The Wayward Home Podcast

20: Giving it all up for Nomad Life with Tiny Trailer Tips

January 05, 2023 Kristin Hanes Season 1 Episode 20
The Wayward Home Podcast
20: Giving it all up for Nomad Life with Tiny Trailer Tips
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Show Notes Transcript

Are you wondering how to get rid of all your stuff, sell a business and hit the road in a tiny trailer? That's exactly what Justin and Kandace did. This couple has shared their passion for camping and travel ever since they rented a teardrop trailer and went on a camping trip shortly after they started dating. That first trip was the catalyst for many more camping adventures to come.

Shortly after that first trip, Kandace bought a 10-foot teardrop trailer so they could go on weekend camping trips up and down the coast of CA. A couple years later they upgraded to a U-haul camper then to an Airstream.

Earlier this year, they decided it was time to make a major life change. Kandace sold her house and her business, Justin left his lucrative sales career and they decided it was time to jump off the hamster wheel and live the nomad life for a while.

Here's how to follow Kandace and Justin:
Tinytrailertrips.com
IG and TikTok = @tinytrailertrips

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Want to live the van life but have no idea where to start? My FREE Van Life Starter kit has specs and measurements on 10 different vans, van buying and build ideas, remote work ideas and websites I use to find free campsites.

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Hey there, I'm Kristen with the wayward home.com and I spend half a year in my sailboat in Mexico and half in my d i y sprinter van in the US And I hope to inspire you to live nomadically too. So today we're talking about quitting everything and jumping into the nomad life. I'm really excited to talk about this cuz we all start there somewhere. And today we have Justin and Candace here on the show. And they did just that. They, they. everything to go travel in a travel trailer. So I'm really glad to be talking to you guys today. Thanks for joining the Wayward Home Podcast. Thank you you for having us. Yeah. Thank you for having us, Kristen. First of all, I wanna know. Yeah, I'm really excited. Um, what kind of travel trailer did you start out in? Well, we started four years ago in a teardrop, a 10 foot teardrop wooden tear. very, very, very basic. We weren't sure if we were going to like it, and we ended up really liking it. Mm-hmm. and then Covid hit and we decided to upgrade to a 13 foot fiberglass U-Haul. And we continued to like it. And then from there we, we thought, hey, let's, um, talk about maybe doing a cross country trip and this in the U-Haul. Didn't have, didn't have a bathroom, had a sink. you know, small bed and we're traveling with our dog and this thing's 13 feet. And uh, Candace is like, look, if we're going to do a cross-country trip and, and live them nomadic life. I need a bathroom. So he actually thought we could do it. and I, and, and I was on board until the last minute. I got really cold feet and I said, I can't, I can't live without a bathroom. We can't do it. Yeah. So from there we started looking for something a little bigger and uh, the guy, the guy that sold us the U-Haul, um, we stopped by his. Uh, on the way back from a trip, I think to like pick up a hubcap or something. Cause he's been super cool about helping us with, uh, with our units and travels. And he had a, uh, a bubble. Was it a bubble? Yeah. Vintage. A vintage 55 Airstream bubble that I fell in love with. And. That was it. That was it for me. So we went on a, a grand search for an Airstream or No bubble. And, and we finally found one on one of the Airstream, uh, resale sites that was up in Oregon. So we ended up with a globe trotter, 20 foot globe Trotter with a bathroom. Yeah. And then off we, off we went. So you guys, um, had that really wonderful Airstream and you had to give up quite a bit, um, in the Bay Area to launch this journey. Tell me about how, what that transition was like for you guys. I had a business, uh, that I, that I owned for 22 years, and I sold that and I had a condo that I sold. and then Justin. Yeah, I, I was, he was in a rental. My career, I was in media sales for, you know, 20 some odd years, and, uh, we just decided with Covid, COVID really impacted Candace's business o owning a hair salon. So she got shut down three times during Covid and, and my jobs was suffering. Media sales was tough during, during that time, and we just got disenchanted and decided, hey, this might be a great time to make a life. and we decided to, um, to quit our jobs sell. Candace sold her condo, she sold her business, and then we were homeless and ready to go. downsized. Uh, yeah. It took months and months to get rid of all of our stuff. Yeah. Between selling it and giving it away and garage sales and that, that was, that was quite a chore. Um, after, you know, we're 50, so we had a lot of stuff between the two of us, but definitely a, a freeing experience. Very. Uh, you know, possessions tend to weigh you down. And it was nice once we got done with the process to feel like, wow, all we have left now is this eight by 10 storage unit with some of some of the things that we will probably take with us when we eventually move to Portugal, which is we could talk about later, but that's our ultimate goal. Um, but that's all we have. And then the camper and the truck that's amazing. A lot. A lot of my readers write me, and that's one of their biggest concerns, is how do I downsize all this stuff? And they're so worried about it. But you guys, how do, how did you just, how did you tackle it? Do you have a, a tip or two for people on, on tackling that much stuff? It, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. So at first you start At first, yeah. So you start a little bit at a time. Um, I did it in phases. I had a lot more possessions than Justin and I, I just. Like I said, I started in in phases, so I had 75 pairs of jeans, and then I went to half, and then I went to half again, and then half again Uh, so that's an, that's an easier way to tackle it. And then looking at around at what do you really, really use daily and need. Yeah, there's stuff that sits in, in, uh, storage units for years. You're like, I, I obviously don't need it if it's been there for two or three years. Right. Um, I also had a friend that gave us some advice where they did a, uh, a program where you give on day one, you, you get rid of one thing day, two, two things. And then once you go through a whole year, you've gotten rid of like 10,000 things. Something like that. Mm-hmm. So it's a, it's. it's an easier step process. So if, if people, if your readers and listeners do have, that's a, a little bit of a struggle for them to get rid of things, that's a great way to go about it. One thing at a time. And also for me, I, I like thinking about it that this could go to someone who uses it. I don't use it. I haven't used it. I would like someone to have it that will use it. Yeah. And one of the other things that Candace always brings up is, all right, you spend, uh, you spent$50 on this. but you're also spending$50 or a hundred dollars or whatever it is to store it in a unit. Right. If, if you are storing your excess stuff somewhere and it's like over two or three years, how much more are you paying for that thing that you're not using? Yeah. You could re it. That's another, another way to think about, you can just rebuy it. Yeah. After the year, if you really need it, you really want it. Yeah, those are all like totally amazing tips and I think they'll definitely help people because that, that is a big struggle. So I'm glad you shared that stuff. Um, the other thing too is we started a year in advance. I think that's important for people too. Don't leave it to the last month does matter. Yeah. Start way in advance. That'll be overwhelming otherwise. Yeah. And then you may never do it. Totally. Yeah. That's what happens to people. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Their stuff, their stuff stops them from doing and living the life they really wanna live So you guys, um, did that, got rid of your stuff, downsized, got in the trailer and started your journey. So what was the biggest, um, adjustment you had to make between the house and living in the trailer full-time? So we, we kind of didn't that in stages two, which was a nice transit. After Candace sold her her condo, we moved into a 450 foot square foot, um, like a in-law unit. And we lived there for four or five months before we left. Mm-hmm. So, you know, we went from 1100 square feet, 1200 square feet to 450 to then, whatever the camper is, I dunno, a hundred square feet So that adjustment was done in stages and helped us. Anything. You know, when we're in the camper, most of our time truly is spent outdoors. We both love the outdoors. We do a lot of hiking, we do a lot of exploring, and really we just sleep in the camper. Yeah. Wouldn't you say? Unless the weather's bad, which, and again, when you're on wheels, you can just move to better weather. So most of our time is spent outdoors, and one of the concerns was that we wouldn't have enough space when we were stuck in the camper on a snow day or something like that. But, uh, the Airstream has a, a couch that converts to a bed and then has two other small twins, couches, like twin beds. Sato, our dog sleeps on one. We, when it's, uh, what size is a double? It's about a double bed. A little smaller than a double. And we found that if we s. Head to toe. We got more space. So, you know, we sleep head to toe and, and it actually worked out great, Oh, that's great. So yeah, so it wasn't a huge adjustment going to the small space. That's wonderful. Yeah, we've spent a lot of our time outside too, so, you know, we're not just stuck in a van, like 20 people think I'm in here for like 10 hours a day, which sometimes I am. But we like to be outside as well, so that's something people should keep in mind. So once you guys got started on your journey, tell me a little bit about your route. Where did you, what did you wanna go see in the States? And did you have your route planned beforehand? So we did plan the route, from April when we left to all the way through the end of September. and we wanted to see National Parks, Moab, Zion, Bryce, uh, monument Valley. Those were big key. Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon. Those were big key places that I really wanted to see and it never been, uh, and. We basically wanted to get through the middle of the country quickly and then go see, uh, new England, which we, we both spent a lot of time in New England. Absolutely loved the New England area. Um, so on the planning process, I put together a Google sheet and we would sit down and we would tackle it, you know, a few pl, a few stops a night, and we probably. three or four months putting it all together. So we'd sit down on the couch, we'd, I'd pull up the spreadsheet, Candace would get on. Uh, she had a book, uh, Best places to camp. Uh, we would google search, uh, camping or RV camping and then see what would come up. Uh, and we did dabble a little bit in using I overlander and, and those types of apps to see what, uh, boondocking opportunities might be out there. But we pretty much stuck to, uh, RV camps and state park. very little boondocking. Yeah. And now, now, now that we're a year in, yeah, we could boondock, but we, that intimidated us a little bit. Yeah. So yeah, so the planning process was, oh, I had a tab for every single month, uh, a line item for every place we would stay, what our budget was for, uh, our nightly stays. Justin is very organized. It's, yeah, very. Me not so much anal and ana, uh, analytic process, little bit type A here, little type A, but it turns out that it was helpful. It helped us in the long run. Yeah. So how many, um, weeks or months would you plan out ahead of time? Like, well, six to start? Yeah. The beginning with six and the, and the big reason for that is we left at, at the, you know, beginning of. And most RV parks and campsites will fill up in the summer months. So if you don't have some of'em, you have to book six months in advance. And the popular, the popular ones. But yeah, I mean, and, and if you want to stay near, um, attractions and have a decent place to stay, if you're not in early, then you have to go to your option two, three, or four, which might not be great. Right. That makes a lot of sense. That you wanna get, um, into the good parks. That's what my mom does as well with her rv. She plans it all out. So yeah, that's a way to feel like you have, you know, somewhere to go that you're not stressed out at the last minute. Cause we experience that sometimes. Cause we don't plan anything And if we do need a campground and it's fold, then that can be stressful. So, yeah, it's, it's a little bit more structure, which I like Canda. Preferred. She really wanted to just go, uh, and wing it. Uh, that would freak me out a little bit. We did on our way home, however, yeah, we did. Yeah. So this fall, um, we did, we did wing it. So we would just book the next place right before we left the current spot. And that worked out because it was fall, we didn't have any problems. I think in the summer that would've been tough. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Summer is the busiest time. Yeah. So, yeah. So you guys loved, would you say New England was your favorite part of the country you went through on this trip? Mine, yeah. I, I like the Red Rock region. I could spend months, you know, traveling through Moab and Bryce and Zion. But once we got to New England, I fell in love with that too. I love, um, Maine, New Hampshire, uh, Cape Cod Nantucket, you know, all those places. The, and the weather in the summer there. I'm thinking, you know, we're up super high north. It's going to be cold and gloomy like, uh, the Mendocino coast or something. but the, the beaches were warm. The water, the water is warm, the ocean water's warm, warmer than it's lovely in the summer, warmer than Southern California water. So, and yeah, never been to the East coast waters. And you put your feet in and you're like, wow, this is warm. This is amazing. And just, and being a body surfing in the ocean in Maine, It felt so weird, but same awesome at the same time. pretty cool. That's cool. That's charming Towns. The little New England towns, you know, are so cute. So we enjoyed that. We enjoyed that a lot. That's really cool to hear. I've never been there before in a van, just as a child. So that's, that's fun to hear. And I think a lot of people don't venture out there because there probably is, I've heard there's a lack of boondocking spots, but it sounds like, did you find some nice, um, campgrounds to go into on that side of the country? Yeah, they do have state campgrounds. You're right about B l M land. They don't have as much BLM land as we do out west. Uh, they do have a lot of state campgrounds. If, if you're on a budget. Oh, we lost, we lost you again. I think I'm here. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just her cameras. We just, we just lost your video. Um, yeah, so plenty of state campgrounds and plenty of RV parks. Yeah, that's, that's good to know. And I wanted to talk a little bit about, um, the cost of, of doing camp grounds in RV parks full-time. Um, what was that like for you guys? What, did you find any surprises? Was it what you expected? a couple surprises mo it, the campgrounds would range anywhere. The RV parks wouldn't be any, any less than about 50,$60 on the low end. Mm-hmm. And on the high end, I think the most we paid was about 150. So almost like going to a cheap motel, you know, so they were more expensive than than we thought. Yeah. And part of that is inflation. We hit it. Perfect time. or, uh, worst time with, with, you know, the current inflation state parks are, are less, but there's less amenities. So you have to, usually at a state park, you have to give up one thing, so you have electric water and sewer. So sometimes they just have water and electric, no sewer. Sometimes they have sewer and electric, no water. And then sometimes they have. So so you feel like you're boondocking. And then when we did have a couple of, uh, state parks that we stayed at where we had no hookups at all, and we got to test out what it would feel like and be like to, uh, to boondock. Very cool. One of the biggest issues for us is, uh, we did travel with our dog in the summer. and temperature was an issue. So we have, we put in an air conditioner, but we need to be hooked up to power to use it. And not everywhere will allow dogs. So we kind of had to plan that out if we were going to a museum or somewhere like that, uh, that doesn't allow dogs. We had to have air conditioning for him or dog daycare. So, so that in the summer was a little stressed, it was a struggle, a little stressful. And dog daycare can, can add up. Mm-hmm. you know, like that cost, and that wasn't really something that we budgeted for, you know, maybe once a month. Uh, but it wasn't a line item that we're like, okay, we're gonna spend X amount on dog daycare. Right. That's true. So could you leave your RV like plugged in with the AC on when you went to do these things? If you had a, a full hook. Yeah. But if we didn't have that sometimes and we wanted to go to go somewhere, we couldn't leave them. And if it was a hot day, we, we had to find dog daycare in those situations. Yeah. And that ranges, why, why, what's the word I'm looking for? That there's a wide range. Yeah. I paid as little as, or we paid as little as$12 a day and as much as a hundred. So depending on the area, um, Big, big differences in price for that. Wow. That's an interesting unexpected expense that you learned about on the road, huh? Yeah. I thought that, you know, he would be allowed on most beaches, not the case. Hmm. Especially in the summer. Yeah. So in New England, uh, there are very, very few beaches that you can bring them, uh, in the high season. So, you know, in the spring and the fall and the winter, it's fine. But in the. No dogs. That's very interesting. I would not have guessed that. So yeah, that's a, that's a good tip for people to know who are traveling with a dog. So very Yes. Cause we didn't know that either. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, and you guys, um, said that you were traveling with an external graywater tank. What's, what is that? I've never heard of that. Tell me a little bit about what that was like to travel with. So we, when we bought, when we bought the Airstream, it had a black tank, but the tank was cracked. And we had a, a mechanic do some upgrades for us and he let us know, Hey, you're Black Tank, you could put, put another one in. It's going to cost x or we can take it out. And we did put in a compostable toilet. and then we, we bought a 36 gallon external gray tank. And the reason why we went with 36 is our freshwater tank is 30 gallon. and we figured, okay, we'll have a little bit of a buffer if we use all 30 gallons and we're off grid. Um, and there were a few places we stayed. There were some RV parks we stayed that didn't have sewer, so we had to use the external gray tank and the Maywood pump it out like every couple of days. Uh, and then in cases where we're at a state park, it would fill up in. two and a half, three days. Uh, so we're not taking showers. We, we would use the shower facilities at the parks or, or, um, uh, state parks and we're really just doing dishes and hand washing, hand washing stuff inside. And then that just goes straight out into the gray tank. and then some parks would have dump areas, so it'd be easy to just tow it there. and that's one of the reasons why boondocking and b l m land is a, is tough because they don't, there's nowhere to dump a 30 gallons of water And our Airstream, like we said, is vintage In 1965, they did not use gray tanks. It just went right into the ground. Mm-hmm. So now is illegal in most states. Yeah. So, so does it just sit on your, like hitch or where do you, where do you put that? There's the same kind of hose that you would hook up to your sewer line at an RV park or state camp. Uh, goes into the, into the gray tank has wheels. Yeah. There's a hookup. Gonna wheel it around to that. It's the same hookup that you would use to, to latch it on to the camper. Same one. Latches on. To the gray tank and, um, yeah, just that's how it works. Yeah. You just, you, yeah. You unscrew it, put the cap on, and then you tow it. You can tow it on the back of your car to the dump site. Yeah. So it'll just sit where, it'll just sit on the, on the, um, the side of the camper that has the, uh, the outlet for the sewer outlet. And then when we're not using it, we just store it on that side. At a, at a, at a campground and then we'll put it after it's dumped and cleaned and everything. We'll store it in the camper when we're traveling. Oh, very interesting. So a lot of maneuvering that tank. I can see how that would be quite challenging. It is that that is one of the biggest challenges and we thought about selling it on, on our travels and getting a smaller. but it just never came to fruition. Didn't happen. We did notice some other RVers that had the similar tank to us, our same size, and they would typically put it on their, the ladder on the back of the RV and just strap it to that while they're traveling. But when you only have ladder, we don't have a ladder. There's nowhere to put it outside. Uh, and when you have a small space, you know, you have to make particular adjustments. And this ours is just putting it in the camper when we, when we move from place to. Right. That is, that is really interesting. So what do you think you're going to do, um, the next season of, of, um, traveling in the trailer? If you want to try. Is it possible to ever try boondocking with that or does that just become really difficult? Cause you could only last like probably two days, like you said, and then you have to go tow it and dump it. I guess we could take a page out of your book. or out of our previous book when we lived in the, or when we camped in our teardrop in the, in the U-Haul trailer is just minimize our water usage. You know? So could do more dry camping. Yeah, dry camping, not, you know, simple meals. Yeah. Using paper plates, things like that. BioD, biodegradable, uh, soaps. Uh, so we could do it. It's just Do we want to do it Totally. Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah. And we like the ac, which wouldn't wear off grid. It won't work off grid. Yeah. It will work for about an hour before the batteries drained. And we do have solar. We put in 300 watts of solar on, on top of the air strains. So we have, uh, enough electricity, but not to run a fan, but not to run the AC for more than about an hour before it drains the. Yeah, that is very true. Yeah, we don't have an air conditioner, um, in the van and that's, you know, cause it would drain the battery really fast. So, but yeah, there's definitely things you have to give up in order to boondock and I think that's why a lot of people don't do it because it is more like, oh I think of it as backpacking. Cuz we're backpackers. Yeah. And we've got a lot of backpack. I'm like, oh, I'm backpacking right now. But I have. Van to sleep in. So that's kind of how I think about it, where it's kind of rugged and It's definitely something people should think about before doing it, cuz it is. You have to give up certain amenities to boondock for sure. traveling with a pet, right? Like we can handle the excess heat better than the dog can. So that really plays into where we end up staying and how and for how long and. you know, being able to move as often as we wanted. Being in a van, much easier being in a travel trailer, not as easy. Mm-hmm. Totally. So, yeah. What was, I'm curious about the shift between working all the time and managing your, your households to living on the road. Um, what was that like for you guys, like mentally and emotionally, and how was that, how has that changed? For me, it was absolutely amazing. I was a hair stylist for 30 years and I worked by appointment and I booked eight to 10 weeks in advance so I could tell you what I was doing, you know, two months from, from any given day. And to be able to wake up and look at him and say, well, what do you wanna do today, I, it was dreamy for me. Really, in the beginning especially. It was, it was dreamy. It's like I had to pinch myself, is this really my life? Mm-hmm. And same for me. It, it just felt like a nice break, uh, like where I could take a big sigh of relief, like I don't have to go into work today. and, uh, I did keep myself busy blogging and, uh, we do social media posts and stuff like that, so that's what how I got my, my, uh, fix of, I need something to do. Like how do I, a little, a little bit of structure. Yeah, a little bit of structure. Yeah. Just like the, putting together the, the spreadsheet like I had, have something to do, uh, but it was. And it is nice to, uh, to take that, that's what, what we're, we call it a sabbatical, you know, taking a, a year off at work. Yeah. Yeah. It's really nice to just feel yourself relaxing and unwinding and spending a lot of time in nature, I think is all very, uh, positive. very peace. It's very, very peaceful and it's very freeing, uh, to give up your responsibilities for a little while. And owning a business, I had a lot of responsibilities. to just worry about basically what you're gonna do that day. And, you know, think about Justin and our dog. And that's all I really had to worry about. It was, it was great. And talk about stress relief. What a fantastic, uh, just washing of Yeah. Distress off of, off of your back and body and, uh, you just feel healthier. It's a wonderful feeling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Getting rid of stress. A little euphoric actually. Mm-hmm. Totally. And so, yeah. And that, and that's what people are jealous of when they, when they look at those of us that have done it. Um, and there's a lot of lead up to be able to do it, which we already discussed. But once you, once you get there, it feels so great. Even if it's just for a year or six months or three months. It's, I think it's a great, especially at, at our age, um, when we have had stress, pretty stressful career. and lives to let it go and just kind of take a pause, take a breather for a little bit. Mm-hmm. It's a nice place to give to yourself. Yeah. And I think that's a good reminder that people don't have to like suddenly say they're going full-time, like forever, for years. Like as you said, you can just take a short break or sabbatical. Mm-hmm. So I think that's really cool for people to Think about as well. So you had savings for this first trip, and what's next for you guys? What, like what are you gonna do in the future to continue this lifestyle? Or what are your plans like? Well, we actually thought we would be finished. We, we had planned on eight months, uh, and then we would be done. and we've decided that we like it and we wanna continue, uh, continue travel to travel the, the lifestyle. Yeah, and the lifestyle. So we are talking with some camps about doing work camping and you work a certain amount of hours and then you get your, your spot in the RV park with, with all the amenities. and then anything after those hours, they, they'll pay you, uh, typically a minimum wage, whatever state you are. Um, but that will help offset pulling all the money out of our savings so that we can continue and, and do this a little bit longer. Yeah. Yep. So, we'll, and, uh, the place that we're, a couple of place we're talking to, they usually ask you to work each couple, each person in the couple 25, 30 hours. and just doing odd jobs around camp, keeping the campsites clean or working the front desk, things like that. So camp stores. Yeah, so that's, that's what we have. So we're, we will get back in the camper and the truck, um, in early April and make our way back across the country. So do some similar to what we had just done, have it all mapped out. Uh, hit different places this time. So we'll probably go south on, on a southern route east. Last time we did a northern route east, uh, and then end up in Maine and spend mid five minutes or may, may to October working at a, at a campground. Cool. And. Yeah, that definitely does help with costs. When you think about the price of, of a campground every night, uh, for, I wonder how many, how much you'll save on camping in that five month period? Cuz you do get the free campsite, right? Well, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, it's it, you work it off. You work it off. So essentially 25 hour after the first 25, No. Yeah, 25. 25. Yeah. For the first 25 hours then, so that's how you pay for the site. And then everything after that is, is the minimum wage. Um, so it's, it's a nominal, it's like, I think it comes out to like 300 bucks or something like that, is what our cost would be for the month. That's not bad. we were paying, average cost per night was about$75 on this eight month journey that we went on. So about 2000 a month. Which two grand a month? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So this way up, we'll save two grand month. Yeah. Basically, yeah. 1700 bucks a month. Yeah. That's pretty cool. That is a great way to extend the journey and not be out that much money again to do it for another five months. But it keeps you out there. Right. And on your, on your time off, do you just go hike and explore and do stuff in that area? Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. So there were parts of Maine that we didn't. Really get to see, we didn't go to Acadia National Park. We wanna see that we didn't get up to Bar Harbor. We'd love to go see that. And we'd love to eat some more lobster rolls. Of course. that all sounds so fun. So one of the benefits of traveling first, uh, is we got to decide where we would wanna spend more time. And we had a couple states mm-hmm. that, you know, that we were gonna target and Maine being the first one. So if we didn't get any interest there, we had a couple other states we were gonna look into and you know, we know we like it. So spending five months there is, is gonna be a treat for us. And they've told us that they will work us on the same schedule so that we have the same days off to go explore. So it should be perfect. Yeah. Oh cool. What a neat, what a neat solution. And that's five months. And then, do you have any idea what you'll do after that? Well, I mean, so we did, we met, we talked to a lot of people at the campgrounds as we started doing the research and asking them how they liked it, how they got into it. And there was this one gal that we met at A K O A and she said she's working in Maine in the, in the summer, and then in the winter she goes down to Florida. So we might take a page outta her book and go down to Florida and find a place to work for a few. and then who knows? After that we might fall in love with it more and just continue going on and on and, and, and living that nomadic lifestyle. So that's still unwritten. We don't really know what's going to happen after that. And that's the beauty with this lifestyle. You know, when you don't have a ton of responsibilities and you've simplified your life, you can kind of do what, what you want. You know, you have the freedom to. Live anywhere, you know, take any type of job. Yep. We paid off all of our debt, so we don't have any debt. It's just our daily expenses at this point. So it, it's just the freedom in it is fantastic. Cool. That's super exciting. I can't wait to hear about, we're camping. I'll have to have you guys on again to talk about Maine, um, next fall and what that was like for you anything else you guys wanted to say to people considering this or about your experiences that we missed? Do it Just do it. You only live once, do it. So that's the, that's the wing it mentality. and I'd say put, put some planning into it. Do do the research. Listen to, but. it is a freeing experience. And if, if you have the savings, and even if you don't, there are people like you who it's a way to make it work. Who work. There's, there's the working pnma lifestyle and I'm sure you, if, if you haven't, you probably will have a podcast on that subject. Um, I'm gonna be looking for a part-time job or, you know, get into some sort of sales remote job that I can do on the road to help, uh, just not take so much outta savings, you know, and also give, give me something to do. Fill that free. I th and I think so many pe so many people say, I can't do that. I can't do that. You can, you actually can, right? If you put your mind to it and you pay off your debt and you put some savings away, and then you boondock or you stay in state parks, you know, there, there are ways to do it. You just have to drastically change your life and your spending habits and you have to want to do it, I guess. Yeah. You have to have that, that desire to, to change your. Ultimately, you do get this freedom and then you can go anywhere. We, we talked about maybe going to Mexico and, and doing some camping there and, and experiencing what that's like. And there's been plenty of others who have done it before and there is information about it online, so it's not as scary as it, it may seem, um, or just visiting any other parts of the country that we missed on this. eight month journey. But we even met people from Europe that shipped their rig here and we met someone the other day that shipped an Airstream to Europe. And then, you know, you can explore other, other companies. Other countries too. Yeah. Other, you know, if you're willing to sh to ship your rig over. Yep. That's something I've considered as well. Maybe someday South America or Europe in, in the van. Mm-hmm. So it's really cool to tow your, or tow or drive your own home around. It's such a comforting experience to go into your own home for the night, I think. it, you know, it is true. And, and people think, oh, come stay with us and stay inside, you know, stay in a house. But to be, to be honest, we had such a comfortable setup that I kind of would prefer to, to stay in the camper than, yeah. Than a hotel or, you know, someone's home. Mm-hmm. because we had everything we need needed. Yep. You know, it was, it was very comfortable. Yeah. I feel the same way. People always tell me to sleep in their house, and I'm like, well, my bed is so comfortable. It's the best bed I've ever slept in, and they just can't, can't believe it. But it really is and it's mine, and I'm used to it and so's well, you know, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yep. It does. It's comfortable. Yeah. And, and it's part of your routine that you just mm-hmm. you, you get used to. And I think one other parting thing, if this is the, if we're rounding out here, is that there are things. You need to expect the unexpected. Uh, we did have our engine blow out on this trip. And, uh, we were stuck. We were stuck for two weeks. In Florida. In Florida. Mm-hmm. And then, and good. This is another, you know, back to the, you know, planning versus non planning. We only had a couple places planned at that point that we had to cancel, and we did have to deal with cancellation fees, which were, they weren't huge. Like, usually it's like a, a day's worth of camping, so like 75 bucks or 50 bucks, uh, that we had to eat. But it, it sidelined us for a couple of weeks while we had to wait for a new engine to arrive and get the truck back on the road. And then us back on the, So we ended up in the Caribbean for two weeks. That's not a, that's not too bad of a compromise. wonderful time. So, you know, it worked out. It all worked out and it usually does. That's very true. We have to roll with the punches in the nomadic lifestyle cause you never know what's gonna happen. It's just your attitude is the most important part, I think. Very, very true. That, that's another thing that I've learned too, is, getting rid of that stress. Is that you, you just tell yourself, I I don't have anything el, I don't have anything to do. I don't have anywhere to be. just roll with the punches. It's not, it, it'll work itself out. And uh, I used to be super stressed out and uptight and oh my God, I hell's this changing my life. Mm-hmm. when I was stuck in the rat race. But afterwards it's like just water off the ducks back. You mellowed out quite a bit. Super mellow. Yeah. And just having the faith that things will work out you. They will. Mm-hmm. they will, they do. They work out. Yeah. It will work out. And if you stress in the moment, like if we had gotten really worked up over the truck breaking down, you know what we did? We we're getting on the freeway. We pulled over, we got our camp chairs out, we sat on the side of the road and we waited about an hour for the the tow truck to come. And just children. That's a good attitude. Yeah. Like we don't have anywhere else could do and we just laugh. True. It's all attitude. It's all attitude and how you look at things. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us and we loved hearing about your journey today, and it'll help and inspire a lot of people. So yeah. Congratulations, Talk to you again. Totally. All right, have a good day. You guys