Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - #vanlife Where to Go to the Bathroom and Other Van Life Tips and Essentials

Episode Date: April 14, 2018

Last year, The New Yorker ran an article titled #vanlife, the Bohemian Social-Media Movement: What began as an attempt at a simpler life quickly became a life-style brand. And it's true, if you look up #vanlife on Instagram, you’ll find nearly 3 million photos of perfect couples driving through the desert or drinking beer on top of their vehicle.    But there are also tons of people choosing to live in vans or RVs or old bread trucks because they want a simpler life. Fewer things. More experiences. Jema Patterson talked about her van life experience with us on the house-sitting episode a few weeks back. Today, we are taking a deeper dive into van life. We’ll hear more from Jema, and also from new guest Casey Sheppard, from Case of the Nomads.   Casey spent two years living in a van with her dog, India, before embarking on her latest adventure, biking all the way across New Zealand. She just finished her 30-day, 3,000 km bike ride. But she still made time to chat about travel and the ins and outs of van life.    If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and forward this show to a friend. If you’re feeling especially kind, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. This helps people discover the show. 🤗   Instagram, Twitter, Facebook     Visit postcardacademy.co for more travel guides and stories.     Thank you to Six Miles High Design for creating the brilliant Postcard Academy logo.  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Micahel. Last year, the New Yorker ran an article titled hashtag Van Life, the Bohemian social media movement. Subtitle, what began as an attempt at a simpler life quickly became a lifestyle brand. And it's true. If you look up hashtag Van Life on Instagram, you'll find nearly 3 million photos of perfect couples, driving through the desert or drinking beer on top of their vehicle. But there are tons of people choosing to live in vans or RVs or old bread trucks because they really do want to live a simpler life, fewer things, more experiences. Gemma Patterson talked about her van life experiences with us on the house-sitting episode a few weeks back.

Today, we are taking a deeper dive into van life. We'll hear more from Gemma and also from new guest Casey Shepard. Casey spent two years living in a van with her dog, India, before embarking on her latest adventure, biking all the way across New Zealand. She just finished a 30-day 3,000-kilometer bike ride, but she still made time to chat with us about the ins and outs of van life. I start out by asking Casey what was going on in her life before she began this two-year van life journey. You know, I lived kind of the typical artist's life. I was living in Los Angeles, working out one of the top restaurants in L.A., working for some people in the rock and roll industry. I'm a jeweler in metal smith by trade and wanted to break in the rock and roll industry.

So I moved from Nebraska to Los Angeles, and that was happening. And all these great things were happening. And I just was not really digging it. I saw this path I was headed on. And I just couldn't get adventure out of my head, you know, when I was a kid. I really, really hoped I would be Indiana Jones, and I would be in some foreign land exploring, like, unfound life or old, forgotten worlds. I just felt like I was getting, you know, I was 36 at the time, and I'm like, I'm never going to do this. And something just sparked to me. And I kind of got no depression in L.A. because I was like, I'm living my dream. Why am I not happy?

and it's because it wasn't really my dream. And so I just traded it all in and decided to do an adventure, which happened to be Van Life. I was really looking for more personal fulfillments and purpose at a deeper level than I was getting when I was in L.A. There was something more that I was looking for. And I think actually what I was looking for was my true self. And I didn't know that until I started Van Life. So why life in a van as opposed to moving to a new city or finding a place in the countryside? I remember I'm big into mountain biking and I remember mountain biking on this trail and there was this like RV sitting there and somebody had told me that because I was like, why is there an RV here?

And somebody's like, well, there's a mountain biker that he just, a lot of racers will travel and live in a RV and go around and. do mountain biking. And I was like, oh my gosh, that would be amazing if I could make jewelry and go mountain biking and do all the stuff. So I had seen that years ago. And then when I was in L.A., it just kind of sparked with me. I'm like, I love to travel. I would travel around a lot for art shows. And so I had driven all over the country. And I just thought it would just be a great idea. It just kind of came to me after that spark from years ago. So why would someone choose a van over a larger, presumably more comfortable RV, which is a recreation vehicle? I pose this question to Gemma.

Some people don't like the way that a bigger vehicle drives. They don't like the space constraints. They don't like not being able to park it. They are minimalists. They just want to get rid of stuff. Like no more stuff. So they don't want to really move into a smaller house. They just want to really simplify their life down to like,

the basics. And I think that's kind of something that I hear echo a lot. Like driveability and then money too, right? Like you can get a $50,000 sprinter van with the works in it that's considered like a class, I don't know, class A, class B RV or something. Or you can get like a $5,000 Ford Transit that you can put a bet in, right? Like so that's a piece of it too. Money. Yeah. Casey is one of those minimalist. And she also wanted to be smart about money and not go into debt. So she bought one of those Ford Transit Connects, which she named Jones. I traded my car in and my brother and I spent a couple weeks in Joshua Tree where he lives, just converting it. And we had no idea. I knew that I needed a bed, a work bench to make metal work and jewelry and storage and a place

for my bike and kind of like maybe a little kitchen. But we didn't. know how to do anything and so we just we just winged it and um we put in this bed that would fold down and then you could fold it back up when not in use and it would be a little a workbench and there was lots of storage and a little hand sink with a hand pump and a place to put like my cooler and water and so it actually ended up being really great it's it's a pretty awesome rig and it's still like proving after two years it's like it worked out really well so it's very homey could you cook in there you know i didn't bring gas i have a biolite stove that's what i use it's a clean energy stove that uses sticks and twigs i just never used it inside i always cooked

outside so and i mean yeah so i was cooked outside so you could you could rig it up to have like a little stove in there like a little coleman stove but i just i didn't i wanted clean energy so I didn't want to be refilling containers and have more waste. So I used to buy a light stove. Was there anything that you gave away because you didn't need it? Yeah, I had this fan that you could plug in. And I was like, I don't know why. I just thought I needed it for a while.

And I don't know why. So I got rid of that. There were a lot of little things along the way, but I had pretty much minimized things. Clothes was one thing that I kind of went cycled through because of the seasons. So I would wear my summer clothes. And then when winter hit, I would kind of like donate my clothes to Goodwill and then go and buy some new winter clothes and kind of rotate through that because I didn't have a lot of space for clothes. And what are some items that you couldn't live without? My paper Atlas, a paper map.

That is definitely one thing. I learned on the first day with no cell phone service. to be able to find your way, to have a paper map. Also water. Couldn't live without water. And my dog, I can't live without my dog. All right. So you're probably wondering how all this actually works.

For example, where are all these van people going to the bathroom? Here's Gemma. Some people have what a friend of mine calls a toady. She got this from a Bill Bryson novel. It's like a jar that you pee in in the middle of the night, you know, because you don't want to get out of the van. and that's what some people do and totally doable and then when I lived in a van in New Zealand you know just stop at a bathroom like if you're at the grocery store and you got to go you go there's a lot of there's actually a lot

of bathrooms in your life just because you don't own a bathroom doesn't mean that there aren't bathrooms in your life and then a lot of these vehicles to live in like for anybody who's living the wander life they have gray water systems they have black water systems so they do actually make these cassette toilets there There are options, like they can come with a toilet. What's a gray and a black system? Gray water doesn't have human waste. Black water does have human waste. So that's how they talk about it.

They're portable like toilet things? Sorry, this is totally unfamiliar childhood. It's similar to like what you'd find on a boat or in an RV. So sometimes it's just like you're collecting things and then you take the container of things. Let's just keep calling it things. And get rid of it, right? or sometimes it's going into a tank and then you're like draining the tank and there's like more chemicals involved, you know?

So there's systems that range from the very basic, capture the human waste, throw it away to like capture the human waste, do something different with it than get rid of it. I don't know if I have it in me. I might have to go to Barnes & Noble. You can do it. This is a little gross. Apologies if you're squeamish like me. Let's talk about something cleaner like shower logistics. We had an outdoor shower. So if we were in, like, if we were camping somewhere, we could set this thing out in the sun and, like, get it hot and just have our own shower. But a lot of times we'd go to, like a rec center, which was great, because we'd go, we'd take a shower, then we'd do our workout, and then we'd take another shower.

There are, in America, there's truck stops. And those showers are actually pretty clean. Like, it kind of sound nasty, but some of the cleanest showers I've been in have been truck stops in North America. And then public showers in New Zealand. Certain places actually do have public showers. And then sometimes I just rent like an Airbnb for a night, you know, just take a little break. It was a tough transition for me.

And then I just went, you know, you actually don't need to shower every day. And millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people in the world know this. Like maybe somewhere around like five billion people in the world actually don't shower every day and know that it's totally cool. Casey is also a fan of not showering every day whilst living in a van and says that biodegrading baby wipes come in very handy. But then you have to get your clothes clean, which is not something that even crossed my mind. So here's how Casey did it. I would sometimes do laundry by a stream, or I go to a laundromat, which was a great place, because then I could charge everything.

And a lot of laundromats have Wi-Fi, so I could do some work. I could charge all my stuff up, and I could get clean clothes. So the laundromats, as long as you don't pick a too shady one, because there are some shady people that sit laundromats. But they were great. resource too. Yeah, the charging up thing actually didn't even occur to me, but yeah, how does charging stuff work when you're driving? Do you, I don't have a vehicle. And so is it plugging into your car? Or it is? And, you know, I didn't get, that's the one thing that I want to, I still have the van and I would love to outfit the van with is some solar panels because that has something I just didn't have enough time to do before I left. I bought this little generator from, or a little battery pack

external battery from goal zero. And I didn't get the solar panels that went with because I didn't quite know how to rig them up. And I was leaving in a couple of days. And so that's one thing that I would highly recommend is solar panels. A biolite makes this really great, just little solar panel that was really great for charging smaller items. But I did have like where I charged through my car when I was driving. And like I said, I had that external battery. And then when I would go places or stay with people or go to a laundromat or sometimes you go to a gas station and you find a place and just plug in. Wherever you can find a public plug, I would just plug in. Now we know where to go to the bathroom, where to shower, most crucially, where to find Wi-Fi. But where did you usually sleep?

Where did you park the van? I usually went to campsites. I have this really great app that a fellow traveler introduced me to. That just told you like free campsites, do paid campsites, and it was really handy. So I would always do, at first I would do a free campsite next to like a paid campsite. So if the free campsite was a little shady, then I would go to the paid campsite. But of course, obviously, you want to go to the free one first. And I would take some safety precautions. At first I didn't really, oh, it's called Allstate's, the app. It's a really great app. And I remember camping at this one free site, in Idaho and I drove in and my gut was like you shouldn't stay here you shouldn't stay here and I'm like ah it's free you're gonna stay here and I was like I don't know and I do this thing where I pull I back

into a spot so that my car is already or the van's already to drive out if I need to do like if there's anything that happens I know how to get out and so I just drive forward and so I got in the van and I was getting ready for bed and I was like, just go to sleep and you'll wake up in the morning and you can just leave. And then I started hearing like guns going off and people shooting off their guns. And so I got freaked out and I drove off. And so that was the first time I was like, you know, go with your gut no matter what. And even if it offends somebody, you've got to go with your guts. Yeah, safety first. Yeah. So I stayed at a lot of campsites. I, you know, there's the Walmart parking lots. I'm a woman by myself. I didn't feel comfortable staying in Walmart

parking lots, but I know a guy that does Van Life by himself, and he loves the Walmart parking lots. I just, I don't feel comfortable staying in them. And so I love, but I love campsites, because I love that, I mean, there's facilities there, which is nice. I have parked on the street. I've stayed on the street a couple times, like outside friend's house or in people's driveways, but usually I know people in the neighborhood. There's been once where I stayed and it wasn't really the great night's sleep. But that's one thing I learned too. It's you don't have to be a superhero. You don't have to do the most daring thing. Just do what's right for you and what makes you feel comfortable. And if that means like staying at really nice paid campsites, then fine. Or if it means staying at free sites, that's fine.

Or Walmart parking lots, great. It's up to you. Where did you go on this journey? What was on your must see list? And how did you balance that with work, I guess? You know, there are a lot of like places. There were places that I wanted to go because of the people, because of the mountain biking, and because of the area, places up in Oregon, because I just thought it'd be beautiful. But then there were like some mountain biking. I did some coaching in Washington with Kat Sweet, who's amazing and got to hang out with those mountain bikers. So I kind of, I went all over the states. I didn't spend a lot of time in the south. I did go to like Nor. Orleans and Alabama and Texas. It was mainly led by work, I do have to say, up first. And so I would go places because of work. And then after I kind of got a little burnt out, I started going to places. Like I spent a lot of time in the desert near Joshua Tree, especially during the winter, just because it was such a great spiritual and beautiful place. And I could just be alone and just kind of enjoy. I'm so interested in hearing more about how as an artist you were able to support yourself.

I know you're a metalsmith that you do lectures and workshops, but tell me exactly how you support your lifestyle. You know, really any and everything. I mean, as freelance, I've been doing freelance for almost three years now. And yes, I am a metal smith. But I do a lot of different things as well. Van Life really opened my eyes to some different. opportunities. And so at first, you know, with the metalsmithing, I used to do art shows and galleries and sell my jewelry and my art. And then when I started doing Van Life, it kind of changed a little bit where I started teaching workshops, which I never thought I would do because I'm a self-taught artist and self-taught metalsmith. And so that really kind of brought me some self-confidence

that I could actually teach people how to do things, and they could learn from me. And so I started teaching workshops. And then someone suggested that, I guess a lot of visiting artists that go to universities, they give a little lecture. And a lot of people that add the connections that I have through an organization,

I'm part of an organization called Snag. It's Society for North American Goldsmiths. A lot of the members are academic professors. And so in the metals departments, and so they said, hey, come visit our university, give a little lecture and visit and do an artist critiqued with our students. And so that really led into speaking. And they would pay me to go visit, which was really great. I got to share my story.

And then it kind of opened up and inspired these young girls and these kids to, like, go out and see life differently. And I could just see things spark in them and change in them. And so I really kind of just would take as much. many opportunities as I could and speak and visit as many schools and art centers as possible to help kind of spread the message

of living an alternative lifestyle. But then, you know, I even did stuff where I worked at an art center and taught kids about metalsmithing for a couple of months and then worked at another art center and was in charge of like a studio for the summer. So I kind of really, I mean, I even like did like some stripping of wallpaper from my parents.

Like I'll do, I did anything and everything just to pick up some money to keep me going. You don't have to be an artist to survive on the road, or even an Instagram influencer, though as mentioned you will see millions of examples of this. Gemma actually does make her living as a travel blogger, and on her podcast, Ticket to Blog, she talks all about this. But she says the fan community is much more diverse than this.

Really, it's just being able to work from anywhere, to be a nomad, and as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection, you can work. So there are also digital nomads who don't talk about their life for the entire world to voyeuristically consume. There are plenty of people who are like, you know, graphic artists and they are designing things for people or there are writers who are doing, they're doing ghostwriting or they're doing editing and there are techies who are helping build websites. And really, there's some cool websites like upwork.com is a really cool platform to look at just

what's possible. I mean, you can just flick through the jobs that are posted and go like, you know, I could probably do that. Like, I know how to do that on my computer and just start working from your computer and then you can go anywhere. So, yes, there's diversity out there. You don't have to blog if you don't want to. You can do a million other things. There's this cool website called Tropical MBA. And they have a whole article about this about how, like, their estimate is only one percent of people who are living this digital nomad life are A, bloggers, B, who are writing about it. So my version of the digital nomad life is yes having a blog and I finally I'm not really into money so I haven't really

worked that hard on the money parts of my site so it takes me a long time to get around to that we're the same person Gemma I think we're the same person make money I just want to write and travel around and chat to people so it's taken me four years oh gosh yeah but I think it's taken me four years to my goal was to make 600 bucks a month from my website and And now finally for the last year and a half, I've hit that benchmark at least every month. And that's really super exciting. And I'm finally making enough to just buy groceries and not have to dip into my savings. So how are you monetizing exactly?

Like I know you're giving out great information, but are you asking for donations? Or are there any, like, affiliates who you work with? Okay, here's a great example. You don't have to have travel insurance, but I'm to the point in my life now that I always get it whereas like when I first started out I was like I'm not getting this unless I absolutely have to but now I always buy travel insurance and I have the same places that I always go to buy it and so I say that on my website and if and then it took me a long time to tell those people like hey would you cut me in on some of this business I'm sending you but now I've finally done that

and they do right so the places that I go to and use I tell other people about it and then if somebody else buys a policy through that same company then I'm going to get a little piece of the sale. But it doesn't cost the person anymore. Like the person buying it's going to pay the same price no matter what. It's just a matter of like, does that company keep all that money? Or do they like give some to the little guy or the little woman? But it's not just how you earn your money.

Casey says the key to van life is how you spend it. I like to cook a lot. So I'll buy a lot of groceries instead of like I used to like go out and spend a couple hundred dollars on a really nice meal a couple nights a week. a couple nights a week because it was I like that and now I'm like I've rather cook so then I can go off and I can go see something I can go drive for a weekend and go see like if there was a clip somewhere or an event so that has really changed and it's amazing how many things that we have that we really don't need and if we look how we spend our money and the less money we spend the less that we have to bring in so that's why like with campsites if I could have a free campsite that would mean I wouldn't have

to work as much. And if I had free can't sites for two weeks straight, that means I didn't have to work as much or bring as much money because I wasn't paying for those. I really didn't splurge. I didn't spend, no, it wasn't necessarily, a lot of people now kind of call me cheap, which is funny. But I just don't randomly spend money. I just don't buy random things just to have things. I really sub-budget. And I look at my bank account on the road, I started looking at it every day. And I'd write in how much money was coming in and how much I was spending and I would just cut away from that. And if I didn't have enough money to drive somewhere, then I would stay until I had enough money for gas and then I would move on. For somebody who's interested in trying van life, is there anything that you wish you knew before you started?

I wish I would have known to take it a little bit slower, to enjoy it a little bit more instead of just kind of trying to conquer every. everything, just kind of breathing. And I think that I, since I felt like I just went, went, went and wanted to see so much and do so much. And, you know, I booked a lot of work on the road because I was scared that I wasn't going to have enough money. So I would just overbook myself and be from town to town. And I got really burnt out because I over, I kind of overcommitted myself. And so it processed over really well to the tour trip in New Zealand where I would take that time to enjoy. So I wish I would have slowed down a little bit and enjoyed more and not have, you get really freaked out, I do have to say at the beginning, but it's okay because you're like,

will be an old pro by the end. And so I think a lot of it is just having that, that mental state of just enjoy that moment is really important. So freaked out by the, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Oh, no, no, just freaked. I mean, everything. like oh god i was freaked out by everything like being alone and being scared and camping at sites by myself and or just staying at places by myself that was scary not thinking i didn't have enough money and would spend money here and you know not there and you know unexpected things happened to my car like a flat tire and being scared you're in the middle of nowhere and that you're going to just like somebody's going to come and hurt you or something you

You know, the stuff that you make up in your head, but it's all just in your head and just kind of enjoying that moment. But I feel like that's really important. You've said that Van Life changed your values and your thoughts in life and even how you thought about the universe. How would you say that, how would it all affect you? You know, it just taught me the value of experience. You know, they always talk about that, that's successful.

and getting money and finding stature. And I know that we're as a society are kind of moving away from that quite a bit because I think we're starting to see that that's not really what makes us happy. And my value is in more a connection with a person or a place more than with a material possession. And my thoughts on like a career and profession, like I always thought I needed to be like the top and the best. like jewelry or artist or something and now I'm just I just want to be happy and enjoy my time

and whatever I need to do to bring in some sort of money so I can go and do more I'll do so it's really kind of changed and passing that message on and the fact that you can live any life you want to live it's up to you I feel like that's really important in passing that on to the next generation

and seeing myself in like young girls and that just want to go out and do but feel scared or alone or something and just bringing that community in. So, you know, there's been a lot of changes. I feel like I'm a totally different person and I'm way more grounded and I'm just way more simple and enjoy the little things in life. I always think, you know, when you're on your deathbed, you're not going to regret having a nice meal with your friends rather than slaving away in the office for a few more hours.

so I totally get weird. Yeah. Yeah, and I've kind of looked at, you know, death quite a bit, which is really kind of interesting when you're looking at living life and kind of when you face some scary things, you think about death. And, you know, one of my mentors and good friends, Rod Savage, she's an ocean rower. She's the first, I think, and maybe only woman, to row solo across the Indian Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. She's freaking amazing. And she changed, because she was corporate. She was a big influence into my changing to adventure lifestyle.

And she was in corporate world and did this obituary exercise where she wrote her obituary if she continued her life. And in the obituary, if she led like this life that she dreamt about and reading the two like final paths of each and how she felt from that really influenced her and made her change her ways of living life. And I really feel like that's important to see, like, to look at the end and say, you know, if things were over tomorrow, what are the things that you would love and cherish? And, you know, I can't take material possessions with me when I cross over. I can't. So, you know, why I put all this money and effort in buying like a brand new car, you know, just to appease my ego when I am not going to be able to take it anywhere. And I could really just, you know, we put these pressures on ourselves to, like, have this job. And I'm not saying, like, slacking on paying your bills or responsibilities, but, you know,

taking out more debt to, it's like that whole route or race cycle that we've talked, that people have been talking about recently about, you know, that I had, you know, it's that marketing of, oh, I need to buy a new dining room set. And then I, but I don't have the money. So I've pulled a credit card. And then I got to work more. And then you're just constantly working for somebody else to pay for these things. instead really experiencing life.

And so if you look at it, how can I make do and not get into debt and have no, I feel like the lower overhead you have, the better off and the more freedom you have to really experience and do life and the less you can work and the more you can experience and enjoy. Because we're not built to just go and work. Yeah. We're built to experience life. Yeah. And it's not even just material things.

Like I own almost nothing. nothing. I've got like a computer and a few other things. But I put a lot of pressure on myself. Oh, I have to meet this. Like, there's self-imposed deadlines, but I've got to get this blog post out and I've got to do this and I've got to do that. And I actually was listening to a Gemma's Ticket to Blog podcast. She was just making the point like, you know what? No one cares. No one. Like people have lives. Right. And they're not going to freak if you didn't get this blog post out at this certain time. The world goes on. And so never miss a son. set because you had to like post something on Instagram or something like that and that really

resonated with me absolutely you know that was part of this this New Zealand trip because I was like that too when I was in life and even after and up until this trip to New Zealand I was always like I have my monthly YouTube video I have my blog post I have this I got and I got to post Instagram it's got to be and it's like why who is telling you like you are you're the one that's telling yourself that you need to do this and you know we feel guilty because it's like oh i have to like work really hard and it's like yeah you can still work hard and i love to work hard but i like to work hard a little bit differently like riding across new zealand on a bike you know and so when i was in doing this trip my fiance joshua actually he took over my instagram account he's like

like an IT guy and he's so good at all the stuff. And so I would send him photos and say, you know, have at it. And so people thought I was posting, but it was him. And I loved it. I was like, this is great. I don't want to, because it was this nice break because like you said, it was the self-imposed pressure that I was putting on myself. And I'm like, I'm not going to do that well. I'm having this experience. I'm going to watch the sunset. My mom was just visiting me for two weeks and usually when she visits me I'm working long hours at a particular job but now I'm sort of doing my own thing but still sort of doing like the self-imposed pressure that I just mentioned but then I like make an effort to get out of my head and be like if this is the last week I see my

mom you know if this is the last conversation I have with my mom I want it to be a good one and so I always try to get in that space like if I'm too tired and a friend wants to hang out. I'm like, you know what, this could be the last chance I ever see this person. I'm going out. And I always have a great time. Exactly. And, you know, that's what I try to think of too, like when I'm tired. And like yesterday, Aaron, my brother and Joshua wanted to go to Dunedan.

Dunedin. But it's like an art city about three hours from here. And I was just like, oh, I'm so tired. My body hurts. I don't want to go. And I was like, you know what? go experience this like you're in new zealand you have only like a week left and just enjoy and take that time and we went we had a great time and we drove beckley but we had it it was amazing and so yeah you're right

it's like just remembering those moments and and also it's okay to say no too it's just living your life that's what it comes down to like you said being in that moment yeah definitely you know you can take time to rest and like do what you feel needs right but just remember the people you love are not always going to be around so exactly that's important so so where are you going to be living now post new zealand back in my hometown um in lincoln nebraska and that's where i'll be based for now we'll see what happens so you're engaged now and so how is this going to affect or how has this affected your solo travel lifestyle? Yeah, actually, we get married tomorrow. What? Oh my God, why are you talking to me? Yeah, why? Are there preparations to me?

Oh, my God, tell me everything. Well, you know, we're low key. We're chill. So it's just going to be, you know, we're Castle Hill in New Zealand, which is like a really spiritual place. We're going to get married in Joshua Tree and after this trip, but we had to kind of postpone things. He has this, I mean, spending 30 days on a bike in New Zealand just takes a lot of energy to prep and whatnot. And so we kind of postponed things. And then when I was on the, doing the tour, that connection became even stronger. And the connection with our families became stronger. And we were like, we want everything to merge together. And so we decided, hey, let's get married in New Zealand. And So, you know, it does change things. And what has changed to, and one thing, you know, I'm big into solo

traveling has been kind of like my MO for a while. And a lot of it was to really find myself. I felt restricted from other people. And I really wanted to experience things on my own as myself and see how I deal with things. And I really experienced them on my own. I feel like that's a really important kind of like walk about right of passage moment. I feel like everyone needs to do something along those lines regardless if it's for a week or, you know, traveling alone or doing something alone, I think is very empowering and very essential for development as a human. But really things have changed where the adventuring will still continue, but now I have someone to come along with me. So that's really exciting. So I'm really looking forward to that next chapter. We both are

about going off and adventuring but doing it as a pair, which will be, I'm so excited for that. so much for speaking to me today, Casey. Where can people find out more about you? My website's caseof the nomads.com. Instagram, all my handles are Case of the Nomads. And anyone can reach out and questions, especially about if anyone's interested in van life or doing the tour Aeteroa or anything kind of like bike camping and touring. I would be more than willing to share the information that I have learned. Thank you very much, and congratulations, have an amazing wedding tomorrow. Thank you so much, and thanks for having me.

Okay, optional homework. Write two obituaries this weekend, one for the end of the life you're currently living, and one for the end of your dream life. What needs to change to make your ideal life happen? Does it involve road-tripping across the U.S. in a van? Because I think that sounds like so much fun. As mentioned in the house-sitting episode, Gemma will soon be launching WanderLife.com. an online platform connecting the VanLife community.

You can sign up at WanderLife.com to be alerted when it goes live, probably end of May. There's also a few spots open for beta testers, so head to WanderLife.com if you're interested. Next week, we are going to learn about how we can be more responsible travelers, from the products we buy to the volunteer projects we participate in. I will be speaking with Shannon O'Donnell, who in 2013 was National Geographic's Traveler of the Year. This was for her work connecting travelers with social enterprises and grassroots initiatives all around the world. Shannon has been featured on NPR, National Geographic, BBC, and many other media outlets. And she is such a great storyteller, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss it.

I'd also love to hear more suggestions from you about the cities or travel topics you'd like to learn more about. So come visit me on postcardacademy.com to say hello and let me know what you'd like to hear about. Finally, have you told a friend about this podcast yet? Please do. Word of mouth is the best way for people to learn about it. So grab someone's phone and help them listen for free on their favorite podcast platform. That's all for now. Thank you for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. I got this Shiwi thing, this like female funnel thing before I went on my trip because I was like, oh, you know, for safety, I don't want to get out at night in some weird place. It was horrible. Like you couldn't pee. You had to slow down your pee because it would overflow. And so my friend was like, just go get a funnel at the hardware store. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's brilliant. It's a dollar. So I went and got one of those. And I'd get water jug and drink the water and just put an X on it and be like, okay, that's the pee jug.

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