September 13, 2023 • 47 mins
How do you know when it's time to leave life on the road behind and settle in to a home base? Tune in as we sit down with the adventurous duo, Joe and Kait Russo, who recently embarked on their journey from being nomadic wanderers to homeowners after six years of traveling full time. They share their experience of what it was like to initially start life on the road, when they realized it was time for them to transition back to a home base, and everything in between.
Joe and Kait take us through what they did to re-adapt to a grounded lifestyle, and share some of the perks of settling down, like enjoying a consistent routine. We hear how the Russos' nomadic journey has helped them in finding their ideal home base. And they reveal how their new lifestyle has encouraged them to engage with their local community, develop new hobbies, and even connect with nature in new and fulfilling ways.
The Russos also recount the challenges of their transition and share invaluable tips on how to maintain the spirit of travel while enjoying the comforts of a home base. They shed light on the importance of traveling smart with a smaller, easy-to-park camper van and share their advice for those contemplating a shift from a nomadic lifestyle. As they emphasize trusting your instincts and embracing life's transitions, you might find yourself inspired to reimagine your own path, whether that be to start your nomadic journey or settle down after years of travel.
Follow Joe and Kait:
weretherussos.com
https://www.youtube.com/weretherussos
https://www.instagram.com/weretherussos/
Check out Joe's two books: Take Risks and Tales from the Open Road
Link to Joe's Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joe-Russo/author/B0756TCVKC
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I'm going to be totally honest with you right
now.
Sometimes van life is reallyhard.
You have to deal with changingplans, inclement weather,
figuring out where your nextcampsite is, where you're going
to find groceries and water, andlots of driving and lack of
routine, et cetera.
It really can be exhausting.
Sometimes even I need a breakfrom van life and I often do
(00:21):
that in the form of housesitting or staying with family
members.
But really there can become atime in life when you just are
tired of nomadic living and youneed a permanent break.
That's what this episode of thewayward home podcast is all
about.
I chat with Joe and Kate Russoabout their decision to buy a
home with property and have ahome base after six years on the
road.
We'll chat about what promptedthem to make this move, what
(00:44):
they love about home life andwhat traveling in their camper
van looks like.
Now let's go.
Welcome to the wayward homepodcast.
All about van life, boat lifeand nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Now here's your host, kristenHaynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith the waywardhomecom, and I
spend half the year in my campervan and half on my sailboat in
(01:05):
Mexico.
I hope to inspire you to livenomadically too.
So nomadic living is incrediblyexciting.
You have so much freedom,adventure and flexibility.
It's just mind blowing comparedto the normal sticks and bricks
lifestyle.
But no matter how much youmight like roaming around in
your camper, van RV or sailboat,there might come a time when a
home base starts to sound reallynice.
(01:26):
A home base is a great place toestablish a routine, to take a
break from life on the road, tocultivate community many of the
things that are harder to findwhen you're moving around
constantly as a nomad.
Well, this episode of thewaywardhome podcast with Joe and
Kate Russo of we're the Russo'sis really interesting.
We chat about their life on theroad and what made them decide
to stop traveling full time.
(01:47):
Let's get into it, yeah.
So first of all, you know Iwanted to go way back to the
beginning with you guys beforewe get into like the home base
part of the podcast, but youwere nomads for so long and I
just wanted to talk about likehow that started, how you
started, so let's just go wayback and discuss that first.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, so going way back, that'll take us to 2015.
So that's when we decided tohit the road full time.
And at the time we were beforewe even hit the road we both had
corporate jobs, we were kind ofdog, we were living in Southern
California.
So it was a big step for us todecide hey, let's just make a
(02:30):
huge change in our life, quitour dogs, sell most of our stuff
and just pack everything andhave no mas.
And at the time our idea was wegot this RV, we were going to
travel around the country for ayear and figure out where we
would settle down at the end ofthat year.
And that year quickly turnedinto six and a half years before
(02:51):
we decided to settle back downand have a home base and travel
part time.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So you guys traveled around for six years and you had
a variety of rigs and I wantedto go over all those different
rigs because you have quite alot of experience with all these
different kinds of vehicles.
So what did you guys live in?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Let's see, we started with a 30 foot class A.
That was for about a year and ahalf.
Then we moved into a class Bband on a ProMaster Chassis, so
it was two years.
From there we spent a yeartesting out different rigs.
So we might spend a couple ofweeks or a couple of months in a
rig at a time and we're justkind of playing around with some
(03:28):
different things.
And then we decided on a truckcamper pop up truck camper.
Did that for two years and thenat the end of those two years
is when we decided to stop fulltime, full time travel and get
the home base.
And then, once we got the homebase, we got another class B
band.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Very cool and, yeah, I think that there's some
interesting adjustments that gowith both, you know, the launch
into Nomad life and then thelaunch back into house life but,
or having a property at least.
But first of all, I wanted totouch on some of those changes
that happen to us when we startthe Nomad life and if you guys
wanted to talk about, like howthat was for you in the
(04:10):
beginning and maybe how thatevolved over time as you got
more adjusted to it.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I would say there is a huge adjustment for both of us
me more so than Kate In thatKate is much more able to down
sucks, I not so much.
And I remember when we had ourclass A and we were in the
process of selling the house andmoving everything out of the
house into the class A andtrying to figure out what we
(04:37):
keep and what we don't keep,every little nook and cranny of
space in that class A we wereputting stuff in or at least I
was like I would have stuff inreserve, so that when we packed
the class A, if there was room,the stuff in reserve was coming
with us.
And it got to a point where,about a like six to eight months
(04:58):
in, we sat down and we kind ofdid spring cleaning and we
started getting rid of all thisstuff that we're like, you know,
why did we bring this?
Why did we bring this?
No reason to have it Startedgetting rid of those things and
realizing we had a lot of emptyroom in the class A and that's
kind of what got us to the pointof realizing we could
(05:19):
potentially downsize to a classB.
Well, all of that going throughthat whole mental process for us
was a lot of.
It was a big exercise for us inrealizing that we could do with
a lot less than we thought weneeded to, at least when we
first got on the road.
And now we're back in a houseand we're back in the mentality
(05:41):
of getting more things.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, yes, because you have a definitely a
different relationship withthings than I do, but I also
think one of the biggestchallenges that we also faced
early on when we transitioned tothis nomadic lifestyle was
because we were on the move allthe time.
You were worried about where dowe spend the next night, where
(06:04):
are we headed next?
And planning and getting intothat routine, because it was
something so foreign to us, thisidea of traveling and being
able to go wherever we want togo.
And now and then I think we gotin a really good groove and now
, surprisingly, we're reallyenjoying only traveling part
time and enjoy being stationaryfor a solid amount of time.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, and it was also interesting to.
I think along with that wassince we were moving and we were
always going someplace new, Iwas feeling a lack of community.
So all the community we had inSouthern California was now gone
and we were going to all thesenew places we didn't know people
.
There are a couple of times Itold Kate, can we just like go
(06:50):
to a bar or something so we canbe around other people?
And all of that was lacking.
But over the years, as we'vegotten to know people, we've
reconnected with a lot offriends and now when we travel
cross country we'll make it apoint, if we have the time, to
stop in, spend a night or twowith people on their driveway,
(07:12):
visit and really engage in thatcommunity that's gone from.
It went from like this littlebubble in Southern California to
the entire nation.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And beyond yes.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
In those six and a half years where we travel full
time, we, our being so, took thecamper and explore 49 of 50 US
states, several Canadianpromises.
We went down to Baja, Mexico,and then also parked our camper
for a month at a time andtraveled internationally.
(07:44):
So now there's this hugecommunity, as you say all over
the place Totally.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's a wonderful thing about it.
I've noticed that, especiallywith the sailing side of nomad
life, you find sailors incertain areas and you just are
friends with them forever.
There's that instant bond whichis neat about nomadic living,
but it is very uprootingexperience.
And to be constantly on themove, I think, has its own set
of challenges.
I know sometimes I crave justbeing stopping and being in a
(08:14):
house a little bit.
I'm wondering if, when you guyswere full-time, did you
sometimes feel that need to stopand to maybe live somewhere?
How did you deal with thatwhile you were nomads?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I don't know if we ever got the feeling.
The only time we had.
There were a couple times wherewe were in between rigs and we
would end up at my mother'shouse for extended period of
time.
It wasn't something wenecessarily wanted to do.
It was something we needed todo because of the fact that we
didn't have another vehicle orother way of getting around.
(08:45):
So in between RVs, we wouldhave to pause for a little bit.
The only time we specificallycame off the road was at the
outset of the pandemic in 2020,when things started really
getting bad and the nation wasunsure about where things were
going and what was happening.
(09:05):
And what we were finding isthat a lot of the services that
we used as nomads, like showersand gyms and those types of
things, water fill up.
A lot of that stuff was closing.
We didn't know when it wasgoing to reopen.
There was also talk that theywere going to shut down the
interstates, like state-to-statetravel.
(09:26):
So we decided to pick a placeand just hunker down for a month
.
So we got an Airbnb, hunkereddown for a month, got work done,
enjoyed our kind of time offthe road.
That was really the only time.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean, I would say, when we were traveling full time
, there were times where, sincewe travel and work at the same
time, we would take a littlepause and maybe decide, hey,
we're going to pick this spotand camp here for a number of
days, catch up at work, kind of,do laundry, all those things,
(10:02):
and then we'll start travelingagain.
But that was where it veryshort spurts the amount of time
where we would kind of stay putfor a few days.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, I would say at any given time when we were on
the road, we probably it was ananomaly if we stayed someplace
more than five days.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, that sounds kind of like us, but we have had
house-sitting stints throughoutand being able to live in San
Francisco for a month at a time,so we've had that kind of step
back and sometimes that's nicejust to have a reset catch up on
work button.
But yeah, so I'm also curiouslike what led you guys into that
decision to go back into thehouse when you were living in
(10:39):
the truck camper at the timewhen you came upon that decision
?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Well, we've always been, ever since we hit the road
.
We wanted to get out ofSouthern California, and part of
that initial year travel was totravel the country and see
where we wanted to settle downagain.
So something that was always inthe back of our heads.
But the pandemic and what ushaving to take a month off the
road to kind of reevaluate andsee where things were was also,
(11:06):
I think, the impetus to say, hey, it might be a good idea for us
to have a home base in casethings got worse or something
else happened or we just we gotsick or injured and needed a
place to really hunker down andwe wouldn't be able to go to our
parents' house.
So that got the ball rolling.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, and there were.
So when the pandemic firststarted and the lockdown began,
like Joe said, a lot of servicesbecame unavailable, but even
the Airbnb rental that we got welater found out a lot of Airbnb
rentals were shutting down aswell and it just made us realize
well, while we couldpotentially find some long-term
(11:45):
rentals, it seemed like it was achallenge at the time and we
couldn't go to our families.
They were comfortable with uscoming into their house and we
didn't want to live with themand still be out.
So that made us realize wereally needed a place that we
could kind of call our own touse as a base that we can go to
should something like thishappen again or if it continues
(12:07):
on for much longer than weanticipate.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, and then the other part of that was we had
planned in 2020, we'd actuallyplanned on doing Alaska, which
is the last state we haven'tbeen to, as well as taking our
camper and shipping it overseas.
Potentially Well, again, withthe pandemic, getting up to
Alaska through Canada was anoption for us, as well as going
(12:31):
overseas.
So we'd seen the lower 48,spent a lot of time going
through it.
We hit up a few places wehadn't been yet, but at the same
time, it's kind of like allright, we've done this and now
we're just kind of traveling totravel, moving, to move With the
truck camper.
It's not the type of setupwhere you want to go and spend a
month just living out of that.
(12:52):
So that really kind of pushedus again to get serious about
buying the house, and we did awhole series of the summer of
2021.
We took a camper and took mymother for almost 10 weeks
around the country, coast tocoast, 11,000 miles, and the
(13:15):
decision that we made was wehave to dedicate an entire
summer to this, so we will dothat, and then, after this is
done, we're going to startshopping in ours.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, and it's interesting you mentioned 2020,
because I think a lot of Nomadsstarted to feel very vulnerable
during that time, cause Iremember we did too we couldn't
find water and it was just sucha scary feeling to not have your
own resources available and weactually started looking at
property at that time and Ithink some a lot of Nomads I
talked to were also looking atproperties.
We just felt like everything'ssuddenly unavailable and that's
(13:46):
a very scary feeling.
So it's interesting you alsowent through that during that
time.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
So was there a point you all were kind of searching
Cause you haven't.
You didn't end up with aproperty or a home base?
Was there a specific hardingpoint where you decided oh, I'm
comfortable to keep going.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, and I think a lot of that had to do with
having our sailboat too inMexico and that being a place
where we could go, because theMexico border, we learned, was
open and we could go down to ourboat and so we kind of isolated
on the boat that way, and so atthat point we were like, yeah,
we can, we have our littleescape pod south of the border.
So that doesn't the point wherewe decided not to get the
property, but it's definitelystill something on the back of
(14:26):
my mind regularly and, like youguys traveled around the US to
see where you wanted to be, andthat's always in the back of my
mind, like where would I want aproperty?
Where would I want a place tosettle, cause it is nice to have
somewhere to go and like do agarden or do whatever you want
to do with that property thatyou can't do in the van, you
know so.
And when?
So what was it like when youguys like found that property
(14:47):
and did that transition from thefull-time travel into the more
stationary lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It was.
It was a little strange becausewe were used to having the room
, especially when we'd go and,like I mentioned, have those
times off in between campers andspend at my mom's house or
something like that.
But we didn't outside of whatwas in our camper and some of
the stuff we'd put aside inboxes.
We didn't have anything for ahouse.
(15:14):
We had a couple of spoons andutensils and things that were in
the camper.
Each of us had a bowl.
We didn't have any furniturewhatsoever to speak of.
And having to go through thatwhole process again and luckily
the house we bought the previousowners.
We met them during thewalkthrough at one point and
(15:36):
they asked us if there wasanything that, if they were
throwing away, that we wouldwant them to keep.
And we said anything you'replanning on throwing away, just
leave, cause we have nothing.
So we got a couple pieces offurniture, table, things like
that and then Kate's parentswere generous enough to give us
some furniture that they weren'tusing anymore.
We've slowly been buying andgetting things, but it's been
(16:01):
almost two years now and stillour houses I wouldn't even say
halfway furnished.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's fairly empty.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, that is a weird thing to have to start from
scratch.
I think about that too, like,oh my God, I have to buy so much
furniture.
If I ever get a house, it'soverwhelming.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, and I remember when we were selling our house
in Southern California, both ofus said, hey, let's just get rid
of all this stuff because, likeyou know, let's not bother with
the storage unit or anything,because we can always buy it
again.
Having gone through that wholeprocess, and if I went back to
talk to old me, I wouldseriously consider trying to
(16:37):
talk myself into getting astorage unit.
Yeah, I was totally.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I was wondering that too, because a lot of people do
give everything up, and one oftheir common questions some
people ask me is should I storeeverything?
And I think if you are planningon settling down in the future,
maybe it is a good idea tostore stuff.
At least you have your ownfurniture to repopulate a house.
So that's interesting that youwent through that as well.
(17:01):
So yeah, and aside from havingto refurnish the stuff, your
house, you've also probably hadto buy just stuff, and I'm
wondering what was that likebuying things?
Because I know, as nomads, wetry not to buy things.
So what was that wholeexperience like?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I'm still struggling with buying things Because,
having lived that nomadiclifestyle, you get in the
mentality of you would just havewhat is essential, right, you
really don't get very many niceto have because you don't have
the room for it.
But also, getting out of thatconsumerism frame of mind, you
(17:42):
have it and it works, I don'tneed all this extra stuff to be
sitting around.
I think a little bit of theturning point maybe for me to
say, oh well, maybe we shouldget a few more things, is when
family come to visit.
We might not necessarily havecomfortable places for them to
(18:02):
sit and thinking about them more.
So for me it's less aboutbuying things for me to furnish
the house.
It's a little bit more aboutmaking it comfortable so that
when our family are staying withus or friends visit, that they
have a comfortable place.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, but the flip side of that too is we get this
stuff and then she's reallyhappy to have it because she has
a comfortable place to sit.
I think the mid ground for usis more not going out and buying
things in excess that we're notgoing to use.
So having a couch or somethingmakes sense, but I still have
(18:38):
just a towel.
I don't have a whole set oftowels like we used to.
Now we have extra towels forguests, but I don't need more
than one towel.
It can get washed and then Ican use it again.
It's one of those things whereit's stuff like that that living
in a van, in a camper andrealize you can only you can do
(19:01):
with one of something and nothaving to go to excesses about
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But we did learn that we need to double up on certain
things for our camper versusthe house.
So having an extra set ofbedding and thing a camper that
just stays in the camper so thatwe're not constantly moving
things in and out.
Or if we end up driving thecamper out to see family and we
(19:28):
need to fly back to home base,we still have a set of sheets
here the off in the camper.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, we learned that very quickly because the first
time we took the camper and leftit somewhere and flew back, we
got back and realized we don'thave coffee making equipment, we
don't have this, we don't havethat, and all of a sudden we
start ending up with a lot ofAmazon boxes.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's traumatizing to come home and not have coffee
equipment.
I'd probably freak out.
Yeah.
So you guys feel like youprobably learned a lot on the
road about stuff in general andyou've taken that to your now
house life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Now I'm curious do you have separate things for
your van versus your sailboat,or do you just move the camper?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, that's something I always think about
and we're getting to a pointwhere we are trying to have more
separate things, but there'sdefinitely always a gigantic van
of stuff.
We're driving across the borderto the boat and unloading onto
the boat and then I forget whatthings I have on there versus
the van and I'm like I just needto do what you guys do and just
have boat stuff and have vanstuff, because it gets really
overwhelming and you alwaysforget or lose something.
(20:32):
Yeah, but it's challenging.
It is a challenging mentality,because in the van, before I buy
something, I think about do Ireally need that?
And so it's always this processof purchasing that sometimes it
holds me back from purchasingwhat I might really need.
So it's always a struggle.
But what was it?
What are like when you startedliving in there versus traveling
(20:52):
full time?
What did you notice about it?
Like you feel like you had moretime for personal things, or
what kinds of changes did yousee in your lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's definitely easier to have a routine.
Yes, I think, because it's whenI would try to have a routine
in the van.
There were days and times wherewe were supposed to wake up and
get someplace, or we'd be onthe road all day long and, aside
from making coffee everymorning, there's really no
(21:22):
routine we could set, and Ithink that's been one thing that
I really enjoyed about havingthe house is being able to have
that morning cup of coffee, getsome work done or do a Chinese
lesson, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And we, when we started shopping for whole days,
we had a list of requirementsthat we were looking for.
And then some nice things andone of the requirements for me
was having enough land wherethere is nature right, because I
love nature and that was one ofthe reasons we started our
being when we love food, dockingin the national forest, going
(21:58):
to all the beautiful nationalparks.
So having kind of our, myaccess, daily access to nature
makes it really enjoyable andcalming and peaceful to be at
home base and it's nice to havea place that we really enjoy
coming back to after we'retraveling.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And what's interesting too about that is
since we have our own forest andthat when we go out now in the
camper we are more interestednow in going into kind of like a
city, town environment where wecan kind of mix it up there and
less out in the middle of theforest, because we have that at
(22:38):
home and it's kind of changedthe way we travel and kind of
the places we look at going to.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That's so interesting that you said that about the
nature, because sometimes when Istay in homes like I was just
at my sister's house for a weekbecause we had a hundred degree
heat wave here in Portland so Ihad to go escape in AC and her
house is in like the tightestsubdivision you can imagine Like
the next house is 15 feet awayand there's no nature.
I mean, there's a view of theforest but you can't go in the
forest or really sit outsidebecause the neighbor's looking
(23:06):
at you and I just started tofeel like a trapped wild animal
and I'm like I gotta go.
Like I just started likefeeling like a dog that needed a
walk.
It was a really weird feeling.
But, like you said, when youhave a home and it has that
nature, you have both.
It's like a groundingexperience.
So that's cool that you guysneeded that, because I think we
learn that as nomads that weneed to be outside a lot.
(23:26):
Yeah, and do you guys do a lotof things outside at your house,
like are you doing gardening orare you doing outdoor or do you
just go like hang out outside?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I go for daily walks around the woods, which is
really nice, and I've beenlearning, getting more into
foraging, so being able toidentify what's edible, what's
not edible on the property.
Last year we harvested someamazing oyster mushrooms that
grew on a tree that came down,so that's definitely part of my
(23:56):
routine.
Now is I wake up and I gooutside and go for a walk, visit
with my trees and see whatchanges are happening, because
we picked an area.
Our home base gets four seasons.
They're mild, but it's alsoreally nice to see the trees
when they're changing colors inthe fall and then all the leaves
fall, and learning how toidentify these trees with and
(24:18):
without.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Thirdly, and I get to do all the maintenance for most
of it Fun.
So you know it's now going outand getting chain saws and pole
saws and all these, all thisequipment.
I have a commercial spray mowerand all of these things and the
hours spent working on theproperty.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Well, some of the trees on this property are, I
would say, over 100 years old.
So, when they come down after astore.
It takes a while to chop it up,fit it reluminated.
It turned into firewood.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yes, sitting out on the deck having a fire, feeling
like we're in nature, but havingaccess to all the comforts of a
home.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Cool, yeah, that's the best of both worlds really,
when you can have that property.
And I'm sure when we get aproperty, that's it's gonna have
to be on land, like for sure.
So I was wondering about, like,the cleaning aspect, because
also I noticed when I stay in ahouse I get overwhelmed because
I'm like, oh my gosh, there's somany rooms that I have to clean
and organize and track my stuffand what was that transition
like for you guys?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, I tell myself one day at a time, one room at a
time, right, oh, it doesn't getso overwhelming, and making
that part of my routine.
But I'm also the type of personwho enjoys cleaning and
organizing, so to me it's not achore, it's just a matter of
like breaking it down intosmaller tasks so that doesn't
(25:42):
show overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And I will say for me it feels having a house feels
much cleaner than having acamper, Because with the camper,
especially a lot of the placeswe're going in the southwestern
net, that really fine dust thatjust gets everywhere and you can
never get rid of it, it wasjust constant.
And the other thing I've gottenused to is getting back into
(26:07):
routine of taking a daily showerand now that now when we go out
, not taking a shower every dayfeels strange, Whereas before
taking a shower every day feltstrange.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
But that's very true.
That's an interestingadjustment.
I always know that I lovehaving endless hot water
whenever I stay in a house orlike I could take a really long
shower.
You know it's not a problem.
So that is a it's amazing, or abath, that's the best thing.
That's.
Something I definitely miss isthe bath, but I feel like when
we're nomads we, you know thesethings become luxuries.
(26:38):
You know where most people thatlive in homes their whole life
take it kind of for granted.
They're like this is just whatwe have and this is what
available, what's available.
But when you're a nomad you'relike, wow, that's fancy, like
there's a dishwasher.
So it's funny that now you guysare living the life of luxury
and all these small things thatwe have in, you know, in homes
here in the US, so justincredible, like what we have.
(26:59):
So, yeah, that's allinteresting transition.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Here is a living school time on the road helped
us kind of develop that list ofthings we were looking for in
the home base that we found, andone of them is good water
pressure, because so many timesin the camper you know you don't
have great water pressure oryou don't have a limited hot
water, so that that wasdefinitely a requirement for us.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, and another requirement too was we wanted to
be somewhere in the countrythat doesn't experience droughts
and things like that.
So you know, like my motherliving in Southern California is
dinged or, you know, can getseverely fined if she goes over
a certain allotment of water andall these other things, and we
(27:42):
didn't want to have to deal withthat.
So where we live, we can use asmuch water as we want.
There's no irrigation becauseyou don't need it.
It rains all the time.
It's nice, it's green, so Cool.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And did you guys pick a bathtub in your house?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
That was definitely something I really enjoyed when
we would visit with a friend orfamily and they would offer to
let me take a bath.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Love.
I know there's the best.
Stay in peace.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I know.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I think another thing that a lot of people take for
granted is the community and thethings you have around, and I
believe that for us, havinglived this lifestyle, we would
go into little towns and wewould seek out all sorts of
different unique things aboutthat town, kind of the history
(28:30):
behind it, certain farmers ormarkets that were going on.
I remember in New Mexico we'dfound this family that they do
their own chilies and it's theirown variety and everything, and
we sought them out and foundthis stuff.
So now that we have a home base, we're doing that same sort of
exploration, but in our hometownor home area, and we found a
(28:54):
lot of amazing things that eventhe locals here don't know about
.
And we've developed thiscommunity where, for example,
there's a farmer not too farfrom here, there's all their own
grass-fed everything.
So one season we got a wholehog and now we have the room for
all of that meat and things andit's just cool to have that
(29:17):
again.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, that is something that we miss and being
able to do certain activities.
Like I know beforehand.
I really liked taking horsebackriding lessons or learning how
to do dancing.
That was big for me and Tom, mypartner, was in a band and when
you're traveling you just can'treally do those things because
you don't have that communityand you're usually not in cities
.
So it's neat when you can stopand you just develop those
(29:39):
connections again and maybe pickup some hobbies you can't do
when you're traveling.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
So you guys have really enjoyed that, it sounds
like.
So that's really cool.
And how often do you now go outon the road now that you have a
home?
What percentage do you thinkyou now go out on road trips?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I would say last year it was about 50% we were
traveling and then 50% at homebase, and then this year we made
the decision to try to spendmore time at home base,
especially in the summertime, toget a better feel of what the
weather is like and if we didwant to grow vegetable garden
next season, kind of have anidea of what that timing would
(30:16):
look like.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, and I would say now this season we've spent
more time doing short trips.
So, coming up, we have a tripup to Michigan and we're just
going to be gone for the weekendand it's nice to be able to do
short trips like that.
It's also nice to be able toconfigure the camper for that
trip so that we can take up,like we have this pizza oven we
(30:39):
can take with us that we neverwould have had in full time life
, because you just don't havethe room to dedicate to
something like that.
So it's those types of thingswhere, despite, we don't travel
as much, but when we do it'sdifferent in a lot of ways and
we can make more use out of ourtime.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But there are definitely challenges now, I've
found, with trying to travelwhile having a home base.
For example, if there is an icestorm that's going to be
rolling through, do we want toschedule our international
travel for that time of year orthat time, and what's going to
happen to the home base?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
because we don't have someone looking in.
Yeah, and it definitely makes itmore difficult if we want to do
travel on one of the coasts orsomething further away from us
because we're in the Midwest.
So now we have to say if wewant to go through Oregon or
that we now need to travel crosscountry to do that, plan to
(31:40):
spend the time and or plan toleave the camper someplace where
we fly home, do our stuff atWolman and fly back to grab the
camper.
So there are challenges that wedidn't have before.
If we were living on the roadfull time, we could say, hey,
let's go spend summer in thePacific Northwest and we would
drive out there.
You slowly make your way outthere, you slowly make your way
(32:03):
through the Pacific Northwestand then slowly make your way
somewhere.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Right, but now you have that desire to go home and
to check on your home and makesure things are okay over there,
and that's probably why you flyback when you're traveling.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, that is a big change to get used to as well.
And then what you said beforethat you touched on was
interesting that you like to gointo cities a little more now
and explore and park in citiesand what's that been like with
the camper, like doing the citything?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's fun because we have a small class vehicle for
under 20 feet.
We can park essentiallyanywhere in a standard vehicle
can park.
So it gives us the freedom offlexibility to kind of go in and
out of cities and explore thatway.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I mean, we even yeah, we even explore, you know
what's local to us in the camper, because we can go.
We have the camper, especiallyif we're going out for the day
and we really want to just spendthe whole day out, like if we
go to Costco.
We bring the camper, we put allthe stuff that needs to go in a
refrigerator or freezer in therefrigerator or freezer and we
(33:09):
can do the rest of our errandsand everything else.
So it's fun that way.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And even if we're just a friend locally, we can
take our camper, still spend thenight on their driveway.
If we're staying late Now, itwon't make the 20 minute drive
home and then wake up in themorning.
Spend more time with them inthe head, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, yeah, you've got your little apartment on
wheels and your little guestroom, which is really handy when
visiting people.
I definitely agree with that.
Oh, looking back on your liketime as nomads, did it feel like
the right length of time?
Like, how did all that feel toyou as nomads?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Um, I wouldn't say anything, felt right, it just we
went with the flow.
We, whenever people asked ushow long we were going to do it,
we just said until we weren't,until we were ready to do
something else.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yes, and for me.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
I just I felt like we got to a point in that nomadic
lifestyle where we were.
We got to a point where we'retraveling to travel Meaning we
weren't, we were no longer goingsomeplace to necessarily see it
.
We're going someplace becausewe lived on the road full time
and we wanted a bit of a changeof scenery.
We wanted to keep going and dostuff Um where?
(34:19):
And I think at that point westarted to say to each other
okay, I think now's the time forsomething New, something
different.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, I would say, if the pandemic hadn't happened,
we definitely would have gone toAlaska, like we had probably
shipped our camper overseas andthat definitely changed the
trajectory of where we wereheaded.
Um, and we still have plans toship our camper overseas,
potentially, and or ready acamper overseas, which we tried
doing that in Italy recently.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
So and I will.
I will say, based on thatexperience, at least for Europe,
I have no interest anymore ofshipping our camper over to
Europe because it's so muchnicer to for at least for me to
go to every city and things viatrain and be able to kind of
spend that time in the center oftown rather than on the
(35:09):
outskirts and a camper and haveto go back and forth and
everything else.
I don't feel like you get thesame culture and experience in a
camper as you do if you're juston foot and you can pretty much
go anywhere you want.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, very true, and, like you said, you can always
rent one Like we're thinking ofdoing that as you go, rent a
camper for a couple of weeks andthen you can drop it off and
then you can train into the cityand stay in the city, and then
you can have the best of bothworlds without having your own
rig to have to deal with andworry about that whole time.
Yeah, yeah, and I was.
I'm curious if you guys haveany like advice for other people
(35:42):
that are nomads and they'rethinking of doing this, like I
know you created like a list orlike how did you narrow down a
home?
Or just any advice in generalyou have for people.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Well, I think my first bit of advice for anyone
who's can rent a place for alittle bit was, say, a couple of
weeks or month.
See, you know, if it gives youkind of what you're looking for,
that was driving you to get ahome base, and maybe after the
two weeks or month you're readyto get back on the road and keep
(36:12):
doing what you're doing.
Sometimes we've met people andthat this happened to us, to you
a little burnt out as a nomad,and it's okay to just take a
pause.
You know, settle down for amonth, rent a place, regroup and
then keep going and maybe youwon't even need that home base.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah, and the way we ended up in this area.
For us, we're an Indiana.
Excuse me, but we never had anyintention of moving to Indiana.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I believe you said I will never live in India.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, I went to school in Indiana.
Excuse me, I would just go toIndiana and yes, I said that.
For us, you know, we had theopportunity to live anywhere in
the country and that made itextremely difficult for
pinpointing where to look,because you could be looking at
a place in Montana and a placein Florida and there's no way
(37:07):
you're going to be flying backand forth and all these things,
you know, going to showings andthings, especially in a
competitive market.
You need to be on the groundand you need to be in a spot
where you want to live.
So I think, first and foremost,if you have made the decision
that you want to kind of hunkerdown and get that home base
again, figuring out where in thecountry and having a general
(37:29):
idea.
For us, how we ended up inIndiana was we were looking more
in Alabama, more southern andwhere we have friends up in
Indiana and during kind oflooking at bones and other
things, we would drive up toIndiana and visit with them and
spend time on their driveway andwe just started to fall in love
(37:51):
with the area we're in now andthe more time we'd come back up
here and spend, the more wereally enjoyed the area until
our friends said hey, I have afriend with a realtor, I'm
calling her up and you guys arelooking at homes around here and
the rest is history.
So for us it was kind ofserendipitous that we had
(38:12):
friends and we were able tospend time here, otherwise we
never would have considered itas a home base.
But the other two was just thatwe had to pick an area to look.
We were not able to house huntthe entire United States.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so picking a place for us where we had a good
community in terms of friendsthat have lived here and grown
up here, is it gave us immediateaccess to resources that we
would have had to figure out onour own so, for example, we
could easily call them and say,hey, do you have a good location
for a dentist, or do you know arealtor in the area?
(38:49):
Do you know someone who can do arift inspection, stuff like
that, or just even any kind ofthose resources and connection
that you would need once yousettle down?
It's nice to have that.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, and the other thing we found too not so much
in this area but some otherareas where we looked briefly
was that some of the smallertowns you're now trying to break
into a well formed communityand you become the outsider and
a lot of people are great atmaking new friends and kind of
(39:22):
breaking those barriers.
But what we found and heard intalking to locals is that
process can actually be very andespecially if you need services
or work done on your house.
For example, we have friendswho bought in the mountains of
Colorado and they're having areally tough time finding people
to come out and have work doneand just being able to break
(39:46):
into that community and find thepeople who are willing to trust
you and come out and do thework for you and those sorts of
things, rather than the friendsor other people they know in the
community already.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
And sometimes that's due to picking a location where
there's more people or people tosupport all that in terms of
services, and keeping that inmind, if you pick an area, let's
say, that might not be able tohave the service infrastructure
to actually support all thepeople that live there.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, yeah, very true .
And yeah, I do like what youmentioned about having the
camper and you're able to justgo to that part of the country
and just sort of home base thereout of your camper and make
sure you like it, and so that'san important part too, so cool.
So what are your guys's likeupcoming plans?
Like in your van, you said theMichigan one, but what else are
you?
Do?
Have anything else on thedocket?
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Well, let's see Michigan trip and then we're
actually gonna be very busyhosting a bunch of people.
We've had, like, lots of peoplefriends who are nomads roll
through in their camper andthey'll spend a few days.
You know they could do laundry,have a real shower.
We offer them a guest bedroomif they want to take a break.
So we'll be hosting quite a fewnomads for a little bit.
(41:00):
And then our next trip Joe andI have gotten into cruising, so
we've got another cruise comingup with family.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Oh fun.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Oh yeah, and we will be taking our camper to
Chattanooga, tennessee, that'llbe fun.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
That's so cool that you guys can now provide that
respite for nomads, because Iknow I'm always thankful for
that when I'm traveling.
When a friend is like, yeah,parking, a, drive by, use the
shower, do laundry, it's alwayssuch a fun thing, and then you
get a visit with them as well.
So that's neat.
You're able to like be on theother side of that and provide
that support, and you have theland and property to host
campers.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
So that's cool.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
So if you're going to , yeah, if I'm in Indiana, I'll
come visit.
Are you guys joiningBoondockers?
Welcome or anything like that.
Our schedule is so crazy.
Totally, I get that.
You're still.
You have that nomad at heartwhere you still love to travel,
but you have the home.
You have the best of bothworlds right now.
So cool, well, great.
Is there anything else that youguys wanted to say to people
(41:57):
about your lifestyle, joe?
Speaker 3 (42:00):
No, I mean, I think it's everything we covered.
It is something you'reconsidering.
Take the time, figure it out.
I think the biggest lesson welearned was what I mentioned
earlier about narrowing downyour search, because that was
actually something that wascausing me a lot of stress,
where we would look at a houseand it would be really nice and
(42:24):
we're talking about should weput a bid on this house and
Kateri would pull up our laptopsand be like, well, this is in
Nashville, but there's thisreally cool house in Montana,
yeah, and look at the pricedifference and you just have to
kind of pick a spot.
Narrow it down.
Focus on that.
Trust your instincts.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
And we always kind of live by the motto of going with
the flow right, and you'renever 100% locked into anything
that you do.
So even if you do pick a homebase in an area for a while
doesn't mean you're going to bethere forever.
You always have auction and theflexibility to pick another
spot somewhere down the road.
Or maybe you give up the homebase and go back to nomadic
(43:08):
lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
We have friends who settle down and they're both in
the house now and theyespecially one of them doesn't
like it, Doesn't like the wholebase, wants to be back out on
the road and there's no, there'sno shame in saying, hey, we
screwed up and we need to dosomething else.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Or we tried it and it's not.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, and that's the amazing thing is to be able to
have that choice and thatfreedom, I think, to do what you
want and change your mind.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I mean that's amazing , and so I think there's no
attitude for people who madethat transition of you know
having a more traditionallifestyle and deciding to hit
the road or travel time.
However you are wanting to doit.
You've already made that hugeshift and change.
I think it makes it a littlebit easier at least it did for
us to make that shift to havinga home base and traveling part
(43:54):
time, and it doesn't make mehave any like fear or
apprehension for what's to comeof.
Hey, we can make another shiftand do something else in a few
years.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah, and I think Kate also brought up a good
point earlier, which is a lot ofus nomads.
There are times where you getburned out and I think at least
when we were starting even someof the comments we got on
YouTube we might take a break orsomething.
People would say well, you'renot real full-timers.
Well, if you live in a housefull-time and you take a
(44:28):
vacation, you're do you not livein a house full-time?
So don't, don't feel like youhave to be in this box of I'm a
nomad, I'm full-time, I'm alwaysgoing to live out of a van,
it's.
You can take a break, get anAirbnb, park the van or camp or
whatever it is.
Take a month off and see if atthe end of that month you're
(44:49):
really enjoying having thatwhole base or your Jones, and to
get back on the road and you'relike you know this whole base
thing isn't.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah, very true.
Yeah, you guys brought up somany good points and I'm really
excited to talk to you aboutthat, that transition and tell
people like where to find you.
You're you have really coolYouTube videos, but just yeah,
tell me, tell everybody where tofind you guys.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah, you give them the website, I'll grab folks.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, we.
So we share resources abouttraveling and you know camper
lifestyle on our website wheretherusoscom so that's
W-E-R-E-T-H-E-R-U-S-S-O-R stuffI'll put links too, and we also
published videos on YouTube andwe'll do some updates and things
(45:33):
on Instagram as well, as wellas Facebook, and that's all at
where the resource.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
And for those of you who are interested in the
transition we made fromfull-time house living into that
class A and everything we hadto go through the downsizing
process, the purchase process,selling the house I wrote a book
all about that.
It's Take Risks, provided onAmazon or pretty much anywhere
in digital format, but Amazon'sthe only place that you have to
(45:58):
go is Opy.
And then the first year and ahalf we spent on the road in the
class A talking about bootdocking, getting into that
lifestyle, why we started theYouTube channel and the website
and everything else I have Talesfrom the Open Road also
available on Amazon andeverywhere else Awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It sounds like.
Sounds like you need anotherbook in the works now.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
There is one in the works, so I'm doing one.
All about the summer with Mom.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Oh, very cool, I can't wait.
Awesome, and then your emaillist.
Don't forget that I love youremail list.
So how do people get on that?
They go to your website, yep.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Just go to our website and you can subscribe to
our email list there.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Cool, yeah, I love your update.
So, yeah, thanks so much forcoming on the podcast.
It was always fun to chat withyou guys, as always.
Well, thanks so much forlistening to this episode of the
Wayward Home podcast.
I'd like to take a second andencourage you to join my email
list.
You can get direct access to me.
I read and respond to all myemails, plus tips, stories and
advice for life on the road.
To subscribe, just go tothewaywardhomecom forward slash
(46:58):
subscribe.
That's thewaywardhomecomforward slash subscribe.
I'll see you over there.
So I'm going to be totally honest with you right
now.
Sometimes van life is reallyhard.
You have to deal with changingplans, inclement weather,
figuring out where your nextcampsite is, where you're going
to find groceries and water, andlots of driving and lack of
routine, et cetera.
It really can be exhausting.
Sometimes even I need a breakfrom van life and I often do
(00:21):
that in the form of housesitting or staying with family
members.
But really there can become atime in life when you just are
tired of nomadic living and youneed a permanent break.
That's what this episode of thewayward home podcast is all
about.
I chat with Joe and Kate Russoabout their decision to buy a
home with property and have ahome base after six years on the
road.
We'll chat about what promptedthem to make this move, what
(00:44):
they love about home life andwhat traveling in their camper
van looks like.
Now let's go.
Welcome to the wayward homepodcast.
All about van life, boat lifeand nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Now here's your host, kristenHaynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith the waywardhomecom, and I
spend half the year in my campervan and half on my sailboat in
(01:05):
Mexico.
I hope to inspire you to livenomadically too.
So nomadic living is incrediblyexciting.
You have so much freedom,adventure and flexibility.
It's just mind blowing comparedto the normal sticks and bricks
lifestyle.
But no matter how much youmight like roaming around in
your camper, van RV or sailboat,there might come a time when a
home base starts to sound reallynice.
(01:26):
A home base is a great place toestablish a routine, to take a
break from life on the road, tocultivate community many of the
things that are harder to findwhen you're moving around
constantly as a nomad.
Well, this episode of thewaywardhome podcast with Joe and
Kate Russo of we're the Russo'sis really interesting.
We chat about their life on theroad and what made them decide
to stop traveling full time.
(01:47):
Let's get into it, yeah.
So first of all, you know Iwanted to go way back to the
beginning with you guys beforewe get into like the home base
part of the podcast, but youwere nomads for so long and I
just wanted to talk about likehow that started, how you
started, so let's just go wayback and discuss that first.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, so going way back, that'll take us to 2015.
So that's when we decided tohit the road full time.
And at the time we were beforewe even hit the road we both had
corporate jobs, we were kind ofdog, we were living in Southern
California.
So it was a big step for us todecide hey, let's just make a
(02:30):
huge change in our life, quitour dogs, sell most of our stuff
and just pack everything andhave no mas.
And at the time our idea was wegot this RV, we were going to
travel around the country for ayear and figure out where we
would settle down at the end ofthat year.
And that year quickly turnedinto six and a half years before
(02:51):
we decided to settle back downand have a home base and travel
part time.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So you guys traveled around for six years and you had
a variety of rigs and I wantedto go over all those different
rigs because you have quite alot of experience with all these
different kinds of vehicles.
So what did you guys live in?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Let's see, we started with a 30 foot class A.
That was for about a year and ahalf.
Then we moved into a class Bband on a ProMaster Chassis, so
it was two years.
From there we spent a yeartesting out different rigs.
So we might spend a couple ofweeks or a couple of months in a
rig at a time and we're justkind of playing around with some
(03:28):
different things.
And then we decided on a truckcamper pop up truck camper.
Did that for two years and thenat the end of those two years
is when we decided to stop fulltime, full time travel and get
the home base.
And then, once we got the homebase, we got another class B
band.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Very cool and, yeah, I think that there's some
interesting adjustments that gowith both, you know, the launch
into Nomad life and then thelaunch back into house life but,
or having a property at least.
But first of all, I wanted totouch on some of those changes
that happen to us when we startthe Nomad life and if you guys
wanted to talk about, like howthat was for you in the
(04:10):
beginning and maybe how thatevolved over time as you got
more adjusted to it.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I would say there is a huge adjustment for both of us
me more so than Kate In thatKate is much more able to down
sucks, I not so much.
And I remember when we had ourclass A and we were in the
process of selling the house andmoving everything out of the
house into the class A andtrying to figure out what we
(04:37):
keep and what we don't keep,every little nook and cranny of
space in that class A we wereputting stuff in or at least I
was like I would have stuff inreserve, so that when we packed
the class A, if there was room,the stuff in reserve was coming
with us.
And it got to a point where,about a like six to eight months
(04:58):
in, we sat down and we kind ofdid spring cleaning and we
started getting rid of all thisstuff that we're like, you know,
why did we bring this?
Why did we bring this?
No reason to have it Startedgetting rid of those things and
realizing we had a lot of emptyroom in the class A and that's
kind of what got us to the pointof realizing we could
(05:19):
potentially downsize to a classB.
Well, all of that going throughthat whole mental process for us
was a lot of.
It was a big exercise for us inrealizing that we could do with
a lot less than we thought weneeded to, at least when we
first got on the road.
And now we're back in a houseand we're back in the mentality
(05:41):
of getting more things.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, yes, because you have a definitely a
different relationship withthings than I do, but I also
think one of the biggestchallenges that we also faced
early on when we transitioned tothis nomadic lifestyle was
because we were on the move allthe time.
You were worried about where dowe spend the next night, where
(06:04):
are we headed next?
And planning and getting intothat routine, because it was
something so foreign to us, thisidea of traveling and being
able to go wherever we want togo.
And now and then I think we gotin a really good groove and now
, surprisingly, we're reallyenjoying only traveling part
time and enjoy being stationaryfor a solid amount of time.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, and it was also interesting to.
I think along with that wassince we were moving and we were
always going someplace new, Iwas feeling a lack of community.
So all the community we had inSouthern California was now gone
and we were going to all thesenew places we didn't know people
.
There are a couple of times Itold Kate, can we just like go
(06:50):
to a bar or something so we canbe around other people?
And all of that was lacking.
But over the years, as we'vegotten to know people, we've
reconnected with a lot offriends and now when we travel
cross country we'll make it apoint, if we have the time, to
stop in, spend a night or twowith people on their driveway,
(07:12):
visit and really engage in thatcommunity that's gone from.
It went from like this littlebubble in Southern California to
the entire nation.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And beyond yes.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
In those six and a half years where we travel full
time, we, our being so, took thecamper and explore 49 of 50 US
states, several Canadianpromises.
We went down to Baja, Mexico,and then also parked our camper
for a month at a time andtraveled internationally.
(07:44):
So now there's this hugecommunity, as you say all over
the place Totally.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's a wonderful thing about it.
I've noticed that, especiallywith the sailing side of nomad
life, you find sailors incertain areas and you just are
friends with them forever.
There's that instant bond whichis neat about nomadic living,
but it is very uprootingexperience.
And to be constantly on themove, I think, has its own set
of challenges.
I know sometimes I crave justbeing stopping and being in a
(08:14):
house a little bit.
I'm wondering if, when you guyswere full-time, did you
sometimes feel that need to stopand to maybe live somewhere?
How did you deal with thatwhile you were nomads?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I don't know if we ever got the feeling.
The only time we had.
There were a couple times wherewe were in between rigs and we
would end up at my mother'shouse for extended period of
time.
It wasn't something wenecessarily wanted to do.
It was something we needed todo because of the fact that we
didn't have another vehicle orother way of getting around.
(08:45):
So in between RVs, we wouldhave to pause for a little bit.
The only time we specificallycame off the road was at the
outset of the pandemic in 2020,when things started really
getting bad and the nation wasunsure about where things were
going and what was happening.
(09:05):
And what we were finding isthat a lot of the services that
we used as nomads, like showersand gyms and those types of
things, water fill up.
A lot of that stuff was closing.
We didn't know when it wasgoing to reopen.
There was also talk that theywere going to shut down the
interstates, like state-to-statetravel.
(09:26):
So we decided to pick a placeand just hunker down for a month
.
So we got an Airbnb, hunkereddown for a month, got work done,
enjoyed our kind of time offthe road.
That was really the only time.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean, I would say, when we were traveling full time
, there were times where, sincewe travel and work at the same
time, we would take a littlepause and maybe decide, hey,
we're going to pick this spotand camp here for a number of
days, catch up at work, kind of,do laundry, all those things,
(10:02):
and then we'll start travelingagain.
But that was where it veryshort spurts the amount of time
where we would kind of stay putfor a few days.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, I would say at any given time when we were on
the road, we probably it was ananomaly if we stayed someplace
more than five days.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, that sounds kind of like us, but we have had
house-sitting stints throughoutand being able to live in San
Francisco for a month at a time,so we've had that kind of step
back and sometimes that's nicejust to have a reset catch up on
work button.
But yeah, so I'm also curiouslike what led you guys into that
decision to go back into thehouse when you were living in
(10:39):
the truck camper at the timewhen you came upon that decision
?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Well, we've always been, ever since we hit the road
.
We wanted to get out ofSouthern California, and part of
that initial year travel was totravel the country and see
where we wanted to settle downagain.
So something that was always inthe back of our heads.
But the pandemic and what ushaving to take a month off the
road to kind of reevaluate andsee where things were was also,
(11:06):
I think, the impetus to say, hey, it might be a good idea for us
to have a home base in casethings got worse or something
else happened or we just we gotsick or injured and needed a
place to really hunker down andwe wouldn't be able to go to our
parents' house.
So that got the ball rolling.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, and there were.
So when the pandemic firststarted and the lockdown began,
like Joe said, a lot of servicesbecame unavailable, but even
the Airbnb rental that we got welater found out a lot of Airbnb
rentals were shutting down aswell and it just made us realize
well, while we couldpotentially find some long-term
(11:45):
rentals, it seemed like it was achallenge at the time and we
couldn't go to our families.
They were comfortable with uscoming into their house and we
didn't want to live with themand still be out.
So that made us realize wereally needed a place that we
could kind of call our own touse as a base that we can go to
should something like thishappen again or if it continues
(12:07):
on for much longer than weanticipate.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, and then the other part of that was we had
planned in 2020, we'd actuallyplanned on doing Alaska, which
is the last state we haven'tbeen to, as well as taking our
camper and shipping it overseas.
Potentially Well, again, withthe pandemic, getting up to
Alaska through Canada was anoption for us, as well as going
(12:31):
overseas.
So we'd seen the lower 48,spent a lot of time going
through it.
We hit up a few places wehadn't been yet, but at the same
time, it's kind of like allright, we've done this and now
we're just kind of traveling totravel, moving, to move With the
truck camper.
It's not the type of setupwhere you want to go and spend a
month just living out of that.
(12:52):
So that really kind of pushedus again to get serious about
buying the house, and we did awhole series of the summer of
2021.
We took a camper and took mymother for almost 10 weeks
around the country, coast tocoast, 11,000 miles, and the
(13:15):
decision that we made was wehave to dedicate an entire
summer to this, so we will dothat, and then, after this is
done, we're going to startshopping in ours.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, and it's interesting you mentioned 2020,
because I think a lot of Nomadsstarted to feel very vulnerable
during that time, cause Iremember we did too we couldn't
find water and it was just sucha scary feeling to not have your
own resources available and weactually started looking at
property at that time and Ithink some a lot of Nomads I
talked to were also looking atproperties.
We just felt like everything'ssuddenly unavailable and that's
(13:46):
a very scary feeling.
So it's interesting you alsowent through that during that
time.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
So was there a point you all were kind of searching
Cause you haven't.
You didn't end up with aproperty or a home base?
Was there a specific hardingpoint where you decided oh, I'm
comfortable to keep going.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, and I think a lot of that had to do with
having our sailboat too inMexico and that being a place
where we could go, because theMexico border, we learned, was
open and we could go down to ourboat and so we kind of isolated
on the boat that way, and so atthat point we were like, yeah,
we can, we have our littleescape pod south of the border.
So that doesn't the point wherewe decided not to get the
property, but it's definitelystill something on the back of
(14:26):
my mind regularly and, like youguys traveled around the US to
see where you wanted to be, andthat's always in the back of my
mind, like where would I want aproperty?
Where would I want a place tosettle, cause it is nice to have
somewhere to go and like do agarden or do whatever you want
to do with that property thatyou can't do in the van, you
know so.
And when?
So what was it like when youguys like found that property
(14:47):
and did that transition from thefull-time travel into the more
stationary lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It was.
It was a little strange becausewe were used to having the room
, especially when we'd go and,like I mentioned, have those
times off in between campers andspend at my mom's house or
something like that.
But we didn't outside of whatwas in our camper and some of
the stuff we'd put aside inboxes.
We didn't have anything for ahouse.
(15:14):
We had a couple of spoons andutensils and things that were in
the camper.
Each of us had a bowl.
We didn't have any furniturewhatsoever to speak of.
And having to go through thatwhole process again and luckily
the house we bought the previousowners.
We met them during thewalkthrough at one point and
(15:36):
they asked us if there wasanything that, if they were
throwing away, that we wouldwant them to keep.
And we said anything you'replanning on throwing away, just
leave, cause we have nothing.
So we got a couple pieces offurniture, table, things like
that and then Kate's parentswere generous enough to give us
some furniture that they weren'tusing anymore.
We've slowly been buying andgetting things, but it's been
(16:01):
almost two years now and stillour houses I wouldn't even say
halfway furnished.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's fairly empty.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, that is a weird thing to have to start from
scratch.
I think about that too, like,oh my God, I have to buy so much
furniture.
If I ever get a house, it'soverwhelming.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah, and I remember when we were selling our house
in Southern California, both ofus said, hey, let's just get rid
of all this stuff because, likeyou know, let's not bother with
the storage unit or anything,because we can always buy it
again.
Having gone through that wholeprocess, and if I went back to
talk to old me, I wouldseriously consider trying to
(16:37):
talk myself into getting astorage unit.
Yeah, I was totally.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I was wondering that too, because a lot of people do
give everything up, and one oftheir common questions some
people ask me is should I storeeverything?
And I think if you are planningon settling down in the future,
maybe it is a good idea tostore stuff.
At least you have your ownfurniture to repopulate a house.
So that's interesting that youwent through that as well.
(17:01):
So yeah, and aside from havingto refurnish the stuff, your
house, you've also probably hadto buy just stuff, and I'm
wondering what was that likebuying things?
Because I know, as nomads, wetry not to buy things.
So what was that wholeexperience like?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I'm still struggling with buying things Because,
having lived that nomadiclifestyle, you get in the
mentality of you would just havewhat is essential, right, you
really don't get very many niceto have because you don't have
the room for it.
But also, getting out of thatconsumerism frame of mind, you
(17:42):
have it and it works, I don'tneed all this extra stuff to be
sitting around.
I think a little bit of theturning point maybe for me to
say, oh well, maybe we shouldget a few more things, is when
family come to visit.
We might not necessarily havecomfortable places for them to
(18:02):
sit and thinking about them more.
So for me it's less aboutbuying things for me to furnish
the house.
It's a little bit more aboutmaking it comfortable so that
when our family are staying withus or friends visit, that they
have a comfortable place.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, but the flip side of that too is we get this
stuff and then she's reallyhappy to have it because she has
a comfortable place to sit.
I think the mid ground for usis more not going out and buying
things in excess that we're notgoing to use.
So having a couch or somethingmakes sense, but I still have
(18:38):
just a towel.
I don't have a whole set oftowels like we used to.
Now we have extra towels forguests, but I don't need more
than one towel.
It can get washed and then Ican use it again.
It's one of those things whereit's stuff like that that living
in a van, in a camper andrealize you can only you can do
(19:01):
with one of something and nothaving to go to excesses about
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But we did learn that we need to double up on certain
things for our camper versusthe house.
So having an extra set ofbedding and thing a camper that
just stays in the camper so thatwe're not constantly moving
things in and out.
Or if we end up driving thecamper out to see family and we
(19:28):
need to fly back to home base,we still have a set of sheets
here the off in the camper.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, we learned that very quickly because the first
time we took the camper and leftit somewhere and flew back, we
got back and realized we don'thave coffee making equipment, we
don't have this, we don't havethat, and all of a sudden we
start ending up with a lot ofAmazon boxes.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That's traumatizing to come home and not have coffee
equipment.
I'd probably freak out.
Yeah.
So you guys feel like youprobably learned a lot on the
road about stuff in general andyou've taken that to your now
house life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Now I'm curious do you have separate things for
your van versus your sailboat,or do you just move the camper?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, that's something I always think about
and we're getting to a pointwhere we are trying to have more
separate things, but there'sdefinitely always a gigantic van
of stuff.
We're driving across the borderto the boat and unloading onto
the boat and then I forget whatthings I have on there versus
the van and I'm like I just needto do what you guys do and just
have boat stuff and have vanstuff, because it gets really
overwhelming and you alwaysforget or lose something.
(20:32):
Yeah, but it's challenging.
It is a challenging mentality,because in the van, before I buy
something, I think about do Ireally need that?
And so it's always this processof purchasing that sometimes it
holds me back from purchasingwhat I might really need.
So it's always a struggle.
But what was it?
What are like when you startedliving in there versus traveling
(20:52):
full time?
What did you notice about it?
Like you feel like you had moretime for personal things, or
what kinds of changes did yousee in your lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's definitely easier to have a routine.
Yes, I think, because it's whenI would try to have a routine
in the van.
There were days and times wherewe were supposed to wake up and
get someplace, or we'd be onthe road all day long and, aside
from making coffee everymorning, there's really no
(21:22):
routine we could set, and Ithink that's been one thing that
I really enjoyed about havingthe house is being able to have
that morning cup of coffee, getsome work done or do a Chinese
lesson, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And we, when we started shopping for whole days,
we had a list of requirementsthat we were looking for.
And then some nice things andone of the requirements for me
was having enough land wherethere is nature right, because I
love nature and that was one ofthe reasons we started our
being when we love food, dockingin the national forest, going
(21:58):
to all the beautiful nationalparks.
So having kind of our, myaccess, daily access to nature
makes it really enjoyable andcalming and peaceful to be at
home base and it's nice to havea place that we really enjoy
coming back to after we'retraveling.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And what's interesting too about that is
since we have our own forest andthat when we go out now in the
camper we are more interestednow in going into kind of like a
city, town environment where wecan kind of mix it up there and
less out in the middle of theforest, because we have that at
(22:38):
home and it's kind of changedthe way we travel and kind of
the places we look at going to.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That's so interesting that you said that about the
nature, because sometimes when Istay in homes like I was just
at my sister's house for a weekbecause we had a hundred degree
heat wave here in Portland so Ihad to go escape in AC and her
house is in like the tightestsubdivision you can imagine Like
the next house is 15 feet awayand there's no nature.
I mean, there's a view of theforest but you can't go in the
forest or really sit outsidebecause the neighbor's looking
(23:06):
at you and I just started tofeel like a trapped wild animal
and I'm like I gotta go.
Like I just started likefeeling like a dog that needed a
walk.
It was a really weird feeling.
But, like you said, when youhave a home and it has that
nature, you have both.
It's like a groundingexperience.
So that's cool that you guysneeded that, because I think we
learn that as nomads that weneed to be outside a lot.
(23:26):
Yeah, and do you guys do a lotof things outside at your house,
like are you doing gardening orare you doing outdoor or do you
just go like hang out outside?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I go for daily walks around the woods, which is
really nice, and I've beenlearning, getting more into
foraging, so being able toidentify what's edible, what's
not edible on the property.
Last year we harvested someamazing oyster mushrooms that
grew on a tree that came down,so that's definitely part of my
(23:56):
routine.
Now is I wake up and I gooutside and go for a walk, visit
with my trees and see whatchanges are happening, because
we picked an area.
Our home base gets four seasons.
They're mild, but it's alsoreally nice to see the trees
when they're changing colors inthe fall and then all the leaves
fall, and learning how toidentify these trees with and
(24:18):
without.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Thirdly, and I get to do all the maintenance for most
of it Fun.
So you know it's now going outand getting chain saws and pole
saws and all these, all thisequipment.
I have a commercial spray mowerand all of these things and the
hours spent working on theproperty.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Well, some of the trees on this property are, I
would say, over 100 years old.
So, when they come down after astore.
It takes a while to chop it up,fit it reluminated.
It turned into firewood.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yes, sitting out on the deck having a fire, feeling
like we're in nature, but havingaccess to all the comforts of a
home.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Cool, yeah, that's the best of both worlds really,
when you can have that property.
And I'm sure when we get aproperty, that's it's gonna have
to be on land, like for sure.
So I was wondering about, like,the cleaning aspect, because
also I noticed when I stay in ahouse I get overwhelmed because
I'm like, oh my gosh, there's somany rooms that I have to clean
and organize and track my stuffand what was that transition
like for you guys?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, I tell myself one day at a time, one room at a
time, right, oh, it doesn't getso overwhelming, and making
that part of my routine.
But I'm also the type of personwho enjoys cleaning and
organizing, so to me it's not achore, it's just a matter of
like breaking it down intosmaller tasks so that doesn't
(25:42):
show overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
And I will say for me it feels having a house feels
much cleaner than having acamper, Because with the camper,
especially a lot of the placeswe're going in the southwestern
net, that really fine dust thatjust gets everywhere and you can
never get rid of it, it wasjust constant.
And the other thing I've gottenused to is getting back into
(26:07):
routine of taking a daily showerand now that now when we go out
, not taking a shower every dayfeels strange, Whereas before
taking a shower every day feltstrange.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
But that's very true.
That's an interestingadjustment.
I always know that I lovehaving endless hot water
whenever I stay in a house orlike I could take a really long
shower.
You know it's not a problem.
So that is a it's amazing, or abath, that's the best thing.
That's.
Something I definitely miss isthe bath, but I feel like when
we're nomads we, you know thesethings become luxuries.
(26:38):
You know where most people thatlive in homes their whole life
take it kind of for granted.
They're like this is just whatwe have and this is what
available, what's available.
But when you're a nomad you'relike, wow, that's fancy, like
there's a dishwasher.
So it's funny that now you guysare living the life of luxury
and all these small things thatwe have in, you know, in homes
here in the US, so justincredible, like what we have.
(26:59):
So, yeah, that's allinteresting transition.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Here is a living school time on the road helped
us kind of develop that list ofthings we were looking for in
the home base that we found, andone of them is good water
pressure, because so many timesin the camper you know you don't
have great water pressure oryou don't have a limited hot
water, so that that wasdefinitely a requirement for us.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, and another requirement too was we wanted to
be somewhere in the countrythat doesn't experience droughts
and things like that.
So you know, like my motherliving in Southern California is
dinged or, you know, can getseverely fined if she goes over
a certain allotment of water andall these other things, and we
(27:42):
didn't want to have to deal withthat.
So where we live, we can use asmuch water as we want.
There's no irrigation becauseyou don't need it.
It rains all the time.
It's nice, it's green, so Cool.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And did you guys pick a bathtub in your house?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
That was definitely something I really enjoyed when
we would visit with a friend orfamily and they would offer to
let me take a bath.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Love.
I know there's the best.
Stay in peace.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I know.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I think another thing that a lot of people take for
granted is the community and thethings you have around, and I
believe that for us, havinglived this lifestyle, we would
go into little towns and wewould seek out all sorts of
different unique things aboutthat town, kind of the history
(28:30):
behind it, certain farmers ormarkets that were going on.
I remember in New Mexico we'dfound this family that they do
their own chilies and it's theirown variety and everything, and
we sought them out and foundthis stuff.
So now that we have a home base, we're doing that same sort of
exploration, but in our hometownor home area, and we found a
(28:54):
lot of amazing things that eventhe locals here don't know about
.
And we've developed thiscommunity where, for example,
there's a farmer not too farfrom here, there's all their own
grass-fed everything.
So one season we got a wholehog and now we have the room for
all of that meat and things andit's just cool to have that
(29:17):
again.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, that is something that we miss and being
able to do certain activities.
Like I know beforehand.
I really liked taking horsebackriding lessons or learning how
to do dancing.
That was big for me and Tom, mypartner, was in a band and when
you're traveling you just can'treally do those things because
you don't have that communityand you're usually not in cities
.
So it's neat when you can stopand you just develop those
(29:39):
connections again and maybe pickup some hobbies you can't do
when you're traveling.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
So you guys have really enjoyed that, it sounds
like.
So that's really cool.
And how often do you now go outon the road now that you have a
home?
What percentage do you thinkyou now go out on road trips?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I would say last year it was about 50% we were
traveling and then 50% at homebase, and then this year we made
the decision to try to spendmore time at home base,
especially in the summertime, toget a better feel of what the
weather is like and if we didwant to grow vegetable garden
next season, kind of have anidea of what that timing would
(30:16):
look like.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, and I would say now this season we've spent
more time doing short trips.
So, coming up, we have a tripup to Michigan and we're just
going to be gone for the weekendand it's nice to be able to do
short trips like that.
It's also nice to be able toconfigure the camper for that
trip so that we can take up,like we have this pizza oven we
(30:39):
can take with us that we neverwould have had in full time life
, because you just don't havethe room to dedicate to
something like that.
So it's those types of thingswhere, despite, we don't travel
as much, but when we do it'sdifferent in a lot of ways and
we can make more use out of ourtime.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But there are definitely challenges now, I've
found, with trying to travelwhile having a home base.
For example, if there is an icestorm that's going to be
rolling through, do we want toschedule our international
travel for that time of year orthat time, and what's going to
happen to the home base?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
because we don't have someone looking in.
Yeah, and it definitely makes itmore difficult if we want to do
travel on one of the coasts orsomething further away from us
because we're in the Midwest.
So now we have to say if wewant to go through Oregon or
that we now need to travel crosscountry to do that, plan to
(31:40):
spend the time and or plan toleave the camper someplace where
we fly home, do our stuff atWolman and fly back to grab the
camper.
So there are challenges that wedidn't have before.
If we were living on the roadfull time, we could say, hey,
let's go spend summer in thePacific Northwest and we would
drive out there.
You slowly make your way outthere, you slowly make your way
(32:03):
through the Pacific Northwestand then slowly make your way
somewhere.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Right, but now you have that desire to go home and
to check on your home and makesure things are okay over there,
and that's probably why you flyback when you're traveling.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, that is a big change to get used to as well.
And then what you said beforethat you touched on was
interesting that you like to gointo cities a little more now
and explore and park in citiesand what's that been like with
the camper, like doing the citything?
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's fun because we have a small class vehicle for
under 20 feet.
We can park essentiallyanywhere in a standard vehicle
can park.
So it gives us the freedom offlexibility to kind of go in and
out of cities and explore thatway.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
I mean, we even yeah, we even explore, you know
what's local to us in the camper, because we can go.
We have the camper, especiallyif we're going out for the day
and we really want to just spendthe whole day out, like if we
go to Costco.
We bring the camper, we put allthe stuff that needs to go in a
refrigerator or freezer in therefrigerator or freezer and we
(33:09):
can do the rest of our errandsand everything else.
So it's fun that way.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And even if we're just a friend locally, we can
take our camper, still spend thenight on their driveway.
If we're staying late Now, itwon't make the 20 minute drive
home and then wake up in themorning.
Spend more time with them inthe head, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, yeah, you've got your little apartment on
wheels and your little guestroom, which is really handy when
visiting people.
I definitely agree with that.
Oh, looking back on your liketime as nomads, did it feel like
the right length of time?
Like, how did all that feel toyou as nomads?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Um, I wouldn't say anything, felt right, it just we
went with the flow.
We, whenever people asked ushow long we were going to do it,
we just said until we weren't,until we were ready to do
something else.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yes, and for me.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
I just I felt like we got to a point in that nomadic
lifestyle where we were.
We got to a point where we'retraveling to travel Meaning we
weren't, we were no longer goingsomeplace to necessarily see it
.
We're going someplace becausewe lived on the road full time
and we wanted a bit of a changeof scenery.
We wanted to keep going and dostuff Um where?
(34:19):
And I think at that point westarted to say to each other
okay, I think now's the time forsomething New, something
different.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, I would say, if the pandemic hadn't happened,
we definitely would have gone toAlaska, like we had probably
shipped our camper overseas andthat definitely changed the
trajectory of where we wereheaded.
Um, and we still have plans toship our camper overseas,
potentially, and or ready acamper overseas, which we tried
doing that in Italy recently.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
So and I will.
I will say, based on thatexperience, at least for Europe,
I have no interest anymore ofshipping our camper over to
Europe because it's so muchnicer to for at least for me to
go to every city and things viatrain and be able to kind of
spend that time in the center oftown rather than on the
(35:09):
outskirts and a camper and haveto go back and forth and
everything else.
I don't feel like you get thesame culture and experience in a
camper as you do if you're juston foot and you can pretty much
go anywhere you want.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, very true, and, like you said, you can always
rent one Like we're thinking ofdoing that as you go, rent a
camper for a couple of weeks andthen you can drop it off and
then you can train into the cityand stay in the city, and then
you can have the best of bothworlds without having your own
rig to have to deal with andworry about that whole time.
Yeah, yeah, and I was.
I'm curious if you guys haveany like advice for other people
(35:42):
that are nomads and they'rethinking of doing this, like I
know you created like a list orlike how did you narrow down a
home?
Or just any advice in generalyou have for people.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Well, I think my first bit of advice for anyone
who's can rent a place for alittle bit was, say, a couple of
weeks or month.
See, you know, if it gives youkind of what you're looking for,
that was driving you to get ahome base, and maybe after the
two weeks or month you're readyto get back on the road and keep
(36:12):
doing what you're doing.
Sometimes we've met people andthat this happened to us, to you
a little burnt out as a nomad,and it's okay to just take a
pause.
You know, settle down for amonth, rent a place, regroup and
then keep going and maybe youwon't even need that home base.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah, and the way we ended up in this area.
For us, we're an Indiana.
Excuse me, but we never had anyintention of moving to Indiana.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I believe you said I will never live in India.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, I went to school in Indiana.
Excuse me, I would just go toIndiana and yes, I said that.
For us, you know, we had theopportunity to live anywhere in
the country and that made itextremely difficult for
pinpointing where to look,because you could be looking at
a place in Montana and a placein Florida and there's no way
(37:07):
you're going to be flying backand forth and all these things,
you know, going to showings andthings, especially in a
competitive market.
You need to be on the groundand you need to be in a spot
where you want to live.
So I think, first and foremost,if you have made the decision
that you want to kind of hunkerdown and get that home base
again, figuring out where in thecountry and having a general
(37:29):
idea.
For us, how we ended up inIndiana was we were looking more
in Alabama, more southern andwhere we have friends up in
Indiana and during kind oflooking at bones and other
things, we would drive up toIndiana and visit with them and
spend time on their driveway andwe just started to fall in love
(37:51):
with the area we're in now andthe more time we'd come back up
here and spend, the more wereally enjoyed the area until
our friends said hey, I have afriend with a realtor, I'm
calling her up and you guys arelooking at homes around here and
the rest is history.
So for us it was kind ofserendipitous that we had
(38:12):
friends and we were able tospend time here, otherwise we
never would have considered itas a home base.
But the other two was just thatwe had to pick an area to look.
We were not able to house huntthe entire United States.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so picking a place for us where we had a good
community in terms of friendsthat have lived here and grown
up here, is it gave us immediateaccess to resources that we
would have had to figure out onour own so, for example, we
could easily call them and say,hey, do you have a good location
for a dentist, or do you know arealtor in the area?
(38:49):
Do you know someone who can do arift inspection, stuff like
that, or just even any kind ofthose resources and connection
that you would need once yousettle down?
It's nice to have that.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yeah, and the other thing we found too not so much
in this area but some otherareas where we looked briefly
was that some of the smallertowns you're now trying to break
into a well formed communityand you become the outsider and
a lot of people are great atmaking new friends and kind of
(39:22):
breaking those barriers.
But what we found and heard intalking to locals is that
process can actually be very andespecially if you need services
or work done on your house.
For example, we have friendswho bought in the mountains of
Colorado and they're having areally tough time finding people
to come out and have work doneand just being able to break
(39:46):
into that community and find thepeople who are willing to trust
you and come out and do thework for you and those sorts of
things, rather than the friendsor other people they know in the
community already.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
And sometimes that's due to picking a location where
there's more people or people tosupport all that in terms of
services, and keeping that inmind, if you pick an area, let's
say, that might not be able tohave the service infrastructure
to actually support all thepeople that live there.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, yeah, very true .
And yeah, I do like what youmentioned about having the
camper and you're able to justgo to that part of the country
and just sort of home base thereout of your camper and make
sure you like it, and so that'san important part too, so cool.
So what are your guys's likeupcoming plans?
Like in your van, you said theMichigan one, but what else are
you?
Do?
Have anything else on thedocket?
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Well, let's see Michigan trip and then we're
actually gonna be very busyhosting a bunch of people.
We've had, like, lots of peoplefriends who are nomads roll
through in their camper andthey'll spend a few days.
You know they could do laundry,have a real shower.
We offer them a guest bedroomif they want to take a break.
So we'll be hosting quite a fewnomads for a little bit.
(41:00):
And then our next trip Joe andI have gotten into cruising, so
we've got another cruise comingup with family.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Oh fun.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Oh yeah, and we will be taking our camper to
Chattanooga, tennessee, that'llbe fun.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
That's so cool that you guys can now provide that
respite for nomads, because Iknow I'm always thankful for
that when I'm traveling.
When a friend is like, yeah,parking, a, drive by, use the
shower, do laundry, it's alwayssuch a fun thing, and then you
get a visit with them as well.
So that's neat.
You're able to like be on theother side of that and provide
that support, and you have theland and property to host
campers.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
So that's cool.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
So if you're going to , yeah, if I'm in Indiana, I'll
come visit.
Are you guys joiningBoondockers?
Welcome or anything like that.
Our schedule is so crazy.
Totally, I get that.
You're still.
You have that nomad at heartwhere you still love to travel,
but you have the home.
You have the best of bothworlds right now.
So cool, well, great.
Is there anything else that youguys wanted to say to people
(41:57):
about your lifestyle, joe?
Speaker 3 (42:00):
No, I mean, I think it's everything we covered.
It is something you'reconsidering.
Take the time, figure it out.
I think the biggest lesson welearned was what I mentioned
earlier about narrowing downyour search, because that was
actually something that wascausing me a lot of stress,
where we would look at a houseand it would be really nice and
(42:24):
we're talking about should weput a bid on this house and
Kateri would pull up our laptopsand be like, well, this is in
Nashville, but there's thisreally cool house in Montana,
yeah, and look at the pricedifference and you just have to
kind of pick a spot.
Narrow it down.
Focus on that.
Trust your instincts.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
And we always kind of live by the motto of going with
the flow right, and you'renever 100% locked into anything
that you do.
So even if you do pick a homebase in an area for a while
doesn't mean you're going to bethere forever.
You always have auction and theflexibility to pick another
spot somewhere down the road.
Or maybe you give up the homebase and go back to nomadic
(43:08):
lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
We have friends who settle down and they're both in
the house now and theyespecially one of them doesn't
like it, Doesn't like the wholebase, wants to be back out on
the road and there's no, there'sno shame in saying, hey, we
screwed up and we need to dosomething else.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Or we tried it and it's not.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, and that's the amazing thing is to be able to
have that choice and thatfreedom, I think, to do what you
want and change your mind.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I mean that's amazing , and so I think there's no
attitude for people who madethat transition of you know
having a more traditionallifestyle and deciding to hit
the road or travel time.
However you are wanting to doit.
You've already made that hugeshift and change.
I think it makes it a littlebit easier at least it did for
us to make that shift to havinga home base and traveling part
(43:54):
time, and it doesn't make mehave any like fear or
apprehension for what's to comeof.
Hey, we can make another shiftand do something else in a few
years.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Yeah, and I think Kate also brought up a good
point earlier, which is a lot ofus nomads.
There are times where you getburned out and I think at least
when we were starting even someof the comments we got on
YouTube we might take a break orsomething.
People would say well, you'renot real full-timers.
Well, if you live in a housefull-time and you take a
(44:28):
vacation, you're do you not livein a house full-time?
So don't, don't feel like youhave to be in this box of I'm a
nomad, I'm full-time, I'm alwaysgoing to live out of a van,
it's.
You can take a break, get anAirbnb, park the van or camp or
whatever it is.
Take a month off and see if atthe end of that month you're
(44:49):
really enjoying having thatwhole base or your Jones, and to
get back on the road and you'relike you know this whole base
thing isn't.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah, very true.
Yeah, you guys brought up somany good points and I'm really
excited to talk to you aboutthat, that transition and tell
people like where to find you.
You're you have really coolYouTube videos, but just yeah,
tell me, tell everybody where tofind you guys.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah, you give them the website, I'll grab folks.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, we.
So we share resources abouttraveling and you know camper
lifestyle on our website wheretherusoscom so that's
W-E-R-E-T-H-E-R-U-S-S-O-R stuffI'll put links too, and we also
published videos on YouTube andwe'll do some updates and things
(45:33):
on Instagram as well, as wellas Facebook, and that's all at
where the resource.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
And for those of you who are interested in the
transition we made fromfull-time house living into that
class A and everything we hadto go through the downsizing
process, the purchase process,selling the house I wrote a book
all about that.
It's Take Risks, provided onAmazon or pretty much anywhere
in digital format, but Amazon'sthe only place that you have to
(45:58):
go is Opy.
And then the first year and ahalf we spent on the road in the
class A talking about bootdocking, getting into that
lifestyle, why we started theYouTube channel and the website
and everything else I have Talesfrom the Open Road also
available on Amazon andeverywhere else Awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
It sounds like.
Sounds like you need anotherbook in the works now.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
There is one in the works, so I'm doing one.
All about the summer with Mom.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Oh, very cool, I can't wait.
Awesome, and then your emaillist.
Don't forget that I love youremail list.
So how do people get on that?
They go to your website, yep.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Just go to our website and you can subscribe to
our email list there.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Cool, yeah, I love your update.
So, yeah, thanks so much forcoming on the podcast.
It was always fun to chat withyou guys, as always.
Well, thanks so much forlistening to this episode of the
Wayward Home podcast.
I'd like to take a second andencourage you to join my email
list.
You can get direct access to me.
I read and respond to all myemails, plus tips, stories and
advice for life on the road.
To subscribe, just go tothewaywardhomecom forward slash
(46:58):
subscribe.
That's thewaywardhomecomforward slash subscribe.
I'll see you over there.
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