October 2, 2023 • 32 mins
RVing from the Cody Trout Ranch Campground in Cody, Wyoming: Sherri & Russ share their Anniversary SURPRISE Adventure in Yellowstone National Park… How we work remote and travel full time together in a 40-foot motorhome. It’s the RV Work Life Balance MARRIAGE SURVIVAL GUIDE…
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- 10-02-2023 – EPISODE 5 – (00:47:08)
- Title: Work Remote Travel & Marriage in a Motorhome
WORK REMOTE TRAVEL EPISODE SUMMARY:
“When everyday life is like Valentine’s Day, every day is an anniversary…”
(Well… to be honest, it takes some getting used to! 👩🏼❤️👨🏼)
In Episode 5 of the RV Work Life Balance PODCAST, Sherri & Russ find themselves in Cody, Wyoming on their 35th Wedding Anniversary! From exploring Yellowstone’s hidden gems to experiencing all the fun and excitement Cody has to offer, they share their insights on surviving Happily Ever After… living, working, and traveling full time together in a 40-foot RV.
Life on the road isn’t all trolley tours and rodeos, and we are no strangers to the challenges of maintaining RV Work Life — Marriage! — Balance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year in our tiny home on wheels.
Tune in to our frank discussion on how we navigate these challenges, including finding the perfect RV layout and managing our different work schedules. Our survival secrets cover everything from setting up separate RV office workspaces, to portable desks, essential office equipment, noise and HR considerations… to full appreciation of the amazing benefits this lifestyle offers.
Learn all about RV Work Remote Travel in this episode!
Our mission is to share what we learn about RV Work Life Balance and introduce you to new opportunities, people, places, and ideas to spark your interest and imagination…
Let’s hit the road together for this unique journey!
– – – – – HIGHLIGHTS – – – – –
- (00:01:08) – Cody, Wyoming: Cody Trout Ranch Campground
- (00:03:09) – Discovering Yellowstone’s East Entrance
- (00:09:17) – Finding The Fun: Visit Cody, Wyoming!
- (00:18:03) – How To Work Remote Travel Together
- (00:21:06) – The Best RV for Remote Work?
- (00:31:32) – Timing The Dirty Stuff & Magic Fingers 👀
- (00:34:03) – RV Office Space & Considerations
- (00:41:06) – Wrapping Up: RV Work Life Balance
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→ Be sure to LIKE – SHARE – Follow & Subscribe – on your favorite podcast platform! Thank you! 😉
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FEATURED LINKS & RESOURCES:Top 3 Mobile RV Internet Issues For Remote Work Travel on BooksAndTravelUSA.com
GyPSy Guide: For your next road trip or national park adventure (Article)
Shout out to our RV YouTube SuperStar friends Mark & Sue at Our Journey In Myles:
Our Journey In Myles: Buying a New or Used Motorhome?
(The video we were watching when we realized it was our Anniversary! 😂)
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SPONSORS & AFFILIATESSome of the links below are affiliate links, which means we will earn a commission on the products or services you purchase using the links. There is no additional cost to you and the earnings help keep this program running. Thank You!!! Read our Affiliate Disclaimer for more information.
>> FEATURED FOR RV WORK REMOTE TRAVEL:
Product Links:
Canon PIXMA Wireless Mobile Printer – Sherri’s #1 RV Office Essential! Still going strong after 3+ years on the road, this is the BEST littl
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back with you.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Just as soon as we can.
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance Podcast with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Woo, thanks for joining us one more time.
This is an awesome adventure we're on, isn't it?
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yay, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That was not the best.
Yay, come on now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Sorry I'm coming in late Late.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm going to start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Thank, you Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Great, so we enjoy the end of the day where we get a chance to kind of recap what's been going on.
So cheers to everyone there, and I'm going to start.
This is getting annoying.
I got to find a new way to intro this, like where the heck are we today?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Today this week we are in Cody Y Oming at the Cody Trout Ranch Campground, which is a little bit out of sighted town.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, it's like 10 minutes or 10 miles.
Yeah, it's about 10 miles, 10 miles outside of town.
It's cool, because whenever you say okay, the similar thing.
When you first told me I was, we were going to drive here, it was.
It's a trout farm and the last time I had an animal in a place it was.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
The Bison Ranch.
Bison Ranch, yeah Right, and that was a really cool place.
Yeah, this is not that.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I expected, like you know, like the bison walking everywhere and getting to feed them.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That was amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, we don't get to feed the trout and I don't get to do anything cool with the trout.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That was the Terry Bison Ranch outside of Cheyenne, wyoming last year.
So cool, yeah, loved it.
Yeah, this is not that, it's nice.
It's nice, it's on the river.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But I was imagining, equally as cool as the Bison Ranch, that we'd be going and catching trout in our bare hands and throwing them on a fire or what not, I don't know, so it's a nice place.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
But we're outside.
Okay, I think that next time we come to Cody, because we do need to come back there's just so much here.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We love.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Cody.
So the next time we will most likely camp at the Ponderosa campground, which is right downtown in the heart of Cody, which I thought might be noisy and too much going on.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But Like Chicago or something like that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, and then there's a lot of snow, or where there's a lot of stuff going on and it's distracting, but yeah, next time we need to be at the Ponderosa.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
On a good day.
I think Cody says it has 10,000 people here on a good day and I think that's.
Half of it is horses and cows.
I'll be honest, it's not a lot of people here it's a cool town we love this town.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It is very cool, yeah, yeah.
So we got here Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Saturday.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And then Sunday, remember what Sunday was.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You know, neither one of us remembered what Sunday was at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Sunday was our 35th wedding anniversary.
Y'all 35 years, 35 years.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I made that joke.
That's like, literally, we had talked about for the last two weeks before about, hey, it's our 35th anniversary coming up.
It's our anniversary, it's like I got big plans and I'm like when you're driving Harvey on the road.
You can only have so many big plans, and we both woke up that morning and it was, you know, a weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It was a sleeping day after a very long drive on Saturday, when you work and live and travel on the road.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
weekends are amazing, so you sleep in.
We both woke up late.
We had a great wake up.
I made coffee and we were we like to catch up on our YouTube friends and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, because everybody posts on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
We were up at least an hour before you.
We were watching our journey in miles with Mark and Sue.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And all of a sudden I was looking down at my Facebook and a picture of me and my mom came up on my Facebook and the.
Facebook memories and I'm like huh, why is that?
And I was clearly in my wedding dress.
And I'm like huh, why is that picture coming up at my memories?
And then I'm like oh my gosh, it's our anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And I looked at her like oh yeah, I knew that oh happy anniversary babe.
You know like oh, totally forgot.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Baltimore's did.
We should get up and do something.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So I made some special anniversary coffee and in fact everything I did that morning, I called it anniversary whatever you know.
So yeah, that was pretty sad, considering we had planned planned, planned and then failed at the end.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So it was fun.
I mean when, like when, everyday life it's Valentine's Day, every day is an anniversary, so all that means is anniversary Valentine's Day nobody can get into a restaurant because they're packed.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So that just means you can't get into a restaurant.
But we make better food in here, in here anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So what did we do for our anniversary when we finally figured it out?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You mean, besides the awesome coffee I made for you?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
and breakfast.
It was a nice.
You're right, I made an awesome breakfast that morning we got to go to Yellowstone again.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yellowstone no more.
Importantly, we went in a different entrance.
We've been to Yellowstone three or four times.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
In fact, it was two years ago on our anniversary that we went down and spent the day in Yellowstone from White Sulphur Springs, montana, that's right, and it was our anniversary two years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It seems to be a repeating pattern.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It's through the North entrance, which is at Livingston and Gardner.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And so, yeah, you're right, we had driven like two hours from White Sulphur Springs to get to Livingston and go through Gardner and we've been in that entrance before.
We loved it.
And you're right, this was cool.
We'd never been to Cody.
We'd heard people coming in the East entrance, and so we're here in Cody and it's about an hour and 15 minutes or so to the entrance and we got to go in there and it was just stunning.
(06:23):
Like every entrance you go in Yellowstone, you're just like blown away at how beautiful it is, and they're just so different.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Because it did take about an hour to get to the gate, the East entrance, but you go through the well, first of all Buffalo Bill State Park and the reservoir and the dam that he built out there, and then you go through the Shashone National Forest and that was amazing before you get to the East entrance of Yellowstone where we went in and yeah, the weird thing is like we had picked a day where we always look at the weather when she's like planning on our trips and stuff and it was like a mixed bag here of like where the weather?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
because we had to look at the weather in Cody but also in Yellowstone and it was very different.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It was all four seasons in one day, basically Exactly, we saw snow, it was hot, it was rain.
It was just crazy yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But the other interesting thing, when we went in the entrance there was rockfalls that actually hit the road and covered it?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, there was debris?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, and it just happened.
And they asked us when we went through the gates hey, did you see debris and rockfalls?
On the road and we were like, yeah, and the reason I remember is because there was lots of bikers that day Motorcycles, motorcycles and they were having.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
There's a ton of motorcycles here in town.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
They love Cody, by the way yeah it's cool town for bikers, motorcycles, but they had to go through all these rocks on the ground.
For a car, no big deal.
For a Jeep like ours, no big deal.
But I can't imagine on a bike the challenge there.
And it's because the whole along the way these very sharp cliffs and stuff and rocks are falling all the time.
It's just, it's amazing, but there is some debris.
(08:10):
Danger, danger will rob them.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, so that was super fun and yeah, so that was our anniversary.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It was and it was fantastic.
We spent the entire day there.
We got just like last time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
We thought we were going to get out of there.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
We said, oh, we'll get out no problem.
And last time we got out super late.
Same thing happened here Got out super late.
We just totally missed time.
How big that park is.
And our anniversary dinner ended up being yeah, it was like half we split a sandwich.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Cranberry chicken salad sandwich, it was.
It was a gift shop or the good, though it was very good.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know when you're hungry, everything's good, but it wasn't like Cheetos and you know whatever.
So it was good, but it was from like the little yeah the actual park cafe thing, but we actually chose what kind of sandwich they made and that was the most sophisticated ones.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It was good.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But yeah, we got home late, but it was fantastic.
It took more amazing pictures and we got to see things we hadn't seen before.
I love that park, so thank you for planning that trip.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That was amazing, yeah, so that was the first awesome thing about Cody Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And then that's not your favorite thing.
Sometimes, when you go to a new town, what do you?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
love.
Then, okay, the next morning I got to get up and go ride the trolley.
Ding, ding, ding, it was so fun, close the trolley I mean, I got to ride it and beaut the week before.
And so this was the Cody trolley, which is all about Buffalo Bill, because Buffalo Bill, cody, established this town back in 1896.
(09:52):
Wow, and Buffalo Bill.
I didn't really know that much about him before, but now I do.
He was a Pony Express rider.
He was a military scout and a Buffalo Hunter, which is how he got his name.
He was an Indian scout and worked with the Native Americans as the, as the.
(10:14):
You know, with the Westward expansion and the people coming out, and he was a showman.
He established.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
he very much like me.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, he created.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which was at that time back in the very early 1900s, was known around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
They traveled around the world Like Queen, the Queen of England.
That actually was expressed.
They took the show to.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Europe and Queen Victoria apparently became Buffalo Bill's very special friend.
We're trying to figure out how special that was because there's a lot of references, yeah, rumors and innuendos and she even provided gifts and stuff afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Damn.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
There is a hotel downtown Cody called the Irma Hotel, which Buffalo Bill built and named after his youngest daughter.
It's still in business today.
It's where.
It's where the trolley starts.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's a hotspot there.
When we drove through town, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So for the Irma Hotel, queen Victoria actually sent over the entire Cherrywood bar.
That is the basis for the Irma Hotel.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, so he did something amazing.
You impressed her yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Good job, buddy.
So yes, and then.
So in 1896, he came back to Cody, an area that he had been through before and loved, and he came back specifically to develop a tourist town.
This is the entrepreneur.
(12:06):
He was an entrepreneur anyway.
Okay, so he established Cody Wyoming and he is responsible for carving out the road that went from Cody to, and he made the East entrance to, yellowstone National Park.
(12:26):
Yeah, so pretty impressive Very impressive.
This is Buffalo Bill Cody's town.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What's funny, though, is when you walk around town.
There's quite a few Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Bills walking around town.
I wonder how many Buffalo Bills they are, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It's kind of like at Christmas you see a lot of Santa Clauses, so here you see quite a few Buffalo Bills, which is really cool because they all look authentic.
I'll be honest, they're great yeah.
He had the little goatee and very long curly hair.
Yeah the outfit.
They look great.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So then what?
What else did we do?
Well, my favorite thing is Took you out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's right.
My favorite thing is so I didn't get to get to go on the trolley.
I rarely do, but that's okay.
I'm not in love with the trolley, it's like my wife is.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I get to scout out the history and the places that we have to go back to, but she hooked me up, okay, so normally she's like, oh, we'll just go out and have dinner.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
She's like, okay, we're going to go out to have dinner and there's a little show there and then we'll go to the rodeo.
She played it down like that and we go to this place.
I shut down my work and I was like put on my little outfit, put my vest on, put my hat on.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Got a cowboy boots on.
This was last night, Thursday night.
It's been a crazy week.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So we had such a good time, so we went to the Cody cattle company dinner and show the three C's and it's a place where they have this huge room and it's set up with family style tables and there's a stage at one end and you walk in and people meet you and greet you and ask you if you're going to the rodeo and they give you tickets.
(14:05):
And Buffalo Bill was there, one of the many Buffalo bills is there and you go there to have this family style dinner and a show, and that's just before the rodeo and it was fantastic.
So we had such a good time.
The food was great because normally when you go to like feeding mass people, the food's like meh.
(14:25):
But in the end we compared it to what we did in Madora North.
Dakota which is the Madora musical.
So I don't think we've got to that in any of the podcasts.
We'll go through that in another episode, but that was amazing as well.
This was equally as good, both the food and the show.
The band the band was at the dinner show At the dinner show inside that while you're, you know, after you've eaten, the band which, by the way, we didn't realize to the band comes out that some of those most of the band members were also serving and bringing stuff out.
(14:57):
They all act like they're just working there and next thing you know they're on stage and they were stunning.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They were great, amazing, and Ryan Martin and the CCC.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The Cattle.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Cody Cattle Company.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
They're hilarious, they play all types of music, everybody's happy, and it was just amazing If we had just done that.
If you'd just take me out for that, I would have been super happy there's more.
In fact, they're super careful to say don't worry, we're going to make sure you don't get late to the rodeo, and so they hustle us out after an hour long show there and we go to the rodeo and we love rodeos.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Cody night rodeo, which has been in business, okay, every single night, june, july and August, at 8pm they run the Cody night rodeo.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You don't know what to do tonight.
Go to the rodeo, because there's a rodeo.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And if you come to Cody you have to go to the night rodeo.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And the rodeo here is amazing.
So these people know how to do a rodeo.
So there's like there's all sorts of activities for kids and professionals and it's very cool and it is real rodeo with bulls and horses and it's just a cabs and all that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Cody is known as the rodeo capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
They proved it last night, and that was just Thursday night rodeo for us, and for them it was like you know, yeah, we do this every night.
It was amazing and they pointed out this was like the sunset was going behind the mountains that go by Yellowstone and we're at the rodeo.
It was just stunning.
So, so good, and it was like two, three hours, I don't know how long it was.
It was great.
(16:39):
Two hours, two hours, two hours.
So.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And we'd been to a big rodeo in San Antonio Again.
This was like two years ago, and that's only to say we had gone to this huge rodeo in a in a state in an inside stadium.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I mean it was huge, and the really cool thing about this was we were just right there on the dirt practically throwing in your face on this kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So it was.
It was so much fun and apparently they do have the reason they're known as the rodeo capital of the world.
And this night rodeo has been going on for 85 years, since 1938.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
But before that, what was before that they?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
had the.
They had the Cody stampede.
That's the thing that's been going since 1919, 104 years, wow.
They celebrated in July.
Wow and it's, you know, world known.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
It's a little bit before I was born, just a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So yeah, Yellowstone, the trolley tour, Buffalo Bill, the Cody cattle company, dinner and show and the night rodeo.
Those are the things you have to do when you come to Cody.
There's so many things to do.
We're going to see and do.
We're going to have to come back sometime.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
We are, so let's get this started.
We love this town, you can tell we loved it and she did an amazing job getting us here and getting us to the rodeo.
But, what is our topic today?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Well, in you know, honor of our 35th wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, we kind of forgot, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
We're going to talk about.
A frequently asked question that we do get is how do you live and work together, traveling full time in a 40 foot motor home?
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
That is an excellent question and you know we always talk about.
This is all about the RV, work, life balance and the challenge is like when you're living in a small space, that's one thing, but when you're working in a small space, it adds additional challenges, doesn't it?
It really does.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And you think you know we've been married 35 years, which I don't know.
How that's possible when we're like we're only 29.
I know.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Like something.
The math is wrong there.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Right, and our kids know Anyway.
So yeah, we've been married 35 years and maybe it helps that we know each other so well.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I can't imagine doing this as a newlywed.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Really.
But it still has its challenges and it still took some time to figure it out.
You know, for most of those 35 years we were kind of kind of had separate lives, at least during the day when we were working and raising kids and we were mom and dad for a good reason.
(19:39):
We were like, well, we're just good, 28, 29 years there.
And then All of a sudden we were now full time alone 24, seven, 365 days a year on this adventure.
In what?
400 square feet of space?
This is a tiny house on wheels it is.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And the funny thing is like we kind of had a little bit of prep for this.
Like everyone, we all had to go through the vortex of the COVID virus, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And it forced us to have to.
We lived in a small condo in downtown Seattle during that time and our youngest son came home, so it was three of us in a really small space.
The two of us are awesome together.
To be honest, our son he likes his space too.
It became a little complicated, but we had practice there.
Right, you didn't see me at work and all of a sudden I was on Zoom in the house which I've never been right.
(20:37):
You didn't know any of that stuff and all of a sudden it was there.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But it was good practice.
It was for this experience now.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
We had to work out Just in like a third of the space.
Sir, we had to work out how I could make sure you guys could walk around, how I could get internet, how we could do the daily patterns cause I would just get my coffee at work and stuff.
I wouldn't worry about some of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Right and I didn't have to worry about him all day when he was off at work.
But now we are, we do.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So what are the things that like in our rig, you know, is Charlie the unicorn, and so what are the things about Charlie that make this work?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Well, fortunately when we bought Charlie, when we found Charlie and bought this RV cause we weren't thinking really about working full time forever in this RV but fortunately there's some things about Charlie that just have really helped make it work.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
So we really almost like we got lucky.
Where we were, like that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And in the end we're like wow that does that matter, and one of the biggest things about it's the layout right.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and you called it when you first walked into the first rig of this and you said I could do this and it was like the layout.
I never paid attention to that.
I didn't know we were buying a rig, right.
But you're right, you were like I could do this and it was something about the layout.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, it's a 40 foot RV, which there are bigger, and that's fine, but this was just more spacious than I expected.
Well, when I thought we were just going out for a, week and then just in getaways Camping or something yeah, but fortunately the layout is such that we have the bedroom is in the back.
(22:30):
There's a nice big heavy slider door, wood door that separates the back bedroom from the front of the RV.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And the back bedroom has its own bathroom.
It's full bath back there, right.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How many bathrooms?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
We have one and a half, two, okay, one and a half two toilets.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's the important thing.
That's the important thing.
Good point.
And when we first walked into this RV I'm like what would we ever possibly need two bathrooms for?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You were trying to get what put in there, like, if we pull the toilet out, what could we put in here?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I'm like could we make this into a pantry, Because really there's not a lot of cabinet space in the main area and I was on board.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I was like, yeah, why do we need this?
Now I'm like, oh, my goodness, I'm so glad we didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Thank goodness we have that extra bathroom, Because so in the back I have the bedroom, which is my office and area, and a full bathroom and the whole bathroom rests up here on the other side of the sliding heavy wood sliding doors that cut out a lot of sounding noise.
(23:39):
He has the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the half bath.
And the refrigerator, so that, more than anything, the separate bedroom, the separate two rooms and the two bathrooms so let's give an example of why this matters.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Right, we're visually describing this layout for a reason, because we didn't actually think about it at the time, because we were gonna go camping and stuff.
We're just getting out of the house.
But the funny thing is is when you both work and you're both trying to have your different schedules, we had to figure out what this looked like.
So let's talk through a typical day of why these spaces matter.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Well, you'll have to start because you can at first.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So yeah, and we've talked about this.
I stay on Pacific time, even though we go coast to coast.
I stay on Pacific time.
So I typically get up first and I'm I think I'm a decent husband and I get up and I make coffee for my wife, you're an awesome husband.
I just stay out of the way.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I just want you to say that I figure he needs to have his time in the bathroom, he needs to get dressed, you know, whatever, whatever.
I don't want to get in the way, make him late, so I just stay in bed because I'm not on rest coast coming.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
That's what she says she's like, stay out of my way, yeah.
Which is like, as she snuggles in, it snores over there, Exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So so I get up.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I get ready, I make the coffee, I deliver her coffee and I close the middle door is one of the like.
That's this the part of the beginning of my day.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
He leaves the coffee on the dress before me.
So that then I get up.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, it's kind of like rest time, which is on Pacific coast, and sherry time, which is, I think that's like, yeah, eastern Europe time or something like that, or London time, I'm not sure what time that is.
I stay up a little bit later so most of the time at night, yeah, anyway anyway, but a big part of this is like our typical day is because are these two times?
(25:37):
But a lot of this typical day also has.
We deal with weekends and we'll get back to this, but the weekends is important for sleep and so there's like these Sleep and days.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Sleep and days.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, we love it and yeah, and so there's different patterns around the rig of, like, when it's the Monday through Friday in fact, friday is a little different too, but Monday through Friday and then weekends, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So he gets up and starts his day and leaves my coffee for me, and then I get up and do my thing and get ready for the day and try to work out a little bit my little space back there.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, I never work out.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And then generally I have a couple of hours to work.
I have my desk.
Set up is back in the bedroom and it's just a fold out wooden desk, I guess like a TV tray, and I have a.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
What's a full, but it's nice.
It's a full size desk, yeah, kind of thing.
It's not like sit on your lap or something.
It's not one of those little tin things that you know, but it's a ton better than that, no but it's nice.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I like my full that desk.
And then I have a folding chair that again is wood and has a nice upholstered seat, so it's not one of those metal folding chairs.
And that chair stays up all the time, except on travel days, and then it folds up nicely and sets up on the bed and my desk and are we talking about this?
(27:05):
And the equipment I have?
I have my own printer.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's our favorite thing, which you should never have a printer as your favorite thing to rig.
It's just like paper everywhere.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He tried so hard.
He's like no, you cannot have paper, there's nowhere to keep all this stuff.
Go digital.
And I I I'm a writer.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We are killing trees coast to coast right now it's just part of the process.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And then books.
Okay, we're not going to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
It's just a moment.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I have switched over to Kindle for the most part, even though I still love paper books and uh, but okay, I read on Kindle but I can't write.
I'm working on it but it's hard.
I love paper and pen pencil, but anyway.
So, yes, I have a little print.
(27:58):
I have a little printer.
It's awesome.
We'll put it in our little Amazon recommendations or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So so now we kind of get the intro about how our day starts.
What's interesting is when you know when I would go to the office.
I did one problem when I came home to the condo.
You know we had some considerations about how to deal and make sure that you and our son could walk around and stuff and I wouldn't be on camera.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So we had to deal with different considerations.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, what are the considerations of you know, when we're working here, like one of the things I'll I always point out is like we can hear each other, like even through the head, even yeah, even through that.
So I'm usually wearing headphones because I'm on zoom the whole time, so I don't hear as much usually unless it's too loud.
(28:43):
And then, you know, my favorite time sometimes is when the AC is kick on because it adds an additional, you know white noise to the room.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, well, it kind of buffers it with the door and the AC and the quiet and you wear your headphones all day.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And I can't tell if other people can hear, but I don't think they can, Although occasionally you don't hear stuff, but I hear stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
No, I hear, I hear you all day.
No, russ has no inside voice and he has a lot of enthusiasm about the stuff he does For work.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So real quick, and I might have told this before.
I'm very loud, and when you put headphones on me I'm even louder, kind of like now.
But when I was going into the office I would again still be on zoom and I would still be talking to people all around the world, and when I do that I'm very loud.
And so my cube mate that would sit next to me At one point walked over and we had little whiteboards on our walls and stuff and he wrote just as he was walking out he's like right, use insides, inside voice.
(29:51):
And he walked away and I was on a call and I couldn't stop laughing.
I had to hit mute because I was laughing so loud, because I knew exactly that everyone around me knew exactly what I said every day.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Because he talks really loud and fast and I'm enthusiastic and I talk fast, yeah, and you're not even in sales.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
No, I don't even do sales, I just love what I do.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So yeah, as a result of that, I pretty much know everything about Russ's job, which I never did for 35 years of our marriage, or 30 years, I don't know.
It's not very interesting sometimes.
Oh no, I find it fascinating, so I know everything his whole pitch, all the problems, all the different people and players.
(30:39):
They know me a little bit.
They only know you a little bit, because this has happened a few times.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I'm really good when I'm on Zoom, that when I'm not talking I'm on mute because I can't control the stuff around my rig and stuff.
But occasionally, you know, my wife sneezes, for example, and stuff, and she's a loud sneezer and so it's been really funny because occasionally I can't hit mute fast enough and she sneezes and she's in the other room and somebody over there one of my other friends I'm like one of my other colleague goes bless you, and I'm like, oh my goodness, so I have to hit mute until my wife.
(31:17):
They said bless you.
So.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I mean the things you all have heard over the last two, three years, with everybody working from home everybody's pets, kids.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
it's all cool, but it's just funny.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So yeah, the sneeze.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And then I guess the other thing is is our laundry cycles.
I don't do laundry during the day, yeah, when you're on Zoom.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So this we didn't know when we got the rig.
We didn't know this at all.
So you know, our rig is pretty bougie or fancy, we say because we think it's nice and it's got a washer and dryer in it.
Yeah, but the funny thing is, when you wash the, when you run the washer, what happens?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
The entire rig shakes, it shakes like you're in an earthquake which is also OK.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Because you're like oh, this is kind of cool, except when you're on Zoom and it looks like you're, everybody thinks you're in an earthquake.
It's crazy, because it does shake the whole rig.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
We called it the magic fingers, if you remember Motus Six from the seventies or whatnot.
Yeah, you put the 50 cents in the bed and it would shake and stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, it's like that, except on Zoom it looks like you know you're crashing in a huge earthquake, so I always have to turn off my camera and like so we don't do laundry.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
We don't do laundry during the day, during the day, anymore, because of that.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
No, and then I like music and then sometimes that happens where I like.
I have a pattern when I play music and stuff, like when I'm not on calls, and you're able to tell part of my schedule, because of that?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, because I can be back in my little domain and then I'll hear him say talk to the Google box.
Hey, Google, play the music.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That means I'm not on a call.
Oh, OK.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I can come out, we can, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
yeah, it's kind of fun because yeah, and I don't care what music, I'm just like I need something to do the working.
And then one of the other things that comes out is which is strange, which I didn't have to deal with before, Because when you live in a house, or a stick some bricks, as we like to say you know the sun rises and sets in the same way, the same places.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, which affects your zoom view.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah Well, I was going to say the house is always the same, Right, but in the rig we're always pointed a different direction, a different part of the world, and so, yeah, I always have to choose which of the shades I'm going to bring up, because I'm usually waking up right around sunrise, sometimes before, and if it's going to affect my zoom stuff, I don't open it.
(33:52):
So it's not the same every morning.
Every week I have to replan what the morning is going to be, which is interesting, it's OK, it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
So what else about our offices and desks and office spaces?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, I talked about my desk and office space and you have your office space out here in the main room.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, so my office space is a it's a little bigger.
I'm not saying it's better, I said bigger.
I sit on the couch over there and I have a unique desk.
It is actually our coffee table, but the coffee table has it lifts up.
The top lifts up and goes towards me, so it's kind of like a desk desk and so I'm able to put an extra monitor.
(34:39):
I'm able to put my iPad because I do go all digital.
I moved away from paper before we hit the road.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I think it's so amazing.
It's it's.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I write, take all my notes on my iPad, so there is no paper anywhere.
I have an external keyboard.
I have a full desk with, with a clip on light, that project.
So while I'm on Zoom, it looks good, but all of the stuff collapses down to really small space when we travel.
So, yeah, my desk is very nice, it's.
Is it the most comfortable?
I wouldn't say yes, but again, I'll trade what I have now for for this to be able to do what we do.
(35:14):
So, I love it.
I do love it.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Well, and it's also interesting because you are on Zoom Primarily you are kind of stuck in that space because you have your whole setup and the monitors and the camera and all that thing, whereas I don't have those limitations so that I'm able to move around and come out.
(35:40):
I can work in the back, but I can only work back there for so long and I need to come out.
And thankfully he's got the setup which is the zoom faces the wall and he has his background up there, so I can come out and walk freely in the main area.
I can go out if I need to.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
She can go anywhere.
Nobody can see her, so yeah my office is totally mobile.
You can go outside, you can go shopping and no one will know.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I go to the library sometimes.
I love the book.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
It is a good setup for being able to move around, and that was always important to us.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So yeah, yeah, the other.
Oh, sorry.
Well, I was just going to say you do have a good position out here and that you can come out and work, and you're right next to the coffee machine.
I was going to say that too.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yeah, no, that's what I said.
So we've got the coffee pot sitting right next to me and I drink 90% of the coffee every morning, so unfortunately I'm a very big coffee drinker, so it's great.
I jump off my poor coffee occasionally, go to the restroom, I grab snacks and stuff, and I never have to go either.
If you're still sleeping, I never have to wake you up.
(36:51):
It is nice the way the rig is set up such that you're flexible to go what you want, but I get basically everything I need with the refrigerator, the bathroom, the coffee pot and my desk all in one area.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, it's great.
Plus, you can see out the big window.
When you got the window views, I do.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
That's the other good point, when I'm opening all the when I liked, you know, because I'm going to sit there and zoom all day long I don't get to go outside.
Most time I open up all the shades and we have like five or six windows up here and it is nice because then, wherever you've taken us to, you know, it's nice because I can see the mountains, the rivers, the water.
Sometimes it's just the RVs, but I get to see people coming and going.
(37:29):
And when you're sitting there on zoom and everybody's talking to you, I get an interesting view all day long, so I'm not going to complain.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I like it, you know.
Yeah, yeah, it's very cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Well, the only other thing I'd make a comment about is, like you know, it's important for us.
We've figured out the internet for us too, although I haven't quite solved it for you.
In the back, the internet is sketchy in the back of the rig, so I've got to work on that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Especially if I close the doors, but fortunately I just I.
It's also cool too that we have our separate spaces, yep, but at the same time, and we've learned to accommodate each other's schedules and we kind of have our own times.
But the cool thing is is long, about noon, one o'clock in the afternoon, when I can hear he has a break, and even before that I can walk out and if I want more coffee I'll grab his cup, staying off camera, of course.
(38:27):
And very very quietly, I'll refill his coffee, or or then a lunchtime when.
I can tell he's got a break or he's let me know what his schedule is and when the break is we can have lunch together.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, A lot of times I'll actually tell you hey, I'm making lunch right now because I'm off and I'll whip up the lunch and then we set it up in the cafe, in the front.
We call the front of the rig with the big window, the cafe, with our two table, our two chairs and tables.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Those are the most comfortable chairs in the entire rig.
So the driver's seat and the passenger seat, which spin around.
So we can face them up in the window or back to the conversation area in the living room so we could have lunch together every day, and I really enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, Cause a lot of times when I would go to the office I would just sit at my desk and eat my lunch alone.
Sometimes I would go to the rooftop place, which would be nice, but it wouldn't be like hanging out with you and talking about what's what you've done this morning what's going on later today.
It's really nice.
I really do like it.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, and we take turns making lunch.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
It just depends on who's in the middle of something.
I pointed that out only because occasionally I make lunch, you whip up a great lunch, but this week I did some um, uh, the chicken salad.
Oh, the chicken salad.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was really good, yeah, he just makes things up.
I do, I win.
It's like whatever we have, okay, all right, I don't think we vomited from it.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
yet it's been and we made it up.
It was really good.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So, um, the other thing is with our schedules and Russ being on rest time, which is primarily Pacific coast time, so with his job, um, it's also really nice that during the day again, if he has a break in the, in the calls and all the business stuff we get to we get, I'll take him out for a walk because, he needs to get out of there.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
I'm like the pan Take me.
He needs to stand up and we use our.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I'm like let's go outside and take a walk.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Our watch is to counter step, so I get some credit for that.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
So yeah, Cause otherwise, sometimes work gets the best of us and we just.
You know, hours can go by before you realize.
Oh yeah, it would be good to take a walk and stretch your legs.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
It is nice and sometimes we're just taking the garbage out, but it's nice because we get to then drop the garbage and walk the actual campground and get our steps.
Last week it was just, and we have horses here too, yeah we do.
We had them last week, we have them here too, and they're it's not the family of horses, but they're adorable horses over there.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yeah, we talked about them.
Horses in Idaho yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, yeah.
So I guess we it's a good time to kind of wrap this up We've done a good job of covering the the essentials.
Yeah, the essentials of work life, balance, of how we work together.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
It's such a teeny, tiny, small, little space.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Exactly, and while it's challenging, these are the things we thought were valuable to kind of make this work.
Yeah Right, so number one I think it kind of comes down to a good RV layout, and we talked about that.
I'm like what's going to make it work?
If you're again, if you're vacationing in a space, it's less important, right, you're just kind of winging it, but when you're working, it's really important to have your space.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's going to fit to your requirements.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, right, no, it works.
So if you're just looking, you have the benefit of thinking about these things.
Yeah, we didn't think about this.
No, and we it just worked out.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
We got lucky and and we've talked to people this is our, our first rig, and some people we know if they've had their first rig for a long time.
But there's this kind of pattern in some of the YouTubers they talk about like some people switch their rigs quite often while they're figuring out what works for them.
And, and if you're going to work, think about this, think about how you might figure out where your space is and your partner space is while you're working.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
And how to make that work.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, so the other part, the second thing that we think is kind of important, is the right equipment.
What you need and you know my wife Sherry has talked about the desks, you know we've talked about that- and it has to be portable and stowable, right yeah, like your desk folds up and we could put it in what we call the basement.
The space underneath Mine folds back down and becomes the coffee table for God's sake.
(42:44):
So and and the tech to make that work.
So all of my tech folds up into a backpack and goes up into the storage area above our bed, so it's like it's not in the way when we're not working.
So that's really important.
Yeah, and then I guess there's a whole bunch of considerations is the word we're using about working together, right?
(43:05):
So what are some of those considerations that we think are really important?
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Well, we talked about our.
Our schedules, yeah, based on what's going on and what you need to do, and and and noise.
And you know sneezing quieter and saving the laundry to the end of the day, and you know, really considering the impact of your actions on the other person's job and working conditions.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Yeah, cause if I wasn't on Zoom, we'd have less worries, right we?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
could do a lot of things, and so you know that is a challenge, but you know, we work around it.
We work around it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
And then there's positives, though, right.
Yeah, there's a lot of positives you mentioned the being able to refill the coffee and and you know I'm bringing you coffee in the morning but you refill mine quite often, which is really cool and I love that.
And our lunches together is one of my favorite times.
Yeah so and we didn't get to do that prior to this which is really really cool.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
And then I think the that one of the most important things that we do is every night and we try Sometimes it extends the work day extends a little bit, but we both make the effort by dinner time to shut the offices down.
We close the computers, we put them away, organize our space so that it's not Sherry's office all over the entire bedroom, Because I do use that king size bed for a great table.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
If I'm working on a project or something.
Anyway, and yeah, just putting everything away and not dragging it on into the night and then, yeah, so Friday afternoons, is like my favorite time.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, today I love it Because you know we've had, we're having, this is our Friday afternoon right now.
We have big travel plans tomorrow.
Love Friday afternoon, so this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And Russ takes that whole desk, that whole folding setup with the two monitors and the this and the that and the wires and the lights and all this whole thing and it all folds up into that fold out coffee table thing.
And I guess you put some back in your.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah, and then we use it as a coffee table.
We eat food and watch our projection TV on it.
We put our feet up on it like everyone's coffee table.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It becomes a normal coffee table.
I love that.
So it's not an open office during the weekend, and mine's not either.
I put everything away back, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
So anyways, so that's kind of like what the top things we think are important to this RV world Work, life balance and being able to, you know, make it work in, especially in a small space.
And I really want to thank the listeners for the podcast and if you get a chance, take a look at the show notes.
We'll put the links for products and any of the kind of other related links that are there.
(46:02):
And if you're new, we want to, we want you to subscribe.
We really want to thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And, if you're not new, our existing subscribers.
We love you guys so much.
Thank you for your support and for being with us on this adventure and, I guess, the most important thing we want to leave you with today, because our goal is to share what we've learned about RV, work, life balance, how we do this, so that maybe it sparks some ideas and dreams and action for other people that want to pursue the dream.
(46:43):
So the most important thing is to make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
So are you ready.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I'm ready, let's go, let's get out there.
Bye.
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back with you.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Just as soon as we can.
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance Podcast with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Woo, thanks for joining us one more time.
This is an awesome adventure we're on, isn't it?
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yay, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That was not the best.
Yay, come on now.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Sorry I'm coming in late Late.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm going to start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Thank, you Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Great, so we enjoy the end of the day where we get a chance to kind of recap what's been going on.
So cheers to everyone there, and I'm going to start.
This is getting annoying.
I got to find a new way to intro this, like where the heck are we today?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Today this week we are in Cody Y Oming at the Cody Trout Ranch Campground, which is a little bit out of sighted town.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, it's like 10 minutes or 10 miles.
Yeah, it's about 10 miles, 10 miles outside of town.
It's cool, because whenever you say okay, the similar thing.
When you first told me I was, we were going to drive here, it was.
It's a trout farm and the last time I had an animal in a place it was.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
The Bison Ranch.
Bison Ranch, yeah Right, and that was a really cool place.
Yeah, this is not that.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I expected, like you know, like the bison walking everywhere and getting to feed them.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That was amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, we don't get to feed the trout and I don't get to do anything cool with the trout.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That was the Terry Bison Ranch outside of Cheyenne, wyoming last year.
So cool, yeah, loved it.
Yeah, this is not that, it's nice.
It's nice, it's on the river.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But I was imagining, equally as cool as the Bison Ranch, that we'd be going and catching trout in our bare hands and throwing them on a fire or what not, I don't know, so it's a nice place.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
But we're outside.
Okay, I think that next time we come to Cody, because we do need to come back there's just so much here.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We love.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Cody.
So the next time we will most likely camp at the Ponderosa campground, which is right downtown in the heart of Cody, which I thought might be noisy and too much going on.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But Like Chicago or something like that.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, and then there's a lot of snow, or where there's a lot of stuff going on and it's distracting, but yeah, next time we need to be at the Ponderosa.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
On a good day.
I think Cody says it has 10,000 people here on a good day and I think that's.
Half of it is horses and cows.
I'll be honest, it's not a lot of people here it's a cool town we love this town.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
It is very cool, yeah, yeah.
So we got here Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Saturday.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And then Sunday, remember what Sunday was.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
You know, neither one of us remembered what Sunday was at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Sunday was our 35th wedding anniversary.
Y'all 35 years, 35 years.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I made that joke.
That's like, literally, we had talked about for the last two weeks before about, hey, it's our 35th anniversary coming up.
It's our anniversary, it's like I got big plans and I'm like when you're driving Harvey on the road.
You can only have so many big plans, and we both woke up that morning and it was, you know, a weekend.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It was a sleeping day after a very long drive on Saturday, when you work and live and travel on the road.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
weekends are amazing, so you sleep in.
We both woke up late.
We had a great wake up.
I made coffee and we were we like to catch up on our YouTube friends and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, because everybody posts on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
We were up at least an hour before you.
We were watching our journey in miles with Mark and Sue.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And all of a sudden I was looking down at my Facebook and a picture of me and my mom came up on my Facebook and the.
Facebook memories and I'm like huh, why is that?
And I was clearly in my wedding dress.
And I'm like huh, why is that picture coming up at my memories?
And then I'm like oh my gosh, it's our anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And I looked at her like oh yeah, I knew that oh happy anniversary babe.
You know like oh, totally forgot.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Baltimore's did.
We should get up and do something.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So I made some special anniversary coffee and in fact everything I did that morning, I called it anniversary whatever you know.
So yeah, that was pretty sad, considering we had planned planned, planned and then failed at the end.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So it was fun.
I mean when, like when, everyday life it's Valentine's Day, every day is an anniversary, so all that means is anniversary Valentine's Day nobody can get into a restaurant because they're packed.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So that just means you can't get into a restaurant.
But we make better food in here, in here anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So what did we do for our anniversary when we finally figured it out?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You mean, besides the awesome coffee I made for you?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
and breakfast.
It was a nice.
You're right, I made an awesome breakfast that morning we got to go to Yellowstone again.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yellowstone no more.
Importantly, we went in a different entrance.
We've been to Yellowstone three or four times.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
In fact, it was two years ago on our anniversary that we went down and spent the day in Yellowstone from White Sulphur Springs, montana, that's right, and it was our anniversary two years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
It seems to be a repeating pattern.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
It's through the North entrance, which is at Livingston and Gardner.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And so, yeah, you're right, we had driven like two hours from White Sulphur Springs to get to Livingston and go through Gardner and we've been in that entrance before.
We loved it.
And you're right, this was cool.
We'd never been to Cody.
We'd heard people coming in the East entrance, and so we're here in Cody and it's about an hour and 15 minutes or so to the entrance and we got to go in there and it was just stunning.
(06:23):
Like every entrance you go in Yellowstone, you're just like blown away at how beautiful it is, and they're just so different.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Because it did take about an hour to get to the gate, the East entrance, but you go through the well, first of all Buffalo Bill State Park and the reservoir and the dam that he built out there, and then you go through the Shashone National Forest and that was amazing before you get to the East entrance of Yellowstone where we went in and yeah, the weird thing is like we had picked a day where we always look at the weather when she's like planning on our trips and stuff and it was like a mixed bag here of like where the weather?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
because we had to look at the weather in Cody but also in Yellowstone and it was very different.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It was all four seasons in one day, basically Exactly, we saw snow, it was hot, it was rain.
It was just crazy yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But the other interesting thing, when we went in the entrance there was rockfalls that actually hit the road and covered it?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, there was debris?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, and it just happened.
And they asked us when we went through the gates hey, did you see debris and rockfalls?
On the road and we were like, yeah, and the reason I remember is because there was lots of bikers that day Motorcycles, motorcycles and they were having.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
There's a ton of motorcycles here in town.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
They love Cody, by the way yeah it's cool town for bikers, motorcycles, but they had to go through all these rocks on the ground.
For a car, no big deal.
For a Jeep like ours, no big deal.
But I can't imagine on a bike the challenge there.
And it's because the whole along the way these very sharp cliffs and stuff and rocks are falling all the time.
It's just, it's amazing, but there is some debris.
(08:10):
Danger, danger will rob them.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, so that was super fun and yeah, so that was our anniversary.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It was and it was fantastic.
We spent the entire day there.
We got just like last time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
We thought we were going to get out of there.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
We said, oh, we'll get out no problem.
And last time we got out super late.
Same thing happened here Got out super late.
We just totally missed time.
How big that park is.
And our anniversary dinner ended up being yeah, it was like half we split a sandwich.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Cranberry chicken salad sandwich, it was.
It was a gift shop or the good, though it was very good.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
You know when you're hungry, everything's good, but it wasn't like Cheetos and you know whatever.
So it was good, but it was from like the little yeah the actual park cafe thing, but we actually chose what kind of sandwich they made and that was the most sophisticated ones.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It was good.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
But yeah, we got home late, but it was fantastic.
It took more amazing pictures and we got to see things we hadn't seen before.
I love that park, so thank you for planning that trip.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That was amazing, yeah, so that was the first awesome thing about Cody Wyoming.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And then that's not your favorite thing.
Sometimes, when you go to a new town, what do you?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
love.
Then, okay, the next morning I got to get up and go ride the trolley.
Ding, ding, ding, it was so fun, close the trolley I mean, I got to ride it and beaut the week before.
And so this was the Cody trolley, which is all about Buffalo Bill, because Buffalo Bill, cody, established this town back in 1896.
(09:52):
Wow, and Buffalo Bill.
I didn't really know that much about him before, but now I do.
He was a Pony Express rider.
He was a military scout and a Buffalo Hunter, which is how he got his name.
He was an Indian scout and worked with the Native Americans as the, as the.
(10:14):
You know, with the Westward expansion and the people coming out, and he was a showman.
He established.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
he very much like me.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, he created.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which was at that time back in the very early 1900s, was known around the world.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
They traveled around the world Like Queen, the Queen of England.
That actually was expressed.
They took the show to.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Europe and Queen Victoria apparently became Buffalo Bill's very special friend.
We're trying to figure out how special that was because there's a lot of references, yeah, rumors and innuendos and she even provided gifts and stuff afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Damn.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
There is a hotel downtown Cody called the Irma Hotel, which Buffalo Bill built and named after his youngest daughter.
It's still in business today.
It's where.
It's where the trolley starts.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's a hotspot there.
When we drove through town, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So for the Irma Hotel, queen Victoria actually sent over the entire Cherrywood bar.
That is the basis for the Irma Hotel.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, so he did something amazing.
You impressed her yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Good job, buddy.
So yes, and then.
So in 1896, he came back to Cody, an area that he had been through before and loved, and he came back specifically to develop a tourist town.
This is the entrepreneur.
(12:06):
He was an entrepreneur anyway.
Okay, so he established Cody Wyoming and he is responsible for carving out the road that went from Cody to, and he made the East entrance to, yellowstone National Park.
(12:26):
Yeah, so pretty impressive Very impressive.
This is Buffalo Bill Cody's town.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What's funny, though, is when you walk around town.
There's quite a few Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Bills walking around town.
I wonder how many Buffalo Bills they are, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
It's kind of like at Christmas you see a lot of Santa Clauses, so here you see quite a few Buffalo Bills, which is really cool because they all look authentic.
I'll be honest, they're great yeah.
He had the little goatee and very long curly hair.
Yeah the outfit.
They look great.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So then what?
What else did we do?
Well, my favorite thing is Took you out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's right.
My favorite thing is so I didn't get to get to go on the trolley.
I rarely do, but that's okay.
I'm not in love with the trolley, it's like my wife is.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I get to scout out the history and the places that we have to go back to, but she hooked me up, okay, so normally she's like, oh, we'll just go out and have dinner.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
She's like, okay, we're going to go out to have dinner and there's a little show there and then we'll go to the rodeo.
She played it down like that and we go to this place.
I shut down my work and I was like put on my little outfit, put my vest on, put my hat on.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Got a cowboy boots on.
This was last night, Thursday night.
It's been a crazy week.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So we had such a good time, so we went to the Cody cattle company dinner and show the three C's and it's a place where they have this huge room and it's set up with family style tables and there's a stage at one end and you walk in and people meet you and greet you and ask you if you're going to the rodeo and they give you tickets.
(14:05):
And Buffalo Bill was there, one of the many Buffalo bills is there and you go there to have this family style dinner and a show, and that's just before the rodeo and it was fantastic.
So we had such a good time.
The food was great because normally when you go to like feeding mass people, the food's like meh.
(14:25):
But in the end we compared it to what we did in Madora North.
Dakota which is the Madora musical.
So I don't think we've got to that in any of the podcasts.
We'll go through that in another episode, but that was amazing as well.
This was equally as good, both the food and the show.
The band the band was at the dinner show At the dinner show inside that while you're, you know, after you've eaten, the band which, by the way, we didn't realize to the band comes out that some of those most of the band members were also serving and bringing stuff out.
(14:57):
They all act like they're just working there and next thing you know they're on stage and they were stunning.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
They were great, amazing, and Ryan Martin and the CCC.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The Cattle.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Cody Cattle Company.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
They're hilarious, they play all types of music, everybody's happy, and it was just amazing If we had just done that.
If you'd just take me out for that, I would have been super happy there's more.
In fact, they're super careful to say don't worry, we're going to make sure you don't get late to the rodeo, and so they hustle us out after an hour long show there and we go to the rodeo and we love rodeos.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
The Cody night rodeo, which has been in business, okay, every single night, june, july and August, at 8pm they run the Cody night rodeo.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You don't know what to do tonight.
Go to the rodeo, because there's a rodeo.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And if you come to Cody you have to go to the night rodeo.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And the rodeo here is amazing.
So these people know how to do a rodeo.
So there's like there's all sorts of activities for kids and professionals and it's very cool and it is real rodeo with bulls and horses and it's just a cabs and all that.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Cody is known as the rodeo capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
They proved it last night, and that was just Thursday night rodeo for us, and for them it was like you know, yeah, we do this every night.
It was amazing and they pointed out this was like the sunset was going behind the mountains that go by Yellowstone and we're at the rodeo.
It was just stunning.
So, so good, and it was like two, three hours, I don't know how long it was.
It was great.
(16:39):
Two hours, two hours, two hours.
So.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And we'd been to a big rodeo in San Antonio Again.
This was like two years ago, and that's only to say we had gone to this huge rodeo in a in a state in an inside stadium.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I mean it was huge, and the really cool thing about this was we were just right there on the dirt practically throwing in your face on this kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So it was.
It was so much fun and apparently they do have the reason they're known as the rodeo capital of the world.
And this night rodeo has been going on for 85 years, since 1938.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
But before that, what was before that they?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
had the.
They had the Cody stampede.
That's the thing that's been going since 1919, 104 years, wow.
They celebrated in July.
Wow and it's, you know, world known.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
It's a little bit before I was born, just a little bit yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So yeah, Yellowstone, the trolley tour, Buffalo Bill, the Cody cattle company, dinner and show and the night rodeo.
Those are the things you have to do when you come to Cody.
There's so many things to do.
We're going to see and do.
We're going to have to come back sometime.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
We are, so let's get this started.
We love this town, you can tell we loved it and she did an amazing job getting us here and getting us to the rodeo.
But, what is our topic today?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Well, in you know, honor of our 35th wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, we kind of forgot, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
We're going to talk about.
A frequently asked question that we do get is how do you live and work together, traveling full time in a 40 foot motor home?
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
That is an excellent question and you know we always talk about.
This is all about the RV, work, life balance and the challenge is like when you're living in a small space, that's one thing, but when you're working in a small space, it adds additional challenges, doesn't it?
It really does.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And you think you know we've been married 35 years, which I don't know.
How that's possible when we're like we're only 29.
I know.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Like something.
The math is wrong there.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Right, and our kids know Anyway.
So yeah, we've been married 35 years and maybe it helps that we know each other so well.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I can't imagine doing this as a newlywed.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Really.
But it still has its challenges and it still took some time to figure it out.
You know, for most of those 35 years we were kind of kind of had separate lives, at least during the day when we were working and raising kids and we were mom and dad for a good reason.
(19:39):
We were like, well, we're just good, 28, 29 years there.
And then All of a sudden we were now full time alone 24, seven, 365 days a year on this adventure.
In what?
400 square feet of space?
This is a tiny house on wheels it is.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And the funny thing is like we kind of had a little bit of prep for this.
Like everyone, we all had to go through the vortex of the COVID virus, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And it forced us to have to.
We lived in a small condo in downtown Seattle during that time and our youngest son came home, so it was three of us in a really small space.
The two of us are awesome together.
To be honest, our son he likes his space too.
It became a little complicated, but we had practice there.
Right, you didn't see me at work and all of a sudden I was on Zoom in the house which I've never been right.
(20:37):
You didn't know any of that stuff and all of a sudden it was there.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But it was good practice.
It was for this experience now.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
We had to work out Just in like a third of the space.
Sir, we had to work out how I could make sure you guys could walk around, how I could get internet, how we could do the daily patterns cause I would just get my coffee at work and stuff.
I wouldn't worry about some of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Right and I didn't have to worry about him all day when he was off at work.
But now we are, we do.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So what are the things that like in our rig, you know, is Charlie the unicorn, and so what are the things about Charlie that make this work?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Well, fortunately when we bought Charlie, when we found Charlie and bought this RV cause we weren't thinking really about working full time forever in this RV but fortunately there's some things about Charlie that just have really helped make it work.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
So we really almost like we got lucky.
Where we were, like that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And in the end we're like wow that does that matter, and one of the biggest things about it's the layout right.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, and you called it when you first walked into the first rig of this and you said I could do this and it was like the layout.
I never paid attention to that.
I didn't know we were buying a rig, right.
But you're right, you were like I could do this and it was something about the layout.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, it's a 40 foot RV, which there are bigger, and that's fine, but this was just more spacious than I expected.
Well, when I thought we were just going out for a, week and then just in getaways Camping or something yeah, but fortunately the layout is such that we have the bedroom is in the back.
(22:30):
There's a nice big heavy slider door, wood door that separates the back bedroom from the front of the RV.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And the back bedroom has its own bathroom.
It's full bath back there, right.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How many bathrooms?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
We have one and a half, two, okay, one and a half two toilets.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's the important thing.
That's the important thing.
Good point.
And when we first walked into this RV I'm like what would we ever possibly need two bathrooms for?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You were trying to get what put in there, like, if we pull the toilet out, what could we put in here?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I'm like could we make this into a pantry, Because really there's not a lot of cabinet space in the main area and I was on board.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I was like, yeah, why do we need this?
Now I'm like, oh, my goodness, I'm so glad we didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Thank goodness we have that extra bathroom, Because so in the back I have the bedroom, which is my office and area, and a full bathroom and the whole bathroom rests up here on the other side of the sliding heavy wood sliding doors that cut out a lot of sounding noise.
(23:39):
He has the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the half bath.
And the refrigerator, so that, more than anything, the separate bedroom, the separate two rooms and the two bathrooms so let's give an example of why this matters.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Right, we're visually describing this layout for a reason, because we didn't actually think about it at the time, because we were gonna go camping and stuff.
We're just getting out of the house.
But the funny thing is is when you both work and you're both trying to have your different schedules, we had to figure out what this looked like.
So let's talk through a typical day of why these spaces matter.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Well, you'll have to start because you can at first.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So yeah, and we've talked about this.
I stay on Pacific time, even though we go coast to coast.
I stay on Pacific time.
So I typically get up first and I'm I think I'm a decent husband and I get up and I make coffee for my wife, you're an awesome husband.
I just stay out of the way.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I just want you to say that I figure he needs to have his time in the bathroom, he needs to get dressed, you know, whatever, whatever.
I don't want to get in the way, make him late, so I just stay in bed because I'm not on rest coast coming.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
That's what she says she's like, stay out of my way, yeah.
Which is like, as she snuggles in, it snores over there, Exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
So so I get up.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I get ready, I make the coffee, I deliver her coffee and I close the middle door is one of the like.
That's this the part of the beginning of my day.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
He leaves the coffee on the dress before me.
So that then I get up.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, it's kind of like rest time, which is on Pacific coast, and sherry time, which is, I think that's like, yeah, eastern Europe time or something like that, or London time, I'm not sure what time that is.
I stay up a little bit later so most of the time at night, yeah, anyway anyway, but a big part of this is like our typical day is because are these two times?
(25:37):
But a lot of this typical day also has.
We deal with weekends and we'll get back to this, but the weekends is important for sleep and so there's like these Sleep and days.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Sleep and days.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, we love it and yeah, and so there's different patterns around the rig of, like, when it's the Monday through Friday in fact, friday is a little different too, but Monday through Friday and then weekends, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So he gets up and starts his day and leaves my coffee for me, and then I get up and do my thing and get ready for the day and try to work out a little bit my little space back there.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, I never work out.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And then generally I have a couple of hours to work.
I have my desk.
Set up is back in the bedroom and it's just a fold out wooden desk, I guess like a TV tray, and I have a.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
What's a full, but it's nice.
It's a full size desk, yeah, kind of thing.
It's not like sit on your lap or something.
It's not one of those little tin things that you know, but it's a ton better than that, no but it's nice.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I like my full that desk.
And then I have a folding chair that again is wood and has a nice upholstered seat, so it's not one of those metal folding chairs.
And that chair stays up all the time, except on travel days, and then it folds up nicely and sets up on the bed and my desk and are we talking about this?
(27:05):
And the equipment I have?
I have my own printer.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's our favorite thing, which you should never have a printer as your favorite thing to rig.
It's just like paper everywhere.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He tried so hard.
He's like no, you cannot have paper, there's nowhere to keep all this stuff.
Go digital.
And I I I'm a writer.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We are killing trees coast to coast right now it's just part of the process.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And then books.
Okay, we're not going to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
It's just a moment.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I have switched over to Kindle for the most part, even though I still love paper books and uh, but okay, I read on Kindle but I can't write.
I'm working on it but it's hard.
I love paper and pen pencil, but anyway.
So, yes, I have a little print.
(27:58):
I have a little printer.
It's awesome.
We'll put it in our little Amazon recommendations or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
So so now we kind of get the intro about how our day starts.
What's interesting is when you know when I would go to the office.
I did one problem when I came home to the condo.
You know we had some considerations about how to deal and make sure that you and our son could walk around and stuff and I wouldn't be on camera.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So we had to deal with different considerations.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, what are the considerations of you know, when we're working here, like one of the things I'll I always point out is like we can hear each other, like even through the head, even yeah, even through that.
So I'm usually wearing headphones because I'm on zoom the whole time, so I don't hear as much usually unless it's too loud.
(28:43):
And then, you know, my favorite time sometimes is when the AC is kick on because it adds an additional, you know white noise to the room.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, well, it kind of buffers it with the door and the AC and the quiet and you wear your headphones all day.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And I can't tell if other people can hear, but I don't think they can, Although occasionally you don't hear stuff, but I hear stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
No, I hear, I hear you all day.
No, russ has no inside voice and he has a lot of enthusiasm about the stuff he does For work.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So real quick, and I might have told this before.
I'm very loud, and when you put headphones on me I'm even louder, kind of like now.
But when I was going into the office I would again still be on zoom and I would still be talking to people all around the world, and when I do that I'm very loud.
And so my cube mate that would sit next to me At one point walked over and we had little whiteboards on our walls and stuff and he wrote just as he was walking out he's like right, use insides, inside voice.
(29:51):
And he walked away and I was on a call and I couldn't stop laughing.
I had to hit mute because I was laughing so loud, because I knew exactly that everyone around me knew exactly what I said every day.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Because he talks really loud and fast and I'm enthusiastic and I talk fast, yeah, and you're not even in sales.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
No, I don't even do sales, I just love what I do.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So yeah, as a result of that, I pretty much know everything about Russ's job, which I never did for 35 years of our marriage, or 30 years, I don't know.
It's not very interesting sometimes.
Oh no, I find it fascinating, so I know everything his whole pitch, all the problems, all the different people and players.
(30:39):
They know me a little bit.
They only know you a little bit, because this has happened a few times.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I'm really good when I'm on Zoom, that when I'm not talking I'm on mute because I can't control the stuff around my rig and stuff.
But occasionally, you know, my wife sneezes, for example, and stuff, and she's a loud sneezer and so it's been really funny because occasionally I can't hit mute fast enough and she sneezes and she's in the other room and somebody over there one of my other friends I'm like one of my other colleague goes bless you, and I'm like, oh my goodness, so I have to hit mute until my wife.
(31:17):
They said bless you.
So.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I mean the things you all have heard over the last two, three years, with everybody working from home everybody's pets, kids.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
it's all cool, but it's just funny.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So yeah, the sneeze.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And then I guess the other thing is is our laundry cycles.
I don't do laundry during the day, yeah, when you're on Zoom.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So this we didn't know when we got the rig.
We didn't know this at all.
So you know, our rig is pretty bougie or fancy, we say because we think it's nice and it's got a washer and dryer in it.
Yeah, but the funny thing is, when you wash the, when you run the washer, what happens?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
The entire rig shakes, it shakes like you're in an earthquake which is also OK.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Because you're like oh, this is kind of cool, except when you're on Zoom and it looks like you're, everybody thinks you're in an earthquake.
It's crazy, because it does shake the whole rig.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
We called it the magic fingers, if you remember Motus Six from the seventies or whatnot.
Yeah, you put the 50 cents in the bed and it would shake and stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, it's like that, except on Zoom it looks like you know you're crashing in a huge earthquake, so I always have to turn off my camera and like so we don't do laundry.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
We don't do laundry during the day, during the day, anymore, because of that.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
No, and then I like music and then sometimes that happens where I like.
I have a pattern when I play music and stuff, like when I'm not on calls, and you're able to tell part of my schedule, because of that?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, because I can be back in my little domain and then I'll hear him say talk to the Google box.
Hey, Google, play the music.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That means I'm not on a call.
Oh, OK.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I can come out, we can, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
yeah, it's kind of fun because yeah, and I don't care what music, I'm just like I need something to do the working.
And then one of the other things that comes out is which is strange, which I didn't have to deal with before, Because when you live in a house, or a stick some bricks, as we like to say you know the sun rises and sets in the same way, the same places.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, which affects your zoom view.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah Well, I was going to say the house is always the same, Right, but in the rig we're always pointed a different direction, a different part of the world, and so, yeah, I always have to choose which of the shades I'm going to bring up, because I'm usually waking up right around sunrise, sometimes before, and if it's going to affect my zoom stuff, I don't open it.
(33:52):
So it's not the same every morning.
Every week I have to replan what the morning is going to be, which is interesting, it's OK, it's just interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
So what else about our offices and desks and office spaces?
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, I talked about my desk and office space and you have your office space out here in the main room.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, so my office space is a it's a little bigger.
I'm not saying it's better, I said bigger.
I sit on the couch over there and I have a unique desk.
It is actually our coffee table, but the coffee table has it lifts up.
The top lifts up and goes towards me, so it's kind of like a desk desk and so I'm able to put an extra monitor.
(34:39):
I'm able to put my iPad because I do go all digital.
I moved away from paper before we hit the road.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I think it's so amazing.
It's it's.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I write, take all my notes on my iPad, so there is no paper anywhere.
I have an external keyboard.
I have a full desk with, with a clip on light, that project.
So while I'm on Zoom, it looks good, but all of the stuff collapses down to really small space when we travel.
So, yeah, my desk is very nice, it's.
Is it the most comfortable?
I wouldn't say yes, but again, I'll trade what I have now for for this to be able to do what we do.
(35:14):
So, I love it.
I do love it.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Well, and it's also interesting because you are on Zoom Primarily you are kind of stuck in that space because you have your whole setup and the monitors and the camera and all that thing, whereas I don't have those limitations so that I'm able to move around and come out.
(35:40):
I can work in the back, but I can only work back there for so long and I need to come out.
And thankfully he's got the setup which is the zoom faces the wall and he has his background up there, so I can come out and walk freely in the main area.
I can go out if I need to.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
She can go anywhere.
Nobody can see her, so yeah my office is totally mobile.
You can go outside, you can go shopping and no one will know.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I go to the library sometimes.
I love the book.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
It is a good setup for being able to move around, and that was always important to us.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So yeah, yeah, the other.
Oh, sorry.
Well, I was just going to say you do have a good position out here and that you can come out and work, and you're right next to the coffee machine.
I was going to say that too.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yeah, no, that's what I said.
So we've got the coffee pot sitting right next to me and I drink 90% of the coffee every morning, so unfortunately I'm a very big coffee drinker, so it's great.
I jump off my poor coffee occasionally, go to the restroom, I grab snacks and stuff, and I never have to go either.
If you're still sleeping, I never have to wake you up.
(36:51):
It is nice the way the rig is set up such that you're flexible to go what you want, but I get basically everything I need with the refrigerator, the bathroom, the coffee pot and my desk all in one area.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, it's great.
Plus, you can see out the big window.
When you got the window views, I do.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
That's the other good point, when I'm opening all the when I liked, you know, because I'm going to sit there and zoom all day long I don't get to go outside.
Most time I open up all the shades and we have like five or six windows up here and it is nice because then, wherever you've taken us to, you know, it's nice because I can see the mountains, the rivers, the water.
Sometimes it's just the RVs, but I get to see people coming and going.
(37:29):
And when you're sitting there on zoom and everybody's talking to you, I get an interesting view all day long, so I'm not going to complain.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I like it, you know.
Yeah, yeah, it's very cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Well, the only other thing I'd make a comment about is, like you know, it's important for us.
We've figured out the internet for us too, although I haven't quite solved it for you.
In the back, the internet is sketchy in the back of the rig, so I've got to work on that.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Especially if I close the doors, but fortunately I just I.
It's also cool too that we have our separate spaces, yep, but at the same time, and we've learned to accommodate each other's schedules and we kind of have our own times.
But the cool thing is is long, about noon, one o'clock in the afternoon, when I can hear he has a break, and even before that I can walk out and if I want more coffee I'll grab his cup, staying off camera, of course.
(38:27):
And very very quietly, I'll refill his coffee, or or then a lunchtime when.
I can tell he's got a break or he's let me know what his schedule is and when the break is we can have lunch together.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, A lot of times I'll actually tell you hey, I'm making lunch right now because I'm off and I'll whip up the lunch and then we set it up in the cafe, in the front.
We call the front of the rig with the big window, the cafe, with our two table, our two chairs and tables.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Those are the most comfortable chairs in the entire rig.
So the driver's seat and the passenger seat, which spin around.
So we can face them up in the window or back to the conversation area in the living room so we could have lunch together every day, and I really enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, Cause a lot of times when I would go to the office I would just sit at my desk and eat my lunch alone.
Sometimes I would go to the rooftop place, which would be nice, but it wouldn't be like hanging out with you and talking about what's what you've done this morning what's going on later today.
It's really nice.
I really do like it.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, and we take turns making lunch.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
It just depends on who's in the middle of something.
I pointed that out only because occasionally I make lunch, you whip up a great lunch, but this week I did some um, uh, the chicken salad.
Oh, the chicken salad.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was really good, yeah, he just makes things up.
I do, I win.
It's like whatever we have, okay, all right, I don't think we vomited from it.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
yet it's been and we made it up.
It was really good.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So, um, the other thing is with our schedules and Russ being on rest time, which is primarily Pacific coast time, so with his job, um, it's also really nice that during the day again, if he has a break in the, in the calls and all the business stuff we get to we get, I'll take him out for a walk because, he needs to get out of there.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
I'm like the pan Take me.
He needs to stand up and we use our.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I'm like let's go outside and take a walk.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Our watch is to counter step, so I get some credit for that.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
So yeah, Cause otherwise, sometimes work gets the best of us and we just.
You know, hours can go by before you realize.
Oh yeah, it would be good to take a walk and stretch your legs.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
It is nice and sometimes we're just taking the garbage out, but it's nice because we get to then drop the garbage and walk the actual campground and get our steps.
Last week it was just, and we have horses here too, yeah we do.
We had them last week, we have them here too, and they're it's not the family of horses, but they're adorable horses over there.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yeah, we talked about them.
Horses in Idaho yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, yeah.
So I guess we it's a good time to kind of wrap this up We've done a good job of covering the the essentials.
Yeah, the essentials of work life, balance, of how we work together.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
It's such a teeny, tiny, small, little space.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Exactly, and while it's challenging, these are the things we thought were valuable to kind of make this work.
Yeah Right, so number one I think it kind of comes down to a good RV layout, and we talked about that.
I'm like what's going to make it work?
If you're again, if you're vacationing in a space, it's less important, right, you're just kind of winging it, but when you're working, it's really important to have your space.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's going to fit to your requirements.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, right, no, it works.
So if you're just looking, you have the benefit of thinking about these things.
Yeah, we didn't think about this.
No, and we it just worked out.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
We got lucky and and we've talked to people this is our, our first rig, and some people we know if they've had their first rig for a long time.
But there's this kind of pattern in some of the YouTubers they talk about like some people switch their rigs quite often while they're figuring out what works for them.
And, and if you're going to work, think about this, think about how you might figure out where your space is and your partner space is while you're working.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
And how to make that work.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, so the other part, the second thing that we think is kind of important, is the right equipment.
What you need and you know my wife Sherry has talked about the desks, you know we've talked about that- and it has to be portable and stowable, right yeah, like your desk folds up and we could put it in what we call the basement.
The space underneath Mine folds back down and becomes the coffee table for God's sake.
(42:44):
So and and the tech to make that work.
So all of my tech folds up into a backpack and goes up into the storage area above our bed, so it's like it's not in the way when we're not working.
So that's really important.
Yeah, and then I guess there's a whole bunch of considerations is the word we're using about working together, right?
(43:05):
So what are some of those considerations that we think are really important?
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Well, we talked about our.
Our schedules, yeah, based on what's going on and what you need to do, and and and noise.
And you know sneezing quieter and saving the laundry to the end of the day, and you know, really considering the impact of your actions on the other person's job and working conditions.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Yeah, cause if I wasn't on Zoom, we'd have less worries, right we?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
could do a lot of things, and so you know that is a challenge, but you know, we work around it.
We work around it Exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
And then there's positives, though, right.
Yeah, there's a lot of positives you mentioned the being able to refill the coffee and and you know I'm bringing you coffee in the morning but you refill mine quite often, which is really cool and I love that.
And our lunches together is one of my favorite times.
Yeah so and we didn't get to do that prior to this which is really really cool.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
And then I think the that one of the most important things that we do is every night and we try Sometimes it extends the work day extends a little bit, but we both make the effort by dinner time to shut the offices down.
We close the computers, we put them away, organize our space so that it's not Sherry's office all over the entire bedroom, Because I do use that king size bed for a great table.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
If I'm working on a project or something.
Anyway, and yeah, just putting everything away and not dragging it on into the night and then, yeah, so Friday afternoons, is like my favorite time.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, today I love it Because you know we've had, we're having, this is our Friday afternoon right now.
We have big travel plans tomorrow.
Love Friday afternoon, so this is awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And Russ takes that whole desk, that whole folding setup with the two monitors and the this and the that and the wires and the lights and all this whole thing and it all folds up into that fold out coffee table thing.
And I guess you put some back in your.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah, and then we use it as a coffee table.
We eat food and watch our projection TV on it.
We put our feet up on it like everyone's coffee table.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
It becomes a normal coffee table.
I love that.
So it's not an open office during the weekend, and mine's not either.
I put everything away back, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
So anyways, so that's kind of like what the top things we think are important to this RV world Work, life balance and being able to, you know, make it work in, especially in a small space.
And I really want to thank the listeners for the podcast and if you get a chance, take a look at the show notes.
We'll put the links for products and any of the kind of other related links that are there.
(46:02):
And if you're new, we want to, we want you to subscribe.
We really want to thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And, if you're not new, our existing subscribers.
We love you guys so much.
Thank you for your support and for being with us on this adventure and, I guess, the most important thing we want to leave you with today, because our goal is to share what we've learned about RV, work, life balance, how we do this, so that maybe it sparks some ideas and dreams and action for other people that want to pursue the dream.
(46:43):
So the most important thing is to make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
So are you ready.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
I'm ready, let's go, let's get out there.
Bye.
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