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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.

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Credits: nas_adventures

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.

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!

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

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.

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 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.

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 :)

For decades people have been coming to camp on the beaches here in Bahia de Concepcion. For us, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We are certainly not the first to stay here and won’t be the last. You might hear about people talking about some secret places in Baja that they got coordinates to but the reality is that none of those places are secret at all. We were fortunate to camp at a couple of our favorite spots here for about a week and even had a spot to ourselves for a night. But what we really enjoyed are those nights meeting and camping next to other likeminded travelers sharing stories and laughters.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Départ dans moins d’un mois pour le sud 🤗 Le plan exacte reste encore à voir (tsé des fois que je rencontrerais quelqu’un d’ici là 💁🏼‍♀️😅) mais chose sûre je suis très excité de repartir en van voir mes amis du sud, les spots de camping sauvages et bien sur biker! Qui sait ce que l’aventure me réservera cette fois 😊 Et vous, quels sont vos plans cet hiver? Y’a t-il d’autres snowbirds ici? 🚐

📸 Gabriel Gakwaya zegakster

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.

Most people are surprised to hear that campfires are a rare occurrence for us. We usually reserve it for special occasions, like camping with friends. But in Banff we always make the exception and upgrade our camp spot. For an extra $9 CAD, we splurged on a fire pit with unlimited firewood included.

Here’s a few glimpses from a quiet campground in the off-season. Girls painting little canvases, Dan cooking up some potstickers, Luka helping with the campfire, and cats on leashes trying their best to catch squirrels and ravens.

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 knew that when we returned to the US that the national parks would be a lot more crowded. But we didn’t expect a two-hour wait to get into the Hoh Rainforest Trail on a Sunday afternoon. So we flipped a u-turn and found a spot on the river instead. Our spot didn’t include a magical walk through the old growth forest but did include a cold “bath” and a cat that can’t enough carbs.

La fin de la vanlife? Je vous annonce aujourd’hui la fin de mon partenariat avec vanlifemtl. Je me suis joins à l’équipe en février 2020 comme laveur de vans avant d’endosser un rôle d’ambassadeur. Deux ans et 5 mois plus tard, on peut dire mission accomplie! Ce fût un tremplin pour ma vie personnelle et professionnelle et je leur en suis très reconnaissant. À davidadesprojets le fondateur, martin.lambert.7315 l’ingénieur, veronique_cou au marketing et tout le reste de l’équipe, merci 🙇‍♂️

Lors de ma publication du 8 juin, je vous partageais que j’avais le feeling d’être dans un virage. Lorsqu’on sent le besoin de changement, on doit provoquer le destin. Si on emprunte toujours le même chemin, faut pas se surprendre de revenir au même point. Ainsi, c’est sans plan, ni direction que j’emprunte la prochaine sortie afin d’aller vers l’inconnu voir ce qui se cache avec comme seul guide mon instinct ✨

Je ne me suis pas lassé de la vanlife, même après 6 ans je ressentais encore ce feeling d’aventure au quotidien. Jamais besoin de penser quoi apporter, vivre avec moins, être autonome peu importe où on se trouve, ça va me manquer! 😐

Je me retrouve par le fait-même sans véhicule pour la 1ère fois depuis que j’ai 19 ans. J’ai trouvé une chambre chez un ami où j’ai aménagé ce weekend. Ça m’a fait bizarre le premier matin. Bizarre de devoir marcher et prendre des escaliers pour aller à la cuisine 💁🏻‍♂️

En toute franchise, je crois que ça va me faire du bien de prendre une p’tite pause du pittstopvelocafe qui me servait de camp de base. La meilleure façon que je pourrais vous l’expliquer? Imaginez Martin Matte qui dort dans le parking d’un Maxi et qui avant d’aller prendre sa douche le matin doit saluer 10 personnes au passage et ensuite 5 autres pour son café 😅

J’ai hâte de voir ce qui m’attend pour la suite. Je me sens dans une période de renaissance et j’ai besoin de me mettre en danger pour me stimuler. Bonvelo est né comme ça après tout 😉

Cheers! 😊✌️