing out west it's is pretty spotty and you kind of have to know where you can get the signal sometimes different parts of the campground is better than other parts as I'm sure you've discovered and it took a little bit of doing but it's possible even getting the glacier reservations like to start I was on there 8:00 a.m. the day they opened up and I had a really hard time getting campsites there but I was able to get the two weeks there but that was even a struggle and I was like on top of that like right when they opened up I will say too with recreation.gov it does take a minute to kind of figure out how it works so for anyone listening that hasn't used recreation.gov before I would say go in do some test runs figure out how it operates before you're in that crunch of like keep refreshing to find your campsite for where you are that night it's not an app right it's no very old school just keep refreshing and there were times that Jason Alexis and I were all on a different device refreshing the page you know okay this because it would show on Florida State Parks it will show that they're locked and so like you see one's locked and you're like okay and you just keep refreshing it and it will open up but yeah it's it's a little bit of a stressful situation what time of year was your road trip it was um we left Memorial weekend and then we got back by August 11th which is my daughter's birthday ah just in time yeah we were like barely getting back cuz we were trying to utilize as much time as we could so you're traveling with your daughter Alexis and when hope and I were traveling people would talk to us they'd see us in our van and the first comment we'd get like clockwork was well you don't have kids yet right people there's this misbelief and I think a lot of people think that you just can't do this you can't do this if you have commitments like kids or pets or any other commitments like that how would you answer the question if somebody were to say that they can't travel because they have children they can't do an extended road trip because they have children I think start small you know go for a weekend somewhere and kind of see okay well how do they do what adjustments do I need to make is my child asking are they hungry all the time do they need maybe a little more stimulation you know there's a lot of fun little road trip um games you can do and I know one thing that that I of course I probably enjoyed it more than Alexis did but every time we cross a state line I would have a book about that state and so we'd learn about the state we'd ask we had this like kind of trivia game where I say I Jason and Alexis I would ask them okay what do you think the population of Nevada is you know and so we kind of like so that kind of helped get entertain in little pockets there um you can also make little goodie bags we never had to do this for Alexis because she was driving down down to Florida to Michigan and back since she was a baby so she was used to um traveling long distances but if you're child isn't you can have like an hourly goodie bag so like 8:00 a.m. they get a little bag that get to open up and it's a dollar store Toy 9:00 a.m. so that way like every hour they have something new you can get like little markers that you can draw on the window that can wash off pretty easily squishy balls I mean there's so many little Dollar Store goodies that you can actually package up hour by hour and hand it to them so that way the road trip goes much faster for them and of course there was screen time oh yes and there you know screen time when you're on that long of a trip screen time is kind of inevitable you know I wonder what my mom did on our 4-Hour trip trips down to Ohio like Mom what did we do but I'm glad you mentioned some of those other tips obviously there was screen time involved there but I think it's great that you had her engaged in you know reading books and doing these other games instead of just giving her an iPad and having her consume FaceTime all day the entire time right because that does make for a cranky kid I was also a teacher um before I had Alexis I was a teacher and I could notice when a child had had more screen time at home because they acted very different at school so Behavior can actually be really affected by screen time and sugar so I would say the snacks try not to do snacks with too much sugar and like one of our of course Alexis loves carrots cucumbers and hummus and those take forever to eat so I mean she it would like three state lines I think one time that bag of cucumbers and humus lasted or the other thing we did too was once we got into some national parks is we would use the Junior Ranger programs yes be asking questions based on those books and criteria and that was very very cool to uh to do that she I don't know how many badges she got one for every part 18 I think yeah 18 badges I would highly recommend people take advantage of that for their kids and then we also discovered that not just national parks but state parks often have Junior Ranger programs too so even if you're just visiting state parks in the area so we can dive a little bit deeper into that program um so is that something is like you get there is it a class is it a guided tour by some of the um Rangers at the park what does that look like how much of a commitment is that if you're spending time at a national Park so there there is a decent amount of commitment involved um you just go to the visitors center and ask for the junior Ranger book and then depending on their age will depend on how many pages they're supposed to fill out and so even if maybe her designated page is only eight pages but I knew we were going to be there a little while I'd have her do the whole book anyway so you can kind of gauge it as a parent as well and then you usually have to do at least one Ranger program that they provide there and then you'll have that Ranger sign the book and then you just turn it back into the visitors Center you have like a whole little oath that you get to do and then you get the badge and it I mean it's a really it's really cool because each Park is different so even though in the National Park system is one system each national park has it makes its own book so each book is very different they have their own they can pick their own badge they have their own oath that they say oh that's awesome now is that a free program everywhere but Yellowstone so Yellowstone charges $3 um that just for the badger actually they gave a patch I believe yeah they gave a patch so was for the book in the patch um but everywhere else was free so that was the only one it came across that did charge very cool that's wonderful in terms of that commitment is it like a half a day couple hours are you outside I imagine you're doing some hiking trails and they're showing the children you know types of you know species trees plants animals I would say half a day it just depends on the program that they you like Laura mentioned you you would most of the time be required to go to a ranger program I think those were kind of you could pick which ones you wanted to go so I remember the one we did at Glacier she was talking about the grizzly bears and they had a grizzly bear fur there and they talked about you know how you're supposed to be bearware and all that kind of good stuff relating to pairs you're not just filling out the book you also have to do a ranger program which are usually about an hour I would recommend the ranger programs anytime you can take advantage of those anyways they're always well done and definitely going to leave learning something oh yeah I actually met a man from Japan that his goal he was probably 50 or 60 and he was traveling by himself but his goal was to actually get the junior Ranger badge from every National Park while he was here in America and then one of the um up at uh Rocky Mountain the ranger there mentioned that there was a group of um the golden 50s I think they called them there was this 50-year-old women this group and they were going around becoming Junior Rangers at all the national parks so it's not just for kids it's never too late yeah it's never too late to be a junior Ranger yeah Lexis has she's got 17 Junior Ranger padges so she's ahead of a lot of other kids her age were there any things on your trip that you thought not necessarily having Lexus like was a hindrance but were there any things that you realized you just couldn't do I would say at this point no because even when we got to Maine she climbed Mount Kaden with us we did we actually didn't get to the top so i' say the only hindrance is we didn't go to the top because we didn't want three quarters of the way we we we want yeah three three quarters of the way and I would say we may have pushed ourselves to the top if it were just the two of us but other than that like she's really a trooper and again that kind of goes back to her Beginnings when she was a toddler we were taking her out on Trails you know so yeah we didn't just start with something like that you know she's done a lot of trails in Maine she's done the Beehive we've done Blood Mountain in Georgia she's done quite a bit of hiking that's great I think it's great that you're doing that and it reminds me a little bit of what Andy and Rachel said in episode 8 where they talked about on birthdays and Christmas and holidays they give their kids gifts but they also make a point to take them on adventures and get experiences in and they mentioned it just makes them more well-rounded and my parents they took me and my sisters on a trip when I was little cross country trip and I think I attribute a lot of that to kind of the desire I had to take Hope on a trip and show her some of the amazing parts of this country and you know here we are now doing this we have kind of a passion for travel we have this podcast this website we're trying to help people reach our travel goals so you never know what type of an impact something like that can have when you get those experiences in at a young age yeah that's that's the hope that she'll want to continue outdoor Lifestyle on her own as an adult and she's already talked about it because she really wants to become a nurse so she wants to be a travel nurse so she's already talked about a travel nurse she said she wants to get a van get some dogs so she's already kind of have this plan of it she wants to continue traveling so that's kind of cool yeah and if you're listening we'd love to have a travel nurse on the show at some point too and talk about that lifestyle um I know there's a lot of people that's becoming more and more of a popular thing so if you're listening and you're getting into Travel Nursing contact us at at travel.com we'd love to have you on I'm sure sure you've heard of Happily Ever Hanks they they were they were travel nurses maybe we'll have to reach out to them yeah and I will say another thing for for children would be that kind of get their input don't make them feel like okay Mom and Dad are like planning the whole day the whole week get their input say you know what would you like to do in this area you know she offers some information of different options what's something you'd like to do while we're here and that's kind of so she does really feel like she's part of a team you know she's not just the kid tagal kid doing what Mommy and Daddy want alth say we did more scenic drives than she would have probably chos that's that's what I like to do so like well see I said you daddy likes a scenic drives you want to go play in the water so we do both see it's all about balance now speaking of pully you said you go to a lot of national parks and a lot of national parks on those Trails don't allow dogs so what is your game plan with pully when you're doing those hikes so we honestly often just don't do the hikes um there are times you know that we will as long as the temperatures are okay and we know we can safely leave her in the camper you know we have hookups it's not GNA be overly hot or cold because even if we have hookups and it's going to be really hot we wouldn't want to leave her in there we don't trust it lose electricity yeah and like even at Yellowstone when we did the scenic drive you know she can't come out to maybe like the um grand prismatic but because it was only 15 minutes you know we can leave her in the truck we can actually leave the truck running he has an on his phone that monitors you know whether trucks on or off and so we could safely like do a quick little Boardwalk comeback um dogs are also allowed in Yellowstone to go anywhere like with 100 feet of the road so if it's just a Scenic Lookout she could actually come with us you know check out The Cauldron or check out boiling pots but she just couldn't go on the boardwalk Trails well I think it's proof you guys are certainly navigating traveling with not just a child or not just a pet but both and making it work and still getting some really epic adventures and so so good for you guys so you guys backtracking a little bit I know you didn't do a ton of planning before taking this road trip you kind of freestyled a lot of it but obviously you didn't just wake up one day and decided to do a 75 Day Road Trip how much what was that time frame between when you decided you wanted to do it and when you actually left and what extra steps were involved to plan around Alexis yeah well I think it kind of started off with we purchased our Airstream in November because we knew he wanted to go down to Florida to visit my grandma you know he didn't want to bring we had a rock camper at that time a travel trailer he was like I do not want to pull that thing down to Florida that thing is it's just bulky like I could even feel it in the passenger seat it felt like there was a backpack on your truck kind of thing it just didn't tow well with our vehicle at the time and that you know airst streams are known to you know togue well and and they do it's very it's quite a bit noticeable and the difference between your typical box trailer and versus Airstream so that's that us going down to Florida and back and realizing wow this is actually doable that's kind of what triggered us to plan the 75-day road trip it was that and then also we had friends who had moved from Colorado to Michigan for three years they're like okay no we're going back to Colorado and so they planed to they actually had never camped before they bought a truck bought a camper decided to travel for a year and then settle back down in Colorado and seeing her pictures of out west really kind of was like wow if the Wilsons are doing it like we could do it you know we've been camping for years and years and now we've got the airom we feel comfortable traveling long distances with it so then that January when we got back from Florida that's when we started because that's when the Glacier National Park um reservations opened up as well and we're so glad that we did it because it literally is like one of those things that was it's lifechanging honestly it's life changing because now we're kind of in the works of trying to you know get rid of things we're going to sell our house and we're planning to go out for another year and it definitely like you said it was addicting extremely addicting so now it's like we we honestly have not found the flow to get back to normal life you know stationary life because we just find that you know we just crave it too much but yeah that's that's what this 75 Day Road Trip did to us it it ruined us you never know the long-term effects so it sounds like about six months roughly November is when you purchased the Airstream and then you took off run Memorial Day in May so it's 6 months you can plan this trip you know start giving up in that time frame make the reservations for excursions and things like that as far as Alexis and schooling is that you're going to be moving towards homeschooling at that point we've actually I've homeschooled her since um since kindergarten so I was a teacher for eight years before I had her and I just we're we're kind of out in the country I'm not as fond of our um school system here and there's just certain things when you're a teacher it's harder to like say okay this is this is what I kind of want her to learn and there's so many great programs out there for homeschool that you know it's so easy to homeschool your child I wouldn't say it's for everybody I think I think because of your teaching background is is made it work that you just have to be dedicated you have to put the time aside so they can learn and and I feel like there's so many more people going towards homeschooling now that even if you don't have a teaching background and you want to move into doing this with your family you know there's so many resources now I was homeschooled up until 8th grade and it was like nobody did that unless you were like like you know like nobody did that nobody homeschooled it was a very small community but now there's just so many resources there's so many people homeschooling and moving to that that even if you don't have that teaching background I feel like you could make that a step towards your travel goals sure oh definitely and there's like video curriculums as well so it's like you can have your whole Le your whole school day on video with the teacher and um yeah just it's so laid out and there's so many different options that it's very easy for people at least attempt homeschooling now my friend um who did attempt it for a year she's like I can't do this anymore so it's definitely not for everybody even with everything laid out because it does take it takes a little more patience again there's that patience again um takes more patience it does take a little more planning and it takes um dedication too you know because that's the tricky thing it's like it's so easy to say A you know okay we'll do that tomorrow you know so you really have to be dedicated and know okay this is what you have to get done for the week you know that there's a lot of kids out there too people like I want my kid to be socialized you'd be surprised how fast they make friends with in the campgr with whoever or just in the community you know there's a lot of homeschool groups so if you are stationary you know there's tons of homeschool groups in almost any area I've heard of something that a lot of people don't think about when they talk about kids being socialized they're thinking about kids always being with other kids their age which isn't always like a good thing for them to be around kids they're same age all the time you know they need to be around younger kids older kids older people like we actually go to nursing homes and we'll sing and and play games and we share the puppies or you know P loves going to nursing home so even just that kind of interaction learning how to talk with all different ages and different kinds of people is super important with socialization because a lot of times when people think of children's social socialization it's always about their same age but there's a broad broad spectrum of who they should be socialized with as well like so many little kids are afraid of like seniors like they they kind they're taking back they're afraid of an older person so letting them be exposed and you know sharing things with them is super important yeah oh for sure you mentioned a few resources um did you want to just mention those what those were and I'll put them in the show notes below but in case anyone's interested in learning about some of these homeschooling programs or online resources what were those um the one we use actually is a becca.com they have a full range and it's interesting because I went to a Christian school and I used ECA during my schooling and so it's really cool that I remember like her sixth grade right now she's doing uh creative learn or creative writing and I Saidi remember doing creative writing and sure enough at my mom's house I found my sixth grade creative writing book so we're kind of comparing notes with like what I would write and what she would write at the same age so for us it's kind of nostalgic too doing a BCA program because that's what I used when I was in school yeah okay very good it will add that below thank you for sharing we have a 17 Junior Ranger badge holder Alexis welcome to the travel path podcast so we heard during your 75 day trip you had a couple of frustrations yeah so one of the main ones was so I was sleeping on the dinette and I called it the cracky dinette it was hard as a rock and our airst stream that we had at that time was a 27 foot H Flying Cloud you know it had the two twin beds for us but then you know the dinette would make into a bed and even had like a couch next to the dinette they would pull out and almost be like another twin bed so there's a lot of sleeping opportunities in there but I wouldn't say it's uncomfortable I anybody to see this and be like oh that's really uncomfortable it's it's better than your average travel trailers dyette but it's maybe not for 75 days it's more for you know a week trip or a weekend so I spent a lot of nights on there D that Laura did as well you're kind of rotated but it wasn't ideal um so that's you know we did upgrade to a bu model Airstream you now have a 30 foot Flying Cloud with the bunk yeah it's much better was that the worst part of the road trip or there anything else that any other problems you had I don't really remember any other problems except for the bed situation yeah but I I just want to put you know say something about that and people always say it online start with what you have don't don't wait for you know the perfect rig or you know the perfect truck or whatever just start with what you have because it if you like doing this you're more than likely going to change it anyways we saw on some of your YouTube videos a junior Ranger program it looked like you were having a ton of fun how was that the junior Ranger program it was really fun um my favorite par was probably um Olympic so I remember I really liked the um I thought the tide pools were really cool I remember I learned a lot we went in like didn't we go on like some sort of a um like a tour through the we did yeah I remember we saw like a lot of cool sea stars and enemies and stuff awesome we asked this question in every show but now that we have Alexis here I want to ask it here we'll ask each of you guys but what was the coolest experience you guys had during your 75 day road trip I know for me that first boondocking experience in the Badlands was like my jaw just dropped that like wow this is like so cool it's so different you know our first look at bison and like all the wildlife there and just like kind of that little taste and then just at each each aspect there was something unique the first tons were the first view of the Rockies Mount rer was like completely wowed us and you know all these different things and then you know tide pooling and then we go to Utah and Hike the hoodo and like everything was just so cool and so fresh and new and interesting to us that it was like the whole 75 day road trip for me at least was like the coolest thing I know you have some specific things right yeah I really liked obviously I like Olympic National Park and I also really like Zion and Bryce in Utah I like I remember feeling like I was like on like Mars or something cuz I never really I never really like saw like red dirt or like Red Rocks really none of us had it is different out there especially coming from Michigan or New England yeah people always ask what my favorite is I'm not a person that have favorites but one thing that kind of always sticks in my mind about a cool moment for me was they were off doing something we we were lucky enough to be uh camping in inside Arches National Park I was just sitting there there was the sun was going down it was getting dark I was all by myself it was super quiet and then this this coyote just like walked right past me looked at me and just kept going I thought that was that was just that was just super neat that doesn't happen every day absolutely I don't know that camp just had such a out of this world feel to it was Devil's Garden campgr is really hard to get into so you did a 75 Day Road Trip what was one thing you guys learned that you could not live without a real

bed honestly for us it was a little bit of the opposite we actually realized how many things we didn't need like after being gone for 75 days and like realizing all that stuff back in our house I mean I would have rather had a few extra sets of civilware but other than that it's like you kind of realize what you don't need do you have any tips in terms of transition in back to normal life so you took the 75-day road trip obviously um you're vacationing you're having a blast and then you're going back to work back to normal life any tips for somebody when they're going through that transition don't do it just keep going I say for us it just it hasn't been an easy transition I don't think we've made that transition yet no it's it might be different for everybody I think rving is one of those things where either especially longterm travels you either love it or you hate it and if you love it I think you're it's going to change your life well definitely I know our friends the Wilsons I had mentioned you know that had been on their one-year road trip they were pretty happy to get back to regular life like they were like okay you know it was fun while it lasted kind of thing but they were ready so I think it's it depends on the person one thing I missed maybe out on the road was I'm a very scheduled person I like having a set schedule I like you know I have a morning routine and all these different things like the whole time we were out I never did any stretches any ab exercises I literally did nothing like that because it was hard to fit it in my day so that's probably one thing I'd say that was an interesting uh transition is that it was kind of nice being getting back to a normal schedule now what did you guys do you were gone for 75 days straight what did you do with your house and your mail well we have the advantage of my parents live very close and so they they kind of used our house as an Airbnb kind of thing so it was kind of fun place for them to stay my mom lives way out in the country she they don't have cable or anything like that so she loved watching like her Fox News is her favorite thing to watch we actually had uh my nephew cut the grass it sounds like too just putting those systems in place right so even if you don't have family you know buttoning things up getting your mail forwarded I mean it's certainly doable but it definitely has a perk when you've just got those people you trust real close by yeah right and actually my friend who's in a position of she doesn't really have a family member in town and we won't be around to help her as much but she has two birds that and she's going to be gone for six weeks in Florida so she just posted on Facebook saying if there are any other bird lovers out there and then she met them in person she felt like they were a trustworthy person and um that's how she found someone to care for her Birds while she was gone for somebody listening to this podcast right now who wants to set up a 75 Day Road Trip what would be one thing they can do today to get them going there you know researching where you'd like to go is a big thing and like learning about the area but not only that like if you think about our everyday lives and our even our monthly expenses there's something that you can cut out you know maybe you buy coffee every other day or every week you know all those little tiny expenses really add up I feel like if you just cut out like with us we didn't purposely cut out restaurants and traveling for the year but because it was cut out because of the pandemic that's how we were able to save up a you know large chunk to be able to take this road trip I would just say educate yourself especially with your rig you want to know you know how to make adjustments to your hitch if you need to or or you know change the fuses or just kind of know you know what problems you might have and you can learn all that stuff on YouTube watching different channels you know have a tool kit for anything you might need to work on while you're done in your rig and uh just just educate yourself on on the whole thing and I would say start taking small trips at a time I would even say that too for people that don't know if they're going to like rving before you make that investment if you don't anything just rent something because unfortunately it's not like it used to be where if you buy something now you're going to take a loss where you know we we bought a couple campers and we pretty much sold them for what we paid for them and it's starting to take a shift now and an RV Show RV Show going to an RV Show and going in and out of all those different RVs like you really get a little bit of a feel and the ones we did like we would sit in them for a while and so like you know we'd see probably 20 different people coming in now as we were sitting there but we wanted to kind of really get a feel of do we like this space does this feel comfortable and like imagine yourself imagine yourself doing your daily routine you know getting up in the morning making your tea or whatever you do in the morning like sitting there imagine yourself in your daily routine and how is how would that look like in this rig yeah and apart from RV shows those are all pretty much free actional steps you can take to get you going there and then once you actually take those steps you're you're in that mindset now and you are a little you know that much more motivated to get it done so great okay you mentioned live to Journey were there any other YouTube channels or influences that you guys watched or books you read to get you going on your journey um we're big fans of keep your Daydream learned a ton from them um same with long long honeymoon those are probably my two go-to channels of how to RV what problems to you know you can how you can avoid the issues on the road they're they're very open and sharing you know their experiences um we we enjoy finding your someday he's guys finding that's is finding our someday sweatshirt on the happy L um there's who else we want L junk more Jour Le junk more Journeys been a good one there's and actually less junk more Journeys what inspired me to want to record our trip because I would watch them and they have a young daughter named Hensley that's just a little younger than Alexis and I would see oh I wish I would have recorded Alexis you know I wish like well I still can and so that's kind of really what inspired me to record and and want to put them on YouTube is because I I enjoy their you know Hensley watching Hensley grow up so much that I thought you know I wanted to keep that record of Alexis as well how about you Alexis any YouTube channels you are watching I like happily ever Hanks and that's pretty much well and well she was really liking Cara Nate for a while oh yeah Caren Nate she's my go-to to help me with music on our YouTube channel and so if this s the song sounds too much like Caren Nate music she's like Mom that's not your style that's Ken Nate music that's funny at least she's honest there we go go all right guys well while our audience is checking out those channels one more time where can they find out more about you guys um so you can find us on YouTube Adventures of mom dead girl and a little white dog um we do have a Facebook page with that same name as well and then we're on Instagram as Iridessa Airstream and I I did want to add too that we also really enjoy watching the path Beyond it's been really fun it's been really fun watching your journey that's like I said so similar to ours but yet very different and it's and sometimes I almost prefer watching someone be to a you know a video on some place that we've already been and seeing their take on the place you know and not just watching new places that we can explore well so true yeah I think you commented on a video a while back that it was almost like we we did the same trip but completely different experiences thank you for the shout out awesome all right guys I'll put a link below in the show notes for all those channels and yeah Alexis Jason Laura thanks again thanks

www.atravelpath.com

02:51 When is the best season to visit Wiltshire?

03:25 Is Wiltshire kid friendly or dog friendly?

04:15 How does transportation work in Wiltshire?

05:50 Where do you stay in Wiltshire?

07:40 Is there Harvest Host in England?

08:55 What is the nightlife like in Wiltshire?

12:06 How far away is Stonehenge?

13:40 What are some of Wiltshire's mysteries?

16:30 What are three things you need to pack for Wiltshire?

17:55 What are two complaints about Wiltshire?

17:02 What is one thing you can't leave Wiltshire without doing?

19:50 What are your favorite places to eat in Wiltshire?

20:40 What is your favorite ice cream place in Wiltshire?

Full Episode at:

https://atravelpath.com/podcast/

Travel Tips has officially gone international! We had a blast talking with Mike and Chelsea from The Vigar Feeling about their hometown of Wiltshire, England. In this episode you'll learn all about:

The fascinating mysteries of Wiltshire

Things to do in Wiltshire and the surrounding area

What you need to pack when you take a trip to Wiltshire

And More!

Wiltshire Blog:

https://atravelpath.com/wiltshire-england/

Mike and Chelsea on Social:

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook

Website

Links

Camping

HipCamp

Park4Night

Canopy and Stars

To Do

The Cotswolds

Stonehenge

Lambing Weekend

Ghost Tours

Crop Circles

Uffington Chalk Horse

Avebury Stone Circle

Britain's Most Haunted Pub?

Nearby:

Bristol Aquarium

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

Mike and Chelsea thank you for coming back to the travel path podcast and joining hope and I for this segment of travel tips thank you for having us again it's great to be here so for those who haven't heard the first part part one Mike and Chelsea from the viager feeling on YouTube and Instagram talked about just got brutally honest with some of the realities of travel vlogging and pursuing YouTube full-time and it's a great episode for someone to listen to who wants to get into that they want to travel YouTube kind of turn that into a passion and a hobby and an income stream um and they just talked about their travels all over Europe in some of the beautiful places they've been to so Mike and Chelsea travel tips we're talking about one destination so what destination are we talking about today so we are going to be talking about Wilshire it's the area that we grew up when we when we were younger and we come back when we come back to England so yeah it's got a lot of mystery around it so yeah well sure awesome now what made you want to talk about this destination today I think it's because not a lot of people really know about it do they like when you think of England you think of London and some of the the bigger cities and not many people really know about Wilshire and know about the the history of it sure now welshire is a great place for someone who likes what type of activities definitely being outside yeah yeah it's a lot of farmland and um there's a lot of nature involved in Wilshire it's in the south of England um and it's there's a lot of history as well and a lot of uh like mystery towards it especially if it's something like like a myth there's a lot of myths and if you like to know about myths or follow myths or uh get lost in the stories behind each of the places it's definitely a area to go to and also there's a lot of really old English Cottages uh in the CWS and um for a lot of the rest of the world they don't get to see this type of architect and it's really just Old English uh history with that cages and stone buildings and it's really beautiful isn't it yeah yeah sounds like a beautiful place and you know it's got a ton of different things for no matter what your interest level is so for someone to get the full experience of this destination how long would you say they should take to stay there um I would probably say a good full week um so each of the activities doesn't take too long um so yeah probably a good week and then if they want to see the rest of England yeah I think that would be okay yeah it's not a big place where you have to travel long distances to to each place so yeah oh very good and now as far as you know we know we need to spend a week there but what season are we going definitely summer definitely summer um England rains a lot um and there's not a lot of act indoor activities to do so to see these uh mystical places would definitely be in the summertime so probably between June and September would be the best okay very good now obviously you know for someone like us who's um in the states we if we were going to go we would be flying so we wouldn't take our dog however if someone's a little bit closer to this area is it kid-friendly dog friendly what do you see when you're there um yeah so it definely it's dog friendly definitely just keeping the dogs on the lead um yeah there's so many different walks that you can take there's in the summer there's poppy field um the kids would love it as well just because it's something completely different yeah there's not so many indoor activities to do is there no um yeah it's beautiful place to be in in nature and a lot of the farmers they make like Wild Flower um Fields uh like say poppy fields they make rape seed Fields so all the fields are bright yellow yes it's a beautiful place to to visit and definitely see from the sky as well oh very cool now as far as getting there so how are we going to be working around Transportation do we need cars how do you fly in what advice would you have for someone that's trying to plan a trip here I think if you're flying from uh if you're out of England definitely flying into to London one of the uh airports in London and there England's quite good for transportation so you could either get the train to one of the local towns but I personally would probably hire a car from one of the airports it's a huge farm farm place so from each destination um it's it would take uh about two hours each uh to drive so it's that a lot of it's not in walking distance so hiring a car will probably beneficial and because the the destinations that we're going to talk about um because they're not some some of them are not in towns or cities uh if you was to hire a taxi it's going to take quite a long time for the taxi to get to you or an Uber to get to you to take you to the next place anyway so yeah probably hiring car would be your best option if you could if you could hire a car yeah just getting through some of the language barriers hiring a car is that renting a car as opposed to like hiring a taxi or Uber driver uh yes okay sounds like that'd be more cost efficient to to rent a car in in our terms as opposed to drive having someone drive you two hours back and forth to where you're going glad we cleared that up now you guys have your motor home Luna do you camp when you're in this area is there lodging are can you find a house on Airbnb to stay in um there are a lot of places especially in the cwoods a little bit more expensive but they're absolutely beautiful little farm houses for us motor home wise we do struggle a little bit because it is farmland and because England has smaller roads and smaller layb but we we do get by don't we we there's no I wouldn't say there's any official campsites um yeah if there was there would probably be one yeah in Wilshire and the problem is with campsites here they're just pretty much grass and having a bigger vehicle when it rains a lot and then us trying to get off when it's muddy it's it's quite hard so we do try to use a an app park for night I don't know if you have that in America um and it tells you where other people have stayed and if they've had a problem or if it's been perfect if there's local water there to fill up so there are a few places but it's not as accessible as Wales or or Scotland or you will find some beautiful places to stay in um you'll find um cottages and airbnbs uh there'll be the odd Hotel um there's also a website called uh canopy and stars yeah and they advertise uh quirky stays um places like uh tree houses you can stay in for a night and yeah kind of kind of quirky stays where you wouldn't normally stay so yeah so there are places cool and we'll link what you the app you mentioned in the show notes below it sounds like it's similar to eye Overlander and the dirt we have over here in the states do you have Harvest host over there we've heard of it a few times but I actually don't think we have it in England really it sounds like with the Farms you're describing it' be a good opportunity for that because a lot of it is farms and wineries breweries that offer their land for people to stay at with the exchange of you just buying some of their product yeah we have that with a lot of pubs so if you uh or restaurants if you buy a meal you can stay in the car park but I think that works a lot better for um small converted Vans because everything in England is probably four or five times smaller than than America so our car parks are very very small and we take up four or five spaces so for us we we don't really do that but I know if you have a small little van you can go in have a pub meal and they'll let you stay in the car park for for free oh that's a good tip that is similar to you know if you have a harvest host membership um on the States you go have a drink at you know their Brewery and then you get to stay in in their parking lot which is nice so speaking of that we know that you know it's a very outdoorsy area it's beautiful for hiking and scenery and history but what about at night what about when that sun goes down what do you guys guys like to do in the town there's not much to do it's a big yeah like a big agricultural place there are um pubs to go to and in some of the towns you have bowling alleys and um like the cinema but there's not really um big places to go to I think if you go just outside of Wiltshire you've got Bristol and Oxford they have big gigs that they put on with with famous people and each one is only about an hour away and they have what you would normally have like aquariums and zoos and and Bristol has a lot of um has a lot of art doesn't it it's very well known for its art and being a bit more free so maybe if you did visit Wiltshire to make sure you go to Oxford that has a lot of history um Bristol has a lot of creative people and they do a lot of street art um on the sides of buildings and they're known for their graffiti graffiti kind of art uh but mainly it's like big murals of pictures proper pictures made by spray spray paints and stuff like that yeah and then yeah and then London is only an hour away from us so um yeah they have they have big big night life there yeah and I think that's a really good point is London's Orly an hour array and a lot of people will go to London and then think okay well I'm going to catch a flight or a train to another country or to somewhere else but you know if you're going to London you could actually drive that you know hour or two hours like you said and there's a lot to do in the Wilshire the Oxford area and especially for someone who likes history you know maybe doesn't want crazy night life which I think it you know our age none of us want overly especially if we are those nature enthusiasts but tons of stuff that you can do um even just extend your trip from London it sounds like yeah yeah and I I've I mean traveling other countries we've always noticed coming out of um like Capital Cities uh and going to other rural areas you get to see the the true side of the country and the the real people that live there as well yeah yeah and I think that's important too is you know feeling part of that culture and getting to experience not just those those highlights that everybody goes to see but you know come into the smaller towns and you know buy things from the locals and you know just enjoy that experience yeah yeah I'm glad you talked about all that because when I think England I think Big Ben London and rain so it sounds like I was half right because it is still pretty rainy over there but there is a lot of Scenic you know nature there's art culture things to do how far away is Stonehenge so Stonehenge is actually uh in in Wilshire and from from where we are right now maybe 45 minutes Drive yeah yeah again it's almost in the middle of nowhere yeah loads of farmlands surrounding it um yeah it's definitely worth the visit isn't it yeah but maybe try to pick a day that's not the weekend because it does get very very busy yeah I can imagine obvious you guys have been there many many times living So Close by how big are those rocks like you look at some photos and they look huge are they bigger than you expect when you walk up to them for me they are but I'm very small yeah they're they're very big yeah it does make you wonder how they lifted these things and got them over into that position yeah they're huge I have to ask a native's opinion was it aliens and whoever put them there got there somehow I mean we we once had a a king a long time ago Henry VII that actually was against um certain things and he wanted certain religions to be his way he actually collapsed all of Stonehenge and tried to bury it and then when he passed they rebuilt it again so I don't know whether it's actually in the same format as how it started out to be um but there's probably been a lot of changes happen in that area due to history yeah it is interesting for sure yeah well speaking of you know that and in the beginning you mentioned there's a lot of myths so if anyone likes myths this is a good place for them anything you want to note today so there's and they don't know why the farmers do this so there's a lot of things that go on about crop circles here as well and there's a farmer down the road that um makes his own crop circles I don't know how he does it something with his tractor and it attracts a lot of people um just to come and look at it really but there is a different feeling about um Asbury it's very and it's a kind of a mini Stone Henge it does have a very calming feeling and um it's all meant to be kind of funu the way that the stones are put and it's meant to bring a healing energy but yeah there is something very fing about that area yeah there's loads of different myths yeah so there's load I can go on and on yeah we've got loads of uh um chalk horses uh sorry um yeah chalk horses on the side of Hills um and these some of them were built uh over 4,000 years ago and there's myths like if you stand on the head of the horse and spin 10 times it's meant to give you good luck and stuff like this yeah it's quite interesting uh we keep these things restored um and you know miles from the distance you can see these uh massive chalk horses on side of hills and there's I think there's 10 in total yeah in Wilshire I think the first one they don't know how it was made and then towards the end like the eth ninth and 10th one they they were put in by us um maybe 50 to 100 years ago yeah it's it's something you don't really get to see very often it's quite yeah it's quite nice very cool we kind of have that like we're in Mystic Connecticut which is a pretty historic town so we have you know there's history there's weird fires that happen going with that kind of that paranormal alien theme do they have like ghost tours like haunted places for people who like that kind of thing there uh they're all ghost hores and I don't know much about them because that's my biggest fear but um at Asbury they have it's meant to be um the most haunted Pub in England all right yeah and and you can stay there in a room overnight yeah something I would never go and try I'm learning too I don't i' never knew that very cool see that's what this is all about yeah right a little bit for everybody it sounds like awesome great we'll transition to the 321 Countdown the final three questions of the podcast and if you've listened to the travel tips segment before we're changing these up a little bit because the 321 countdown we originally started the question three was what are three things to do in or around the area but what we were finding was it was repeating a lot of what we had already talked about so it was a little anticlimactic so instead of that we're asking what are three things you need to bring on your trip to Wilshire I think the first would be an umbrella even in the summer yep yeah just in case you never know when it's going to rain yeah some some hiking boots hiking boots yeah hiking boots are Wellies yeah probably and um probably I would say a backpack as well because you're going to be outside a lot um so whatever you want to pop in sandwiches on your hike or you want to go for longer any hiking gear so a lot of outdoorsy type of things but yeah I mean it's not as convenient as being in a town in a city where you could just go to a convenience store and buy some sandwiches or whatever it may be that you eat for lunch um so yeah a backpack is quite helpful cuz you may be in the sticks as we call it for a long time backpack and have some sort of a cooler inside of it so you can keep your food fresh because you're probably going to be going a little ways little while outside of having refrigeration and going on those long hikes so yeah what are two complaints or things people should be prepared for before visiting Wilshire going back maybe to the rain it can be miserable it really can be miserable and I think particularly in in this area of England yeah it gets muddy and I think that's the the biggest complaints we have from a lot of people is is the weather unfortunately um I think maybe just trying to get around um as much as possible like we said everything's quite spread out um it's not as convenient as uh you would you would think it would be so yeah probably the weather and and transport those are good tips and it sounds like you touched on earlier doing a week out there because not only because it takes a long time to go from place to place but also the weather if you're there for a week you might get you know two three days of sunshine versus if you go for a weekend you might get drenched so if you if you're preparing and you're looking up YouTube videos and photos of wil and it's sunny and beautiful be prepared that it might not be like that when you're there all right and one last question we talked about a lot of things to do in Wilshire but what is one thing if you had to pick one thing what is the one thing you simply cannot leave Willl here without doing probably Stonehenge I think yeah yeah seeing seeing Stonehenge and I think maybe also I know it's is a little bit off subject for for the kids they have um like lamming weekends where you can go and help at a college um where they have lambs and it's it's an amazing experience for kids to go and help with the with the animals oh very cool I think I would actually like doing that too come over at Easter you can help yeah there we go perfect now just last question I really have um since you said you know when if you're going on a hike bring that backpack pack your lunch where is there any place that you guys really like to eat or to get some sandwiches from to take um I think there's this lovely place is in there to have a steak to eat uh is it La carbonara La carbonara yeah oh my God it's the best place to eat anywhere like I've never had a bad uh meal there yes yeah um as for like sandwiches and stuff there's there's loads of places isn't there yeah there we've got quite good restaurants in the UK yeah just for soundwich and stuff maybe just a con just a convenience store and I think what hope is getting at and I think what this might be it's own section its own segment in its own cuz this has been a topic conversation our past like two travel tip segments what's your favorite ice cream place oh I I don't know that's that's quite difficult in the UK because number one we don't have many ice cream places yeah yeah like there is one that's actually about 10 minutes away from us but I think that's the only one in our town it's only open between April and October we don't really have any places doing no I think we have uh the ice cream trucks that come around oh yeah we we have ice cream bands for for children well good I think those are some important things to know those are the things where am I eating and where am I having ice cream those are always things I need to know when I'm going to travel so thank you for answering those um at any um Supermarket you can pretty much get the same ice creams as what you probably get in America I I've heard uh China is the best place for ice cream I don't know how true that is I have not heard that before what we have to test that theory out apparently they got the best ice cream in the world the best ice cream I've ever had is America and uh lanzerotti an island of Spain yeah yeah yeah it is well awesome guys this is a blast to know you guys both part one and part two talking about wilshore England I think a lot of people are going to find this very educational informative if they're planning a trip over there and don't forget if you haven't heard part one with Mike and Chelsea and the Viger feeling definitely listen to that hear their story about how they they quit their 9 to-5 they pursued traveling full-time they've got some amazing content on their Channel Mike and Chelsea where can people find out more about you definitely uh YouTube yeah on YouTube at the the Vier feeling.com we''ve got a website called the viering uh.com uh no hang

on YouTube at theer feeling we got a website the Vier feeling.com and then social media platforms um yeah just search up our and we're on there great mikee and Chelsea theer fing.com thanks again thank you very much so much

00:00 Intro

03:07 What is your work-life like when traveling?

05:07 What were your YouTube channel expectations, and have they been met?

07:27 How long does it take to edit a vlog?

09:17 Did you have any vlogging or editing experience before you started?

10:17 What camera and video editing software do you use?

12:11 What advice would you have if you were to restart your YouTube channel?

13:07 Did you spend a lot of time looking at YouTube Analytics?

17:17 How long did it take you to decide to quit your jobs and travel?

18:40 What were the biggest frustrations you faced while traveling?

19:45 Was it your first time in a motorhome when you went full time?

21:52 Would you buy a 19 year old RV again?

24:20 What do you love the most about your travel lifestyle?

27:31 What is your budget when you are traveling full time?

31: 12How do you get internet while traveling?

32:21 What is your favorite travel experience?

33:40 What is one thing you learned you can't live without while traveling?

34:52 What is one thing you learned you didn't need?

35:52When did you know was the right time to travel?

38:31 What could someone do right now to get started traveling?

Full Episode at:

https://atravelpath.com/podcast/

Blog Resources:

https://atravelpath.com/travel-vlog-full-time-travel/

Mike and Chelsea on Social:

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook

Website

Mt Fuji Video

Austria Ladder Video

The Travel Path Podcast has officially gone international! We had a great time chatting with Mike and Chelsea from the Vigar Feeling. After several attempts and having to reschedule, we finally were able to connect from all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a super inspiring story we are excited to share with you. In today's episode you'll hear all about:

Their insight and frustrations on growing a YouTube channel

How they decided to travel now while they young so they can make the most of it

Things they have learned after buying a 19 year old RV for the first time before hitting the road

And much more!

Full episode at:

https://atravelpath.com/podcast/

Blogs:

Wiltshire Blogs: https://atravelpath.com/wiltshire-england/

For those wondering, 30,000 pounds is about the equivalent of $38,000.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

Links

Gear:

(We may earn commission through product purchases.)

Adobe Premier Pro

GoPro 10

Mavic DJI Mavic 3

Canon R5 Camera

Netgear Nighthawk

Camping:

OnX Maps

iOverlander

The Dyrt

Previous Episodes Mentioned:

Episode 9: Linnea and Akela

Episode 6: Airstreamer

Episode 1: Dylan

Channels

Ryan Shirley

Matts RV Reviews

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Transcript from YouTube:

well I did not expect the travel path podcast to be International so soon but Mike and Chelsea welcome to the travel path podcast hello welcome it's great to be here thank you for having us yes you guys are reporting all the way from England and this has been a long time coming I think we reached out about 3 months ago had a couple of reschedules and issues with RV which I'm sure we'll get into later on in the episode but we know you as the viager feeling on Instagram and on YouTube you guys have some incredible content all over the world the Eastern side of the globe there's places that we have never seen or heard of before and the wildlife content and the Drone content it's literally like National Geographic it's crazy I encourage people to go check out your channel after this podcast is over why don't we start by having you share a little about yourself and then letting us know what your current travel lifestyle looks like so at the moment we are traveling in our Mo home um we're trying to see as many places in Europe or around the world as possible and we started off by we just sold everything and just went for our dreams didn't we yeah we do a lot of um hiking and uh Mountain climbs and we thought that would tie in brilliantly with our travels so went for it awesome yeah and one of the videos I remember we saw in the thumbnail on it is amazing but it's the ladder hike you did in Austria where it looks like you're literally hiking a ladder to the sky it's crazy I'm sure we'll be talking about that later on the episode but um you quit your jobs you're 9 to five what did your work life looked like when you were traveling uh when we're traveling so it's it's we got pretty hectic lifestyle haven't we because we're doing the hikes that sometimes take eight hours with the filming um and then all the other things like filling up water getting places to stay so we for a while were nonstop I think that we probably went even maybe two or three months without even having like a proper day off to stop um and then there was a couple of times when we did hikes and we're like right we haven't got enough footage or it's not exactly what we want so we went back and redid these hikes and we've talked about it in some of our other videos but yeah we're just nonstop yeah I mean we've we've been up mountains twice because more because of me because I think the footage isn't good enough so I have to drag her along to come up it again so well that's good that'll make you guys expert on those Trails right and travel is a full-time it's a full-time job with you know dealing with the rig and planning where you're going and doing a hike once or twice so yeah we told this to each I told this to you hope last night when you're watching your videos it looked like like it probably took you three times longer to hike that trail those mountains than it would take a normal person because you were putting cameras down you were stopping to do Drone footage so there's a lot and you just said you did it twice so yeah um so in terms of work so you weren't like working remotely for another company you were working it sounded like it was more vlogging you were trying to grow your YouTube channel and do that so we can relate to that quite a bit it sounds like our path where we saved up we weren't working for anybody else we wanted to explore this new desire this new dream of doing vlogging and YouTube and travel vlogging full-time um cuz we had seen when we were planning our trip channels that were doing that it looked like a realistic thing to do so we got into that and we enjoyed it quite a bit so what were your expectations getting into YouTube and travel vlogging and so far has the channel lived up to them it's been it's been very difficult to um get subscribers and views on YouTube but we've come across really hasn't it yeah and I think we thought it was going to be a lot easier and um same with you guys you do a lot of filming and more not not so much vlogging where there's a lot of channels out there that do vlogging and that's great but the difference between vlogging and getting real cinematic uh nature shots is completely different so we're we're out there filming a lot longer and bless Mike honestly sometimes he'll wake up at 8: a.m. start editing and he's still on the computer until like 10 p.m. um but we really thought that it would take off quicker and like you said some of the bigger channels you think oh wow like they've put out some of these videos and they got so many subscribers yeah he just think it'll be a lot easier I think um and it isn't it isn't easy and um yeah YouTube's difficult because you kind of just get lost within the millions and millions of people that use it and yeah it's difficult isn't it to to to get anywhere with YouTube I think we're not actually currently monetized um so we're still looking to build up watch time and we've got a long way to go still haven't so and I think we also wanted to really stick away from and we we talk about this a lot we wanted to stay away from the click baiting yeah we just didn't want to I mean We've joked about it a few times and we're like no that's not being true to ourselves we don't want to go down that route and I know there's some channels that do it but we just wanted to completely stay away from that and yeah well I really appreciate appreciate your honesty here sharing the difficulties of YouTube because you already see a lot of channels and I think it's difficult on two fronts you mentioned the editing it just takes a long time just to get a video done but at the same time once that video is done there's the difficulties in having it grow and there's just so much competition but going that back to that first point how much time would you say your videos are anywhere between like 10 25 minutes long how much time does it take to do a video I think your videos take longer than ours just based on watching them it looks like the editing is done like on the next level but I almost came to the conclusion it was give or take like an hour per minute every minute the video was it took like an hour to make somewhere somewhere around that maybe even longer sometimes sometimes I'll do a few minutes and then I'm just not happy with it and I'll scrap it and redo the whole thing again or I'll change the music to it because I'm not happy with the music yeah so then it even it takes even longer to get those minutes back yeah um but yeah it for me it takes long time I think I'm more because um I'm never really happy with a lot of the footage I get I want I I try to make it perfect but I I feel as if it never is perfect if that makes sense so uh too much of a perfectionist I say you're your toughest critic right it's tough to be you can't be perfectionist yeah that makes it tough and then sometimes after it goes live you'll watch it and you'll after viewing it and editing it a thousand times you're like why did I leave that in yeah yeah yeah yeah I think it's been amazing though like the and I'm sure you guys that the comments that come in and then you just think okay this is really like it's worth it to meet so many new amazing people and to yeah have people compliment your your work and yeah and that's what's quite nice about YouTube is that you you get to meet new people and and really nice great people and you don't really get that opportunity in life very often especially not in the UK really yeah sure especially people that share that same interest right in the travel and the hiking it's it's nice to build that own Community around something that you really enjoy exactly yeah yeah did you have any video editing or vlogging experience before you started pursuing this we didn't have any uh vlogging experience um to be honest one of our first movies we we made we found it quite difficult to talk to a camera and we didn't really know how to do it or what to say and with video editing uh when I was um probably around 12 years old till 15 years old I used to do a lot of um skateboarding and I had one of the latest versions of um Adobe Premier Pro it was a 7.0 version yeah so was a very old version and I used to record and um document skate skateboarding movies so that's where I kind of learn a lot of how to use um professional editing software and uh cameras as well how to use how to manage video cameras what cameras do you use when you're vlogging now and what's the editing software you're using uh so we use um ad do Premier Pro we use um a GoPro 10 is that right GoPro 10 and then you've got your drone haven't you yeah so I've got a a Maverick uh free um DJI mavic free Drone and a uh Canon R5 uh camera I think we're looking to get some while we're in England get some more different cameras yes so we want to get a a 360 yeah uh camera for when we hike and things like that yeah because when we're climbing sometimes it's a little bit hard to hold the GoPro and climb so I think we want to see different types of equipment what would be better for us and we going back to that expectation and we picked up the Canon R7 we were about I think 10 days into a road trip and we had we were having the time of our lives we were on Cloud 9 we were basically we we we were enjoying the vlogging part we were seeing some amazing things so we and we knew like our channel is just going to take off once we get back and start uploading content so we bought the Canon R7 fast forward to when we are actually editing content and uploading content to YouTube you know you post one video doesn't really take off you post second one third one then you we would look back and see how the video was performing like one of the first like epic video we did was Badlands National Park we go and check on it not only did it not really do much but then there were like three or four other videos that got posted that week in that area and they were all equally as good that moment there we kind of learned oh there's a lot of competition out there and we never saw ourselves as having like the hundreds of thousand subscribers but we figured maybe that 10,000 or so range and you know make it enough for it could be worth a while and you know make some money off it maybe have it you know provided an income source for a next trip something like that but it's been um it's it's definitely taken its time for sure what advice would you have for yourself if you were starting over in doing this again maybe just it's going to take a while so be patient and I think really reaching out to other people has really helped um with the YouTube Not only just to make friends but to get to know other people's channels and to kind of yeah maybe I would like to add that a little bit and kind of yeah little bits here and there and and yeah it's a really hard one I think it probably depends on what kind of Channel you are because I feel like some Channel some topics really take off and some are a lot harder to get into really so it's time and patience and yeah I think like Mike said at first we weren't sure if we wanted to be completely vlogging or we wanted to be cinematic so maybe the first couple of videos It's finding out where you want to be without being really wishy-washy if that kind of makes sense did you spend a lot of time looking at the analytics on YouTube uh we didn't at first no not at first we didn't um but then yeah we at one point we got start getting really obsessive with it um but now we just kind of take a step back um and just let it do whatever it does now um yeah we we started becoming quite obsessive with trying to build our Channel and yeah it was almost become depressing because it's almost like well why isn't this working and we put so much time so much money and so much effort into this and we're not getting anywhere and then in the end you just got to think you know let it do whatever you want to do we're still having a great time and that's what it's really about is the experience as opposed to doing it for other people I guess yeah you'll have those memories forever you'll have that footage to go back and look at it in a few years you're being your authentic self you're figuring out how you want to make these movies and I think that's one of the most important things is the process can be challenging but enjoy it along the way yeah definitely but yeah we were on the same page look just glued we spent a couple of weeks just Glu to the analytics we listen to you know the podcast or we listen we read the book YouTube secrets we tried to implement all these things and you it sounded it seemed like you would hear like 10 different things from 10 different people right one person or one thing we're listening to is it's it's that first 302 retention rate so we'd look at that we try and change our retention rates and then we would see that you know some of our like one of our worst performing videos there was a video at theore Roosevelt National Park had an insanely High retention rate after like 30 seconds but it flopped it didn't have any good views and then like same thing with thumbnails we would try doing thumbnails and you can drive yourself crazy like doing analytics and yeah it gets to a point where it's just like I said you kind of take a step back let it do its thing as long as you're having a good time you know you just keep plugging away keep chugging yeah I think I got to a point like every morning I wake up and like do we have any more subscribers what is our watch time

on have you ever seen your videos decrease um uh watched uh with views we have yeah yeah with views we have which is strange yeah yeah that's we had one video was like 134 views and then it was at 94 I was like what that's crazy I think that's the point we like you know what we're just going to let this do its thing yeah yeah at the moment we're we're seeing our um watch time go down um because it's been a year now with our other movies it's kind of the watch times battling against each other with the the new content we're releasing and with the old content that's being lost with watch time yeah we're lucky we don't have the subscribers yet but like we had we have one video our VOR video that has like 4,000 hours of watch time everything else is like not near that so we have the watch time because of that one video but everything else if we didn't have that we'd still be behind on watch time and the subscribers obviously we're at like 700 or so now it's like one video and it took off out of nowhere like we it was on YouTube for like a year and then all of a sudden it just like was getting subscribers and Views and watch time and so you never know when something's going to go viral yeah well thank you guys for sharing I think this is an important episode for somebody looking to get into whether full-time or part-time they want to explore travel vlogging um I think this sets a very realistic expectation on on what to expect and I encourage you to check to check out if you're looking to get into traveling full-time and vlogging full-time to check out Chelsea and Mike's channel the viager feeling and just see how their content is it's incredible content and those are the types of channels like they mentioned it didn't take off like they expected it to but if you were to compare that to any other channel that is I mean the quality is there so there's you need to set like those realistic expectations we can I guess move on a little bit into so the actual travel aspect so rewinding a little bit before you took your travel I know you were traveling for quite a while before you took this long trip but you did quit your job 9 to5 how long did it take you to come to the conclusion that you wanted to quit your job and then pursue this traveling full-time I think you had the you thought about it first really didn't you for for a long time Mike was thinking about it even before we were together um and I was a little bit like maybe maybe not um and I think we kind of just went to it we saw our van when when we went to look at her and we were like right this is the van this is what we want it's got everything we need kind of went from there didn't it yeah we just jumped yeah it just kind of like what's it like spiraled and we were like okay we're ready let's go yeah we didn't plan much we just

went when it's a raid it's right you know so fast forwarding when you actually got on the road what were some of the big frustrations you faced while traveling finding places to uh Park and to sleep over I think um because we've traveled lots of different countries and I must say England's one of the hardest places where we went to Scotland first to find somewhere to stay and not kind of be moved on it's such a small place and so many motor homes and Van go over there um that was really quite difficult wasn't it it was yeah um and it all depends on we we found whatever season it is it's especially summer months it's very difficult to travel in in some countries we like to stay off grid quite a lot and um not have to pay for campsites as much but in the south of Germany we had to pay every night for a campsite because you just can't sleep in layb uh they move you on um so you actually have to go to a csite yeah and I think also starting was it's kind of knowing our routine like how often are we going to need to fill up water um how often do we just getting like how often do we do these things or go shopping or yeah it's just getting into a routine where you don't have a house you don't have a full fridge or a toilet you don't have to empty and it's just getting to know all the new different aspects of a motor home life I think yeah when you were traveling beforehand so I know you were hiking and doing epic things before you got into your motor home were you traveling in a motor home or was this your first time in a motor home when you started going full-time first time first time really wow yeah you guys are brave we didn't know anything about motor homes really did we and we we bought one and had to learn everything about it yeah uh and obviously YouTube and things like this helped us out um I feel like we've been doing it for a year and a half and we're only just feel like we're just ticking all the boxes now because it's there's always something that Springs up and you think oh I didn't think about that um maybe we should get this instead and yeah one one thing for me was the um what I found difficult was um uh gas cylinders and so we bought British gas cylinders with um e EU adapters so we could refill our gas cylinders uh the problem is with um the in the UK we have a uh a leftand frad and everyone else has a right-and frad if I say or vice versa um so the adapts they sent us I didn't check them and we went away and I went to screw this thing on and it didn't work um so I couldn't refill the bottles so then we had to get gas bottles from France and then we went to Spain and I had to get new gas bottles for Spain new gas bottles for Portugal with the adapters as well so we spent a fortune continually buying new gas bottles and new gas uh cylinder attachments and pipes as well um that was quite frustrating wasn't it we now buy French gas cylinders only cuz France is kind of in the middle of all the places we visit anyway but yeah that was a that was a massive frustration for us wasn't it to begin with Lefty tidy ready Lucy is a thing I never would have guessed that in the RV you bought Luna that was a 19-year-old motor home did you have any experience well I know you did a lot of work renovating yourself but there were issues you had some dampness you had mice in your RV would you do that again would you buy a 19-year-old motor home if you starting this over again was there more work involved in upkeeping than you expected I feel like more things went wrong than we expected but I think talking to other motor homers it is just what happened there's some someone we talked to they had a fiveyear motor home five-year old motor home and they had damp problems as well so I think sometimes it is pot luuck we were really lucky because the people we bought the motor home off they were only the second owners and the first owners were their parents and unfortunately the gearbox went on Luna before we bought it so they had to pay out for that but I think which is quite an expense as you probably know anyone to buy a motor home I think you just have to have these things are probably going to go wrong at some point um and also if you to buy anything newer we wouldn't have been able to travel really because we didn't have the money to buy anything newer yeah it's difficult because we couldn't buy anything brand new yeah we only I mean we only spent um 20,000 on our motor home and if we would to put another 10,000 into it I can imagine it would only have knocked off a few more years whereas we could have had boiler issues again fridge issues again uh damp issues um yeah it's difficult to predict it is difficult to predict I we bought brand new and we had a long list of issues that happen with us so you and I think as an RV owner you have to expect it one thing I learned from Matt's RV reviews on YouTube he talked about how you're literally driving this thing through hurricanes and earthquakes and tornadoes you're going down the road bumpy roads things are going to happen so just be prepared for issues and you touched on overnight sleeping and that's that is one of the challenges just to kind of Link this back to the United States that's one thing during our road trip we faced was overnight camping and sleeping and that's one thing we did not expect to have to deal with was like several nights we were trying to find a place to stay and in episode 9 we talked with lanaa and Tequila she mentioned she has zero issues finding places to sleep and she's full-time in her van and the reason for that is because she's more remote we were going to more more destination National Park touristy areas and she recommended apps like onx eye Overlander in the dirt where she find her places to stay so that was a challenge if you're looking to do a cross country trip or an RV trip in the United States it can be tough but if you're a little more remote you can find places to to stay yeah that's good all right so we talked about some of the bad news and the frustrations we'll switch to some of the good news what do you love most about your travel lifestyle uh I feel just being bit more free I yeah seeing all these amazing places and but it's really funny so we obviously love mountains and as we were driving to the German Alps we were both like oh my God oh my God look at these Mountains they're massive um we because in England there are lots they're pretty small mountains that we have um so yeah just being free and kind of yeah just being it's just freedom and um kind of being out of the system more um yeah and and it's almost true living where you live to survive rather than you live to you live to work to get money to survive if that makes sense um and one of the coolest things too is when you're traveling you know in our age group right you you can do so much more right A lot of people that take these extended trips to go to Europe to go cross country and see the national parks in the USA you know they do that as a retirement goal and so they're just going to those overlooks and they're seeing the mountains and they're beautiful but they're not climbing up them like you and you guys are doing that now which I think is probably one of the most freeing things is that you have the capabilities to not just travel but experience it in a way that most people don't yeah and that's that's the the very reason why we did it our at our age now because we knew that once we retire we wouldn't be able to do all the things we enjoy um so ex exactly the reason why we just took took our opportunity and it's a big thing selling your home and not having anywhere to live apart from a motor home but um yeah it you you only get this opportunity once in my opinion and just got to go for it yeah we've met so many people along the road saying oh we wish we did it with we were your age and and I'm not so sure so much with your situation but we we don't have kids or we don't have animals and no one's really relying on us so let's take the opportunity while we don't have um so many yeah I'm not sure what the word is yeah people to yeah yeah that's it yeah y yeah we're in the exact same phase where we don't have those commitments and we met people on our trip they asked us how we could do it we we got asked enough s by people wondering how we were able to do this we wanted to start this podcast and share with people and you know we're in the same position we pursued this travel vlogging thing got a taste for it so far it hasn't met the expectations that you know either of us wanted it to but we're young we're we can bounce back you know we're hard workers we can find other ways to make money while we're still pursuing this and then you know keep chipping away yeah y good we'll switch gears a little bit to the financial part of traveling full-time what does your budget look like um Jo it's really bad uh first couple of months we kind of we didn't really keep on top of a lot of things I think we were just so excited we were like yeah let's go do this let's go do that and I have now made us a little uh a chart to keep on top of what we do for leisure what we spend on food yeah like Financial spreadsheets things like that a lot of ours was on petrol or diesel to start with because we were doing long distance um runs but also depending on what country you go to so we just went through Bosnia and it was super cheap um and we had come from Austria and Germany so it was like two totally different sides of the spectrum so anywhere really between maybe 400 to a thousand depending on where we are and how he's laugh sounds bad when we've got no money coming in I think in a year and a half we' probably spent over 30 grand yeah we've had we've had a lot of work with our boiler and now our fridge is gone and oh I haven't included those oh theist go I mean 30,000 just traveling with food and pounds 30,000 yeah uh probably 45,000 I don't know a lot closer now I think the pound and the I'm not sure work out the lifestyle you're living traveling fulltime the biggest expense is fuel diesel fuel in your case because you're driving a lot and that's been the pattern where people who are driving a lot their biggest expense is fuel versus if you're more stationary you're still traveling fulltime but you're staying in places longer it's groceries it's other expenses yeah but either way I mean we've we've tried to budget a lot um like we don't go to many restaurants um and spend out big bits of cash we do kind of we always go to discount supermarkets and yeah so we've we've tried to budget as much as we can yeah our next time out is going to be very limited like do we really need to go to that place or is it just because we want to go um are we going to benefit from it and it's great that obviously we love going to the mountains because it doesn't really cost that much no but we did go a little crazy in our first couple months and spent a lot of money yeah but I think you have to prepare for the first couple of months to just know that like you get in that mode of like I need to do everything I need to go everywhere I need to experience the food the culture the activities um and that does wear off as you travel a little bit more you do hone into that budget but I think we're who wherever you start however long you're going just expect that first few weeks few days few months to just you know be where the bulk of your money goes yeah that's a tip we learned from Jim and Michelle from airst streamer a couple episodes back where yeah it was that honeymoon phase the first couple months they didn't budget they just wanted to see what it was and then they were like okay we need to tame this down a little bit and a really good tip we learned from Dylan way back in episode one was in terms of fuel cuz fuel is your biggest expenses looking at Google Maps seeing how far you're driving and then adding like 50% to the miles like when we did our cross country trip we planned it was a it was a 10,000 M trip and we planned for like 11,000 Mi for some reason we didn't think we'd be driving that much in between you know going back and forth national parks and we ended up driving like 1,000 mil so it's almost 50% a little bit more than what Google Maps tells you as what your route is yeah that's good advice how do you get internet and cell service when you're traveling we have a a net gear modem a travel one which um requires a telephone SIM card our Sim we we carry free SIM cards two for each one of our phones and then one for this internet box that we have and our plan um pretty much covers uh all of the EU for free unlimited data unlimited text unlimited calls so we bought quite big packages um I think your edit the editing on the computer takes quite a lot of data so yeah want a a big data plan yeah so we've got like this uh Netgear night talk it's called and it's pretty good it it get it pretty much gets internet anywhere doesn't it um where our phones get it it will it will manage to get internet somewhere yeah and I bought like a little uh signal booster to it like an antenna as well which you plug in yeah works really well nice we'll put a link in the show notes for everything we talked about in today's show a couple more questions before you wrap everything up what has been the coolest experience you guys have had while traveling I think I don't know I think you love Japan didn't you was it your coess experience I think so yeah so we had to uh we to see Mount Fuji and it took us four trips up 200 sets of stairs to see finally see it because it had was just covered in clouds and it was really lovely the the time that we saw it cuz we had been there like you said our fourth time there was a whole crowd of people everyone was there for hours and all of a sudden it just decided to to show up and yeah so to be able to see that like a day or so before we fly home was pretty amazing yeah Japan was a a beautiful place and I've always wanted to to visit all my life and it was just it was magical to be able to go in the um cherry blossom season as well and yeah it was just the the people there are are great people they're really polite and it was it was one of the best places we've ever been yeah yeah it was very different awesome you guys have a video on that we'll Link in the show notes as well after spending so much time traveling what is one thing you've learned that you cannot live without I know it sounds really silly but probably my phone and I know it sounds very like um techno I would say it's your hair dryer I don't use my hair dryer H my phone because we do so much on it it's it's networking with people on YouTube it's our navigation it's booking places yeah yeah yeah it's true and like I never want because we want to be free I never want to say technology I rely on it so much but it does so much for us with anything else there almost there almost always a way around something you know if your shower breaks go into a lake or whatever it might be yeah um but yeah to be able to to navigate and book places and uh find the correct information for the places you want to visit or hike um yeah we'll probably be quite lost without our phones yeah without that information yeah without the internet I guess was there anything that you thought you would need while you were traveling that you realized that you really didn't I probably wouldn't take so so many clothes so I took a lot of um items to keep me busy so I took uh like a German no it wasn't German it was a French book to learn how to speak French but you're so busy when you're on the road whether it's filling up water or um going shopping or just cleaning yeah we thought we'd have a lot more time didn't we to kind of Doss around and yeah I thought it'd be more hippie-ish where we could kind of just lay around and not do so much but it is is constantly on the go there's always something to do or it's not it's it's not a holiday it's traveling in a at home I mean it's not relaxing no no not as relaxing as we thought it was going to be yeah if you could have listened to this podcast when you were first starting out on your road trip what is one question you wish I asked today and how would you answer that now when did you know was the right time to travel um so a lot I get asked this quite a lot we get asked this quite a lot and I honestly feel like there isn't always the right time to travel it's whether it goes in with your lifestyle or not at any age you can travel whether you're older um and you just want to kind of go around the cities or you're our age and you want to hike the mountains yeah the right time to travel is whenever the right time to travel is for you but I would always say make sure you've got enough money to back whatever you need to do because something can always go wrong like with us the boiler or the fridge um it ate into our traveling expenses and to really plan as much as possible so the first time we went out we didn't plan all of our stops um and it was really quite confusing and um it was just really hectic because we're like well should we go here or should we go there but the second time we came to Europe we had everything pinned on the map like okay well today we're going to do this and then in a few days we're going to go to this place and it just made everything so much easier I mean we found ourselves driving halfway down one country and then looking up on the map and being like well actually we've missed a place then we'd have to go back up again to come back down again and it was just really messy and it consumed quite a lot of fuel as well say yeah I think that's a really good point too is sometimes you in one spot and you have the next point that you're headed to but sometimes you have to take that step back and actually look and say okay what's right here where I am right now cuz there's a ton of times where we drove you know hundreds of miles out and I was like oh shoot you know that thing was actually way back there that we were 10 minutes away from and so taking that time too to just slow down look at your surroundings and where you are right now before you worry about you know what's the next point on your map and going back to just jumping in not that we're advising you know you jump in if you're not financially ready to live on Road it depends on your tolerance like we wanted a foundation where we had enough saved up where we could take this trip and it sounds like you and I were on the same page in this road trips everybody we've talked to they're more expensive than people think they're going to be you know be smart about it go through expenses listen to this podcast and hear what other people talking about how much they're spending on things like that do as much preparing as you can and then you know get into it and get out there and go see these amazing things for somebody listening to this podcast right now who would like to set up a lifestyle similar to yours what is one thing they could start doing today similar to what you just said like um I would never put myself in debt um for this lifestyle I would always make sure you've got enough um savings and enough information on how to pursue the travel lifestyle and yeah it all depends on what your interests are and yeah I just I just always like kind of recommend anyone to not go into debt for this life stuff it's so much more difficult coming home and I think for us like maybe going back thinking okay let's put x amount of money to one side in case there is an emergency before we went traveling we didn't do that um so always have like a little Safety Net in case something does go wrong whether it's medical or it's the vehicle you're in or the hotel or whatever it is so you've always got that little bit of emergency pot in case anything does happen yeah mainly money get great were there any YouTube channels or books or other influences that got you onto this path to travel I think we came across um someone called Ryan Shirley and he covers when he goes to each country he really covers um the really important things so it's he just says this is a great place this is a great place it's like top top 20 places to visit in each country um yeah it just really gets to the point doesn't it because sometimes we we're looking on Google or however we're trying to find the best places to go to and we might go to his channel and be like oh we we missed that that looks like an amazing place to go to and now like meeting other people especially like we definitely want to go to America like that's how dream was to get Luna to America so definitely American YouTubes have been amazing for us and we've started making a list be like oh we want to go to this state to do this and awesome all right we we'll uh we'll link some of those channels you had mentioned in our show notes below and while my audience is checking out while our audience is checking out those channels where can they find out more about you guys so you can find us on YouTube So at the Vier feeling we also have uh a website don't we we do uh via in.com or the Vier feeling.com which is currently in the making yeah so we're just working on that at the moment we're just putting everything together and yeah we we also have a a clothing store and you can find us on social media links Instagram Facebook and all that kind of stuff just typ feeling would be there yeah the vager feeling you you have new threads coming out new clothing line you also have prints and Etsy shop with some amazing footage and Wildlife scenery so if anyone's looking for a gift for somebody check out Mike and Chelsea thank you guys for coming on thank you so much for having us really appreciate it

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

01:15 How many times have you been to Disney World?

02:13 What is there to do apart from the main attractions?

03:15 How long should someone spend in Disney World?

05:10 When is the best time to go to Disney World?

06:30 Disney Crowd Calendars

07:00 How far ahead should someone plan?

07:52 Disney Park Passes

08:39 Disney Genie+

11:20 Night life/adult activities in Disney World

12:30 Favorite restaurants

14:00 Alien Encounter ride

15:00 What are three things to do around Disney World?

17:50 Two complaints someone would have at Disney World

20:20 Crowds/weather in Disney

21:40 What is one thing you can't leave Disney without doing?

22:40 Favorite ride?

Ericka on Social Media:

https://www.youtube.com/@ErickaAdventures

https://www.instagram.com/ericka.adventures/

Links

Planning

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/

Crowd calendar

Annual passes

Disney Genie+ Video

Restaurants

Homecomin' Kitchen

La Cava del Tequila

Satu'li Canteen in Animal Kingdom

To Do

Animal Kingdom Lodge Resort

Magic Kingdom Fireworks

Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind

Outside of Disney

Universal Orlando

Blog Resources:

https://atravelpath.com/how-to-part-time-travel/

Most Popular Blogs:

Most Popular Travel Hacks: https://atravelpath.com/money-saving-travel-tips/

Travel Gear: https://atravelpath.com/travel-gear/

How to Budget For Gas on a Road Trip: https://atravelpath.com/how-to-budget-for-gas-for-a-road-trip/

Our Favorite RV Upgrades: https://atravelpath.com/rv-upgrades/

How Much We Made Renting Our RV: https://atravelpath.com/renting-camper-van/

Never Run Out of Gas on a Road Trip: https://atravelpath.com/road-trip-tip/

#travelpodcast #disney #disneyguide #disneyworld #erickaadventures

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

Erica thank you for joining hope and I on this episode of the travel path podcast thanks for having me yes we know you on YouTube and Instagram as Erica Adventures that's Erica e r i c Ka a um you've got content and videos featuring everything from your travel Vlogs all over the country you've got some backpack Packing Tips you have some book recommendations so a lot of variety there and then you also have a ton of Disney so we're excited to jump in here um why don't you start by sharing a little about yourself and then letting our audience know your current lifestyle looks like yeah so um I am a travel content creator on the side I do have a full-time 9-to-5 job but um on Eric Adventures I just love sharing tips and tricks on all of my Adventures whether that's theme parks or Beyond so that's kind of what my lifestyle looks like right now no that's awesome you definitely have some awesome content I've enjoyed watching it I've learned a lot from you about places that you've gone so I'm excited to jump in here um before we dive too deep into your actual current travel lifestyle we want to take a step back and talk about um when you studied abroad in Rome yeah so that was a very very special time in my life yeah that was my junior going into senior year of college I did six weeks there I think I don't know the time time's crazy there but um yeah that was an incredible opportunity I really got to live in Rome I lived in an apartment um really got to like live in the culture there and explore all of Rome the Coliseum um everything and it was a truly life-changing experience and I cannot recommend doing a study AB broad if it's an opportunity for you like I think everyone should do that um if they can in college it just take you don't have to take the whole like semester off like I just went in the summer and just go for go for a couple weeks and it's going to change your life and give you a whole new perspective oh yeah that's awesome now did you have any initial fears or concerns doing that and if someone you know was thinking about going abroad what would your advice for them be yeah I mean I was excited and nervous I think that's everyone's feeling towards that especially that was my first time really going like out of the country um so you know I had to get my passport and like make sure all my travel documents were in order but I was really lucky to go with some solid friends so I knew I had people um that I knew very well going but I definitely met amazing people along the way so I just feel like it's that you just kind of have to take the jump and do it because it's only like a once in a-lifetime Opportunity you can't you know go back later and do it like study abroad you can go back and travel to Europe but you know actually being in the city for that long and and experiencing the lifestyle that's that's like a once in a-lifetime chance yeah absolutely definitely too with you know your group of friends and at that age you just experience things so much different than you know you do when you travel and you get a little bit older yeah absolutely and you mentioned six to eight weeks and that's news to me might not be news to our audience but I always thought like studying abroad you were there for like a year or a semester so I think that almost answers that question hope had originally where like if you have a concern or you're a little bit afraid to do that well you can actually do it for just 6 to8 weeks can you go for shorter or is that like the quickest time frame you can do in a broad study well for me so I went to Michigan State which has a huge study abroad program and a lot of the study AB Brads were semester and I had you know I didn't really want to take a semester off college cuz that's an experience in itself I really want to have the college experience um so I feel like 6 weeks was the shortest one at my school at the time uh there still might be other opportunities it's maybe four weeks but yeah it wasn't too long um it was I feel like it was the perfect amount of time to get that experience but also like come back home too what was the dayto day in like week to week like in Rome when you were there I pretty much had classes every day during the week so that was basically my morning to my afternoon some of those classes did involve like field trips going to like an historic site or something like that um but basically I I had a pretty similar schedule to what I'd have at home like I went to class and then i' come home and I'd either make dinner go out to dinner because I mean I ate pasta every day when I was in Italy that's kind of what like the week schedule looked like and then on the weekends that was free for us to do whatever some people actually would leave the country and go to like Spain or Barcelona for the weekend because you know that was like a short train right away and we did like a mai Coast or went to Florence so we tried to like explore outside of Rome too uh on the weekends awesome yeah it sounds like a really awesome time there yeah well great um I guess we can fast forward a little bit to your current travel lifestyle where you are now so growing up you've been traveling pretty consistently you've been back and forth the Disney World in Florida and you've lived pretty much all over Michigan has that always been a part of you and did that make you want to continue traveling absolutely I feel like I've always like I almost like live to leave I say sometimes like what really gets me excited is having a trip booked or like knowing I'm about to go experience somewhere new like that's always been a part of me I think I get that from my mom like she's always like let's go let's go here let's go there like yeah like let's do it and I've never really had any reservations about that that's just always been who I am and kind of like how I've grown up just I I I I love to go new places experience new things I do love being at home but I can't be at home for tooo long I have to go somewhere at some point so that's kind of always been a part of me so it sounds like the travel came first like when you're looking for your job your full-time job after your graduated college the travel part was a non-negotiable so how are you able to land a job so that you could have that opportunity how it's how it came to be so I've had two jobs since I've graduated college my first job was in retail which gave me five weeks off um a year so I was like perfect like plenty of time to travel um but I soon realized that that career path wasn't for me so I wanted to switch careers which I did and now I'm in marketing at my current job and I was supposed to be not fully remote like I was supposed to be in the office every day but when I got hired it was March 2020 and life happened and I got sent home and everything kind of shifted at this new company I worked for and everyone's like okay well you can work from home now just because that became our Norm so I feel like you know of course 2020 has its highs and lows for sure but I would say maybe like a good thing that came out of it is that there's so many more opportunities to work from home and that really helps like with travel because I can work you know from home and then leave right to the airport after like I I feel like it just gives me way more flexibility so I feel like in today's society we have so many opportunities so many um job opport unities that we can you know work remote or even hybrid my fiance Works hybrid and that still works with our travel schedule when you're working from home it's great you have the opportunity you can travel more you're not making that commute to work but your work and your boss like they kind of always know you're on call if that makes sense does that make your work hours longer than they might typically be or what does that look like yeah so because I do work in marketing so a lot of my job is communicating with our customers and you know if there's anything that they need um whatever time of day it is I'm just always like okay yeah I'll answer them I work a lot in our social media too so if someone messages us at 10 p.m. I'll need to message that customer back and that's just kind of how it goes thankfully I have a really great team where we always like you know pick each other up if I'm on vacation or traveling you know my boss will be like oh don't worry I got this or or whatever but we just really have a great collaborative team and I think that makes it makes such a difference when you have people that understand on your team that like okay this person traveling will help pick up you know anything that's going on at the office sure yeah finding a job in a team where you're like-minded it's group effort and get things done that way yeah what are some of the biggest frustrations you find with this lifestyle I would say that I feel like there's so much to do and so many places to travel to and I only have so much PTO or we have only so much time off and it's hard to like pick everything and then when you go to that destination it's like okay well there's like a hundred things I could do in Rome in Paris at a theme park like how do I you know pick and choose and I feel like that's kind of like the beauty of travel also is like we're never gonna be able to see it all you know so it's Al it's always like I love to do my plan and research ahead of time so that way I know like okay these are my priorities but I always feel like oh I left a place I'm like oh I didn't get to do that or that and it's like I don't know that's like a little struggle I have personally no I definitely feel that like when we're driving through a state it's like which way do we want to go right like there's so much up here on the Northern side and there's so much on the southern side so we definitely struggle with trying to you know feel like what you can get done in that time frame when you actually have off right and then you come back home and people are like so did you do that and you know and you're like no I didn't do that like oh well you missed out and it's like oh but I was doing this really cool thing it's like ah you know you know it's so true we did a cross country Loop we went North out and then back towards the middle of the country and we thought like once we did that we never have to like do that loop again but like what we found was we could drive that same exact Road the whole exact same path out and back and we could have a completely different experience because there's just so many things that we missed right along the way that we didn't get get to do yeah absolutely so it's funny to bring that up because you do go to and I know we're going to touch on this in part two of the Disney World in Orlando studios and all that but so if anyone's looking to plan a trip to Disney definitely tune into part two here but you mentioned there's a ton of places million one things to do and see but you're always going back and forth to Disney and you've been going there since you were a kid I guess we can do like a little bit of a teaser for the next episode is there something that makes that place so special for you yeah I mean well first of all I think the Nostalgia factor for me since I've been going there since I was a kid it's it's always been very nostalgic for me it's always felt like a place I mean kind of like a a second home in a way like I just always feel at peace when I'm there and it's it's just a place I go to when I just want to have fun like I just want to have a good time I want to be entertained and like just have a ball and honestly have permission to be a kid again and just have that Disney escapism um some people call it the Disney bubble like as soon as you enter Disney World all of your problems at home they don't exist anymore you get to kind of be in this like pretend world and just just have fun and just be a kid again so that's something that I do love about theme parks in Disney World like I just love to go and just just be a kid have a good time I love roller coasters and the entertainment so it's just a place I like to visit for sure yeah and they're always making more and more new rides and yeah yeah so everyone tune in to part two we'll be talking about that in the next episode so we'll transition a little bit to some of the budgeting and finance when you're on the road now we typically ask this question what does a monthly budget look like obviously you're not traveling full-time living in a van or an RV so how long are you typically gone for and then what does that budget typically look like yeah so it really depends on the trip um it could be a weekend trip or a week trip but I feel like when it comes to budgeting I really focus a lot of my budgeting when I'm at home like I I budget the most there so that I can save up for those travel experiences so for instance like I rarely really eat at eat out when I'm home like I actually moved to a new city um it's been over a year now and some people ask me like oh like what are your favorite restaurants in the new city you live and I'm kind of like oh I don't really try a ton because I kind of save that money to then eat out when I travel and do other experiences so it really just depends and then when it comes to like a a week or weekend trip if I can drive there that's what I'm going to do just to save some money there so it's all about kind of like saving money leading up to the trip so that way when I'm there I don't have to think so much about you know like oh should I really spend this much it's like well I've been saving for a month now for this trip so I want to spend that money on this experience that I can only get in this city sure yeah saving up when you're back home and yeah splurging when you take that vacation yeah that's kind of how I balance it that's a good point you're bring up and it's it's interesting because we learn that same thing I think the pandemic brought out a lot of people actually going out and exploring their own backyard because for a while like we have like some air Bean bees and people would ask us like oh the best places to eat at and things to do in the area and we'd be like yeah we'd actually never we'd be recommending things but we're like we actually haven't done these things before we spent like one day a couple years ago and just did everything we could in Mystic and it was like like this is such a fun you know such a fun time I remember you worked at a at a shop in one of the in the village and like people were coming in who've lived in this area for like their entire life and they're like I never knew this was here you know once you know there's a shutdown and people are forced to stay home and stay in their hometowns then they get out and explore but yeah it is funny how like little we knew about our hometown until we were like we should probably know more about this yeah no that actually that reminds me of something I saw on Instagram a couple weeks ago and it was this guy I think he was in Switzerland and he was at a bar and the guy next to him was like oh yeah like I'm a local here and he's like oh well tell me all the cool stuff to see and the Local's like no you want to talk to all the tourists at that table because they've done their research they know what to do it's like we're always bad that bad about being tourists in our own town but that's just funny you know that that happens so when you are staying is it air BNB Hotel how does that look mostly hotels um I guess my in September I did stay in Airbnb because we were there for a week and there was six of us we wanted a little bit more space a kitchen and everything but I would say you know if it's like a short trip four days or less I'm I usually do a hotel um but longer I think Airbnb works out best and how many trips a year are you taking I think well I guess I'll think I'll talk about this year because I feel like I got all my trips like in my brain now for this year it's might be like every month to two months which is exciting I'm excited for this year because I'm going to go finally back to Europe because I haven't been since the study abroad that'll be my honeymoon trip so I'm very excited about that so it'll be a big year of travel for me awesome awesome what are some money-saving travel tips you've discovered along the way I love trying to fly during the weekday that really saves a lot I always like looking at Google flights like I love tracking flight prices too to make sure I'm getting the best deal um I also do have a travel card that helps me a lot I earn a lot of miles on that so that helps pay for flights um but yeah I would say just I I really that's probably my number one thing is I really try and save leading up to the trip and that way when I'm there I don't have to worry so much about you know my budget while I'm experiencing what I want to experience yeah so true which travel car do you have I have the Delta AMX card does that get you into the lounges well you know they they changed that rule so I think I was leading up to I think I had to get so many miles and then I could get in but now I don't know they changed the rules and I'm like okay whatever like yeah that's like something we just or I think you had known about it but I just discovered it like you walk in the airports and you see these lounges and I've never thought twice about it but apparently if you have the right card you can just you know get in there and do your work and it seems like the perfect opportunity for someone who is traveling you know fulltime or you know they're away for a while and they just want to get some work done like some of these places have like free food showers it's like you have to be travel obviously but you could get there like half you know half a day early and crank out some work super nice if you have a long layover actually now that we're talking about it I think it might be I have to pay like a certain fee like maybe $50 but I think that includes your food while you're there too so yeah I forget but I know they just changed that rule so it's like people were all upset about that so I was like okay maybe I won't be getting into those lounges but oh well so you don't have kids but you do have two dogs right yep so what would you say to someone who wants to travel but has pets and are worth that's too much of a commitment what would you tell them how do you manage it yeah so I have a couple points on this so first of all yeah I do have two dogs so it can be a little bit bit of a barrier when I'm trying to travel it makes it a little bit harder to do last minute trips because who's going to watch the dogs you know they can't just be home alone um so first of all thankfully we do have family that are so obsessed with our dogs that they'll be like yeah like we'll take them and they get so excited so sometimes they stay with them but also I don't always just want to like dump our dogs on our family you know everyone has busy schedules too so we do board them as well and I feel like just dog boarding has really come a long way in the past couple of years like I remember as a kid when we used to board our dog she didn't really like it because she was just like in a kennel all day but these dog boarding places are like little mini Resorts now they have doggy playtime and like they get like walks and everything so I'm like okay I'm basically taking my dog on vacation while I while I go on vacation so that's really nice too um and then I'll also say like we like to take our dogs when we can um travel especially when we go to Northern Michigan we definitely bring our dogs along and I think they have more fun than us when we go honestly like they love being up there so there's I feel like there's a lot of opportunity nowadays to take your pets with you my my fiance and I just took a trip to Chicago not too long ago and when I was looking up hotels I swear all of them were like dog friendly and I feel like you wouldn't have seen that like five years ago like I don't know I was like wow like all these places are dog friendly not that we were planning on bringing our dogs but it was nice to know that that is an option nowadays so definitely just like do your research there's really cool places you can take your pets with you one word of caution I will just mention because we just took a trip to Florida and we had our dog scheduled to do the daycare we were boarding them and we got a message like I don't know like a week before and they told us that the puppy Co Kettle cough was going around we ended up having someone that just we paid her to stay at her house so there's always fallback plans like Rover um there's different things you can do too so I guess the word of advice would be to just have some sort of fallback plan and they do get pretty pricey right how much typically are you spending to have your dog be boarded we've been because we've moved around a lot in Michigan so we've seen a lot of different um kennels and they can be pricey some of them have been $50 per dog so when you have two dogs that adds up a lot um but sometimes they give a discount on the second dog which is nice but our recent kennel that we just found um really comes out to $30 per day for dog so that's way more reasonable so you just have to kind of do your research I feel like dog doggy daycares and kennels are popping up everywhere so just do your research and you might be able to find one that's not too expensive but again if it is maybe you just take a shorter trip so you can kind of balance out that yeah 30 bucks they must not have the balcony and the hot tub in their sweet for that price right all right awesome we'll transition we'll start wrapping up a little bit here what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling so that is such a hard question because I feel like oh my gosh there's so many I could choose from but I think the one I want to talk about is a recent one I've had so in September of 2023 I went to bamp National Park which is like in the heart of the Canadian rocky and it was our first day there and we had signed up for horseback riding and we were riding these horses literally through the mountains I mean you couldn't have pictured a more beautiful place and I'm on a horse I feel like I'm living the cowgirl dream and it's like it was like a pinch me moment like this can't be real the beauty and just the experience was just like so awe inspiring and it was like that moment I was like yep I'm in love with this place like this place is so cool and just to like kind of do an Excursion instead of just like hiking the trails being on a horse was like really really really cool so let me ask you this and I think I know what the answer is going to be but would that experience be a contender if there were no horses involved do you think well I think it would still I mean maybe because it was also my first day so I was just still like whoa like with these mountains cuz I I'd never seen mountains like that before and the lakes and we even walk the horse through like a river so I was like oh my gosh like this is so cool I felt and also at the time I was watching Yellowstone which is like a huge like cowboy show so I was like okay like I am totally living living the dream right now but yeah just it was like one of those like Pinch Me moments for sure yeah I guess I asked that because we had a similar experience we did Cody Wyoming we went horseback riding completely different terrain it was red rock and we were in the in the woods but yeah if we had hiked it it wouldn't have been the same as just you know going I me we don't ride horses regularly that was like I don't know your first time right riding a horse and I think like my third time so just doing that just makes it so I guess my advice would be if you're looking to do something like this and there's like a horse back riding option available for the family look into it it's GNA be something your children your guys are going to remember for a long time it's it makes that moment just that much more special yeah I totally agree with that I mean it would have been cool on foot as much but like to be on the horse and I it's just a different experience and just added added a little something extra to it yeah everything you shared from that looked amazing and I think every single person that probably saw your post were like okay that's got to be a a bucket list travel next year so you've been traveling pretty much your entire life what is one thing you've learned that you can't live without while you're traveling and one thing you learned that you don't need okay so things I can't live without I have to mention two things first has to do all with packing because I love packing I love like I feel like that's just as exciting as going on a trip it gets me so excited to go and once I discovered packing cubes I swear it changed the packing game for me I just love it because it organizes your stuff I swear you can pack more stuff with them because it kind of like compresses it and I feel like it just makes traveling so much easier and again more organized especially let's say you're going to Europe and you're doing a couple countries in one trip just like kind of having everything in one spot is so nice and then the second thing I have learned is you always always should wear good comfortable shoes because nothing ruins a trip than blisters or sore feet like I I tell you just find the most comfortable shoes you can wear because whether you're going to the theme parks out on a hike or walking the streets of Europe like you should have good shoes it's going to like make your trip so much better and then the thing I realize that I can live without I feel like I I've learned that you know you don't have to have a new outfit every day of your trip I feel like for girls or anyone on Instagram like we always get this pressure to be like okay like we have to like pack all these things so that we have the best trip and the best photos but that's not really what it's about like I feel like I used to get into that like mindset that it's like oh I should you know have the perfect outfit for this perfect photo or whatever but you know what be an outfit repeater it's cool to do no one really cares and just it's that's not about what travel is travel is being there in the moment yeah such good advice now do you have any recommendations on shoes oh yeah um okay so one pair of shoes I love is called All Birds they are extremely comfortable shoes I love them I've worn them on so many trips and then the second pair of shoe that I've recently discovered are vessie shoes and what's really cool about them is they are 100% waterproof but they're like a tennis shoe and they're knit material so it still like gives you that nice comfortable tennis shoe feel but I mean I I can dump a bucket of water on them and water is not going to get through so I've worn those to Disney World in Orlando where it can rain at any moment and then I did wear them to bamp just because I wasn't sure and honestly they were great hiking shoes too I kind of had like this tennis shoe boot style from them and I love those shoes they're just so comfortable so those definitely those two Brands I really recommend we fit an insane amount of things in our van that I thought was not going to fit and then somehow she stuffed everything in the cube and we had like room to spare so packing cubes invest in your Footwear and it's kind of similar like an analogy is like your mattress you spend a lot of time sleeping you spend a lot of time on your feet know Splurge there because your body's going to thank you you know 20 30 years down the road you've been traveling your entire life did you have any YouTube or other influencers that influenced you to travel or maybe people have recommended books too yeah I think really I dove into the whole YouTube travel Community um especially during 2020 cuz all I wanted to do was go somewhere and I couldn't so like that was my escapism was to just like watch people go on trips um on YouTube so I would say a lot of those were Disney YouTubes because I was just missing Disney World so I watched um Disney food blog is a great Channel they have so many great tips on Disney World um there's another she's also like life style but Rogan Tate on YouTube is awesome she does a lot of travel um in Europe and also to Disney park so those are like two that I love to watch and just give a lot of tips from so we'll link those channels in the show notes below and while our audience is checking out those channels where can they find out more about you yeah so I am on Instagram and YouTube both erica. Adventures AA spelled e r i c Ka um and yeah that's where you can find me I have travel Vlogs a little bit of Lifestyle Vlogs too on my YouTube channel and a lot of travel content on my Instagram great Erica thank you for coming on thank you so much for having me this was so much fun

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Intro

01:06 Studying abroad in Rome

04:48 Have you always wanted to travel?

05:44 How were you able to get a job so you could travel so much?

07:20 Does remote work mean you are always "on call?"

08:12 What are the biggest frustrations you find with travel?

10:10 What makes Disney so special to you?

11:15 What does your travel budget look like?

13:50 What types of places are you staying in?

14:45 What are some money saving travel tips?

15:15 Delta AmEx card

16:30 Traveling with dogs

19:40 What has been your coolest travel experience?

22:00 What can't you live without while traveling?

23:13 What have you learned you don't need while traveling?

23:56 Shoe recommendations

25:09 Travel influencers

We had a fun time talking with Ericka from Ericka's Adventures today! In this episode you can expect to hear all about how:

✈️Her study abroad in Rome

🧳How she and her fiancé manage to take a trip every 1-2 months while working remote full time

💵 A few budgeting and packing tips

And More!

Music:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

Full Episode At:

https://atravelpath.com/podcast/

Channels Mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/@Disney

https://www.youtube.com/@DFBGuide

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*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

Erica thank you for joining hope and I on this episode of the travel path podcast thanks for having me yes we know you on YouTube and Instagram as Erica Adventures that's Erica e r i c Ka a um you've got content and videos featuring everything from your travel Vlogs all over the country you've got some backpack Packing Tips you have some book recommendations so a lot of variety there and then you also have a ton of Disney so we're excited to jump in here um why don't you start by sharing a little about yourself and then letting our audience know your current lifestyle looks like yeah so um I am a travel content creator on the side I do have a full-time 9-to-5 job but um on Eric Adventures I just love sharing tips and tricks on all of my Adventures whether that's theme parks or Beyond so that's kind of what my lifestyle looks like right now no that's awesome you definitely have some awesome content I've enjoyed watching it I've learned a lot from you about places that you've gone so I'm excited to jump in here um before we dive too deep into your actual current travel lifestyle we want to take a step back and talk about um when you studied abroad in Rome yeah so that was a very very special time in my life yeah that was my junior going into senior year of college I did six weeks there I think I don't know the time time's crazy there but um yeah that was an incredible opportunity I really got to live in Rome I lived in an apartment um really got to like live in the culture there and explore all of Rome the Coliseum um everything and it was a truly life-changing experience and I cannot recommend doing a study AB broad if it's an opportunity for you like I think everyone should do that um if they can in college it just take you don't have to take the whole like semester off like I just went in the summer and just go for go for a couple weeks and it's going to change your life and give you a whole new perspective oh yeah that's awesome now did you have any initial fears or concerns doing that and if someone you know was thinking about going abroad what would your advice for them be yeah I mean I was excited and nervous I think that's everyone's feeling towards that especially that was my first time really going like out of the country um so you know I had to get my passport and like make sure all my travel documents were in order but I was really lucky to go with some solid friends so I knew I had people um that I knew very well going but I definitely met amazing people along the way so I just feel like it's that you just kind of have to take the jump and do it because it's only like a once in a-lifetime Opportunity you can't you know go back later and do it like study abroad you can go back and travel to Europe but you know actually being in the city for that long and and experiencing the lifestyle that's that's like a once in a-lifetime chance yeah absolutely definitely too with you know your group of friends and at that age you just experience things so much different than you know you do when you travel and you get a little bit older yeah absolutely and you mentioned six to eight weeks and that's news to me might not be news to our audience but I always thought like studying abroad you were there for like a year or a semester so I think that almost answers that question hope had originally where like if you have a concern or you're a little bit afraid to do that well you can actually do it for just 6 to8 weeks can you go for shorter or is that like the quickest time frame you can do in a broad study well for me so I went to Michigan State which has a huge study abroad program and a lot of the study AB Brads were semester and I had you know I didn't really want to take a semester off college cuz that's an experience in itself I really want to have the college experience um so I feel like 6 weeks was the shortest one at my school at the time uh there still might be other opportunities it's maybe four weeks but yeah it wasn't too long um it was I feel like it was the perfect amount of time to get that experience but also like come back home too what was the dayto day in like week to week like in Rome when you were there I pretty much had classes every day during the week so that was basically my morning to my afternoon some of those classes did involve like field trips going to like an historic site or something like that um but basically I I had a pretty similar schedule to what I'd have at home like I went to class and then i' come home and I'd either make dinner go out to dinner because I mean I ate pasta every day when I was in Italy that's kind of what like the week schedule looked like and then on the weekends that was free for us to do whatever some people actually would leave the country and go to like Spain or Barcelona for the weekend because you know that was like a short train right away and we did like a mai Coast or went to Florence so we tried to like explore outside of Rome too uh on the weekends awesome yeah it sounds like a really awesome time there yeah well great um I guess we can fast forward a little bit to your current travel lifestyle where you are now so growing up you've been traveling pretty consistently you've been back and forth the Disney World in Florida and you've lived pretty much all over Michigan has that always been a part of you and did that make you want to continue traveling absolutely I feel like I've always like I almost like live to leave I say sometimes like what really gets me excited is having a trip booked or like knowing I'm about to go experience somewhere new like that's always been a part of me I think I get that from my mom like she's always like let's go let's go here let's go there like yeah like let's do it and I've never really had any reservations about that that's just always been who I am and kind of like how I've grown up just I I I I love to go new places experience new things I do love being at home but I can't be at home for tooo long I have to go somewhere at some point so that's kind of always been a part of me so it sounds like the travel came first like when you're looking for your job your full-time job after your graduated college the travel part was a non-negotiable so how are you able to land a job so that you could have that opportunity how it's how it came to be so I've had two jobs since I've graduated college my first job was in retail which gave me five weeks off um a year so I was like perfect like plenty of time to travel um but I soon realized that that career path wasn't for me so I wanted to switch careers which I did and now I'm in marketing at my current job and I was supposed to be not fully remote like I was supposed to be in the office every day but when I got hired it was March 2020 and life happened and I got sent home and everything kind of shifted at this new company I worked for and everyone's like okay well you can work from home now just because that became our Norm so I feel like you know of course 2020 has its highs and lows for sure but I would say maybe like a good thing that came out of it is that there's so many more opportunities to work from home and that really helps like with travel because I can work you know from home and then leave right to the airport after like I I feel like it just gives me way more flexibility so I feel like in today's society we have so many opportunities so many um job opport unities that we can you know work remote or even hybrid my fiance Works hybrid and that still works with our travel schedule when you're working from home it's great you have the opportunity you can travel more you're not making that commute to work but your work and your boss like they kind of always know you're on call if that makes sense does that make your work hours longer than they might typically be or what does that look like yeah so because I do work in marketing so a lot of my job is communicating with our customers and you know if there's anything that they need um whatever time of day it is I'm just always like okay yeah I'll answer them I work a lot in our social media too so if someone messages us at 10 p.m. I'll need to message that customer back and that's just kind of how it goes thankfully I have a really great team where we always like you know pick each other up if I'm on vacation or traveling you know my boss will be like oh don't worry I got this or or whatever but we just really have a great collaborative team and I think that makes it makes such a difference when you have people that understand on your team that like okay this person traveling will help pick up you know anything that's going on at the office sure yeah finding a job in a team where you're like-minded it's group effort and get things done that way yeah what are some of the biggest frustrations you find with this lifestyle I would say that I feel like there's so much to do and so many places to travel to and I only have so much PTO or we have only so much time off and it's hard to like pick everything and then when you go to that destination it's like okay well there's like a hundred things I could do in Rome in Paris at a theme park like how do I you know pick and choose and I feel like that's kind of like the beauty of travel also is like we're never gonna be able to see it all you know so it's Al it's always like I love to do my plan and research ahead of time so that way I know like okay these are my priorities but I always feel like oh I left a place I'm like oh I didn't get to do that or that and it's like I don't know that's like a little struggle I have personally no I definitely feel that like when we're driving through a state it's like which way do we want to go right like there's so much up here on the Northern side and there's so much on the southern side so we definitely struggle with trying to you know feel like what you can get done in that time frame when you actually have off right and then you come back home and people are like so did you do that and you know and you're like no I didn't do that like oh well you missed out and it's like oh but I was doing this really cool thing it's like ah you know you know it's so true we did a cross country Loop we went North out and then back towards the middle of the country and we thought like once we did that we never have to like do that loop again but like what we found was we could drive that same exact Road the whole exact same path out and back and we could have a completely different experience because there's just so many things that we missed right along the way that we didn't get get to do yeah absolutely so it's funny to bring that up because you do go to and I know we're going to touch on this in part two of the Disney World in Orlando studios and all that but so if anyone's looking to plan a trip to Disney definitely tune into part two here but you mentioned there's a ton of places million one things to do and see but you're always going back and forth to Disney and you've been going there since you were a kid I guess we can do like a little bit of a teaser for the next episode is there something that makes that place so special for you yeah I mean well first of all I think the Nostalgia factor for me since I've been going there since I was a kid it's it's always been very nostalgic for me it's always felt like a place I mean kind of like a a second home in a way like I just always feel at peace when I'm there and it's it's just a place I go to when I just want to have fun like I just want to have a good time I want to be entertained and like just have a ball and honestly have permission to be a kid again and just have that Disney escapism um some people call it the Disney bubble like as soon as you enter Disney World all of your problems at home they don't exist anymore you get to kind of be in this like pretend world and just just have fun and just be a kid again so that's something that I do love about theme parks in Disney World like I just love to go and just just be a kid have a good time I love roller coasters and the entertainment so it's just a place I like to visit for sure yeah and they're always making more and more new rides and yeah yeah so everyone tune in to part two we'll be talking about that in the next episode so we'll transition a little bit to some of the budgeting and finance when you're on the road now we typically ask this question what does a monthly budget look like obviously you're not traveling full-time living in a van or an RV so how long are you typically gone for and then what does that budget typically look like yeah so it really depends on the trip um it could be a weekend trip or a week trip but I feel like when it comes to budgeting I really focus a lot of my budgeting when I'm at home like I I budget the most there so that I can save up for those travel experiences so for instance like I rarely really eat at eat out when I'm home like I actually moved to a new city um it's been over a year now and some people ask me like oh like what are your favorite restaurants in the new city you live and I'm kind of like oh I don't really try a ton because I kind of save that money to then eat out when I travel and do other experiences so it really just depends and then when it comes to like a a week or weekend trip if I can drive there that's what I'm going to do just to save some money there so it's all about kind of like saving money leading up to the trip so that way when I'm there I don't have to think so much about you know like oh should I really spend this much it's like well I've been saving for a month now for this trip so I want to spend that money on this experience that I can only get in this city sure yeah saving up when you're back home and yeah splurging when you take that vacation yeah that's kind of how I balance it that's a good point you're bring up and it's it's interesting because we learn that same thing I think the pandemic brought out a lot of people actually going out and exploring their own backyard because for a while like we have like some air Bean bees and people would ask us like oh the best places to eat at and things to do in the area and we'd be like yeah we'd actually never we'd be recommending things but we're like we actually haven't done these things before we spent like one day a couple years ago and just did everything we could in Mystic and it was like like this is such a fun you know such a fun time I remember you worked at a at a shop in one of the in the village and like people were coming in who've lived in this area for like their entire life and they're like I never knew this was here you know once you know there's a shutdown and people are forced to stay home and stay in their hometowns then they get out and explore but yeah it is funny how like little we knew about our hometown until we were like we should probably know more about this yeah no that actually that reminds me of something I saw on Instagram a couple weeks ago and it was this guy I think he was in Switzerland and he was at a bar and the guy next to him was like oh yeah like I'm a local here and he's like oh well tell me all the cool stuff to see and the Local's like no you want to talk to all the tourists at that table because they've done their research they know what to do it's like we're always bad that bad about being tourists in our own town but that's just funny you know that that happens so when you are staying is it air BNB Hotel how does that look mostly hotels um I guess my in September I did stay in Airbnb because we were there for a week and there was six of us we wanted a little bit more space a kitchen and everything but I would say you know if it's like a short trip four days or less I'm I usually do a hotel um but longer I think Airbnb works out best and how many trips a year are you taking I think well I guess I'll think I'll talk about this year because I feel like I got all my trips like in my brain now for this year it's might be like every month to two months which is exciting I'm excited for this year because I'm going to go finally back to Europe because I haven't been since the study abroad that'll be my honeymoon trip so I'm very excited about that so it'll be a big year of travel for me awesome awesome what are some money-saving travel tips you've discovered along the way I love trying to fly during the weekday that really saves a lot I always like looking at Google flights like I love tracking flight prices too to make sure I'm getting the best deal um I also do have a travel card that helps me a lot I earn a lot of miles on that so that helps pay for flights um but yeah I would say just I I really that's probably my number one thing is I really try and save leading up to the trip and that way when I'm there I don't have to worry so much about you know my budget while I'm experiencing what I want to experience yeah so true which travel car do you have I have the Delta AMX card does that get you into the lounges well you know they they changed that rule so I think I was leading up to I think I had to get so many miles and then I could get in but now I don't know they changed the rules and I'm like okay whatever like yeah that's like something we just or I think you had known about it but I just discovered it like you walk in the airports and you see these lounges and I've never thought twice about it but apparently if you have the right card you can just you know get in there and do your work and it seems like the perfect opportunity for someone who is traveling you know fulltime or you know they're away for a while and they just want to get some work done like some of these places have like free food showers it's like you have to be travel obviously but you could get there like half you know half a day early and crank out some work super nice if you have a long layover actually now that we're talking about it I think it might be I have to pay like a certain fee like maybe $50 but I think that includes your food while you're there too so yeah I forget but I know they just changed that rule so it's like people were all upset about that so I was like okay maybe I won't be getting into those lounges but oh well so you don't have kids but you do have two dogs right yep so what would you say to someone who wants to travel but has pets and are worth that's too much of a commitment what would you tell them how do you manage it yeah so I have a couple points on this so first of all yeah I do have two dogs so it can be a little bit bit of a barrier when I'm trying to travel it makes it a little bit harder to do last minute trips because who's going to watch the dogs you know they can't just be home alone um so first of all thankfully we do have family that are so obsessed with our dogs that they'll be like yeah like we'll take them and they get so excited so sometimes they stay with them but also I don't always just want to like dump our dogs on our family you know everyone has busy schedules too so we do board them as well and I feel like just dog boarding has really come a long way in the past couple of years like I remember as a kid when we used to board our dog she didn't really like it because she was just like in a kennel all day but these dog boarding places are like little mini Resorts now they have doggy playtime and like they get like walks and everything so I'm like okay I'm basically taking my dog on vacation while I while I go on vacation so that's really nice too um and then I'll also say like we like to take our dogs when we can um travel especially when we go to Northern Michigan we definitely bring our dogs along and I think they have more fun than us when we go honestly like they love being up there so there's I feel like there's a lot of opportunity nowadays to take your pets with you my my fiance and I just took a trip to Chicago not too long ago and when I was looking up hotels I swear all of them were like dog friendly and I feel like you wouldn't have seen that like five years ago like I don't know I was like wow like all these places are dog friendly not that we were planning on bringing our dogs but it was nice to know that that is an option nowadays so definitely just like do your research there's really cool places you can take your pets with you one word of caution I will just mention because we just took a trip to Florida and we had our dog scheduled to do the daycare we were boarding them and we got a message like I don't know like a week before and they told us that the puppy Co Kettle cough was going around we ended up having someone that just we paid her to stay at her house so there's always fallback plans like Rover um there's different things you can do too so I guess the word of advice would be to just have some sort of fallback plan and they do get pretty pricey right how much typically are you spending to have your dog be boarded we've been because we've moved around a lot in Michigan so we've seen a lot of different um kennels and they can be pricey some of them have been $50 per dog so when you have two dogs that adds up a lot um but sometimes they give a discount on the second dog which is nice but our recent kennel that we just found um really comes out to $30 per day for dog so that's way more reasonable so you just have to kind of do your research I feel like dog doggy daycares and kennels are popping up everywhere so just do your research and you might be able to find one that's not too expensive but again if it is maybe you just take a shorter trip so you can kind of balance out that yeah 30 bucks they must not have the balcony and the hot tub in their sweet for that price right all right awesome we'll transition we'll start wrapping up a little bit here what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling so that is such a hard question because I feel like oh my gosh there's so many I could choose from but I think the one I want to talk about is a recent one I've had so in September of 2023 I went to bamp National Park which is like in the heart of the Canadian rocky and it was our first day there and we had signed up for horseback riding and we were riding these horses literally through the mountains I mean you couldn't have pictured a more beautiful place and I'm on a horse I feel like I'm living the cowgirl dream and it's like it was like a pinch me moment like this can't be real the beauty and just the experience was just like so awe inspiring and it was like that moment I was like yep I'm in love with this place like this place is so cool and just to like kind of do an Excursion instead of just like hiking the trails being on a horse was like really really really cool so let me ask you this and I think I know what the answer is going to be but would that experience be a contender if there were no horses involved do you think well I think it would still I mean maybe because it was also my first day so I was just still like whoa like with these mountains cuz I I'd never seen mountains like that before and the lakes and we even walk the horse through like a river so I was like oh my gosh like this is so cool I felt and also at the time I was watching Yellowstone which is like a huge like cowboy show so I was like okay like I am totally living living the dream right now but yeah just it was like one of those like Pinch Me moments for sure yeah I guess I asked that because we had a similar experience we did Cody Wyoming we went horseback riding completely different terrain it was red rock and we were in the in the woods but yeah if we had hiked it it wouldn't have been the same as just you know going I me we don't ride horses regularly that was like I don't know your first time right riding a horse and I think like my third time so just doing that just makes it so I guess my advice would be if you're looking to do something like this and there's like a horse back riding option available for the family look into it it's GNA be something your children your guys are going to remember for a long time it's it makes that moment just that much more special yeah I totally agree with that I mean it would have been cool on foot as much but like to be on the horse and I it's just a different experience and just added added a little something extra to it yeah everything you shared from that looked amazing and I think every single person that probably saw your post were like okay that's got to be a a bucket list travel next year so you've been traveling pretty much your entire life what is one thing you've learned that you can't live without while you're traveling and one thing you learned that you don't need okay so things I can't live without I have to mention two things first has to do all with packing because I love packing I love like I feel like that's just as exciting as going on a trip it gets me so excited to go and once I discovered packing cubes I swear it changed the packing game for me I just love it because it organizes your stuff I swear you can pack more stuff with them because it kind of like compresses it and I feel like it just makes traveling so much easier and again more organized especially let's say you're going to Europe and you're doing a couple countries in one trip just like kind of having everything in one spot is so nice and then the second thing I have learned is you always always should wear good comfortable shoes because nothing ruins a trip than blisters or sore feet like I I tell you just find the most comfortable shoes you can wear because whether you're going to the theme parks out on a hike or walking the streets of Europe like you should have good shoes it's going to like make your trip so much better and then the thing I realize that I can live without I feel like I I've learned that you know you don't have to have a new outfit every day of your trip I feel like for girls or anyone on Instagram like we always get this pressure to be like okay like we have to like pack all these things so that we have the best trip and the best photos but that's not really what it's about like I feel like I used to get into that like mindset that it's like oh I should you know have the perfect outfit for this perfect photo or whatever but you know what be an outfit repeater it's cool to do no one really cares and just it's that's not about what travel is travel is being there in the moment yeah such good advice now do you have any recommendations on shoes oh yeah um okay so one pair of shoes I love is called All Birds they are extremely comfortable shoes I love them I've worn them on so many trips and then the second pair of shoe that I've recently discovered are vessie shoes and what's really cool about them is they are 100% waterproof but they're like a tennis shoe and they're knit material so it still like gives you that nice comfortable tennis shoe feel but I mean I I can dump a bucket of water on them and water is not going to get through so I've worn those to Disney World in Orlando where it can rain at any moment and then I did wear them to bamp just because I wasn't sure and honestly they were great hiking shoes too I kind of had like this tennis shoe boot style from them and I love those shoes they're just so comfortable so those definitely those two Brands I really recommend we fit an insane amount of things in our van that I thought was not going to fit and then somehow she stuffed everything in the cube and we had like room to spare so packing cubes invest in your Footwear and it's kind of similar like an analogy is like your mattress you spend a lot of time sleeping you spend a lot of time on your feet know Splurge there because your body's going to thank you you know 20 30 years down the road you've been traveling your entire life did you have any YouTube or other influencers that influenced you to travel or maybe people have recommended books too yeah I think really I dove into the whole YouTube travel Community um especially during 2020 cuz all I wanted to do was go somewhere and I couldn't so like that was my escapism was to just like watch people go on trips um on YouTube so I would say a lot of those were Disney YouTubes because I was just missing Disney World so I watched um Disney food blog is a great Channel they have so many great tips on Disney World um there's another she's also like life style but Rogan Tate on YouTube is awesome she does a lot of travel um in Europe and also to Disney park so those are like two that I love to watch and just give a lot of tips from so we'll link those channels in the show notes below and while our audience is checking out those channels where can they find out more about you yeah so I am on Instagram and YouTube both erica. Adventures AA spelled e r i c Ka um and yeah that's where you can find me I have travel Vlogs a little bit of Lifestyle Vlogs too on my YouTube channel and a lot of travel content on my Instagram great Erica thank you for coming on thank you so much for having me this was so much fun

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

01:23 Sun Lakes Resort

03:40 Steamboat Rocks and Grand Coulee

04:35 When is the best time of year to visit?

05:28 What is the nightlife like?

06:45 How much time should someone spend here?

08:07 How far in advantage should someone make a reservation?

09:37 Rodeo, ice cream, the Palouse Mountains, and Dry Falls

11:00 What are two complaints someone might have?

12:10 What is one thing you can't leave Grand Coulee without doing?

Luis and Robyn Website and Social:

Bout that RV Life - YouTube

WELCOME (lrvaldezrentals.com)

Luis R Valdez (@boutthatrvlife) • Instagram photos and videos

Log in | TikTok

Boutthatrvlife (@Boutthatrvlife1) / X (twitter.com)

Don't forget to listen to Part 1 where Luis and Robyn talked about their fascinating RV rental business, and how they went from 1 to 37 RV rentals in just three years! In today's episode of Travel Tips, we sat down with them to discuss some awesome things to do in their home state of Washington.

🏕️Camping

Sun Lakes Park Resort

Steamboat Rock State Park | Washington State Parks

⛰️Activities

Palouse Washington: Visit Palouse Region of Washington State (stateofwatourism.com)

Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Washington: Grand Coulee Dam (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

(The Hoover Dam is taller at 726' compared to the Grand Coulee Dam, but the Grand Coulee Dam is MUCH wider, at 5,223' (almost a mile!) compared to the 1,244' wide Hoover Dam.)

Coulee Playland

Rodeo

#washington #grandcoulee #travel #podcast #sunlakes

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

all right Lewis and Robin thank you for coming back to the travel path podcast with hope and I thanks for having us back so today is part two we're doing the travel tips segment of the podcast before we jump into that I just want to do a quick recap of part one where you guys talked about your incredible journey from going from an RV that you purchased and couldn't use cuz every campsite was booked up to now managing and renting out 37 RVs over the course of about 3 years which is an incredible story and a great episode to listen to for anyone who wants to get into renting out there V so part two is a travel tips segment what location are we talking about today the grand [ __ ] area for us is been like a beautiful I me every time we drive up there during the summertime it's such a gorgeous gorgeous place and it's you know you could drive for 30 30 45 minutes you know from Soap Lake all the way up to like [ __ ] City and it's just beautiful inside and out and there''s got a ton of cap sites um but I think three are are going to be kind kind of the the main ones that we would probably focus on cuz it's it's they're just beautiful beautiful campsites well known and um yeah it's hard to get a spot there yeah so what are the three locations we're talking about and this is in central Washington right correct yeah yeah yeah Central but you start going up north a little Cal North Central so sunlakes sunlakes Resort is one of the main ones that we've been camp we we've camped there a couple of times and it's it's a beautiful place they've got a nice little water area they've got a nice little um kind of along that pathway there there's another water area that's got some real shallow ground so the kids can like your little kids can just go and literally float in the water sit in the water and it's really really cool and then the campground alone has got it's got a nice big area where you can play like volleyball or beach volleyball the campsites are are really um I felt I feel like they're wellmaintained and that there's plenty of space in between and they're pretty accommodating too so so like if you wanted to have a group you know they're pretty cool about you know parking parking one C certain ways a great place to camp in group yeah camping groups for sure and then they've got some cabins I want to say like 20 cabins that are all lined out up front kind of Waterfront area I think those are extra but as far as the campsites they've got some big big rig camping areas small rig and they've got kind of everything in between but it's it's a gorgeous Place nice and hot they've got a nice little little shop they've got some ice cream they've got this little um like deli restaurant type little area whenever I deliver up in that area even if I'm not delivering two Sun Lakes I stop at Sun Lakes to get an ice cream con perfect it's like a reward absolutely and you guys have delivered to all of these campgrounds I assume multiple times yeah yeah and in case you missed part one they deliver their RV so their RV rental business they deliver there so it sounds like it's a pretty big Campground for RV campers they do have cabins there but if you don't have an RV give them a call they'll deliver yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah Steamboat rocks another one it's it's it's just another gorgeous well put together they're they're a little bit more strict they've got a lot of volunteers that are that are you know maybe some Kevin and some carens but for the most part they are U very clean um really nice and it's it's right up along the water too so if you've got a boat you can take there um it's a great place for paddle boarding y yeah we ran out paddle boards too hiking hiking stuff like that are you going to these campgrounds for the campground itself or are there any big attractions and draws to the area so Steamboat rock is near a town called Gran culi which is named after a dam and at the dam there's lots of interesting things to do they do a laser light show in the evening on the face of the dam um I Heard recently actually that it's the largest dam in the United States and it just doesn't get a lot of recognition because they wanted Hoover Dam to be where people go instead it might be aivee but that's what I heard it's massive but it is huge yeah something cool to go check out absolutely yeah but outside of that really it's a all of this area is pretty secluded and so you're going there to Camp you're going there to hike you're going there to fish um you might be hunting but mostly it's enjoying nature and being on the water yeah lots of reunions happen there it's it's pretty cool yeah nice now what would you say the best time of the year is to go visit if you like a lot of people I mean right in the thick of July right July and August are two of the biggest months if you don't like a lot of people it's less busy like end of yeah end of August September pushing like into October I think they they stay open like mid October or something like that and then yeah like she said April april-ish yeah but the best weather happens right in the middle of summer it's hot you can hang out on the water it makes it more comfortable it's enjoyable nice now obviously you said great place for family reunions so it's tons of stuff to do for kids between the paddle boarding the swimming of course camping everybody's bringing their dogs so you always have that option I'm sure lots of hiking for them there as far as maybe for more adults what is there to do like at night are there any local bars or places to go hang out listen to music or are you really just there to like have a campfire and go camping you're really there to have a campfire and Camp you're going to bring your own alcohol you're gonna bring your own food and hang out around a fire and it really is a good time it's been really fun um to be in those areas and the people are all generally pretty friendly if you're a person that goes camping I think that's how campgrounds are in general that you have good opportunities to meet new people and um explore the camp ground that way but yeah this is not a a destination for a social life or night life or any of that it's definitely something you're doing with your family with your kids with dogs if you're at Steamboat most Ser you don't have service there right there's not even there's not even self service we have AT&T and we have self service but just barely yeah that's good to know but I mean that's kind of the reason why you go camping right bit and just enjoy nature which it sounds like these would all be perfect campgrounds to do so do you find a lot of people go and like hop around from campground to Campground are they just going to one and spending a lot of time there and how much time would you recommend somebody allocates to this area um I would say like sunlakes so there's sunlakes Park and then there's sunlakes Resort so those would be the only one I could think of where people would go back and forth because there's you know they're they're kind of somewhat connected but you got to drive to one area it's so far out so like up in [ __ ] City if you were to kind of go on Google Maps and really kind of take a look at it it's just mountains and you know driveway roads and stuff like that and you go Steamboat and it's like almost a good five minutes just to get into their actual Park so and the closest grocery store to that is probably 30 minutes away right so it's pretty secluded cludy Playland which is just a little bit up north um it's a really well-known it's been around for a long time but that's a little bit closer to town but still somewhat secluded and then same thing with um sunlakes it's it's again it's it's along the pathway there but it's it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere and it's just got those two places next to now I will say though they do have a a golf course um I think it's a three par course though and they've got a lot of um we play land no no no um sunlakes yeah rub it's a real Golf Course oh it is a real Golf Course okay yeah so that if somebody wanted to go golfing that would be a great place to go very good now what about as far as I know you said some of these are really popular so if someone's like listening to this podcast and they're thinking okay I'm definitely going to contact you guys I'm going to rent an RV I'm going to get a spot one of these how far in advance they need to plan a good six months a lot of them start um open reservations nine months in advance and so if you haven't started booking your reservations around that time you're probably not going to get a spot for this year um it's really challenging the the camping Market in Washington state is just there's a lot of demand cuz it's beautiful that's why good fishing too really good fishing there's a reason for it right yeah yeah yeah I remember from Washington our drive-thru it was just it was green it was Forest it was beautiful out there yeah yeah yeah well where we're at we're in the desert so it's brown but it's still beautiful I promise Washington state is cool like that that you have you have the rainforest on the West Side you have the desert on the east side and there's Hills and valleys and mountains and trees and Sage Brush Galore so you can find pretty much anything here we've camped at the the ho um rainforest on the other side of the mountains and that's that was pretty cool yeah yeah well sounds like you could just do a whole tour of camping in Washington you guys probably have for it yeah much good all right we'll pivot into the three 2 one countdown segment of the podcast so what are three things to do around this Grand cooie area that we haven't talked about yet there is a cute little rodeo that happens up it's probably a 45 minute drive or so from this area but it's in a place called twisp wind R twisp we didn't talk about the ice cream did we did we talk about the ice cream yes we did we can talk about the ice cream we can always talk about ice cream dang it get ice cream is there a specific spot is your favorite cuz she wants to know I mean truly it's just regular soft serve ice cream at the what is it called the restaurant I don't know the little place where they serve the ice cream at this is in Sun Lake right yeah yeah Sun Lakes perfect um I would say one thing you made me think about the Palo mountains oh jeez that's not the same area though yeah it is it's so here's Sun Lakes and you drive just about maybe 2 miles up there's a Viewpoint there and there's a there's a like a little half bridge where you can walk like a cliff you walk out Dry Falls Dry Falls that's what it's called but that's that is really cool and it's a touristy area so there's there's parking you know people come in you park and sometimes they have like a little food truck there they've got restrooms so it can be like a little rest stop but it just overlooks and if you Google it it's beautiful just overlooks these these mountains and potholes and just it's awesome it's got a really cool story very nice it's like an Insider tip right there that's perfect yeah yeah and then two complaints or things that people wish they had prepared for before visiting this area it's pretty secluded like we said so not packing enough food not taking enough of whatever they they were hoping to have um what would be another complaint it's gets really yeah windy it get wind it can get windy not it's not windy all the time but it it can't the time we were there we had like 90° weather and then there was one 2hour window where we had torrential downpour and thunderstorms and crazy wind and then it left it was gone it's unpredictable the bugs aren't terrible because of the wind yeah blows them around this is a random question but do you guys have ticks out west yes you do because we have them like crazy up north and we went hiking all over the country when we did our road trip and we never got a single tick and we came home and hiked for 5 minutes and we had one so we weren't sure if they were out there yes they are yes we do we have ticks and and mosquitoes check your kids but they mainly they've jumped on our dog like we've had a dog we found one on but our last question guys what is one thing you simply cannot leave this Grand [ __ ] area without doing ice

cream oh no you got to go on the water you got to go paddle boarding you got to swim that's what we do we p board yeah we we got paddle board and it's fun and you said they have them there most of the time to rent they do have they have them there to rent we rent them we rent them out yeah if we're not using them which we're busy we're not using

them how's the water there is it ice cold like the lake water refreshing in early in the season it's cold but as you go um it it gets better but it is all glacial runoff from a long ways away but yeah we have never been paddle boarding actually so we want to maybe we'll knock all that out the cool area it's fun awesome it's fun heard it's hard than it looks I think it's easier than I never stand up I just I just sit down I sit down the whole time and it really depends on the board if you got a nice sturdy board you're good to go excellent all right guys well thank you guys for coming back on this episode of the podcast and talking to us about the grand [ __ ] area again if you've missed part one tune in uh they tell us all about how they started their RV rental business and it was a very informative episode so guys thanks again for coming on absolutely thanks for having us it's been great it's been fun

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

07:10 How do claims and damages work?

12:26 How often are your clients calling and texting you?

14:55 What are the biggest frustrations with renting your RVs?

14:30 How many people do you need to manage 37 RV rentals?

18:00 How many RVs did it take to turn your side hustle to a business?

19:00 How much time and money is involved in a turnover?

10:30 Do you have a home base for dumping and refilling?

21:27 What do you provide your renters with?

26:14 Do you only have camper trailers?

26:58 What is the difference between Class A, B, C, and trailer RVs?

28:32 Where do you keep your RVs?

29:05 Have you dealt with DigiSure?

33:45 What is your worst renter experience so far?

Luis and Robyn Website and Social:

Bout that RV Life - YouTube

WELCOME (lrvaldezrentals.com)

Luis R Valdez (@boutthatrvlife) • Instagram photos and videos

Log in | TikTok

Boutthatrvlife (@Boutthatrvlife1) / X (twitter.com)

Core Sports Cards and Collectables

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How Much We Made Renting Our RV: https://atravelpath.com/renting-camper-van/

Never Run Out of Gas on a Road Trip: https://atravelpath.com/road-trip-tip/

Do you have an RV parked at your house that is costing you money? Are you looking for a new way to make some extra income? In today's episode, Luis and Robin share how they turned their unused RV into a full time business. Hear all about:

📈How they went from one unused RV to now renting 37 RVs to people in their area

🧹The time and worked involved in cleaning, repairing, and turning there RVs over

📄 How they handles claims and insurance when (not if!) something happens to their RV

And more!

Music:

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Transcript from YouTube:

Lewis and Robin thank you for joining hope and I in this episode of the travel path podcast yeah thanks for having us thanks for having us so we know you guys on YouTube as about that RV life you have your website Central Washington RV rentals.com where you focus on your RV rental business and on YouTube you dedicate your channel to educating people on the RV rental business and this podcast of travel path.com and the travel path podcast is dedicated to helping people reach their travel goals and owning an RV in traveling they go hand inand and I think this is an excellent way for somebody to learn how to use their RV as a side hustle and to turn that into passive income source to potentially fund their travels and if somebody who doesn't own an RV right now it's a great opportunity to learn about a new side hustle where you can start saving up and getting into that new business so before we dive in why don't we start by having you guys share a little about yourselves and then how you got started in the RV rental business so we're both from Washington she's from we know we live here in Royal City she's from here born and raised um I'm from a little lore Valley um area on the other side of the mountains here but just through different paths we were able to find each other and and get married we've got three kids uh 13 nine and 10 and and eight I always forget and then uh yeah and they're they're they keep us busy for sure and yeah we we're entrepreneurs we own um a few businesses we own the RV rental businesses the RV rental business which is how we got started and then um I love sports cards collectibl certain things like that and I partnered up with a couple of friends we have a shop in uh wachi Washington called uh core sports cards and collectibles and then we just recently bought um a couple of gyms here in Royal City smaller gyms yeah ra Fitness yeah no kidding you guys are busy wow I don't know if I have anything to add to that I was going to say yeah so multiple businesses multiple kids yeah that's you guys have a lot going on so how do you guys get started in the RV rental business yeah about let's see so I guess it was in the spring of 21 um my father passed away and it was unexpected but it was one of those things that makes you feel like you know life is short you never know what's going to happen and um we decided we needed to start making some memories with with our kids and what better way to do that than to go camping and travel and do that kind of stuff so we ended up buying our first travel trailer there's a 24t long bunk house sweet little thing and thought it would be great for us I went online trying to find campsites that we could go and check out and go on a couple of trips and make some memories and realize that in Washington state if you haven't booked your reservations like 6 to n months in advance you're not going to have a campsite for the summer and LS is not a person who's going to sit still for very long and so we have like he's like okay we have this trailer now but we can't even use it I'm going to get rid of it so we um we were just looking around and as it happens when you're shopping for something we started seeing ads for different RVs coming up and we had seen some comments on a Facebook Marketplace post that said why don't you try listing it on RV share instead of selling it and so we had never heard of that before we went and checked it out um we listed our first one on RV share that month or that day and within like five minutes of publishing the listing we had our first reservation so his wheels started turning going oh hm there's something here I was like if I could do this with one imagine if I had 10 because we ended up getting booked out until October so it was it was a real good success yeah so that season we had the one and then we ended up buying another one a couple months later because we there was a lot of um demand and at the end of the season we bought a third one so we started our second season with three accumulated I think six more That season so we ended That season with nine and then this last year we started the season with 11 and ended with 34 which is what we've got sitting out here now um except for I just found out with you guys 10 10 minutes ago that we've got three more

so yeah it's just kind of grown like wildfire and been kind of crazy one thing that really you know people think about like these numbers and go well holy crap how did did you de own them all one of the things that really kind of catapulted our business and really changed everything for us is after we had boughten three a friend of ours um reached out and was like hey I've got a RV um I don't use it I'm just going to give it to you guys uh rent it out and we'll split the profits just let me use it like once or twice a year and I was like man that's a great idea yeah and it's got me thinking there's so many people that have boughten RVs or boughten units that they don't use them anymore they hardly use them or once a year or whatever right and or like us that don't book their sites in advance and you know can't go camping so we were like I started marketing and I started kind of aggressively heading towards okay who has a camper and who wants to make money from it right who wants to make some passive income so that's a good point like how many times are you driving down the road and you see that same RV parked at someone's house 51 weeks out of the year and then they use it once right so then you thought there's opportunities out there and that's allowed you guys to kind of exponentially grow your business I want to start by asking some of the big questions and probably some of the biggest objections anybody would face when they want to get into this business which is how do you overcome and deal with the issues of your RV getting damaged having somebody use this expensive machine this expensive vehicle without any experience how is the claim process handled so guess start with like insurance and the claim process I'll start with kind of the beginning of like vetting people right because I think this is an important p uh piece that people miss when they first get started there's certain things that you could do to vet people that are you know more responsible right uh you can put an age limit to um who who can rent your unit so for us it's 25 and above um you've got to be 25 years or older the other thing is we put a deposit that's um I feel like it's high enough to where that the type of person that is you know fiscally responsible can afford to pay $11,000 to 1,500 bucks to hold for a deposit plus that also covers Us in case there's a lot of you know little damages or certain things that happen that um you know a person you know might just you know look at and go man you know I don't know if I can afford that but if you got the deposit you can take it out of the the deposit so vetting people I think is important when there are issues we've had anywhere from you know a person breaking a $5 part to somebody destroying our awning and we had to get the whole thing replaced it's really funny story we actually just got a call saying it's done today um but but yeah it's it's it's kind of crazy so when you go through something like that luckily there the platforms have insurance we've got commercial insurance and you just got to go through the process of um making a claim and that can be kind of a a daunting task but in our in our experience it worked out okay so there are systems in place for those types of things and if you're watching this on YouTube you saw hope and I's face light up when he said his awning cuz we had the same thing happen we rented our van out over the summer and renter was driving down the road the awning was out and end snapping so you guys beat us to it we're getting ours hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll have it back down but it happened in July so that's that's one of those things in my experience at least with renting it out and using the RV share and outdoorsy platforms is they do get resolved but but it took a long time so we were going back and forth with the insurance company like I said this happened in July and we're finally hopefully getting it on in January right um so that's just probably a word of caution that it does work out but it does take time yeah and unfortunately we learned during that process is they'll cover the replacement but in terms of profit loss you know if it's an issue where you can't rent it out or if they want to we got beat up a little bit CU they didn't have an awning so we had to buy like a little tent for them yeah and then at the same time time we learned that it didn't cover interior damage if they used up their entire deposit so that's something to keep in mind too yeah so from a from a business standpoint I think you know you talked about overcoming the challenges and the the scary parts of it and for us a big part of it has just been letting go of the worry that comes with somebody else's in my unit and realizing like it's going to get used it's going to get damaged damaged you're going to have to replace some things and planning for that stuff building it into your pricing holding money back so that you know if if I have to replace the little table that slides out on the side of the counter that's going to cost me 75 bucks I just I just am G to be prepared for it if it happens um and at first it was always scary every time we dropped the unit off we were like okay please don't let anything anything bad happen um and maybe it's because we've got so many now that we're just like okay next next thing next thing next thing it it doesn't phase us anymore guess well and yeah from from my perspective like I got tired of worrying about it because if and you know your audience my audience we all know something's always going to happen in in ourv doesn't matter what's that what's going on yeah and I just got to a point where I was like okay if something happens we'll just fix it just like anything else you know what I mean and we'll we'll move forward and there are certain things that we can't control worrying about something and and that we can't control does us doesn't do us any good right but there's text that we um we we had developed relationships with that um a lot of like if there's bigger issues or challenges or certain things that are happening we can call them and be like hey I don't know how to fix this can you go out there and fix it for us right and that's just part of the business it's part of the expenses now most of the other stuff we can troubleshoot over the phone and we can figure it out and then if need be we'll go out and try to handle it ourselves most of the stuff is kind of somewhat local to us so it's not a not a big deal for me to drive up and mess around with somebody's heater or something you know it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when keep in mind everybody he's got over they have over 35 RVs in their Fleet so they're not talking about one or two they have 35 and they're able to handle these issues that come up kind of piggybacking off of that the phone calls and the text messages how often are you getting kind of bothered with questions and text messages while people are renting out your RVs constantly constantly yeah and it's it's know you bring up a good point couple of things like you've got to designate who is going to be the person to handle those things and for me I want to take as much stress off my wife as possible so I'm that person right so I give them all that phone number that if they um need anything done to call me we've got a fleet manager now that we're going to start utilizing for some of those those smaller issues and then Robin has filled a gap so many times for like I we got a concert and we got 10 people showing up all at once I can't do it all at once so I'm like hey Joe's I'm on the phone but Joe's calling me trying to you know saying he's trying to check into the to the camper can you give him a call right so we work together in that but for the most part I take most of the calls and I I talk about this on our Channel a lot like you've got to decide on one hand you can do this as a side hustle and you can allow it to be a big annoyance to you or on the other hand you can count it all joy and realize that you have a business that creates great income and it's going to be hard sometimes and that you just take care of the issues you know and that's it's a difference in perspective right you can allow this thing to ruin your day your week your month and your summer or you can just handle the issue and move forward that's one thing that surprised us a little bit was in our experience we didn't get that many phone calls at all we thought we'd because we have the Airbnb in the real estate so we're used to getting questions every now and then we thought we'd be getting hounded with questions granted we only have one but we got more phone calls from the renters still in our driveway before they took off than actually calling us when they were on the road so that was kind of funny yeah well one of the things about our business that I think is a little bit unique for people who rent RVs is we do primarily delivery and so because of that we rent to a lot of people that have zero experience in a travel trailer we also live within 30 miles of the Gorge Amphitheater which is a huge concert venue people fly from all over the world to see concert s there 90% of our rentals end up at the Gorge and they're dry camping and so on concert weekends we sometimes to avoid the phone calls just kind of hang out out there for six or eight hours as people are checking into their unit so we can walk them through and make sure that they're not having those issues yeah if you guys haven't already answered it what have been the biggest frustrations with this business honestly as a as a married couple that runs a business together it's like being on the same page and not allowing the frustrations to really get in in your relationship I mean it's it's hard it's hard to say that but we figured it out yeah when when you're living it it's you know it's like who do you blame right and and we have learned and we we are still working through this that it's not the blame game it's just part of running a business and that it's not her fault it's not my fault it's as a as an owner it's both of our responsibility to make sure that our renters are taken care of and that things are taken care of and stuff like that and that's that's just the bottom line that's probably been the biggest struggle I think logistically navigating drivers cuz when you've got 23 units that need to go out in one day and trying to figure out five of them need to be there at 3:00 you're like how the heck are we going to do that right so we've got three trucks we have um of our own that we use to to haul campers with and then we've got uh I'd say I don't know six to eight eight drivers that we use um on a regular basis yeah so in terms of the managing it's just the two of you I know you should getting a fleet manager at some point soon but right now it's just two of you overseeing all these RVs and then you have six to eight drivers so we've got the two of us and then our fleet manager who's coming on more full-time this year he worked with us last year and helped out um and then his mom and a couple of his aunts have taken over the cleaning side which has been awesome for me getting the cleaning taken care of because it's a lot to go through and make sure everything is ready for the next renter especially we're doing a lot of quick turnaround times with these things so yeah so we have we have a small staff um but there's nobody full-time we're the ones that are doing all of the like everyday checking things all that stuff I deal with the customers so as calls come in I deal with the quotes I deal with pricing I deal with um any sort of disputes I do I deal with collecting I deal with all that a friend of ours named Parker who was my kic fix it guy he's a fix it guy very handy so if you know one comes back the sightings peeling off or you know something's ripping or something like that he just we we we send him a list we take pictures we have a group chat we say this needs to get done or these five need things needs to get done and then you know he's a teacher so throughout the summer he's off so he comes over and we pay him by the job and he's going to be a little bit more involved this year we've got an extra truck that he's going to be running for deliveries and stuff like that too so yeah we're gonna have to have probably at least two more people to help us out with managing and stuff there's so much up in the air with our business right now there's potential Partnerships adding 25 more units with another owner you know um I've got I've got lots of irons in the fire with some major um RV dealers out here click at RV where we might potentially have different locations in different regions so it's it's yeah there's a lot of good potential stuff so at what point did you start branching I guess at how many RVs did it take for you to realize you needed more assistance and you started treating this more of a business than a side hustle how many RVs was that nine nine I think yeah yeah at the end of yeah that first full year full first full season we had we were like holy smokes this was a lot to deal with and we couldn't just do it on our own we've learned though on average you you want to have at least one person that has some sort of like ownership over about 10 units so as we move into the 30s and the 40s you've got to kind of think okay you know when you're putting together your business plan you're like okay I need at least a person that can focus on and be able to take care of 10 units and that means navigating the cleaning navigating the deliveries uh making sure that everything's all set and taken care of and so on and so forth and then you're pushing it really as you kind of get further into more and more units even though you've got systems in place you just need just raw manpower to be able to get it done you know I know you touched on it a little bit but how much time and expenses roughly is involved in that turnover I know it probably varies by the RV size but in terms of the you know the check-in the checkout the walk through what does that entail let's say we're talking about something that's going to a campground rather than something that's going to a concert because that's they look a little bit different so depending on location you factor in delivery time and fuel it takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour and 15 15 or so to walk someone through setup is usually I don't know 30 minutes or so depending on the unit depending on what needs to get set up and then coming back through tearing down and bringing it home that's going to be another 30 minutes or so we try to do the the tear down as quickly as possible and take care of a lot of that other stuff at home once it gets back but I don't know I would say that just just set up walk through and tear down per unit is going to run us r 2 hours and 15 minutes not including drive time whatever that's going to end up being and then clean time on each one ranges from 60 Minutes to 90 minutes probably and as far as like fuel costs you know we were last year I would say consistently running about 25 units I would say the meat of the of the Season uh 6800 bucks upwards of a th bucks sometimes in just a weekend and just diesel yeah hauling things around yeah and then do you have a base where you're able to go do the pump outs refuel refuel propane good question yeah good question um yeah we do have a number of them around around us sometimes we're in a pinch where we've got to figure it out at the house I mean it's it's a quasi dump station out here that it does tie into our sewer system dump station it's just a it's a sewer cleanout yeah it's a sewer clean out but we are planning on um in the spring installing a a full out dump station out here we we need it sounds like it that sounds pretty similar to our the process with our van to walk through I think the longest one that took us about 2 hours with the person usually like an hour hour and a half in the walk through and the cleaning and we would provide I'm sure you guys have the same thing but a manual you had a PDF kind of instructions how to do the pump out how to clean how to drive the vehicle and everything else and then contact information on there as well what types of things do you provide in your RVs everything everything yeah we um you bring up a really good point if and if it's okay I'll tell a story um it's uh last the beginning of last year we had Brandy Carlow at the Gorge very big venue and we had all of them were booked out there and this was we started the season I don't know about 20 I think we had 18 there right you know last year we had an idea of what we wanted to provide and we provide Linens towels you know um toilet paper rvu only toilet paper like we provide gosh help me honey um hey Sil all that stuff right you know all your dishes all your everything you need and we had we had this in our mind and we kind of made a list and the list was on some of the units and then some things were different on some of them and and we were fumbling through this yes and and that first concert really kicked us in the teeth it it was such a big eye opener um cuz we that first night we when people started showing up we we were there till 1: in the morning morning because we forgot to put our chairs in there we forgot to put the you know blankets and towels and it was a frustrating very very frustrating night I wanted to quit I really wanted to quit I was like because we had people that were angry with us we had things not working I had generators that were just you know brand new that weren't starting it was just a plethora of things and then to top it off one of our renters um he put He put the one of the the cords over the back of the ex ex of the generator so it was burning and he looks outside and he goes oh crap my generator sparking I'm like yeah generators don't spark dude what do you mean and he goes oh it's the cord and I was like turn it off turn it off so I had to go run and get one of those the next morning we went shopping and spent you know like $1,700 in making sure we had everything but we came together after that weekend and we said okay we need to have integrity here if we're going to say we're going to provide some things we're going to provide item yeah so we came up with the solid list of all the things that we're going to provide and it's pretty Universal you know from from from unit to unit some are really really small so we don't we only provide enough for like two people right you're not going to have more people in it and for the most part like we we we have a whole list and if you go to like our our website and you see all of our units you'll see that it's pretty much exact same things and we go to Walmart and we spend you know money on the new stuff but it's not super expensive I mean at at first you're going to spend the money but you know over time we do charge prep fees which covers some of those costs and stuff like that it was uh it was a big eye opener for us and our business and we needed it we really needed to go through that I hired a part-time gal because it was it was there's just a lot going on I mean literally when you're in the thick of a summer and a season you have that many units every day you're delivering every day you're picking up every day you're getting a camper clean every day is something right so to take the time and go whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you know like you have to do while you're doing other things you know so I had a gal come in that was just really organized and and she would I just had confidence that she would be able to kind of really get grasp what I'm talking about what I want and then just get them all done in all the units and that's what she did she took literally a whole day or day and a half and she went through every single one of our units and made sure that they all had the same exact things and once we got that done I mean it was pretty SM my wife did a good job in putting together this this other kind of list just a two-pager PDF of like okay welcome to the camper here's what your panel board looks like you know here's here's you know make sure you're using plenty of water you know all these just different things and people really appreciated it and it helped us out a ton yeah do you provide grills and chairs like outdoor chairs outdoor chairs yes and we only provide a grill if it's includ like if the unit came with one yeah that mounts on the back or whatever it's got an outdoor kitchen we provide that but we don't do anything extra we do have have a couple that will rent out if someone asks um so it's for an additional charge but but it's not something that we include standard there are some concerts that it's it's really funny you have one group of people that is is totally you know base Canyon you know different type techno and and then you've got this group and then you got the Dave Matthews Group which they love to have all of their their coolers they love to have barbecues they love to have extra chairs they don't care they're spending all the money right and so you kind of you start to learn what certain groups like and you know and it's yeah we we do provide some of those extra things do you only have RV trailers do you have any Class A B C RVs we have one class a it's a 32 foot uh we've got two class C's um one's a 30 one's a 3 one foot and then we have uh five fifth wheels and then the rest are all pull behind bumper P anywhere from we've got we've gotten got an 11t to just under 40 ft so all sorts of different sizes mainly bunk houses you said 90% of your RVs you drop them off at those venues versus someone that's picking up like when we had people rent our RV they would come we do the walk through and they would just drive off we would have like road trips across the country um so if somebody had a motor home whether Class A B or C what would you tell them would be the difference between that check in and walk through process with a trailer versus if somebody's coming and picking up the RV from your job site and driving it away themselves well I mean every year we get a handful of people that'll take a d at California um and literally a handful like five would be the max that I would guess that people take them out of state and it's just more or less you know for us knowing that we've got to make sure and you know has the oil been changed has my my generator been serviced you know certain things like that once they're there and you're walking them through that you know showing them how to check the oil showing them how to check all the liquids and theu the fluids and and walking them through like you're going on a 10-day trip so you're probably going to have to fill your fresh water tank a couple of times here's where it is here's how you do it here's how many gallons are in it right and then dumping too you know we walk them through all the The Dumping where's where's the hose I I pull it out I show them how to hook it out all those different types of things just because I know that they're going to eventually have to do it you know and to keep an eye on this thing or or you know um after your probably second or third day you might be hooked up at a full sight you want to pull the black tank and get that thing dumped out a little bit you know from one day two day trip or two day trips to 10day trips it's all kind of case by case but we just make sure we walk them through the right scenario and and then it's just all it's all comfort right we all are creatures that just want to be comfortable so if they've rented a class SE in the past they want to rent a class SE again even though they they could probably come pick it up or get something a little bit nicer or bigger and have us deliver it where do you keep keep them we have 7 and a half acres out here so we've got a a front end and a back end um front end we I don't know fit about 15 up up there the back end we probably fit probably 20 and then we have nooks and crannies you know little secret hideaways right yeah yeah and that's your personal property yeah yeah okay a lot of people would have the question once you can probably get away with doing one or two you have a small piece of land but before zoning comes and knocks on your door you'd have to get some sort of business or commercial lands have you dealt with dig sure from RV share yeah a little bit like 75 bucks one time yeah just a little bit yeah they were the ones doing our awning and a couple other things and they're the only company I've seen when you Google their company they have only one star reviews on Google only one star I think it was I think it was 15 at the time and then after I was done with 16 I think it's more than that now because I had I had nowhere else to go I was calling the was

,000 calls emails back and I was like I wrote a review saying I'll I'll take this down if you guys get back to me but this has been going on like it at that point like two months and there was nothing and then I got an email that said it was resolved and like that was it and we there was no reimbursement and so then we were like freaking out but not res long story short we have gotten paid for it like I said the awning still hopefully dropping it off next in the next couple weeks but financially we did what we wanted to do it was just it's our time our time is valuable and the amount of time you know cleaning turning it over on the phone right the email so that's what we're we're kind of going to consider all that before we jump in and do it again next year yeah and I think I that's been so like the two that we brought on to two the package deal that we brought on today that he was talking about was a guy that had he just had two units that he was renting out last year and he said the same thing like it's just not worth the extra time that I'm putting in to do the deliveries and talk to the people and the cleaning and all that stuff but if I can still make a little bit of money and you guys are doing all that work yeah might as well maybe we'll bring you our van thing with the camper van though is it is you know like we had single women go and we had you know older couples and they're going on these extended trips so at the end of the rental for us we were like that's a lot of mileage on this van that we still owe a lot of money on we're trying to weigh out the you know are we going to like run this thing to the ground before we even pay it off that's one thing we're considering is is this worth it because yes it's making good money year over-ear but no we're financing it and if we're going to put 300,000 mies on it you know in the next like 5 10 years then that's not good so we're we're probably considering like putting a cap on like 15,000 miles a year which limits the income but at the same time you have it for longer so I think is it Ram a ram they they have decent resale value so you might be okay you know it's like like people people that don't want to spend over 100,000 bucks probably would spend 80 you know or or 60 or something like that so that's the that's the trouble too is like when we bought it like we got suckered into the we bought it new we bought the extended warranty so if we were to sell it now we would definitely lose money on it which is the biggest difference in my opinion from like you know we do the real estate thing with real estate it appreciates we've been able to pull out refinance versus what scares me with this is if we wanted to sell it and I look at it in like two different ways where one is you know we're renting it out we're making decent money with it but on the other hand if we just use this and this is for you know someone who isn't necessarily looking to get into this business but if they just want to rent it out and not necessarily make money off of it but just own their RV for Less that's also a great option too a number of our uh cosignment are people that they just want to be able to make their payment yeah this is something too that you could potentially think about down the road I don't know if you know anybody who's got property where you can actually just park it somewhere and do like an Airbnb with it and probably you know like an upscale Airbnb type situation and do little things you can add on the outside that wouldn't be super expensive but I think I'd like to do something like that I I I've I've had this vision of like a tiny home Village yeah yep said in the last episode she's wanted a tiny home forever and we got a van but I guess I wasn't tiny home enough for exactly awes I want Ys and I want like this little collection yeah yeah I cannot believe the time we're already approaching 40 minutes here and unfortunately we have to start wrapping up but guys if you're listening to this podcast let us know in a comment or reach out to us on travel.com let us know if you want to have Lewis and Robin back on this podcast because I think we're just scratching the service here we we got into kind of the basics of fundamentals of starting out with the business but I want to get into the expansion and where you guys are now so if you're listening leave us a comment reach out to us on travel path.com and let us know if you want to have him back because I think there's a lot more to unfold here but I cannot let you guys go without asking one question which is what is the worst experience you've had with a renter so far geez so the guy the guy was really nice in the beginning really nice really cool he was a he was kind of a friend of one of our return renters for a big concert that we have I was like okay yeah sure I'll rent it to him you know no problem um got to know him chatt with him a little bit got the unit there uh he wanted us to try to um because they kind of line us out you know and the doors are all kind of facing one way so sometimes they'll let us kind of face one the other way so the door both doors are facing each other right so they get a little bit of privacy there so we did that for them and this unit this this this vent this event was one of the largest ones all summer long it was huge huge and and I'd say this event they had the most RVs I think rented out of all of them you know and in some cases probably all combined it was huge a lot of campers out there and they just packed them in super tight it's dry camping so everyone has a generator so this is a important piece of this situation so as you can imagine right we see all the warnings with generators right don't have them in closed proximities don't have them in doors you know CU you can get carbon monoxide poisoning well all these RVs have these monitors they get back they're all drunk it's 12:00 12:30 at night and everybody's carbon monoxide monitors are going well they all fire up their generators to cool down the campers they're getting ready to go to bed his carbon monoxide monitor started going off and it's just beeping and beeping and beeping and I I know they're they're annoying I mean they're so annoying right so he calls me up in the middle of the night woke me up or his wife did I'm just like halfway asleep and I'm like what's going going on and and okay well there's two things that could happen your battery is like dangerously low that's why it goes off or number number two you actually have carbon dioxide poisoning um or or you know fumes going on in the in the unit and that's that's a good thing it saves saves your life right and he just man he just started going off about the unit and about where he parked and he could have found a better spot and just oh it was the worst conversation I ever had call me every name in the book telling me got some really important friends and they're going to put bad reviews about us I mean just it was just it was it was terrible and yeah he's like if you don't if you don't give me a return I'm gonna I'm going to move out right now and if you don't give me a return then I'm GNA challenge the the charge all this stuff anyway it it ended up where we just returned the money I didn't want to deal with the guy anymore um he moved out that night Anda no idea what he did he pulled all his stuff out of the camper maybe camped in the back of his SUV I don't know and I've Got Friends all over the place so I had people going and checking on the unit I have I had you know guys going to to make sure everything was okay and everything was put away and stuff so we closed that up and ended up returning his money and and that was just kind of the the worst experience I've ever had with any wild I mean we've had people upset about things here and there and we've been able to fix them we've been able to go you know what that's our fault we will go take care of that or something broke on it or something and we went and fixed it but nothing like this it was pretty bad that's upsetting but I'm sure for every you know the story like that you probably have like five good ones right oh my gosh right we had 300 rentals last year and that one was by far the only one the only bad one we can really remember yeah we had there was another one where a guy like everything started stopped working and it was my fault rookie mistake and everything stopped working and I'm like yeah he can't he couldn't get the slide in he couldn't figure stuff out none of the lights were working things were flickering and I was like it sounds like a total electrical issue well I went he took off night early he took his family and took off a night early I went and checked it out well the plugin that was um on the 30 amp plug-in was just not working and part of their part of their process would have been like to check it out first call the camp host and have them come check it out I switched it to the other thing everything worked fine I mean just you know stuff like that most of the time the problems usually are pretty simple fix and you just jump to the worst conclusion and don't actually think about all those little things that just could you know right we can pretty much troubleshoot just about anything now we've we've been through so much that any any issue that happens it's it's a pretty okay tell me what's going on here what's going on there okay that sounds like this or you're not getting full power or you know something's going on and we're we're able to pretty much fix it I think the lessons there are to make sure you're smoking Co the batteries are good and then we've been in the same situation you have a pain in the butt client you just just give them the money back whether they deserve it or not it's not worth the headache in the future save the review and just be done with it yeah before we wrap up Robin Lewis if you want to just share one last time where my audience can find you guys Central Washington RV rentals.com for RV rental needs but we're also about that RV Life on YouTube and we're on Facebook as lrv Val does as well yeah about that RV life and pretty much uh Instagram Tik Tok we even got a Twitter we don't really use that much but you know about that RV life is just about everywhere for sure the YouTube channel awesome everyone go check them out Robin Lewis thanks again thank you so much appreciate it

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

00:38 What makes the Bighorn National Forest so special to you?

01:25 Who should go to the Bighorn National Forest?

01:52 How long should someone spend in the Bighorn National Forest?

03:24 Is there any lodging or campgrounds nearby?

05:18 What is the best time of year to visit the Bighorn National Forest?

06:47 Is the Bighorn National Forest pet/kid friendly?

08:00 Is there any nightlife in or near the Bighorn National Forest?

09:00 What are some of your favorite food places near the Bighorn National Forest?

10:00 What are three things to do in or around the Bighorn National Forest?

10:55 What are two complaints someone might have about the Bighorn National Forest?

11:30 Is there an RV/rig size limit?

11:58 What is one thing you cannot leave the Bighorn National Forest without doing?

13:04 What are a few items you always take with you while backpacking?

Linnea and Akela:

Linnea & Akela (linneaslife.com)

Linnea & Akela - YouTube

In case you missed it, take a listen to Part 1 where Linnea discussed her transition to van life and some of the precautions she takes as a solo female traveler. In today's show, Linnea discusses all about the Bighorn National Forest located in Buffalo, Wyoming.

🗻Bighorn National Forest

Bighorn National Forest - Home (usda.gov)

BighornMountains.Com - Rodeos and Other Events Schedules

🍴Grocery/Diner

https://www.facebook.com/southsidebuffalowy/

Home - DJ's Grocery (djsgrocery.com)

🥾Hiking

Mistymoon Trail, Wyoming - 173 Reviews, Map | AllTrails

💧Water Filter

GravityWorks™ Gravity Water Filter System | Platypus®

🏕️Camping

iOverlander | Find your next destination

The Dyrt | Camping near me: Tent, RV sites, Glamping & Cabins

Free Camping Near You | Go Camping for Free! (freecampsites.net)

onX Maps: GPS Map App for Hunting, Hiking & Off-Roading

#podcast #travel #linneaandakela #vanlife #bighornnationalforest #wyoming

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube:

all right lanaa thank you for coming back on the travel tips segment of the podcast and joining hope and I how you doing today I'm doing well thank you guys for having me great so if in case anybody missed the first episode definitely take a look she told her story of how she went from Fitness Nutrition to doing that on the road and then eventually turning that into full-time van life she has an enormous audience on YouTube she's on all social media platforms so if you miss part one definitely check it out and part two travel tips we're talking about one particular destination so the name where are we talking about today we are talking about the big horn National Forest perfect now what makes this place so special to you why are we talking about it well actually this can get a little bit personal because when I was in high school my family did a backpacking trip actually in the Big Horn national forest and that was my first introduction so this area is um right near Buffalo Wyoming and so that was I I we loved that area and then a few years years ago Chris's bus broke down just south of that area I was like oh we're right near the Big Horns let's just hang out there for you know the rest of the month or whatever and so that was a really cool like reintroduction years and years later so yeah I'm very like attached to that area emotionally oh perfect now for the Big Horn national forest for someone who likes to do what who should go there anything outdoors so It's a Wonderful backpacking area It's a Wonderful fly fishing area and really just like Wildlife viewing is fantastic there too a lot of bears and a lot of moose and you can see some elk I believe I don't know if I ever saw elk actually a lot of deer yeah oh very nice now to get that full Big Horn National Forest experience I know you said that you've posted up there for a couple of months but if someone's just going to plan a trip there how long should they go for I would say at least three weeks so just like any area I think the longer that you're there the more that you really figure out the vibe you learn about the Hing gems from the locals and so I think three weeks is a great time because you have space to go and explore the national forest aspect of it where you can go and you can camp for free just like any national forest but then there are so many different Trail heads and so many different Alpine Lakes so even if you don't fish like insanely beautiful views of crystal clear Alpine Lakes anywhere you go and then the farther into the back country that you get the more expansive and um yeah just the more expansive views the more higher elevation the more dramatic mountains so if you're really into that you can kind of touch anything from just like hiking a few miles to go through you know you're flying a little bit or you can do like eight days in in the back country and just Summit some beautiful mountains or just do a cool loop and it it's an amazing Place nice sounds beautiful now if there's someone who maybe doesn't want to or the backpacking or Back Country intimidates them a little more you think they could still go and like you said do just a few miles to throw their line in is there a lot of campgrounds around or any lodging for anybody Yes actually there there are a few options for lodging and then there are a few campgrounds but just outside of those campgrounds are like national forests you know it's just like a BLM area where you can just park and be there for 14 days at a time and really from a lot of those areas you can even walk to Trail heads and I think there was a hike that we did that was maybe three miles in and you're at just a series of these gorgeous Alpine Lakes so it's really like all levels of of outdoor adventure and what's really cool about this area too is that I think because so many people are going to Other Des like so many people go to Teton so many people go to Yellowstone that it really draws a lot of the crowd away and so while you know at the peak season yes there are people there if you go in shoulder Seasons you're going to have Trails mostly to yourself you're not going to see many people and um you know even if let's say you do you know you do take three weeks to be there and you go looking for two days some of the other time can be actually just driving around going over the path visiting little mountain towns that are known for their ice cream shop or their coffee shop and so that's really fun too to get kind of the the lay of the entire area if you're not totally into the backc country space sure now you mentioned Yellowstone and Grand ton how far away are we talking from those two locations that's a really good question a few hours I think I don't know but it' be great like if you're in that road trip mode right you can make that a stop and you can go and you can enjoy some of that and then still be able to transition over do some of those bigger attractions and then also hit those small towns so I think it's perfect to talk about something that's not something everybody's heard of but allows them to stop and get just a different perspective of an outdoorsy dream for sure now you did touch on the seasons but what would you say is like the best months to go or when would you want to be there um I prefer fall and that's because of the bugs so like late summer or fall um because there is a lot of water up there of course and when you have standing water you typically have mosquitoes um typically late fall is a really or late summer early fall is a wonderful time to go because the temperature is perfect it's not super super hot like it's that at that time it's really good for Aila too she can be on trail all day and then the bugs are much much less so it's comfortable on all fronts oh yeah that's a really good point yeah not having bugs versus having bugs makes a huge difference in your experience now Wyoming gets cold in the winter time would you recommend not going there how cold does it get in the winter time in what in this area yeah I would recommend not going there um so when I mentioned buffalo buffalo is like the town right uh at the base of those mountains but to actually get into the national forest you're climbing a few thousand feet it's at least a 15 degree difference from the actual little town where you might restock or go to eat or whatever to like where you'll be adventuring so I would stay out of there for the dead of winter for sure good tip well that is good to know and you're obviously traveling with your dog so I know where you're going is pet friendly but do you feel like in this area pretty much anywhere you go is going to be pet friendly for you yes absolutely the entire National Forest Aila and I just did a weeklong so trip out there she was with me the whole time a lot of dogs are out there so yes very very dog friendly we even um had a place in town that we love to go eat and they loved our dogs going in they they had a back patio they would bring out water for the dogs the whole town is dog friendly it's fantastic perfect now you aren't traveling with kids but do you see a lot of families on these hikes or you know in some of these Trails sometimes I think the shorter ones yes yeah sometimes you know small small children in like the backpack carriers and whatnot um of course when I get really deep back there no probably SE a lot of people yeah it's definitely family friendly though um there's a spot that we would park and a lot of like our viers with families would be there for weekends and whatnot so yes very cool now aside from you know being in nature is there anything to do um nightlife wise like are we talking are there any restaurants in the area any bars yes a few it's a very small very small downtown but they um it's it was kind of fun in the summer they had a lot of like festivals going on there's like a rodeo in town and as far as restaurants they kind of have everything that you need uh my favorite place to go I believe was called the Southside Grill just good like bar food and um yeah I this might not matter to most people but having a really wonderful gas station is really nice so we had a really there's a really wonderful gas station there um where we would like hang out if we had to be in town overnight or if we wanted to like walk to go get a drink or whatever we could come back and sleep at the gas station which was super cool I think that's pretty much all of it though cool you mentioned that one spot that had really good um bar food but any other um breakfast lunch dinner spots you want to note uh I remember that there's a small Diner there as well that has great breakfast but I cannot remember the name but definitely the Southside Grill was awesome and then for groceries DJs is a really awesome little grocery spot um there's also some fancier restaurants that we went to that were really fantastic um but really you only have like one of each category like it's kind of just a main Street and like a few roads off of that that's pretty much it that's awesome it sounds like it's a great mix of you have the whole big horn National Forest where it's just Wilderness and it's an outdoor person's dream but at the same time you're close enough to civilization where you can you have restaurants gas stations all the Necessities absolutely yeah it's one of my favorite spots ever to be yeah we may have driven right by it and haven't heard of it but we definitely want to venture out there at some point maybe our next trip right awesome so we'll pivot to the final three questions the 321 countdown the podcast so what are three things to do in or around the Big Horn National Forest that we haven't talked about yet okay for a trail I highly suggest Misty Moon Lake Trail that's a really wonderful one it's pretty easy if you want to spend a night or two out there and then fly fishing basically any Creek that you can find and just to pay you back off of that they um if you're excited about fly fishing and you want to hike back a little bit most of their elpine lakes that are close to probably where people will be parking or camping are stocked with really beautiful trouts you can be catching brck trout you can be catching um tiger trout you can catch Cutthroat there's a lot of different variety out there that's pretty much it sounds like just backpacking just just enjoying the Wilderness in general that's right there that could be the answer to the last question actually but um what are two complaints they might not be complaints but that people just weren't prepared for about the Big Horn National Forest I would say bugs if you get there on the wrong season and you're spending a lot of time near water the bugs are going to be bad especially in the back country during like a muy season so I would say bugs and then two something that did surprise me if you care about your vehicle uh the climbing elevation to get up there it's just a lot on your vehicle if you're not used to that or if you have a really large rig you're really pulling a lot of weight up a pretty steep incline to get into the national forest and if you're towing something would is there like a limit you would recommend can big rigs get up there or is it just not very maneuverable they can they absolutely can um I don't know if it's just Wyoming people but there are big rigs in places that I didn't know big rigs could go so it's doable yeah great and one last question what is one thing you cannot leave the Big Horn National Forest without doing um you cannot leave there without backpack in you just can't do it because it's just so beautiful when you get into the Wilderness yeah I like that answer that's great that's funny so as far as wild life you had mentioned everything but elk you would seen there right I'm sure obviously elk yeah hang out there but yeah there have to be elk there I mean I met a lot of elk Hunters I just personally didn't lay my eyes on any while I was there um but a lot of moose and um elk scat and deer and fish and really good mushrooms actually too great mushroom hunting interesting we were just looking at mushrooms in a tree the other day and I was wondering can I eat this and we didn't because we don't have any idea but that's a do you bring like a field book with you or just the knowledge of having been in the outdoors for so long you know what's poisonous and what's not yeah I wish I knew more but I know a very very select few yeah so we actually uh we thought we were harvesting King bites and they were not um upon further research but that's okay we learned that they weren't now just because we did talk about backpacking a lot um and being in the back country what are a few items that like you definitely even if you're just going for like a day or two if you're doing a small trip like what are some items that you always take with you water purification always um one of my favorite things ever is a platypus um it's called it is a platypus it's the gravity Works platypus and it is uh the most fantastic water purifier I've ever used I spent a lot of my time using like a hand pump MSR water purifier that would like screw onto a NeNe but then I was introduced to the platypus a few years ago and it is so nice because all you have to do you take one side of the bag you scoop up the the labeled dirty bag with water four liters of water which is a ton of water and then it's just all gravity fed systems you hang in a tree the clean bag sets below it and it just in a half hour you have four liters of clean water so definitely the Platypus and then um a comfortable sleeping pad I spent many years of my life sleeping on a little foam pad and when I finally invested in a nice like actual like blow up little um like Camp pad it just your sleep it's so worth getting good sleep out there awesome all right so we got a couple Essentials in there and yeah tons of wildlife so we have have not seen a moose in our journey yet so maybe we'll head to Big Horn national forest and find one yeah yes do it yeah well thanks again lanaa for coming on again if you haven't seen part one lanaa she came on she talked about her entire journey I highly encourage you check that out I'll link everything in the show note descriptions below lanaa and Tequila thank you again thank you guys so much

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

04:37 What were the biggest challenges in getting started traveling?

06:58 What YouTube channels or books influenced you to travel?

09:10 How much should someone prepare before starting van life full time?

11:55 What have you learned you can't live without in your van, and what have you learned that you don't need?

13:20 What tools do you bring with you?

14:20 What are some of the biggest frustrations you face during van life?

15:16 How do you find places to sleep?

18:35 What does your van life budget look like?

21:00 Any money saving tips?

22:30 How are you getting internet?

24:30 How do you travel with Akela?

30:03 What would you say to someone who has concerns about being a solo female traveler?

32:37 What has been your coolest experience while traveling?

36:20 Is van life sustainable?

Linnea and Akela:

Linnea & Akela (linneaslife.com)

Linnea & Akela - YouTube

Linnea & Akela 🏔 (@linnea.and.akela) • Instagram photos and videos

Facebook

Linnea has always had a craving for the outdoors, and one day she decided to give up her "normal" life and trade it in for a home on wheels with her dog, Akela. In today's show she discusses:

🔨The essential tools for van life, including impact drill with bits, electrical fuses, wire strippers, and an air compressor

🐶How she is able to make her lifestyle work around Akela

🚺The precautions she takes being a female solo traveler

And More!

Music:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

Videos Referenced from Linnea's Channel:

Van Build BASICS as a SOLO FEMALE (youtube.com)

VanLife EXPENSES | How much does it REALLY cost? (youtube.com)

Episode 3 of "The Travel Path Podcast" with Bronderlust:

https://sites.libsyn.com/491798/3-bronderlust

Garrett & Staci | Vanlife•Adventure•Lifestyle (@bronderlust) • Instagram photos and videos

🔗Links

⚡Power

Blue Eti power source

📶

Starlink

🏕️Camping

iOverlander | Find your next destination

The Dyrt | Camping near me: Tent, RV sites, Glamping & Cabins

Free Camping Near You | Go Camping for Free! (freecampsites.net)

onX Maps: GPS Map App for Hunting, Hiking & Off-Roading

🚫Sedona Camping Ordinance:

Ch. 9.10 Offenses Against Public Peace | Sedona City Code (municipal.codes)

📺Channels

Brianna Madia (@briannamadia) • Instagram photos and videos

Van Kookz - YouTube

📖Book

Normal to Nomad Book — Normal to Nomad (normal2nomad.com)

#podcast #travel #linneaandakela #vanlife

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Transcript from YouTube

lanaa thank you for joining hope and I on the Travel path podcast and happy New Year Happy New Year to you as well yeah so we know you on YouTube as lanaa and Aila you travel in your van fulltime with your dog you cover everything basically from Van life building van lifee in general traveling all over the world you even have a video on making sourdough bread so there's quite a variety of content you have on your website um I do want to give a shout out to BR lust Garrett and Stacy who on episode three had mentioned how they loved your channel when they were starting out and you inspired them to travel not only because you did the whole van build thing and had the highlights of Van life but also was really authentic and you showed the mistakes kind of the downsides and frustrations with Van life in general so why don't we start by having you share a little bit about yourself and then what your current travel lifestyle looks like I started this whole Endeavor much longer than you know a long time ago um which I think is the case for a lot of people they have this idea and then they have to work towards it and go through all this struggle really a big goal of mine was to be able to work remotely as it is for a lot of people and to have the freedom to do the things I love which for me is outdoor things outdoor activities I like to spend a lot of time in the back country and when I had kind of been set on the goal of Van life I was working for a company where I was spending eight days in the back country and then six days in the in the front country in the real world however you want to say it and so that actually set up my current life style a lot so right now I am living in a ram promas it's a 2016 it's the smallest one it's the 136 wheel base I did the build completely by myself because back then I did not have the money to pay anybody in fact I I did have a call with a van Builder and he gave me a quote it was a very gave me a very kind discount and I still couldn't afford it and so I was like screw it I'm doing the whole thing by myself whatever it doesn't have to be great you know I went through the whole process of figuring out how to work remotely that I mean that I could talk about that for three hours but I tried many different things I decided to start my own business which was a huge risk um but I started my own Fitness business that allowed me to get on the road and build my van out I put a lot of it on a credit card a lot of my van build on a credit card the van build it's very simple I have made some changes over the last few years but that allows me right now to be living a life that kind of reflects what I had been living so um I have comforts have heat I have a you know a wood burning stove now I used to have diesel heater um we have a bed which is different than like a uh sleeping bag on the desert ground you know and um place for food and so a lot of my life in the van is spent out on Forest roads in BLM land yeah it's very simple my goal was never to make my van feel like a house because I knew if I wanted to feel like a house I would probably be disappointed so so I wanted to maintain the like campy feel with some luxury or in my eyes some luxury uh but really have it be a vehicle for me to get out into nature so that's kind of how I'm living right now awesome really cool and I can imagine on the prices way back then before the co surge of doing the actual van builds cuz we thought about that briefly and that was after the Ford transits they went up in price too when we were looking around and we ended up not doing a van build cuz we just didn't have enough time and after speaking with so many people on doing a van build it seems like it always takes much longer and much more money whether you're doing it yourself or not oh absolutely oh my gosh when I started I had planned to do well I didn't really plan my build because I didn't know what I was doing but I was like it's going to be so simple very like it'll be just what I need to get by for the next however many years I want to do this and I I thought I was going to finish it in like three to four months and I didn't finish it um until I think eight months later it took literally twice as long I feel so great f for when I was able to purchase my van because I got my van it was at 70,000 miles and I got it for $117,000 which would be absolutely unheard of now so yeah I am really really grateful and though surge of like materials and wood hadn't happened yet M now as far as experience and some of the challenges I watched a video you put out before you started the van build where you literally just called somebody I think it was called van build Basics as a solo female and you literally just called somebody that you knew that you knew knew more than you about electronics and powering your van and just recorded the entire conversation I thought that was brilliant because a you just proved to yourself that all you have to do is call somebody that knows more and can explain to you how to do it but also you're putting this on your channel to educate and help other people so was the biggest challenge the van build itself were there any other emotional Financial challenges to get on the road or was it just a van build oh the financial aspect I think was the biggest hurdle I mean I think that's most people's biggest hurdle is to figure out how they're going to fund a project like that um but once I had some of that figured out and was willing to take the risk and like kind of go in the hole for it I'm going to try my best to explain this but the biggest challenges then when going through the actual like building process was this like cycle of each project where you have this overwhelming Doom of like I have no idea how to do a electrical I can't I I couldn't even explain to somebody how this works how am I supposed to build it and so it's this like overwhelming anxiety of like I don't know if I can do this and then the whole painful process of learning and doubting and not knowing if you're ever going to figure this out if you have to pay like pay somebody to do it for you that's a really hard process to be in but also one that the more you practice the easier it is and the more confidence you build within your own you know that own cycle and then when the first thing clicks even just that first first like oh my gosh I know the difference of AC and DC that's incredible I didn't know that a month ago it's like that confidence starts to build and then you do the project you finish the project and then you move on to the next one and it like starts over and I think for me that cycle was the hardest thing to just like keep chucking and keep learning and and yeah I think that was the hardest plus you had not only were you doing this van build and you were you know you were trying to prove to yourself you could do it but you had your entire audience you went out there put on YouTube that you said you were going to do this you kind of gave yourself no choice but to go out there and do it yeah absolutely but I was able to use the channel because it wasn't big at that time I didn't I didn't know you could make a I didn't know you could make a living off of YouTube I had no clue so I was like okay this will keep me on track I have to do a video per project and try to do it every week and so it actually really helped it felt less like pressure and more like I told myself I do this I just have to do it now so that was really helpful actually as far as other influences in your life were there any any other YouTube channels or books that helped you kind of get on that path of living on the road so I would say the first person that I came across that like when I saw it visually I was like oh you can do this was um Brianna Maria media she yeah back then she was living in this big orange van with her dogs and her then husband out in the desert and I had fallen in love with the desert at that point and I'm like man that's cool I want to be camping all the time anyway if I just did it in a van that'd be more comfortable and I could figure out the rest she was the first one that I was like okay that people like I can do this if she can do this I can do this one of the first people that I followed was Travy wild I I didn't follow many like um big like van lifers or anything at that time but I had come across one of Travy Wild's builds and he was the only other person that I saw who didn't have a bright white really clean um like aesthetic and I'm like man I really want to just use a lot of natural wood and a lot of natural colors even if it's dark like I don't care I like that and he did and he had this beautiful bookshelf he is like a beautiful Creator he he builds stuff on the road I have one of his um cutting boards too so yeah he was a lot of inspiration for me of like I can build whatever I want and it's going to be like cozy and comfy because it's going to be for me so I'd say those two were kind of the initial people that I followed and then I really as far as the build goes and I'm doing it myself the van Cooks I don't know if you guys ever came across them but the vancs they just put out really authentic and like easy to learn from videos um like very simple like build step type videos so I enjoyed them too it's great we'll put a link in the description the show notes for all the references we talk about in the show today so it sounds like you clearly did your homework you had your influences that you watch videos you did all your homework when you're building your van and you spent a lot of time in the outdoors before getting into van life and transitioning to that lifestyle have you come across a lot of people who have just recently learned about van lifee and they've done the whole conversion and they've jumped right into it kind of too fast too soon what are your thoughts on how much you should prepare before you get into van life full-time I think that's hard because I had so much experience in the back country so this felt really luxurious to me so yeah I I have seen and I've heard a lot of cases like that I think as far as prep some of the best things that people can do is travel and sleep and live for short periods of time in their current vehicle um I spent a lot of time traveling in my little Camry it was like a little beat up Camry for a while and then I had a um 1994 4Runner that ail and I traveled out west with often and if I hadn't had some of those experiences living you know not out of a backpack but in a vehicle I would have had less of an idea of what I actually needed in the van and so taking what you have and just traveling living out of it and that'll just clear up probably a lot of people's questions of what do I actually want in the van what and it's going to be so different for everybody like the things that I value that I have in my van other people would be like oh heck no I need this thing to be comfortable and to like have that be a sustainable lifestyle so that that's what I would say for prep and also to add to that there are a lot of people that I hear say like invest a lot into your van fi and do everything you can to make it feel like a house and I know I touched on this before but I think also having space when you move into the van to to make changes along the way is also really important because if you can't make changes or if you don't know how to fix things then you're absolutely stuck with what you thought you wanted and I feel really grateful that I had the the flexibility of course I did the build so I knew how things were put together but I'm grateful I had the flexibility to rip out this whole side of my van so I could have a freezer cuz I was like man I want to be able to spend more time out there and not have to go shopping I'll just put in a freezer or the different type of sources of heat you know like all those different things I think it is really important to have space to make changes along the way especially if you're wanting to do it for many years sure you have to have that Vision to plan ahead think ahead I know that the wood stove you put in that was an addition right that wasn't an original modification to the van right correct yeah I had a diesel heater for two years first which was great the diesel heater was great there were things I didn't like about I didn't like the smell and when I like drip Fuel and stuff but um yeah I love my wood stove but other people don't other people don't want to do the work of a wood stove but I love it smells a little better than diesel does yeah makes it nice and cozy too in the winter yeah staying on that topic have there been has there been something in your van that you've learned that you can't live without and then at the same time something that you've learned that you actually don't need that you put in there originally um I for me and this might be a little bit particular to my build but something that I can't live without is my external power source so like my blue etti is what I use and I use it every single day and I charge it every single day and it Powers every electronic I have because I removed my my AC power so for those that don't know the difference like AC is like a plugin that you would use in like your house wall so I removed that actually I remov my inverter and just ended up sticking with my external battery source to charge basically all of my AC appliances and like my phone and things like that floating around the van and I left everything um that is in my van appliances that are wired into my my house all of that runs from the like electrical system that I put in with my batteries and my solar on top of my van and I think that's one thing um that I didn't realize was going to shift so much but I love that um separation now and I love having my external power source it's great now we've talked to a lot of rvers who have campers trailers motor homes and they had mentioned to us how they have all these tools they bring with them and one thing we didn't really consider we brought a few tools with us but in the van it's very limited space what tools do you bring with you on the road so I have actually when I rebuilt half of my kitchen to include my freezer I built a a large like storage space on top of my freezer just for tools um so I have really really basic tools so I keep my drill my impact drill with me at all times and then obviously a huge array of bits and um I I keep a lot of electrical little components with me too so I always have like little fuses and then um wire strippers and anything that I need to fix or shift any of my electrical and that's pretty much it it's just like drill and then electrical I also should be um traveling with a air compressor too that's one thing that I need and I would have mentioned if I did travel with it but I don't so kind of fast forwarding after the van build having been on the road for three years now what are some of the biggest frustrations that you face dishes it's really just dishes man I hate doing dishes and I really didn't do dishes before I met Chris because I would just like wipe out my stuff and and go on my way but now that you know I have a partner it's important but he does the dishes now but other than that like that is really my only gripe of having I don't really have running water and I have a really small sink um I think the only other thing that I would say is traveling anywhere east of the Mississippi that's really hard because of lack of public land I wish that I could answer this and like really give you some big struggles or some big gripes that I have with living on the road but as long as I'm out west and have access to public land in towns every once in a while it's really smooth going once you kind of get the flow of everything so you don't have too many issues in terms of like finding places to sleep for the night no that's interesting that's that's like one of the big that was probably our biggest frustration during our road trip was it seemed like we were talking to people who had done road trips like 20 years ago and when they got tired they slept they pulled over they woke up they just kept going and it seemed like for us for some reason we just saw signs everywhere where it said you like no overnight parking even like some of the Walmarts there were security you know cars going around if they didn't own the actual parking lot uh maybe that's cuz we were closer to like national parks and destinations so are you traveling kind of more remote than that yeah I typically do because of Aila so she there dogs really aren't allowed in National Parks I mean enough for you to really see the park so we stay away from Big destinations like that not to say that they're not worth going to because they are like national parks are national parks for a reason they're beautiful and very cool my whole goal was to be away from a lot of people uh so that's kind of why I mentioned you know out east is very different than out west so out west there's just enormous amounts of public land if you know how to how to search and and that's kind of something that you get into the flow of too or that I found that I was able to get into the flow of and you kind of have a sequence of what you do first so for me I do like apps like I Overlander or the dirt or free campsites done you know those those classic ones but then I'll look at that area and then I move on to onx so I I use onx for a lot because it's so easy to see if there's public land versus private land it's very very clearly marked and it's it has a lot of really great roads that are marked so typically I'll be like okay cool I know this area people can stay I'm G to move to anx and then I look and see what the what what kind of borders that property or that public land what roads go through that and I'll kind of make my own route through there CU I remember we we were in like Sedona Arizona and it took us like 3 hours to find a place to sleep we're tired it's dark out and we didn't realize that Sedona there was an ordinance where you can't sleep in a car anywhere in that town it wasn't like every night it was probably like I don't know 10 nights for o over the span of our two month trip but it was enough to we're we're like yeah that was definitely one of the top frustrations traveling was just trying to find a place to sleep we figured you know in a class B in it's it's not a camper you don't look like you're camping out or you can easily kind of conceal yourself but yeah that's um that's good advice thank you for sharing that yeah of course and it can certainly be frustrating in those larger cities I go to Salt Lake often because I have a few good friends there and it's even rough there knowing people and just staying on the road even and you know it's not illegal there but people don't like it so there there are a lot of things that you've run into in those larger cities but yeah going a little bit more remote it gives you the chance to see a lot of hidden gems as well and rather than national parks especially if you have a dog focusing on national monuments or national forests like there's beautiful national forests and national monuments all around that you know are usually really dog friendly so we'll switch gears a little bit to some of the financials and budgeting when you're on the road um you've been on the road three years now if you were to break down kind of a monthly budget what would that look like so I truthfully it changes so much throughout the year um these last for example these last few months we've been staying in the same spot for a while and that has saved an incredible amount of money because of gas prices so my budget shifts with well a where I want to go B the seasons and then where like prices are at with everything if gas prices are skyrocketing I chill in one state for a few months because I don't want to pay thousands of dollars in gas you know in gas bills or whatever so um I would say my highest expense is food um right now so my van payment is less than $300 a month because my van was so cheap and so that is like a very minimal payment for me my food food I care a lot about food I love food I love cooking and buying good ingredients our dogs eat fresh food too so um several hundred dollars a month go to food and then I would say right after that is gas because really if you live in a van you can't escape the fact that you're going to be paying a lot for gas and that will fluctuate from anything you know I mean this month I might have spent $50 on gas and but some months it's a few hundred when I have to go back home to Wisconsin to visit family or if I go down to the keys to visit my brother that's a lot of gas money but after that expense I sit in that place for a while to kind of recoup a little bit that's true you can kind of make up ground right so if you're spending more to get the place then just stay situated for there for a little while and then you're you know you get some of that money back it's a good tip absolutely and even like this might be minimal but with my freezer and now because I can store a lot of food so I have a a 50 L fridge with like a tiny little freezer on top and then I have a 60 L freezer that's I have a bigger freezer than I do fridge so that really cuts down the amount of times that I even have to leave my like BLM or Forest Service land spot and go into town that saves a lot of trips to town and that also saves money it's like an upfront cost but it it saves money in time sure that's a good point have it been any moneysaving travel hacks you've discovered over the past three years no I wish I could but no honestly there haven't been the only thing that I could say when I first started out because I was really behind financially I ate very simple Foods um and then I never paid for showers and that saved a lot of money so I only showered just outside with my little like MSR Dromedary drip thing and never PA for showers that Sav that that was great take you there was no water heater in that right oh no I still don't yeah I my water on myself oh man so it sounds like and we can't really put a button on it but if your biggest expense groceries is 3 400 bucks a month would you say somebody could live a lifestyle similar to yours for around 2,000 a month is that reasonable 100% when I started out I was I I was spending less than that yeah my budget was super tight when I first started and I was spending much less than 2,000 and that's all of my bills and I did a video on that at one point and it was I think I was on the road for maybe a year at that point so I was making a little bit more money but when I first started it was under two grand and that was cell phone that was um food gas Aila it was everything everything so absolutely if if people are willing to do it it is absolutely doable another expense we I know your face with being an influencer on YouTube is internet so how are you getting internet when you're on the road now it's starlink so starlink has opened up so much but I only have starlink now because Chris and I are together prior to that I didn't want to pay for any internet actually I had a little Verizon hotspot for a while I would basically plan out my videos so that I would go into town for upload day so I would go out the you know back country or down wherever out in the middle of nowhere and I would work on my videos and filming for that week and just stay really disconnected just stay really offline and then when my video is ready because you don't need internet for what I do I'll drive into town go to a coffee shop complete my entire upload and all of that back up do my chores go back out so I just planned very strategically for the first you know two two and a half years on the road when I needed internet I would use up my phone hot but that means I wasn't watching movies I wasn't watching shows I wasn't you doing what you can do with internet but I loved that like when Chris got starlink I was like dang I I don't know this now we're gonna be connected all the time we need to have like three days a week where we can't use of course that doesn't happen yeah but it is really nice I think starlink is great good that's good to know too that you can actually on our limited experience going to coffee shops sometimes doesn't have like the best Wi-Fi it seemed like we didn't actually do that but it seemed like if we were to upload videos to YouTube it wouldn't have been the strongest signal or we would have been there for like hours but it is possible you can go into town find places with the right Wi-Fi strong enough Wi-Fi and you can just basically post up all day and just upload you know tons and tons of videos yeah absolutely and it's not glamorous and it's not fun and you have to pay you know every two hours to get another coffee drink just to feel like you're not mooching but it's doable I had a lot of coffee during the day huh yeah well it wouldn't be a podcast with lanaa without talking about Aila a little bit so question we ask on the show is what would you say to somebody who says they cannot travel fulltime because they have a dog I also want to add to that after we touch on that what would you say to someone who doesn't want to travel fulltime because they're a female Solo Traveler guess we'll start with Aila yeah um I would say first of all concerns are valid um for example my brother my brother Noah loves Aila he is so good with animals he loves animals but he will not have an animal because he likes to travel so I see really both of those now saying that you cannot do it with a dog that is um not true obviously as we both know I would would say that you have to want to to to do it and to do it well and to enjoy your time I think that if people go into this being like Oh but I want to be able to go to a Climbing Gym four days a week where dogs are not allowed then yeah probably best for you really not to have a dog if you're traveling full-time or living in a vehicle but if it's something like with Aila really my life revolves around her and that's the way I want it though and that's the way I like it and I love bringing her joy and having her see all the cool things and be really active but that's because that's like a really big need and want in my life that I have so yes like concerns are valid and really think about what you're willing to give up and also it is very easy to adjust travel plans for your dog um you know we touched on a little bit national parks aren't super friendly but go to the ones that are Great Sand news national park that is a beautiful National Park and dogs can just be with you everywhere basically in that Park and oftentimes around those national parks are all these Little Gems that are just is beautiful and less people go to them and they're dog friendly and so it's just about learning how your life has to adjust on the road absolutely do doable and it is absolutely wonderful I think it depends on also how your dog um does in a vehicle like one of my good friends she built out a van and she got a beautiful amazing dog and he hated being in the car he would get really anxious and long on long long trips you know and she was like I just can't do this because of him and that's like a real that's a real thing like they have their preferences and some dogs like to travel some dogs need to be in one spot because that's where they're comfortable but I will add to that oh I have something to add um I built my van too with Aila in mind of course and so I added extra ventilation for her and I also built her a kennel because I knew that she loved her cozy dark space and she was in the van a lot during the build and in the kennel a lot after I built it for her she would just hang out in there so she was a huge like driver behind my decisions of the build so that she could be as comfortable in here as possible now it sounds like most the time when you're traveling with her you're when you leave your van you're probably taking her with her CU you're going in back country is there any times that you're leaving her in the van for extended periods and how do you manage that climate control for her there are times where I've left her in the van for a few hours and she's great because she loves her space um as far as climate control if I have any worries I don't risk it so even if I'm I don't know if I'm up in Idaho and it's a really muggy season I'm not going to go with my friends on a e like on an evening hike because I I would be worried all the time of her overheating I just don't take the risk um something that is just so fantastic is the extra airf flow so my extra vent makes the space very cool also it's really well insulated and this is something that a lot of people don't understand if they don't have a rig you know like how cool a space can be it's like sitting under a a shaded tree vers out in the open sun with ventilation and it with it being insulated we can be in pretty warm climates and it is very cool In Here Also I have um pretty high r value uh window covers so that you know it's blocking any radiant heat and yeah so I do everything that I can to make it comfortable and then if I'm worried at all I just don't take the risk I wanted to touch on because we actually rent our van out too when we're not using it and we've gotten questions from people like they'll ask us like oh we're going to be hiking can we leave our dog there are an AC is there a generator and we'll tell them like there is but even though it's a new newer van and everything I mean I cannot guarantee it's going to work properly right um so those are things you have to weigh like yes there are measures in place you can have the cameras you can have the sensors you can have the generator and air conditioner but things they fail it's unlikely they will but it is something worth considering yeah for sure and that's why I don't take the risk and I don't even have AC in here I don't have a sensor or anything it's just that that does scare me because also I want to enjoy my time out there and if I'm thinking like oh no what if the AC kicked off or what if something's going on and then I can't enjoy my time because I'm worried about it and the weather was wrong and now it's getting really hot out yeah right and that's also why I chase the weather I just Chase Seasons wherever it's the best for both of us so what would you say to somebody who just doesn't want to do this whole time because they would be a female Solo Traveler some of the advice that I've given to like individuals have been start really small if you're scared that doesn't mean um like if that means that you want to hop in your van and go sure go and do that but you can start so small just let's say you want to do this in the future go to your state park and lock your doors and sleep in the back of your car and just feel what that's like and if you're really really scared or you know really the what's going to happen is you're going to love it and you're going to wake up in the morning and you're to make your cough and you're going to have this Euphoria because you're out in nature and you're alone you can spend time with yourself and you're going to probably meet some really amazing people and those little like steps of like oh I'm kind of facing these fears bit by bit and I'm having these really wonderful experiences it's going to just slowly add up to this confidence and this knowing that like whatever comes your way you're going to be okay and you're probably going to have more good experiences than you will poor experiences now I would also say be prepared in whatever way you feel best um if that means a gun that means a gun if that means a taser that means a taser like whatever you're comfortable with whatever will make you feel secure as long as you know how to use everything properly do it you know um dogs help absolutely Aila alerts all the time and that makes me feel great she's also big and scary so that's that's nice but I think the other piece is really just perspective um because and this might sound negative but what I think about is anything can happen to me no whether I'm living in a van or an apartment in a big city um whether I feel the security of some like false safety measures or not and so I refuse to let those fears or those like messages that we receive about like what is safe and what's not or what's secure and what's not I'm not going to let those dictate my life so bit by bit and shifting perspective over time I think is kind of the only way to get through that fear sure that's really good advice just yeah bit by bit starting out small and then taking whatever you know safety precautions you feel necessary and then kind of just shifting your mindset and the lifestyle that kind of fit that that's great yes a couple more questions I guess before we start wrapping this thing up what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling so far that one is so hard because I okay I think that this is the one that stands out oh wait no okay I have two I had a feeling it' be a hard one it's so hard one of my my favorite moments was when the van broke down uh I was in Idaho and the van broke down I think this was like the second time that it broken down I ended up staying in that grocery store parking lot for like four days somebody came by to help me the little uh tiny little mechanic was just maybe 100 yards away but they couldn't get me in so what ended up happening I'm stuck I don't know anybody I started making friends with people I'm like living in this parking lot and all of a sudden this guy comes and he's like hey do you want to go on a boat ride with us tomorrow and I'm like sure why the hell not I don't know let's do it so I lock up the van ail and I go and take this boat ride with these people and they were amazing it was so fun and we went fishing and we went to this like secret part of this big lake out there and we hiked back in there and of course I can only imagine people hearing this cuz when I tell stories like this people are like you are so dumb don't like go into the back country and a boat with some random guys that you meet but I feel like I have a really good sense of people and they're still friends to this day it was so fun and then um the next morning the mechanic was able to get me in and like the whole community of this little tiny town there were probably like I mean not the whole Community but it felt like it these like nine people came by and they pushed My Van Into the mechanic spot and it was just a really beautiful series of events with a lot of spontaneity and new people and it it that was pretty early living in the van and from then on I just had this mindset of like man whatever happens is going to bring really cool things my way even if it's planned or not and just remaining really open to like anything and that is how you get the coolest experiences and then my second one I would say was a solo back country trip so I took the van out into the Big Horn mountains and then I hiked um it was just ail and I we were out there for I think eight days or six days and we did this big out and back track and I woke up what I know I'm talking and I woke up one morning with a bull moose outside of my tent and it was incredible so that was my other one yeah yeah that's pretty cool how far away was it from you 20 yards it was so close and I didn't even see it that was the funny part I I went out of my tent I heard some little feet behind my tent so I got my big lens out and I like peaked where I heard something and there was a beautiful little mu deer a little dough right behind my tent so I was filming her Aila was sleeping she's a late sleeper she like really likes her sleep so she was sleeping and I was filming and then I just remember like I like huffed and I was like oh that was so cool and then I turned around and then right in front of me I see this bull Mose still in velvet and he was just munching away on these little Willows and he looked at me and I was just beside myself with joy I was it was so cool yeah that is crazy I was going to ask if Aila was going crazy but I guess she was she was out didn't even see him yeah she did really really well she saw the moose very briefly and just like stared at it and then I had her I had her kennel so like any little space is her kennel so I just like go kennel and just zipped her up in the tent and then I was able to film and she just went back to sleep that's a big

dog yeah all right if you could have listened to this podcast when you were first starting out what is one question I did didn't ask today that you would want to have had asked and how would you answer that now um I would probably want to hear if it's sustainable because it's so easy to look online and see all these beautiful pictures and Beautiful Stories and and how long are actually people doing this and is it sustainable for the long term because that was my goal to do it for the long term I didn't have it wasn't just going to be for a year or whatever um yeah so that's what I would have wanted answered and of course my answer is yes absolutely as long as you really listen to yourself and not what other people are doing or how other people are living or how other people built their Vans but like really figure out what it is you want like the things you want to do with the you know what you want van life to bring you towards and then the actual like lifestyle of like what are your true Comforts what do you actually need and what do you don't like what do you not need and if as long as those to you know balance out you're going to be happy for a really long time and that's kind of the point of this podcast is just talking to people who have found different ways to make it sustainable whether it's a full-time thing whether it's just saving up a lot taking a a longer trip and traveling um there's multiple different ways to do it so I'm glad you asked that question yeah the book normal to Nomad is a really good book for people to start out with um actually my friend Baron wrote that book and he just I wish I could reach it's it's right there I wish I could reach for it and show you guys but it's um a very like logical read it's a very much like how to here are EV here's everything to consider here are like how to learn the basics of living this way and that's a really great book if you just want to sit down and kind of like study and read and see how they did everything uh yeah I think that book is wonderful awesome that's perfect so we haven't heard about that one before so we'll definitely check it out too yeah well audience is checking out that book where can they find out more about you I am lanaa and Aila on all platforms all right everybody go check it out hey lanaa thanks again for coming on the show this was an awesome podcast um you talked about a ton of stuff a ton of content on here it's going to be tough editing it down and trying to get it in the right time frame because there was just a ton of value bombs here so thank you very much for coming on the podcast yeah thank you guys so much for having me it was great to meet you

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It was great to have Andy and Rachel back on the show to chat about their favorite place. If you missed their incredible story on how they use house-hacking and created multiple businesses to support their travel lifestyle, don't forget to listen!

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Transcript from YouTube:

Andy and Rachel thank you guys for coming back to the travel path podcast thank you hey guys so we're doing the travel tips segment where we have the guests come back and talk about the one destination they know best before we get into that if you haven't heard the first part definitely tune in and you'll learn that you can definitely travel without needing an RV without needing a van and you can travel with kids so definitely check out Andy and Rachel story it was really inspiring and I encourage everyone to listen you'll learn a ton so Andy and Rachel what is the destination we're talking about today Hawaii are we talking about a specific Island let's talk about all of them all them yeah we'll try we'll cheer pick maybe yeah pick favorite things from each basically I love that why is Hawaii so special to the both of you for me I think Hawaii just has a a really cool Vibe I think we kind of just align with it really well we've always it just it's like that feeling when you when you get off an airplane or you you know you finally get to a destination and you can just feel it in your like gut you're like I like this place you know we feel home there yeah so I think that's why yeah um also I think the diversity of the Landscapes really really attract I'm like doing a little hus it like really really attracts us because there's just so much diversity on each island from the waterfalls to the mountains to the beaches to Wildlife to the flowers like there's just so much going on and how much people rece ECT the Land There the locals like it's huge to respect the land that's really important to us too yeah that's awesome now how much time have you guys spent there we typically we usually can't leave for too long so what what we have done is about a week in each island and so so far the first island we went to was Maui we spent about a week there um second one was Big Island spent a week there and the third one just recently this year we we finally got to go to aahu and now we're in research for for Kawai because we're heading Kawai in March but also we ultimately would like to end up in Hawaii and so we're testing out all the islands and trying to explore like every inch to try to decide where we might want to land oh that's awesome now Hawaii obviously we know beautiful beaches like you said tons of different landscape but for someone who's looking to plan a vacation in Hawaii what do you think would be their thing that they'd want to do when they're there oh that's tricky yeah I guess it depends I mean some people love to you know go out and see the night life there in in wyi and and a aahu some people you know want to go get a little more of a chill Vibe and Maui you know there's a lot of like surfing and and just a little bit more relaxing there big Island's very cool for like a certain people who like to go want to go see like the volcanoes there or they want to see more natural um you know Le there's less people there less chill andai yeah and Kawai and stuff so so yeah it kind of depends on the person but there's so much to do there like we were saying earlier you know you could you can even go skiing you know up in the mountains there you know certain times of year so no kidding wow I don't think I knew that so that's pretty cool yeah yeah yeah have you guys ever done that we didn't go skiing but we went up to see a sun set on the mountain and we were above the clouds watching it yeah Maui the Big Island I I I'm probably gonna misquote this but I think the big island is like one of or if not the only place in the world that has like all four or of the micro uh like the climates so like the big island has like you know it has a desert area where it's just super dry and there's Cactus and there's rainforest area where um in Hilo is like the rainiest place it's like the second most rainiest place on the you know on the globe and so yeah it's kind of cool to be able to just kind of drive an hour or two hours in a different place and it and your landscape just be like completely different that's cool now I know you said you guys have usually gone for about a week but how long would you say someone really needs to enjoy the island they're going to I'd say week minimum yeah I've heard of people island hopping a lot during a week that would be rough for us we feel like we don't even see it all that we okay we'd like to say longer than a week really really to see the islands I think anybody would we try to plan like one or two or three nights in each like area around the island so we'll go to like we'll stay in the South for two nights you know and then go to the West stay for two nights go to the north stay for two nights and that we can kind of kind of see the whole island yeah um but even then I mean it there's there's a lot to see people you know think it's a small little island but there's there's so much it's it's to do yeah very true now you guys are planning your next trip you said in March to Hawaii what other months have you been or what would you say is the best month to go to Hawaii so that's the really cool thing is that it's like pretty similar to the same weather all year um like it's really small difference in temperature from any time of the year however um there's certain months I want to say it's like November to May is whale watching season we haven't actually gone whale watching we want to we missed it by a little we either missed it in the beginning or the end but we'll be there this time for it but yeah this time we love Wildlife watching so we would definitely plan our trip around that yeah as far as Wildlife I know you guys love snorkeling too are there certain beaches or any of your favorite beaches you go when you snorkel yes Captain Cook yeah our favorite ever was Captain Cook on the big island it's close to Kona we had to hike a couple miles really Rocky we're the only ones there crowded yeah if you're if you're like a hiking type of person I would definitely recommend doing the hike yourself but if you're not into like a solid I two or three mile straight not straight down but pretty pretty treacherous path he saw a wild there were goats I mean it was it was nuts but yeah I would I would recommend anyone who's not super into hiking and travel and and super hardcore traveler to probably just get one of those boat rides that are like you know 60 bucks or something they have boat rides that bring you there they bring you right to the same similar spot and yeah it was almost like we were living in like a I don't know I feel like I was in a Little Mermaid yeah we saw like every creature it felt like yeah and and being the only person there is intense like you know mean it's kind of like one of those things where you're when you see 20 or 30 other people also doing it it kind of lowers the like like is there a reason no one else is here yeah there's a lot of cool places though we went to sharks Cove theth the NorthShore of Wahu and that was amazing supposedly there it's called sharks Cod because there's this kind of like drop off in a cave and supposedly there's baby sharks that um hang out down there and uh I'm not that good of a free diver yet to go down like I don't know was it 30 or 40 60 feet down and then you can actually swim through this cave where they have baby sharks and stuff and then there's like another exit Point like 100 feet or 100 yards like out people like go through like snort you know scuba people do it all the time but there's free drivers who go down through there but I'm not to try that yeah I haven't gotten there yet but no we have K so I know you said in your um first podcast episode that you guys have you've done home exchange when you've gone to Hawaii but how have you stayed other ways when you've gone to Hawaii so we actually mostly done pet sitting in Hawaii um which was really cool especially on Maui oh we had to pet sit there and the dog had like a fence and yard that and free access so so it's really cool we didn't have a lot of responsibility to be honest yeah they were cool they they had a bunch of rentals too they were big in real estate they had a unit there that they rented out on Big Island we had a res ridiculous deal of vbro um yeah verbo verbo I don't know what is verbo or V I think I say verbo I say

yeah who knows either way we we found this crazy de we found this randomly one night she was like man these prices are ridiculous we got to find something in the Big Island like you know so we were looking around I was like what about Vero like let's just go look and so we looked we found this place for $19 a night and it was a tiny house on the big island we're like no way and so so anyways it was actually really close to where I I've wanted to buy land but it's it's really kind of a sketchy area it's in it's in this place called Volcano which is clearly right near the volcano and it's in like lava Zone you know one or whatever and it's like it's kind of a sketch area you can you can buy like three acres there for like 30 grand like it's it's really cheap there but um when you it was really good that we went there to know that there's no way we could live there ever yeah we were going to buy land there but but we were like let's test it out first you so anyways we stayed in this place 19 bucks a night and it was like long story short it was scet we had to drive through like these gravel roads with these like burnt out cars signs everywhere we have guns yeah I was like it was super sketch and so we we ended up getting there and and like was like a code on the gate to get in right there like this to get in the gate and the place is like kind of like a compound like there's all these different buildings and kind of like stuff everywhere and like burnt out cars not burnt out cars but like kind of junker cars but that's kind of like the big island kind of like that area's Vibe though like it's just that part kind of like Island Style just that part yeah just that part um but anyways it was like this like he had like five units in this one building and these like really tiny unit it was actually really the actual unit was fun yeah it was actually really Co cool it was all off grid and I think we only end up staying there for like one or two nights yeah we didn't stay as long it for like five nights and the total was like 120 bucks we decided we could give the $20 we weren't really that into it we it was safe we didn't have any issues but yeah we see something listed that cheap in Hawaii it's either a typo or there's a reason for it I take it that's great so you can look on so vbo you can look for deals and then what was the app I know we touched on it in the previous podcast but for the pet sitting how did you find that no matter no matter that's right okay when you're there are you renting a car ubering what does transportation look like you'd likely want to rent a car unless you're going to bik Kei in Honolulu aahu Island and your plan is to just chill there and even if you aren't staying there the whole time it what we did when we went to Honolulu was we rented a car for only part of our trip our last part of the trip we were just downtown Wy key and we just you know turned the car in so that's kind of a a hack I guess a little yeah downtown Yi has so much to do so much food so many beaches that are in walking distance definitely don't need a car tons of entertainment yeah so some good night life there I take it yeah yeah in terms of night life is yiki kind of the spot to go any other places you'd recommend yeah so each island generally kind of has a spot the Big Island it's Kona and so sadly um in Maui it used to be L lah yeah with the fires I can't imagine yeah it be some time before that's build up again there's other cities kind of smaller in like the different corners of the island but usually there's like a main you know Kona is the main one there in Big Island and you can travel around and find restaurants and you know food trucks and farmers markets lots of food trucks which we love yeah food trucks yeah we love going to food trucks yeah I know and cuz we went there my family a long time ago and they had the Dole Plantation and I remember the pineapple was like like delicious down there are there any other like native fruits or even like restaurants or shops you'd recommend going to yeah rambutan is like my favorite fruit ever looks like a little spiky ball with like red in the middle almost looks like a grape I love Rotan um the last pets set we stayed at they had all kinds of fruit tangerin yeah they had m i mean mangoes and oranges and I always joke with her because one of the other reasons why we like to travel to a lot of tropical places is like the mangoes and oranges lemons and apple and all this stuff just grows naturally so like you could just be on like a walk and grab a mango and you have breakfast so you know it's kind of like yeah it's more expensive but you you can get free Fruit like I've got coconuts you know so yeah it's kind of a weird weird thing to do but it we've seen it bananas that's just part of the experience though right like yeah that's awesome you can't do that at home in your own neighborhood when you're taking away you get some apples that's about it food um very Hawaii thing is coffee Hawaii has tons of really good coffee yeah Kona coffee it's especially famous but that's our favorite thing to do for breakfast is to go to different coffee Farms lots of the coffee Farms have like a little shop there where you could get at least coffee sometimes a snack and or breakfast banana bread yeah we try to go to a different one every morning awesome that's a good tradition yeah this is you guys are doing a great job talking about Hawaii and as if we didn't want to go to Hawaii to begin with her defitely Mak us want to go now um so we'll transition now to the 321 countdown segment the final three questions so what are three things you'd recommend somebody do in Hawaii I'd say definitely snorkeling definitely need to get in the water there and if you're not comfortable snorkeling I would definitely get a boat ride see some dolphins whales and I feel like I have to say this because I recently saw people trying to snorkel a lot and I they were struggling I was trying to tell people if you're like new or whatever you really need to know that you need to look by rocks that's where the they're generally trying to hide in reefs or like Rocky areas is where you're going to see far more fish yeah you can almost look at a map and see if there's like a little Jetty coming off a map like you can almost guarantee that there's going to be fish like hiding in that little area and yeah we did that in the Bahamas because we couldn't see anything where we were staying in the Bahamas we didn't see anything we seen no fish nothing and then I remember like that night being looking at the map being like there's got to be a place nearby and it was like uh I don't know like 3/4 of a mile out to the right there was like that little Jetty kind of thing that was like a little you know defensive thing and sure enough we went over there it was a bunch of fish so we brought our daughters there yeah we brought our daughters there and they checked it out and stuff so and then you were saying skydiving yeah I wasn't looking into skydiving in Hawaii because Hawaii's based I think most people go to Hawaii to see like the beautiful beach and and all thate stuff and uh anyways long story short our Airbnb host was a Skydive instructor from Serbia it was a whole story point you have to go he's like yeah you come H skydiving with us I was like okay like let's do it and so yeah we went skydiving there and that was amazing be able to see Hawaii from you know 16,000 feet in the air was was insane so yeah skydiving you know probably not a lot of people think about wait let me just threw out there that he um he was like we think he wor C to get to work he literally like we booked his Airbnb last minute because it was another failed attempt at camping um that we needed an Airbnb last minute and he had rooms in his house available we never were that desperate before but um on the islands where it's more expensive we're like yeah we could stay in a room and he actually had like a separate hallway with three different rooms for Airbnb people and so we booked it for that night like an hour before we could check in we're like yes let us in and it just automatically let us in and he was like when we got there we I guess we were in the wrong room he had sent us information or whatever he was like oh sorry I didn't see it I was busy surfing like he was like he was like always like skyd or like on his motorcycle beard was like down here he was a legend yeah he was a legend that's the island Vibe down there right just everything nonchalant yeah remember Airbnb uh lucky lucky so if you're on a waho and you want a cheap place say look luy's place he also he was like do you want to use my um SN he gave us his snork gear yeah he gave us his snortable gear use you know no cost he like said we could use his surfboards like he's just like super welcoming and like once you have the experience yeah yeah and I and I when he was like hey you should go skying I in my head I'm like no I'm good you know was that your first time going yeah and so like later that day after we checked in we were we went out to this like State Park and we were just like doing our own thing and checking out beaches and stuff and we like and she's like what is this place and she's there's like people falling out of the sky and so like I pulled in I'm like oh those are those are like parachuters you know so we stop and look and I swear it was our Airbnb host it was coming down out of the sky and we're like is that him awesome so we like drove into like this like air field and like went and parked and like sure enough he was there and I was like okay this is a sign like I have to go skydiving with our Airbnb host so anyways yeah that was that was basically the story but he was nuts he was he was crazy that's awesome yeah I can't say we've gone but if we were in that situation and we're in Hawaii I mean it's hard to not go you you really had no choice there I'm sure you guys are glad you did it obviously right yeah yeah it was cool it was funny well technically he did it and now I regret it and want to do it oh yeah that's okay you'll be back right yeah that's right and we'll put a link for that air Bey listing in the show notes as well as the other uh links and resources we talked about in today's show uh what are two complaints and not necessarily complaints but things that somebody might not know about Hawaii that you might want to prepare them for oh yeah so even like the islands that have less people have less roads so traffic can be stopped a lot but I mean we just combat that by being like oh we're in Hawaii like just be chill well we learned when we first went to Y and they told us about Maui like like what we were talking about earlier the road to Hana is that there are a lot of and you would think it' be the other way around but the tourists are the ones that are driving slow like looking around with you know looking around looking at everything and the uh and the locals are like Mad At The Tourist so the locals will like speed by you and honk and stuff like that so it's so yeah the traffic can be for various reasons it can be construction you know there like oneway streets oneway yeah so yeah it's hard to build roads on mountains and you know so U but yeah Wy key is busy the same reason like Los Angeles is busy there's a million people who live in that little city there so so yeah the traffic is definitely something I think a lot of people probably don't know about and the second one I think people know about cost yeah the cost of things but like you know if you aren't eating out at these like expensive restaurants you can eat out and get just as good if not better food at food trucks um or even like uh local farmers markets and stuffff we we tend to like to do the the food trucks and the farmers market because we're giving back money like directly to those uh local families and business owners and stuff and so it feels good to eat you know give your money to them sure tastes good too how was cell service out there on the island any troubles with that mostly okay I don't think we had trouble yeah mostly okay there's some dead spots when you're up in the mountains and stuff but mostly it it worked out better than you thought yeah awesome one last question what is one thing you simply cannot leave Hawaii without doing we've mentioned it so many times but snorkeling was yeah probably snorkling was Cooks Beach any other recommendations there or you just can't go wrong when you're snorking in Hawaii yeah Captain Cook and sharks Cove so far are our two favorite spots sharks Cove is really cool because it's a like a hidden area or it's like it's it's got a wall of rocks around the whole thing so if you're like a person with a young kids you're not going to get like washed away you know it's only like three or four feet deep at the at the deepest so so you can sit on a rock and see sea turtles just like you don't even need goggles right to enjoy it so that so that's yeah if you got young kids or you're an entrylevel swimmer Shar Cove in aahu definitely highly recommend oh very cool now you guys have mentioned snorkeling a lot so I know you said you have your little goggles that you bring but are there places on the island where you can rent goggles oh yeah there's like Endless Possibilities like using Viator a lot for experiences personally but because it also getes back to locals essentially we and we've also done uh sometimes you can go if you're into thrifting um and going to thrift stores we've done this also is you can go to a thrift store and pick up goggles for like a dollar or five bucks or fins fins fins are surprisingly people think fins are expensive but at at you can get them really cheap so we we've done that before too like um like for example if you're going to a place and you know you're going to go snorkeling at least a couple times or for for a week or whatever you can go and get your own pair of snorkeling you know snorkel gear for like 10 or 20 bucks versus going and renting it for like three hours and you can have it all your whole vacation and then uh what we've done too is we've given away to people like we're like you know find some people who look like you know oh hey do you want some you know or leave them at a rental for people to yeah a lot of times we leave them at our Airbnb or home exchange and we'll be like hey you know pass this along to people who are you know going to rent here so that's a really good tip pay it forward that's it all right guys awesome thanks for coming on again and explaining all your insights and ideas about Hawaii um this has been a great show this is going to help a lot of people plan their trip which was the point of the podcast so thanks again guys and um once again if you haven't listened to the part one podcast tune in to that uh Andy and Rachel talk about everything from travel planning money saving tips I know we touched on it briefly today the home exchange thing we go into much more detail in that in part one so definitely check it out and and Rachel thanks again thank you thanks so much for having us