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Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:29 am
by FishPants
Weird that I just came across this thread now, but I've enjoyed a few of the videos that I've watched.
Question, how do you navigate somewhere like Baja with your life in that van and not have your life stolen from under you when you're out doing things? That would really be my only hesitation is that you appear to be driving a giant "ROB ME!" billboard.
I've been getting itchy feet, and I'm pushing my wife that once she's done with some medical stuff after her cancer fight -- it's time to start travelling to places we won't be able to go when we're retired (Thailand, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Africa (That's her pick, I have little interest), Colombia etc).
Time will ultimately tell, but I've been reading a lot of solo-travel blogs/reddits to get ideas on where to go on the path less travelled. I've had enough Marriotts in my life, we're looking to get past the tourism wall and see a bit more of the world. Thanks for sharing your experience, and I truly hope to use the Nomad list once my youngest daughter is safely in University. (
https://nomadlist.com/).
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:29 am
by em2nought
FishPants wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:29 am
Thanks for sharing your experience, and I truly hope to use the Nomad list once my youngest daughter is safely in University. (
https://nomadlist.com/).
Interesting link, thanks.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:06 am
by Paingod
soup wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:14 pmIm sure you know to fly for pay you need the FAA 107 cert. Its not a hard test, but you should do it.
I'm aware of the 107 requirement to get licensed before I make a dime from my drone, or even use it as promotional material in a business. Right now I'm just excited to fly. I'm not trying to get paid. Yet. I've read that the 107 is $150 to take each time, has to be renewed every 3 years, and takes maybe 20 hours of study time for someone who hasn't had any experience with the materials. I'm planning to take a prep course before I do that to increase my chances of success.
I appreciate the info! I wish I was doing what you're doing.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:47 am
by Jeff V
FishPants wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:29 am
I've been getting itchy feet, and I'm pushing my wife that once she's done with some medical stuff after her cancer fight -- it's time to start travelling to places we won't be able to go when we're retired (Thailand, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Africa (That's her pick, I have little interest), Colombia etc).
Heh, some of those places are precisely where you SHOULD go when retired. Colombia, for example, is an excellent destination for medical tourism and there are all sorts of ex-pat communities all over Asia.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:45 pm
by Matrix
I just did 5 month trip. Longest I ever done, gave my digital agency about 8 month heads up on my leave and took off to travel. My longest trip prioir to that was 2 weeks, and prior to it all my vacation was week plus weekends. Some parts I traveled with friends, some solo. Countries that I visited are Marroco (7 cites plus stay in Sahara desert,, Lebanon, Tanzania (Safari and Zanzibar , plus Dar especially Salam). Vietnam (north and south), Thailand , Philippines, Indonesia. Most places I spent 3 weeks to a month. If anyone interested in details , I will post more detailed write up. But it was quiet eye opening and amazing to just start traveling. I practically didn't work at the time, which makes first time in my life where I didn't work since HS. Lots of take a ways from the trip.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:05 am
by soup
Still living in a van...
We ended up having to stick around western New York for almost 4 months this summer. My wife’s dad had some health issues and that kinda sidelined us. The story ends well; he’s doing great.
Very pleasant summer. We got to put down some temporary roots and actually use indoor plumbing. Also sticking to one place for that long gave me an opportunity to make this video:
And that was our summer and early fall. Currently packing the van up for a run to Washington, Oregon, California and then back to Baja for the winter. Again
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:18 am
by TheMix
Cool. Living out here in the desert now, I forget how green that area is (originally from VT).
With the TV thread going on, I couldn't help wondering how that would look on a QLED. Also, that video would be great for places like CostCo and BestBuy to have streaming on their tvs.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:01 am
by Paingod
Beautiful video, though the bug swarm gave me some bad mental juju ... not something I like to see when I bike, and it happens.
This summer we had swarming tiny flies and dragonflies swarmed to match, zipping around and scooping them up. It only happened one day and only for a couple hours, but it was an incredible sight.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:57 am
by Z-Corn
Love seeing your stuff.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 1:19 pm
by Enough
Always great to get an update, thanks for sharing!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:51 pm
by Rumpy
TheMix wrote: ↑Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:18 am
With the TV thread going on, I couldn't help wondering how that would look on a QLED. Also, that video would be great for places like CostCo and BestBuy to have streaming on their tvs.
Yeah, agreed. You've got some great cinematography going on. Must have taken quite a bit of time to edit too. Also, music has a Vangelis vibe to it!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2019 9:08 am
by Lassr
Good to hear from you again. Love the video.
And wow, approaching 2 years now. I can't remember if you had a timetable for how long you were going to do this, or just keep going until you didn't want to anymore.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2019 1:18 pm
by Redfive
What a cool video.
Thankful there are people in the world with that level of creativity because I could never do that.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2019 2:05 pm
by Kurth
Video is awesome! Great work. Can’t wait to see what you do when you get out to Oregon. Tons of amazing areas for you to capture.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:06 pm
by soup
Hey! Before the covids we used the van to shoot this little video all over the USA, Canada and Mexico. Made a custom bubble wand and experimented with tons of bubble recipes. Lots of swearing at popped bubbles...
Turn up the sound and take a minute:
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:15 pm
by Blackhawk
Fantastic! As the kids grow up, and as I've gotten older, I sometimes find myself looking back at your 'experiment' and wishing I could do the same.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:53 pm
by Unagi
soup wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:06 pm
Before the covids
Love your stuff. Still jealous..
I'm curious how things have changed for you guys
since the covids.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:57 pm
by Lassr
Beautiful.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:24 pm
by soup
Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:53 pm
[quote=soup post_id=2739554 time=<a href="tel:1593619569">1593619569</a> user_id=1013]
Before the covids
Love your stuff. Still jealous..
I'm curious how things have changed for you guys
since the covids.
[/quote]
We were on the Mexico/Arizona border when shit really hit the fan in mid March. Decided we didn’t want to be stuck 3000 miles from any support networks so we drove back to ny. Family has a cabin in the woods that no one was at so we’ve just been living there. Starting to finally get some photo work so we’re hoping to get back on the road soon.
...stupid pandemic.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:42 pm
by Rumpy
That's beautiful and hypnotic! I'm surprised they didn't freeze in the colder temperatures as that's been known to happen.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 6:28 pm
by soup
Here's another experiment I tried this summer: Adventure riding.
I got a weird itch to travel on a motorcycle, so I signed up for a rider safety course and 3 days later I got my rider certificate.
2 days after that I bought a Royal Enfield Himalayan and rode the entire Great Divide trail from Mexico to Banff Canada.
Took me over a month because 90% of the Great Divide is off pavement. Lets just say there were many MANY sections that were above my noob ass skills.
Made a video, hope you guys enjoy:
<div style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="
" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="THE GREAT DIVIDE"></iframe></div><script src="
https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 6:40 pm
by Unagi
/gush!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 6:46 pm
by Daehawk
Cool and beautiful. Thanks for the video. Its even cooler you got Superman as your camera man.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:29 pm
by Hrothgar
Daehawk is being silly, but I am curious about what drone you were using. Were you alone most of the time? It's not the kind of trip I'd take for fun, but I'm sure there are some great stories.
My brother bicycled coast to coast across South America. He also had great stories, but didn't inspire me to follow in his path. My oldest son has the adventure bug. He spent part of the summer working on a boat in the Virgin Islands. We'll see what his next adventure is (once his broken arm heals).
Congrats on an amazing trip.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:11 pm
by Kraken
Very cool. That's the kind of trip I'd enjoy myself. My biggest motorcycle adventure was riding along the coast of Lake Michigan, across the Mackinac Bridge, along the coast of the UP, and then across Wisconsin almost to Minnesota. On a little Yamaha 350.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:19 pm
by gbasden
That is amazing! I'd also love to know what equipment you have for filming. Are you an experienced mechanic? I think being offroad that far away from anything would make me pucker when I thought about breakdowns.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:55 pm
by dbt1949
By yourself this time I see.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:56 pm
by Skinypupy
That's amazing, thanks for sharing it.
What's the music? Kinda sounds like a Young Gods track, but I can't place it.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 10:14 pm
by soup
@dbt : yeah my wife really did not want to sit on the back of a 400cc single cylinder bike for over a month. I don’t blame her
For camera gear all I had was:
Gopro max 360
Gopro hero 10
DJI Mavic 3
iPhone 13pro
And nope I am definitely NOT a mechanic. I tried to learn as much as I could before I left. Mainly how to change my own tubes/tires and keep the chain tensioner properly. I did an oil change in a parking lot that kinda pushed my boundaries a bit.
New bike= Few mechanical problems.
And the music was an older Underworld track that I thought fit.
Thanks for watching!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2022 10:19 pm
by Lassr
that is so awesome!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:20 am
by LawBeefaroni
Very nice, thanks for sharing!
Love that you left in the drone tree strike. Follow mode always scares me and I need to get over it.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:43 am
by El Guapo
Are you selling videos / pictures out of this trip, or was this purely for pleasure?
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:52 am
by stimpy
When I'm out golfing with my friends and one of us makes a great shot, the others in the group all say "fuck you" instead of the customary "nice shot", as a way to show our appreciation and support.
So to you, good sir, I say "fuck you".
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:55 am
by LordMortis
Wow. Just wow.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 12:31 pm
by Smoove_B
Yeah, that looks incredible! I'm not sure I could deal with instant coffee either!
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 12:47 am
by em2nought
This is awesome, that's quite the number of tuna pouches. I believe I'd need that many tubes of Preparation-H.
Re: My lifestyle experiment
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:16 am
by em2nought
There's a guy named Paddy Doyle who travels around South East Asia this way too on his motorcycle named "Zelda". He can be found on youtube. He's not as dramatic, but he's interesting to watch too.
https://www.youtube.com/@PaddyDoyle.