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#govanmoment

Left the coast in a hurry a couple nights ago. Thankfully, Twin the cat is almost back to her old self but for a bit she was really sick. Not sure what caused it but she vomited and then started to shiver, drool with her mouth open, and puff up like a cotton ball. There are no 24-hour emergency vets on the Washington/Oregon coast so we drove 2.5 hours in the dark to get her closer to help. Not sure what happened but a full day in her cat bed after subcutaneous fluids and an anti-nausea injection seemed to do the trick. A similar thing happened to Toby while we camping on a Croatian farm last summer. Only difference is a full work up in Croatia cost us like $30 and here in the US we paid $250 without bloodwork and X-rays. I keep saying this every few days and it still surprises me each time. It was cheaper for us to live in Europe. But it also may have to do with easy access to Amazon lockers here. Ha.

P.S. Thank you for all your kind words the past few days. I wasn’t fishing for comments but each and every one brought a smile to our faces. We’re all glad you are along for the ride.

We went into Overland Expo hoping for two things: to share our story and to reconnect with our traveling community here.

Over five days, we got to meet up with family and reconnect with old friends we haven’t seen in years. On top of that, we finally had a chance to hang out and say hello to so many other travelers we’ve only interacted with online. It was exactly what we were hoping for, what we needed, a stronger sense of community. And hopefully those connections we made over the weekend will continue as we explore this continent. Thank you all. You know who you are 🙂

While sharing our stories during a variety of panels, I gave the kids the option to attend our chats. To my surprise, they chose to stick around for all of our sessions. They’ve heard, and lived, these stories a million times before but now they were soaking in everyone else’s unique stories. My most empowering moment of the show was to sit on a panel with four amazing women, all with totally different adventures, with my girls in the audience. They listened to stories from a solo adventurer, one who rides a motorcycle with her pup, one whose traveled to over 75 countries, and one who started this expo and traveled the far corners of Africa. There is no right way to live this life, no perfect vehicle, no best route. The one thing we all have in common is that we followed our hearts.

Yesterday was the start of a new year of roadschool! Ava is now in 10th, Mila in 8th and Luka in 5th. They’ve been homeschooled their entire lives. They’ve never been to a typical school so to them this is their normal.

We started off homeschooling through a charter program when Ava started kindergarten for some hand holding as we figured out the best ways to school our children. After a few years, we felt confident and declared ourselves a private school in California and schooled them around the world.

Now that Ava is in high school, we felt the need for a change. So this year, she is started a new home study program through a charter school. She will taking a range of online classes including Biology, World Literature, Algebra 2, Spanish and Digital Illustration. It’s definitely a shift because she will have more interactions with other students and teachers while gaining responsibly as she learns to manage her time and assignments.

And all of this can still happen from our home on the road as we continue to explore this beautiful world of ours together as family.

#malimishroadschool

Hi everyone, we’re jasonsrhoj and nanja__ and this is our van, Biggie! 🚐

In November 2021 we bought a Toyota Hiace Commuter which we are currently converting into a camper van to travel around Australia (hopefully by March 2022).

We’ll share as much as we can about our conversion process, about things we wish we knew before and our journey when we’re ready to go… 🇦🇺

Owner biggiethevan

🚐 Toyota Hiace
🇦🇺 Australia
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#vanlifeshoot #homeiswhereyouparkit #vanlifediaries #vanlife #campervan #camperlife #campvibes #promaster #freedomvessel #freedomthinkers #vanconversion #vancraft #discovertheroad #adventuremobile #departedoutdoors #campingcollective #dirtbagdiaries #vanlifers #vanlifeideas #govanmoment

We spent nearly a decade and a half living a life on the road with our kids meandering around the world in our home on wheels. In all of that time, we have forged life-long friendships, witnessed unbelievable sights, and encountered unforgettable experiences. Not until this year have we ever decided to speak publicly about them. Sure, we have uploaded countless edits of our home videos and posted innumerable photos here on Instagram, but we have never spoken to a room full of like-minded adventurists until our first Overland Expo earlier this year. The feedback from the community has been overwhelming and helped us to decide to attend our second one this past weekend in Loveland, Colorado. Instead of just sitting in on round table discussions as we did in Flagstaff back in May, we developed 4 classes to teach our fellow travelers in attendance. We even wrangled our buddies roaming.nomads to co-teach the kid presentation with us. It was an action-packed three days. We are exhausted but grateful for the opportunity to meet all of the people at the show. If you are interested, we will be re-creating video versions of those classes on our freely.roaming YouTube channel in the coming weeks. Thanks to all of you who came to the show and a special thanks to everyone from overlandexpo for welcoming us and letting us share our experiences at your events.

Not all days on the road are exploring days. And if they were, we’d all burn out real quick.

Some days are for errands, some are work and school, some days are for doing nothing, and some days are for vehicle maintenance.

Today was the latter, more specifically, tire rotation day. Dan asked us to exit the van for a hour or so as he pulls the spare out from under the van, to put it into rotation, jacks up the van and carefully swaps the tires. All this effort is part of what keeps us safe on the road and extends the life of our tires.

In our early days of travel, we’d often take our vehicles in for service. But when we started crossing borders, we started to take matters in our own hands. There is something to be said about knowing your own vehicle and what work has been done to it. It’s more for peace of mind than anything else. But the cost savings comes in second, for sure.

Oh and for those tire nerds out there, we run bfgoodrichtires KO2s in 235/85R16 on factory steelies.

Parked our vans here on Tuesday and haven’t moved them an inch since. Mornings spent playing on the Sea of Cortez or under the rickety palapas with camp dogs. Afternoon walks into town to stuff ourselves with what the fishermen caught that day. And evenings spent wondering why we are all tired by 7pm. It might have something to do with the watching the sun rise over the sea. Or the midday beers. 😝

Thanks for memories, vandyssey!

We purposely chose not to build an indoor shower into our van to gain more living space. To keep clean, we use campgrounds, truck stops, rivers/lakes, rec centers, community pools, beach showers, water warmed up on the stove, and sometimes even AirBnBs when they are cheaper than campgrounds. And with our new water jug and faucet, we have one more option much to Luka’s delight.

We left the Port of Los Angeles (my childhood hometown) four years ago with a big adventure ahead of us. We accomplished what we set out to do, and then some. I’m proud of my little family. The memories we all made together is why we live the way we do.

Arriving back here today feels like we closed some sort of loop. Leg one of our European adventure, I guess. Sure, there will be more European adventures in our future but not in this exact configuration, probably not child-wise or vehicle-wise, but for sure not little kid age-wise.

So what now? Well, we’ll hang in California for a bit before heading north in search of cooler temps. And then in the fall, we point our van south for a few months of eating and surfing our way through Baja.

(First couple photos are from today and the rest are from 2018 when we bought and built out our home. Look how little the kids were! 😭❤️)

WE HAVE BIG NEWS!!!

At the beginning of the year, we decided to leave Europe after 3.5 years and return to the US. Partially because we were feeling lonely, partially because we felt time with the kids ticking, especially Ava who is turning 16 in a month! But mostly because we couldn't head east as we had hoped. So we decided to abandon our plan to drive through Central Asia, Russia, and Mongolia and leave it for another time. In hindsight, it was a good decision.

We've been back in the US with the van for just over 6 months now. It feels nice to come back to connect with friends and see family again. This drive we feel within us to keep exploring countries and cultures is still strong. Before we left Europe, we printed out a bunch of country flag stickers. I'm not a sticker-collecting kind of person but I needed a physical reminder to myself of what we had accomplished and how there are so many more places to see.

So now what? Well, now that we are back in North America, we have decisions to make. As we do each year (or multiple times a year), we sit down as a family and talk about what we want to do next. And we've decided that the next leg of our family's world adventure will be through...

MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, and SOUTH AMERICA!!!

We're super excited to explore more of the Pan-American Highway and hopefully reach the southern tip of South America. We've already driven from Alaska to Oaxaca, Mexico, which is almost half of the Pan-American Highway by distance, but we are looking forward to revisiting old favorites and, of course, seeing so much more!

So when are we going? Soon! Our plan is to have our toes in the sand before Thanksgiving. Between now and then, we have a lot of logistics to deal with. Doctor appointments, international driver's licenses, van upgrades, van registration, and shopping that's easier to do at "home" than "away", on top of all the normal day-to-day stuff.

Oh and if you have any favorites spots along our route, we’d love to hear all about them :)

It’s hard to ignore this pull we feel to explore more. We thought our first cross-country trip with our Airstream would scratch our itch, but it only made it worse. And the same thing happened when we started to explore internationally. Something changed in us. There’s so much to see, so much to learn, and so much to still experience.

We’ve been in the US for almost six months now. It felt really good to take our passports out again at the Canadian border today and hear the agent say “welcome”.

So hello again, Canada. Glad to be back. It’s been 6 years. Our plan is to hop around Banff for a week or two, get some timbits, and introduce the cats to their 19th country.

#malimishincanada

So it finally happened. We are surprised it took us this long. Just as we turned the corner on one of these sandy roads along the beaches of Todos Santos, we sank into soft ruts that appears to have been claiming many unsuspecting tourists just like us. Even though we were already in 4WD low range, our heavily loaded rear end hopelessly spun as one of the front tires teeter tottered into the air. Effectively making us in 3WD. Luckily for us, we had just replaced the shovel we lost in San Felipe and promptly deployed our trusty Maxtrax. It is actually quite amazing how well recovery boards work even for such a heavily loaded van like ours. While they certainly look good bolted to the side of our van in our new Front Runner Outfitters mount but we are definitely carrying them for a practical reason.

During lockdown, when we spent the entire winter in our little Croatian village, we dreamt of this desert. The landscape, the sun, the sand, the food. It was difficult to warm up the old stone home during those cold days so we did what what we could to stay positive. And this is where our minds took us.

Southern California is the undisputed mecca of the American fast food burger. Here in Baldwin Park, from a little unassuming 10x10 ft shack, Harry and Esther Snyder started serving burgers to drive-thru customers back in October 1948. Less than 50 miles away in San Bernardino, the McDonald brothers started their own humble burger stand in the same exact month.

It is obvious that McDonald's and In-N-Out have chosen different paths. Their individual successes however are nothing short of miraculous.

It took 74 years to grow their still-family-owned operation to 358 stores in 8 states. A number dwarfed by modern franchised operations run by private equity firms designed to maximize profit. There is something respectable about keeping it in the family.

My burger order is 'Double Double, animal style, add raw onions and chopped chilies'.

Since 2014, a replica of the original restaurant was built adjacent to the original lot now occupied by the freeway on-ramp.

4 days a week and 3 hours a day, an employee works as a docent at the 'museum' to tell you some history of the restaurant and helps take photos of you.

I asked our docent Gabriel about the now-famous 'secret menu' animal style burger. He said that it came from the 50s when teenage 'greasers' would hangout and harass the mostly cleancut employees at the store. These greasers were so hated that they were referred to as 'animals'. As they ordered their burgers a specific style, the name 'animal style’ was born.

Today animal style burgers are less-than-secret and you can even order your fries 'animal style'. I don't claim that these will be the best burgers and fries YOU will ever have. Chances are that they won't be. Especially if you've heard only all of the hype and expect it to deliver on them. But they are for me.

It i's where we go for a burger when we're back. It smells and tastes like home. What kind of food you can't find on a road trip does that trick for you?

Had the pleasure to meet and tour landshipcustoms van last night at sunset. Really awesome build and the name Landship really popped with the look of this van. Can’t wait to share with everyone on youtube
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YouTube.com/jarrodtocci
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During recording I saw a opportunity to snap a quick photo (first pic). Shane had no idea I was recording and taking another photo with my phone but I’m glad I did!

Hello from the very northwest corner of the contiguous 48 US states! Our previous two visits here were so sunny that we could hardly believe the gloom. That didn’t stop us from revisiting Cape Flattery and enjoying some family time at one of our favorite paid campgrounds in the country.

It’s our second time driving through the redwoods and it’s still just as beautiful as the first time. We opted for a short sunset hike this time to see the “Big Tree”. But before we even got to it, Luka asked us to follow him through a tall fern grove to see an amazing tree. And when we got a peek of it, our jaws dropped. I don’t think he saw what we saw. We couldn’t stop laughing. Luka found a tree with an interesting appendage. 😳😂

Climbed a up in elevation to find reprieve from the heat and crowds and that’s exactly what we found. A clearing in the forest big enough for our and roaming.nomads’ van and all of its inhabitants. Spent a few days catching up on work and roadschool, cooking all the food we didn’t make when at Expo, creating “hammock city”, and hiking to abandoned mines.

The cats were once again free to roam. It took a few days for the cats and roaming.nomads’ dog to tolerate each other. Toby set his boundaries right away with a hiss and swipe. Twin isn’t as ferocious as him so she got chased up a tree the first night.

Oh and if you wondering if “hammock city” is a calm and relaxing place you should be jealous of, don’t be. It’s loud and you might be hit with a swinging foot or a volleyball. 😂

Our first stop in Oregon was on a little slice of Forest Service land riverside. Warm enough for dips in the cool water, freshly picked wild blackberries for breakfast and peaceful days spent soaking up the sun and fresh air.

What do you think about this conversion? 🚌
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📸 freundship