I can’t say when it happened, but somewhere between meeting my now-wife Rachael and when we got married, we decided that full-time travel was right for us. I can’t say what started the conversation or what the final deciding factor was for us to quit our jobs and travel full time. I can, with a fair amount of confidence, give advice about leaving your stable life and embarking on a life of full-time travel. Here are five tips that everyone should see before hitting the road.
When planning for an extended adventure in a skoolie, vanlife, or in an RV, it is easy to get bogged down in shopping for accessories. Let our experience help you pick out what you need for your next road trip or year of full-time travel.
During most of our travels around North America, we have worked online as our primary source of income. Our employment has required that we be connected 3-4 days per week during the heavy times of the year and 2-3 days during the slow weeks. This demand on our time has necessitated that we stay connected to the internet far more often than we would prefer, scroll down to find out how we stay connected while living in our skoolie!
Whether you have been traveling by vehicle for decades or you are just discovering the world of overlanding for the first time, one of the best investments you can make in your future as a vehicle based traveler is the Overland Experience at Overland Expo.
TRAINING FROM WORLD-CLASS EXPERTS IN VEHICLE AND MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL
You can only learn so much from YouTube videos and reading books about overland travel. Overland Expo assembles the best training teams in the industry to make sure that your time in the classroom is a good investment.
7P Overland sets the bar in the off-road and overland training industry! 7P trainers bring to the table hundreds of years of combined vehicle-based travel experience, most of it off-road as well as professional skillsets ranging from engineering, medical, applied sciences, and military training.
Courses offered by 7P cover a wide variety of topics and skills from the basics of vehicle recovery and picking a line, to more advanced topics of failing a hill climb or when and how to engage locking differentials. 7P provides a comprehensive training experience that will leave you more prepared to tackle your next trip safely and confidently!
Motorcycle training at Overland Expo is provided by DART (Dragoo Adventure Rider Training). Bill Dragoo is a life-long adventurer with loads of experience and a laundry list of accomplishments in everything from writing and story telling to mountain biking and most notably, adventure motorcycle travel. Bill and his team of experienced riders and teachers provide a positive and encouraging training experience that builds confidence while teaching and refining skills that will undoubtedly improve your next MOTO excursion.
Training staff at Overland Expo teach skills in a classroom environment as well as hands-on training in your vehicle or on your motorcycle while navigating the on-site driving and riding courses.
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE DRIVING OFF-ROAD COURSES BUILT BY THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS
The Overland Expo build team consists of the best course builders in the off-road industry that coordinate and plan an epic off-road training course in conjunction with the instructors from 7P and DART to make sure the driving course is challenging, safe, and fun to learn on! The driving course is a fantastic place to hone your skills and learn new techniques in a controlled environment from instructors that have traveled the world and taken their vehicles to the very edge.
The build team at Overland Expo strives to bring new challenges to each training course and build courses unique to each event. The trainers will take you through obstacles, teach you along the way, and build confidence for your next off-road adventure.
IN-DEPTH CLASSROOM SESSIONS ABOUT THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY, PLANNING TECHNIQUES, AND OVERLAND DESTINATIONS
There are very few places in the world where you can learn such a wealth of knowledge about the newest technology, planning and travel techniques and strategies and the various overland destinations in the world as you can at Overland Expo. Real-world overland travelers from around the globe present courses on a variety of topics including gear and vehicle analysis, route and destination planning, photography and story-telling and more!
Want to know how to operate the new Garmin Overland?
Planning a trip across Africa and want to learn from travelers who have done it?
Curious about how to finance full-time travel?
If there is something you want to learn about overland travel, chances are, you will find it at Overland Expo!
The extras that come along with the Overland Experience package at Overland Expo are great!
From the beginning at Check-In you are greeted with a unique attendee bag that is exclusively for Overland Experience attendees, a customized schedule of courses and sessions that are only open to Overland Experience pass holders, and a boat-load of swag from Overland Expo exhibitors.
Overland Experience attendees have their own campground area that is closer to the event with easier access to classes, roundtables and amenities such as food and showers. The Overland Experience camping area is strategically placed to create simple and easy access to the training area.
Enjoy your evenings at the bar spending your complimentary drink tickets or winding down in camp with other like-minded overland enthusiasts.
A FESTIVAL-STYLE WEEKEND WITH THE OVERLAND COMMUNITY
From the world travelers that have crossed continents in their purpose built expedition vehicles to the weekend warriors that just want to spend time with their family in the woods, there is a place for everyone at Overland Expo and that is what makes it special. The best reason to attend the Overland Experience at Overland Expo is the community of motorcyclists, off-roaders, weekend-warriors, and full-timers- all enthusiasts with a passion for seeing the world.
Staff, volunteers, exhibitors, and sponsors put a ton of effort into making Overland Expo THE destination for checking out new gear, learning new skills, and making new friends. There is a reason that so many epic overland adventures have begun at Overland Expo, I recommend you come check it out and see for yourself!
This is a guide for those that have a van-lifer in their family or friends that are building or hope to build a van, skoolie, or overland vehicle. We own most of these products and can attest to their usefulness in a mobile lifestyle.
This is not a guide of things that we want for Christmas! We already have a ton of stuff and we have whittled down what we own to fit into our little bus and everything works really well.
Sea to Summit X-Pot
This thing is so useful that we have replaced our standard kitchen pot with the 2L size. The silicon sides make handling the X-pot a dream and the vented lid lets moisture escape the pot and also works as a handy strainer for pasta dishes. The best feature in our opinion is that the X-pot collapses to about 2 inches thick which makes it a storage dream. We have been using the X-pot for two years almost daily and it is still crushing it!
Every vehicle needs a portable air compressor to keep in the trunk for low tires. We have used our portable air compressor more times than we can count. From airing down in Baja to topping off our bus tires after sitting for a while, the 88p does everything we ask it to. With the purchase of an adaptor we have even been able to air up our stand up paddle boards with the 88P. If you run bigger tires, VIAIR makes many different models and we wouldn’t hesitate to throw money at anything with the VIAIR name on it.
One of our favorite additions that we made to our skoolie was a couple of 12V charger ports on each end of the bus to charge our phones, camera batteries, GPS, and anything else that uses USB to charge. We originally cheeped out and bought Chinese knock-offs and that was a bad idea because one has already died after being in use for a very short time and it was replaced with the Blue Sea unit. Blue Sea Systems sells a fast charge version of their USB outlet that will crank out enough juice to charge your iPad or cell phone in no time.
Had you told us two years ago that we would be using $100 lawn chairs, we both would have laughed in your face. What we have learned is the saying “Buy once, cry once” is a real thing and definitely applies to camp chairs. Our hand-me-down fold out camp chairs from Wal-Mart were beginning to succumb to the hundreds of uses in creeks and sandy beaches as well as bouncing around in the rear of the bus and truck for some 50,000 miles of travel. Once one chair became too derelict to use, we chucked it and put the other in deep storage as there was a new chair in town: the Helinox. The stored size is perfect for any number of cubby holes and the chairs are truly top notch quality. We expect to use these chairs for a long time! Rand McNally Road Atlas
There are times that we feel like old-folks…when we go to bed at 6PM and read until we fall asleep with a book on our faces and when we use paper maps to navigate. Our jobs take us around some of the most hi-tech navigation setups in the overlanding world and we still rely on a cell-phone with offline maps and a paper atlas. There is something soothing and adventurous about following your navigator’s finger on a map instead of a dot on a screen.
Just a head’s up: this page contains affiliate links. If you use one of the links scattered throughout this page, a portion of your purchase price will help fund our adventures (at no cost to you). Thanks for reading and shopping with our links!
If you were as fortunate as we were growing up you had the opportunity to go on a few road trips before the cell phone was invented. I remember riding in the trunk of our 90’s Chevy Astro Van on a trip to South Dakota and the navigator was armed with three tools at their disposal: a bag phone that was astronomically expensive to make voice calls on, an AM/FM radio that played cassette tapes, and a paper road atlas. Consumer GPS and Google Maps were still at least a decade away and the only way to get from point A to point B was to follow the map.
To this day, we still travel with a paper map for a few reasons. First, technology is fickle. Although phones, tablets and computers have come a long way since they became commonplace in most every American home, there are still times where batteries die, maps don’t load, and phone GPS beacons simply don’t work. Once while exploring the four corners region of the Southwest US, our phone started giving us wonky directions. More than wonky, it was telling us to go South when our destination was clearly North. We opened the Apple Compass app and sure enough, the compass was pointing the opposite magnetic direction that we were traveling.
We use paper maps when we are backpacking, bike touring, or exploring in our kayaks too! Follow the link below to find out how we download and print National Geographic Topographic Maps:
A second reason that we prefer traveling with a paper map is the value that we place on the big picture. By looking at an entire state you have options- when you work remotely and you don’t always plan where you will be at the end of the day, it’s nice to have a big picture view of where you are off to next.
The third and most important reason that we keep paper maps in our bus is the tangible feel associated with a paper map. Similar to a good soft cover book or journalling on high-quality paper, holding a map in your hands is warm, simple, and relaxing. Technology is cold and brings along all of the other distractions of email and application notifications that are normally the reason why we are navigating out to the wild in the first place. A paper map is honest and true (if it’s current) and it doesn’t present you with the fastest route or a way to avoid traffic, it takes you where you want to go with as much true adventure as a piece of paper can generate, and that’s very valuable to us.
One of the best gifts we received from our wedding was a Rand McNally print atlas that we still travel with today. We plan with it, we real-time navigate with it, and we will only give it up when it is too torn up to use.
Just a head’s up: this page contains affiliate links. If you use one of the links scattered throughout this page, a portion of your purchase price will help fund our adventures (at no cost to you). Thanks for reading and shopping with our links!
It’s amazing to think that it is time again for Overland Expo 2019 EAST! It seems like just yesterday we (the tough ones at least) were trudging our way through 6-inch deep mud to see some of the coolest rigs and brands from the Eastern U.S. This year will be a bit different with new ownership, a new venue, and a new month. It seems like all of the changes have been good so far and we are pumped for the new venue and the all-weather title that it claims. We have scoured the exhibitor and training list and these are the top 4 things that you can’t afford to miss at Overland Expo 2019 EAST.
DIY and Showcase Area
This is where the real folks exist. Most of the rigs found in the DIY area are self-built and not funded by an off-road brands marketing budget. Most of these vehicles are well-built and practical and many have been very well-traveled. Take a stroll through the DIY/Showcase area to see real rigs built by real people on real budgets.
@robertg_lahr
Okienomads Class Pick: My Overland Vehicle: 1964 Ford F350 (Robert Lahr)
Visit the Author Tent
There are truly some gems to be discovered in the Author tent including twice round the world adventure motorcyclist Ted Simon. Take a stroll through the tent and prepare yourself for stories and sage advice to begin flying from the pages of books outlining travel around the world on various modes of transportation. There is truly something for everyone in the Author Tent.
https://www.facebook.com/Jupitalia/
Okienomads Book Pick: Finding Jupiter by Ted Simon
Track Down Your Favorite Brands and Discover New Ones
The Exhibitor area seems to grow more and more each year and there are truly some great products being sold at Overland Expo 2019 EAST. Maybe you have some critical gear-storage problems, stop in Blue Ridge Overland Gear. Or perhaps you’ve been debating upgrading to a pop-up camper, now is the time to sit in a Four Wheel Campers and prepare to have your definition of quality and attention to detail changed forever. There are products at Overland Expo for every budget, travel style, and experience level!
When you get tired after scheduling too many classes and talking to all of your favorite brands about your upcoming trip to the Finger Lakes, take a stroll through the campground to check out some of the everyday rigs that folks are exploring in all over the country. You will be amazed at the resourcefulness and creativity that some of the attendees bring to Overland Expo. Some of my greatest inspirations for changes to rigs has happened not in the EarthRoamer booth, but in the back-40 having a beer with someone that has put a lot of time into their rig.
Okienomads Campground Tip: Try tracking down the volunteer camping area. These are the folks that take off from work to travel across the region to help make the show happen. High-quality events can’t exist without a high-quality group of volunteers. A lot of the volunteers are full-time travelers or are at least on the road several months out of the year. They have stories that you want to hear.
There is still time to purchase tickets to Overland Expo EAST. Check out www.overlandexpo.com for more information!
We drive…a lot! We have racked up over 40,000 miles in the last year and a half and neither of us do well with idle minds so we constantly have something on the speakers including online radio, talk radio and podcasts. Below we list our top 5 podcasts that we listen to weekly without fail. We enjoy one so much that we recently went to a live show in Portland, ME!
Stuff You Missed in History Class
https://www.missedinhistory.com Hosted by Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey, Stuff You Missed in History Class is a hilarious podcast that brings historical events into the present day in an entertaining and funny way.
Suggested episode:The Bisbee Deportation
The Village Church
https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/ Although technically not a podcast, we find that keeping looped in with a church congregation while we are on the road and unable to attend a consistent church is extremely rewarding and balancing. The lead pastor, Matt Chandler, has an amazing story of deliverance from illness and sin and he teaches biblical principals in a no-nonsense style that is refreshing in today’s church climate.
Suggested episode: All of them. Seriously, start at the beginning and follow the journey of this church as it grows in its biblical role as the bride of Christ.
The Dirtbag Diaries
https://dirtbagdiaries.com Exactly as the name implies, The Dirtbag Diaries is an artful and well-produced podcast telling stories from the slopes, waves, hiking trails, and every other corner of the natural world. Stories are told by the writers of each story and tell of growth, defeat and overcoming trials of all shapes and sizes.
Suggested episode:Winnebago Warriors
Freeakonomics Radio
http://freakonomics.com What would happen if Economists ruled the world? Now you don’t have to wonder anymore. The award-winning book Freakonomics takes to the airways narrated and produced by writer Stephen Dubner. Co-Author Steven Levitt is an Economist at the University of Chicago is a regular guest along with many distinguished experts in fields from education, behavioral economics, healthcare and more.
Suggested episode:America’s Hidden Duopoly
Stuff You Should Know
https://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com Arguably the most entertaining of all of the podcasts that we listen to, Stuff You Should Know brings humor to a myriad of topics including history, technology, pop-culture and more. Hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant are hilarious as their banter navigates the most interesting topics in podcasting.
Suggested episode:Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80’s
Rachael’s Podcast Pick
Coffee Break-German
https://radiolingua.com/category/coffee-break-german/ Want to learn a second language? Do you have some spare time where headphones are acceptable? Learn a language while listening to a podcast with the Coffee Break podcasts. Rachael uses Coffee Break-German to keep her German skills in check while we travel.
Zach’s Podcast Pick
Jocko Podcast
http://jockopodcast.com Former Navy Seal and leadership consultant Jocko Wilink interviews veterans, reviews books, and uses his vast knowledge and experience in combat to navigate the most pressing challenges of modern business.
Honorable Mention
The Tim Ferris Show
https://tim.blog/podcast/ Millionaire investor Tim Ferris breaks down top performers in various industries and professions and teases out the habits and practices that lead to success. If you are easily annoyed by product pitches and salesmanship, learn to fast forward through the first 5 minutes of Tim’s show.
That’s the list! Do you have a favorite podcast that you listen to while traveling? We would love to hear about your favorites, so leave a comment or send as an e-mail at okienomads@gmail.com.
If you are like us, you spend a fair bit of time in the woods and often times a good map of the area that you are exploring is hard to find. We use GPS often, but sometimes we enjoy route planning on a good, ole fashioned paper map. A good practice that we have started its when taking off into the woods is to keep a paper copy of our map stuffed in a ziplock baggy somewhere on our person in case of GPS failure, dead batteries, etc. One of our favorite maps is the National Geographic Quad and now you can download them for FREE!
The Nat Geo 7.5 minute quad is a highly detailed topographic map style that was created and used by the United State Geological Survey for decades. These maps are available for anywhere in the continental US and did we mention they are FREE. Keep in mind that the USGS hasn’t updated these maps in a few years, so some landscapes may have changes a bit, but how much can a landscape really change?
How to Download Free Nat Geo Quad PDF’s To download, navigate over to the National Geographic PDF Quads Page. Enter an e-mail address to sign up, nothing is FREE anymore! You can always unsubscribe when they start sending you e-mails.
Find the area you want to explore on the map or search for a particular area.
Click a red box to open a new window which will contain an overview map of the 4 quads that your selected red box borders as well as the 4 individual quads themselves.
That’s it! A super easy and extremely helpful tool for route planning and backcountry exploration. We are already planning out some backcountry routes for 2019 and you should too!
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Thousands of people around the world have purchased homes and at some point they find that they don’t want to live in their home but they aren’t quite ready to sell it and either aren’t able to rent it or don’t want to rent it. Some are retirees that spend six months of the year visiting warmer climates in an RV and the rest of their time is at their “home”. Most folks would rather have someone living in their home than board it up. Others have a home on the market to be sold and know that it has a much better chance of selling if someone is actively living in it and keeping up with the house.
Our housesitting gig in early 2019: Off-Grid Ranch in Baja, Mexico
How Do I Find Housesitting Gigs?
Build Your Housesitting Portfolio
If you are serious about housesitting, the first step should be to build your portfolio of references from people that you have housesitted for in the past. Most strangers on the street aren’t going to let someone they don’t know into their home for any period of time. However, if you had a list of credible references, your chances of being selected to house sit increase tremendously.
Offer to housesit for family or close friends when they go on vacation. Do an excellent job, let them know that you would love to housesit for them again, and ask if you can use them as a reference for future housesitting gigs. Now you can maintain a “resume” of your housesitting experience and use it as a bargaining chip with potential clients.
Create an Online Presence
The next step is likely the most important, creating an online presence. This can be different depending on the part of the world you wish to housesit in, but at minimum you should create a profile on a housesitting websites such as Trusted House Sitters and/or Luxury House Sitting.
Similar to filling out a job application, create a profile that is inviting and appealing to the particular type of assignment that you are interested in. Your profile photo should be high-quality, up to date, and accurate to your appearance as well as inviting. Don’t use a mug-shot as your profile photo on a housesitting website. Have someone proofread your profile for grammatical errors and try to be as professional as possible.
Remember that in a digital age, your online footprint means as much as your reputation did in 1950’s small town America. As soon as a potential client sees your name as an interested house-sitter, they will likely scour your social media and web presence to help determine if you are a credible applicant. The obvious solution to this predicament is to maintain social media as a decent human being and don’t post hateful, rude, racist, or overly political content. A less obvious way to avoid missing out on houses because of your meme addiction is to set your social media accounts to private.
Insider Tip Perform a “web audit” of yourself every 6 months or so to insure that you have a spotless web identity. If you do find something negative or defamatory, make steps to have it removed.
Provide a Quality Service
Like any industry, it doesn’t matter if you land the biggest client of your life if you can’t deliver a high-quality product. Once you get a housesitting gig, no matter the size, do the best job possible. Oftentimes going above and beyond your responsibilities as a house-sitter can yield glowing reviews online and excellent recommendations when someone calls. Similar to the rest of life, being excellent at what you do will net rewards continually over time.
Standard Duties of a House-sitter
The duties required in your housesitting agreement (yes, you need to sign a housesitting agreement) can vary depending on the geographic location of the house, the style of property (ranch, condo, apartment, etc.) and the reason that the owner requires a house-sitter. If the owner needs a house-sitter to make the home look inhabited, it’s probably best if you know how many hours per day you should be around the house.
In our 2019 housesitting agreement we signed on to live at an off-grid ranch in the remote mountains of Baja Norte, Mexico. We were interested in this assignment because it’s in Baja and because we are extremely interested in living off-grid someday and this was a perfect way to try that lifestyle without a huge commitment. Our duties at the ranch included the following:
Cleaning the main house and income property and preparing the income property with linens, supplies and a warm welcome if someone were staying.
Tending to the flower beds, gardens, and fruit trees on the property.
Feeding the dog, Pepita!
Monitoring the off-grid systems like satellite internet, solar power, and water.
Your responsibilities at a house might be very different and may include things like walking a dog or washing windows or dusting furniture. There is no right or wrong set of responsibilities as long as you are getting as much value out of the arrangement as the home owner. If you are staying in a 10’ x 10’ room with no windows and the owner of the house has you painting the exterior, reflooring the living room, and building on a garage, you have made a mistake. Remember that the home owner is seeking a housesitter for reason.
A House-sitter signs a Housesitting Agreement
A written document agreed upon between the owner or manager of the home and the house-sitter is vital to a mutually beneficial arrangement. This document should be signed and dated by both parties and outline the term of the arrangement, responsibilities of the house-sitter, any compensation involved, and how to handle expenses paid out of pocket by the house-sitter. Final Tips for Housesitting To sum up our experiences looking for housesitting jobs and apply for many, the golden rule applies as much to housesitting as it does to the rest of our lives. Treat other people’s homes how you would want someone to treat your home and be the applicant that you would hire if you were looking for a housesitter. Happy hunting and let us know if any of our tips helped you land a gig!
A written document agreed upon between the owner or manager of the home and the house-sitter is vital to a mutually beneficial arrangement. This document should be signed and dated by both parties and outline the term of the arrangement, responsibilities of the house-sitter, any compensation involved, and how to handle expenses paid out of pocket by the house-sitter.
Final Tips for Housesitting
To sum up our experiences looking for housesitting jobs and apply for many, the golden rule applies as much to housesitting as it does to the rest of our lives. Treat other people’s homes how you would want someone to treat your home and be the applicant that you would hire if you were looking for a housesitter. Happy hunting and let us know if any of our tips helped you land a gig!
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