You Must Get Used to Change and Practice Flexibility When You’re on the Go

It has often been said that, if there’s anything constant in this world, it is change. And when you are on the go, as travelers always are, change happens more often.

 Camping in Chicken, Alaska

 Nothing illustrates this more than this incident in Chicken, Alaska. We were newbies in RVing. We successfully drove across the Alaska Highway from Calgary, Alberta to spend a cool summer month in Alaska. But we returned to the Lower 48 on a different route through Chicken, Alaska, the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City in the Yukon, and then the Glacier Highway in British Columbia. 

  I distinctly remember the trauma of taking a shower in Chicken, a little town of 32 in summer and seven in winter. I thought I had enough Loonies (Canadian coins) for a hot shower at the campground. I ended by rinsing with cold water at the sink in a room with no heater in the cold of fall. I made a mistake and put all of them all at once in the beginning, I was supposed to put each one before each segment ran out. I had to learn to be more flexible. We were in a different “home” every few days.  

Using Public Transportation in Mexico City

Then I remember the folly of resisting local ways. During our 2009 three-week tour of Mexico, we parked our RV in Teotihuacan where the most visited pre-Hispanic ruins of the oldest civilization in North America are located. It is 25 miles northeast of Mexico City. One day, we took the public bus to tour the metropolis. With a population of 18 million, it is one of the most congested cities in the world. We loved our tour of Catedral Metropolitana, Templo Mayor, Plaza de la Constitucion, Palacio Nacional, and the Avenida Central shopping area, ending our day with a visit to the only authentic castle in North America, Chapultepec.

To get back to Teotihuacan, we needed to take the train to get to the bus station. But I was horrified to find that men and women rode in separate carriages to prevent chances of unwanted encounters. I didn’t want to be apart from my husband, so we hailed a taxi instead. Bill lost his cell phone and a lot of money and time going through all the city traffic in that cab. It was good that we made it to the last bus to Teotihuacan. But I should not have resisted local ways.  

Stopping in Guangzhou, China

 One year I went to Melbourne, Australia to babysit my youngest grandson. The cheapskate that I am, I opted for the lowest fares with long layovers in Guangzhou, China.  I thought not only would I save money, but I would also get to tour the second-largest Chinese city after Shanghai. Unfortunately, I discovered the seven-hour layover wasn’t long enough because I needed two hours each way to get to Guangzhou. I decided to spend those seven hours with my laptop instead.

 Sadly, its battery was down to almost zero. It just so happens that I also have a mechanical aptitude near zero. I could not get my chargers to work. Luckily, I discovered that my husband had put a portable one into my bag.  That plus help from a millennial Chinese couple saved me. But when I finally sat down, I was dismayed. I had forgotten that Facebook is banned in China. I turned to surfing, only to find that every search landed me in an unfamiliar site, totally in Chinese. My isolation was complete. I should have brought a book.

 It is hard to make a woman in her seventies to be more flexible. But I love to travel so I would have to keep on trying. I must be better prepared, arm myself with prior knowledge, and, most of all, have a great attitude when something unexpected happens instead.   

 

Every Traveler Heavily Depends on Great Transportation Infrastructure

Born in the slums of Manila near the railroad tracks, my favorite mode of transportation had been the vintage jeepney that became popular after the war. Since I migrated to the US, RVed the continent, and traveled the world, I have experienced other transportation infrastructure that serves each traveler well. Here are the best and our favorites: the roads of America and the railways of Europe.

The Great North American Road Network

Our eight years of RVing full-time in the US, Canada, and Mexico gave us great experiences on the great North American road network. The largest component is the US highway system, the most extensive in the world. Today it constitutes about 165,000 miles of roads. 90% of US tourist traffic is carried in the system.

This is complemented north of the US by the Trans-Canada Highway, Canada’s transcontinental federal-provincial system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic in the east. The main road spans 4,860 miles across the country, one of the longest of its type in the world.

And, in the south, the roadway network in Mexico also does not disappoint, especially with the concretization of Hwy 15 that connects to Arizona. There are 72,577 paved miles, making it the largest paved network in Latin America, 6,508 miles of which are multi-lane expressways, including six-lane ones.

This great North American road system is complemented by a network of campgrounds and motels/hotels that provide lodging options with no equal in the world. Road travel in America is ultra-convenient. In addition, RV models range from small camper vans to huge luxury motorhomes. We also experienced the same satisfaction in the Australian road network.  

The Reliable European Railway System

The European Railway system consists of the following:

Tier One: Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France.

Tier Two: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium, and Italy.

 

Tier Three: Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Bulgaria.

 

We have used all seven in the Tier One systems, six of the eight Tier Two, and three of the ten Tier Three. We especially loved our train travels through Llubijana and Bled in Slovenia, Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck in Austria, Munich and Oberstaufen in Germany, St. Gallen in Switzerland, Vaduz in Lichtenstein, Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium. We covered all of that in four weeks and a half.

We have tried economy and first-class trains, taking us to small towns and big cities. The rail network is seamlessly interconnected to buses, taxis, and Ubers. Not a single train ride was late or canceled. The stations were sometimes airport-like in the big cities. In the small towns, quaint little shops are built around them as walking malls. I love train travel in Europe.

Bill did, too, because he did not have to worry about driving and enjoyed the scenic views of country and city life that unfolded before us: dwarf apple trees, tiny garden sheds, rolling hillsides, etc. Sometimes, the wide windows can even be opened for a better camera shot. We enjoyed the bars and dining cars, too. I even found comfort food for my upset tummy on a train ride between Innsbruck and Vienna.  Trains were certainly better than driving rental cars on the other lane and on narrow roads of the UK.  

The airline industry has successfully introduced more flights and even budget ones in Europe and the US. They are getting popular, too. But my husband and I will always prefer to travel across America by road and Europe by train!

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The One Real Secret to Traveling Light, RVing or Not

We learned how to travel light when we went RVing full-time across America. It was a conundrum! How can you travel light when you are taking your whole home with you? But now we take pride that every winter when we spend three months in Mexico, my husband and I just take one carry-on and one backpack each.

It all started when I came to America. I had downsized to two suitcases and one Balikbayan Box. When Bill divorced, he bought a duplex, lived in one unit, and rented out the other. When we met and we got married, he moved into my condo. Six months later, he sold his business and I retired from teaching at the university and squeezed all that we needed into our 24-ft. Class C motorhome. There were some boxes we left in my daughter’s garage and the small storage unit of my condo we rented out. When we bought our 37.5 Class A motorhome, we transferred all that we owned to the big rig. We were learning fast how to keep life’s essentials to the barest minimum.

Creeping Clothes

My husband has one rule: do not buy a new item until you want to get rid of an old one.  When tight pressure and extreme temperature caused my flare-up of hives, I changed my dress size to Large and gave away my clothes before I bought Medium ones. Two years later, I changed back to Medium and Goodwill got lots of clothes again.

Pounds of Paper

We learned to be more digital. We read e-books and e-zines. Our files became electronic, except those documents that need to be presented in their original form like passports, birth and marriage certificates, divorce/annulment papers, etc.  Health records are all electronically held in e-patient portals. Photos were scanned into photo frames.

Food and Fare

We had service for four and no more! When there were more guests, we used disposables, even for wine glasses. Cooking pots were just three, small, medium, and large, and skillets just small and medium. But we kept a small slow cooker, and our rice cooker was a small microwaveable container. Other coffee machines had larger footprints so Bill used a French Press. And the refrigerator held only a week’s worth of food. I loved my combination microwave/convection oven and the mini dishwasher.

Bathroom Burden

Our linens and towels were good for us and two guests (the RV sleeps six). The problem was my habit of collecting soaps and shampoos from motels and hotels. That was solved by immediately giving them away to the homeless as part of a zip lock bag where I added a small toothbrush, small toothpaste, a pack of crackers, a can of potted meat, and a small tissue packet.

Other Stuff

There were large storage bins under the RV. We had a small portable fire pit (for sitting out on cold nights), a small barbeque grill, an outdoor folding table with four folding chairs, two suitcases, and two carry-ons, Bill’s fishing gear, a ladder, a small space heater, a small electric fan, and a small vacuum cleaner. We also carried a DVD player, a small micro-chip-based Ziller karaoke system, a 32-inch and a 15-inch TV, a satellite dish, and two laptops.  

 

Our RV was about 350 square feet of living space and weighed 20,000 pounds. But fuel was expensive, so we learned to keep things to a minimum. We learned so well that we only needed 1,200 sq. ft. for a home to settle in after our RVing days were over. The key lesson to traveling light is the same for all travel, not just for RVing. And it is this: when you live light with the barest minimum, you will also travel light!

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Traveling with Girlfriends vs. Traveling with Your Partner

Southeast Asia is the part of the world my husband wants to visit most, but he could not join me on a tour of Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, and Brunei. Fortunately, my girlfriends were ready to go. During this trip, I realized that traveling with your girlfriends (or sisters or daughters) is different from traveling with your partner.

Difference #1: Fast vs. Slow Travel

Fast travel squeezes many stops into one trip, planning to return to the place you could not get enough of later. Slow travel means taking the time to experience the local culture. Bill thinks it’s just insane to do the former. But not me and my girlfriends. We can get our photos taken at a famous landmark. Then, next!

We started with an overnight layover at the Kuala Lumpur Airport Hotel for a much-missed authentic Hainanese chicken dinner. The following day, we arrived in Vientiane, the Laotian capital. A day and a half got us to the top six attractions. We even had time for a Laotian Catholic mass. Then, off to Brunei!

We also had an overnight layover at the Dom Mueang International Airport. Even if there was a Wat just around the corner, we hired a car to see downtown Bangkok. We got awesome night views of the Grand Palace, the iconic Wats, and the home of the father of the King. The next day we were ready for our day and a half in Brunei where we visited eight top attractions.

Difference #2:  Fast vs. Slow Shopping

Women take their time before buying (huge understatement). We scour a shopping area to survey what things are available for women. When we find something we just must have, we bargain for the best value. Men don’t have the patience to do this; they would rather read a newspaper with a favorite cup at a cafe. They go to the specific store where they always like to get an item. Full stop.

At the Malaysian airport, we shopped for souvenir items. In Laos, we squeezed in a trip to a Night Market near our Ibis Vientiane Hotel. We even made it to Chatuchak, the biggest Night Market in downtown Bangkok, to buy $1 scarves. Never mind how much the car ride to get there cost us! In Brunei we got stuck in the mall asrain poured. We were able to get lovely scarves (again) for a “steal.”

Girlfriends invariably find something; then the rest of us would say, “Me, too!” Or there is a real answer when I ask, “Does this look good on me?” Shopping with them is quite synergistic. The only drawback is, Bill’s not there to pay for the item(s). The solution: have an extension of his credit card!

But there are similarities, too.

Similarity #1: Culture, History,, and Landmarks

Both love culture, history, and landmarks. Bill would also have gone to the same attractions with a big difference: it would have taken a couple more days. He would also add a visit to war memorials or play in bodies…of water. He would also not spend any time taking photos except to humor his wife.

Similarity #2: Local Food

We loved the most popular Malaysian Hainanese Chicken Rice chain in the KL International Airport food court. In Laos, we spent big bucks to savor a Laotian meal at a 5-star hotel. In Bangkok, we had a sumptuous seafood dinner at the popular Kuang Seafood Center. Finally, in Brunei, we splurged on a full-course meal at the 6-star Empire Resort. Bill would have loved and paid for them!

You are lucky if you can have both!

5 Things My Husband and I Practice in Retirement to Keep Us Young

 

This article was first published in Travel Awaits. I have updated it here.

A 2017 article from AARP says that people over 65 think that “old” means being closer to 74. Well, my husband is turning 80 in two months, and I turned 75 two months ago! Luckily, people tell us we look young! I am Asian so that may be a reason, but my husband is Caucasian. The secret must be something we are doing together. Here are some possible explanations.

1. Keeping An 8-Hour Day

After we married, he sold his business, I retired from teaching at the university, and we went on an 8-year honeymoon running around North America in an RV. In other words, we postponed “settling down.”

Every day became an adventure. For me, it consisted of an hour at the fitness center (we always selected campgrounds with one), an hour of cooking, 4 to 6 hours of visiting one or two landmarks in the area, and an hour of journaling about them. He took care of maintaining the RV and made time for sports.

When we finally settled down, we chose ViewPoint Golf Resort, a 55+ active community. My day changed to 2 hours of social media and writing, an hour at the fitness center (including hot tub and sauna), an hour of cooking, 2 hours at clubs (computer, photography, karaoke, writing/editing, dancing, and poker clubs), an hour at the library, and an hour of arts. He continued in sports and joined me at the gym and library.

In both phases, weekends were devoted to preparing for the coming week, planning meals, shopping for groceries, doing other errands, and going to church. It was a smooth transition from working to “retiring.” Our weekdays remained as full 8-hour days, and our weekends stayed the same. The only difference is that we do what we want to do, not things we have to do. So if we even get stressed, it's the good kind...the one that comes with great satisfaction.

2. Creating More Special Days

To disrupt this routine, we created special days. And they didn’t have to be on the weekends. Weekdays are usually better because there are no crowds at movies, malls, or travel destinations. There are movies we must see in theaters, not just for theater popcorn but for the grand experience, especially during Oscar season. Classics at the Hale Theater have become part of our to-dos. To give my husband a break from my “excellent” cooking, we carefully research and pick exceptional places for both ambiance and cuisine to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, Easter, Mother/Father’s Days, anniversaries, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.

And travel days are always special days. They sneak in throughout the year. Day trips to parks are rites of renewal, especially during blooming spring days. Summer sees us road-tripping to the homes of our children and grandchildren. Fall is the time for attending conferences or visiting new places to write about. And then we spend 3 months of winter in Mexico when Phoenix gets "too cold."

3. Living with Lots of Fun and Laughter

Socializing is a key part of corporate life, and it does not have to stop in retirement. At ViewPoint, we not only join clubs, but we also love hosting dinners, get-togethers, and parties. We added a large sunroom so we can have a better entertainment area.

During COVID, I switched to the Pro version of Zoom so I could host more and longer sessions. Now that we can again meet in person, my mahjong sessions with friends have resumed. So have the Friday dinners at home. And on our birthdays and Christmas/New Year, we host bigger parties. These socials are venues for a lot of fun and laughter.

And there are other ways to feel giddy and laugh. Although the urban myth that children laugh more than adults has been debunked, I still love being around children. It’s an absolute thrill to be with our grandkids. We seek younger (than us) souls to experience diverse interests and senses of humor. Finally, we have turned more and more to comedies.

4. Taking Care Of Health

I cannot emphasize this enough. In the first place, poor health will do the opposite of what we want: cut short our retirement days and make us look older than our biological age. There are several parts to this: exercise, nutrition, sleep, hydration, and grooming.

ViewPoint has three fitness centers, one of which is just six houses away from us. At times my husband succeeds in making me walk or hike with him. At other times, I succeed in making him walk the mall with me (with some shopping benefits).

But what we put inside our tummies makes the most difference. Since I am in control of the kitchen, my husband has gone with my flow. Our nutrition plan is based on three principles: portion management (don’t cook huge batches), diversity (don’t repeat anything in a month), and availability (don’t have in the house what you should not consume). And I have since joined the Longevity movement (more on this in a later article).

And then, of course, there is sleep and hydration. My Fitbit tells me my sleep score when I wake up, and I deliberately slow my day on a low score. I also try to drink a lot of water and cap my day with a large cup of chamomile tea with honey and vanilla.

We can also enhance our look by good grooming well. Wear colors that suit your complexion, cuts that complement your body, hairstyles that go well with your face, accessories that finish a look, and make-up that highlights or hides.

5. Living With a Purpose

But it’s something much deeper than the physical that will truly make the difference. Mental and spiritual health is sustained by living a life of purpose. I have found that helping others and not getting paid for it is far more fulfilling than just being useful. There are so many who need help, who cannot provide for themselves, or who need just a little push to make their lives better.

My first volunteer activity was at the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) to help small businesses that were just starting and did not yet have the means to pay for advice. The right tips can put them over the hump. My husband volunteered as a CASA, a court-appointed special advocate, who tries to save children from the grip of highly dysfunctional families and the trap of easy money, crime, and incarceration. Some focused attention is all they need.

My desire to meet Filipinos in America led me to fellow alumni of the University of the Philippines. We founded the UP Alumni Association in Arizona, and today we are supporting at least two scholars in the Philippines to graduate and help the country. The UP Alumni Association in America to which we are affiliated supports even more students.

In other words, looking and feeling young comes from a full life borne out of an openness to diverse experiences. Have full days, create special days, and fill them with fun and laughter. And don’t forget to take care of your health and live a life of purpose.

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We RVed Full-Time for 8 Years: Here are 10 Lessons We Learned

We RVed Full-time for 8 Years; Here Are 10 Things We Learned

This article was first published in this blog in January 2013. Then I developed it for Travel Awaits last May 2023 .  I used that article to update this blog today.

At 60 I met an American businessman who took me RVing right after our wedding. Crossing North America six times reaching 49 American states, nine Canadian provinces, and six Mexican states, we lived in it full-time for eight years. Here are the top ten lessons we learned. I have added three notes at the end.

1.   Follow the sun; maximize the fun.                     

It’s a moving home; no need to shiver in the cold or sizzle in the sun.  Some say with full-time RVing, you can readily change your neighbors in case an issue comes up! True, but the real benefit is when it’s the weather that you can’t stand. Spend summers up north and winters down south!

Once I had to go back to Seattle in November for the US Commission on Immigration Services. Their letter scheduling an appointment reached our previous campground after we had already left so it didn’t get to me in time. Unfortunately, the new date they gave us came with a white Thanksgiving. Our RV got buried in snow, our water system almost froze, and we almost ran out of electricity. No, we didn’t do that again.

2. Triple the fun: plan and document.

Aside from enjoying the destination, planning the exploration with anticipation doubles the fun. And documenting to relive it later triples it!

I get pushback about planning from those who espouse spontaneity. But you see, I don’t mean planning to the smallest detail. Plan just enough to implement Lesson #1. Besides, not planning may result in inefficient routes. With the high price of gasoline (and electric charging stations still sparse for eventual eRVs), thoughtful planning is essential.

Documenting, on the other hand, allows you to enjoy the memories more completely and to share them with others. I started a blog the year after we began RVing. I didn’t know the blog would be my jumping point for my first travel book. Now to start each day in our seventies, we read one of 600+ blogposts or the chapters of my travel books.

3. Explore an area thoroughly.

Don’t leave an area before you get to know it. You wouldn’t want to have to come back and spend more on fuel. Lesson #2 will help do this. In the beginning, we stayed in a place for three or four days. It was at a frantic pace to cover as many new places as we could. Then we would find out that we missed this or that landmark.

We upgraded from a 24-ft. Class B to a 37.5 ft Class A RV (please see this for the different types of RVing, RVs, and campgrounds) bought into a nationwide network of campgrounds, and stayed in an area for two to three weeks. It was enough time to immerse ourselves in the local life. Slow travel set in.

4. Choose an RV for basic needs.

Your RV must meet the same basic needs you require from a home. It must not have “wants” that make your RV unnecessarily bigger, heavier, and more costly to run. That eliminates a bathtub, outright! But I also decided I did not need a dresser or desk. Our unit came with a microwave/convection oven combo, a compact dishwasher, and a mini stack-up washer/dryer.

5. Include Healthcare in Your Plan.

This was the biggest lesson we learned. If we were given the chance to do it all over again, we would make sure to spend a couple of months a year at a central location to see regular doctors and do annual consultations and tests.

My husband’s sister still lives in their hometown, Pittsburg, Kansas. It could have been an ideal location, and their doctors would have been great for us, too. When our health issues compounded, we were compelled to do that and got a lot done, including cataract surgery.

But preventive medicine is much better.

6. Always travel light.

Travel light in an RV? How is that possible, you ask? The RV is already very heavy, even when it is empty! To me that meant traveling light is even more important. Because you are always moving, travel with the barest minimum. To achieve this, I developed a few rules: storing only a week’s worth of food, throwing away a piece of clothing whenever we bought a new one, keeping service for only four, and using disposable sets for bigger groups, etc.

7. Become a member of a network.

We soon found out that camping fees, after fuel, are a big part of total expenses. If you camp for a major part of the year, become a member of a good campground network (we chose Thousand Trails) to get the best rates. Over the eight years, ours came to about $10 a day.  What is more, the task of looking for suitable campgrounds is eliminated.

8. Take advantage of work and payback opportunities

With plenty of time on our hands, we look for ways to make good use of our extra hours. Many of those we met on the road took advantage of seasonal job opportunities, like at Amazon’s fulfillment centers, those listed on workamper.com, or those odd jobs at the campground. For payback opportunities, I liked Habitat for Humanity whose Care-a-Vanners program provides a campsite while you volunteer.

9. Use nationwide services but buy locally.

For larger maintenance jobs and higher-priced durable goods, it is best to use nationwide chains that guarantee the quality of their service or product anywhere in the country. When we had a roof leak repaired in Spokane, Washington, we didn’t have enough time for the work to dry (had to leave for a family reunion at Glacier National Park). When the roof still leaked a little in Illinois, the local Camping World fixed the issue.

For simpler jobs and consumable goods, it is good to contribute to the local economy. Besides, farmers’ markets sell the season’s best produce and the community’s best crafts.

10. Stay connected.

Perhaps the hardest part of full-time RVing is being far from your loved ones. Technology helps to bridge the gap.  But one reason we upgraded to bigger unit is so they could visit us. They did and occasionally, we even became neighbors. Camping in their driveways is the trick!

Here are three other tips that didn’t make it to my top ten, but we found important for our circumstances.

1. Don’t trade your home for a vehicle, in case you need to stay put again. Choose an RV that you can afford to pay for in cash, so you don’t have to sell your home or incur new debt. If you can, rent out your home(s) to finance your RVing (like we did).

2. Buy a used RV; just make sure it’s a good reliable brand (we got a Newmar). Let others take that first-year depreciation hit. This made our cost of RVing even lower (together with Note #1 and lesson #7) than staying in a rented apartment. The savings helped us buy a new home and timeshares for a new traveling lifestyle.

3. Use mail forwarding services in low-tax states such as South and North Dakota or Montana, etc. Initially, we used a family member’s address because we were told mailed-in voting was limited to those with actual homes. But after a letter got to us late (see lesson #1), we shifted to a mail forwarder.

If you are serious about full-time living in an RV, these 10 lessons (and three notes) will help you.  These and more are in my book Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, a travel book of our RVing years. It will give you a feel for this cruising lifestyle. You may also get a good late-in-life immigration and love story.

 

 

Today's New Normal for Continuing to Travel Safely

With a traveler’s soul, we just had to find ways to continue going out to breathe clean fresh air.  As soon as the lockdown was lifted, we began to consider our car as an extension of our home. It is a place we can keep as clean as we want it to be and allow no one else to come in. So we created a bucket list of places where we could go and practice natural social distancing like the state, regional, and national parks around us that remained open. When we didn’t see people on the trails, we got out of the car and walked a little. If not, we just continued driving.

Going Home and Staying There

Because of coronavirus, we cut short our annual Mazatlan vacation last March by ten days. The statistics were pretty grim when we left Mexico. The US had become the new epicenter, and the Canadian and Mexican borders were closed to non-essential travel. It took us two days, driving eight hours each day to get home. What was surprising was it took us no time at the Mariposa Border on both the Mexico and US sides. There was not the usual inspection done. But what was scary was that there was no testing done. 

socially distanced queue at the Visitor Center 

But home is the best place to do self-isolation, not on a cruise ship out at sea or a hotel room in a foreign country. We happily completed our 14-day period of self-isolation when the authorities declared a lockdown until the end of April. I wouldn’t say it was welcome news but it was also not a problem. There were a few things we have learned to do to make it a more meaningful pause. And we gradually gracefully adapted to what they have started to call as the new normal.

our Zoom Party, playing Bingo and Trivia, at Viewpoint

It included things like online shopping, grocery pick-ups, substituting ingredients in cooking, exercising with videos, cleaning at new levels, and watching movies on demand. Zoom also exploded, providing online activities to replace physical interactions. I had a one-hour session with my grandkids, ages 4-6, and another one for the two teenagers to help my daughters. There were also meetings with alumni associations and parties with Viewpoint residents. And then, as before, I found another flagship project that made the time more productive. Thus, my second book is in copy-edit mode now, on schedule for an October-November launch.

masked, even while hiking

New Ways of Traveling

The operative principle was to distance ourselves from others, but not from nature. Road trips had become the preferred mode of travel. As a matter of fact, the travel magazine I write for twice a month had started to direct articles to be about road trips in the domestic USA. In the process, we also discovered small Arizona towns that had lots of character. And, because you don’t have to choose hotels or AirBnbs for lodging, RVs had become even more popular. We miss our old RV.

In July, the resurgence of coronavirus cases overwhelmed Arizona just as we had already been terribly missing family. We decided that we could not wait anymore. We thought that we could actually go from our higher-risk home to lower-risk areas near our children in states that accepted us. 

Western Idaho didn’t. Alaska and Australia, on the other hand, would necessitate airplane travel which we felt was still too risky. We chose three mountain retreats in Utah, Colorado, and California and invited our children from the latter two to meet with us there. And we just met with another one halfway between Utah and Idaho to meet for a picnic at the Shoshone Falls in the eastern part of Idaho.

New Rules for Interacting with Others

in separate rooms but dining together

foot-operated hand sanitizer dispenser

But since they were not part of our bubble— the people you live with and share daily activities with, like Bill and I are for each other— we developed certain rules to follow when we were with them. Those rules follow the principles of avoiding crowds, social distancing, staying outdoors, hand washing, and the wearing of masks. And these principles were designed because of the simple science behind Covid-19. The number of virus particles we get determines the gravity of the potential infection And the number is influenced by our proximity to the source, the length of exposure to it, and the quality of our immune system. Each one of us can control of all these three factors.  

For the foreseeable future, especially when we are still under the threat of viral diseases, we will follow these practices, especially numbers one to six. We can see a time when those rules would be somehow relaxed but we hope we can do away with number seven as soon as we can.

1.        Go to areas with lower incidences of Covid-19. It is good that there is plenty of data to drill down to even up to zip codes. We have selected restaurants, groceries, mountain retreats, towns, counties, states, in this way.

2.        Meet only in uncrowded open-air spaces. Stick to patio seating for eating out, drive-in theaters for watching movies, outdoor services for worship, and hiking at off-the-beaten-path trails as a preferred activity.

3.        Do not spend an unreasonably long time with others. They say more than 15 minutes is too long. But, as long as we are masked up, are socially distanced to six feet, and are outdoors, we try to limit to no more than two hours, enough to enjoy a meal.

digital menus for scanning

4.        Do not ride with others in the same vehicle. This makes us stick to our car as our preferred mode of travel, without any others riding with us. We are currently eliminating planes, ships, and trains as trip options.

 

5.         Do not share rooms with people not in your bubble. We no longer stay in our children’s homes and no longer book multi-bedroom units but keep to separate units.  

6. We prefer to stick to our timeshares. As owners, we have an influence on how the property is sanitized and keep to physical safety guidelines. Check-in time is 5 pm and check-out is 9 am, giving time for a thorough clean between bookings. And no cleaner comes inside the room during our stay. 

7.        Do not shake hands or hug, although during rare times we touched elbows (with sleeves) or toes (in shoes) for a second.

We canceled our trips in April-May but resumed our travels in July. We intend to still go to Mexico for our annual vacation in January, still driving to Mazatlan. Self-isolation helped flatten the curve for our community and the world when we had to do it. Creative ideas helped us become productive during a lockdown. But, with these new rules that we have developed, we have found how to continue to travel and still be safe. 

parking lots had alternate spaces open in Big Bear Lake

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TWO DRIFTERS, OFF TO SEE THE WORLD

They could be no more different from us. They are younger, in their 40s vs us in our 70s. They have been together longer, for two and a half decades vs our one. But they are, like us, in Mazatlan for three months this winter. We met for late lunch at Molcajete Loco in Old Mazatlan. The connection was immediate and 2 pm became 6 pm quickly. So I decided that you should also meet this very interesting couple, Jerry and Fiona, owners of the blog A Couple of Drifters.

Their traveling style is so like how we were during our RVing days. You see, to drift means to be carried slowly by a current; to cruise is to travel smoothly at a moderate or economical speed without a precise destination, for pleasure. We simply use different terms. They started with their Van Life until they sold the van, much like our RV Life until we sold the RV.  But we started much later, in our 60s, and our travel styles are so different now. They continue to drift, sans van, while we have shifted to slower and more planned travels from a base as soon as we reached our 70s. 

Once it presented itself, they seized on the opportunity for long term budget travel, believing that “nobody knows what the future holds so now is the time to undertake this journey whilst we are young(ish) and healthy.” Here are their answers to our “tracking down” questions:

1. Where have you been and how long has it been since you started this lifestyle?

beach camping in Baja

We started this lifestyle back in 2013, traveling for all of one year, hitchhiking from Portland, Maine across the U.S. through Mexico and all seven Central American countries, and back. We returned to Portland to work, save, and tie up loose ends. This current journey began in September 2017 and we've driven the length of the Baja peninsula twice—beach camping along the way plus house-sits in the US southwest.

2. How did you come up with your long term travel budget?

$15 each per day is the least amount we came up with to keep us on the road for as long as possible from our savings and retirement investments. We keep a detailed account of every penny that we spend in our Financial Times, a small notebook where we keep track of all daily expenses no matter how minuscule. An analysis of our 2019 entries revealed this breakdown: Transportation-45%, Food & Drinks-35%. Accommodation-7%, Digital Expense: 8%, Others-5%. As we sold the van towards the end of last year and moved into our apartment in Mazatlan, accommodation has risen to 30% of our budget and transportation is near zero.

3. What are your secrets in staying on budget when you travel?

We always look for the cheapest accommodation possible—hotels not hostels (they are no longer the best budget option), especially in Mexico and Central America. We walk for hours all over town looking for the cheapest place and, depending on where we are, we happily haggle the price of a room.

their apartment in Mazatlan

For example, here in Mazatlan, we are in a small one-bedroom apartment in a duplex at the residential neighborhood of Centro Historico, just a couple of blocks away from the Malecon. With cable, wi-fi, and a shared washer and dryer, it is just $5 each per day. We also do a lot of house-sitting, which has been a fantastic way to save money on lodging. Every now and then we'll take an overnight bus, not great for sleeping but kills two birds with one stone.

In terms of food, we try to share plates as often as possible. We eat one meal a day and snack the rest of the day with bread rolls. We choose unadorned, local establishments where there is a set menu and very few (if any) tourists. We also eat a lot of street food. We keep heating elements for boiling water when we don't have access to a cooker. They are perfect for making soups, tea, and coffee.

Transportation expenses are kept to a minimum because we walk a lot and never take taxis or ubers.  Jerry was able to do all the repairs to our van when we had one. We only had to buy the parts. For greater distances, we hitchhike as much as possible. When we do take buses, we always opt for the cheapest bus, which typically means a longer travel time due to frequent stops and no air conditioning, etc. This may also mean a standard seat for two adults will cozily hold 4, not an inch of space left open anywhere on the bus. Often, humans and livestock all share the same space.

If we need to replace any clothing we buy it at second-hand shops/markets and we carry a sewing kit. We also rely on free wi-fi, have no data plan, nor a cellphone. We also do shower laundry. Yes, just as it sounds, we do our laundry while we shower.

4. When and why did you shift from the van life to long term budget travel?

Little Elvis

Selling the van was all part of the original plan. Somehow we just ended up living the van life and house-sitting for longer than we thought we would initially. We sold "Little Elvis" (our van) the beginning of November 2019. We're glad we experienced van life but we are happier without our own wheels.

5. Are there any risks in maintaining your lifestyle?

There are more risks with our lifestyle but we have not encountered any of them yet. When hitchhiking we try to get our lifts while there is still daylight but we have had overnight lifts which turned out fine. We always try to get dropped off at truck stops, that way if we don't have any luck getting another lift to continue, we have a great place to pass the hours until it is time to put our thumbs out once again. Truck stops are open 24 hours a day and we have been treated with nothing but kindness from staff as we quietly wait for dawn.

As far as healthcare is concerned, we've both been very ill on the road, but have never needed medical attention. The best care is to live healthily and prevent major illnesses.

Fiona, leading the hitchhiking

6. How many of your years together have been spent in a home base and drifting?

We’ve been together 24 years as of February 15, 2020. Twenty and a half of those years have been in various home bases: Boston, MA, Birmingham, UK, Albuquerque, NM, Seattle, WA and Portland, ME. So, only three and a half years have been spent traveling as a “Couple of Drifters.”

7.  Which is better in sustaining or even enriching your relationship?

Over 24 years we've done the home base, van life and the current long term budget travel of hotels/hitchhiking/sub-leasing. We really don't find much difference. However, when we were at a home base, we were both working full time so we were not around each other 24/7. This is a key difference. Van life is also different. It was so cramped. “Little Elvis” had a whopping 26" x 28" of clear space. It meant having to communicate about everything. Every last little detail has to be thrashed out together. There's a lot of bickering and just as much compromising. We cannot deny that spending 24/7 together leads you to get on each other's last nerves. Don't be fooled by the idealistic shots that you see on Instagram of gorgeous couples looking perfectly quaffed and staring at each other adoringly. The reality is very different.

they lived at the upper floor of this house in Portland, Maine 

8. Then, what is your secret in staying together in each lifestyle?

The secret is in sharing responsibilities and knowing what they are. After 24 years we each kind of know our own strengths. As two individuals, we complement each other so that together we are like one fully functioning human. For example, with regard to our blog, there was a natural distribution of responsibilities. Jerry takes care of the technical aspects and Instagram, Fiona deals with other social media and marketing. We take turns writing posts. Other secrets are talking about things, listening to each other, and getting mad, sulking, calming down, and finally talking things through. The way we travel is different and can be quite intense. Sometimes, we feel the need to set ourselves down somewhere for a while and just relax. But, ultimately, what is most special about traveling as a couple is that you both share a strong common bond. You can look at each other and know that you are the only ones who can truly understand that moment from your travels that you may now be retelling others.

As you can see, it is right to call them drifters. And it is even more right to call them a couple steadfast in their hope that they can sustain this lifestyle forever or at least as long as they can. Fiona wants to go everywhere and Jerry doesn't have a list. Soon, they will return to New Mexico for another house-sit. Then, they go back to Mexico to resume their drift farther south, past Central America, perhaps into South America. 

Find out how interesting Jerry and Fiona's journeys are as they go on their long-term budget travels. You'll see why the Mayor of Albuquerque, NM shared their post, 
Unique Things to Do in Albuquerque, on his Fb page. The song, "Moon River" captures their spirit precisely: "Two drifters, off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see."

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