Speaker 1: This is a studio both and production. Hey everyone, this summer,
Speaker 1: we are celebrating the ten year anniversary of my podcasting career.
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's been ten years. Over the next
Speaker 1: three months, I'll be sharing ten of the episodes that
Speaker 1: I feel best inspired, progressed, and or changed my life
Speaker 1: in podcasting, So the episodes that guided us to where
Speaker 1: we are now. And in each re sharing, you'll get
Speaker 1: brand new, behind the scenes information about what was happening
Speaker 1: in life, in my various investigations, and in the world
Speaker 1: that impacted these very important episodes. You'll learn how I
Speaker 1: started podcasting, how I started investigating Israel, Keys, some hilarious
Speaker 1: and terrifying stories from the road, and some really vulnerable
Speaker 1: and personal stories I've never shared publicly. You'll get to
Speaker 1: see and hopefully reflect on your own history. How so
Speaker 1: much of what has happened in my life and in
Speaker 1: each of the shows I've produced or participated in, has
Speaker 1: coalesced into and molded who I am and what the
Speaker 1: podcasts and investigations are today. And for our first episode,
Speaker 1: we'll start at the beginning, or at least a version
Speaker 1: of the beginning ten years ago, shortly after moving to Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: New York. From Seattle. I found myself at a crossroads.
Speaker 1: I'd spent the previous six years living a fairly fulfilling
Speaker 1: and successful life in Seattle. After spending most of my
Speaker 1: twenties bouncing around the country chasing various dreams, ideals, notions,
Speaker 1: and sometimes even guys because we're all really stupid in
Speaker 1: our twenties, I ended up in San Francisco, New Orleans, Portland, Cambodia,
Speaker 1: and back to San Francisco, before eventually moving to Seattle,
Speaker 1: a city I had never even been to, for what
Speaker 1: was at the time my dream job. I worked in
Speaker 1: branding and inspiration in fashion. I had various cloying titles
Speaker 1: like the Curator of Cool or inspiration Manager. I was
Speaker 1: essentially in charge of creating environments that would inspire the designers.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, I even took the design team to
Speaker 1: Nia Bay for a weekend to learn weaving techniques and
Speaker 1: tribal traditions from the Macaw, a year before the world
Speaker 1: would know who Israel Keys was. I ended up leaving
Speaker 1: the fashion industry after a two a m work crisis.
Speaker 1: The entire team was in a conference room. Someone was
Speaker 1: crying in a corner. Someone was screaming. People hadn't slept
Speaker 1: an eye and I thought all this for khaki pants.
Speaker 1: So after fashion wore me out, I eventually ended up
Speaker 1: at a nonprofit healthcare company, where I found myself thriving.
Speaker 1: I believed in what I was doing. By this point,
Speaker 1: I'd never even listened to a podcast, let alone thought
Speaker 1: it might one day be my most fulfilling and longest
Speaker 1: term career. I fell in love with Seattle, and even
Speaker 1: more so the surrounding areas I'd frequent, the Olympic Peninsula,
Speaker 1: the Snoqualmie River Valley, Scadget Valley. It was one of
Speaker 1: the most beautiful places I'd ever lived, and I was
Speaker 1: ready to finally settle down there in Washington State. And
Speaker 1: then I fell in a different kind of love. I
Speaker 1: met my partner, who had spent his entire life living
Speaker 1: in Washington State. As someone who'd only ever lived in
Speaker 1: one place for the most part, he wanted to try
Speaker 1: living somewhere else, a bigger city. And as someone who
Speaker 1: was two years into his apparel design career, that bigger
Speaker 1: city he wanted to go to was one I loathed,
Speaker 1: New York. So four years we debated where to live.
Speaker 1: As our relationship progressed, we debated whether to stay or go,
Speaker 1: whether there was some sort of compromise. As best we
Speaker 1: could try, there really wasn't one, but Andrew did eventually
Speaker 1: come up with an idea, an idea that I'd much
Speaker 1: later realize was actually a long con one I didn't
Speaker 1: think he was capable of. What if we bought a
Speaker 1: camper van, moved into it, and traveled the country until
Speaker 1: we ran out of money or found a place we
Speaker 1: both loved a few months later, we bought a forty
Speaker 1: connoline van from some hippies who communicated by making bird
Speaker 1: noises at one another. During our renovation of the van,
Speaker 1: we found secret and very strange love notes they'd written
Speaker 1: to each other and hidden throughout the interior. So found
Speaker 1: that they forgot to tell us that the van had
Speaker 1: been salvaged and it was going to be nearly impossible
Speaker 1: to ensure or resell at any given time in the future.
Speaker 1: In fact, all these years later, the van is hiding
Speaker 1: behind some trees in our backyard. Classy, I know. We
Speaker 1: took the van up to Port Townshend on the Olympic
Speaker 1: Peninsula to work on it, and we quickly learned that
Speaker 1: we don't thrive as a couple in construction environments. So
Speaker 1: Andrew worked on the van and I explored the Peninsula.
Speaker 1: By this time, it was twenty fifteen, and I was
Speaker 1: now keenly aware of and terrified and fascinated by Israel Keys.
Speaker 1: So I spent three months driving all over the peninsula,
Speaker 1: learning everything I could about this man and all the
Speaker 1: places he had been. It's where my obsession began. Andrew
Speaker 1: literally built a new life for us, and I literally
Speaker 1: supplanted myself in the life of Israel Keys, not knowing
Speaker 1: that I too was building a life for us. By
Speaker 1: May of twenty fifteen, we set off on our van
Speaker 1: life adventure, and I ended up accidentally spending the next
Speaker 1: six months traveling to the rest of the places Israel
Speaker 1: Keys had been. As we drove from Seattle to Cordelaine,
Speaker 1: I listened to my very first podcast. It was This
Speaker 1: American Life, and I was immediately enthralled. I'd obviously heard
Speaker 1: about podcasts, but my general understanding was that they were
Speaker 1: either weird trivia shows or just a bunch of straight
Speaker 1: white men telling each other exactly, or a combination of
Speaker 1: the two. But this, this was storytelling and it was
Speaker 1: inspiring and strangely healing. We spent six months, forty four states,
Speaker 1: four Canadian provinces, and a lifetime of lessons and experiences.
Speaker 1: On the road. We listened to one hundreds of hours
Speaker 1: of podcasts and Visibilia, Radio Lab, Generation, Why Serial, and
Speaker 1: so on. I went through a short term Serial fixation
Speaker 1: where I was convinced that if I listened to the
Speaker 1: entire series enough times, I, by myself with Excel, could
Speaker 1: solve the case. A friend of mine would even mock me, saying,
Speaker 1: you think you, a writer with a computer can find
Speaker 1: out stuff the FBI hasn't been able to, And then
Speaker 1: we both laughed at how stupid that sounded. We even
Speaker 1: spent the penultimate day of our trip in Baltimore as
Speaker 1: I forced Andrew to do drive time tests. And then
Speaker 1: in early November of twenty fifteen, we landed in New
Speaker 1: York and then ended up in New York, and I
Speaker 1: hated it there, even when I tried desperately to convince
Speaker 1: myself that I didn't. As it turns out, NYC is
Speaker 1: not great for CPTSD. I couldn't find work. Most of
Speaker 1: the nonprofit healthcare companies were based in Albany. It was
Speaker 1: winter and frigid out, and Andrew was already working at
Speaker 1: a small heritage apparel company, and soho, so I was
Speaker 1: alone and depressed and freezing. I had been working on
Speaker 1: a book about our trip, but as the trip got
Speaker 1: further and further away from me and New York felt
Speaker 1: more and more ever present, I felt less inspired. I
Speaker 1: had been daydreaming about this town in northern Michigan that
Speaker 1: we fell in love with while living on the road, Pataski.
Speaker 1: It was this charming lakeside village full of vibrant people,
Speaker 1: hip shops and restaurants, and an odd number of people
Speaker 1: in their twenties. Considering how remote and tiny the town was,
Speaker 1: I decided that I wanted to try to produce a
Speaker 1: This American Lifestyle pot cast episode about Potoski, and that
Speaker 1: if I was good at it and enjoyed it, maybe
Speaker 1: instead of writing a book about our adventure, I'd create
Speaker 1: a podcast about it, as I'm prone to do when
Speaker 1: I have an idea that I'm excited about and invested in.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. I just
Speaker 1: started writing and reaching out to locals in Potoski. The
Speaker 1: story slowly came together and then evolved and came back together,
Speaker 1: as stories often do. It was twenty sixteen, and much
Speaker 1: to my eventual shock, Trump was about to get elected.
Speaker 1: America was as divisive as ever. The economy was suffocating,
Speaker 1: It was harder and harder for young people to actually
Speaker 1: make a life for themselves. It wasn't hand to mouth,
Speaker 1: especially in the big cities they once flocked to. And
Speaker 1: in Potoski, Michigan, I found an interesting convergence of all
Speaker 1: these factors. Young people were returning to the town that
Speaker 1: raised them, but bringing with them big ideas and culture,
Speaker 1: and for better or worse, depending on who you asked,
Speaker 1: the small and traditional Rockwellyan town was being infused with
Speaker 1: more urban and progressive ideas. And so that was the
Speaker 1: theme of my very first podcast episode, how do we
Speaker 1: blend often competing ideas of what we think is right?
Speaker 1: And that simple question became the basis for Our Americana,
Speaker 1: my first podcast series. Instead of being about our trip
Speaker 1: across the country, it became about community. How community is built, evolves, struggles, adapts, survives.
Speaker 1: What happens when students take over a school, who steps
Speaker 1: in when a town is without a police force, What
Speaker 1: happens when progress harms history? And how do you bring
Speaker 1: a divided village together. The answer to that question, it
Speaker 1: turns out, is a baby orca. So as we begin
Speaker 1: this retrospective into my ten years of podcasting, I thought
Speaker 1: it apt to start where my journey began, on the
Speaker 1: open road. In this twenty sixteen episode I produced for
Speaker 1: Our Americana about people like Andrew and I who quit
Speaker 1: their lives to see America. The episode was originally titled
Speaker 1: Van Life. But before we start, I am so goddamn
Speaker 1: excited to announce our next Trova trip. Think for a minute,
Speaker 1: imagine joining me Charlie from Crime Lines and a small
Speaker 1: group of studio boath and listeners to talk podcasting, Bravo, Israel, Keys,
Speaker 1: true crime, and life while I don't know, swimming with
Speaker 1: sea lions and turtles, meeting tortoises and penguins, and sipping
Speaker 1: cocktails on the equator in January. Yes, we are going
Speaker 1: to the Galapagos Islands from January eleventh to the seventeenth.
Speaker 1: We are island hopping in the Galapagos on this once
Speaker 1: in a lifetime vacation, and tickets go on sale two
Speaker 1: day and the first eight people get two hundred dollars off,
Speaker 1: So click on the link in the show notes and
Speaker 1: come spend your winter with me and some new like
Speaker 1: minded friends in the tropical Galapagos Islands. And if that's
Speaker 1: not your speed, we are hosting an anniversary party here
Speaker 1: in the Berkshires over the weekend of September twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: right before True Crime Bullshit returns with season eight. We'll
Speaker 1: be joined by a bunch of special guests for live shows,
Speaker 1: studio sessions, previews, behind the scenes, tours and talks, cocktail parties,
Speaker 1: and some of my favorite Berkshire based activities. So you'll
Speaker 1: get all the joys of podcasting, but also get to
Speaker 1: go out into this beautiful area and enjoy what I
Speaker 1: love most about it. For example, imagine going wine tasting
Speaker 1: in the Berkshires with Wine and Crime. Over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks, I'll be announcing a very stacked lineup of
Speaker 1: special guests along with the weekend's incredible agenda. Tickets will
Speaker 1: go on sale June twenty fifth, but are available for
Speaker 1: pre sale now on Patreon. And now let's get back
Speaker 1: to where it all started. A nineteen ninety two to
Speaker 1: forty ConA line van a very shitty thirty five dollars microphone,
Speaker 1: not a single editing ear, and a persistent chirping fire
Speaker 1: alarm in our crappy bedstye apartment. Enjoy the journey.
Speaker 2: I knew that this trip was going to happen because
Speaker 2: I felt numb to my life, and I knew that
Speaker 2: I wanted to feel alive, and even if that was.
Speaker 3: Hardship, I wanted to feel that.
Speaker 2: And I have found my life filled with so many
Speaker 2: emotions that I've never that I never felt sitting.
Speaker 3: At my desk.
Speaker 2: I'm not good at sitting still, and I'm not good
Speaker 2: at sitting within a feeling that is uncomfortable. And I
Speaker 2: think that that is a huge issue for so many people,
Speaker 2: is that it's not that we numb ourselves, but we
Speaker 2: kind of numb ourselves with stimulation. When I was living
Speaker 2: in Seattle, I was constantly running around, you know, going
Speaker 2: to see all my friends and you see my family,
Speaker 2: and constantly being booked, you know, with the littlest things,
Speaker 2: and I was really kind of numbing myself to feeling,
Speaker 2: you know, something not good. And on this trip, I've
Speaker 2: really had to learn that there are going to be
Speaker 2: moments every day that I feel really alone, and I
Speaker 2: feel really sad that I'm not sharing this trip with someone,
Speaker 2: but that sitting within those moments kind of makes the
Speaker 2: rest of it all worth it. And I've really been
Speaker 2: able to find a sense of peace, and I'm still
Speaker 2: working on it, you know, like are still called my
Speaker 2: friends like crying every once in a while. But I
Speaker 2: think the biggest lesson I've learned is that there's a
Speaker 2: big difference between you know, feeling sad, being sad, and
Speaker 2: kind of giving into those emotions and just hopefully learning
Speaker 2: that just because it doesn't feel good doesn't mean that
Speaker 2: it's not okay.
Speaker 4: Our Americana is a weekly podcast where we explore small
Speaker 4: towns across the country and get to know the people
Speaker 4: who call them home. Join us as we had some
Speaker 4: of our most unique and charming communities and talk to
Speaker 4: the locals about their lives, their histories, their relationships, and
Speaker 4: the stories that forever change them. Together, we'll discover how
Speaker 4: a community comes together and how it adapts and involves
Speaker 4: and faced with the unexpected, the controversial, the bizarre, and
Speaker 4: the life changing moments. I'm Josh Hallmark and this.
Speaker 5: Is Our American.
Speaker 2: I'm Oh my gosh, there's Yeah, my favorite spots the
Speaker 2: trip has been. There's a lot of different spots I
Speaker 2: like for a lot of different reasons. Like I really
Speaker 2: fell in love with Haynes, Alaska because that was kind
Speaker 2: of like the start of the trip and it was
Speaker 2: a great kind of launching point because I took the
Speaker 2: inside passage very from Bellingham up to know and then
Speaker 2: up to.
Speaker 6: Haines, Mendocino, California. We really love It's a great little town.
Speaker 6: It's it's kind of touristic, definitely a little heart sat town. Yeah,
Speaker 6: we definitely felt at home like we could we could
Speaker 6: make a life there in Mendocino.
Speaker 7: I have loved the missions of San Antonio.
Speaker 4: Potoski, Michigan was our favorite town, and that's just below
Speaker 4: the Macano Bridge.
Speaker 2: I loved McCarthy, Alaska, which is this small town where
Speaker 2: only I think like twenty people live year round, but
Speaker 2: it like just blossoms in the summer with seasonal workers.
Speaker 6: But I'd say our two favorite states would probably be
Speaker 6: Oregon and Colorado, maybe the northern part of California.
Speaker 4: Coast and New Mexico. Michigan and North Carolina best states.
Speaker 2: So I think that in summary, Haynes, Alaska McCarthy, Alaska,
Speaker 2: the Yukon in general, and now the Ice Fields Highway, inc.
Speaker 6: And Alberta, the whole, the whole, like Napa Valley, and
Speaker 6: then like the coast right there after the wine countries.
Speaker 6: It's awesome. I really like Steamboat Springs, Colorado too. Thought
Speaker 6: that was a pretty bad place.
Speaker 8: Some valley I like some valley Idaho too, Yeah, catch
Speaker 8: them some valleys.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. We spent I think five days in the Eup,
Speaker 4: which was gorgeous. Like if I had to, I would
Speaker 4: say that was probably the prettiest section of America that
Speaker 4: we saw. Exactly a year ago, Andrew and I were
Speaker 4: sipping a glass of wine in a winery on Lake
Speaker 4: Ontario in the Niagara Valley Escarpment, Ontario's gorgeous, gorgeous wine
Speaker 4: region that rivals Napa Valley. We were just about to
Speaker 4: start our last week of our van life traveling in
Speaker 4: the United States, so today I thought we'd check in
Speaker 4: with four other people who have just started their van
Speaker 4: life journeys, talk about how life on the road changes
Speaker 4: you the way you see people in America and even
Speaker 4: each other, and maybe inspire some of you to take
Speaker 4: the plunge and live a life on the road that
Speaker 4: will forever change you.
Speaker 2: Currently, I am in vans in Alberta, sitting in my van,
Speaker 2: just parked outside of coffee shop using.
Speaker 3: Some Wi Fi.
Speaker 4: I miss those like weird little moments where you're kind
Speaker 4: of doing things that feel totally normal in the context
Speaker 4: of your life, but in the real world seem really creepy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like sleeping in front of like Walmart parking lots
Speaker 2: and in the parking lots of restaurants, and weird things.
Speaker 4: Like about totally I remember like waking up in the
Speaker 4: middle of the night walking from the Walmart parking lot
Speaker 4: in to use the restroom and just being like, it's
Speaker 4: so weird that this is a normal thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's also super weird when you're in the car
Speaker 2: and you have all the blinds closed and there's just
Speaker 2: people like kind of walking past your car or commenting
Speaker 2: on it because I have my solar panel on the outside,
Speaker 2: so I hear a lot of people talking about my
Speaker 2: car as I'm like laying down trying to take a nap.
Speaker 4: This is Alex. She is also from Seattle, and when
Speaker 4: we first talked, she had been living the van life
Speaker 4: for about four months, so.
Speaker 2: I had after college, moved to New Zealand. I had
Speaker 2: gotten an internship in the South Pacific working in my field,
Speaker 2: and this whole trip of kind of moving to New
Speaker 2: Zealand kind of got formulated as I was living in
Speaker 2: the South Pacific. And when I was there, I lived
Speaker 2: out of a Ford Falcon, which I don't even think
Speaker 2: they make those anywhere else in the world, and I
Speaker 2: don't even think they make those in New Zealand anymore.
Speaker 2: And I was living out of the car there in
Speaker 2: a tent, and I was tenting every night, and it
Speaker 2: was probably one of the happiest times of my life,
Speaker 2: just living with absolutely minimal amenities, just pitching my tent
Speaker 2: every night. And I started really contemplating that this life
Speaker 2: was really possible, kind of living an alternative.
Speaker 3: Lifestyle like this.
Speaker 2: And I had seen a lot of bans in New
Speaker 2: Zealand that had these epic conversions, and I just.
Speaker 3: Had such ban less than that.
Speaker 2: That was kind of when I started thinking even more so, Okay,
Speaker 2: if I was.
Speaker 3: To do this full time, I really wanted a van.
Speaker 2: So I moved back to Seattle and got a job
Speaker 2: working full time for the government, and it was a
Speaker 2: really good job. It was just the dream job. I
Speaker 2: was working with Marine mammal Acoustics. I had been living
Speaker 2: in a city that I loved, that I knew, and
Speaker 2: all my friends were there. So it was just this
Speaker 2: really great kind of you know, I was living that
Speaker 2: twenty something dream, you know, I had the ultimate job,
Speaker 2: and kind of as time started to wear on and
Speaker 2: one year turned into two years, and then two years
Speaker 2: started turning into three years, I started getting this really
Speaker 2: intense kind of gnawing and my heart that was like,
Speaker 2: this isn't exactly what I want to do, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to sleep walk every day to my
Speaker 2: job to my work, you know. I was just sitting
Speaker 2: in traffic going to yoga to find balance, like running there.
Speaker 2: And it was just a life that I wasn't super
Speaker 2: happy with living. And so I knew for about a
Speaker 2: year that I wanted to quit my job and move
Speaker 2: into a car.
Speaker 3: And so I knew that kind of like in the.
Speaker 2: Back of my mind, and as time kind of started
Speaker 2: to continue, I realized that I couldn't not listen to
Speaker 2: that that I was going to wake up with so
Speaker 2: many regrets if I didn't do this.
Speaker 3: So once I got the van was.
Speaker 2: Really and the whole trip started to kind of like
Speaker 2: come into my mind as being possible, and keeping in
Speaker 2: mind that I had lived out of a tent previously
Speaker 2: and found a lot of happiness and joy and fulfillment.
Speaker 3: That it was possible for me.
Speaker 2: So it took me about six months to tell my
Speaker 2: boss that I was leaving, and I knew for.
Speaker 3: A little over a year, almost two years, I.
Speaker 2: Want to say, kind of like in the depths of
Speaker 2: the night that I knew I wanted to leave.
Speaker 3: So I guess that kind of long story, not short.
Speaker 2: I knew that this trip was going to happen because
Speaker 2: I felt numb to my life, and I knew that
Speaker 2: I wanted to feel alive, and even if that was.
Speaker 3: Hardship, I wanted to feel that.
Speaker 2: And I have found my life filled with so many
Speaker 2: emotions that I've never that I never felt.
Speaker 3: Fitting at my desk.
Speaker 4: So did you have like a vision for like where
Speaker 4: you were going to end up when you left or
Speaker 4: were you just kind of taken it day by day?
Speaker 2: So I knew I wanted to head north because I'm
Speaker 2: romantic like that, you know, And so I was like,
Speaker 2: I want to go north. I want to go to
Speaker 2: Alaska and Alaska has always, I think, seemed like a
Speaker 2: great destination for kind of the lost and the confused,
Speaker 2: and I think that that attracts a lot of people
Speaker 2: up there.
Speaker 3: And so I knew that I wanted to go north.
Speaker 2: I knew I want to go to Alaska, and I
Speaker 2: knew I wanted to come into Canada, and so that
Speaker 2: was kind of like where it just started.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I kind of just want to do.
Speaker 2: This big circle where I want to go Alaska, the Yukon,
Speaker 2: British Columbia, Calgary, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and swing back
Speaker 2: up through California. And I thought that this trip was
Speaker 2: going to be about six months, and I'm about four
Speaker 2: months in and I barely made it into Alberta. So
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm going to finish or I don't
Speaker 2: think the trip is going to change.
Speaker 3: It's changed a lot, which is great.
Speaker 2: And I got the best advice actually from a guy
Speaker 2: who's also lived out of his car that I met
Speaker 2: and volunteer park and he had been living on the
Speaker 2: road for a few months as well, and he said,
Speaker 2: don't let the idea of your plan or your itinerary
Speaker 2: keep you from staying a place that you love, kind
Speaker 2: of like don't think like, Okay, I need to get
Speaker 2: to Denver or I have to get to banf Like
Speaker 2: if you're somewhere that you really love and you really
Speaker 2: love energy of the place you're in, like, don't rush
Speaker 2: away from it because you think you have to be
Speaker 2: somewhere else, because you don't.
Speaker 3: That's like the joy of this trip.
Speaker 2: So the trip has kind of melt molded more where
Speaker 2: I had an initial idea of what I wanted to
Speaker 2: look like, but now it's changed completely and I'm definitely
Speaker 2: spending a lot more time in Canada than I had
Speaker 2: initially planned on because Canada is amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's so interesting. That was our biggest mistake, and
Speaker 4: it took us probably a good like month and a
Speaker 4: half to kind of get over that, like we don't
Speaker 4: need to rush through places like yeah, there's nowhere we
Speaker 4: need to be, because we kept being like, Okay, we've
Speaker 4: been here two days, we should go. We have all
Speaker 4: these other places.
Speaker 2: See, yeah, and you get so much more when you
Speaker 2: stay in a place for a longer period of time.
Speaker 2: You know, you get such a better sense of the
Speaker 2: energy of the town. And sometimes it's for better or worse,
Speaker 2: you're gonna be stuck there. Like I was in and
Speaker 2: out of Anchorage a lot, and I was there a
Speaker 2: lot more than.
Speaker 3: I almost wanted to be.
Speaker 2: And now I know I don't really want to live
Speaker 2: in Achorage, not that there's anything wrong with it, but
Speaker 2: I just found out that that's not really a place
Speaker 2: that I want to say, And then I kind of
Speaker 2: had to rush out of other places that I really loved,
Speaker 2: and I kind of regret that that I didn't take
Speaker 2: more time in some smaller towns. I have been really
Speaker 2: lucky though that I haven't really had any super issues
Speaker 2: with safety, but I did recently, just like two nights ago,
Speaker 2: where was that I was outside of Jazzer somewhere and I
Speaker 2: pulled into this campground and I mean this was like
Speaker 2: not even a sketchy situation, but for some reason, I
Speaker 2: just like had to follow my gut. There was a
Speaker 2: guy that like came around and was like, I'm the
Speaker 2: firewood guy, and I'm like selling firewood to everyone, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, I don't need firewood, and he's like,
Speaker 2: you really have the run of the camp to night
Speaker 2: because no one else was in this campground.
Speaker 3: And I was like yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: And he's like last night there was lots of people
Speaker 2: and he wasn't like it was a totally normal conversation,
Speaker 2: like there was no sketchy vibes. And I fell asleep
Speaker 2: pretty early that night, so I was super tired. And
Speaker 2: I woke up at like ten thirty at night, and
Speaker 2: it was pitch black darkout, which I hadn't been accustomed to,
Speaker 2: because like it never gets dark in the North. And
Speaker 2: I woke up and I was like, I need to move,
Speaker 2: like I am scared, like the camp site I was in,
Speaker 2: like if somebody would have blocked me and I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been able to easily.
Speaker 3: Move or move out, you know.
Speaker 2: And I woke up and I just like listened to
Speaker 2: my gut and I moved and I found a great
Speaker 2: camp to another great spot, like by a different trailhead.
Speaker 2: And it was interesting because it was the first night
Speaker 2: that I really woke up and I was like, I
Speaker 2: have to listen to my voice and trust it because
Speaker 2: I think that like, if something were bad to happen,
Speaker 2: the only reason I didn't move my car was because
Speaker 2: of a societal expectation that I was, you know, being irrational,
Speaker 2: or that I was being kind of crazy and paranoid,
Speaker 2: and it's like, no, you can't put those labels on safety,
Speaker 2: especially when you're on the road.
Speaker 4: Like totally.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah. We were in Ashville, and I think it was
Speaker 4: like the only time where I felt actively threatened. And
Speaker 4: we had checked into our campsite and then drove around
Speaker 4: for the day and came back and we're watching a
Speaker 4: movie and all of a sudden, someone started punching the
Speaker 4: side of the van. Ah, so scary, yeah, And it
Speaker 4: was like we were in a pretty isolate We were
Speaker 4: in Ashville, but on the edge of town and it
Speaker 4: was pretty isolated, and my partner like went out and
Speaker 4: some guy who was wasted out of his mind in
Speaker 4: a truck was like, you took my spot and we
Speaker 4: were like, no, we reserved it, like we have the
Speaker 4: marker in our name. And he was like I'm gonna
Speaker 4: fucking kill you, and he was pussing and screaming, and
Speaker 4: like my partner had to go get I think his
Speaker 4: name was like Critter or animal. He was like the
Speaker 4: guy I know, and he kind of like I guess,
Speaker 4: de escalated it. And but all night I was just
Speaker 4: staring through like the little slot between where like our
Speaker 4: window shade and the top of the window were watching
Speaker 4: this man in his truck being like I've seen way
Speaker 4: too many episodes of Dateline. I know he's just in there,
Speaker 4: like drinking and getting pissed off and he's going to
Speaker 4: come out and like blow our brains out.
Speaker 2: But yeah, didn't happen, Like God, yeah, that's still super terrifying.
Speaker 3: I got woken up once with.
Speaker 2: A friend in like Crescent City, Oregon, at like three
Speaker 2: in the morning by a cop, and for some reason
Speaker 2: that was like really, it was like the best situation.
Speaker 3: Like the cop was super nice.
Speaker 2: He was like, you just can't camp here, and I
Speaker 2: was like, this is parking, I'm not camping. And but
Speaker 2: for some reason, like getting woken up, like there's nothing
Speaker 2: more jarring than somebody like banging on your calm, you know.
Speaker 3: Because it's like it feels like an invasion almost, you know.
Speaker 4: Sure. What still surprises me all the time is we
Speaker 4: I guess I hate admitting this, but I guess I
Speaker 4: was a little cynical before I went on the trip,
Speaker 4: and my idea of people, like Americans but also just
Speaker 4: people is that they were assholes. Yeah, and we are
Speaker 4: constantly like we always look back and we're like, we
Speaker 4: only encountered like three assholes on the whole trip, and
Speaker 4: everyone else was wonderful and accepting and open. And I
Speaker 4: think that was like the greatest life lesson for me
Speaker 4: is that, like, if you give people a chance, generally
Speaker 4: they are wonderful, kind, open people.
Speaker 3: And they'll surprise you.
Speaker 2: And I think that's I was always amazed at how
Speaker 2: much help people were willing to give, like to strangers,
Speaker 2: and I found that a lot in my trip in
Speaker 2: New Zealand and on this trip too, just like people
Speaker 2: being super you know, kind just like helping me find
Speaker 2: like a place to park, or like telling me the
Speaker 2: best kind of like local spots and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff.
Speaker 4: What's your favorite part.
Speaker 3: My favorite part of the trip is.
Speaker 2: These kinds of like moments when I'm driving and I
Speaker 2: come around a corner and I just see something that
Speaker 2: makes me slam on the brakes, and I think that
Speaker 2: that's like my favorite thing is like being like what
Speaker 2: is this? How could this so beautiful? And it's the
Speaker 2: surprise of it. I think that's my favorite part, the
Speaker 2: surprises that the road gives me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I always kind of liked when like something happened
Speaker 4: where we would like be stuck in a place like
Speaker 4: we had to sit through two tropical storms, oh man,
Speaker 4: and it seems so annoying because you're like, oh, I
Speaker 4: want to get to where I'm going. We were stuck
Speaker 4: in Tallahassee, Florida for a week, which is not a
Speaker 4: fun place to be stuck. Yeah, but it was so
Speaker 4: nice to just be like, like, there's nothing to do
Speaker 4: in Tallahassee, so we just hung out in the RV
Speaker 4: park and like relaxed and played cards and just kind
Speaker 4: of checked out, which was so lovely.
Speaker 3: That sounds really nice.
Speaker 2: I'm really bad sometimes that like sitting still with that,
Speaker 2: Like how I just like gave this whole like shpeel
Speaker 2: about like sitting with like solitude, and like then like
Speaker 2: there are the days that I'm like kind of not
Speaker 2: stuck with that, you know, like I'm into town like
Speaker 2: all day and I'm like i could just go sit
Speaker 2: with my book in the park, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I could go for a run, you know.
Speaker 4: Readapting to life afterwards is really challenging because you're so
Speaker 4: used to moving all the time and everything's new all
Speaker 4: the time, and then all of a sudden you're like
Speaker 4: I'm stuck in this place and my life is the
Speaker 4: same every single day, and it's challenging.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have no idea what my kind of adaptation
Speaker 2: to being back in the real quote the real world,
Speaker 2: or like staying put.
Speaker 3: For a long time will look.
Speaker 9: Like.
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be really challenging.
Speaker 4: Are you going to go back to Seattle or.
Speaker 3: I don't think so?
Speaker 2: And I thought for a long time about that, like
Speaker 2: going back to Washington in general, but I've always defaulted
Speaker 2: back to Seattle in Washington because I'm really comfortable with it,
Speaker 2: and my family's there and I'm very close to my family,
Speaker 2: and so it's always just been kind of safe, you know.
Speaker 3: After college, I was like, I'll just come back to Seattle.
Speaker 2: And I kind of wanted to take moving back off
Speaker 2: the table because it kind of then opened up opened
Speaker 2: up more doors for me to see where I really
Speaker 2: want to be versus where it's comfortable for me to be.
Speaker 3: And so I don't think I'll be back in Seattle,
Speaker 3: but you never know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we I mean we kind of had different ideas.
Speaker 4: My partner really wanted to move to New York afterwards
Speaker 4: and I did not, so like the I guess the
Speaker 4: surface thing was like maybe we'll find a town on
Speaker 4: the way and fall in love with it and we'll
Speaker 4: move there, and like that was such a fun way
Speaker 4: to experience the trip, Like every town you stop and
Speaker 4: could be a town that you lived in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like a million towns Zho that I want
Speaker 2: to move to.
Speaker 3: So that's like now abouts my problem.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I've want to really want to work in
Speaker 2: Seasonally and Haines, and then I want to move to Canada.
Speaker 2: So there's now so many places that I kind of
Speaker 2: want to move, So where actually end up will be interesting.
Speaker 4: I think, are you just going to keep going until
Speaker 4: you run out of money?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Theoretically I think that I will start making decisions in.
Speaker 3: The late fall.
Speaker 2: Kind of Thanksgiving is when I'm kind of giving myself
Speaker 2: a deadline to kind of figure a few things out,
Speaker 2: because living in the van in the winter is really challenging.
Speaker 2: And this past winter I took a van on a
Speaker 2: bunch of ski trips and there was one weekend where
Speaker 2: I was just me and a friend. We're kind of
Speaker 2: stranded in a ski parking lot because like a blizzard
Speaker 2: was moving through and we couldn't get down the mountain
Speaker 2: and it was basically sleading on us the whole time.
Speaker 3: So we were trying to dry.
Speaker 2: Out all of our ski gear, like in the van
Speaker 2: in front of the heater, and we couldn't really pop
Speaker 2: the top because it was too cold if the top
Speaker 2: was popped, And.
Speaker 3: So it was that.
Speaker 2: It was kind of the moment where I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I could live in this full
Speaker 2: time in the winter. So I guess the creature comfort
Speaker 2: I would miss there is a broom to dry out clothing.
Speaker 2: But so I think come late fall, I'll start figuring
Speaker 2: out maybe a place to migrate to for the winter time.
Speaker 2: And I have not given up on the idea of
Speaker 2: like moving to Australia and doing working holiday there, kind
Speaker 2: of like what I did in New Zealand, and that'd
Speaker 2: be the perfect time because it's somewhere down there in
Speaker 2: the winter.
Speaker 3: So just keep the dream alive.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's the thing. We realized I was running
Speaker 4: out of money, and Andrew was like, don't worry, you know,
Speaker 4: I just I want to stay on the road. But
Speaker 4: after Columbus Day, we've realized it's harder and harder to
Speaker 4: find RV parks to stay in. Oh yeah, and Walmart
Speaker 4: works great in the summer when you don't need to
Speaker 4: be plugged in, but like in the winter, you know,
Speaker 4: you need to be running a heater.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have a solar panel, so I think
Speaker 2: in winter it would be even harder because there's not
Speaker 2: as much sun and it's not as bright. It could
Speaker 2: be really challenging. Yes, and RV parks are really expensive.
Speaker 4: Oh totally.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm like shocked, like whenever I drive by them, and
Speaker 2: like some of them are really grow like you're just
Speaker 2: like right next to your neighbor and I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: you guys are charging a lot to basically be in
Speaker 2: a parking lot with an outlet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's funny, like we the RV park thing, like
Speaker 4: there was such a huge variance, Like we stayed in Wance.
Speaker 4: Some that felt like resorts nice, Like there was one
Speaker 4: where they would do like mourning. It was in Arizona
Speaker 4: and every morning they would do like a rodeo in
Speaker 4: the parking lot.
Speaker 3: It's so magical.
Speaker 4: And then one in Michigan they had foam parties every night.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it was just like there was one that
Speaker 4: did karaoke, Like it's so gimmicky, but in the most
Speaker 4: delightful way.
Speaker 2: I cannot imagine an art like the people like in general,
Speaker 2: the people that I've met that like live in our
Speaker 2: the RV parks, like the retirees, like I would just
Speaker 2: pay a hot dollar to see them at a foam party.
Speaker 4: It's just I don't know, like r V culture. I
Speaker 4: love it because I felt like that was going to
Speaker 4: be scary too. But I think our V people put
Speaker 4: our V life ahead of all other differences, where they're like,
Speaker 4: you may be gay and democratic and we may hate that,
Speaker 4: but your RV people, so we love you anyway. Ah.
Speaker 3: Just people loving people. That's amazing. Though I have not
Speaker 3: really gone to an RV park yet.
Speaker 2: I've been really lucky with my solar panel being really
Speaker 2: efficient and being super sunny age in general, and kind
Speaker 2: of finding random places to plug in for a few hours.
Speaker 3: But I have a feeling.
Speaker 2: Eventually I go to the RV park and I'm going
Speaker 2: to email you about the phone party and rodeo one
Speaker 2: when that happens. Do the biggest question I get that
Speaker 2: I kind of want to touch on is the finances
Speaker 2: of the road. And I get emails and instagrams like
Speaker 2: all the time, kind of almost every other day, and
Speaker 2: the majority of the question is always you know, how
Speaker 2: much did you say? How do you make money? And
Speaker 2: it's hard for me to respond to each one of
Speaker 2: those because each question is pose a little bit differently.
Speaker 2: And I've just recently written something that I'm going to
Speaker 2: try to post on my blog about it. But I guess,
Speaker 2: like the thing that I would say for anybody that's
Speaker 2: contemplating like getting on the road, is that you can
Speaker 2: save so much more money than you think you can
Speaker 2: if you really put your mind to it. And when
Speaker 2: I was preparing to go on this trip, like I
Speaker 2: hustled for a solid year, you know, I was picking
Speaker 2: up extra yoga classes to teach. I was selling stuff
Speaker 2: on Craigslist, like everything I owned. I was like flipping
Speaker 2: things on Craigslist. And you can do it with less
Speaker 2: money than I think you think you need, you know,
Speaker 2: and if you're willing to live kind of not a
Speaker 2: I don't want to say a poor lifestyle, but if
Speaker 2: you're willing to kind of buy your food on like
Speaker 2: the made to clear stuff and you are really vigilant
Speaker 2: about going to you know, fruit stands and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: you know you can really stretch your budget by a lot,
Speaker 2: and then there will come the day when you have
Speaker 2: to pick up an odd job here there, or just
Speaker 2: do like a like a work exchange where you just
Speaker 2: don't spend any money for a few weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like I was a little irresponsible. I cashed
Speaker 4: in my four one k a snap, which honestly I
Speaker 4: don't I don't regret it now and I don't think
Speaker 4: I'll ever regret it. It was such a good experience
Speaker 4: that it's worth whatever hell im I have to pay
Speaker 4: later on in life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and your life and your life so much richer
Speaker 2: now and so many other ways totally.
Speaker 4: And like we were on the road just shy of
Speaker 4: six months and I had had ten thousand dollars, but
Speaker 4: we were doing it like a mid budget way, Like
Speaker 4: we were staying in our v parks pretty much every
Speaker 4: single night. There were a few times where we were like,
Speaker 4: let's get a hotel for the weekend, and we were
Speaker 4: doing cities, so we were like paying for museums and
Speaker 4: eating out and yeah. So yeah, I think like people
Speaker 4: would be shocked at how cheap it actually is to
Speaker 4: live that life, especially the way you're doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, except for when my friends comm and it turns
Speaker 2: and immediately into a treat yourself weak and I'm like
Speaker 2: cocktails totally.
Speaker 4: You knew days. We I am big on birthdays and
Speaker 4: we spent mine in Key West, and we spent so
Speaker 4: much money. It was so nice to feel like you
Speaker 4: were living a normal life again.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Fiesta, I was working for Apple full time, and I.
Speaker 11: Was working at a colonoscopy center like a doctor's office,
Speaker 11: and then I taught yoga, and.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so were.
Speaker 6: We were both working full time, so the better part
Speaker 6: of our weeks were in days were spent at work
Speaker 6: instead of at home or with each other or outdoors.
Speaker 11: We lived in Jace's parents' basement. They have like a
Speaker 11: little apartment, so we lived there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, just living a pretty normal life of work every
Speaker 6: day and dinner at night and going to sleep.
Speaker 4: This is Jas and his wife Giddy. They had been
Speaker 4: on the road for about six months when we first
Speaker 4: started talking. I was really eager to talk to them
Speaker 4: about how van life had impacted their relationship.
Speaker 6: So we had both actually talked about traveling full time,
Speaker 6: kind of hitchhiking style, traveling throughout different countries.
Speaker 11: We were planning on actually doing a backpacking trip in
Speaker 11: Europe was our original plan.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then we were looking at vans kind of
Speaker 6: as like it's a thing we've wanted to do off
Speaker 6: and on for years since we were both like teenagers.
Speaker 5: So we would kind of check, you know, Craigslist.
Speaker 6: Eve kind of used listings for a van that we
Speaker 6: potentially could build out, but we really had our eyes
Speaker 6: set on backpack.
Speaker 5: In Europe for a bit, and then we.
Speaker 6: Stumbled upon stumbled upon a van for sale and decided
Speaker 6: to pull the trigger and go for it and convert
Speaker 6: it and live in it.
Speaker 4: So did you have kind of a path or did
Speaker 4: you just decide you were going to hit the road
Speaker 4: and see what happened.
Speaker 6: Well, originally, when we bought the van and started converting it,
Speaker 6: we decided that we were going to drive down to
Speaker 6: Argentina and drive through like all Central and South America.
Speaker 6: But our businesses had both picked up, especially Giddeya's business.
Speaker 5: She does handmade jewelry and it.
Speaker 6: Had picked up and become quite popular, and we shipped
Speaker 6: from the United States and we ship supplies to us
Speaker 6: as well, and so we decided that for now at
Speaker 6: least we're going to stay in the States, and so
Speaker 6: we made a plan to drive up to Alaska and
Speaker 6: back instead of Argentina and back. That way we're able
Speaker 6: to continue running our online business is with shipping and
Speaker 6: receiving in the States. We left on Easter Sunday of
Speaker 6: this year, so I think that was March twenty seventh.
Speaker 6: In that amount of time, I think that's five months
Speaker 6: we've been Arizona, and then Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alberta,
Speaker 6: British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska, and then we went through on
Speaker 6: the way back, we went through all those same and
Speaker 6: then Montana and Colorado.
Speaker 4: Now, I think the thing we were most afraid of
Speaker 4: is what it was going to be like living in
Speaker 4: a van with your significant other for a long time.
Speaker 4: I'm like not having a place to escape too. How
Speaker 4: has it been on your relationship if you don't mind
Speaker 4: me asking.
Speaker 5: There's there's been good and bad.
Speaker 6: I mean, like any living situation, there's great days, there's
Speaker 6: bad days, but overall it's actually been awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So when we were the previous situation we described living
Speaker 6: in my parents' basement apartment we were renting from them.
Speaker 6: It was a basement, so there wasn't a lot of
Speaker 6: natural light, and we were working all the time, and
Speaker 6: we're just kind of stressed, and so we actually we
Speaker 6: had a lot harder time getting along than before moving
Speaker 6: into the van, wouldn't you say.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we didn't like to spend much time together, to
Speaker 11: be completely.
Speaker 6: Honest, Yeah, yeah, we argued quite a bit when we
Speaker 6: spend time together before and.
Speaker 5: After moving into the van.
Speaker 6: It one hundred percent strengthened our marriage, our relationship. I mean,
Speaker 6: there's definitely times you don't want to be five feet
Speaker 6: from each other, and you have those trying moments. But
Speaker 6: I think we know each other a lot more than
Speaker 6: we ever could. I mean, in the short amount of
Speaker 6: time we've been living in the van, I'd say it's
Speaker 6: probably the equivalent of several years in our normal at
Speaker 6: home whatever relationship with ye how it would have been.
Speaker 6: We know each other a lot more, and it's definitely
Speaker 6: strengthened our relationship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were the same. We would have just these
Speaker 4: really visions fights all the time, and then living in
Speaker 4: the van, you can't run away from each other. You
Speaker 4: have to work it out because you're stuck with each other.
Speaker 4: And I think also like it teaches you to communicate better.
Speaker 8: Definitely.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't just slam the sliding doors,
Speaker 6: sit out in the rain.
Speaker 5: You know, you got to hash it out, and.
Speaker 6: It doesn't last as long if you do have an argument,
Speaker 6: because you're right in front.
Speaker 5: Of each other.
Speaker 4: Well, and I think also the little things that it's
Speaker 4: so easy to get caught up in don't matter, because
Speaker 4: you're like, I'm seeing the world and every day is
Speaker 4: a new day. And I don't know, I think you
Speaker 4: just take you take life a little more seriously, or
Speaker 4: maybe you take it less seriously.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's almost a combination.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, we set out without a without a plan, so
Speaker 6: we kind of had indefinite Giddy is actually pregnant with
Speaker 6: a baby that we're giving birth to and about two
Speaker 6: and a half months, and so we'll be taking a
Speaker 6: break from banlife for a couple of months during that time,
Speaker 6: and then we plan on at least setting out again afterwards.
Speaker 5: What do you think do you think will keep going?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 11: Yeah, when you're when you're already doing it, I don't know,
Speaker 11: you just don't. We can't imagine living any other way
Speaker 11: because there's just so much freedom and I don't know,
Speaker 11: so I don't think of living any other way, Like,
Speaker 11: I don't see different.
Speaker 8: I mean, we obviously I don't know. Someday maybe we
Speaker 8: might live in the house, but I don't know when that.
Speaker 3: We don't know when that will be.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that could be in a few months, it could
Speaker 6: be ten years from now. They're just kind of kind
Speaker 6: of feeling it out. I think for now, we're happy
Speaker 6: where we are and want to keep continuing.
Speaker 5: On with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll say, because we did it for six months,
Speaker 4: and I was really surprised how hard it was to
Speaker 4: adapt back to normal life afterwards.
Speaker 5: Really.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was really depressed for probably like two or
Speaker 4: three months after man. Yeah, like it just there's something
Speaker 4: about like when you escape all the like mundane social
Speaker 4: constructs of normal life, it's really hard to get back
Speaker 4: into them because you see them from a whole new
Speaker 4: perspective where you're like, I don't have to go to
Speaker 4: an office and I don't have to do these things. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was really hard. And we're in New York now,
Speaker 4: which I think is also a lot harder because you're
Speaker 4: so used to like the quiet, and I don't know,
Speaker 4: seeing new stuff every day. It was a challenge.
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely, I mean you visit a lot of like
Speaker 6: you visit big places as you travel, but we prefer
Speaker 6: to stay in smaller areas. Like right now, we're in
Speaker 6: Denver and we've been here a day, but we just
Speaker 6: got out of the mountains and a couple of small
Speaker 6: towns before that, and I think we we thought we
Speaker 6: were city people before, and we definitely like some of
Speaker 6: the comforts of the city, but I don't know, I
Speaker 6: don't know if we could live in the city ever again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's cool to see that there's kind of there's
Speaker 5: same people.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's nice people, there's rude people, but we're
Speaker 6: kind of blown away just like the generosity and the
Speaker 6: kindness of everyone that we meet. And it's just cool
Speaker 6: to see that no matter you know, city or town
Speaker 6: or campground or whatever it may be, no matter where
Speaker 6: you are and which stay or Canada or wherever we go,
Speaker 6: we've just run.
Speaker 5: Into the nicest people.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's been awesome to just be surrounded by positive,
Speaker 6: like minded people.
Speaker 11: It's crazy too because like a lot of them have
Speaker 11: also been like old people that are like retired, which
Speaker 11: I could never I've never felt like I could ever
Speaker 11: relate to them because I'm like, oh, they they have
Speaker 11: like that I don't know, the.
Speaker 5: Very life that they've already lived.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and also like their ideas to me, like they
Speaker 11: were always just very like closed minded and stuff. But
Speaker 11: like after you meet all these different people and they're
Speaker 11: all like super open minded, super nice.
Speaker 6: And a lot of our new friends are actually retired
Speaker 6: travelers invite us to play bingo at them and wake
Speaker 6: up with the sun and sit there on the beach.
Speaker 6: It's awesome. Yeah, we run into quite a few. I mean,
Speaker 6: there's definitely a lot of young people doing what we're doing.
Speaker 6: But in the more popular areas, like all the areas
Speaker 6: we visited in Alaska that weren't you know, we definitely
Speaker 6: had some solitude where we're the only people, but.
Speaker 5: In the more populated areas it was us.
Speaker 6: And then the demographic was quite a bit older, and
Speaker 6: we have quite a bit of a good number of
Speaker 6: older friends now that we have like minded agendas and lifestyles,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's this strange camaraderie. Like I remember being Incus
Speaker 4: Saint Marie and I was having a glass of wine
Speaker 4: and we were in an RV park and like I
Speaker 4: just started chatting with the sky next to me. It
Speaker 4: was like seventy five and had been in the military
Speaker 4: and was from like rural Ohio. And then he was
Speaker 4: showing me as trailer and I was like, this is
Speaker 4: so surreal that I'm like buddies with this dude, just
Speaker 4: because we both travel in our vas together.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly, that's common ground for sure. There was a
Speaker 6: moment in Alaska. There was a couple that we met
Speaker 6: there and they were I think he said he was
Speaker 6: eighty one. I didn't catch how old she was, but
Speaker 6: they were in their RV, you know, beach camping on
Speaker 6: this near Homer, Alaska, out on the spit, and we
Speaker 6: spent probably like two or three days with them. But
Speaker 6: we would in the mornings, we'd bird watch with them
Speaker 6: with their high powered binoculars.
Speaker 5: They were very proud of. We'd get tips on how
Speaker 5: to drive in the sand and on lie.
Speaker 6: Yeah, tons of life advice and it was much appreciated.
Speaker 6: A lot of it was pretty funny and kind of laughable,
Speaker 6: but most of it was actually really good advice. And
Speaker 6: I actually really respected the man for investing his time
Speaker 6: into us young folks.
Speaker 5: You know, to teach us what he had learned. And yeah, he.
Speaker 11: Was so full, he was so happy and always just
Speaker 11: like joking around you. So it just made you appreciate everything,
Speaker 11: like there's something funny and joyful in everything, because it
Speaker 11: was all day, like every day he was just laughing
Speaker 11: and making jokes and he was just a happy.
Speaker 6: Person, happiest person we've ever met. Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 6: It was really cool to see that because I don't know,
Speaker 6: I've always kind of as I've been aging. I guess
Speaker 6: you could say I'm definitely still young, but I kind
Speaker 6: of don't want to get old, and I've never really
Speaker 6: had a reason other than like physically I won't be
Speaker 6: able to do the things that.
Speaker 5: I can now.
Speaker 6: But I mean that guy he was pulling a dirt
Speaker 6: bike behind his RV and he was eighty one years old,
Speaker 6: And that guy gave.
Speaker 4: Me, hope, What was some of the advice I gave you?
Speaker 6: Most of it was relationship advice about how to treat
Speaker 6: each other with respect and kindness. And you know, arguing
Speaker 6: is never worth it. Most of the time. When you
Speaker 6: start arguing, you forget why you even started, and it
Speaker 6: just continues.
Speaker 8: It was making decisions together.
Speaker 6: Always, and yeah, not going behind each other's backs to
Speaker 6: make decisions. And yeah, just just working as a team,
Speaker 6: as a as a pair, like in everything we do.
Speaker 6: And it was interesting because I think Alaska is kind
Speaker 6: of our our realization point as well, since we set
Speaker 6: out in the van. Like to us said in the beginning,
Speaker 6: it was kind of a trip, like we're on it,
Speaker 6: we're on a trip. We're on a big road trip.
Speaker 6: And in Alaska it was a few days after meeting
Speaker 6: that man. Actually we were in another area. We just
Speaker 6: had like a night where you know, Giddy was drawing
Speaker 6: and playing guitar and I was editing some photos and
Speaker 6: we were both just kind of doing our thing and
Speaker 6: we weren't on a road trip. It was it was
Speaker 6: the first time we realized that, like this is our
Speaker 6: life and that we do make every decision together, kind
Speaker 6: of as he was advising us to.
Speaker 5: Do, that we're always together, we.
Speaker 6: Make every decision together, and and that we're not just
Speaker 6: on a road trip right now, like this is our
Speaker 6: current lifestyle and we're doing that together. And that was
Speaker 6: a really cool, really cool night because we both realized.
Speaker 5: It and talked about it that night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those are always the like I remember when we
Speaker 4: had that same really we were at Lake Powell, and
Speaker 4: we just we had like the coolest camp spot and
Speaker 4: we opened up the doors and just looked out over
Speaker 4: the valley and there were like wild rabbits running everywhere,
Speaker 4: and we like poured a glass of wine and just
Speaker 4: sat there and we're like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 4: our life.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like how cool is that?
Speaker 4: You know, what's been your worst or scariest moment so far?
Speaker 5: We haven't had too many.
Speaker 6: Actually, someone asked us that the other day and we
Speaker 6: stumbled to answer it. I don't know if we've had
Speaker 6: a scary moment. I guess the scariest moment we've had
Speaker 6: was on the freeway, our brakes gave out. One of
Speaker 6: our break lines, sprung a leak, and all our break
Speaker 6: fluid just in one go just completely emptied out. So
Speaker 6: we had to you know, we had to slam on
Speaker 6: our brakes because of traffic, but it just gave out.
Speaker 6: There was no resistance, no brakes were activated, and so
Speaker 6: I had to swerve the van off into the.
Speaker 5: Shoulder like in the gravel and just let it kind
Speaker 5: of roll.
Speaker 6: To a stop and then slowly limpar way to a
Speaker 6: break shop where we stayed for four days.
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 6: Yeah, we stayed for four days waiting for our break
Speaker 6: lines to arrive, because apparently it's a rare part that
Speaker 6: not a lot of people carry. So that was I mean,
Speaker 6: that was a scary moment, kind of more in a
Speaker 6: close call moment, not like a some dude trying to
Speaker 6: kill us outside our van moment, but it's definitely scary
Speaker 6: in its own way.
Speaker 9: I was.
Speaker 5: I was scared.
Speaker 6: At least my heart was pumping. That was probably our
Speaker 6: least fun time of living in a van. Was we
Speaker 6: lived at the mechanic shop for four days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we definitely.
Speaker 6: Tapped out our movies and all our snacks and yeah,
Speaker 6: it was it was a little rough weekend.
Speaker 4: It was really hot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was up in just outside of Park City
Speaker 6: in Utah, and that was maybe a month ago.
Speaker 5: So it was middle of summer. It was it's pretty
Speaker 5: spicy hot outside.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was broke down in Las Crusis and that's
Speaker 4: when we realized, like, oh, when your car breaks down
Speaker 4: in your car is your home. You become homeless.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a little more rough than I think people
Speaker 6: realize or would imagine it mean.
Speaker 4: So, what do you think has been your biggest life
Speaker 4: lesson from your time on the road.
Speaker 11: I feel like for me, I thought I was really
Speaker 11: open minded before, but I feel like as we travel
Speaker 11: more and more, I feel like I've become more.
Speaker 8: And more open minded and more and more accepting.
Speaker 4: Yes, I don't know.
Speaker 11: Like people, we always like categorize people into different types
Speaker 11: of people. I guess, like, you know, like van people
Speaker 11: are like these hippies and they're bums and they're smelly
Speaker 11: and whatever. But we're I mean, we're not, And.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 11: Like when you see and you recognize that people aren't
Speaker 11: like us, for example, we're not what everybody thinks that
Speaker 11: we are like, it makes you like you change your
Speaker 11: ideas of other people too, if you're like, well, I'm
Speaker 11: not like that, so that's probably like this idea I
Speaker 11: have this type of person is probably.
Speaker 3: Not like that at all.
Speaker 8: So I don't know. I'm just I feel like I'm
Speaker 8: more open minded for sure.
Speaker 6: I would say that for me, the biggest really like
Speaker 6: life realization is that this and this sounds so cheesy
Speaker 6: and corny, but if you have like a dream, go
Speaker 6: live that dream like fulfill it, make it happen. And
Speaker 6: even if it sounds funny, to live in a van
Speaker 6: as a dream like a lot of people laugh at that,
Speaker 6: but like that's a dream that we had, you know,
Speaker 6: and we we made it happen. Like we started companies
Speaker 6: so that we could fund our travels on the road,
Speaker 6: and we started a year ahead and built them up.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: Now we live on that and we we only work
Speaker 6: one day a week. We still pay our taxes like
Speaker 6: everybody else. We're not, you know, living off the system
Speaker 6: or government cheese or anything. I don't know, cause a
Speaker 6: year ago, you know, like I said, we were both
Speaker 6: working full time. It didn't seem like there was any
Speaker 6: other way. It was like, well, that's what you do.
Speaker 6: That's what everyone does, because you have to pay for
Speaker 6: where you're living, and you know, pay for your car
Speaker 6: and pay for all this other stuff. And we've kind
Speaker 6: of just made it happen to or we choose our
Speaker 6: own schedule, we choose where we want to go. And
Speaker 6: I think that's I don't know now, I'm just rambling
Speaker 6: in circles, but I think the biggest life realization is
Speaker 6: that your dreams are dreams for a reason, and when
Speaker 6: you make them reality, that's happiness.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Joy, It's a lot more attainable than you would think
Speaker 11: it is, or like when you're in it, you realize
Speaker 11: you're like, oh my gosh, why didn't I do this
Speaker 11: like years ago?
Speaker 8: It's so easy and I'm so much happier.
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely moving forward. Whatever crazy idea that seems unattainable
Speaker 6: that we.
Speaker 5: Have, we're just going to try it.
Speaker 6: Because if you fail, whatever, you know, you move on
Speaker 6: or try it again or whatever. But if you get
Speaker 6: what you're working at and you get like, you know,
Speaker 6: the thing that you really want, or you're doing what
Speaker 6: you really want to do, it's I.
Speaker 5: Don't know, I don't know if I've had happiness like
Speaker 5: I do now.
Speaker 6: It's really nice to know that we're doing exactly what
Speaker 6: we want to do when we want to do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's something really pure about it, and I agree.
Speaker 4: I like our time on the road was probably some
Speaker 4: of the happiest time in my life, just because you're
Speaker 4: living your life for yourself, like you're not worried about
Speaker 4: doing things to placate other people exactly. So you're in
Speaker 4: Denver now where next.
Speaker 5: Well, we'll be in Colorado a couple of weeks, is
Speaker 5: that right? Yeah, probably a couple of weeks.
Speaker 6: So Giddy's jewelry business is called Carteo Handmade, and we
Speaker 6: actually have a pretty big show that we're doing in Arizona.
Speaker 6: We're part of like a big jewelry fashion expo that'll
Speaker 6: be happening down there the first week of October, and
Speaker 6: so we're gonna go down to Arizona a couple weeks
Speaker 6: ahead of time, or maybe three weeks ahead of time
Speaker 6: to kind of prepare for that and get a booth
Speaker 6: assembled and inventory made for that show.
Speaker 5: So after probably the next couple weeks.
Speaker 6: We'll head down to Arizona and that's where we'll stay
Speaker 6: for the remainder of the year. You know, the child
Speaker 6: is born and we kind of rest and recuperate, and then.
Speaker 5: I don't know after that.
Speaker 6: We've talked about going south, but we might cruise the
Speaker 6: east coast of the United States.
Speaker 4: How are you preparing or have you even gotten there
Speaker 4: for doing this with a baby.
Speaker 5: We haven't really prepared much anything.
Speaker 6: We have ideas, like we're going to kind of change
Speaker 6: our van layout a little bit to accommodate a third seat,
Speaker 6: you know, that's safely and securely bolted in.
Speaker 5: And a crib area. We're kind of changing things around.
Speaker 6: That's another reason why we'll be in Arizona the rest
Speaker 6: of the year, swapping things out, improving the van physically
Speaker 6: as far as the layout and furniture and everything.
Speaker 5: As far as preparing ourselves, we haven't done that.
Speaker 6: We don't know where to be. We're kind of just
Speaker 6: winging it now. We're excited, though, it'll be good. We're
Speaker 6: just we're excited to raise a kid outside, raise a
Speaker 6: kid out in the wild, and to kind of be
Speaker 6: open minded and learn from travel and culture and people.
Speaker 7: I think I got inspired by the one hundredth anniversary
Speaker 7: of the National Park Service.
Speaker 9: I love the National Parks and.
Speaker 7: Really wanted to explore more of them once I heard
Speaker 7: about them having about four hundred and eleven sites where
Speaker 7: I only thought there.
Speaker 9: Was fifty nine.
Speaker 7: So I really wanted to explore more of the American
Speaker 7: culture and history as well as the nature. So I
Speaker 7: think that's what got me started, and that's what helped
Speaker 7: me decide to do one hundred National Park Service places,
Speaker 7: and that led me to think that I should just
Speaker 7: go ahead and try to hit all the states in
Speaker 7: the continuous United States.
Speaker 4: This is Jennifer, who was based out of Fort Worth
Speaker 4: and has spent the majority of her summer taking mini
Speaker 4: trips throughout the state of Texas while getting ready to
Speaker 4: embark on her cross country trip. We kind of did
Speaker 4: it the other way around. We were more inspired by
Speaker 4: checking out all the cities because I feel like as Americans,
Speaker 4: you can only travel so much, and there's so many
Speaker 4: places that you would never just take vacation to go to,
Speaker 4: and so we were like, we need to check out
Speaker 4: cities like Saint Louis or Memphis, places you wouldn't otherwise go.
Speaker 4: And then obviously on the way we passed by tons
Speaker 4: of national parks. But I thought was so cool. Was
Speaker 4: just especially now and I don't like to get political,
Speaker 4: but like the America I'm seeing on TV is not
Speaker 4: the America we encountered out on the road.
Speaker 9: Oh so true.
Speaker 4: That was really inspiring to me, especially like two gay dudes,
Speaker 4: like living in an RV in Mississippi, Like the idea
Speaker 4: of how you would be perceived was so different than
Speaker 4: how we actually interacted with people.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, that's a great point. I think that I
Speaker 7: do see travelist connection. You know, you really get that
Speaker 7: deeper sense of who someone is that lives in a
Speaker 7: different place than you. And also just pictures don't do
Speaker 7: the places or the National Parks Justice. I think you're
Speaker 7: such a deeper sense of place in meeting when you
Speaker 7: go visit those places.
Speaker 9: So I totally agree with it.
Speaker 7: Being different than this kind of maybe almost surface level
Speaker 7: conversation happening in the media, and just to get to
Speaker 7: explore the depth, I'm so thankful for that. So you've
Speaker 7: actually caught me kind of before my year of forty.
Speaker 9: Eight States starts.
Speaker 7: I will begin exploring other states starting in November. So
Speaker 7: the past few months have been about Texas, just connecting
Speaker 7: to Texas history and understanding my state better, because I
Speaker 7: think that's so important.
Speaker 9: You know, tagline I.
Speaker 7: Guess is like broaden your backyard, and so starting with
Speaker 7: where you're from and understanding the people around you better
Speaker 7: I think is really really important. But yeah, ultimately I
Speaker 7: have four trips, bigger road trips planned because obviously I
Speaker 7: can't keep coming back to Texas every time. So one
Speaker 7: of them is to the Southwest and doing the Four
Speaker 7: Corners region, and then one is the Gulf Coast and
Speaker 7: doing more of Texas to Florida and then up.
Speaker 9: To South Carolina and North Carolina.
Speaker 7: And then one is the Great Northern what I call it,
Speaker 7: and it's twenty eight states in the summer, the whole summer.
Speaker 7: It's basically this line across the country, going through the
Speaker 7: middle of it horizontally, and I'm going to explore the
Speaker 7: twenty eight above that line.
Speaker 4: What are you most excited about.
Speaker 7: There's this one place that I've really been fascinated by
Speaker 7: in Oregon, and it's the Lewis and Clark.
Speaker 9: National Historic Site.
Speaker 7: I think I've always been kind of fascinated by their
Speaker 7: journey and story about discovering America and well, not discovering America.
Speaker 9: But you know, like seeing going where maybe.
Speaker 7: Americans hadn't gone before. And I'm really fascinated by their journey.
Speaker 7: And up in Oregon they have where they finished the
Speaker 7: route they made it to the Pacific Ocean, and yeah,
Speaker 7: I'm just really I'm really excited to go there and
Speaker 7: learn more about their story and maybe even recreate some
Speaker 7: of their route.
Speaker 9: Yeah, just seeing seeing that northern route.
Speaker 4: You know, when we're talking about our trip, like inevitably
Speaker 4: there's someone who says I've always wanted to do that,
Speaker 4: I think, just do it, because you know I had
Speaker 4: I felt that way too, Like I had always wanted
Speaker 4: to do it until I did it, and then when
Speaker 4: I did it, I was like, God, this was so easy.
Speaker 4: Did I do this years ago?
Speaker 7: No? I think there is that kind of mental barrier.
Speaker 7: You're like, this is not done, and what am I doing?
Speaker 7: If I go do this? You know, what does that
Speaker 7: say about me and maybe my even my career aspirations
Speaker 7: or that sort of thing. But I totally agree with you,
Speaker 7: Just go do it. I think that you learn so
Speaker 7: much about yourself and about other people and about the
Speaker 7: environment and your surroundings that it definitely makes up for
Speaker 7: any lost career benefits or you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 9: Obviously, being responsible.
Speaker 7: Is incredibly important, but I definitely benefit from exploring the
Speaker 7: United States and learned so much more about history and
Speaker 7: what it means to me to be an American that, yeah,
Speaker 7: just go do it.
Speaker 9: I totally agree with you.
Speaker 4: It's funny, like I think, being a product of the
Speaker 4: eighties and nineties, we were taught to kind of have
Speaker 4: a singular vision of what success looked like, and I
Speaker 4: think when we break from that because either we don't
Speaker 4: fit into it or we want something different, we feel
Speaker 4: really guilty.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, And that bums me out because I think
Speaker 4: like success has many different looks, and to me, seeing
Speaker 4: America and understanding like who Americans are and how you
Speaker 4: fit into that picture is an equal achievement to like
Speaker 4: calling yourself like senior manager at a bank.
Speaker 9: No, I completely agree.
Speaker 7: I think you know, both teach you different lessons about life.
Speaker 7: It seems to me that traveling has bigger life lessons
Speaker 7: surrounding values and these deeper places in self.
Speaker 9: I've had different jobs.
Speaker 7: Where I felt, yeah, more more like this is just
Speaker 7: your task and that's what you complete, rather than using
Speaker 7: this exploratory gift of curiosity that we have in finding
Speaker 7: yourself and in.
Speaker 9: Finding what you get to what you can offer the world.
Speaker 7: I found that's kind of what travel has helped me
Speaker 7: with is what is it about you that really can
Speaker 7: connect to other people?
Speaker 9: And how do you want to kind of bring that out?
Speaker 4: And I almost wonder if that's what creates the RB
Speaker 4: culture that we experience, which is when your life is
Speaker 4: about traveling, you have a better appreciation for people and
Speaker 4: you're able to look beyond like political or religious or
Speaker 4: just you know, cultural views because you realize like that
Speaker 4: was my biggest lesson was and I never felt that
Speaker 4: I was this way, but I saw the world very
Speaker 4: black and white before our trip, like Republicans or Democrats
Speaker 4: or you know, like pro gay or anti gay, and
Speaker 4: there was no room for flexibility in the middle for me. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I realized, maybe people disagree with me, and maybe
Speaker 4: people disagree with me being gay, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 4: like we can't find common ground. And I think on
Speaker 4: the trip, I really learned to be like, you know,
Speaker 4: like I never thought I would appreciate a small town
Speaker 4: in Alabama. Yeah, yeah, and then you know, you get
Speaker 4: there and you're like, like, small town USA isn't a
Speaker 4: scary place, and it isn't unaccepting and it isn't not progressive.
Speaker 4: Like you just learn to see the world in a
Speaker 4: more dynamic way. I think can value people in a
Speaker 4: very different way.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker 7: It's kind of like you see the multi dimensionality of people.
Speaker 7: You know, you can disagree with them on something, but
Speaker 7: then also really connect with them on something else, whereas
Speaker 7: most of the time you may not have that opportunity.
Speaker 9: To get to know that something else that you.
Speaker 7: Connect on if you just kind of see how the
Speaker 7: media portrays a certain aspect.
Speaker 9: So yeah, it's that depth.
Speaker 7: In recognizing that you're both experiencing human life, and you
Speaker 7: can definitely connect on at least something, even if even
Speaker 7: if your lives look completely different.
Speaker 4: When your trip is over. Do you think you'll go
Speaker 4: back to Fort Worth.
Speaker 9: I don't think so.
Speaker 7: I think I will end up in Tennessee. The Appellations
Speaker 7: are just probably my favorite area in the country. And
Speaker 7: I'm actually back in Fort Worth just to take some classes.
Speaker 9: In graphic designs.
Speaker 7: So I'm hoping that I can use these new skills
Speaker 7: and figure out how to translate them into living in Appalachia,
Speaker 7: and Appalachia.
Speaker 9: I have to start saying correctly.
Speaker 7: So that's kind of my ultimate plan is to end
Speaker 7: up in that region.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the only part of Tennessee at Palasia we saw
Speaker 4: was Pigeon Forge. Just worried it is. It's so weird
Speaker 4: because it's like the poor man's Las Vegas and the
Speaker 4: Smoky Mountains.
Speaker 9: Oh my gosh, Pigeon Forge.
Speaker 7: I have the craziest experience there.
Speaker 9: We were driving.
Speaker 7: From the Great Smokies or yeah, the Great Smoky Mountains
Speaker 7: National Park and driving to I think Knoxville and it's
Speaker 7: on the way and we saw all the neon lights
Speaker 7: and the sun was setting.
Speaker 9: And we were like where are we?
Speaker 7: I honestly thought there was only you know, these tiny
Speaker 7: farming communities in that region.
Speaker 9: But Pigeon for was a wake up call. It was
Speaker 9: just the Las Vegas of the.
Speaker 7: East, and I had no idea that that existed until
Speaker 7: stumbling upon it.
Speaker 12: It's so off putting because you're driving through like some
Speaker 12: of the most beautiful scenery in America and then you
Speaker 12: like round a bend and it's just neon.
Speaker 4: Lights and like the tackiest architecture ever in a giant
Speaker 4: cross like up on a mountain above. It was so weird.
Speaker 7: It is, and you kind of wonder, how how did
Speaker 7: this pop up here? I mean I was confused. Yeah,
Speaker 7: but I'm I'm still I still want to go to Dollywood.
Speaker 7: You know, I have some curiosity now with this place
Speaker 7: that that people talk about. So I'm definitely going to
Speaker 7: have to head back to Pigeonforge and explore it a
Speaker 7: little bit more because I was baffled.
Speaker 4: People always ask like, what's the scariest place we went,
Speaker 4: and my boyfriend I disagree, But for me, it was
Speaker 4: Pigeon Forge so far.
Speaker 9: That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's so different, it's
Speaker 9: so different.
Speaker 7: I think there was a state park in Alabama that
Speaker 7: I felt like was the scariest place.
Speaker 9: I guess it was near Mobile.
Speaker 7: It was an off day, so just during the week
Speaker 7: in September, my friend and I were camping and we
Speaker 7: there was only two different campers, us and a ice
Speaker 7: cream truck like legit, an ice cream truck that kind
Speaker 7: of was an old ice cream truck but the paint
Speaker 7: had faded and they were pulled into the parking spot
Speaker 7: next to us, and they had a TV on in
Speaker 7: the front seat where it was just black and white,
Speaker 7: you know, the static, So nothing was actually on the TV,
Speaker 7: but it was on and it was static, and we
Speaker 7: never saw a person ever. It was just the ice
Speaker 7: cream truck with the static TV. And I thought we
Speaker 7: were going to die.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what was happening with that situation? Oh man?
Speaker 7: It was so scary. And what didn't help was when
Speaker 7: the sun started setting, raccoons would come out and they
Speaker 7: would be on their hind legs. And they probably were
Speaker 7: not rabid, but that is the image that comes to
Speaker 7: my mind when raccoons are walking towards you, just on
Speaker 7: their back legs.
Speaker 9: Jesus, these rabbits.
Speaker 4: Food.
Speaker 9: Oh man.
Speaker 7: We got in the tent and just tried to tell
Speaker 7: funny stories and like, yeah, we stayed, but man, that
Speaker 7: was a scary could have been more scary, but it
Speaker 7: was still a scary situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's on part like the clown that
Speaker 4: hang out in the woods.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was. I was waiting for a clown to
Speaker 7: pop out, for sure, and that would have been I'm
Speaker 7: not even sure what we would have done, but yeah,
Speaker 7: it was.
Speaker 9: It was scary. It was scary.
Speaker 7: It definitely seems like it was a scene out of
Speaker 7: a horror film and that we just were not aware
Speaker 7: of the plot line.
Speaker 9: But ultimately it missed mine.
Speaker 4: One of the coolest places we saw was in Alabama,
Speaker 4: and it may not have any meaning too. Have you
Speaker 4: seen the movie Big Fish? Yes, Okay, so outside of Montgomery,
Speaker 4: that little town, okay, still exists untouched really Yeah, and
Speaker 4: so you it's the strangest thing, like you have to
Speaker 4: I had did a lot of research to find out.
Speaker 4: You basically drive out of town and then you like
Speaker 4: drive on a dirt road along the railroad tracks, and
Speaker 4: then you cross a little bridge onto an island in
Speaker 4: the Alabama River. Yeah, and then there's a gate and
Speaker 4: you basically have to press a button, and then a
Speaker 4: video camera comes on and watches you put five dollars
Speaker 4: into like a change collection box. Okay, and then a
Speaker 4: phone rigs and you answer the phone, and some man
Speaker 4: just gives you a code which you then dial into
Speaker 4: this gate. And then the gate slowly opens and you
Speaker 4: drive like a mile out on this probably half a
Speaker 4: mile like dirt road, further into the river, and then
Speaker 4: you cross like another little bridge onto another little island.
Speaker 4: And on this little island in the Alabama River is
Speaker 4: the town from Big Fish. Oh my gosh, it is
Speaker 4: the coolest thing. And there's like a herd of wild
Speaker 4: goats wandering around. It's the coolest thing in the world.
Speaker 9: That sounds so cool.
Speaker 7: I think my ultimate goal with Tree of Travel is
Speaker 7: just to get people out there and explore the country.
Speaker 9: And I think that, you know, this.
Speaker 7: Conversation that we've just had is one of the many
Speaker 7: benefits that you get from traveling. You just get to
Speaker 7: connect with other people who have seen cool things and
Speaker 7: done cool things and gotten to share in that experience.
Speaker 7: So not only do you get to connect with people
Speaker 7: on the road, but you know, you have this bank
Speaker 7: of stories and knowledge that you get to connect with.
Speaker 9: People forever after that.
Speaker 7: I think would be my ultimate push to get people
Speaker 7: out there to see the states and yeah, explore, explore
Speaker 7: the backyard that we get to call home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I agree. I think there's so much of
Speaker 4: America you don't get to see. And that sounds vague,
Speaker 4: but in the sense of like roadside attraction culture and
Speaker 4: state parks, or even just like small towns that are
Speaker 4: really unique and really charming that you don't even know exists,
Speaker 4: and you never would unless you live on the road.
Speaker 7: There's a kind of a cheesy song about that, where
Speaker 7: it's just the flyover states, right, And there's so much
Speaker 7: to the flyover states that I think.
Speaker 9: People they would love if they had the.
Speaker 7: Chance to kind of go explore them and figure out
Speaker 7: more about America.
Speaker 9: There's such a freedom that comes with living on the road, and.
Speaker 4: It's dynamic, Like every day you're in a new place
Speaker 4: and you're encountering new people and you just feel.
Speaker 5: Stagnant at all.
Speaker 4: You feel like every day your life is changing a
Speaker 4: little bit.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's true, and you can kind of like see it.
Speaker 7: I really enjoy writing journals when I'm traveling, just to
Speaker 7: kind of reflect on where I'm at in both place
Speaker 7: and mentally, and I feel like that's the coolest thing
Speaker 7: about traveling is that you actually get to see that
Speaker 7: progress that you're moving forward with your life. Things aren't
Speaker 7: as important as they seemed, and other things become a
Speaker 7: lot more important.
Speaker 4: What's so crazy to me is we our relationships sucked
Speaker 4: before this trip, Like this trip was kind of like
Speaker 4: we even had a conversation, like we need to decide
Speaker 4: what happens after this trip because there's a good chance
Speaker 4: we're going to break up before this trip is over.
Speaker 4: And like being in a car with someone really changes
Speaker 4: the way you relate to that person, like for a
Speaker 4: prolonged period of time, obviously, because there's nowhere to run.
Speaker 4: When you have an argument, you have to like sit in.
Speaker 9: That argument and have the conversation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And like like we are communication skills improved so much.
Speaker 7: Like there's so many life lessons that are overlooked in
Speaker 7: travel and just kind of touted as this like escape mechanism,
Speaker 7: where that's.
Speaker 9: So not the case.
Speaker 7: You learn all of these really important life lessons like
Speaker 7: taking action and asking for help. I think that's a
Speaker 7: huge one too, where that's not really encouraged and you
Speaker 7: have to ask for help because sometimes you have no
Speaker 7: idea what to do, so that's the only way you
Speaker 7: can move forward.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it teaches you a lot of humility
Speaker 4: and it really kind of shows you your place in
Speaker 4: the world, which is beforehand, I had like a great
Speaker 4: career and I wasn't getting a lot of money, and
Speaker 4: I think from that. I hate admitting this, but I
Speaker 4: felt a little bit of not better than the no
Speaker 4: I get that. Yeah, And I didn't realize it at
Speaker 4: the time until I was on the road and it
Speaker 4: was like, just because I had an important job doesn't
Speaker 4: really mean shit. In the Grinski mosings.
Speaker 9: I think we're definitely taught that it does.
Speaker 7: Where jobs are kind of they define your worth as
Speaker 7: a human rather than they just provide the necessary things
Speaker 7: you need to survive. They're given a lot more meaning,
Speaker 7: a lot of which I don't think is healthy because
Speaker 7: it becomes like this hierarchy of value. Who is more
Speaker 7: valuable And.
Speaker 4: I just think like, yeah, so if I make X
Speaker 4: amount of dollars and you know, have this title on
Speaker 4: my business card, Like I didn't know how to make
Speaker 4: a fire. I had never been alone with my thoughts
Speaker 4: for ten hours at a time like there's so many
Speaker 4: things that just like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 7: I went to survival school in Utah and I had
Speaker 7: to learn how to make fire from Styx and I
Speaker 7: was so bad at it. I could not figure it out,
Speaker 7: and everyone else had figured it out, and it was
Speaker 7: so infuriating. I just wanted to quit, you know. I
Speaker 7: was just like, this is not this is not something
Speaker 7: that I need to know how to do.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 9: I just had this like horrible attitude about it.
Speaker 7: But I realized that, you know, maybe this is the
Speaker 7: most important thing I need to know how to do.
Speaker 7: You know, hire is nature's gift and that we're able
Speaker 7: to recreate it.
Speaker 9: I mean, come on, that's powerful stuff.
Speaker 4: Or on the flip side, like I learned to not
Speaker 4: only appreciate but get excited about a four dollars bottle
Speaker 4: of wine.
Speaker 9: Yes, that's exactly it. You get to like find the
Speaker 9: things that are good for cheaper.
Speaker 4: Since it's been about six weeks since i'd talked to
Speaker 4: Alex and Jason Giddey, I reached out to see what
Speaker 4: they've been up to in the time since our conversation.
Speaker 4: This is what Alex had to say since we last chatted.
Speaker 4: I continued on my journey through the wild lands of Canada,
Speaker 4: Land of the a I migrated down south to Colorado,
Speaker 4: where I met my dad and grabbed my new loyal sidekick,
Speaker 4: to Keitna, my two year old German shepherd. Now armed
Speaker 4: with the best girl in the world, we headed back
Speaker 4: up to Canada to explore Kutene and you National Parks.
Speaker 4: The weather was holding out fantastically and while it was
Speaker 4: getting cold at night during the day, we were able
Speaker 4: to explore the wild and bast alpie of the parks.
Speaker 4: Over the next few weeks, Tally and I migrated further south,
Speaker 4: stopping at Hot Springs small towns New Denver is the
Speaker 4: cutest town I've been to in a long time, and
Speaker 4: meeting wonderful characters along the way. A little over a
Speaker 4: month of being on the road together, life in the
Speaker 4: van got a little difficult. The loneliness started to set in.
Speaker 4: I wasn't connecting very well to myself or to what
Speaker 4: this trip was about. I molded over for a few
Speaker 4: days and tried to persevere, but eventually I ended up
Speaker 4: heading to my parents' house for a little restart and
Speaker 4: refresher I've been here for about a week now and
Speaker 4: tomorrow me and Tally are headed down to ben to
Speaker 4: go rock climbing with friends. Fallen Northwest has been amazing,
Speaker 4: but looking forward, we're going to explore Utah, Arizona, and
Speaker 4: southern California. I've never seen a landscape like the American Southwest,
Speaker 4: huge red spires jutting towards the sky, or canyons that
Speaker 4: you can't see the bottom of. Coming home was a
Speaker 4: good choice, and asking for help was a better one.
Speaker 4: Stopping and now restarting allowed me to come back to
Speaker 4: the road with the fresh Head art and playlist. Jason
Speaker 4: Giddey have experienced some even bigger changes. Here's what they
Speaker 4: said after chatting with you in Denver. We stayed in
Speaker 4: Colorado for a couple weeks. After leaving the Denver area,
Speaker 4: we explored Garden of the Gods for a day before
Speaker 4: heading more southwest. In Colorado, there's an interesting attraction a
Speaker 4: few hours southwest of Denver. It's called Bishop Castle. You
Speaker 4: have to look up all the details, but essentially mister
Speaker 4: Bishop spent his life building his own castle by himself.
Speaker 4: Its towers of windows, spiral stairs, a moat, and a drawbridge.
Speaker 4: The real deal. It's pretty interesting. To say the least.
Speaker 4: After Bishop Castle, we visited an awesome wolf rescue sanctuary
Speaker 4: called Mission Wolf. It's a must do if you're visiting Colorado.
Speaker 4: We loved it. We stayed a couple days camped out
Speaker 4: right at the property. The staff is super friendly and welcoming.
Speaker 4: You can camp right there or in one of their
Speaker 4: many teepees on the property. The wolves are magical, really
Speaker 4: awesome creatures. You get to see them on a tour,
Speaker 4: and if you're lucky like we were on our visit there,
Speaker 4: a few can actually meet and mingle with. At the
Speaker 4: end of the day, you fall asleep to the sound
Speaker 4: of the wolves howling. Following the Wolf sanctuary, stayed a
Speaker 4: few days on our cousins farm. They grow several different
Speaker 4: crops and have dogs, horses, cows, cats, chickens, et cetera.
Speaker 4: We loved riding quads, exploring Indian ruins, learning about crops
Speaker 4: and irrigation, and taking care of the chickens. Nothing beats
Speaker 4: fresh farm food and seeing family if you haven't seen
Speaker 4: them in years. It was awesome. We left Colorado and
Speaker 4: made our way to Arizona. In preparation we're having our
Speaker 4: baby girl. We've temporarily moved into a small apartment so
Speaker 4: we have some more spacious, comfortable place to bring her
Speaker 4: into the world. Our plan is to make a few
Speaker 4: changes in the band to safely accommodate the baby girl
Speaker 4: before hitting the road again. We planned to stick around
Speaker 4: in Arizona and spend the holidays with family, and then
Speaker 4: set out for a new journey on New Year's We're
Speaker 4: stoked to get back on the road. You're right, the
Speaker 4: transition has been rough. We miss waking up in a
Speaker 4: new place every month.
Speaker 5: It's rock