Rootless Living Issue 9 | May / June 2021

BRIDGING THEGAP

BETWEEN WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU WANT TO BE.

LEARN MORE...

WE STRIVE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE.

TRAVEL 26

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DESTINATIONS

We are a network of wineries, breweries, distilleries, farms, and attractions that invite RVers to stay in 1000+ stunning camping sites. The $79 yearly membership gives members unlimited access to stay overnight at any one of our Host‘s locations. We kindly ask our members to support their Hosts by purchasing one of their local products with each stay.

WORK

EXPLORE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page 13 | Rootless Letter

Page 15 | The Feed

Page 17 | Building with Honey Bees

Page 19 | Why Digital Nomad?

Page 22 | Building the Dream Skoolie

Page 26 | Sailing Ocean Fox

Page 31 | Finally Full-Time Transitioning to Nomadic Living

Page 35 | Tiny Kitchen, Big Possibilities Cooking Great Food on the Road

Page 38 | Work Camping Could It Be Your Next Big Adventure?

Page 42 | Travel-Friendly Internet How Are You Staying Connected?

Page 48 | How To Start A Podcast

Page 53 | Journey to Teaching Online

Page 58 | Practicing Law in an RV Part-Time RVer, Full-Time Sports Fanatic

Page 61 | A Place Called Home Navigating Tensions on Public Lands

Page 68 | Boondocking Three Must Stay Locations

Page 71 | Healthy, Hike Ready Granola Bars Cooking While Boondocking

Page 73 | Hot Springs National Park

Page 76 | 10 Best Hikes

Glacier National Park

Page 83 | RV Water Panel Upgrade

Page 84 | Gear Guide

Page 86 | Contributors For Digital Nomads, By Digital Nomads

Page 87 | Podcasts for the Drive

ROOTLESSLIVING PODCAST

FROM THE FOUNDERS

It feels so good to be back on the road!

If you don’t follow Nikki and I on our personal accounts you might not be aware that we just spent three months in one spot renovating the Rootless Living HQ, aka our fifth wheel home/ office on wheels.

The renovation was a massive undertaking for two people who have never done any real restorations before.Weguttedeverypieceofflooring,furniture

This time there were lots of RV and not nearly the massive weekend crowds. We even ran into other full-time friends. It’s always nice meeting people you know from online and catching up with people you’ve met before in your travels.

One more thing different about this trip was our first time with solar and it truly is a game changer for working while traveling. The ability to work, watch TV, run the coffee maker and not have the constant hum of the generator running but instead listening to the waves... is priceless.

If the renovation taught me anything, it’s that the right tools really do make things easier and now solar makes boondocking at the ocean so much more enjoyable.

The downside? Laying out this issue was tough to do when working from such an amazing location.

and everything got a fresh coat of paint. I promise in a future issue we will showcase all that we did, but my biggest take away is use the right tools and don’t do a restoration in the cold, especially in an ice storm … lessons learned.

As soon as the renovation was 90% complete we hit the road and made quick time going from a small farm town in Oregon to Magnolia Beach, TX. Boondocking on Magnolia Beach is one of my favorite spots and this is the first time we have done it in spring.

Usually we’ve been during the summer and are fighting the heat, the massive weekend crowds with very few RV’s. This time the weather was much cooler, we didn’t need to run our AC’s once the whole two weeks.

Until the next issue … stay Rootless.

Demian Ross, Publisher @demianross

Nikki Kirk, Editor @nikkirk7

Count miles, not gray hairs.

To Candice and Jordan, you’re only as old as your odometer. To prove it, they’re taking their pup, Nugget, and a ‘97 adventure van the length of the Western hemisphere as Be Old Later. Even with all that adventuring, they’ll never have to worry about a lack of energy. With a Battle Born Battery on board, power is one less limit on the adventure of their lifetime.

Follow their journey @BeOldLater:

Less Limits, More Adventure

• Same size, double the power, and a fifth of the weight of a comparable lead acid battery

• Can hold a charge up to a year in ideal conditions

• Compatible with most conventional chargers

Get out there, stay out there.SM

— Jordan and Candice, Be Old Later

THE FEED#rootlessliving

“The past year has given us the gift of time - especially time to learn something new.”

@presgossett

@neversaysomeday

@brightdaisahead

“Poolside reading brought to you by @rootlesslivingmag”

@livesmall.traveloften

“It’s nice to have office days outside where I can watch the girls play and Presley can get in some hours snoozing in the sun.”

@noa_the_airstream_

“This little paradise was a total and complete surprise in the Olympic National Forest.”

“When we made the decision to live this way, we never imagined also acquiring a great community full of genuine human beings ready to receive us with open arms.”

shots in the magazine!

Tag us on Instagram @RootlessLivingMag or use the hashtag #RootlessLiving You can also follow us on Facebook @RootlessLiving

BUILDING WITH HONEY BEES

By Joshua Kruis

I’ve learned to trust the twists and turns life brings my way, but one month ago I was not expecting to be living in Arizona building a tiny roundhouse with honey bees.

Just before Christmas 2020 I was working with a construction company in Colorado. The job had me on the road most of the time so when business slowed down and I ended up back in Denver I was faced with a housing dilemma. Plan A: rent an apartment, Plan B: build a tiny home small enough to pull behind my Subaru but large enough for me to eat, sleep, write and do yoga.

I’ve always hated the idea of renting, it doesn’t fit with my nomad lifestyle and so I went with plan B.

Colorado was way too cold for working outside and I had just finished up a job in Arizona where winters are much more bearable, so I packed up my Outback and hit the road. On my way I located a potential campsite in the Tonto Wilderness along the Salt River. I set my GPS coordinates and drove through the night.

When I arrived I put up my tent and took a nap. A few hours later I awoke to the sound of a honey bee buzzing around my head.

I have experience as a beekeeper so her buzzing around didn’t bother me. A few hours later I was up and prepping my campsite for building when I found a honey bee in my car.

I decided to feed it some honey knowing she would likely return to the hive and inform the rest of the colony of my location. I’ve always wanted to hunt down a wild hive so this could be my opportunity to track them down.

I poured honey on a rock and within a few hours it was swarming with several hundred bees. The challenge with tracking bees back to their hive is that they fly in a zigzag circular pattern, each going a different way. By the time they have traveled 20 feet their tiny bodies are out of view. So I asked for an invitation to visit and decided to keep on feeding them.

I began by pouring honey on the wooden foundation

"I’ve always hated the idea of renting, it doesn’t fit with my nomad lifestyle"

for my tiny home and then realized that honey is both antifungal and antibacterial, a great treatment for the wood. In addition, feeding these bees will help their colony grow strong this winter with the possibility of a swarm to catch in spring!

After a couple weeks of working in a cloud of honey bees I’m happy to say I’ve completed the framing of my tiny roundhouse. I quit my job in Denver to focus on completing this project and have decided to give the digital nomad life a try.

I love writing, short stories and essays in particular, but I’ve had to focus on building these past few weeks which means I’m walking a tight rope not only with my design but my finances.

I decided to build a roundhouse to make the structure more aerodynamic. I’ve wanted to experience life in a circle as well but it had to be teeny tiny, 8 ft in diameter to be exact. I’ve got a bump out on the north and south ends of the trailer for a kitchenette and closet to bring the grand total to 58 square feet!

The real feat of the design will be the telescoping roof which will allow me to travel with a shorter structure while driving. Once I reach my destination I’ll pull a rope attached to a pulley system and extend the walls and roof an additional 5 feet.

I’ve never built a roundhouse, a structure with metal studs or a telescoping roof. But life is an adventure right? If you're a digital nomad I’m sure you can appreciate the challenge of the new and the opportunity it provides to learn and grow.

New home, new job, and new little friends. Friends who accepted my request to visit their hive when I inadvertently stumbled upon them flying in and out of a small cavern in the ground.

It’s going to be hard to leave my honey bee family but when the wind blows and calls my name I’ll be off for a new adventure.

Travel light! Travel Safe! Maybe I’ll see you on the open road with a hive of honey bees in tow.

Follow Joshua on Instagram @Humstream

WHY DIGITAL NOMAD?

THESE 6 DIGITAL NOMADS UPGRADED THEIR LIFESTYLE FROM NORMAL TO NOTEWORTHY

By Jennifer Jennings

The day of the digital nomad is upon us; as the world adjusts to the global shift toward remote working, digital nomads rejoice. Suddenly, an elusive career choice is the norm.

In conjunction with the ever-present shift to a more digital world, there is a rise in people choosing to live in RVs. So what drives young RVers to leave the societal norm and join the ranks of digital nomads?

MEGAN & PHILIP @outdoorishrv

For Megan and Philip, two 20-somethings, they felt trapped in the daily grind. Due to their schedules, they spent the majority of their days working, coming home for dinner, and then sleeping. They wanted to spend more time together and get off the hamster wheel of “going through the motions.”

RV life ticked all the boxes and gave them the life they wanted: one full of inspiration. Now, Philip is still able to work his job remotely, and Megan has taken on the role of managing their social media.

CHELSEA & NICK

@roaminghills_

Chelsea and Nick are two artists living in their renovated Airstream. They opted for a fulltime RV lifestyle so they could take their home with them when they traveled — and so their cats could come, too!

Having the ability to be nomadic means that Chelsea and the cats can accompany Nick to tattoo conventions and art shows. Living tiny has lent the opportunity for Chelsea to pursue her own artistic goals. Her work includes beautifully-embroidered portraits of pets and her new interior design venture. Together, the couple also has a line of beautiful artisan cutting boards.

RACHAEL & JESSE @thetasteforadventure

For Rachael and Jesse, their motivation to become digital nomads was tied to their desire to travel and visit family more often. Being tied to an office job meant that the majority of their vacation time was spent fulfilling family obligations instead of vacationing.

Now, these two are exemplifying two versions of the digital nomad lifestyle. Jesse works remotely for the same marketing company as he did before they went full-time. Rachael has just launched her marketing agency, Next Destination Marketing, and is a solopreneur.

BROOKE @behappedesigns

Brooke and her family are living proof of what hard work and dedication to the goal can accomplish. Because her husband spent so much time on the road, Brooke had the crazy idea to sell everything and move into an RV so they could spend more time together as a family.

Living tiny did not slow down Brooke’s successful crocheting company, though! Even though they live on the road in an RV, Brooke has managed to launch (and skyrocket) her own crochet hat company b.e.happe designs.

KIRSTEN & DEVIN @fifth_wheel_living

Kirsten and Devin’s RV life adventure started as a spurof-the-moment decision to move to “Music City” Nashville. Moving into an RV was a way for them to avoid the high cost of living that is attached to the bustling city.

The move to Nashville was something they had both wanted to do, so they leaped in. Devin is a guitarist and singer, so Nashville is an amazing opportunity for him to explore country music. As fate would have it, Kirsten was also able to find work just one week before their big move.

Since making the move, these two have managed to downsize from their original 40-foot fifth wheel into an 18-foot toy hauler! They say that they are loving RV living and have no plans to move back into a traditional home.

HAILEE @agirlinadaydream

Hailee and her husband had checked all the figurative boxes of adulthood: get married, get careers, get a house. But they felt something nagging within that told them there was more to life. After deciding to start their own RV life, things quickly fell into place for them. They left their jobs to pursue creative, passion projects.

Now, Hailee is a graphic designer and owns a graphic t-shirt company @26ndecent. Her husband is a filmmaker.

BUILDING the DREAM SKOOLIE

FROM A ONE-BEDROOM HOUSE TO FULL-TIME #BUSLIFE

By Cat Carroll

Professional rock climber Alex Honnold deserves much of the credit for the fact that my boyfriend Aaron and I have lived in a converted school bus for the last three years. When Alex became the first person to free solo Yosemite National Park’s famous El Capitan rock formation in June of 2017, we were paying $1,400 a month in rent for a tiny one-

However, the idea of converting a vehicle into an adventuremobile had become rooted in our brains, and over the next few weeks we began scheming and doing some back-ofthe-napkin math and research to figure out whether we could make it happen, and if so, how soon. We watched tons more videos about vehicle conversions and eventually

bedroom house in Seattle, working jobs that didn’t inspire passion. We were already looking for a way to escape the rat race just a few years after entering it.

Soon after Alex’s historic climb, we were watching a video on YouTube about his achievement, which then autoplayed another video of Alex giving a tour of his van conversion. We casually watched the video, saying that we could never live in something so small, especially with two of us.

decided a short school bus was our best option. They are inexpensive, have long-lasting diesel engines, and are big enough to be comfortable without being too big as to be unreasonably difficult to drive.

We gave ourselves a budget goal of $5,000 to purchase our bus, figuring that with the savings we had and continuing to work full-time while doing the conversion on weekends, we could have it done in around 7 or 8 months. We shared our

exciting news with our families and friends and began our search for a bus.

While we hunted for the perfect bus, we made a list of essential components and drafted a design of our interior on paper, which we actually stuck to remarkably well. For us, the essentials included a fixed bed platform (no setting up the bed every night), an enclosed bathroom, tons of storage, and a large couch seating area. Additionally, we specifically looked for a bus that was at least 6 feet tall inside so Aaron could stand upright and had a wheelchair lift door in addition to the rear emergency door, giving us two access points for our underbed storage.

In August, after spending hours scouring auctions and sale sites, getting our hopes up several times and then having them dashed by skyrocketing auction prices or shady dealers, we finally found THE ONE on Craigslist. We haggled with the owner, ultimately getting him to drop the price from $6,000 to $5,250, before racing three hours north after work to make the purchase. We handed over the cash and signed the sale papers in the guy’s living room, and then we were on our way, alternating between feeling exuberant and praying that we hadn’t just wasted over $5,000 on this 12-year-old vehicle of unverified quality.

Fortunately, the bus performed like a champ whizzing down the freeway at 65 miles per hour. We dropped it off at Aaron’s parents’ house south of Seattle where we would complete the conversion (no way we could even park it on the packed streets near our house, let alone work on it there for months). We headed home exhausted, finally arriving at around 1 a.m. We christened our bus ‘Stu’ over some Fireball shots and deliriously texted pictures to our friends and family. When the weekend finally rolled around, we raced back to Aaron’s parents’ place to get to work.

Part of our budgeting and plan for the bus conversion hinged on our parents’ generosity and support, for which we are incredibly thankful. Aaron’s parents let us park the bus at their home, use their shop full of tools, and Aaron’s dad, who had worked in construction for many years, helped us with the build. My parents agreed to let us live with them

for the last few months before we quit our jobs, effectively saving us around $5,000 in rent and utilities which we could then put toward the conversion, and my mom custom-made our couch cushion covers and curtains.

We worked as many weekends as we could, first ripping out

all the seats, the wheelchair lift, and the floor. Once the bus was a blank canvas, we used painter’s tape to block out our layout and double-check that it would work in the space. Satisfied and excited at how real it all finally felt, we then got to work building out our miniature home.

After thousands of dollars spent at Amazon, hundreds of trips to hardware stores, dozens of Taco Bell pit stops, and numerous ‘medicinal’ duck farts (delicious Kahlua-based drinks), we finished the construction phase and moved on to painting, decorating, and packing - areas where I finally felt in my comfort zone. Simultaneously, we worked with insurance agents, the DMV, and roadside assistance programs to get all our paperwork squared away. We planned to drive Stu to a launch party to show him off and say goodbye to all our friends and family, which turned into a bit of a nailbiter as our insurance approval took longer than planned, finally coming through about 24 hours before the party.

Working on the bus every free weekend had the convenient side effect of preventing us from going out to bars and restaurants or otherwise spending money extraneously, and we sold as many of our belongings as we could to earn more cash, donating or tossing much of the rest of our stuff. We eventually pared down to things that would be coming with us in the bus plus some large sports-related items, electronics, clothing, and sentimental miscellanea that we have stored with our parents while we are on the road.

We finished the conversion for about $7,000, bringing our total cost to around $13,000 for the bus, sales tax, and the

conversion materials. Fortunately, selling our cars eliminated our only debt (my car loan), and we had a good chunk of savings that we figured we would live off for a while, planning to essentially vacation while we adjusted to buslife and figured out our nomadic income streams.

Finally, in April of 2018, we took off for a “quick test trip,” which ultimately took us from Seattle to Tijuana and back over the course of 44 days. At first, we panicked over every smell and sound, having never driven a diesel vehicle before Stu. The first time we heard the engine fan come on, we thought we were done for until some frantic Googling revealed the source of the roar.

We have since made some adjustments and upgrades to the bus, and of course, we’ve faced some repair bills along the way. However, nothing can take away from the freedom this lifestyle provides and the incredible experiences we’ve had over the last three years. Had we kept on slogging through 9-5’s and wasting our paychecks on rent, we would never have met the amazing people or seen the stunning sights that we’ve encountered on the road. The hardest part of the bus conversion was making the decision to go for it, and we haven’t looked back since!

About the Author

Cat is originally from Seattle, WA and has traveled around the U.S. and Canada full-time in a self-converted skoolie. She enjoys rock climbing, paddleboarding, hiking, and generally being outdoors! You can follow her adventures on Instagram at @stu.the.bus.

SAILING OCEAN FOX

By Simon Fowler

Five years ago Carla and I were lying on our sunbeds, lapping up the Caribbean sun. At the time we were just two days into our marriage when, with a piña colada in her hand, Carla turned to me and asked “how about we sell the house, buy a boat and go sailing?” I thought about it for all of two seconds and said “yes.”

Fifteen months later we were sitting on our own 40’ catamaran, Ocean Fox, for the very first time. We were going on an adventure.

And that is how our journey started. From there we would travel 25,000 nautical miles during the first thirty months through the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic and back to Europe. In all, we’ve visited forty-seven different countries and more islands and cays than stations

the New York Subway system has to offer.

When we first started out, however, we had two big problems to overcome: how were we going to support this lifestyle, and how would we live off grid for extended periods of time in remote anchorages?

We had sufficient funds to keep our plans alive for the first twelve months, and after that things would start to get a little mingy. Apart from living on our savings, we had to equip our boat for the journey ahead; this meant we needed to figure out a way to earn an income during our travels, which is never easy when you are traveling to remote locations around the Atlantic.

After the first six months of sailing through the

Mediterranean, we moored up at the Rock of Gibraltar to upgrade our home. By now we had gotten to know our boat — our home — and Gibraltar was a great duty-free outpost to start kitting her out for real off-grid living. The two things that we really needed to address were a robust electrical supply and freshwater. We simply could not take enough H2O with us for a month or two, and we were not prepared to give up on our daily showers.

Three weeks later we departed Gib heading west to the southern coast of Portugal. We had fitted a new 880AH Victron battery bank, a new 3,000watt inverter to power our 220-volt systems, and we had also built and installed a watermaker that would give us forty-five gallons of super fresh spare water per hour, drawing from the seawater all around us.

Still not having enough power to support our computers, film equipment, the watermaker as well as the two fridges and a freezer, we later decided to add a 40AH wind generator to help out with the load.

Unlike van living, a boat requires power for all its navigational equipment and auto steering systems while sailing. This means there is a never-ending drain on the battery bank. Thankfully, so long as the sun was shining and the wind was blowing, we could now generate enough electricity to support our lifestyle week after week. We were now truly off-grid! If for any reason the system ever fails, we carry a small gas generator to provide power to the main battery chargers.

We had always intended to fund our lifestyle from our travels, and we decided on a three-prong approach. First, we would document all the ups and downs of our journey on video, then edit the films and upload them to YouTube. After eleven weeks, we had met YouTube’s benchmark of 1,000 subscribers and 240,000 minutes of watch time. We were now monetized and could earn a small income from the work we had put in.

Prior to starting our YouTube channel, neither of us had much knowledge of video editing or producing a program. We knew little about promoting our channel on social media. And for that matter, we wondered if anyone would want to watch a middleaged couple jumping in and out of a dinghy each week. But we were surprised by the comments. Our audience loved us, as they could relate to this lifestyle at our age. They could live their dreams of making a similar journey at the same stage in their lives; we were inspiring them.

As time moves on, we have more and more programs on YouTube. In fact, we now have over two hundred videos, and they are all still being watched. We now have over three million views of our films, and our income is slowly building month by month.

Another channel of income related to our YouTube content comes from our Patreon platform. Patreon is a way for an audience to support creatives via crowdfunding. Followers can subscribe to a creative’s Patreon page and pledge an amount of money each month, sometimes as little as $5. In return, the creative provides exclusive content on the Patreon website for their fans — in our case an additional video each week. Our Patreon subscribers have competitions and daily video stories pushed right to their mobile phone, so they feel they are living closer to our world.

The second way we intended to earn some cash was offering a Liveaboard Experience. This is different from a yacht charter. Folks can sign up for a six-day trip with us, which is held in whichever location we are in, to get a real-life experience of what it is like to live aboard a yacht. Basically, if the toilet gets blocked, we all have to fix it.

We have found that our customers are usually couples that are considering buying a boat to live on. They want to find out more about what this lifestyle entails, like dealing with Customs and Immigration, making water, searching for propane, learning the boat’s systems, sailing, and spending idyllic evenings at anchor.

Thethirdandthemostchallengingwayweearnanincome from our lifestyle is by writing articles for magazines. This is both challenging and rewarding for me, as I am dyslexic.Carlasearchesoutthetitles,contactstheeditors, and makes suggestions of what stories may suit their readers. Then, I produce the feature. Most magazines will pay between three hundred and five hundred dollars, depending on the length of copy required. One article a month is a great contribution to our travels.

Our journey around the Great Atlantic Circle has taken us to many of the highlights of the Atlantic and Caribbean islands, but we also wanted to discover some of the off-piste locations on the fringes — places that many will never get the opportunity to visit.

One of those under-visited places was Los Roques. Belonging to Venezuela, this archipelago of 350 islands and cays lies around one hundred miles north of Caracas in the Caribbean Sea. Mostly visited by wealthy Venezuelans, these islands produce a psychedelic mix of bright blue waters and white sands that will please anyone with a smartphone camera. It was the most beautiful place we had visited, practically unspoiled by people — you can have a beach to yourself longer than the Burj Al Arab is

high. We stayed off-grid here for a few weeks, enjoying the warm waters, sandbars and bird life, all alone on the windswept isles.

Bocas del Toro in Panama is another off-piste location we loved to visit. Shrouded by the Caribbean coast, these islands are not on most peoples’ destination list. The islands are home to miniature red frogs and the slowmoving sloths that live up high in the jungle canopy.

The main town is a mix of brightly painted timber houses with bars and restaurants extending out over the waterfront, making them an enticing retreat for tourists and backpackers alike. The water taxis almost fly across the water, taking visitors to secluded beaches, bays and bars hidden away in the jungle. Our visit here was unforgettable.

Finally, the Berry Islands is one of the most memorable groups of islands that we have visited so far, as well as one of the least visited groups of islands in the Bahamas. We had the privilege of having islands and bays all to ourselves, with clear waters, golden, soft sand beaches and Casuarina mahogany trees dipping into the waters below. We had our hook in the sands for a month, our eyes lapping up the vistas.

Our journey is only just beginning. We intend to move east through the Mediterranean and visit the far-flung edges of the area, head to the Black Sea in the summer, and finally sail through the canal to the Red Sea for the winter months. It’s been a phenomenal journey so far, and we’re so thankful to have chased our dream all these years after that piña colada on a Caribbean beach.

You can follow our journey on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook @sailingoceanfox or our website at sailingoceanfox.com

FINALLY FULL-TIME

Transitioning to nomadic living can take time - but it’s worth it!

Scott and I spent a great deal of time talking about our mutual desire to travel after we first met in 2014. Our wanderlust continued to grow, and the ideas of how to go about it kept evolving. Since we met, we have been on several international vacations as well as doing some local camping, hiking, and backpacking.

We eventually bought a small travel trailer and then a truck camper to use as our mobile basecamp. Both of us have always been curious about different cultures and locations, and we wanted to spend more

By Sasha Bezer

time experiencing them. Scott and I would always come home from trips unsatisfied and wanting to spend more time in the new places that we visited. We quickly realized that we needed to go from our “normal” lifestyle to a full-time travel lifestyle.

When we first started seriously talking about traveling full-time, Scott had been working at a public school as a network manager since he was 15 years old. He was feeling burnt out and wanted to travel and see the world outside the office. Part of Scott and I meeting for the first time required him to first visit me

in Finland, followed by a trip to Russia and Italy. Those first international trips solidified his desire to travel far and wide!

My desire to travel was inspired primarily by my dad. He worked as a chief officer in the cargo shipping industry, and traveling the world has been his profession since before I was born. So when I met Scott, I was very excited that I found someone special to share my love of travel with! After moving to the United States, I got a job at a local library, which was a great first job, but I quickly got bored and wanted to have a little more excitement and variety in my life.

Since traveling has always been on our minds, we spent countless hours thinking through every detail of full-time traveling since the very beginning of our relationship. Even before we had a solid plan, we were mindful of our spending and were trying to save as much money as we could. Scott and I knew that at some point we would get rid of most of our possessions, so we tried to avoid buying anything that wouldn’t fit our new lifestyle.

We wanted to travel for 4-5 years and then settle down someplace we loved. We didn’t know exactly how much it would cost, but after a great deal of research, we came up with an approximate number of $35,000 per year. That would include groceries, fuel, camping and pretty much everything else we’d need to travel full-time. That’s a lot of money, but much less than we were spending on our previous lifestyle. Scott and I wanted to make sure that we would have enough saved for our new lifestyle on the road, so our priorities were to save money and build a business as we traveled.

The first phase of our plan was to save, save, save! We figured that one of our biggest costs was housing, so we moved to a smaller, cheaper apartment. Not only did this allow us to save almost $500/month on rent, but it also forced us to get rid of some of our unnecessary possessions. We began listing and selling things on eBay and Facebook Marketplace throughout the year before our departure — downsizing really helped us build up our savings!

Scott had a house he had been renting out, so when the time came, we sold it and took advantage of an excellent housing market. We also had to sell our trusty travel trailer, our cars, and most of our belongings. Scott and I simply knew that we wouldn’t have space for a lot of things once we started travelling full-time, and we probably wouldn’t need them. However, we had a couple of tote boxes with keepsakes, and Scott’s sister was nice enough to store them for us at her house!

Since neither of us liked our jobs, part of our grand plan was to figure out what we were truly passionate about. I have always enjoyed teaching English privately and used to run an English-speaking club in Russia. When I came to the U.S., I found a couple of students as a side job, but I’ve never been a full-time teacher. With our new lifestyle, I was able to focus on my teaching and pick up a few more students.

I also started working for VIPKid, which is a Chinese online teaching platform that focuses on teaching English to Chinese children. I absolutely loved working with the kids; however, the schedule was a little hard. Since I was working with Chinese time zones, most of my lessons would start around 4-6 a.m. I also needed a stable internet connection,

which can be challenging while we are on the move. Now I work fewer hours for VIPKid and focus on my own teaching.

When Scott quit his job, he was able to pick up some gigs with previous clients. However, we wanted to transition from working for someone else to building our own business. We have a few projects in the works, but nothing up and running yet. We are hoping to bring them to life soon!

We have also been able to pick up some short gigs on the road. Last year we stayed at a campground that had just opened. The owner needed some help with it, and he ended up hiring us! We worked for about a month doing various jobs like painting, raking, and watering. It was a fun change, and we loved working outside — we both got a great tan!

Since we decided to travel full-time in a truck camper, we had to make it more suitable for us to live and work in. To make a comfortable working space, we completely redesigned the dinette area and turned it into an office for two people. We have a desk facing out the large side window and a pull-out teak table in the center that we use for paperwork and eating. The sidemounted desk gives us a place to keep our laptops set up for extended periods while we are stationary. Now we can keep our computers going and have dinner without moving anything!

We use computers and other devices a lot, and we needed to have more power than our rig previously provided. Scott added a 2000-watt and 1000-watt inverter to power everything we need: laptops, cameras, phones, and other equipment. He also installed a custom set of LiFePO4 Lithium batteries. Most of our power comes from a DC-DC alternator charging system with 600 AH of capacity, which provides plenty of electricity to keep us working day and night.

Two other important additions to our truck camper were an external cell booster to help with low signal areas and a MoFi 4500 Hotspot paired with an unlimited cellular data plan to provide the bulk of our data needs. Finally, we also installed a Honda 2200i generator and built a ventilation system that allows us to run it

while in the generator compartment. The benefit to this setup is that we can remove the generator and run it far away from the camper when we are doing extended boondocking stays.

Right now we don’t earn enough to support ourselves. We knew this would be part of the process and planned accordingly. We saved for years and strategically sold off our belongings to help fund our new lifestyle on the road. We’ve traded everything for this lifestyle and knew that the transition wouldn’t be easy.

Our savings gives us a cushion to make the transition and allows for some additional time to build new sources of income. Our goal is to become financially stable before we run out of savings and build the future that we’ve both dreamed of ever since we met. Part of what we’re doing now is trying to figure out our passions and interests and incorporate them into our new lifestyle.

See more from Scott & Sasha and follow their adventures on Instagram @stonyboot

Tiny Kitchen BIG Possibilities

How to eat healthy and cook great food on the road

By Teresa Lesher

Eating on the road can be a challenge. But when you get to bring your entire home with you, it should be way easier, right?

Well, not always.

In the weeks leading up to becoming full-time Airstreamers, I was hung up on how we would realistically fit everything into our modest 22' Caravel. More specifically, I was wondering how we’d have enough room for all our food.

Would our current stocked pantry fit into one tiny cabinet? Could we keep our cold essentials in a dorm-roomsized fridge? As a registered dietitian, concerns like these are usually top of mind.

In addition to providing evidencebased nutrition education for a career, I'm also a self-proclaimed cooking and baking fanatic. Cooking a meal at the end of a busy day helps me relax, and having healthy homemade muffins for snacks keeps me happy and satisfied.

Fortunately, cooking and baking nutritious food is 100% attainable

while living in an Airstream. We have a 3-burner stove and a convection microwave that bakes surprisingly well. The problem we face isn't the reduced ability to cook per say, but the amount of ingredients one can realistically have on hand at a given time.

No matter how you frame it, there just isn't a lot of storage or fridge space in most small- to mid-sized RVs. And in general, more permanent items like clothes, dishware/ utensils, and cleaning supplies are going to have priority in said storage space.

Not only do we have less room to stock our healthy staples like fresh produce, canned beans, whole grain varieties, and nuts, but there’s also less flexibility to keep ingredients that aren’t used for everyday recipes.

Fortunately, not having much storage space doesn't mean you're destined to eat the same meal over and over again!

With a little planning and some creativity, you can have just as much meal variability as you would in a 1,000-squarefoot kitchen. Through trial and error, I've put together some of my best tips to maximize your culinary potential in a tiny kitchen!

Choose spices that do double duty

Gone are the days of having an entire shelf dedicated to spices. Although they’re small, spices can take up a lot of space, especially when you have a collection of different shapes and sizes. Take note of the spices that you use the most and ones that can be used for different cuisines.

For example, cumin is a staple for tacos and enchiladas, but it is also a key spice in a lot of curries and Indian dishes. And if having oregano, basil, thyme, and sage seems like too many spices of a similar taste, opt for a traditional Italian Seasoning blend to save space.

Invest in reusable containers that fit your space

Throwingbagsofrice,nuts,pasta,andotheringredientsyou regularly use into a cabinet usually creates a disorganized mess that can be irritating to sort through. Reusable food storage containers come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, making it easy to find what works in your space after a few quick measurements. Opting for clear containers makes it easy to see exactly what you have to work with without having to shuffle everything around.

Plan meals ahead

Planning meals for the next few days or an entire week can seem tedious, but it is one of the best ways to optimize space! We tend to have staples for breakfast and lunch, so dinner is our only meal that requires planning. Having an agenda not only prevents scrambling for last-minute meal ideas, but it can also make preparing a healthy meal more realistic in an already busy time of day.

There’s also the fact that knowing what you’re going to cook in advance contributes to having a more precise grocery list, which is key for an efficient shopping experience. It also helps reduce impulse purchases, which are often less nutrient dense and add to the total bill.

Wondering what makes a meal “healthy?” When building a plate, try to make sure it includes lean protein (fish, chicken, lean beef, beans, tofu, etc.), fiber-rich carbohydrates (brown rice, whole grain pasta, etc.), and lots of color in the form of non-starchy vegetables and fruits!

Keep a running mental list of what you already have

This is especially useful before you plan meals and head out to the grocery store! Knowing what ingredients you already have on hand can give you a starting point for choosing which recipes to make, and it prevents the grocery store back-and-forth of wondering if you have enough of an ingredient at home.

Once a week might not cut it

Depending on how much storage space you have and how many mouths you're feeding, the ever-reliable big weekly grocery haul may not be realistic anymore. Accept the fact that you will probably have to make multiple smaller trips to prevent overflowing cabinets.

A silver lining to more-frequent grocery trips is being able to restock perishable foods, such as fresh produce, which add valuable nutrients to meals and snacks!

Consider a cooler

Fridge space is a hot commodity, and we often want to pack it full of fresh foods rather than sparkling water, beer, wine,

kombucha and the likes. Having a sturdy cooler to keep outside that's dedicated to beverages comes in handy! We travel with a Yeti 35 cooler and lock it to the outside of the Airstream whenever we are stationary. It can comfortably hold 20 cans with ice, and it stays frozen for up to two weeks depending on where we’re camping.

As you can see, eating a variety of healthy meals isn’t impossible while living on the road. With a little planning and creativity, you can utilize your tiny kitchen to its full potential — which just might be bigger than you think!

About the Author

Teresa Lesher is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who lives full time with her fiance Shawn in their 2021 Airstream Caravel. She is an avid runner and loves all things outdoors, being creative in the kitchen, and spending time with her adorable cat, Bleu. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @canweparkthishere or their website canweparkthishere.com where they share everything from camping recaps to healthy lifestyle tips.

Could Work Camping

Be Your Next Adventure?

How to earn free hookup sites around the country

As I write this, we're preparing to pull in the RV slides and slowly travel from Mississippi to Washington. I've just finished a national park volunteer gig in Natchez, Mississippi, and our next job is at a commercial campground on the Olympic Peninsula.

This will be our fourth work camper position, and each one has been a different adventure. We love the work camping lifestyle, and we’re sharing our best tips so you can see if this version of the digital nomad lifestyle is right for you.

What is work camping?

Simply put, work campers provide full- or part-time work in exchange for an RV site. Some gigs include pay, and most of them are seasonal in nature. Jobs usually center around recreational hospitality at locations like campgrounds, but there are many unique opportunities out there from harvesting sugar beets and grapes to working for Amazon's Camperforce.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like everything, there are positive and negative aspects to work camping, and often what one person sees as

By Jason Betzing

a disadvantage, another sees as an advantage. For example, maybe being "tied down" to one location is also a chance to assimilate into the local community.

Here are some insights we've learned from our own experiences and from others that might help you decide if work camping is for you!

Being stationary

Exchanging your time for an RV site can virtually erase your housing costs. This is especially appealing if you have more time than money. Many positions provide a full hookup site in addition to propane. If you're on a fixed income, you'll free up cash to get ahead. We use this temporary increase in discretionary income to increase savings for our next adventures.

Being stationary reduces expenses by decreasing vehicle wear and cutting fuel, RV site and food costs when traveling every few days. Of course we can remain stationary in other ways, like boondocking, but these savings coupled with a full hookup site give us a financial gain with full service.

Another benefit to work camping is getting to truly "live" in a community. We like to really experience a place, its people and its nuances. For positions where you deal with the public, they'll want to know the good places to eat, drink and sight-see, so you'll quickly learn what the locals know. When we travel back through places we've stayed, they feel like home.

These boots are made for walkin'

We choose to live in a house with wheels for a reason. The beauty of the work camper gig is the temporary nature of most jobs. If it's not great, it's only a few months if you choose to stick it out. But if the job is unbearable, you can simply roll on out. There are thousands of gigs out there for the RV lifestyle, so it’s easy to just move on to the next one.

Giving back

Fulfillment is sometimes a hard thing to find. I find that helping fellow campers and visitors have a great experience or a small business be successful is truly rewarding, fun and a worthwhile use of my time that's also mutually beneficial. Volunteer hours required for a full hookup site usually range between 20 and 32 hours per week. This means you'll still have time for other interests.

Earning income

If it's a paid gig, you'll make money for every hour worked, and there will probably be opportunities to work extra hours if you're trying to earn maximum cash. In addition, many paid gigs also offer bonuses for working for the entire season.

Being retired, any investing we do is now taxable. Having earned income opens the door for us to invest in a taxsheltered IRA account. All our earned income goes straight into a traditional IRA, so the money is essentially tax-free (search "Roth Conversion Ladder" for more information).

Speaking of taxes, some campgrounds use creative accounting. They don't actually pay you, but on paper they pay you then deduct your pay for the site. What's the problem? Legally, usually nothing. But be aware this forces you to claim the phantom income on your taxes. If this is a concern, contact a tax professional or find a different gig. Generally, Federal, State and local government positions don't do this.

Our experiences

Our first gig was a couples’ position at a hot springs resort in New Mexico. It was an amazing place where a 3-month gig turned into 8 months. My wife worked 20 hours a week in housekeeping in return for the private, full hookup spot on the Rio Grande. I worked for pay in guest services. We had access to all of the amenities, including unlimited soaks. Living in the desert changed us on many levels, and we loved every minute of it.

Our second gig was helping the new owner of a small RV park rebrand with a new name, logo, website build, etc. For about 50 hours of work, we earned 2 free months with full hookups. It was a great experience, and I was able to hone my Photoshop, Illustrator and WordPress skills.

Our third gig was a solo position with the National Park Service in Natchez, MS and required 32 hours a week for a full hookup site. I worked with maintenance doing a variety of tasks from work orders to hurricane cleanup. As the only volunteers, we essentially had a private site on the mansion grounds. The bayous were amazing; the Spanish moss and magnolias have a special place in our heart.

Our next gig will be working for a private RV park near Olympic National Park. The duties will vary between guest services and groundskeeping. We'll get a full hookup site with a mountain view and use of the amenities. I'll be paid for all hours, and 10 hours per week will be deducted for the site (the creative accounting we talked about). The Olympic Peninsula is an amazing place, and we're looking forward to going back.

Getting a gig

Check volunteer.gov and select "RV Pad" in the filter to find jobs that offer RV sites.

Join social media pages and groups for work camping.

Select a state and sign up for their state park hosting gigs. Don't forget that city and county parks need volunteers, too.

Reach out to individual locations that interest you and ask if they have camp host opportunities. If so, ask if you can send a resume. Maintain an updated generic resume you can quickly personalize for the job you are applying for.

Be sure to read and understand the job description and what will be expected as well as what they will provide. This goes a long way to avoid landing a gig you don't enjoy.

Mindset is everything

Having a steady job with a routine and responsibility could be a real downer for some of us. And I have to admit, after several months I start to feel like it's time to roll out to a new adventure.

I cherish the free spirit aspect of this lifestyle more than any other element, and work camping with work schedules can be a pain when I just want to explore.

Iusetwostrategiestoensuretheexperience is a positive one. First, I take a few months off between gigs just to recharge, enjoy no schedule, and travel on a whim. We use this time to travel internationally or visit family. Second, I'm very selective about the positions I choose, trying to ensure that we have a great time in a great place. Honestly, buckling down and committing to work a consistent schedule makes me truly appreciate our free time even more.

Work camping has given us the amazing ability to explore different areas of the country by doing unique jobs while living for free. It's been a really fun way to keep busy, explore new places, and even make some cash.

About the Author:

Jason Betzing and his wife sold it all to live their Full Time RV dream and have been living Rootless for 3 years. He retired in Michigan at age 40, and they decided winter is a drag and travel is more fun than shoveling snow. He loves helping people through sharing authentic, first-hand experience. Connect on Instagram @FullTimeFire, or on his blog at MilesTwoGo.com.

The Best

Travel-Friendly Internet Four nomads share how they’re staying connected on the road

For many full-time travelers, nothing stinks more than not having a signal when you need one!

Over the past two years, we have learned quite a bit about how to best stay connected while on the road, and I have personally spent over a hundred hours, researching, installing, testing, and reconfiguring different options. The easiest option for us was to increase our data plan and diversify our wireless carrier.

After our first month on the road, we increased our data plan to 30GB per phone and did our best to save any binge-watching for the end of the month (which can zap your data in the blink of an eye!).

In addition to just plain not having enough data, we also had the problem of having unreliable service. Although AT&T boasts some of the best LTE speeds nationwide, it really comes up short in rural areas. We often found ourselves in remote areas with little or no service while others had 2-3 bars with Verizon and T-Mobile.

By Alexis Nascimento

To get an even better connection once we started working on the road, we purchased a 4G/LTE Router and a SIM card/ wireless plan from an alternative carrier. 4G/LTE routers work much like the hotspot on your cell phone.

Using a SIM card and cellular data plan, 4G/LTE routers receive a cellular signal from a nearby tower and will allow you to connect an almost unlimited number of devices to it. From a user perspective, once it is configured properly, it will feel much like using your home WiFi router to connect to the internet.

When in doubt, the best way to get internet while traveling comes down to preparation and planning. We’re strategic about when we need to be online and available and put ourselves in an area where we know the cell service is reliable. I also don’t mind visiting a local café where I can tap into their free WiFi and enjoy a delicious latte!

HERE’S HOW OTHER DIGITAL NOMADS IMPROVE THEIR INTERNET ACCESS ON THE ROAD

“We are a family of four traveling in our Grand Design Solitude 41' Fifth Wheel. My husband works full-time from the road. His work requires him to have a secure internet connection daily for e-commerce business management. In addition to his work, as a family we use the internet for a

variety of schooling lessons and entertainment.

We've found having two different cell phone providers gives us great cell coverage on the road. We have T-Mobile and Verizon and between the two almost always have cell service.

For internet service, we currently use a Verizon Mobile Hotspot. It's a prepaid unlimited plan. We also use a weBoost antenna system to get better data and cell reception.

I'd say about 90% of the time we have the internet service we need. Occasionally, even on an "unlimited" plan, we have been throttled back for using up too much data. And, of course, in remote locations – like national parks – we know not to expect good coverage and plan those trips for times we can be off-grid.

We've thought about getting a standard Verizon plan instead of a prepaid plan to get top prioritization of our high-speed data, but for now the cost outweighs the benefit. This would also put a data limit on our usage instead of being unlimited.

We often use the app AllStays to check for service coverage. Camperswillleavefeedbackaboutservicestrength.Another good resource is the Campendium website. They list service strength by provider.” – Peter and Leslie Stranathan, @elementaryexplorers

A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS

Just like every great road trip, sometimes life takes you in a new direction. At Heartland, we’ve launched a new journey to make our RVs better than ever. We’ve doubled down on seeking out the highest quality materials, creating fresh and inviting interiors and giving every unit the kinds of finishing touches you’d find in a new home.

Every unit goes through a top-to-tails inspection with a quality assurance expert—in fact, we have an 89,000-square-foot facility dedicated to walking each RV through a series of checklists to ensure it works exactly as it should. And with updated floor plans incorporating features our customers love best—spacious bathrooms, designer kitchens, furniture meant for cuddling up together—we’re confident every trip in a Heartland will be a happy one.

After all, that’s what RVing is all about: hitting the road with people you love, having adventures, making memories. So when you buy a Heartland, just focus on taking the journey of a lifetime. We’ll take care of the rest.

Experience the all-new Heartland online and check out 360-degree model tours, detailed floor plans, all-new features, galleries of updated decor and more.

Just visit HeartlandRVs.com.

“For our family of four, access to the internet is vital. My husband Charlie works part-time as an electrical engineer,andIneedasolidconnection for my freelance writing gigs, social media and looking up lessons for roadschooling to teach our two kids.

Charlie’s work provided a laptop, a cell phone and a MiFi device. Since the MiFi and his cell have separate plans and data, he’s able to switch from one to the other to get the most usage. Charlie has AT&T, and I have Verizon. That gives us a better chance of finding service with two different networks.

We also have a boost that we rarely use since it zaps our solar panel power. If we are plugged in at a campground, then we use it.

We sometimes look at the cell coverage map online or read reviews on boondocking sites for input. Mostly, we’ve learned to stick closer to towns

to ensure we have service. The middle of nowhere places are gorgeous – but not ideal for what we need for work.”

–Kaitlin Musser, @runawaymusbus

“My hubby and I travel with our three 5-and-under kids and my mom. My husband works full-time as a global project manager (which requires daily video chats), and I'm a freelance travel writer. Also, my mom needs access to the internet for day-to-day needs, and my kids want to be able to stream all the preschool shows.

We have a standard AT&T cell phone plan with a hotspot that is strictly reserved for my husband's work use. We use an old phone for that plan, since we don't use it as an actual phone. In addition, we all have (smaller) hotspots on our personal phones. That, plus a King LTE/Cell Booster, and we've been doing well these last couple of months. We've stayed at campgrounds with WiFi, but we've never found one strong enough to support all-day video conference calls.

Prior to traveling to a specific location, I always call the office or the ranger where we are staying to ask about cell service. We have Verizon and AT&T, so we can usually find out what it is like from a local.” –Angelica

Kajiwara, @toddlinacrossamerica

“Our primary need for a consistent internet connection is work. I work as a nurse health coach for heart failure patients over the phone; however, the calls are executed through the computer and require an internet signal.

If we don’t have a consistent signal, I can’t work, which means it’s not an option for us. In addition, our internet needs aren’t unlike many “regular” families. We do have some online programs that support our homeschooling, but otherwise it’s used for regular stuff like streaming music, tv, kids’ tablets, and planning our next moves.

The key to our success is having options. Our internet “situation” has evolved over time and will continue to evolve as we find better solutions.

Currently, our main shared option is a mobile hotspot T-Mobile connection through OTR Mobile. We run this signal through our MoFi router and can utilize an external antenna if the

signal is too weak. The router can connect as many devices as we need with a decent connection.

Secondarily, we have our phone plans which can also be used as hotspots for work when the router isn’t sufficient. My husband Justin has an unlimited Verizon plan through Visible, which is an incredible value. I have been with Sprint, but we are currently evaluating other options since Sprint has merged with T-Mobile, which we already have. We prefer to have three different carrier options to cover as many bases as possible.

At this point we’ve been able to make this work for our needs, but only with proper planning and research on the areas we are traveling into. I’d be lying if I said it was perfect, but we also understand there just aren’t cell towers littering the rural landscape of our country. Starlink satellite service certainly sounds attractive right now!” –Erin Roth, @the_roaming_roths

While everyone has a slightly different way to stay connected on the road, there are a variety of options to work with. Whichever you choose, you don’t have to leave the internet behind when you go on the road in your vehicle of choice –and you’ll get to be wherever you want, whenever you want.

HOW TO START A PODCAST

Learn how you can create and record your podcast from the road

I've been full-time RVing with my husband Barrett since 2018. We travel with our furry friends — our cats Squirt & Dakota and a Corgi pup named Marty.

Why did I start a podcast, and who is it for?

My website, Cinders Travels, has always aimed to inspire exploration of the great outdoors. That mission started simply by sharing tips and stories straight from our RV journey and encouraging people in all stages of life to consider the digital nomad lifestyle and get outside.

After a couple of years of feeling like a full-time tour director, I was finding myself endlessly searching for the truly best things to do everywhere we went. It didn’t take long to realize the local visitor centers often did not have the best suggestions.

It’s actually the locals at gear shops, coffee shops, gas stations, and bars who have almost always given us the best tips and advice for what we should see and experience. One shop owner even went so far as to draw us a map to get to a trail.

This realization sparked a new idea that would become the next phase of content for Cinders Travels’ readers: I could start a podcast for outdoor enthusiasts that would provide a guide for places of interest from a local’s perspective.

By Cindy Scott

Now outdoor adventurers can travel to a new destination and jump straight into the best of the best!

This is how the “Locals Know Best” podcast was born. So that's my story. Now let's get to yours!

How can you start a podcast from the road?

Below is a step-by-step guide for what you need to know to start your podcast from the road!

Concept

Before we jump into the details of podcasting, it’s important to first get very clear on the concept of your podcast.

Your first two steps are:

Figuring out your podcast idea.

Figuring out who your podcast will serve.

We all have that special nugget of information that can help someone else out there. Spend some time figuring out how you can help others, and that can lead you to understanding your podcast idea & who your audience is. Whatever your thing is, there's a demand for that podcast!

Plan and release schedule

Now that you’ve established your idea, how often can you release an episode?

Plan and stick to the schedule that best fits your lifestyle and travels. I likely don't need to explain the complexities of RV life to readers of this magazine — it can sometimes come at you fast. Frame weld breaks and tire blowouts have led me to produce episodes from the side of the road in my truck. I’ve had to reschedule recordings due to unpredictable weather events and surprise holes in the roof.

For me, I asked myself how often I could put out not just an episode, but a great episode. The answer was every two weeks.

Ask yourself: what release schedule is realistic? Then aim to be consistent with that decision.

Deciding on a type of podcast

The next step is figuring out what type of podcast you are going to have. The most common formats are: solo, interview, co-hosted, panel, documentary, fiction, and docudrama.

My podcast is an interview podcast. Logistics include finding guests, scheduling interviews, and relying on others to show up. These are all skills I honed in my past media life. Ask yourself which podcast type lends itself best to your skillset.

When I first had my idea, I held a couple test episodes with friends. It was immensely helpful to have people to bat around ideas with in order to lock down the show’s interview format.

Name, description, cover art, and music

Picking your podcast name, description, cover art, and

music will take time. My suggestion is to round up a solid group of friends for brainstorming sessions.

When you have a handful of options, take those straight to your target audience with a good ol’ fashioned Facebook poll. See what your audience prefers.

Obtaining and managing guests

Once I started producing episodes, I began interviewing

people I had met whom I knew would be excellent tour guides with insider information. I started with what (and who) I had in my life.

As the podcast started drawing more attention, I created a process to help get the best interviews. Now every potential guest fills out a Google Form answering questions about their area ahead of time.

Every month I go back to my pool of possible guests and pick a few episode concepts that excite me. I ask myself if I think the adventurous people in my life would become intrigued and want to go there. If I don't think the answer is yes, I don't produce the episode.

Those guests are then sent an agenda describing how the interview will go, and we make sure we both think it will be a good fit. And then, finally, I always check in a few days before recording.

Equipment

I produce my podcast with the following equipment:

MacBook Pro

iRig microphone

Desk mount boom arm mic stand

Microphone shock mount

Pop filter

Audio-Technica ATH-M40x Headphones

With a background in media, I had most of this equipment before I started, so this was the epitome of starting with what

I had and upgrading when needed. Are these the industry standard pieces of equipment for a podcast? No. Do they work? Yes!

The only two pieces of equipment I added before hitting record were the mic stand and shock mount. If you don’t havethem,theyareveryaffordableandworthconsideration. Both make a big difference in audio quality by helping to prevent hand-held feedback and allowing you to record from a comfortable position.

Plus, now I keep my setup built and then just gently tuck my microphone out of the way when it’s not in use.

Recording

As you can imagine, recording episodes in an RV is always an adventure! Every time we relocate, my first priority is making sure we have a strong internet connection via either our AT&T or Verizon hotspots to obtain a quality recording.

Then, prior to a recording, I do my best to prepare my guests on what to expect. I tell them there will be editing involved because I enjoy a concise story. Also, it’s a tight space … pets may interrupt.

In the beginning, there was inevitably a moment in every episode where something in the RV started making a strange noise, or a cat would jump on my laptop.

I used to evict my husband during recordings. These days we have a puppy and a kitten in the RV, so we coordinate

recording times differently. He either takes off in our truck with the kitten and pup or opts to be locked up in the back bedroom with all three pets. (What a guy!)

During the interview, I keep my key bullet points in front of me to make sure I’m covering all my bases.

As for my recording platform, I use SquadCast. However, the platform is not flawless on the road. I have had occasional recordings not come out well. I recommend additionally using a program such as QuickTime to capture a high-quality local recording on each end. Having locally recorded files has saved me more than once.

Why SquadCast? Quite simply, it’s effortless for everyone involved. All my guests have to do is click on a link to be brought to the recording session.

SquadCastalsoprovidesadouble-enderrecording,meaning each speaker is recorded locally instead of over the internet. Therefore the audio is less likely to have internet glitches or suffer from degradations.

Editing

For me, editing is where the magic happens. With a media and storytelling background, I know the episodes need to get to the point and inspire quickly. My goal is to keep the podcast enjoyable so new people will want to listen, and new guests will want to participate.

For my podcast, editing happens in two phases. First, I take the original recordings into Descript, cut out all of the

unneeded dialogue, and structure it into a well-polished conversation.

My dear friend and fellow media professional, Johnny Watkinson, helps me in this phase by listening to almost every episode’s raw recording and giving notes about the most enjoyable parts. I compare his notes with mine and make sure I’m not leaving anything important on the cutting room floor.

Then I pass the episode off to my finishing editor and audio engineer, Tom Kelly of Clean Cut Audio. Every guest presents unique challenges with their audio. Tom has the audio engineering experience necessary to give every episode a professional polish by removing any distracting verbal tics, crutch words, long pauses, and background noises that occurred during the recording. He also places the music and makes sure the podcast meets broadcast loudness standards across all platforms.

Hosting, distribution, and syndication

I use Libsyn for podcast hosting, but there are a ton of options out there to make sure your podcast can be shared with the world. I chose Libsyn because they were the first in the business, and many of the biggest podcasts in the industry trust them with their precious RSS feeds.

What I’ve learned from podcasting

In short, I've learned starting a podcast is a lot of work. But boy, do I enjoy it!

The best piece of advice I can give is: if you're going to go

all-in on any kind of creative project, make sure you love it, or you won't want to keep coming back to it week after week.

I get genuinely excited for each new recording because I love meeting someone new, learning about hidden treasures, and sharing that information in a way that helps others.

At the end of the day, ask yourself how you can best help others. That's always going to get you where you need to be.

I hope this guide has helped you understand how to start a podcast from the road. Happy podcasting!

About The Author

Cindy Scott is a Michigan native who has worked in the media industry, in many roles across America, for more than 15 years. These days, she produces the Locals Know Best Travel podcast and runs Cinders Media out of her 2019 Keystone Cougar Fifth Wheel with her husband and three furry pet friends. Follow the podcast on Instagram @localsknowbestpodcast and listen on your favorite podcast player.

My Journey To Teaching Online

By Amy Rekart

In unprecedented times, these nomads trusted the process

Teaching Physical Education and Health was a passion of mine, but I’ll be honest, there was something deep inside of me screaming that something was missing. I needed more. There was something else calling me — maybe the mountains.

As ashamed as I am to admit it, after nine years of teaching, I was no longer learning, growing, or giving my all to my students. Something else was utterly tugging at me. Even though I took pride in my job, developed long-lasting relationships with coworkers and students, and enjoyed being outside nearly everyday, I could no longer ignore the deeper yearning in my soul.

Sometimes listening to my heart has brought me to scary decisions and not-so-pretty pathways, but it’s led me to where I am today. And I’m happy. So what was my heart telling me about my teaching job?

Quit.

At the end of the school year in 2018, I decided to drastically change my lifestyle, so I quit. I quit my low-stress, fun job, gave up a good salary, and left my incredible Missouri teacher’s retirement plan behind.

I did this all to live in a 300-square-foot RV and travel the country with my husband and pets. Believe me: Quitting was the hardest decision of my life. Ultimately, I knew I had to go through with it in order to make my dreams happen, so I took the leap.

During our first year and a half living on the road, we relied on my husband’s income as an insurance underwriter and some side-hustle cash. Then, he was laid off in January of 2020. That meant no jobs for either of us.

While we had some rental income, it wasn’t enough to cover our expenses. Thankfully, my husband received a severance package, which helped us tremendously.

Instead of completely freaking out about being jobless, we did our best to remain calm, be in the moment, and trust that everything would work out. We decided to take advantage of the time we both had together and continue to travel and explore. With his severance and our side income, we could financially last a few more months.

We enjoyed a couple months of freedom, and by February 2020, we found ourselves in Bishop, California. We thought maybe we’d stay awhile and see if Matt could find a seasonal or temporary job for a month or two. He was checking out at the grocery store and heard over the intercom, “Matt to the register please. Matt to the register.”

He jokingly told the clerk, “I’m Matt! You need me to jump on the register?”

She laughed and joked right back, “Oh really, do you want a job here?”

He replied, “Actually … maybe! You have an opening?”

And that’s how he got the job.

Sometimes things just fall into place. When you pay attention to synchronous opportunities like this, it’s pretty uncanny how often they happen.

Then Covid.

Literally the day before his first day of training, the Covid shutdown happened. All of a sudden, his new job became essential and the whole country was freaking out. We were scared too, but luckily, Matt was able to secure an overnight position when the store was closed with limited person-to-person contact.

So,weendedupstayinginBishopfromFebruary2020 through June 2020, much longer than anticipated. We began making our way home to St. Louis by mid-June. Once again, neither of us had a job, but we felt it was time to go.

We were back home in St. Louis living in an RV park while Matt filed for unemployment, and we both searched for jobs. When we first got back, it was a major adjustment to Covid life since we had been very secluded in Bishop. Excitement and hugs were replaced with anxiety, masks, and social distancing outdoors in the hot, humid St. Louis summer.

While at home, since we limited time with friends and family, we focused on the job search. It was time for me to start looking, too. Who knows? Maybe this would be

perfect timing with the way Covid had changed the teaching world. I revised my rusty resume, created a profile on Indeed.com, and started applying to postings for online Physical Education and Health.

After a couple months of applying and a few interviews for different companies, I was hired! I was back to teaching Physical Education and Health but in an entirely new capacity — and fully remote, too! This meant we could continue our nomadic lifestyle with a sustainable income.

So how does teaching online P.E. actually work? With my company, (I’m still getting used to working for a business rather than a school district) a curriculum writing team creates the courses, and the teacher is the guide. We check for understanding and teach students using various ways of communication including email, phone, and virtual meetings. We also manage other various weekly business tasks.

The company I work for services individual homeschooled students who enroll in our online schools, entire school districts, and individual schools across America and some internationally.

If you are curious about how teacher certification works while teaching online, I was too! I am a certified teacher in Missouri. Was I allowed to teach students who lived in states where I was not certified? Was I required to live in the same state as the students I was teaching?

Yes, at least for my job, you must be certified in the state where your students live, so all of my students live in Missouri. Your own living arrangements will depend on the individual company. Some require you to live in the same state as your students. Luckily, mine did not.

Most online companies who offer their services to schools and districts within the United States will require a teaching certificate. The process to obtain that certification varies by state. I have a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Kinesiology and Physical Education and passed the P.E. and Health certification tests back in college. The process in your state may be different, so I suggest researching specifics.

If you want to become an online teacher but have little to no experience, there are still options!

There are online companies such as VIPKID where you teach kids from around the world with a flexible schedule — no certification required. There are also teaching-related websites where you can create lessons and artifacts for other teachers to purchase, such as Teacherspayteachers.com. Or, you can create your own course on a website like Teachable.com.

I also suggest creating a profile on Indeed.com and searching “online teaching jobs.” Use filters as necessary according to your content area or experience. Be open to various teacherrelated options that pop up.

It was quite the journey for us to earn an income while living full-time on the road. We fully embraced it instead of allowing anxiety to consume us, and we are both generally anxious people, so this was not an easy task.

One thing that was most definitely key in helping us decrease our worry was havinganothersourceofincome.Ihighly recommend a side hustle that brings in a little extra cash in case you become

jobless. Also, I recommend saving an emergency fund of 6 months to a year of essential living expenses. I know this might be especially hard during these trying times, but as soon as it is possible, get started!

I am grateful that my teaching job came full-circle. I now have a job I love, working with kids in a new, challenging, and fulfilling way while continuing to live the digital nomad lifestyle.

But it might not last forever.

As for the most current update on our situation, we are in limbo with jobs again. Since my teaching job is an “as needed” contract, my employment is not guaranteed for next school year. It depends on enrollment numbers.

AfterayearofbeingunemployedduringCovid,Mattisfinally getting a spurt of interviews! It feels like it’s all happening at once. He just found out an absolutely awesome opportunity is between him and one other person. We will find out about both jobs next week. How’s that for timing?

We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we know it’s exactly what is supposed to happen.

I believe if we recognize and act on opportunities or ideas as they come up, trust in the universe, and accept that it all happens for a reason, that we will be okay.

And we think you will be too.

About the Author

Amy, along with her husband Matthew, are the couple behind @carpediemcampers. They live full-time in their Cruiser RV Stryker toy hauler with their two dogs and two cats. When Amy is not teaching Physical Education online, she is exploring the outdoors, visiting small towns, and finding the best breweries around!

PRACTICING LAW IN AN RV

By Kimberly DeCarrera

How this RV sometimer & sports fanatic works on the road

Hi, I’m Kimberly DeCarrera, and I’m a lawyer. I’m also a big sports fan and an RVer.

How do I make all of these things come together for a dream RV life?

See, I have always wanted to be a lawyer. But the call of the open road has always been there too. In the past, these two dreams were always at odds with each other. I had to settle for a few vacation days a year to sate my wanderlust and fulfill my sports addiction.

It may have taken a few tries, but I have finally figured out the balance — being a top lawyer while also working from the road. And it’s the RV lifestyle that allows me to chase my dreams.

The RV

When I’m on the road, my home is a 2017 Tiffin 34PA – a Class A gas motorhome, about 36 feet in length. It has all the amenities of home, and actually more. See, it has 4 TVs, which is more than I have at my sticks and bricks.

I have plans to add solar to my rig, but in the meantime, my tailgating and boondocking is powered with a generator. It’s definitely a necessity since my main team, Georgia Tech, has way too many games in the heat, and that will always require a generator.

I recently acquired a used Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited to tow, which gives me the ability to get around town and to visit clients. As a single female on the road, I wanted to make things as easy as possible, so four-wheel-down towing was a must.

An RV sometimer

I’veseenpeopleclassifymystyleofRVinginseveraldifferent ways. I’m not a full-timer, but I definitely spend more time in my RV than a weekender or vacationer.

Denise Bumby over at Does Size Matter? describes it best as an RV sometimer: sometimes I’m in the RV, and sometimes I’m at the house. And to account for 2020: sometimes I’m spending long periods at family’s homes.

This RV sometimer lifestyle really lends itself well to flexibility and being able to work from anywhere.

I have a full home office setup in my sticks and bricks in Atlanta, Georgia, but I also have a full RV office setup. It’s not really fancy because of my RV space limitations; I’ve just taken over the dining table for my RV office.

The key is that I have everything I need to work right there in the RV, just add a laptop. I’ve got the internet, dual monitors, a docking station, and a full keyboard. The only thing that moves around is the laptop itself.

My office setup is the same philosophy I use regarding the rest of my RV sometimer lifestyle — I’ve got everything duplicated in the RV so it is easy to jump in and go with minimal prep. I’ve got the full kitchen, dedicated linens, etc.

During the football season when I’m using the RV every weekend, I’ll even leave the RV stocked with the basics in the pantry. It sure is nice not to have to unpack and pack between every trip!

My law practice

I am an unclaimed property and corporate finance lawyer with my own firm, DeCarrera Law, LLC. In November 2018, I left my last job, took some time off, and then started my own firm.

I started the firm in a home office in June 2019. Considering things to come, it was a good thing I never signed a long lease for an office, right? But that set me up nicely for also working from the RV.

outsourced CFO. Like with my unclaimed property cases, my corporate finance work is almost all done either online or at the clients’ offices.

In the planning stages of my law firm, and ever since, I have always had an eye to working from the road. I am as close to paperless as any attorney’s office can get. I set up all my systems to back up to the cloud and be remotely accessible.

Like others, I’ve found that the biggest key to being able to work from the RV is a stable internet connection. Verizon is my main hotspot provider, and I also have a backup from T-Mobile. TIP: if I know that we won’t be using screen share, I’ll often take Zoom or Teams calls from my iPad or cellphone to save hotspot data.

How do you tell clients about the RV life?

At the beginning, very few of my clients know that I have an RV or that I might be working from the RV. With a good internet connection and not turning on the video on your

What is unclaimed property? In a nutshell, I work with corporations - some of them you may even know – to find uncashed checks, unused rebates, and other intangible financial assets and return that to owners or the states.

I do annual compliance as well as multi-state audit defense and voluntary disclosure agreements (similar to tax amnesty agreements). But in all my years of working in unclaimed property, I have had clients come to visit me all of one time. There was no reason to be stuck in an office just because that is how it has always been done.

My other practice area is corporate finance, where I help companies as everything from business consultant to

conference meetings, you can go a long time without anyone realizing it.

But at some point, there comes a point when you are going to need to be on site. Whether it is meetings with auditors or fraud investigations, there are some things that just can’t be done online.

When that happens, the cost conversation comes up — how much is this going to cost me? When I give them an estimate that is much less than they expect, the next question they have is “how?”

When I explain that I’ll be driving in and staying at a campground, they are always surprised. But when I explain

that it also lets me stay on site, at their offices, for much longer, they are impressed.

In most areas, I can stay at a good RV campground for a month that costs far less than staying in a good downtown hotel for a week. How would you like your outside counsel to be able to be on site for weeks or months at a time, as needed, instead of only days?

I also personally don’t have to worry about such things as boarding my dog since he can travel with me. He loves the RV life too!

Once clients come to realize the benefit of an attorney that lives the RV lifestyle, they are hooked. It usually helps that they have been working with me for weeks or months before they come to know this fact, so they know the work is quality and won’t have problems getting a hold of me.

The sports addiction

If some of the pieces of this story are starting to sound familiar, it may be because you know me from the RV Tailgate Life. That’s my non-law business.

Why do I call it a sports addiction? Well, I am a Georgia Tech fan (ACC Basketball Champs!!) and I haven’t missed a home football game since I enrolled as a true freshman. That is more than 20 years of attendance that even a pandemic couldn’t stop.

Before I became an RV sometimer, I was an RV tailgater. That’s how I came to the RV lifestyle — through tailgating for college football. To help spread the word about this part of the RV lifestyle, I started the website to share tips, recipes, and stadium reviews.

Obviously, 2020 was hard on me as a sports fan. But 2021 is looking to be much better with sports resuming in-person attendance and tailgating by this fall. I’m already making plans for the college football season with lots of games at Georgia Tech as well as road trips to Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, and more.

And if those just happen to involve stops to see my law clients, all the better.

FollowKimberlyonInstagramat@rvtailgatelife or her website rvtailgatelife.com.

You can also find her on LinkedIn: kdecarrera and DeCarreralaw.com

Place A Called

Home

NAVIGATING TENSIONS BETWEEN PUBLIC LANDS AND NOMADS

By Kaitlin Musser

WE HAVE ALL SEEN IT.

The views of trash sprinkled among bushes. Or the toilet paper blowing in the wind like streamers of some party gone astray on tree branches. There are familiar circles of rock fire pits here, there and everywhere. All of them just chock full of remnants of glass bottles and collected wood which has turned into an ash mess all over the landscape of “the most epic hang out by the campfire ever.” The paths created by off-roading to hidden and private camp spots. The silent busting of millions of microsystems in fragile environments plowed over by tire tracks and blocks to even out the slant of dwelling on uneven ground.

We have all seen it. And if we are completely honest, we have all done it.

When I joined the 2021 Granite Gear Groundskeeper Ambassador Team, I was excited to do my part to pick up trash. The main focus was to pick up the remnants of previous visitors’ granola bar wrappers or discarded water bottles when I did one of my long thru-hikes or when I adventure on a trail with the whole family in tow.

But when I reached out to a fellow ambassador who is also a U.S. Forest Service Ranger for advice, the warm excitement quickly dwindled - snapped, crackled, popped.

“People need to start understanding that public land access is a privilege and not a right. That may be controversial, but when people start treating these lands as though they belong to them, that is where a lot of the problem lies. They belong to all of us, now and future generations, and use needs to be in line with what the land can handle, they cannot be just subjected to whatever people think they have the right to do, because that will inherently scar the land and take those lands as they exist today away from future generations.”

I gasped. My fingers itched to begin my keyboardwarrior defense argument. What is she talking about? We do not take from the land. We boondock. We have solar power. We pack out our trash. We practice Leave No Trace. I personally hate fire pits and have never lit a single one. It is the day trip folks or the weekend warriors that cause harm to the public lands. Not us. No, not my family.

I asked her more questions about her view on nomads and sustainability. We shared similar concerns on some issues. We had different perspectives on others. I closed the conversation lost in thought as I looked out my double bus doors to the empty landscape of Arizona’s desert cacti and red sand always blowing, and I could not stop repeating “take those lands as they exist today away from future generations.”

When finding that perfect boondock, BLM gem, home-iswhere-you-park-it spot, I often spend a good amount of time reading reviews and comments on websites such as iOverlander and FreeCampsites.net. Since we do not rely on hookups and prefer the “free is the way to go” mindset, the trial and error of picking a wild spot can be frustrating.

I have learned to read all the comments, study satellite images from Google Maps, and always have one, two or three back-up plans in place. Just in case.

I pulled up the page and silently began reading what everyone had posted about the site right outside of Tucson, Arizona:

“Super filthy though, garbage everywhere, people left their old transmission fluid, pan, and bottles. Sad.“

“Not sure who would describe this place as clean. Garbage, broken glass, and way too many campers add up to a place I would only stay again if I was desperate. Basically a big dirt pit with lots of vehicles.”

“Unfortunately there's a lot of trash and broken glass. It's free though.”

I closed the window to keep looking for another option when the familiar words pushed up my spine to my frontal lobe: “away from future generations.” I sighed and texted

the location link to my husband. Sounds like a dump, I explained, but maybe we should check it out anyways. His quick response was the upbeat one he always seems to have: “We will make it better.”

We will pick up trash. We will try and make a difference. We will make it better. As we drove up to cinder blocks arranged in a haphazard circle creating a fire pit I felt an immediate unease rise. The place was obviously a dumping ground and perhaps a homeless camp.

I doubted we would make much of an impression as we quickly explained to the kids what to grab and what was hazardous and they could not touch. They were to leave it and call for one of us to grab it instead. And there the four of us and one very unhelpful pup went, bags in hand, to start our clean up.

An hour and a half later, I surveyed the scene by our skoolie home. I counted eight large, black, 39-gallon garbage bags that now sat bursting-full on top of a king-size mattress we had found. The entire treasure of unwanted gems now lay in a neat pile right under our mini basketball hoop hooked to the windows of the skoolie for the kids to play basketball.

I gasped at how much we were able to do in such a short time. The four of us had managed to collect over 400 pounds of glass beer bottles, toilet paper, styrofoam food

containers, torn up clothes, and more. Where the campsite was previously a wreck; the trash now was collected and allowed nature to finally breathe once more.

“What do we do now?” my husband asked me looking at the massive task of packing out all of this garbage to an appropriate dumpster in our 18-foot, now-feeling-even-tinier home on wheels.

“I guess I’ll start making calls.” I replied.

I set to work as my arms reflected a battlefield of cuts from thorny desert trees refusing to let me gather paper strewn within them. Even with the cuts and dirt, I felt a sense of pride for our new beautiful home, and that growing feeling started to give me the gift of hope.

I quickly texted my ranger fellow ambassador asking for guidance. She quickly helped me research who actually manages the land we were camped on. Most likely we were staying in an area overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. The youngest of the different governmental offices who manage our public lands, the BLM has more land under its jurisdiction than the U.S. Forest System, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the state parks. I easily found the Tucson BLM Field Office contact number to call, left my message, and settled in to enjoy the sunset on our newly-remodeled landscaping.

The next day as I was trekking up Picacho Peak, complete with cables along the steep rock drop offs that I just love,

my smiling pre-teen was skipping from rock to rock beside me and my phone began to vibrate.

“Hello, this is Kaitlin.”

“Hello, my name is Robert Walter, and I am a natural resource specialist who helps with coordinating volunteer programs for the Bureau of Land Management Tucson Field Office. And I wanttotalktoyouaboutanewprogram we have been tossing around as an idea for a year or so now. Would you be interested in being the spearhead family to start it?’

I could barely catch my breath. In all honesty, it was partially from the “over 2,000 feet of elevation gain in under 2 miles” type of trail I was on, and partially because I could not contain my excitement at receiving this phone call.

If you have been on the road long enough, you may have encountered an unpleasant U.S. Forest Ranger experience. I still hold vivid memories of the rangers at Lake Mead knocking on our door and asking pointed questions in clipped tones about the quality of care we had for our children. “Why are they not in school?” “Why are they playing outside by themselves?” “Why are you here?”

I replayed memories in my head of being asked to move along so many times when suddenly the words “away from future generations” pressed pause on these unpleasant encounters.

As I listened to the BLM natural resource specialist describe a way for our family to adopt a site and encourage others to do the same, I knew this was an opportunity, a start of a movement, a reconciliation between park rangers and vanlifers to join together to make our public lands better.

I smiled from ear to ear as I confidently held the phone to my ear at the peak of the mountain. “Yes. We are in. Yes.”

The program itself is similar to the Adopt a Trail Program in which a volunteer group, organization or family commits to a year of service to “perform trail maintenance activities (brushing, weed-eating, trimming, sign maintenance, tread work).”

But in this revamp of the Adopt a Highway or Adopt a Trail programs, we were going to be the trailblazers of Adopt a Site. As we sign on to a particular BLM land area, we agree

to come back once or twice a year to arrange clean-ups, educate fellow dwellers on how they can help us keep the site clean, and hopefully ease tensions between locals and visitors on stewardship of the land.

The BLM office will provide equipment such as mowers and other similar power tools. Plus, they help train volunteers on handling hazardous waste and provide safety gear like goggles, work shoes, gloves, masks, and hard hats. We really just bring the commitment, the sweat, and the heart. But can you imagine?

Stop for a minute.

Can you even imagine?

If each full-time family, couple or person adopts one site to clean up twice a year, what would happen to our public lands? Instead of the mindset of just taking because it’s free and gorgeous, we turn the tables to give back because it’s free and gorgeous.

The pressures that government offices have to patrol areas and put up the ever-increasing no overnight parking signs would ease up as the nomad community shows with its

actions and not words that we are not an eyesore or a nuisance. When a caravan of full-size school buses roll up, the locals will cheer instead of grumble, because they see the positive impact we make on the places they call home full time.

“Because that will inherently scar the land and take those lands as they exist today away from future generations.”

We have all seen it. We have all done it. And now we all can make a difference.

WILL YOU JOIN?

About the Author

Kaitlin is a former professional bun head ballerina who retired to become a foster mom. After ten years welcoming 34 kids from at-risk families into her home; her husband, her adopted daughter and legal guardian son needed some time to heal. They packed up everything and now travel the country in an 18-foot Skoolie mountain peaking, rock climbing, skiing, trail running and seeing just how many days without a proper shower is too many.

Follow Kaitlin on Instagram at @Runawaymusbus and at runawaymusbus.com

BOONDOCKING

Wedge Overlook • Utah

GPS: 39.0931, -110.7589

The Wedge Overlook sits right on top of the Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River in Utah. Words do not do this place justice as the scenery is just that stunning. We felt like we had our own little slice of one of the great Utah National Parks right here on BLM land. All of the dirt roads leading in are nicely maintained.

The campsites are all numbered, but there are plenty of them and they are so large that I can’t imagine you would ever have trouble finding a spot. Each numbered campsite could potentially fit several rigs. There is a large camping area right at the canyon overlook itself (site number 9) that is very popular. If you are looking for a more secluded campsite there are still numerous other options a little further east along the road.

Site number 1 is the furthest out and also sits right on the edge of the canyon but the road to it is more suitable for smaller RVs. We stayed at campsite number 5 with our 41ft fifth wheel which sits on a balcony over a side canyon that still provides views all the way out to the main canyon itself. Cell service was quite strong with both AT&T and T-Mobile and we were able to work during our stay here.

Most of the campsites are also right along the Goodwater Trail. This is a 21 mile single track mountain bike loop that also makes for easy, flat hiking to see even more of the spectacular views of the canyons. If you get tired of the fantastic canyon views from here, a scenic drive through Buckhorn Wash and the Buckhorn Pictograph Panel are not far away. We could have spent way more than just a few days here!

Christine & Kevin Skelton @_neverstopadventuring

GPS: 44.1307,-86.3302

Afavorite boondocking spot of ours is in the Manistee National Forest in Michigan, about 10 miles east of Lake Michigan.

Access to camping areas is via two-track dirt forest roads that lead to spaces of various sizes. Some are only large enough for a car and tent, while others can accommodate a van or small trailer.

The easiest way to reach these sites is to locate the intersection of West Forest Trail Road and Quarterline Road and then head west on West Forest Trail. There are numerous two-tracks to turn in on between Quarterline Road and the federally managed Lake Michigan Recreation Area.

Ground clearance generally isn’t a problem, and we have often made a trip into these woods with our Class B RV. The only thing you need to be mindful of is the occasional low-hanging branch.

Most sites are obvious places where people have been camping and tend to be far enough away from each other that you get some privacy. Depending on how large your rig is, you may find a spot nestled in the trees to your liking. If you have a larger rig or enjoy some open sky for stargazing, you also can find clearings in the woods. Where you camp also can impact your cellular signal, but we have

discovered enough service on Verizon to take care of email and social media on the weekends.

If you’re looking for a getaway in the forest that also lends itself to miscellaneous adventures on the trails or a beach, consider boondocking in the Manistee National Forest. No permits or check-ins are required, so you can just find the path that looks right to you and find free adventures!

Ari Adler @trekersorg

Manistee National Forest • Michigan

Fredericksburg, Texas

GPS: 30.1363, -98.8199

What do goats in a bus, a pickers circle, a camel and a Testicle Festival have in common? Camp Bankersmith near Fredericksburg, Texas. This is a most unusual, peaceful and ‘Texasy’ place. Firepits, a camel, lots of Texas hill country views and plenty of space for big rigs. When you are driving to the location, you may start thinking you took a wrong turn. It is several miles off the main interstate. Be careful of the deer!! Lots and lots and lots of deer. Boondocking is for free for up to 50 rigs for as long as one week. That is a lot to offer in Texas where it is rare to find boondocking at all.

Unlikemostboondockingspots,thisonehasalittletownbar about one mile down the road. You will want to patronize just to hear the pickers circle, a group of locals who get together and take turns picking out songs on their guitars and singing. The night we went, there was a songwriter there who had written for Willie Nelson and many other major country singers. To fill your belly, they have some homemade food on the side –Tuesday night they had Chili. Their trademark is an old bus outside with resident goats.

To reserve a spot, call or text Greg in advance. Let him know the dates you want and when you plan to arrive, he will confirm with you. You will check in at the bar (leave the rig parked on the road and walk into the bar). They will give you specific directions where to park.

Wine lovers already know Fredericksburg is a star with wineries. Currently there are over 75 wineries within a one and half hour radius of this boondocking spot at Camp Bankersmith with well-known names like Messina Hoff. Then there are wineries you cannot miss if nothing else for the name – like Fat Ass Winery. If you plan exactly right, you can make the annual Testicle Festival in February!

Lucinda Belden

Camp Bankersmith

HEALTHY COOKING

WHILE BOONDOCKING

Pack these granola bars on your next hike!

By Sean Torstenson & Alli Newton

When most people think about camping foods, their minds head toward comfort food staples. While these foods are fine for weekend warriors or vacationers, that style of eating can really sneak up on your waistline and your overall health when you’re a full-time digital nomad.

After two years on the road full-time, we have maintained a healthy "from scratch" diet during our entire journey. How can that be? Well, it’s not as tough as it might seem.

It can feel difficult to make tasty, healthy, energy-dense foods when you are away from the conveniences of home or the power pole at an RV park.

Whilewehavesetupourrigwithenoughsolarpowertocook completely on electricity even when we are surrounded by nothing but nature, you can still make everything we prepare with propane or a generator if you must.

One way we optimise power consumption is by doing some prep work for dinner while the sun is still up which helps with the draw from the batteries. That way we just have to finish

the meal after the sun is low in the sky. Cooking over a campfire is the most energy efficient way to go, but you might not always want to make a fire for every meal.

We have been cooking completely plant-based for four years and transitioned that style over to the confines of an RV kitchen two years ago. Going small and separating ourselves from the grid came with challenges, but nothing we couldn’t overcome.

While everything we cook is plant-based and made from scratch, we still enjoy things like lasagna, pizza, burgers, tacos, cookies, brownies and so much more. We talk about the food we prepare on Instagram @rvegan_htg and share our adventures @here.then.gone as well.

If you are like most people who seek "off-the-grid" locations to camp, you probably enjoy getting out and hiking around the area. Having energy-rich foods in your pack can really give your body a boost during a strenuous trek.

We prefer to make our own granola bars instead of buying prepackaged. They are fresh, tasty, and you can play around with flavor combinations based on personal preference. One version that we have come up with has pistachio, dried cherry, and a dash of almond extract to create a salty and sweet combination.

Making these delicious bars doesn't require much power - which is a homerun when boondocking - and eating them at the summit of a climb or a beautiful overlook is a great reward for your hard work. One batch makes enough for a few hikes, so feel free to freeze any extra if you have some time before your next hike.

We can’t overstate the importance of having simple, delicious, and nutritious food — especially when you’re out on the trail. We recently spent time making our way through the "Mighty 5" national parks in Utah and did a lot of hiking. A very obvious standout in all of those parks was our hike up Angels Landing.

The switchbacks section known as "Walter's Wiggles" will give your legs a run for their money, and traversing the "chains" section might make your legs weak in a different way if you are afraid of heights. Once we made it to the top, our homemade treats provided us the boost of energy we needed to start our descent.

Try these out for your next hike!

CHERRY PISTACHIO GRANOLA BARS

1/3 C Pistachios

1/2 C Dried Cherries

1 1/2 C Oats

1 1/4 C Brown Rice Crisp Cereal

1/4 t Salt

1/2 C Brown Rice Syrup

1/4 C Unsalted Almond Butter

1 t Almond Extract

1. Begin by mixing the pistachios, dried cherries, oats, rice crisps, and salt into a large bowl.

2. In a small saucepan mix the brown rice syrup and almond butter over medium heat until they soften and lightly bubble. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract

3. Pour the almond butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir to completely coat the oats in the wet mixture. (Mixture will become very thick and difficult to stir.)

4. Transfer the mixture to an 8 x 8” or 9 x 9” pan lined with parchment paper and spread it to an even layer. Press the mixture firmly to help the bars hold together.

5. Place the pan in the freezer uncovered for about 10 minutes or until firm.

6. Remove the oat square from the pan by lifting the parchment paper, and place it on a cutting board. Cut the square into 6 slices, and then cut those in half to make 12 bars.

7. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or the freezer for up to 1 month.

A REJUVENATING FAMILY ROAD TRIP TO HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK

By Abbey Jo Schrage

Hot Springs National Park has been set apart as a sacred place of healing for thousands of years. Thanks to its steamy, self-sustaining streams that gush from the earth’s core through the Ouachita mountainside, the mines full of curative crystals heralded as the world’s most abundant alongside Brazil, and the lesserknown mecca of mountain biking/ kayaking/hiking that reside here, this under-visited national park taunted us with hopes for a new sort of new year!

Since the onset of the pandemic, our young family’s roots have taken on a new range. While we are growing deeper in our roots at home (working together, playing together, learning together and of course fighting together), we encountered a newfound energy for exploration that led us to spread our roots outward on the open, though quiet, road.

The timing of our kids FINALLY being at an age where they can hike (with their own two legs), ride in the car (all day), and skip naps was key by the way. We added “Coco the camper” to the family and started to hit the road more frequently and further from what we now call our “home base.” And we treat it as such!

Each time we leave home base, it’s a rush. Both in the mind high sort of way and the physical, logistical one. With young kids and full-time jobs to balance, I have learned that our best bet to fully experiencing

a place is to go in “flexibly prepared”. Since my practice as a psychotherapist transitioned to 100% teletherapy from home, I find it much easier to prep the camper and research hikes and sights over my lunch break and between patients. My husband typically breaks away from trading commodities when markets are closed to lift the heavy stuff and hitch up Coco. This trip was no exception.

We set off on our ninehour drive and landed by dusk at our first base: Falls Branch Trail in Lake Catherine State Park, just south of Hot Springs. The legendary Rick Steve’s once told us that the enemy of jet lag, or in our case car lag, is a brisk walk amidst nature. We have taken his wisdom to heart and always attempt to end full travel days with a hike to ground and surround ourselves in our new soil.

At the onset of the 1.6-mile loop, we were inundated with an overwhelming aroma of pine, both refreshing our senses and reminding us of what we gave up this year by settling for an artificial Christmas tree. We made multiple bridge crossings over

Little Canyon Creek, naming the troll that lived beneath each to keep the kids engaged before summiting the quartz-edged mountainside. The sun set just as we started our descent, and thankfully a full moon took its place to light the remainder of the path to the waterfall. I sensed this moment as one that would imprint upon our memories as it was transpiring. The sensually-activating combination of the moonlit waterfall, the echo chambers we yodeled into like coyotes in the dark, the eeriness of it all and pushing ourselves past our normal comfort zone as a family unit shifted this moment outside of time and into a mental frame that makes the chaos of leaving home base worth it.

Next up, was Hot Springs National Park proper, known by its aficionados as “the HSNP.” Speaking of aficionados, they claim that the HSNP was in fact technically the first national park, since it was dedicated as the first federal reservation by President Andrew Jackson in 1832, a whopping 70 years before Yellowstone was officially designated as the first national park.

These same devotees claim that the hot spring waters have the power to heal. While standing near one of the three public hot spring dispensaries, I noticed a man drive up in a truck and begin to fill countless gallons with the spring water. I inquired about his use for the water, and he grimaced, following my question with a question, “how old do you think I am?” I frankly guessed thirty years shy and he exuberantly brought me in on his belief of the balancing mineral quality of the HSNP’s water. Just in case he was on to something, we made sure to fill our canteens for the drive home.

It’s fitting to me that this place used to be known as the “Valley of Vapors,” as it’s not at all what we typically experience in a national park. It took me some time to adjust my expectations and integrate the peculiar combination of history, architecture, thermal springs, mountainside recreation and the actual town of Hot Springs as a national park designation. We strolled along the promenade, intermittently stopping to trap heat beneath our coats and “quaff the elixir,” as they say, from the ancient Renaissance-looking spouts that emerge from the mountainside.

There is an intriguing, free audio cell phone history tour that we called in to at different points along the route. It transported us back in time alongside Native American consecration, Spanish exploration, and visitors like Al Capone and Babe Ruth who sought this same thermal elixir for different purposes. If we weren’t amidst a pandemic, we would have been fully immersed in one of the seven bathhouse pools at this point. Instead, once we

werewornfromwalking,westoppedbySuperiorBathhouse Brewery, which is a must as it holds a “double only” title. First, it is the ONLY brewery within a national park. Second, it is the ONLY brewery to use thermal spring water in their brews. I herded my crazy children away from a local, who was immersed in a “beer bath,” which consists of a board sampling of all 18 hot spring brews. She overheard me talk about my work as a psychotherapist and warmly but firmly told me this was her therapy time, away from her children.

To complete our wheel of wellness, we decided to dig a little deeper … for crystals. As I mentioned, we were surprised to learn that Arkansas is the crystal capital of the world, based on the quartz crystal abundance and quality. Forget the fact that it was pouring rain monsoon-style, we had treasures to find. We geared up and headed a half-hour into the Ouachita Mountains to Wegner Mines. For just $18/adult, kids free, and no limit to the crystals we could take home from the mine, this was our cheapest, most memorable experience yet.

Our tour guide, Constance, was a gem of her own. She told us countless jaw-dropping tales of the rockhounds thatcomehereandthecrystalsthatcomeoutofhere while she drove us to the mines in her “Arkansas Limousine” (aka a truck bed). She gave us a “crystal mining for dummies” introduction and taught us to “look for the grey in the clay” before leaving us in the rain for the next two hours over her lunch break. Boy, was she was right. I don’t know if it was the heavy rain that seamlessly washed the orange clay from the translucent crystals, Constance’s words of wisdom, or the energy of the crystals, but we felt as if we were digging in the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, except for the fact that it was filled with crystals.

Countless more moments come to mind that I could reminisce over, but I’ll choose to end here, because at this point, I knew that we already found what we went looking for. “Did we grow deeper in relationship and wider in perspective?” When we could all answer with a resounding “yes,” we knew we found the mega crystal. When gazing through this prism, we can see and love others, ourselves, and the world with a new dimension of clarity. The reminder from the HSNP is now held in our hands and our hearts.

About the Author

Abbey and her family rest in the Midwest and reach out in Coco the camper regularly. In addition to planning the next adventure for her family, she has combined her therapeutic expertise and travel experience with Thravel, which provides tailormade travel, RV and adventure itineraries and services. You can follow along and chat more with her on Instagram @abbeyjoschmo

THE BEST HIKES AT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Don’t miss these unforgettable trails!

By Adam & Kathryn Frazer

Glacier National Park, located in northwest Montana, is the 10th most visited national park in the United States with 3 million visitors annually. And it’s no surprise why!

TheparkisnestledintheRockyMountains and is home to more than 700 lakes, beautiful mountain views, waterfalls, tons of wildlife, and 26 named glaciers, all of which are shrinking in size. There are endless amounts of beauty in the park, including the famous Going-to-the-Sun road, the epic Highline Trail, and even just from the Logan Pass parking lot.

This past summer, we were finally able to visit the park for the first time, and out of the 34 U.S. national parks that we have visited, Glacier National Park not only takes the cake for our favorite national park, but it is also the most gorgeous place we have been to in the United States! Our three days in the park were filled with breathtaking views around every corner, many miles of trails, exciting wildlife encounters, and of course, lots of huckleberry treats.

Heading to Glacier National Park? We hope that this guide can help you feel more prepared to visit and give you a solid list of hikes to tackle so you can fall in love with Glacier like we did!

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU VISIT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Before visiting Glacier and experiencing all of the incredible hikes the park has to offer, there are a few key things to know to have a safe and fun trip.

When to visit

The majority of the park is closed in the late fall until early summer due to heavy snowfall, and the opening dates for the park’s main road, Going-to-the-Sun Road, varies every year. We suggest visiting in mid-July through early-September to experience the park at its best!

Since the park has a limited season, the summer is the busiest time to visit, so we suggest visiting on a weekday and also arriving at the park early every day. Parking at Logan Pass, which is the starting point for two of the park’s most popular trails, fills up early.

Entrance fee

It costs $35 per car to enter Glacier National Park, which

covers 7 days in the park. We highly recommend getting the “America the Beautiful” Pass, which is $80 per year and gets you into all National Park Service managed sites and federal lands for free.

Be bear aware

Both black and grizzly bears call Glacier National Park home, and it’s not uncommon to see them in the park. Grizzly bears are the more aggressive of the two, and while attacks are very rare, it is crucial to carry bear spray just in case (and know how and when to use it, too). You can either buy bear spray in town or rent it from Glacier Outfitters in West Glacier.

Vehicle length restrictions

For those of you in a van or RV, there is a length limit of 21 feet, 8 feet wide, and 10 feet tall on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Our 170” WB Sprinter van is 22.5 feet, so we had to rent a car so we could drive the road.

If your vehicle is too long and you don’t want to rent a car, there are free shuttles to get you around the park. However, these shuttles were not running in 2020, so make sure to see their schedule! You can also take shuttle tours from outside providers, which will be more of an educational experience as well as convenient transportation.

7 2

Check for closures

When we visited in August 2020, the east side of the park was closed due to COVID-19, and we also encountered some trail closures due to grizzly bear activity. Make sure to check closures before you go!

Dogs are not allowed

Just like the majority of U.S. national parks, dogs are not allowed on any trails. They are allowed at campgrounds and on paved areas, though!

10 AMAZING HIKES AT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

While you see the beauty of Glacier National Park by car, the best way to experience the park is by foot! Here are some of the best hikes at Glacier National Park, ranging from mountain views to waterfalls to gorgeous glacial lakes!

Avalanche Lake via the Trail of the Cedars

Miles (round trip): 6.7

Elevation gain: 757 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

The hike to Avalanche Lake begins on the Trail of the Cedars, which is a flat trail full of tall, old-growth cedar trees, a crystal clear glacial river, and a super neat gorge. After splitting off from this trail, you’ll begin the trek to Avalanche Lake, a large lake with an incredible and vast mountain backdrop.

Highline Trail

to

Grinnell Glacier Overlook

Miles (round trip): 14.7

Elevation gain: 3,507 ft

Difficulty: Hard

While it’s a long and steep trek, the Highline Trail to Grinnell Glacier Overlook is a must-do hike while at Glacier National Park! This hike begins and ends at the Logan Pass Visitor Center and takes you along a rocky ledge, winds through the mountains with endless views of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and mountain peaks, and up the steep Garden Wall trail to an overlook of Grinnell Glacier, plus surrounding lakes. The views left us absolutely speechless, and this is by far the best hike we have done in the United States!

1 2 3

Hidden Lake

Miles (round trip): 5.3

Elevation gain: 1,374 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

Hidden Lake is one of the most iconic hikes in Glacier National Park with a view of a beautiful lake and the striking Bearhat Mountain. You can either hike 1.4 miles (one way) to the overlook, or continue down to the lake for a total of 5.3 miles round trip! Either way, you’ll get to experience the breathtaking scenery that this hike has to offer.

4 5

Siyeh Pass

Miles (one-way trip): 9.7

Elevation gain: 2,234

Difficulty: Hard

Siyeh Pass is one of the highest maintained trails in the park and offers a variety of scenery, including mountains, waterfalls in the distance, and views of the Sexton Glacier. For this hike you have a couple options. You can either start the hike at the Siyeh Pass Trailhead or the Piegan Pass Trailhead and take the free Glacier National Park shuttle back to your car at the end of the hike. You can also hike to the summit of the trail and return the way you came, or you can do the entire hike in both directions for about a 19.4-mile hike.

Iceberg Lake

Miles (round trip): 9.3

Elevation gain: 1,450 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

Sun Point

Miles (round trip): 0.8

Elevation gain: 250 ft.

Difficulty: Easy

This short and sweet hike starts at the Sun Point parking area and takes you to a rocky overlook of Saint Mary Lake and the surrounding mountains. This is also a great starting point for Baring, Saint Mary, and Virginia Falls!

Grinnell Glacier

Miles (round trip): 11.2

Elevation gain: 2,181 ft

Difficulty: Hard

While you can catch a glimpse of Grinnell Glacier from above on the Highline and Garden Wall trails, you can also take the Grinnell Glacier trail, located in the Many Glacier area of the park, to the lakes at the base of the glacier! Similar to Iceberg Lake, the blue, glacial water is unbelievable to see.

Ptarmigan Lake and Tunnel Trail

Miles (round trip): 10.5

Elevation gain: 2,254 ft

8 9 7

Difficulty: Hard

Ptarmigan Lake and Tunnel trail not only has amazing mountain, valley, and lake views like most trails in the park, but it also has a special feature … a tunnel! This tunnel is 250 feet long, goes right through the Ptarmigan wall, and was built in the 1930s for horseback riders and park tours.

This trail also partially shares a trail with Iceberg Lake, so you can also combine the two for a total of 14 miles.

Cracker Lake

Miles (round trip): 12

Elevation gain: 1,650

Difficulty: Moderate

If you haven’t had enough of glacial lakes (spoiler alert: you won’t!), Cracker Lake is another stunning, blue lake to visit in the Many Glacier area of the park. Unlike many of the trails at Glacier that lack tree cover and are fully exposed, this trail does go through the forest for a bit, but the end views are worth the occasional lack of views along the way.

WHERE TO STAY AT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Glacier National Park is located close to the towns of Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and Kalispell, which provide a handful of options for lodging.

10

Saint Mary & Virginia Falls

Miles (round trip): 2.9

Elevation gain: 453 ft

Difficulty: Easy

While the mountains that make up Glacier National Park are the main attraction, there are also some pretty amazing waterfalls to explore! Saint Mary and Virginia Falls, which are along the same trail, provide two unique waterfall experiences. Saint Mary Falls is a shorter waterfall, with bright blue water, while Virginia Falls is a multi-tier, tall waterfall that crashes along red colored rocks.

You can visit these falls from the main Saint Mary Falls trail or start at the Sun Point parking area, which makes the hike around 6 miles round trip, but also includes a third waterfall named Baring Falls.

There are 13 park campgrounds to choose from at Glacier National Park and 1,009 sites. However, only 4 of the campgrounds take reservations, and due to their popularity, you’ll want to reserve 6 months in advance. For the firstcome, first-served sites, you can check what time they fill up in advance to help you snag a site.

Note: Not all campgrounds are RV- or trailer-friendly, so make sure to read the length restrictions!

Permits for the Going-to-the-Sun Road

As of 2021, Glacier National Park now requires permits to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road between May 28-September 6 and during the hours of 6 AM-5 PM MDT. You can either reserve a pass to drive the road, which is valid for 7 days, or you will have a pass included if you’re staying at certain lodging inside the park or have specific tours booked. You can reserve your permit up to 60 days in advance at 6 AM MDT.

Outside Glacier National Park

RV Parks & Campgrounds

FromaKOA&otherRVparkstonationalforestcampgrounds, there are tons of places to stay near Glacier National Park. During our visit, we stayed at Mountain Meadow RV Park, which had a lot more trees than other RV parks we have visited, giving it more of a campground feel.

Airbnbs + Hotels

If you want to stay in a more traditional accommodation and be close to restaurants and stores, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Whitefish are all great options to make your home base.

About Adventures of A+K

We’re Adam, Kathryn, and Kona, an adventurous married couple (+ pup!) living on the road in our self-converted sprinter van! You can often find us driving all around the U.S. and Canada scoping out the best coffee shops, eating tacos and ice cream (we're a 5+ taco and 2+ scoop household), and enjoying nature.

To see more of our travels and our detailed travel guides, check out our website adventuresofaplusk.com or follow us on Instagram and YouTube @AdventuresofAplusK.

Inside Glacier National Park

RV UPGRADE BRASS WATER SERVICE PANEL

The plastic that comes standard on most RV water panels can wear down and crack over time, resulting in water leaks - never a good thing in an RV. Anderson Brass Company (ABCO) a family owned business located in South Carolina, has been manufacturing quality valve fittings since 1931.

All of their products are made, manufactured, assembled, and tested in the United States. They specialize in brass valves and fittings and build their products to last. By utilizing brass instead of plastic, ABCO valves are durable, meaning they will last a lot longer than your typical plastic connection.

Easy Installation

Tucker installed our custom ABCO panel in our Keystone Montana fifth wheel. It involved undoing all of the original plastic connections, removing the stock water panel that originally came on our trailer, cutting and painting a new piece of plywood to replace the old panel, and screwing the new ABCO panel to it.

By Tucker & Janae McCormick

Once he had the new panel in place, Tucker siliconed everything so that it was sealed. He had to redo all of the pex plumbing which required watching a few YouTube videos.

He trimmed some of the plumbing back, rerouted some more, and then connected it all to the proper new brass connections on the new ABCO RV water panel.

Our install was done in freezing temperatures during winter, which we do not recommend! It made things take longer and we had to deal with some frozen pipes as well. The process probably would have gone a lot smoother had the weather been more cooperative.

The new ABCO RV water panel has significantly less knobs and switches than our original water panel which simplifies things and makes it easier to change from city connection to dry camping when we are boondocking. The best part: ABCO stands behind their products with a 5 Year Limited Warranty.

Is your RV ready for an upgrade? Check out Anderson Brass Company at abcorv.com for more. You can follow us on Instagram @adventures_with_tucknae and read more on our website adventureswithtucknae.com

GEAR GUIDE

Shop All Of Our Rootless Living Gear Guides at Amazon.com/Shop/RootlessLiving

3-IN-ONE RVCARE SLIDEOUT SILICONE LUBE

Specially formulated to lubricate, waterproof slide-outs. It’s quick drying, long lasting and safe to use on metal, rubber, vinyl, and plastic. Keepsanyslide-outrunningsmoothly without sticking or squeaking. Prevent rust and corrosion on all types of slide-out mechanisms.

AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC COUNTERTOP ICE MAKER MACHINE

Portable, convenient and compact in size, this retro metallic red ice maker looks good on a countertop while producing ice for wheneverorwhereveryouneedit.Largeice making capacity keeps the water tank filled and this unit will produce 26 pounds of ice in a 24 hour period-enough to keep drinks cold all day long.

COLLAPSIBLE DISH DRAINER WITH DRAINER BOARD

Simply pop-up to open when using and collapses to flat for space saving with Expanded size: 14.6 x 12.6 x 5.5(h) inches and its height just 1.8 inches after folds. Perfect storageanddrainingdinnerwareand glasswares. Suitable for both indoors & outdoor uses, such as camping, BBQ and campsite cleanup.

KING EXTEND™ GO MULTI-USE PORTABLE CELL SIGNAL BOOSTER

The KING Extend Go is our most versatile cell booster yet! With multiple portable and vehicle antennas/mounts plus a collapsible tripod, you can set this powerful booster up anywhere.

Designed for RVs, trucks, travel trailers, horse trailers, delivery vehicles, outbuildings, fish houses, tiny houses - includes all you need to boost your cell phone signal EVERYWHERE you go.

Fits standard 14 inch RV vents. Reflective surface blocks the sun's damaging rays. Full 2.75 inch of foam to help stop heat transfer. Durable and easy to store. Keep your RV cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

PRO BREEZE DEHUMIDIFIER

This powerful dehumidifier removes up to 9 ounces of Water/Day in areas up to 215 square feet. When full the dehumidifier will automatically shut off and the LED light will turn on, indicating the water tank needs draining. Simply empty the water tank and place it back into the dehumidifier.

Less than 5 inches wide, perfect for small spaces. Brew any cup size between 6-12oz with Keurig K-Cup pods. Just add fresh water for each brew. Coffee made in minutes.

Can be attached to any standard gardening or water hose to provide healthier drinking water and cleaner water overall. Great for RVs, boats, campers, pets, gardening, and much more. Removes particles greater than 20 microns.

COGHLAN'S

The easy to use Pop-Up Camp Trash Canisagreataccessoryforcamping, picnics, RV trips and more. Simply unzip the storage lid and the springloaded trash can will expand to its full size, then collapse and secure closed with the fastener straps when you’re finished. It’s made of heavy duty polyethylene for durability but it’s lightweight enough to carry anywhere you need to go.

CAMCO TASTEPURE RV WATER FILTER

RV VENT INSULATOR AND SKYLIGHT COVER

KEURIG K-MINI COFFEE MAKER

POP-UP CAMP TRASH CAN

Joshua Kruis

Jennifer Jennings

Cat Carroll

Simon Fowler

Sasha Bezer

Teresa Lesher

Jason Betzing

Alexis Nascimento

Cindy Scott

Amy Rekart

Kimberly DeCarrera

Kaitlin Musser

Christine & Kevin Skelton

Ari Adler

Lucinda Belden

Sean Torstenson

Alli Newton

Abbey Jo Schrage

Adam & Kathryn Frazer

Tucker & Janae McCormick

Rootless Living Magazine

Volume 2 | Issue 9 | May/June 2021

Publisher Demian Ross

Editor Nikki Kirk

Editorial Assistant Jessica Stiles

Copy Editor Isak Kvam

Advertising Information: sales@rootlessliving.com

ROOTLESS LIVING • 3916 N POTSDAM AVE #3194, SIOUX FALLS, SD 57104

Disclaimer: One of the great things about digital publications is the ability to link you directly to the products or services you want to hear more about. Some of the links in this issue are affiliate links where we earn commissions on goods or services you buy. These commissions help us to continue to publish the magazine. Rootless Living is also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@rootlessliving.com

PODCASTS FOR THE DRIVE

Stuff You Missed in History Class

A podcast dedicated to fraud and all those who practice it! It's like true crime only without all the death.

Host Natalie helps women entrepreneurs own their role as CEO through her business trainings, on air coaching calls and expert interviews.

Tips, travel ideas, RV news and great interviews about the RV Lifestyle.

Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class.

Comedy Gold Minds with Kevin Hart

From rising stars to comedy legends, Kevin takes listeners on a wild and crazy ride through some of the world's top comedic minds.

Reasonable Doubt

World-renowned criminal defense lawyer Mark Geragos reveals the latest in our nation's most high-profile legal cases with podcast king Adam Carolla.

Brown Ambition

A S T S FOR THE DRIVE

Each episode explores the mysterious creatures, tragic events, and unusual places that fill the pages of history.

Every Wednesday Brown Ambition helps you unapologetically build wealth by saving, investing and making smart career choices — on your own terms!

Podcasts are listed as a courtesy to our readers and compiled from recommendations in various Facebook groups. If you have a podcast you think we should include, email us at info@rootlessliving.com

Scam Goddess

The BizChix Podcast

The RV Podcast

Lore

Our unique, computer-designed, adjustment-free hitch heads keep your trailer centered to your tow vehicle. Spring steel bars augment the suspensions of your tow vehicle and trailer, reducing road shock. SwayPro

Weight Distribution + Sway Prevention

• Distributes trailer tongue weight evenly

• Caster in the hitch head centers the trailer

• Prevents sway even in rain or snow

• No noise created by friction TrackPro

Weight Distribution + Sway Management

• Distributes trailer tongue weight evenly

• Caster in the hitch head centers the trailer

• Rigid L-brackets provide additional points of sway-managing friction