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Hello there, fellow adventurers! Picture this - our new overlanding camper, found on an Instagram post from a Swiss couple, parked amidst the high-desert town of Bend, Oregon. Ah, the joy of discovery, the thrill of the open road, and the learning curve of a new overlanding routine - it's all here in this episode.
Join us on a journey, taking the path less traveled. Hear about our rule of avoiding night driving, our bizarre first night camping at a casino, and the challenges of getting back into overlanding. Learning to embrace slow travel and making a home on wheels, we share our experiences of two weeks spent exploring the stunning Pacific Northwest, from national forests to Trader Joe's meals. We even unpack the fun of podcasting from our truck - believe it or not, it's now a mobile studio!
We're also bringing you insider tips from the Overland Expo, where we connected with the close-knit overlanding community. We also look to the future, imagining the excitement of not knowing what each day will bring as we plan to take our podcast on the road, shipping our truck to locations like Cape Town, Kuala Lumpur, or Buenos Aires. We'll even share how you can get involved, rating and reviewing the podcast and suggesting topics for future episodes. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you're as excited as we are to embrace the nomadic truck life!
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chrisandsara
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisandsara_ | @chrisandsara_
Website: https://www.chrisandsara.com
Call or text us a question or comment: +1 (423) 825-9572
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Get inspired by world travelers Chris and Sara with "What No One Tells You," their conversational podcast. Each episode is a fun chat with friends sharing personal experiences, insider tips, and riveting stories. The show is elevated by amazing guests from Youtubers, ultra marathoners, bloggers, and adventurers who bring their unique energy and perspectives to the table. With Chris and Sara, you're sure to feel a part of the group, ready to embark on a new adventure. Explore the world one story at a time and join the conversation today.
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Hey y'all! We're Chris + Sara (or as you know us, Let’s Be Us), a husband and wife digital nomad travel duo currently working and traveling full time with our pup, Kramer. We've always dreamed of traveling full time, and in May of 2018 we took the leap and made it happen! Today we're balancing work and fun everywhere between the Pacific and Atlantic. From hiking and cycling to tacos and coffee, we're trying to see and experience as much of this world as we can! While our home is currently on wheels in our DIY Sprinter van, our travels take us all around the world.Be sure to hit subscribe here on Youtube and follow along on Instagram for more daily fun! Oh, and be sure to say hi while you're here. :)
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NOTE: There were 2 speakers identified in this transcript. Speaker separation errors can arise when multiple speakers speak simultaneously.
0:00:06 - Sara
Welcome to the podcast from the middle of nowhere.
0:00:09 - Chris
We are deep, deep into the national forest of Oregon.
0:00:13 - Sara
I feel like somebody's going to walk behind us or something and makes us seem not so deep in the forest, because we're really not really like a mile from town, but it feels deep, has cell service. We're in the national forest in Oregon. We're just outside of Bend, oregon, which is one of our favorite places.
0:00:27 - Chris
We love Bend, i love Bend. Why do you love Bend?
0:00:30 - Sara
I don't want to say, because I don't want people to move here, because I want to move here one day.
0:00:33 - Chris
Right now, I still can't afford to buy a house here, but it's beautiful, bend is beautiful and it's such a fun small town, but it's a small town that everybody knows.
0:00:43 - Sara
I feel like There's so many people who've moved here and it's changed even since we first started coming here, but it's in the high desert of Oregon. So let's set the scene of where we're at and why we look the way we look. We are in the high desert of Oregon. If you don't know what that means, if you didn't realize Oregon, beautiful green, pacific Northwest Oregon had a desert, it does. It's very, very dry.
0:01:04 - Chris
Very dusty.
0:01:05 - Sara
So does Washington, i mean the second. you get across the Cascade Mountains. it changes climate so quickly. You have evergreen trees and then you get across the eastern slope of the mountains and it just dries out, but it's sunny. We're in the high desert, which means we're high in elevation. So we're about 4,000 feet right now, which isn't crazy high. But I guess we can say Denver is like what? 5,500 feet? That's pretty high.
You feel it when you run for the first time when you get here, but it's hot and dry. The humidity is like 10 or 15%.
0:01:34 - Chris
There goes the cyclist.
0:01:36 - Sara
Cyclist is a little brown lab, Another. Obviously, we're very deep in the woods right now.
0:01:44 - Chris
We're very deep deep into the woods. But we love Bend because it's beautiful. But then the people here, I feel like they sort of get the outdoor adventure lifestyle A little bit I mean they get it. Everybody's on a bicycle, everybody's in the river, everybody is just outdoors doing something.
0:02:00 - Sara
It's one of the few places in America I actually feel safe biking on a road these days. But they have so many trails for mountain biking and gravel biking but road biking I mean, that's such a huge appeal to me. It's just the infinite number of trails for running and cycling And, you know, in the winter you can cross country ski. I don't ski yet, but I aspire to one day, so I think maybe I'd pick that up if I moved here. But anyway, bend is sunny. Whereas Seattle and Portland are rainy, bend is sunny, it's cold.
0:02:27 - Chris
I mean we should jump back really quick, because We're getting hung up on Bend Yeah let's explain this. We are in Bend because we are in our new camper rig. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
0:02:38 - Sara
Maybe you don't follow us on YouTube, which I don't think there's that many people who listen to our podcast. You don't follow us on some other form of social media which we've shown pretty extensively our new camper. But I'll jump back even further than that to, i guess, about a year, year and a half ago, when Chris and I first started looking for a different camper. We had been on the road in our Sprinter Vans for about four years and we had for a while wanted to go international And traveling by road just seems like a really natural fit for us, because we love traveling slow and we travel the dog, and you know it.
Just for all these different reasons we really wanted to do overlanding, which is just a fancy way of saying traveling the world by road, by land, versus flying from place to place. We love that we can see these small towns and see a different side of cultures that many people miss, because you know they fly into one city and they may do a small little circle around an area and then they fly to the next place, whereas overlanding we get the freedom to really go wherever we want to go and see the way the locals live And anyway.
So we knew that we needed a different camper, because the one we had was just not going to be conducive to the way we would travel internationally, just mainly because it's expensive and it's a new diesel, so it wouldn't handle a fuel load.
Anyway, it just it was. It was not going to be the best option. It took us about a year and we bought one truck thinking it was right. It wasn't, and then we kept searching, got frustrated. It was a really long process And then finally, about a month ago, this camper popped up on the market, sort of out of nowhere.
I had followed this couple for about a year longer who had been traveling North America. They'd already done the Pan American Highway in a similar truck and then they shipped another truck back, imported it to the US, traveled in it for over a year and then they decided to sell it when they were done with their camp or their travels, which was they listed about a month ago And I saw it on Instagram and I sent them a message and all happened super fast, super fast, way too fast, but I had seen them living in this camper. I thought this couple was really cool. They're from Switzerland, which I mean it's already like a different level of cool. I feel like Switzerland's supposed to be amazing.
Anyway, we they've traveled everywhere. They've traveled a lot of places. They're really cool, but they've got a lot of over-lainting experience and it just seemed like the perfect trek for us. It was exactly what we've been looking for. It was not the top of our budget, which I think was a huge relief that we didn't have to go to our very maximum, because nobody wants to hit the maximum of their budget, and then be stressed on whatever adventure they're endeavoring on.
0:04:58 - Chris
Yeah, yeah And then yeah, like you said, it happened all so fast. And here we are in Oregon sitting in this new rig.
0:05:06 - Sara
I love how I just like blah, blah, blah, and so we're in Oregon now.
0:05:11 - Chris
But we're in Oregon for a reason and we'll touch on that later. But for the last three, four days we've been with the great people at Overland Expo, which, if you don't know what Overland Expo is, it's this really big festival of all these cool trucks, motorcycles, campers, and it's where people get together and you get to learn from other people who travel the world, who do life sort of similar in like how we do it or how we travel, and it's fun to learn and be with people who kind of get the world a little bit.
0:05:46 - Sara
I think we need to talk more about this in a minute because Overland Expo I think people are going to have questions about it, because it is a really interesting thing. But I think before we get to that, let's talk, let's go chronologically, of where we were. So we've been on the road for over three weeks now, three and a half weeks.
So we drove across the country, picked us up in the Pacific Northwest And then since then we've been traveling. So let's talk chronologically about life on the road. What's it been like being back on the road? We'll get to Overland Expo in a minute, because it was such a great experience of learning from people and all that good stuff. So we pick up the keys from the couple.
0:06:18 - Chris
Yeah, and then you drive through rush hour traffic and then we finally get to our camping spot that night, yeah.
0:06:26 - Sara
Do we be honest about where we camp that first night. If you want to, camped at a casino, because if you don't know if you don't know, casinos allow campers to park there. They do They do A lot of them do.
0:06:38 - Chris
Yeah. And so here's the thing with casinos You have to go in, you have to sign up, put your name down, and then they're hoping that you stay in. They're like and they give you $10 for free. They're like here's $10. Spend it anywhere which way you want, and I just it's 10 casino dollars. It's not real cash money, Otherwise I would just pocket it, but they we never go back in. I'm like, thank you.
0:06:59 - Sara
Every now and then we'll get something like a Coke or something like that to support or say thank you.
0:07:02 - Chris
You know, if they have like a food thing we can buy, I'll be honest, I don't know The the food court looked like a bowling alley food court. So I wasn't I wasn't going to like use the $10 to the the food court area. But yes, you're right.
0:07:14 - Sara
Can we say why we stayed at the casino, though? Because we got handed the keys, like I think it was like 4pm. Yesterday's are long in the Northwest in the summer, but we don't, like we have this rule that has been this rule for years If we do not drive at night. That's like this number one overlanding rule. Like don't drive at night, no matter where you are, even though it's a very safe area of the country, you don't know where you're going. You're going to go out in the national forest. Who knows what's around you? Like we've never had a bad experience in the national forest.
0:07:39 - Chris
Animals too.
0:07:40 - Sara
Animals, which I'm not really that concerned, but you never know what's going to be parked around you And even if, like, it's an eerie feeling anyway. But so we, we played it safe. It was getting dark when we got to town and we said, okay, there's a casino, let's just go stay at the casino. It wasn't the most glamorous first night, but we did it, and I think that was the first like kind of felt like we were back at home a little bit.
Not really, you know, but we every now and then you do have to stay them. I think we probably have I don't know five times, since we've lived on the road in four years six times, six different places. But yeah, it was a quiet, safe place to park for the night. It gave us a chance to go to Trader Joe's and get groceries, and then we finally hit the forest.
And then we finally got to go to the forest, which is what we've been wanting for months and months and months, and I'm just so thankful that it timed out that we got this camper in the summer in the Northwest. I think it would have been a little less excited if it was somewhere like, you know, january and Iowa or something. We got to pick it up because we didn't want to go to Minneapolis or Iowa in.
January, but it was beautiful summer in the Northwest And so that was really exciting. Yeah, and all of our change happens in June.
0:08:50 - Chris
So what's been? what's, in your opinion, what has been the hardest thing about being in this camper now, like getting your? you know like you've been, you haven't been doing van life for the past year, you know traveling that way. So what was what's been so difficult about it? now?
0:09:06 - Sara
I missed my showers. I knew that was going to be thing even in the first bands and stuff. Showers are like. I love my showers. We do shower about every day, but we don't always have enough water to like wash our hair every day, and so I missed that. I also miss having our own laundry machine. Those are the two things that I miss the most more on the road, but I would give it up any day. I would give up my house tomorrow If I had a choose between living on the road and house. Hands down, i give up the house.
0:09:29 - Chris
For the past three weeks we have been trying to like get our van life or travel.
0:09:34 - Sara
It's not a van. We keep saying van.
0:09:36 - Chris
Yeah, we've been trying to get those that same routine or like the skills that we acquired while doing van life. We've been trying to to get those back under our feet and, like you know, get the hang of things like where to go fill up water, where, to you know, find a good campsite, where, to you know, do dump stations, blah, blah, blah. all that.
0:09:55 - Sara
It's come back pretty quickly though. I don't feel like we really had a huge growing. I think the biggest growing pain is just figuring out the new camper, which hasn't been that hard besides driving stick shift.
0:10:03 - Chris
Yeah.
0:10:04 - Sara
But in that I feel like it's come back pretty quickly.
0:10:06 - Chris
Yeah.
0:10:06 - Sara
I mean we just kind of slipped right back into it And we're I mean it helps that we're somewhere familiar too.
0:10:10 - Chris
Yeah.
0:10:11 - Sara
We got to slip into it somewhere that we know and love.
0:10:12 - Chris
Yeah, and we don't have to think about it as much. You know where, you know, we know we, we love this area And so we know where to go. Yeah, it's really nice. So with this, you know what are your hopes Like, what are your aspirations with this new truck. Question.
0:10:26 - Sara
I would love to take this truck to as many countries as we possibly can. We're trying to decide where that's going to be first. I don't know if we should even say which ones were like strongly considering, because I don't know if those are going to happen, but hopefully we'll know soonish. I don't know. I mean this whole process of figuring out shipping providers or whatever you want to call agents or whatever.
0:10:44 - Chris
It's a job in and of itself.
0:10:45 - Sara
That's a lot of work, and then you get all these people's mixed reviews of I had a horrible, horrible experience shipping into Buenos Aires and I had a wonderful time shipping into Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur. But I mean, everybody has these good or bad experiences of each place, and so you're like listening to this and you're hearing these horror stories or these wonderful stories, and that's a little stressful, but at the end of the day, it's just a truck. We'll do the best we can be, the smartest we can be, and we'll figure it out. But my goal is to I would love to see us go to so many places and travel as fast as we can. We're so slow as we feel like we want to go and just take our time, and I want to take the back roads.
I don't want to see just places that are within an hour of an airport. I want to see the places that I've never heard of on Pinterest or on YouTube, that many people haven't gone to. I don't want to. I want to. I want to go and be surprised at something, cause I feel like there's so much social media that just about each place and you go there and maybe it lives up to the expectations, but so often it doesn't have what the pictures and edits look like. I want to go somewhere where I haven't been inundated with like is it right, we're inundated.
Yeah inundated With, like tons of images of a place where I I want to go somewhere where I don't know what's coming around the corner. That's what I want.
0:11:57 - Chris
And you think this truck will give that to you.
0:11:59 - Sara
I mean, I think any, any, you can get that any way you want, but I think for us, a truck is going to be the easiest way to get that. I think it'll be a cool opportunity. I think it, yeah, I think it can get us to a lot of places around the world.
0:12:13 - Chris
What do I want?
0:12:14 - Sara
Yeah, what's your goal with this?
0:12:17 - Chris
My goal with this truck is very much, very similar to Sarah, i think being able to travel slow and not have an end date at a location. I know there are times where we travel, where we need to be somewhere at a certain time, but it just sounds amazing to me to be able to drive this somewhere, maybe on a beach and Costa Rica or something, and just or Baja, wherever, and you can stay there for three weeks and you're not, you know, racking up all these hotel room bills you know like already. I mean, the amount of money that we spent driving across the country before we got the rig Makes me sick. We paid almost, was it $250, $300 for one night.
0:13:05 - Sara
We paid over $300 night for a Hyatt place in South Dakota.
0:13:10 - Chris
And that I mean just like 350,.
0:13:12 - Sara
It was the only hotel available and it was downpour.
0:13:15 - Chris
Yeah, and already this rig is paying for itself because we're not having to stay in hotel rooms.
0:13:20 - Sara
We almost I was like I can't do it, i can't do it, we're just going to sleep in the car. I almost slept in the car for that night, but we've been driving for 14 hours, yeah, and we had to cough it up and pay $350 for a Hyatt place in South Dakota.
0:13:33 - Chris
And we didn't even eat their continental breakfast in the morning We were gone by like 6 am and was like I'm getting out of here. I was so upset, i was so upset, i was so upset, i was so upset, i was so upset.
0:13:42 - Sara
You wanted that continental breakfast.
0:13:43 - Chris
I wanted that. Like anytime somebody has free breakfast, i will eat it. Like it doesn't matter how disgusting it is, it's free. I'm like, let's do this, and I'm not the only person out there like that No, I know you aren't. If it says free, I'm going to partake.
0:13:57 - Sara
I always send him down. He goes down and eats on his own, eats breakfast and he'll bring me up a coffee And I say, if nothing else, just give me a banana. Usually the bananas are like reliable Not to Nobody's touched them.
0:14:07 - Chris
No, yeah, they're wrapped up. Still, no, they're all at the waffle maker.
0:14:10 - Sara
Yeah, nobody touches them. They go right past the bananas at the waffle maker, anyway. So, yeah, this thing is already paying for itself. I personally, this is just my hot take, but I think the whole flying all over the world and staying in hotels and Airbnb's is a little bit of a over glorified thing. I don't think everybody has to have a truck, because I don't think a truck, camper or an RV makes sense for people who only travel two weeks a year.
But personally I think if you want to do extensive travel, i don't think that one that's the most, i don't think it's the most socially responsible way. I think you kind of come in, exploit a place and leave, but also it's expensive. And I don't really think that the culture like everybody talks about, like oh, the culture of hustle, so toxic, you know. And then I see people flying from country to country to country and that's just like further amplifying that to me. Yeah, just the hustle, and I don't want to like knock people if they love that, because I just don't love it.
I guess it sounds like I am knocking you, but I'm really not knocking you. Like, if that's something you love, if you genuinely love the art of travel, that's great, but I think the whole culture of lounges and credit card points and all that kind of thing it's great. I mean, don't get me wrong, we've learned a lot about credit card points and they've gotten this from place to place and they will continue to get this from place to place. I personally love the slower pace because I think it allows you to invest in the culture that you're visiting better.
0:15:25 - Chris
You get to experience it. You know because, like you said, like you fly into a place, it's just like you see a billboard, you see the five hot spots on TripAdvisor and you don't really know that place. You've been to that place but you don't know it.
0:15:41 - Sara
I don't know if we're ever going to get to know a place fully Like. I never want to be like we figured it out because we don't know, everything.
But I just I think such a trend right now, on social media especially, is fly to a place. You do that one epic thing. You go to the top five restaurants or coffee shops or anything, and then you peace out, and we're guilty of that too. We've done that in places, and I always leave feeling like I don't feel like I really know that place. It's the places that we've had a little bit of a struggle or gotten lost or have had to work outside of our comfort zone a little bit that have made us remember that place.
I don't think it's the places that. Yeah, it's not the places that we're doing. The places that we go and we're going with the intent of like, oh, this would be good YouTube content. Those are the places, typically, that I don't remember as well, because I'm so focused on trying to make it clicky versus actually experiencing it, and I don't know if there's anybody in the world who could deny that too. I think, since we're gonna be traveling slower, we can go through these places and Put down the camera for a little bit. We can be in the same place, get the content if you want to get it there, but also have some time alone, or maybe alone, before we film it, so we can kind of really get a full understanding of it.
0:16:45 - Chris
Mm-hmm, maybe we don't film it at all. Maybe we don't film it at all. That would be the dream, huh, i don't know if we can put this in there because it sounds like I'm attacking and I'm not, because I totally understand the Beauty.
0:16:54 - Sara
Like people love flying in hotels and I would love to stay in some five-star hotel like that is my goal. There's a balance to it.
0:17:01 - Chris
There is, there's, there's a balance. There's a balance with everything, but I think the reason why we got this truck is that we personally like to travel slower and we personally Don't feel like we can enjoy a place or feel like we get to know in place if we're rushing in and rushing out Due to those deadlines.
0:17:18 - Sara
Yeah, that's one thing I heard today from a lot of those panels of the overlanders and, granted, this was a and vacuum chamber of her right was kind of same mindset. But we sat in on a couple different panels like roundtable discussions and People would ask questions about you know Seasons to travel and time and when should we go, and this kind of thing. And I heard multiple people say, do you have a time you have to be back? and people would say, well, no, i don't, or yes, i do, and the resounding answer is always well, you don't want to have a time you have to be back because that'll allow you to really travel the way you want.
0:17:51 - Chris
You can see so much more, but if you have a deadline or a time you have to be back, you're gonna be Constructed, yeah and some of these people, they're deadlines where they had, you know They have a month off for their job or you know whatever, and so they had they can't get out of that. But some people are kind of like us, where our work allows us to work from anywhere And we don't really have to be any at a physical location too many times, you know, and Which is nice. And so there were some people that were like us, who were like, yeah, you don't like, we're just going yeah, I want to be clear about who I'm speaking about right now.
0:18:26 - Sara
I'm not speaking about everyday families like I was growing up or you were growing up, where you know the parents worked in 9-5s and you guys get two weeks of vacation a year but can maybe only afford to really go on one you know, If that you know.
But I'm talking about people who are like us, who travel extensively. Alright, so that's what we want out of the camper. Well, let's talk about where we've been. Let's talk about where we've been the last two weeks since we've had the camper. We got it and we spent the first Almost week in Washington, which was amazing. We could spend forever in Washington, but we did have to get to Oregon for a meeting and then for Overland Expo. Would you ever kind of touched on a little bit? but Washington was incredible within. We stayed at the casino the first night and then we met up with friends, Which is really fun new friends with friends we talked to online for a long time.
0:19:14 - Chris
Yeah.
0:19:15 - Sara
I got with them, go over groceries, did a little bit of laundry, did all the like the chore kind of things. From the new camper. We got a couple things that we didn't have, like a mattress and sheets and that kind of stuff, and then we Booked it to the woods, which sounds kind of weird, but I mean, national forests in Washington are just the absolute best.
0:19:33 - Chris
That's something that you've been wanting for a long time. You've missed it.
0:19:36 - Sara
I have missed it. I missed being out there and just seeing the views. There's a picture of Me and Kramer. I think it's the second day. We were in the woods the first day and we fell asleep. It was like 65 degrees outside, it was sunny, we were sitting in a lounge chair with this amazing view and I fell asleep in the lounge chair with Kramer on my lap and then he fell asleep to, and then Chris got a picture of us. It's so funny. It's just the summation of what, what, the last, what we've needed for months and what we finally got the last couple weeks. So we spent a lot of time in the woods, which camping in the national forest is so nice some are nicer than others, but Washington's are beautiful.
0:20:12 - Chris
Yeah, and Oregon, and organs are beautiful too organs are beautiful. Yeah, and there's a lot of. There's a lot of places that we haven't been to, but there are a lot of places that we like revisiting Because it's nice.
0:20:24 - Sara
I know some people don't like to revisit places. I am not opposed to revisiting places I'm not. I would love to visit new places but revisiting places because I love them. There is nothing wrong with that. I don't think that's us. I mean, we keep coming back to Bend because we genuinely love it, and Washington.
0:20:37 - Chris
Yeah, it just holds a special place in our heart go and you can relax and just really enjoy it.
0:20:42 - Sara
You know if, like, you have to see everything because you just are there to enjoy what makes it special. So we've been on the road for two weeks. There's been some learning curves again Not really actually. I feel like we kind of slipped into the routine of life on the road pretty simply, pretty easily. We got back to doing our laundry.
0:20:58 - Chris
Mm-hmm laundry, doing the dump station, filling up water. I mean all the one pot, that's it cooking in all one pot meals all the Trader Joe stops.
0:21:09 - Sara
I don't pass up a Trader Joe's without going. Yet We would be starving right now if it hadn't been for Trader Joe's, because those Trader Joe's like Easy meal kind of things, are the best. Just get a few things, and also in a pot.
0:21:20 - Chris
So we've been like, so we've been trying to like get a feel, we've been trying to get our legs back. You know, of traveling this way and I, you're right, it hasn't taken too long. And so now, now we're excited about going to the future. So I mean, in the past two weeks We've been bopping around the Pacific Northwest and we just we were literally recording just outside of overland X, but we just left the event.
0:21:41 - Sara
Yeah, this podcast episode that you're listening to was recorded the night before it's being released. Yeah, but that's not for lack of trying, okay. So we have a few other podcast episodes that are gonna be really really good, a couple that we've. We've held on to two really good ones, especially because we want to release some, but We Timing is not quite right and we wanted to release an episode About being in the truck before we're not in the truck, because I have to leave the truck tomorrow for almost a month to go home. Yeah, or some other previously arranged stuff. But we finally got Podcast microphones for our truck, which was not cheap, but we knew once we got the truck camper That was gonna be an investment we had to make yeah, and so our goal is to drive around the world with our podcasting equipment and podcasts from wherever we're at.
I think that needs to be a segment on every episode of where we podcasting from today.
0:22:26 - Chris
So, previously.
0:22:27 - Sara
If you guys have watched the video version, do you know that we were podcasting from our co-working space in Chattanooga? Well, we have the exact same podcasting equipment here, so hopefully it's a very similar sound.
0:22:38 - Chris
I think it will be a very similar sound. I hope, yeah. Well, leave it in the comments below. If this sounds like garbage or if it sounds the same, please let us know.
0:22:46 - Sara
I I'm enjoying doing this. I mean, our co-working space is awesome, but right now we have the windows open. It is finally Cooling off. I there are clouds in the sky for the first time in two weeks, which usually I wouldn't want. I love blue sky, man. It's been 90 degrees and like blistering hot and It's finally cooling off for the day at 7 pm, so the windows are open. It's breezy, we each have water and beer because it's been so hot and we have put in a weekend of work and socializing and fun.
0:23:16 - Chris
We are socialed out, i feel like not not in a bad way much fun with everyone.
0:23:20 - Sara
But we had overland expo is just like so much so so socializing. And there are still people we were said Hey, let's meet up with and then we just never got to connect with again.
0:23:28 - Chris
Like there's so much so so I let's, let's talk I'm a hard word Let's talk about overland expo. I mean we've, we've briefly touched on it. Yeah, we've touched on, like what it is. You know, it's all these like-minded people, but why did we go this year?
0:23:40 - Sara
Okay, so we did go last. This wasn't our first one. Yeah, overland expo, talk about what it is.
0:23:47 - Chris
Yeah, we did like education and product camping, all okay for us We aren't.
0:23:53 - Sara
Even last year We weren't so much into the shopping side. We were kind of browsing for what, what products we may need for our truck bill. So I guess we did do some shopping. We shouldn't buy anything this year. We went knowing that we really didn't need any products. So we're like Two different things that we were there looking at. But past that we were there for the classes, the community.
0:24:13 - Chris
And that's about it.
0:24:14 - Sara
We were just there to hang out with friends, old friends, new friends, meet new people.
0:24:18 - Chris
We wanted to learn a lot from like, because there are people who travel the world Extensively and have been doing that for years and years. There are people, like on these panels, that have been traveling by car. I mean, there's a guy on there who had been traveling via car overlanding for over 20 years. You know 30, 30.
0:24:38 - Sara
Look at, you called to the car. That guy did not have a car. No he talked about what that guy had that guy had a freaking tank. He had this military grade. I don't know who made out in the first one, those massive Mercedes. I don't know this thing was like 30 feet long, probably 15 feet tall. I mean it was Massive. you see that thing coming towards you, you're moving out, you're running, you're running.
0:24:56 - Chris
That thing is just massive and if you I Mean he looks like it looks comfortable, but it also just looks like it's ready to attack.
0:25:05 - Sara
It's like a military kind of truck but they've been in this truck since, oh gosh, i don't remember how many years they've been in this exact one. I wish I had gotten a picture We could have put it up.
0:25:14 - Chris
Yeah, we should have it was.
0:25:15 - Sara
He's a really cool guy. He knows why I've traveled in it. I didn't talk to his wife, but he was on two of the panels we were on because the dude's been everywhere in the world. So he was on the panel for South America and for Africa and he travels so slow.
Oh, slowly, like he was on the South America panel today and He was everybody's talking about. Like you know, i spent, you know, four months in Central America driving and then he he came to the microphone. He's like, well, we arrived in South America in 2017 and we just got to the US two weeks ago.
0:25:43 - Chris
I mean, this dude is just like mosey and on through Mexico. I loved it.
0:25:47 - Sara
I mean he went to French Guyana and Guyana and Suriname, and I mean he went to every country in South America. He even got across the border in Venezuela. I mean, granted, he's done American, but he got across the border in Venezuela for five minutes and had a leave. But I mean he's been everywhere and they travel so slowly. And he was like, yeah, we left Mexico. We stayed in Mexico for two years, yeah, two years. They didn't leave Mexico.
0:26:07 - Chris
But it was so fun listening in on these panels and listening to like tips and tricks and and just how to deal with people, but then also what to expect and it was so. That was the best part about this year at overland XO for us. We that's what we personally like. We both walked away. We're like I really enjoyed those classes a lot.
0:26:28 - Sara
Yeah, they were so good. I mean, these guys get The more you do this and where you realize how small the overlanding community is. But you read all this information online But then you get there. You have these very specific questions that maybe the really experience. The people online aren't answered because they haven't experienced it yet, but you can sit there and you ask them these questions and they just like spit off the answer exactly what I was wondering and they give you all this information And, even though it may be their personal Experiences, i view that as so. It has so much value because they've done it for so long And they've been there, for they've been in each place for so long and you can't take away somebody's personal experience.
They are, and they're such nice people, like everybody in the community has been incredibly nice and it was. We talked to one guy. His channel is called the road chose the road shows me the road shows me if you have a.
Dan. Yeah, if you haven't watched him on YouTube, Chris and I found his stuff a couple years ago. We were really starting to dive into overlanding information And we started like researching it and like this is even possible to people even do this. And we found dance channel Really cool guy from Australia, he's probably what 30s to. He's about our age Yeah.
But yeah, go look him up. He's on Instagram and YouTube a wealth of knowledge and we were talking to him. We're like, hey, we're your. Channel's been awesome. You know, talked about Africa with a little bit with him and and he recommended. I talked to one lady And I said, oh, you mean the lady in the you know so-and-so lady and I was like I actually met her last year at overland expo and he was like well, that's the one to connect with. So like I instantly realized how small the community is. Like everyone knows each other And it's I don't want to make it sound like this is Overlanding, is like this crazy thing for people who are only like ex-military or like avid travelers.
0:28:02 - Chris
We have a ton of money like no these are like Joe Schmoe, who decided to take a risk and for whatever reason, It's not as popular in the US but in Europe and Australia. These, I mean it's they do it all the time.
0:28:16 - Sara
We had a panel today for South America and it was a panel of four guys. By the way, there are very few women who do this like. I want to just put that out there.
On all, there's never been a woman on a Panel here, i haven't seen a single one, but I know there are women who do it, but I haven't seen any on the panel. So there's four people on the South America panel today. One was a Dutch guy who lived in Australia, one was a guy from Costa Rica, one was from England and then there was one American, but it's so much more popular overseas than it is the US and they were even talking like I overlander. That's such a staple app for us in the US when we're traveling and boondocking, or Bush camping as they call it, and they think it's so funny We call it boondocking.
But they were saying, yeah, like I overlander. Five years ago There was nothing on it, like it's just not picking up steam to you know remote camp and off the grid in the US. But for them it's like nothing.
0:29:04 - Chris
Yeah, it's been around for a while, so it was. So it was a lot of fun being at overland expo and getting to hear the experiences from all these different people, and that's why we went, and we also went to see old friends and meet up and just you know, it was a fun time. So if you are ever interested in my overland expo, did not sponsor this segment.
0:29:21 - Sara
No, we just it's fresh in the brain, we just came. Yeah, we still have our. Yeah, we do, yeah, we do, don't we yeah?
0:29:27 - Chris
So I mean we genuinely like the event and we genuinely like the people who are there.
0:29:31 - Sara
There's people who go and they're just like shopping for new gadgets for their trucks and you know that kind of thing. But There's also people who are really there to connect and learn from each other, and that's really what we get excited about. But I mean there's something for everyone. If you're there for your truck, that's awesome. Go for it So.
0:29:46 - Chris
I think I mean, and this is just a part of our journey. So we are here, we did overland expo and now the next part for this rig. I mean, eventually, you know we have to leave, we're coming back, but eventually we're going to ship it somewhere or we're going to drive it somewhere. So let me ask you this where would one place that you would love to do a podcast, like what is a location that you would love to do a podcast from?
0:30:09 - Sara
National Park in South Africa. Kruger yeah, like I think it'd be so fun I could completely blank. I could see the name. I couldn't think of it.
0:30:17 - Chris
I always think a Seinfeld the boss, kruger Kruger.
0:30:22 - Sara
Um, I would love I think that'd be so cool to be like we're in Kruger National Park Recording a podcast and there's an elephant outside our window. You know how cool that'd be for the video version.
0:30:30 - Chris
I think that'd be really cool. So, if you're watching the video, hopefully we won't look disgusting next time. But we know, no promises, no promises. But we are living this truly nomadic truck life for the past three weeks and we We're excited to where, like, we can take this podcast on the road.
0:30:47 - Sara
Yeah, I don't. I wish I had a time frame of when we're gonna be on the road or have it on a ship. I mean, it could be as early as three weeks from now, it could be as late as a year from now. We have no idea. Yeah, i think, realistically, a few months is probably the most realistic It takes time it takes time.
It takes. Planning It takes I mean, depending on where we're gonna ship at first depends on more pieces or more import permits. I mean it's so much more work, so Stay tuned. I think in the meantime we'll still have some other adventures to come. I know we'll have other adventures to come, but for now We're in the States.
0:31:18 - Chris
We're in the States and we will be traveling here soon, but think of this episode as like a town hall meeting, like we're just kind of dumping. A lot of information on where we're being, what we're, what we've been experiencing, and I like this. We haven't had an episode where it's just been you and me.
0:31:33 - Sara
Yeah, not since the intro. Yeah, we may not like this or they may like I don't know. I don't know what you guys are gonna like, but it's been fun. I think it's been a nice like recap what's been going on, because, you're right, so many people may either be behind on YouTube or they may not watch us on YouTube.
0:31:47 - Chris
Yeah, and so I think we're gonna do another episode here in the near future Where we finally dive into the questions, because a lot of people have left voicemails and text messages for us.
0:31:56 - Sara
Yeah, well, one of those is already specifically been answered in an entire podcast, and that's very required. That's a really good one.
That is a really good one, So we'll probably dive into some more of those here soon but one thing I want to be really clear on with all of this is that We don't want our travels to be so much about the truck, because that was really an easy pitfall with a van early on. Because the van content, it got the likes, it got the views, people were interested in van life. It was a very hot topic when we first started it and we grew a grew and grew a lot from that. But then a lot people came around and they only were interested in the van. They weren't necessarily interested in the travel, they were interested in the van. I feel like we've pivoted a lot from that in four years.
0:32:29 - Chris
Well, and it's. You're right, it's easy to fall into that and even at Overland Expo, people were you. You could tell the people who are really interested in the travel Portion, but then you could tell the people who are just super interested in just the rig.
0:32:42 - Sara
That's, i mean, personal preference. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think for what we're passionate about, yeah, we don't want to accidentally hone ourselves into the niche of, i Guess, the truck. we do love Land Cruiser. We're really excited to be in the Land Cruiser cool group now.
0:32:56 - Chris
It's kind of a.
0:32:56 - Sara
It's a. It's a fun little group, um I. But we want it to be more about the travels and the adventures and the people and the places, which is one reason why we're really excited about traveling with the microphones on the road, because I feel like we can make episodes from the road and really talk about where we're at in this moment. This one's a little bit different because it's very much an overview and catching you up on where we've been. But I don't ever want our content to fall into it has in the past, but I don't want it to again fall into the pitfall of being about the vehicle rather than the vehicle just being a means to an end to get you from place to place.
0:33:29 - Chris
For the adventures.
0:33:30 - Sara
It's a tool. It's a tool. It's a tool to get you there.
0:33:31 - Chris
It's a tool.
0:33:32 - Sara
So that's what I want it to be. But yeah, i just am really excited about what's ahead. We've I spent so much time on iOverlander and all the overlanding Facebook groups and websites and everything, and should we like give them three ports of where we're looking at shipping into?
0:33:48 - Chris
Well, so what are the three ports locations that we want to ship to?
0:33:52 - Sara
All right, these are just the I'm gonna give you the major cities close to the ports, cause usually the ports are like something different outside the major city. But I think the top three right now to ship into would be Cape Town, south Africa, kuala Lumpur, malaysia, and Buenos Aires, argentina. Those are the top three.
0:34:14 - Chris
All three have good food.
0:34:15 - Sara
I gave you guys three from all around the world just to keep you guessing. There's one continent that we actually have multiple shipping ports that we're looking at, but that's just. Those are the three that we're most excited about, and it really comes down to seasons of when we can get it on a ship and what the cost will be.
0:34:29 - Chris
So what's the thing that you're most excited about? Like what is we go to, whatever continent? like what are you looking for?
0:34:37 - Sara
I'm looking for not knowing what's gonna happen every day. That's what I want. I wanna wake up in every day, even if it's a boring day sitting there working. I wanna know or I don't wanna know what's gonna happen. Who's gonna walk past our truck on the trail, like we are. I don't wanna know what we're gonna have for lunch. Maybe we go to a street vendor, we go to the local market to get food, or the good or the bad, or what we're gonna see. Maybe we're in Africa and we see crazy wildlife outside our window. I'm excited for the unknown of what could be. I love that life. I love the unpredictability of it.
So that's what I'm excited about. What about?
0:35:12 - Chris
you, I think, finally being in. I love traveling internationally. I love experiencing new cultures. I love that And being inundated with it every day, just it sounds fun to me. Sounds exhausting, but it sounds fun.
0:35:27 - Sara
Yeah, yeah, i'm excited. Ooh, that's a B.
0:35:29 - Chris
That's a, b. Oh, it's got it. I wish I could get him out.
0:35:34 - Sara
Yeah, i think that's something we haven't people know, but we've been off the road traveling internationally for months now And we did go to Mexico for two weeks back in April. I mean that seems like such a blur That was. It was a good trip, but there was it was And it's always hard.
0:35:48 - Chris
like we said, it's hard when you fly into a place and yeah, so we wanna experience it. So I think that's what we're really excited about this truck. And then the Land Cruiser is like we're part of a cool club. now We're part of a cool kids club. Everybody's like oh yeah, you have a Land Cruiser.
0:36:04 - Sara
It is so, but especially at Overland X.
0:36:06 - Chris
even in driving down the road already, People are like giving us, you know, whatever sign like the thumbs up, yeah.
0:36:12 - Sara
Or they'll see the Land Cruiser and then they hear it and they go. Is that a diesel? They? get so excited. That's a Land Cruiser diesel. And then there's me in the front seat and I go, yeah.
0:36:22 - Chris
But do you sound like that? Yeah?
0:36:24 - Sara
Sometimes. So how do you think Kramer's liking me back on the road?
0:36:30 - Chris
I think he doesn't know what to do with this truck just yet. He doesn't understand the truck. He let me get this straight He loves traveling. He loves it. He like today he was able to hop into a river Today, you know, he gets to go to all these cool different dog barks in different places. He loves it, but the truck itself he's not. It's like a van, but it's not a van And so it's a little bit louder and that's already kind of off-putting to his ears a little bit. But then we still haven't, we haven't found a great place for him yet to where he can ride safely, securely and comfortably down the road. And the only place that he has found sanctuary is my lap, and so he's been riding shotgun with me the entire time.
0:37:21 - Sara
And this- But it's fun when it's 90 degrees and we have no AC. We have no.
0:37:24 - Chris
AC in this Land Cruiser? We have no AC. It is just, i think I don't know if you saw this, but there's just a guy walking behind us and he definitely saw us in our micro-run. Yeah, it's just part of doing it on the road, but anyway. yeah. so, Kramer, he feels like a wool blanket going down the highway at 55 miles an hour. It's not what you really want in 90 degrees, but you'll accept it and take care of it.
0:37:53 - Sara
You'd have an option if you learned how to drive stick. That is true. Chris hasn't wanted to finish learning. I don't know. We haven't had time, we haven't had time.
0:38:01 - Chris
But Kramer, i think he likes it, i think he likes the truck.
0:38:06 - Sara
He does, yeah, he likes the bed.
0:38:09 - Chris
I mean, he likes the truck when it's stationary, but when it's driving. He's still trying to figure it out.
0:38:15 - Sara
He used to find a safe place Because in the van we had a little bed for him right between the driver and the passenger seat. That was on the floor And he sat there most of the time. And then we also had our bed, which was always in the back of the van and lofted so he could sit on the bed and then watch us, and he loved it. He'd always just sit with his head rested on the window and just watch traffic and trees as we drove Here. He can't do that because the bed's like over over the driving area. We've got to figure out a good little place for him, yeah yeah.
He likes everything else that's like for that, but I think he's happy to be back on the road with all the smells.
0:38:48 - Chris
I think he is too, and one of the big renovations that we're doing to this truck.
0:38:52 - Sara
We're not doing much We should mention that.
0:38:54 - Chris
No, we're not doing much because we love how this truck is laid out, but one of the big ones is we are adding AC primarily for Kramer. I'm not, it's for us for two, i mean for us too. This week alone, i mean, my goodness, it has just been nonstop just sweat and nastiness.
0:39:09 - Sara
Part of that is because at Overland Expo there's no shade. You're just parking out in the middle of the sun for hours, all day, all day. You're always in the sun.
0:39:17 - Chris
Yeah, so, and even then AC wouldn't keep up in that. But yeah, so we're going to add an AC for Kramer And then, yeah, other than that, i mean this thing is ready to go international. I mean we have everything set ready to go.
0:39:31 - Sara
I think Kramer's happy to be at all the dog parks again. Kramer, i can't see anybody sitting right next to me. He's completely wiped out right now Yeah, he's wiped out. We need to have a little Kramer segment. I wish he could talk, because that'd be so fun.
0:39:43 - Chris
I don't. The internet couldn't handle what he has to say.
0:39:46 - Sara
Kramer, i wouldn't even get up, he's so tired.
0:39:48 - Chris
He's so tired right now We're all really tired, but I mean, i know I feel like our eyes and everything we're just going to like.
0:39:54 - Sara
it's been such a good, good week, but man, it's catching up with us. Yeah it has.
0:39:58 - Chris
So I mean this is a fun tired Chris and Sarah, because I mean we've just had a lot of fun in the sun And we get to experience this new truck.
0:40:07 - Sara
But for now, this is our first episode from the truck.
0:40:11 - Chris
Yeah, we're from the truck, So.
0:40:13 - Sara
Our temporary license plate is still on the window.
0:40:16 - Chris
So, if you don't mind, do us a favor, go to iTunes, leave us a review, send us an email hello at christenSarahcom. Or you can go leave a voicemail. I don't have the phone number in front of me, so I don't know why I said that.
0:40:28 - Sara
We always put it at the end of the show, Yeah we put it at the end of the show. People don't understand how much a little quick rating on Spotify and iTunes and even a Onesense review can do so much for creators. So if you haven't already do that, but yeah. So if you don't mind doing that, please do that. It means a lot. We don't ask to pay us for anything, that kind of stuff, but yeah, if you just don't mind doing that be great.
0:40:50 - Chris
Do all of that. Tell us what kind of topics you want us to talk about on the truck where were going, and then hopefully, we'll have some guests inside the truck as well.
0:40:58 - Sara
All right. Well, I guess we'll see you all next time.
0:41:00 - Chris
See you.
0:41:02 - Sara
Thanks for listening to What No One Tells You. With Chris and Sarah, you have a comment or question that you want answered on the air? Be sure to send us a message to hello at christensaracom, or you can call or text our phone number at 423-825-9572. Thanks for listening.
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