 All right, there you go Well, hello, this is a little different type of video It's a little bit awkward or a little bit different looking at a different camera also but Water Boon came by to hang out We didn't do any work. No work was done. No work. I didn't put it in the work. It was awesome The rest of the work to be done, but I thought it'd be fun to make a video About what we've learned after one year of bus life and three years after bus life So we can just freestyle it and just add in something good for the newbies out there. Yeah Yeah, the one biggie that I was I think we talked about it in our six month one that we kind of did was like that Just flexibility. I mean, that's the biggest thing is you just got to be totally flexible and open to whatever Never know craps gonna happen Like like a lot of crap that you don't expect and you just have to like you're gonna have days where I think you're gonna question your decision-making and your life choices and then but those go away and and you solve the problems and then you become more resilient and then you Get more confident and then you just become You just things don't bother you nearly as much as they used to it's really awesome. Actually, it's true I'm not nearly as like, you know over little stuff Yeah, and if you think about it those hardships those days where The crap really hits the fan something terrible happens. Those are you could count those days on your hand. Oh, yeah 365 I had a 365 amazing days on the road you can count those on right, so maybe it's bad that we brought that up first All the horrible things that happened on the road, you know Everyone wants to watch those videos and people are used to fear mongering from the local news, right? That's true so To throw that out there I think is all right, but yeah Yeah, that's something that you probably noticed too in the first year Especially is that you know that that shift from like vacation mode, you know that oh, I gotta go see this Oh, we got to go see that. Oh, we gotta go see this You know, it's like you've got time now You can just take your time and look at the map in the morning and go oh wow look at that That's right there. Oh, let's go see that you know and you can again with flexibility You can just pick things and just find cool interesting Yeah stuff to go see you know, yeah, and I just blow past the you know, yeah, it's definitely well one thing I've noticed after three years on the road is how normal it is I've been parked at my aunt's place for a couple months and this is weird for us where it's like all civilized here Yeah, I that's my home. Yeah, that's where I sleep. Yeah, you know, it's where I wake up and go to sleep every day So yeah Having the bus, you know, I guess before having a bus having an apartment I was tied to it and I thought oh no if I get rid of this and oh my god I'm gonna have to find something else right but once you start living and traveling in a bus or a van or whatever You don't really want to go back. No, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah feels weird. Oh, wow I don't want to own anything. I don't want to have a lease to anything I don't want to be tied to anything because I want to be able to leave immediately if I don't like something and that's God that is freedom. I really think because it's a time issue You're not putting aside your time to get to this goal that usually is about money or material stuff You're like using your time every day like how you want to use it. Yeah, and so It's so much more satisfying even though I haven't been doing crap for months. Eric's been doing all the work Honestly, I literally have like had I'm like I'm like retired at this point. You know, I'm like the backup I'm like the you know, it's not like, you know, we well we have, you know We have our jobs and stuff that Eric's been making the money for the most part. Yeah, so But I feel I'm fine with that I'm having a great time. You're chilling out in the van. I'm not chilling out in the van Let's let's think of something that people would would want to know Let's see. Doing laundry is not that big of a deal If you go to the laundromat, it's an hour. Yeah, that's right Okay, so let's talk about normal tasks that people might think are overwhelming. So laundry pretty easy I thought that was gonna be my my I thought I was gonna hate that the most cooking. Oh love cooking pretty easy I love cooking so cooking. Yeah Now what do you do with it? Oh, what about a refrigerator? What about storing the food? Yeah, pretty easy, right? Get your 12 get get your 12 volt fridge. Yeah, you will thank us later. Yeah food storage There's I mean you guys are in a pretty cozy bus there. I'm in a bigger bus, but two people is it enough space? Yeah for us Yeah, so some people would need more space. Some people can't be that in close proximity with each other. Yes But we We were going for a sprinter in the beginning. So this is like, you know, this is like a mansion Yeah, to what we were thinking of when we were first starting this out. So No, it works great for us. I don't I it's my home. I love it Let's talk about another fear mongering thing that people just people just cling to the fear stuff So have you guys ever been scared parking overnight? Not really scared a little no not a few times where I was a little Worried a few for a few hours personal safety. Never something might somebody might that might disappear something off the back Right, so more one time. Yeah Now that's that's that's a good question because now are that were those Circumstances in a bigger city or in a smaller middle of nowhere place. It was in the city Things I've realized that all the crime. Yeah, oh yeah all the bad things happen all the all the the thief's all Most of the drug people who are gonna come in, you know, the meth heads gonna take your stuff They're not gonna go there. They're more in the cities 30 miles down a dirt road to find one camper exactly, you know, it's like there's They're not gonna be out in the boonies no hide me how to bush yeah waiting for the single female van lifer to To pull up and then right. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a cartoon. Yeah It's like it's just yeah, and there is so much fear mongering about that because that's the first thing Yes, what about your safety? And that's what Eric's mom asked us and you know, they're all weird. I Think you're safe. I think you're more safe. It's weird. Okay, people are gonna think that's strange But listen you're you're stuck in an apartment or a house You're stuck there someone can target you and you have nowhere to go in this case we can just drive away, you know I mean, it's like you know when you're in a totally out in a boondocking spot. You hear everything Oh, yeah, like tune in to that's everything around you. I mean you hear any little crackle on the gravel outside Yeah, you hear it and you you know you're looking I'm checking it out making sure but I mean again when I'm out there I'm not expecting if I if I'm gonna see anything It's gonna be a deer or a true or elk or something wandering around, you know I mean maybe a bear but you know, but it's like not a person, you know Yeah, so but on this note, okay, so we've never been knocked on never had one year down Never had a private like citizen tell us to get off our line. We're having me once. Yeah only once in three years That's pretty good So it doesn't happen that often they don't as long as you don't hang out at a place for a long time on a Street or something if it's overnight. Yeah, and you're gone in the morning. No one cares Yeah, they don't really care parking. Obviously some places like in richer neighborhoods You don't want to do that but like, you know, there's a lot of places we parked on the street in Seattle We parked on the street in Portland and no issues at all And I think also on that note if you come across as nice or friendly or right wave smile I think that could probably go a long way right people are Seeing these buses, you know around fairly conventional this but also a lot of them are oh, wow wonder what the interior looks right? Approachable and and friendly and and use common sense. We love our bus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that I think that would help the future Right dockers out there. Who don't really know? Yeah, that's a really good. Yeah, if you don't own the parking lot You don't have a permission to stay there But you know, if you're friendly then hopefully things will go your way, but at some point you will get knocked on That's the biggest Planning thing that you need to do. Yeah, so for us We're not gonna like come up on something in the dark that we've never been to before That's supposed to be some do put that we found on and you know, I overlander or something. We always get to our place before it's dark Except for one time and I will never do that again with Dutch mark. Yeah, we were trying to never ever do that again Thanks, Mark. Yeah. No, it was a Mark Hi touch mark. Anyway So yeah, so that's one of the things that we do that lowers the stress level tremendously What's and when we're looking for those spots usually I'll have we'll have one or two more so that right? Yeah, we have the first one and it's clearly is not gonna work You got a few more nearby or other options. Yeah look for you know Oh, I'm like welcoming something like the knock the knock because I'm like it's not happened. So I'm like Now another have that story another common thing that I always see or hear or get asked is I think I've addressed it many times is how do you make money on the road? And I am doing the YouTube thing other people do other things and some people are are Afraid to take the leap of faith and do the bus or van or you know mobile thing. They're like Well, if I had work then I could do it, but you guys kind of just went for it Kind of did and we had kind of like plans like maybe we'll do Amazon Maybe we'll do the beat harvest. Maybe you know, we knew we've we'd watched all the videos And so we knew that there were things that we as older people who are not Digital nomads not that old It didn't have those skills my skill set did not transfer to bus life at all My side is totally different. Yeah, I mean I had 30 years of Carpentry experience so you can take that if you've got any kind of trade experience. Oh, yeah There's there's needing there's everywhere you go They need help and there's for one if you do skilled trades in particular. There's tradesmen international in bigger cities It's like a temp agency for skilled tradesmen So if you just need a week or two of work, you just call them up They'll send you to a job and boom you're you're getting paid right at the end of the week Yeah, you have to worry about is like I don't know how it would work with where your residency is and stuff like that That would be the only yeah I mean it's up to you to deal with the taxes and the rest of it at the end of the year But you just basically are they they're like, you know, they just supply people to jobs and right now again There's so much need for anyone with skilled trades. So I have the skill set he's been working we've had projects and you know, we've seen you know He's done a van build. He's worked on a lot of buses or yours many other people's We just did a tiny house kitchen So, yeah, he's been working lots of stuff to do and now we're gonna take some time off Yeah, I have to work for a while and we're gonna plan our next step Which is building it we're gonna we're gonna probably make our own business and we'll talk about that later It's stuff that we're just in the baby steps up, but we'll have time and and Where with all to actually, you know, think about what our next steps are gonna be in this life because we're definitely not going back I don't see this as You know, we have friends who like to stay in places for a long time They want to like be in one place for six months like here and then go to the desert when it's Cold up here and that's great, but we're not ready to do that yet. And so we're like in travel mode I want to keep traveling. So even when we go down for To Arizona and the Southwest this year for winter We usually, you know, you hang out with all your friends You see all your friends and you hang out with them But we're gonna be exploring a lot more than we did last year Yeah, yeah, well actually on that note of mixing it up people probably Some people are probably wondering. Oh my gosh, does it get boring and now I answer that After three years traveling around It's not that it gets boring. It's that if you have the same routine or the same objective Meaning like if you have that one town that you know, you're gonna pass through and you're gonna get that one clam chowder And then you're gonna get back on the road and sleep at that one rest stop And some people really like that, you know, some right some people like routine Yeah, I like to keep things fresh And so this winter I'm gonna be parked at a ski resort and snowboard all winter That's gonna be really something I personally wanted to do for ever I've you know skied since I was little and gonna be right near the snowboard bowl or snowboard Yeah, and and being a ski bum. Yeah, it always sounded fun Allow me to do something like that if I was in an apartment or had a mortgage or whatever It'd be hard to leave all of that to to put myself out there But also if I had kids and a wife, yeah, right, that would just be more complicated But I mean that's something for us. We don't have kids so that that yeah, you know People have kids in places and they're gonna go that's gonna be the routine. You go see their kids probably right now But we don't have that we have relatives so do that So have you guys gotten bored at all traveling around you guys, you know, I have not gotten bored traveling I have gotten bored staying and on place while Eric's working on a job That's a whole different thing. So I'm stuck we Do not have a second vehicle right now. That's a whole nother story, but we're gonna get one So that would change if I had a second. Yeah, I can do whatever I wanted to do a couple errands Yeah, yeah, I mean we yeah, I mean the absolute opposite generally is that I mean we've we thought we were gonna see a lot more I mean, but there is so much right everywhere you go. Yeah again. This is a massive country There's so much to see especially out west here that you know, yeah And yeah, we had this idea we were gonna do this whole big loop around on the way for the summer And it's like we barely got up to Washington state, you know, I mean You know And again if you're just open to looking at the map and looking at for those little nooks and crannies and really There's so much amazing beauty true to go see true. Oh, yeah And that's what that's what we love that so that's that's what feeds our soul Like the waterfall that we hiked to the other day, and I mean that was just absolutely gorgeous and it just And on that note, I almost had it almost a kind of burnout of Driving I love driving. I could drive hundreds of miles a day every day But it was like this constant need to like go somewhere else and be somewhere And that's what you were doing for like a long time fun, but but it drains my wallet So in the future, I think what I would do differently Would be to kind of staycation somewhere stay for like a week because There's so many amazing places that you could say like like a place like Bend, you know You don't have to just blast through you could go when the season is good, you know You could go with the weather you could go to a place like Sedona and not just see something for a day or two But right for a week or two and do all these different activities or even rolling vistas They're staying in one place, but they're moving around camping. Yeah, but they're staying like centered in one area And I'm like that's a great idea. Yeah, so a place that has a lot of stuff like southern Utah So that you could stay you could literally stay there for like months. That's where the second vehicle would come in handy Yeah, you could park and go off. Yeah, and that's where my back roads That's where my electric bikes would come in handy. Yeah, and we could park someplace and kind of get around totally Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm kind of zip into town. And so that yeah, we had our Chevy Blazer for a month before the transmission went out No more Chevy's no more Ford's. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, but let's see what else after one year in three years Yeah, I was trying to think too. Oh, let's talk about the people that we have met Totally, I mean, that's the biggest thing. That's the most hugest thing of all. Yeah, is the people I've met Yeah, I have met the most incredible people to him right here The most incredible in badger Canada and I could go on and on on But the most incredible generous just fun kind people who just have this different sense of freedom and adventure and generosity and Just a sense of just calm, you know, everything's okay. Oh, you got something going on Oh, so and so knows somebody. Oh, let's make a call and let's oh god Our u-joints fixed by badge the first time like just literally fixed by batch because you called him and it's like Oh, we'll go out there and see him. That was awesome. And so then we met badge and then now I mean, yeah Badge needed something of course you guys have you know, oh no problem Yeah, like this great almost kind of like Barter system. Everyone's got a skill. Yeah, you find the skilly people Yeah, but then a skill is someone who can make you laugh a skill is someone who can cook really well, you know There's a lot of or just being a great artist. Oh my god Or just being good company out in the desert, you know winter nights and yeah, exactly and farting and eating Or to that you better be getting a lot of those bags Yeah Yeah, if I didn't have savings or if I was in a different situation I think what I would do is Take seasonal jobs like school. We love the blue bus. Yeah, that I wear. Yeah, just the nicest guy and He and his wife do seasonal jobs and I respect that and I think it is cool We thought we would be doing first off right where he got like a big break and and just got A lot of projects before that we thought that's what that we were kind of like Oh, we'll just go to places and work for a time. Yeah, and the cool thing about that is that you are not paying for rent You're not paying for yeah trash. You're not playing for a bunch of these other things So if you roll up in your bus and you do work camping. Mm-hmm. Okay, you're paid You know 10 or 15 bucks an hour or whatever, but 10 or 15, but that's pure profit Yeah, if you had your 30 bucks an hour minus your car and your gas and your rent and your Whatever how much of that 15 bucks an hour? Are you keeping per 30 bucks an hour? Exactly. Yeah, so you're actually ahead by taking these lower paying jobs when you have less expenses Yeah, and then of course a lower tax rate to worry about your camera I think we're okay for now. It's drizzling a little drizzle Oregon. It's Oregon We're trying to go south get back in the sun See what else after three years Well, yeah, you're taking a big turn now. I mean you're doing something that you haven't like I mean that's awesome Yeah, well, you know hashtag ski bum But I think it would be fun also to park down in Mexico and Bahá and surf for a couple of months There you go. Yeah, hopefully you guys are alright with surfing and snowboarding videos. It'll be a little bit different I just didn't want to do a repetitive Thing and I will be sad to miss out on the van build party and the RTR and things like that Yeah, but you know just driving around for the sake of driving around Yeah For videos and things but I this is this is changed and different for you. So so that's what We're not we're not done with our you know traveling. All right. I have some other wild ideas Traveling and I'd like to go do some backpacking things do some other Yeah, yeah, so many things. Yeah. Yeah, it's open. It's wide open That's the other thing you feel wide open like it's almost sometimes where Where are we gonna go next? There's too many choices. What are we gonna do? Yeah, sometimes that becomes overwhelming. You're like, you're like So before before the bus life I worked in a bar and I slaved away and made somebody else rich for years and My joints hurt My lower back hurt, you know, I was working my ass off my The back of my knees hurt my ankles and I was up late and I didn't sleep well And I had the worst songs in my head And so I look I wake up every day and I'm like I have no terrible song in my head That's why you That was the song in my head Yeah You guys can or want to get out of the rat race highly recommend it From me, I think these guys would recommend it to oh highly highly It is sometimes challenging But you know what that makes it fun and it makes you have a life worthy of a movie script in some ways Yeah, I'm right and the bad things are the good parts are the most interesting stories. That's turns out Yeah, that's true. They're really fun and beautiful things are like Oh, yeah, you know those tires and moe Every hardship has a fun story So we will catch you guys in the next video hit that subscribe make sure to check out one or boom Nicole is in the shower. Otherwise, we would have included her, but I was kind of like a impromptu Yeah, yeah, we just want to always forget to film when we left jacks. We actually are just having too much fun Yeah, anyway, so I'm gonna get the camera inside Thanks guys