Zero To Travel Podcast

Alyssa Padgett 0:00
And we lose each other. And we're just like, You know what? This is the hardest moment of our trip. We don't have money. We don't have a fridge like this RV is already broken down multiple times while we've been traveling. We have a choice to make.

Jason Moore 0:15
That was a clip from my interview today with Alyssa Padgett, who was sharing a pivotal, low moment in their journey, and you're gonna hear how this defining moment and the decision they made, led not only to them building their life of travel, but to meeting a lot of their best friends. And this moment happens during the trip that kickstarted there, shall we say unconventional lifestyle back in 2014. Alisa convinced her husband Heath take her to all 50 states for their honeymoon and they did it on an RV and during that trip, they ended up directing, producing and starring in a documentary film about that 50 state honeymoon, where Heath was working a different hourly job in each state. It's called hourly America. And they ended up being featured on CBS, CNN, Fox, all these major publications. And it really all started with this idea of a quest to go to all 50 states we talked about that why you should consider structuring your trip around a particular goal or a quest no matter how small or big that is, we get into how much the RV lifestyle costs and Alisa shares her best advice for people considering the full time RV travel lifestyle why she thinks it's such a special way to travel. Also a few off the beaten path destinations, that more people should know about how assigning your problems to your future self can help you accomplish more right now and cut down on stress. She shares lessons from their journey from the status quo nine to five to the unconventional, full time travel lifestyle, why the joys and the struggle and the challenge or number one piece of advice around finding balance around work and travel. Some advice for letting go of a dream that you've had for a while, how they built and sold three businesses some thoughts around building a location independent business with an exit strategy. And loads more in this interview, you're going to love it plus, what was the first RV like vehicle? And when was it invented? You're not going to believe the answer after I dove in and did some research. Plus a shout out somebody in this community who has found a way to not feel so lonely while she's traveling and those times when when you need other people which is a big theme of this show all of that happening and much more right now. Buckle up. Strap in. Thanks for being here and welcome to the zero travel podcast my friend.

ad 2:50
You're listening to the zero to travel Podcast where we explore exciting travel based work, lifestyle and business opportunities helping you to achieve your wildest travel dreams. Now your host World wonder and travel junkie Jason Moore.

Jason Moore 3:07
Hey, what's up, it's Jason with zero to travel.com Welcome to the show my friends. Thanks for hanging out letting me bring a little travel into your ears today. This is the show to help you travel the world on your terms to fill your life with as much travel as you desire. No matter what your situation or experience. That's what US travelers want to do. Right? We want to fill our lives with travel. And my guest today. Alisa Padgett has certainly found her own unique way to do that with her family. And now they have two kids. But it all started with this crazy trip I talked about at the top this quest to visit all 50 states and it's incredible. The sort of twists and turns that this trip took not just the trip itself, but but really where it took them in life, and how they ended up in some places where they never would have expected if they had not gone on this journey in the first place. So we get into all that and you can read about this journey and the mishaps and what it was really like to hit the open road with her husband at that point in their life. Despite their lack of savings. They had an old RV that was falling apart they found on Craigslist, and they had never RV before. So there's plenty going on. On that journey. You can read all about it in her new book RVing across America a quest to visit all 50 states, which just came out last week, and I've linked to that in the show notes for you. I know you're gonna love this chat. And please stick around on the back end. I'm gonna give a shout out to somebody in this listening community who's out there doing the solo travel thing but finding a way to not feel so alone during those tough times. You'll hear about that. Plus, I'm gonna share with you the first RV like vehicle when it was made. Take a guess. Here's a little trivia for you guess a year when was the first RV like Vehicle made, I was surprised by the answer to this question. And of course, I'll leave you with a quote, to wrap it all up. One last thing before we dive into the interview, if you haven't checked it out, go to zero to travel.com/premium. What you'll find there is a private podcast feed with exclusive content bonus episodes. Each month and more. I have a series in there I'm loading up this next month, in fact, is the International House sitting series, I'm going to include a free book with that I've got a how to quit your job and travel the world series. I've got other interviews that have never been published on this show before all in the premium feed, you can try it for just $1. If you don't like it, hey, let me know. I'll give you $2 Back then you'll make $1 a whole dollar? No. It's really about supporting the show, getting this exclusive content, add free episodes, all that stuff. So if you take the show, if it's changed your life in some way positive, and you want to support it and get more content, sign up over there, zero to travel.com/premium. Please check it out if you have a moment. Thank you for your time and for being here and being a part of this community. Now let's slip and slide into this interview with Alyssa and I will see you on the other side my friend

what part of Italy are you in? By the

Alyssa Padgett 6:31
way? We're in San Vincente, which is like an hour south of Pisa.

Jason Moore 6:38
Okay. And, you know, the million dollar question, of course with two kids is How was the flight?

Alyssa Padgett 6:47
So, you know, I felt like it's a parent joke to be like, Oh, we have like the first kid who doesn't require sleep to live. Now I know that we literally do, because our daughter slept like two hours, and like a 30 hour period. And like we get here. And she's like sprinting up and down the beach and the waves play. And I'm like, I physically don't understand how it is possible for you to have this much energy right now. But she Yeah, the flight itself was like super easy. The kids were great. It was just getting here and being jet lagged and convincing them to sleep that was surprisingly hard.

Jason Moore 7:30
Yeah. Well, I took my daughter to my orca when she was two, which was kind of crazy. She had just turned two it was just me and her. And she was such a trooper. I mean, kids are so adaptable. We were we didn't get into the hotel until like three in the morning. And it was the same sort of experience like bright eyed bushy tail. Hey, no, oh, cool, new place. You know, I was just like, aren't you ready to pass out and meltdown? So anyway, I'm flying to the state soon. So this is, this is good news for me because I feel like it gives me some hope. Because you know, every parent's fear is the flight and the length of travel time and how that's going to go I mean, while there are a lot more other fears than that, I guess. But you know, in terms of, it's much easier back in the day to sit on the plane, just kick back and read a magazine, watch a movie sleep. It's a whole different ballgame when you have the family with you. Well, let me give you a little introduction here. When my guest today realized the highlight of her day was eating chocolate alone at her desk. She knew it was time to make a change, but didn't expect that change to be moving into an RV and visiting all 50 states during her first year of marriage. Today we'll hear stories from her new book RVing across America get key lessons she learned from that trip that can help you in your own travels, advice for making the transition to travel. Some of her favorite off the beaten path destinations in America how to run a successful business on the road practical RV tips for travel and much more you can check out our work at Heath and elicit.com. And of course, we'll link to the book as well as the website in the show notes. So Alyssa Padgett Welcome to the zero travel podcast, my friend.

Alyssa Padgett 9:08
Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Jason Moore 9:11
So excited to have you here and congrats on the book. I mean, no, no small thing to write a book because I read. You didn't want to be a writer. I mean, that was kind of one of the things you wanted to do when you went on that trip. So how has it been for you to just kind of fulfill that that dream? Have a couple books out now and you're you're a writer?

Alyssa Padgett 9:31
Yeah, it's kind of weird, because uh, writing this book, I went back with all of my journals and things that I started writing whenever we started traveling. And that was something that I saw, like, repeated all the time. Like, I want to be a writer. I want to be a writer and like faintly remember that. But now it's been so many years that I've been blogging and then I've been writing for other companies and this is my second book and now writing trying to All right, and encapsulate that feeling now that I've kind of quote unquote made it to like that dream life that dream job is like, a really weird spot to mentally put yourself in. Because you're like, gosh, how did it feel when this was still just a dream? And how can I like get myself out of my, my current mindset of like writing is just what I do every day to being that person that had no idea how to start, where to start? How can I actually make this into a job, and something that I can make money from? So I went through as I was like, writing the book, I feel like I really started to remember just how much of us struggle it was learning just like the how the how do people do this? It's like, oh, I read books all the time. I read a stat the other day that there's 4500 books published every single day on Amazon. Like, that's so much content being pushed out there. But I struggled for a long time, just so you know, figuring out how to how to make that happen. So that's a big theme of the book, I think.

Jason Moore 11:14
Yeah. I mean, when it comes to a dream like that, like, I want to be a writer or what, you know, in my case, I was fixated on this podcast thing. And that will be so cool. It's kind of easy to romanticize the lifestyle around that, right? It's like, alright, well, you know, I think writing oh, I want to, you know, hole up in a cabin and look at, look at the waterfalls out my window, and just write the next grade. And the reality is, like you said, the struggle, right, which is where I think that the joy of the craft comes in, right? Because part of the joy is the struggle in some odd way. You know what I mean?

Alyssa Padgett 11:55
Oh, absolutely. If it was, like, completely easy, all the time, then it's just like, Okay, I'm bored, I need something that's going to, you know, challenge me a little bit. And that's why I love being like a constant content creator, where like, you're always writing like 1000, word blog posts, 500, word blog posts, to then read a book, you're like, oh, okay, this is like, leveling up, making it a little bit harder stretching those skills.

Jason Moore 12:20
And it's the eating the elephant, one bite at a time. situation, I think when it comes to the book, well, there's a lot packed into this book. And I mean, first of all, how was it to write a personal memoir, and relive some of that stuff?

Alyssa Padgett 12:37
It was emotionally exhausting, in a very, like, weird way, because it's not just like, you, you feel everything again, when you're writing it, like I'm writing about us driving on the Pacific Coast Highway, and our engine is overheating. And I'm feeling the stress as I'm typing it, but it's also like, oh, man, someone else is gonna have to read this, someone else is gonna, like, be reading my thoughts, and how can I quote unquote, like, edit them? To, you know, make myself sound good? How can I make myself not sound stupid? How do I make people read this book and not be like, Wow, this girl is a complete idiot. I hate her, you know? So like, there's all these emotions, playing in of like, your actual emotions in the moment, and then your actual emotions of realizing that someone else is going to be reading the thoughts in your head.

Jason Moore 13:37
Yeah. And I mean, part of that, I think is that's a big struggle than itself, right? Like, how can I? How can I create without being self conscious in a particular way, where, hey, let me just put honesty out there, whether it's through a podcast or through book or whatever, and just, just be honest, be vulnerable, and let people think what they think, not always an easy thing to do.

Alyssa Padgett 14:06
Now, it's very rarely easy. I think that it comes with time, whenever we first started blogging, and we started going on this 50 state adventure, and there's a chapter in my book on this, we got a lot of media attention. So like 1000s and 1000s of people were just, you know, skimming these short articles about us on like, the front page of Yahoo, for example. And you see the comments coming in from you know, these complete strangers who don't know you who don't know your full story, they just read the headline or whatever, and they leave all these comments of like, oh, like these entitled Americans, or like these, like stupid kids are gonna like drive off a cliff or the most popular one was like, they're not even gonna make it through their honeymoon before they get divorced. First. And so like you get all this like Berridge of comments from people all sharing their opinions on your life. And I think the longer you blog and put yourself out there and get the comments like that, it really just desensitizes you. And a lot of ways to like those off hand flip it things where you can be like, okay, like, people are always gonna say, mean things on the internet, especially whatever, it's news articles, or blogs, or podcasts, things like that, that are like short consumable things. But people are rarely that mean about books, at least, that is what I've repeated to myself the whole time that I

Jason Moore 15:42
well, I actually think that's a pretty important lesson, you know, for, for me to remember, for anybody listening, that is putting themselves out there or plans, has plans to put themselves out there in a certain way, I think there are things we all want to create, right? And it's like, that is a muscle you can build, even if you feel that I'm so exposed, or if I put this out, it's going to be, you know, how's it going to be taken? Or what's my family gonna think and all this and I agree, like, the more you do it, the more it kind of like, use the word desensitizes you, I agree, you just kind of, you're just like, Okay, what I do is try to filter out the, the BS from the actual constructive criticism, and take it to heart if I get, you know, particular comments or things like that. But if you put something out into the world, you got to take a risk that, you know, people have the ability now anywhere in the world to comment on these things. And it's just something you have to get used to. And the only way to really do that is to by doing it, I think,

Alyssa Padgett 16:45
yeah, you've got to get knocked down a few times and get back up again, before you couldn't really get over the mountain.

Jason Moore 16:52
Nice Chumbawamba reference.

Alyssa Padgett 16:56
That's really not enough in today's age, me a little tear are

Jason Moore 17:00
not enough Chumbawamba reference. I want to talk about your transition to travel a hot topic on this show, because that is more nuanced than it appears on the surface, like you mentioned, being on the front page of Yahoo, or some of the shorter articles, you see where it's like, you know, couple are person, you know, quit their job and make $60,000 a month doing blah, blah, blah. And it's like this snappy little article. And you're like, Well wait, hold on here. There's kind of a lot to unpack between, you know, realizing you're like, not satisfied in your regular life, and then making the change and deciding what to do and everything like that. And I know for you, you said, you said in the book you had he lasted like a full seven months in the quote unquote, real world. Before you recognize that the only way to get unstuck is to do something dramatic. And this idea of doing something dramatic, is a great way to to just kind of do a complete one ad in your life. For you guys. That was the RV trip. But it didn't come right away. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about that time in your life where, where you were kind of with the job and like the things going on in your head, and then how you sort of started moving towards the next version of your life.

Alyssa Padgett 18:20
So I graduated college, December 2012. And I immediately had, like an interim job position that I went into, like, the week after I graduated. And then I worked that for a few months. And then I had already had another job lined up that involves me moving to New Orleans. So I was kind of like in this in between where I was like staying in Texas, and working. And then like my adventurous life was gonna start of me like moving to a new city to a new state. And as you know, it's not traveling, like I'm moving there. But it felt like traveling because I was moving out of state and I'd never lived out of state before. But in that little in between time of graduating and moving, Heath and I started dating. And it was like, like, quickly apparently, this is the person that I'm going to marry. And I think that really set up what was going to then be my dissatisfaction with working in an office job in New Orleans because instead of it being that I moved to this awesome city, and I'm here on my own, and I'm like striking out it's like, gosh, like my person is 1000 miles away. And like I want to go do life with him. And so I lived in New Orleans for six months before I moved back to Texas with this idea that he and I were going to get married and we were going to go do this this travel thing together. We're going to somehow afford it. We did not have a plan since I quit my job. He did not like his job. of his job and Texas, he was ready to quit his as well. And we just sat down and we're like, well, we can't really afford to travel. Like, let's go back to this idea, like, let's just move somewhere new. And so we're trying to figure out well, okay, well then where do we move? And within those cities like Los Angeles, for example, where within that city do we move, like we, we've never been there together. So we need to, you know, travel there, figure out where to move, then find a spot to live. And we had narrowed down five possible places, from Los Angeles all the way to North Carolina. So they're kind of spread out all over the country. And we're just looking at okay, well, are we going to visit all five of these places and travels to them, and then pick which one we want to move to? And, you know, maybe that could be like our honeymoon of traveling all these places. And it was just kind of this really convoluted idea of like, I don't, I don't know how we're gonna make this work. But here's kind of what we're thinking. And I kind of just stopped here, like my conversation, I was like, no, like, let's not plan on just driving from Los Angeles to North Carolina, and finding out where we want to live. Like, if we're gonna make a big jump like this, let's just hit everything. And, like, in retrospect, I'm like, for a broke 23 year old who's like planning a wedding. Not a very responsible decision, right? Like, it would have been much smarter for us to say, Okay, let's pick one of these five places. And let's just like, take a leap of faith and, and move there. But the idea just got in my head, like, if we're going to have to drive across the country to see which of these five places we want to move to, let's just hit all 50 states, just, you know, knock them out real quick in one year, and it'll be great. And it's very unlike me, to throw out something that vague and wild and ambitious. It is very much a heath idea. So it took him about two seconds to be like, yes, that is what we're doing. And I mean, at that point, like you're locked in. And so we decided, okay, we're, we're done with this office, life, he put in his notice at his job. And we were like, we're gonna go to all 50 states, and we just have to, you know, find a way to make it happen on our $0 a month salary.

Jason Moore 22:38
That's sort of the next question, because you did make it happen. And you did it through unique projects, and everything like that, which you can talk about. But at that moment, in time, when you had the intention, you knew you were going to do it, but you didn't really have the means to do it with? What did you lean on? You know, for some people that might be like, Oh, I have, you know, faith in the universe, that something will get worked out, or I have belief in myself that I can figure it out now. I mean, you have to have some kind of faith or belief, I feel to know you're gonna pull it off. Otherwise, it's just sort of an idea. And it won't happen. I mean, or not, maybe you just kind of took it one day at a time. I don't know. Where was your mindset back then?

Alyssa Padgett 23:21
Well, I really can't emphasize enough that we were 23. I think it was a lot of just naivety about like the world and just like

Jason Moore 23:29
to do it. All right. Yes.

Alyssa Padgett 23:31
Blind stupidity of like other people go to all 50 states, we could do it. It can't cost that much. It did. But we did have like I had savings too, which is how we were then able to buy an RV, a very old RV off of Craigslist. So I think in my mind when I made this additional plan was like, oh, like, I've got some money that we could spend. And then all of it went towards the RV.

Jason Moore 23:59
Right? And then just figure out the rest. Yeah,

Alyssa Padgett 24:03
we'll figure it out. And I've said this all the time. And we got it from an episode of How I Met Your Mother. But it's just that is a problem for future Heath and Alyssa to figure out we say this all the time. We're in Italy right now. We have like two weeks of our trip that have not been planned. I realized that I booked heathen eyes flights on different days out of the country. So right now I'm flying out with the kids on one day and he's flying on another day. I'm just like, You know what? That's probably for future heathen Melissa.

Jason Moore 24:38
I like that you can kind of set it aside and like mentally just take the load off for a little while. The tagline in your book is a quest to visit all 50 states and I feel like you may have used the word quest very intentionally. I don't know. I mean, this was certainly a framework for the trip. And I'm just wondering how that felt for you. Like if you were kind of talking to somebody that maybe wanted to design a framework for their trip, right, like, visiting all 50 states or visiting every national park, it doesn't even have to be that grant, right? It could be like a trip around your state where I'm gonna go to every, you know, whatever, you know, I'm gonna go to these 10 waterfalls, you know, in the state bar, whatever it is, there's something about a quest, that's different than just sort of an open ended, kind of thing. I'm not saying it's better or worse, it's just different. So I'm just wondering for you what your experience is with having it having that trip set up as like a quest?

Alyssa Padgett 25:38
Well, I can tell you this, that scientifically, it is better to have a quest to have like this thing, there's a goal that you're working toward. And I read this in Chris Gila Bo's book, the happiness of pursuit. And it's about how having a quest having this bigger thing that you're pursuing, whether it's us travel as an example, it could be anything, how you find more happiness in going somewhere and pursuing XYZ goal, when you have this bigger thing that it's a part of, we're going to North Dakota isn't just going to North Dakota, it's a part of making it to all 50 states. And that's a book that actually came out while we were going to all 50 states. And so we I remember reading it on the beach, and Maine and being like this is Perfectly encapsulating what I'm feeling as we're traveling to all 50 states, because Heath and I've had years where after we went to all 50 states where we kind of just traveling wherever we wanted. And it's a very different feeling, than whenever you have some sort of goal that you're working towards, where everything is just slightly more fulfilling, on like an emotional mental level whenever it's not just doing something, because you love it or because you want to go there, or whatever. But because this is a part of this greater goal that I want to accomplish with my life. And so whatever we were talking about, you know, the subtitle for the book, I had said, like, oh, we should call it like going to all 50 states. And he's like, No, it's really about the quest to get off at the states, because you never know when you're on a quest, if you're actually going to make it. And if you're actually going to get to that pinnacle, that goal that you're working towards, it kind of almost implies that there's going to be a struggle along the way. And I just loved when I was reading that book, and I reread some of it. As I was writing my own book about how just having that extra added purpose adds a lot of joy to your life. Because scientists have studied it. I don't know how reputable you scientists are. But it's a good, but I loved the concept of it.

Jason Moore 28:12
Yeah, cool. Thanks for Thanks for sharing that. I mean, like, yeah, it's a very, of course, personal experience for the traveler. I mean, like, on the other side, I was 24 when I took my first solo trip. And for me, I really, it was really fulfilling to not have any agenda and to just have totally open ended, like, I don't know where I'm going to even be next week. I don't know where I'm staying. I don't know. And like that was it, that's the other side of it. Right? There's like, sort of like the, the open ended nature. So I do think there's a part of it that whatever the science says, I think, you know, it's very much can be a thing that is also based on kind of like where you're at in your life, and what drives you in that moment and things like that. I wanted to talk about it. Because I do think as a concept, it's really cool to have a framework. And I think that that's something like I kind of like both personally, you know, I find fulfillment in both for different ways. And I just think it's a cool idea. And for people listening, you know, it may be something they want to consider doing if they haven't done it before the trip morphed into this mission, not just to visit 50 states, but then to like work a job in every state, and film a documentary and all this stuff, if you want to give everybody just a quick overview of kind of what it turned into. And then I want to ask you some questions around that. That's okay.

Alyssa Padgett 29:28
Yeah. So, like I said, $0 a month salary. This is our big plan, we're gonna go to all 30 states and be broke. So he came up with this idea. He was talking to a friend that he was just gonna work a job in each state as we were traveling. And that idea morphed over the over a few weeks of He not only decided that he was going to work a job in each state, but he found a job board that was going to sponsor him doing this. And he was going to work all the jobs for free for one day, so no tax implications. He was basically just volunteering at all of these companies. And then this job board was going to sponsor us and actually pay us to make it happens, we could have a little bit of income.

Jason Moore 30:20
Yeah, cool idea. And the part of that was Heath wanting to kind of explore his own entrepreneurial sort of vision and just try to see the things he likes. And he didn't like, right, but But of course, it's both of you. And if you're gonna film a documentary and all that, then you know, somebody has to handle the camera. And there's there's a lot more to it than than that. And I'm just wondering, because one of the things you said in the book is you said, where I saw it as distracting from the joy of travel, he saw it as a platform for his future entrepreneurial endeavors. And I'm just wondering how the experience was overall, like, obviously, in the end, hindsight, what do they say? 2020 20? Is perfect vision. I don't know. I think anytime you do something you miss out on something else, of course, that's just the nature of travel, you can't do it all. So I'm just wondering, with that experience, how that was for you guys in your first year of marriage as newlyweds kind of thrown in with this big project, but also traveling at the same time? I don't want to say it wasn't worth it. Because I feel like the answer is yes. Because you're happy with your life. But you know, if you're if you're thinking back, there are probably some things you missed out on too. So just choosing that experience over other ones. So I'm just wondering, yeah, maybe what some of the pros and cons were around that decision. And then the the actual experience looking back.

Alyssa Padgett 31:42
Yeah, if you want to travel full time, and you need to make money while you're traveling. Don't wait to learn the skills, you need to make money until you're actually traveling, like figure that out ahead of time, we jumped in, I had literally zero experience running a camera, and just jumped in to filming this documentary. And it was an adventure, which is what we wanted, like we wanted something to challenge us after having these office jobs that were just very boring and monotonous and didn't feel like we were growing at all. And so in that way, it was like really good. But it was this just a little bit of added stress on top of like, I don't know how to dump tanks and an RV and how to drive this giant bus. And I don't know how to film and it was it was like a lot of learning really, really fast. Which in retrospect, was like this. Great, immeasurably beneficial experience, but in the moment was definitely stressful. Like so many things in life, right? Yeah, no, no, I feel like I'm rambling instead of your questions.

Jason Moore 32:51
No, no, that's great. I mean, yeah, you're basically you're thrown into the fire, and you're gonna get burned. But you're you're forced to develop, become resourceful figure things out. And I'm just wondering, yeah, I guess the stressful piece of that, you know, trying to figure out the whole RV lifestyle thing, and then adding all that on top, you know, worth it in the end. But what what were some of the tough parts about that? And would you change anything? If, if you could look, looking back?

Alyssa Padgett 33:20
Looking back, I would have watched a documentary, very basic. If you're gonna film a documentary, why don't you sit down and watch one? I mean, I like I like watched the office. So I'm like, oh, you know, I kind of know what a documentary is like, not the same. Not the same at all. But we also went in and we're like, we want to film a documentary about Heath working off of in all 50 states. But we don't have like, a direction or like a vision, like we weren't going to be like, we want to prove that the hourly wage should be this across the country, or we want to say this specific thing about our hourly workers, we're kind of like, we're just going to work all these jobs. And we'll see like, what the overarching theme is going to be, which made it a little bit easier in some ways to film because it was like, Oh, just, you know, film, whatever is interesting. In the moment, we'll figure out like the overarching vision later, but then we had to edit the documentary. And then it was like, Okay, we have all these different directions of different ideas that we pursued at different times versus saying in the beginning, okay. Now, our goal is just going to be to tell the stories of people that we meet across the country, which is kind of what we landed on, and the end and editing. And if we had set it up like that, in the beginning, then we could have told a lot more stories and gotten a little bit deeper with a lot of people. But we didn't figure that out until a little bit later. But yeah, it was really just a skirt. grasping at straws, and trying a little bit of everything. And if we had just kind of zoomed out a little bit and been like, okay, let's watch a couple documentaries and see you know how they handle this complex issue and choose like one part of it to focus on. That would have been a lot easier. But looking back now, Heath and I are like, why did we make a documentary about the jobs? We should have made a documentary about? RV Life? That's way more interesting to people. Again, hindsight.

Jason Moore 35:34
Sure. I mean, the fact of the matter is you guys went out and did it, which is super cool. You still went out? You did it. You made a documentary? You worked a job in every state, right? I mean, pretty incredible. And you did it all within a year, right, within a calendar year is that are within a 365 day period.

Alyssa Padgett 35:56
Almost. We left on May 28. And we were in Alaska on like June 6, so it's like, a year in a week.

Jason Moore 36:06
Yeah, pretty much here, call it. Amazing. I will link to that documentary as well. It's called Our Lee America. During that year, what was the most defining moment in your life? I

Alyssa Padgett 36:22
feel a lot of pressure to say my wedding day just seems like the right answer. But there was a day about halfway through our trip where we were really close to just broke. And our bank account, like we had money coming in, I had started getting freelance writing gigs, we had this sponsorship for the documentary. And we were feeling like, you know what, we're at state 21. About halfway, it started to feel like we're actually going to make it. And we were leaving Missouri and I walked outside. And I was packing in or I was walking into the RV, not outside and I was packing up all of our stuff to leave. And I opened up the refrigerator, and it was not cold. And I opened up the freezer, and it just smelled rancid, like spoiled meat. And it was just one of those moments where I like looked at Heath, and we did some quick Google searching and it was gonna be $1,500 to get a new fridge for the RV like an RV specific fridge. And we just like to each other. Like, we don't have the money to replace this, like we need a fridge, obviously, to live. And this was you know, before the really cool like travel coolers that are also refrigerators like that, that Dometic makes, were like a common thing. So like we didn't know of any other solution than an actual cooler to actually keep food cold in our in our home. And we liked each other. And we're just like, You know what, this is the hardest moment of our trip, we don't have money, we don't have a fridge like this RV is already broken down multiple times while we've been traveling, we have a choice to make. We can go home to Texas, or and this was heats idea. We could go to Nashville, Tennessee, where he had just seen on Twitter that Chris Guillebeau, who I mentioned earlier, was actually doing a book signing for his book, The happiness of pursuit. And he's like, if we go to Nashville, it will not solve our refrigerator problem. But we will meet other people who travel. And we will meet other people who have the same mindset as we do as far as we want to find a way to travel full time and make money while we're traveling. And he was right. Like it wasn't going to solve our problem on any level. But it was just going to surround us with people who would understand that sometimes like you run up against these walls when you're traveling where it's like, I would never have this problem in a house or I would I've never encountered an issue like this before. And so we drove to Nashville, and we met so many people that night who we are still friends with like that we care then with that our kids, our friends, just because we made that decision to drive out of the way with our broken refrigerator to go to this book signing and it was just one of those random random days where you're like, Okay, this was is like, a big defining moment in my life that I'm going to look back on and be like, this terrible, expensive mistake happened. And somehow because of it, I met all my best friends.

Jason Moore 40:14
Yeah. Wow, that's so powerful. And I love that. That defining moment just involves getting around like minded people, like you said, I mean, that is so huge for success. You know, I mean, whatever, however you define success, I just feel like however you define it, getting around others that are kind of in the same boat, maybe pursuing the same goals, or, you know, just like minded and in certain ways, it's huge. I mean, you guys have done that with your own community to foster that within the RV community, which is one of the most incredible things about the work that you guys have done is that you've now been able to do, you know, be that connection point for others. That, you know, Chris was at the book signing for you guys. That's fulfilling.

Alyssa Padgett 41:01
Absolutely, like travel especially, is like such a lonely thing at times. And we felt that on our first year, like other times, where we had breakdowns and things like that, we couldn't just run off to Nashville and make friends this one, that timing was just perfect. And out of that first year of traveling off the d states. And seeing that we needed that community that so it gave him the idea to start the RV, entrepreneur, Facebook group, and podcasts and conference and all of that, because that is one of the most I think underrated things that you need, whether you're going to start your own business, or whether you're going to travel or whatever, if you can find other people who are going through a similar journey, or who already have gone through a similar journey, they will make the trip the journey, the quest, if you will, so much easier, because you will have someone that can support you or answer your questions or just listen to you whenever you're like, XYZ happened. And it was crazy. And I just needed to just ask somebody that would understand.

Jason Moore 42:08
Yeah, I love that. So cool. I wanted to get some RV advice from you, because your other book A Beginner's Guide to living in an RV, if you want all the ins and outs of the most common questions that you have gotten from RV Life answers those questions, but maybe we could just dive into a little bit of it. First of all the costs I think is the big, the big question costs for RVing. Across America, because you you keep pretty detailed notes. And what I'm looking for his just a bit of a range here that's realistic that most people will fall within because obviously everybody's situation is different and everything like that.

Alyssa Padgett 42:48
Yeah, we averaged over the course of a few years, about 2500 a month. And that was insurance, campgrounds, food, eating out everything. And in one big clump, our cheapest month, I think was like $1,500. And our most expensive month was like four or $5,000. And that's when like right now gas prices were a lot higher, because that's always going to be your biggest cost if you're if you're driving around a bunch, but there's so many ways today to save money on things, especially like camping fees that you can, you can get yourself to a nice really low number for your month to month for a lot of people who want to RV as a way to save money or like pay off debt because we did have student debt. Whenever we started traveling, you can find those cheaper campsites or use camping memberships or boondock, which is like free camping on public land, to then lower those costs and make it more affordable for you.

Jason Moore 44:01
This is where I think it's a sneaky trick. The full time travel lifestyle can actually allow you to pay off your student loans more quickly, at least it did for me than a traditional life. And I think the common perception is that that that's not the case. But when you're traveling full time you have the opportunity to constantly adjust your your living. Yeah, that can go either way of course, but you have control over your monthly costs, more so than you know living a traditional life with fixed costs. And then if you get the work going on along the way, it can be huge. How gratifying is it to get those loans paid off and get to travel full time.

Alyssa Padgett 44:45
I'm like I we paid off our student loan like our final payment. And we're like parked on the beach and Maine and we had been traveling full time for two or three years at that point like it was the best feeling in the world to be like you We didn't sit in slave and jobs for 10 years to finally get these student payments paid off. We got to actually travel and do it at the same time, which definitely, like, from an outsider's perspective, and I'm sure you heard this too, like, Oh, it's so irresponsible to like be traveling when you have like this student debt. But in a lot of ways, if you're smart financially, it can allow you to pay it off, way faster.

Jason Moore 45:26
Totally agree. And I'm always cautious when I say this, because it sounds controversial rights. Like somebody asked me, should I travel with debt? My answer is yes. But of course, it depends on how you do it, and how you manage your personal finances and stuff like that. It's not a blanket. Yes. Right. But if you hear what we're saying, here, I think you get it.

Alyssa Padgett 45:49
Yeah, I always tell Heath, hey, if we like get low on money, we're just gonna go to Asia for a few months, stay in like 300 bucks a month, Airbnb, in Thailand, build it up, and then keep traveling, you've always done.

Jason Moore 46:06
And that's awesome. When you have that experience of doing that, it's much easier to know that that's an option as well, right? It's one of the benefits of getting out into the world and traveling is, you know, those options are available to you and that it's actually an attainable thing. It's not just some crazy idea of oh, I can just live in Asia, Southeast Asia for three months, like no, seriously, I could just go live in Southeast Asia for three months, and cut my expenses by X percent, which is empowering because it gives you more sort of flexibility in life. Of course, we are privileged in the sense that our passports allow us to visit there and things like that, which isn't the case for everybody. Speak for our own situations here. What is your best advice for newbies who are getting ready to get out and do the full time RV thing,

Alyssa Padgett 46:56
definitely go on a test trip and an RV, preferably with other people that have RVing experience and get to know the rig. So for heat the nighttime, we bought the RV renovated it aka just painted the inside. And then we like left the state. And if we had just taken a little bit of time with other people who had RVing experience, then we could have learned a lot of things like how to not flood your entire RV because you left the tanks closed and you took a shower and now there's water all over the floors. So little things like that, that are just you know, you never think about whenever you're in a house that if you're going to shower for five minutes, that you're going to fill up your water tank, because you don't have a water tank that fills up and you don't think about like turning on the hot water heater and waiting for it to get hot and you don't think about that you have to use a special kind of toilet paper. Otherwise you're gonna have to clog the toilet and then you're gonna have to deal with Unclogging the toilet, which is not fun

Jason Moore 48:13
at all. Nobody likes unclogging a toilet?

Alyssa Padgett 48:18
No, it's Yeah, man. It's Beth. It's rough. But if you take a test trip or rent an RV even better, because then you can see what type of RV you want before you go and spend 10s of 1000s of dollars on a big fifth wheel and then you realize oh, I actually wanted a small van. And everyone that I've ever met that RV is is always like yeah, my second RV that I bought was the perfect RV. The first one here's the 10 reasons why I never should have bought that rig because it didn't work for our lifestyle XYZ but the second one I knew what I was doing. So if you've rent one can save you a lot of time and potentially money by helping you kind of figure out what how our views work in general but just what type of rig is actually going to be right for you and what kind of travel you're gonna do.

Jason Moore 49:13
That's great advice. Rent the one that you think you want chances are that you may end up with a different one later but at least test it out I love that of all the ways you can travel full time you can do it in a lot of ways more than ever now with you know Airbnb and short term rentals and all this stuff. There's there's so many options but what makes the RV travel lifestyle special.

Alyssa Padgett 49:37
You're always home. It is a lot as I know this even more so now that I'm traveling with two kids. It's a lot to be in a new space every two days which is how fast we went to like make it all 50 states in the year. And if you're constantly in like new invite elements and new places and you've got to, you know, I don't know, add new Wi Fi passwords or figure out a new space, it's a lot mentally a lot more than you would think. Even being in the RV, but traveling to different RV parks, different campgrounds, it takes up a lot of mental energy that you wouldn't expect it to. And I've heard this from a lot of our viewers, especially that like your first year, you'll always travel too fast, because you don't realize how much it mentally takes out of you just going to a new space all of the time. So whenever you have your RV and you've got your kitchen and your bed and your closet and your whole your toiletry stuff is in cabinets versus and your suitcase, that you have to pack up every few days, it's so peaceful, and in a different kind of way of like, you just have this constant comfort of no matter what no matter where I end up sleeping tonight, if it's in a Walmart parking lot, or in Grand Teton National Park tucked away in the pine trees, I'm comfortable in my own home. And I love Airbnb is like we're in this little house on the sea and Italy. And I couldn't have done this. And I probably could have done this in an RV, I wouldn't have wanted to with a six month old but I could have. But it's just like a totally, totally different, totally different thing. So to be able to have the comfort of our own RV when we've traveled in the States, there's just nothing. I think that compares when it comes to full time travel. And that's why for Heath and I, when we talk about like what's next for us, now that we've got two kids, and we've done all 50 states, almost all of them twice, it's let's RV in other countries, because we can still have the comfort of coming back to our own spot, but still have the challenge and the excitement of being in Southern France. And so we've already argued Italy, which is why we're in Airbnb this time.

Jason Moore 52:08
Yeah, cool. The RVs are a lot smaller here in my experience are

Alyssa Padgett 52:13
very they are. And that's good. Because driving a big RV, we had a 40 foot RV, I'm trying to think of how much that would be in meters, a lot of meters. It's like, it's way too big. There's like bigger than the buses that you see in Italy. And I was constantly stressed, I never drove it. I was constantly stressed just when Heath was driving it in the States. And so the idea of being in a smaller RV here. Yeah, I'm very excited about that. I would rather have less living space and feel comfortable. Where I'm traveling to.

Jason Moore 52:51
Yeah. I want to talk about business lessons. You guys have sold three businesses recently. Congratulations. Super cool. Yeah, so I do want to talk about that a bit. But yet first couple questions is just the the traditional setup, traveling and working. I think the most common challenge is finding the balance. Of course, some people think you don't have to find a balance. So people think, you know, that's a huge, there's a huge emphasis on that. There's lots of balance when you're traveling and working. And then if you throw in the fact that you guys are married and doing things together, and then there's the can be the stress of the travels. And then there's work stress, which is different and all of this stuff. So yeah, and then you're in a small space. So there's there's all of that to balance. What is your best advice?

Alyssa Padgett 53:47
Try to get some sleep. I don't know.

Jason Moore 53:51
If everybody saves her happy I hear Yeah, it's the same in this house anyway.

Alyssa Padgett 53:57
The baby sleeps, we're happy? No, I think the most important part of this concept of balance is that you understand in whatever your current situation is that your balance is going to change. So whenever he and I were paying off student debt, we were like, okay, the balances that we're going to travel to 20 states this year, and we're going to work on our business and work like full time work weeks and make enough money to pay off that student debt. And then in the past couple years, it's oscillated to the other end of the spectrum where we're like, Okay, we're gonna go on to big trips this year that we're going to do for a couple of months at a time. And then we're not on those big trips. We're going to be at our house and Colorado, and we're going to be heads down working, and kind of traveling and seasons. And so Figuring out, not what just your ideal day looks like your ideal balance within a day looks like but figuring out with where you are in life with how much money you need to make with if you've got little kids with how much travel you're wanting to do, what is that balance look like right now and for heathen is changed every single year to a different kind of pattern that fits where we are at the moment. And there was a long period of time, where we kind of butt heads with like this idea of balance, because we wanted to keep doing that 50 states in a year type pace, and also be making money. And it just didn't work because we were traveling too much, or we're wanting to travel more than our bank account would lead us. And so just kind of recognizing that these things come in seasons, in some seasons, you're going to be hustling with work, like we've taken advantage of COVID with not being able to travel and be like, Okay, this is going to be our time that we're just going to work on our businesses. And then now that travel is becoming more of a possibility. We're like, Okay, we're gonna just sell all those businesses so that we can now have the time to travel. And so we've just tried to constantly reevaluate what does that balance look like, for us and shift as needed, because if you lock yourself in to one specific pattern, it can get really difficult when big things happen in the world or in life that require a change. Cool,

Jason Moore 56:45
thanks for that. I love that this idea of just reevaluation, constant reevaluation and reflection and thinking of it in terms of seasons. And I love all of that. We mentioned selling the businesses. And I don't know if you guys were building these businesses with an exit strategy, I do know that. And maybe this is even more of a common trait among travelers that you whether it's your own business or working for somebody else eventually want to do something different, right? So it's not the worst idea to kind of build something with this idea that you may want to have something that you can sell one day, if you ever don't want to do it. Did you guys intentionally build things to sell? Or did that just sort of happen? What is your advice around around that and building a business that you can sell and selling one for that matter?

Alyssa Padgett 57:37
Yes, the three businesses that we sold we intended to sell. All of them are maybe not even attended, but hoped is probably a better word. Because I think anytime you're an entrepreneur, building a business, you're like, I would love to sell this one day, but in the back of your head you're like, but I have no idea. And I don't know who would buy it, or how much they would pay me. So that's kind of been in our mind all this time. But for example, he eats software company, his goal was not to build a great software company, it was to like, build and sell a software company. And whenever we started our podcast, which we also sold, we talked about, you know, do we want it to be here at the heath and Alyssa podcast? Do we want it to be like a branded podcast? Do we want the branded podcast to be the same as our URL, which was Heath and elissa.com. And we ultimately decided, You know what, let's keep this podcast completely separate from us as personal bloggers, so that one day, we can then sell it. And so let's use that as an example. Whenever we were thinking about selling it, the biggest question was, you know, how much money is it bringing in annually? And is it bringing in recurring monthly income because if you've got monthly recurring revenue for any type of business, that's a great indicator on if someone is going to want to buy it. So we had some good money coming in monthly, but then we also had like spikes throughout the year of whenever we would sell a course or get a sponsor or host an event. All within like this podcast brand called RV entrepreneur, that would those bringing in enough money that we could approach a few different people and say, Hey, we're thinking about selling this, would you be interested? I actually think he only reached out to one person and then he said yes, and we're like, okay, dead. We're not gonna go through the hassle of shopping shopping around we just kind of wanted to offload it and move on. But if you're thinking about selling a business, if you can have monthly recurring revenue, and if you can have an asset or multiple assets, so in the case Have like our podcasts, we also add courses, we also had events that we did. So we had multiple revenue streams, we have multiple ways for someone else to pick it up, and continue to make money with it without us being attached to it, because we had initially set it up with it being a little bit separate from us as people. And so I think that's like the biggest thing that he he that I talked about. And that's something that he also learned when he sold his software company was, hey, whenever they bought the company, they also bought me, because that's how buying a software company works is, you know, you, you come on to the company that acquires you, and you work as an employee, because there needs to be this transition time of teaching them how the software works, and all of that. And we didn't necessarily want that with the podcast. And with any other businesses we sold, we wanted it to be kind of in a silo, and then we could pass it off. And so I feel like I just threw out a lot of things to keep in mind when we're selling a business. Because there are a lot of things to keep in mind. But yeah, if you could have those main things, then the hardest part is just really having the confidence to then push it out to multiple people and say, how much would you buy this for?

Jason Moore 1:01:27
Yeah, that's great advice. And the especially from a branding perspective, right? Just kind of keeping it. You mentioned in silos, I think that's a great way to think of it. And there's a nice visual there even to go along with that. I'm a visual thinker. The one of the businesses, I want to talk about that you guys got into where you because I follow your work, and I'm on your newsletter and everything like that, I love to follow what you guys are doing. And you write such great stuff. So I thank you for that. Yeah, I encourage everybody to go sign up for your newsletter. And, of course, the link is in the show notes. You know, you you bought this campground and you were going to turn it into this RV park and you had this great vision and there was a lot of enthusiasm there. At least that that was the sense I was getting from the writing. And then you decided to not do that and sell it. And I think that's amazing. Because it's okay to change your mind. Like, you know, I feel like you don't want to follow through on things when you start to realize and sometimes that comes later or too late. In some cases, depending on how you look at it and what happens financially, it sounds like things went okay for you guys. But the idea of letting something go letting a dream Go is a topic that doesn't come up super often. But you know, since it's so fresh for you guys, I wanted to hear about your experience of having this dream, attaining it in a way and starting to take the steps and then deciding that it wasn't for you, which is great. And then actually taking action on that and sort of moving on with your life.

Alyssa Padgett 1:03:04
Yeah, it was a big emotional roller coaster. Because we had this dream to start a campground for four and a half years like we hosted a conference in early 2018. And we had this idea of we want to create a campground that has like a co working space and is for digital nomads like us. And so for our conference, we set up like additional Wi Fi repeaters and like cattle, these tables and coffee and beer and wine and all things that you would think to have and like a trendy co working space. And it went over like gangbusters. Like everyone loved it. We're like, idea validated, we are starting this business. And then I got pregnant. And we're gonna have a baby. And so we're like, okay, pause, have a baby. And then in 2019 We're like, okay, we're shopping for campgrounds. And then 2020 Oh, okay, well, no one's traveling. So is this a good idea anymore? Kind of put a pause on it. And then it was like, oh, everyone's wanting to RV. Okay, let's get back into this idea. So it's kind of like, up and down this whole time of if we were actually going to make this campground happen. And we close on the property. Early 2021. I was pregnant again and starting to have doubts, because I'm like, Okay, I've got two year old. I'm about to have another baby. Like, I've been through this like whole pregnancy thing, newborn thing once before. It's a lot. And we heard something a couple years ago from a friend whenever we were trying to start another business when Ellie was a baby. And he was like, Do you already have a baby at home? If you started another business, you're gonna have another baby to like, don't have two babies at the same time. If you could, you know, wait until one of them's a teenager, so to speak. And that analogy just really stuck with So like, that's a really smart thing to say like, don't try to start too many new things at once. Like when we started doing the documentary, and traveling and marriage all at the same time, there was a lot. And it's would be even more to, you know, add kids and a brand new in person physical build out of the campground on top of that. And so that was kind of in the back of my head whenever we closed on the campground. And we hosted a conference at the property, and we're hosting campers at the property.

And what is it called drawing up the? Like the designs? Yeah, yeah, the civil engineering, we were we were working with civil engineers, and like, we were working with the county and like getting things permitted and approved. And I like, really was not feeling in it, I was really starting to feel overwhelmed like the baby wasn't even here yet. And I just could feel like this was about to be a huge thing, that we were going to be sinking millions of dollars of small business loans into. And he saw a tweet from a real estate agent that I'm going to just butcher and paraphrase it that basically said, just a reminder, buying a property and getting it rezone, and selling it is a great way to make money. And we were like, what if we sold this right now, and actually didn't have to be on the hook for these giant loans, didn't have to deal with building a campground while I've got like a baby strapped to me, and just said, You know what, we're going to take a break for a little while and go to Italy. And that's what we ended up doing. It was kind of like this giant one ad from like, we'd spent years wanting to build this campground, like we had the civil engineering blueprints up, we'd already even hosted boondocking campers on the property, and heard just amazing things from people who had come to the area I kept with us. And we're just like, You know what, we have a chance right now, where the real estate market is insane in the States. And we're able to sell it pay the civil engineers and all the people that we had hired to, you know, make the plans and everything and just kind of close the door on that chapter. And say, You know what, like, we might want to open a campground someday, still, but it's just not the time right now. So we're going to put that dream aside and say, maybe when our kids are in school, then we want to build a campground or maybe by then we will have graduated and Heath will want to build a chain of hotels across the state, I'd have no idea. That's, that's a problem for future and elicit a fake figure out but there's so many things in life that sometimes the timing just doesn't work out. And things have changed wherever you actually have the opportunity to pursue it. And it took a lot for us to figure to really come to the decision and say, You know what, this was a great dream. It served us for a few years, we have a lot of fun, you know, dreaming about it and making plans but it's just not the time.

Jason Moore 1:08:20
Yeah, that goes back to what you were saying about the seasons thing, right? It just just kind of having an awareness around where you're at. And you know, easier said than done sometimes right? When you have had a dream for years, you almost can get married to it in some ways. And in some ways, at least for me, it can become part of your identity, right? Like this is my dream this is what I'm going for us what we're working towards and it's starting to happen and then to pump the brakes on that and to reassess is takes a lot of sort of awareness and just godson in many ways. So congratulations to you guys to just kind of go through that whole process and actually get to the place that you want to be and the literal place you want it to be because you're in Italy right now.

Alyssa Padgett 1:09:08
We are we are at thanks so

Jason Moore 1:09:12
yeah, I before I let you go I mean we have to talk a little bit destinations right travel show off the beaten path places was something I wanted to hear because especially overland travel I feel like there can be unique opportunities along the way pulling off and kind of spontaneous things. You know, on road trips, or you know could be stuff in Europe. I know you guys have done the campervan thing and New Zealand you got the whole world here to draw from so I was just wondering what are some of your favorite off the beaten path kind of sneaky destinations? Really? You know what this is incredible. More people should know about this.

Alyssa Padgett 1:09:56
Oh man, so many places come to mind. The for are sweating. You know, since we're talking the whole world here is in Italy like I don't know if this is the case for Europeans listening, but in the States, no one has heard of the Dolomites. No one knows that this mountain range up here in the in the Venice area. And whenever we did, Italy in the campervan, we got a fair drop deal that was like round trip from the states to Venice for like $400. So we're like, Okay, we're gonna go to Venice and somewhere else in Italy, just looking at the map I saw Dola meaty, you know, Parco naturale, a or, or? Or think it's, I think it's like an actual Park. And I like, you know, clicked on the Google Images. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, how is not how was like everybody not talking about this place. It was just absolutely mind blowing. Gorgeous. And there's so much camping up in that area, like whenever I think we spent like a week and a half, just in that part of Italy before we moved on. And we were like, Yeah, we could have spent a month or two just driving around the mountains and all these tiny, tiny Italian towns that all speak German because Austria is right there.

Jason Moore 1:11:25
Nice, as fast as some other spots.

Alyssa Padgett 1:11:29
Alright, let's go to the state's off the beaten path. I'm always so hesitant to like, say off the beaten path things because I'm like, I don't want I don't want a lot of people to go there. Like come on. But we absolutely loved Portland, Maine, which is a small like city. In Maine, Maine doesn't have a lot of cities, but just north of Portland. It's all very coastal and beaches than just inland you've got mountains in Bar Harbor National Park is a few hours north. But that whole like stretch of coast, I think it's like Highway One is just unspoiled beauty. And we spent like, two or three months, one summer in Maine, and we tell each other all the time. Like, we need to go back there. We need to, I don't know, buy a vacation home out there. Build a campground out there like something that makes us go spend every single summer and fall on the coast of Maine.

Jason Moore 1:12:42
Nice. All right. Can you give me one more of those are two great ones. You're killing it.

Alyssa Padgett 1:12:47
Okay, let's go. Let's go inland. Okay, I'm gonna say something that's like heavily biased. Because this is where he bought our house in Colorado. It's, they call it the western slope of Colorado. Which if you just take a second to think about it, it's like, okay, Colorado is like a square. And like there's a line of mountains and we're on like the slope downward to the west. And in this little pocket of mountains, there's kind of like two mountain ranges that come together. And there's a road called Owl Creek Pass, which is a national forest road, it's only open probably not even half of the year because of snow and conditions. With there is all sorts of camping for like vans and overlanding like smaller vehicles only definitely not Arby's to pull over and camp and we've driven the road a couple of times, and it's just streams and creeks and meadows and lakes and like, great for a day trip. Great for spending a few days in the RV off on an RV in the Jeep or something off the grid. And just spending time in nature. Whenever we are in our home in Colorado, it's like anytime people visit us. It's like okay, we're gonna go drive Owl Creek pass and we're gonna go bring a picnic and go to the lake and all all the things it's gorgeous,

Jason Moore 1:14:29
awesome. Love, it isn't such a joy when you travel and then you get somebody gives you these great experiences and then somebody comes to visit you and you get to give them that travel experience and take them somewhere you love and it's so fulfilling. Thank you so much for your time. You know, the this book, I'll quote it and you said is not a detailed account of all 50 states with things to do or places to visit but an honest account of what it's like RVing across America, new friends breakdowns, bear encounters and all. So if you want to check it out again, the link here in the show notes. And the the website as well, your website and yeah, I mean, the books are being across America, I should mention a quest to visit all 50 states, any other parting words of wisdom for us before we let you go or anything else you want to share?

Alyssa Padgett 1:15:21
Where I'm trying to think of like, no good word of wisdom. I don't think I've used up all the time in the past era, but thank you for just having more on this was this was fun. I haven't gotten to talk about the book too much yet. I've just been busy, you know, writing it and chasing after a two year old. So it has been an awesome adult conversation for

Jason Moore 1:15:45
awesome. I know that feeling. And I'm still I'm still pining for, you know, Heath mentioned a potential house swap. I said, Hey, I'm down for that, guys. You know, I'm, I'm a big Colorado fan. So well, we can talk about that

Alyssa Padgett 1:15:57
in my phone I already had in my phone. I want to be in Norway, June 2023. And then it's perfect. It's perfect.

Jason Moore 1:16:05
I'll give you a little tour later. So all right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for your time, and we'll be in touch.

Alyssa Padgett 1:16:12
Sounds great. Thank you.

Jason Moore 1:16:14
Take care. There you have it. Thank you so much to Alyssa Padgett for taking her time to come on the show. I know they had just arrived in Italy, probably still a little jet lagged. Especially traveling with two kids. So thank you so much. And I appreciate all the advice, the wisdom, the hard earned lessons that you shared from your story. What do you think? Are you going to build out a quest? Or create some kind of framework for one of your future trips? What did you think about that concept? Have you done it before? Perhaps you have? Let me know you can drop me a line Jason is here to travel.com You can leave me a voicemail over on the voicemail box. In fact, my shout out today is going to be from the zero to travel voicemail box. We should come up with a snazzy name for that. By the way, if you have any ideas, let me know I can't think of one. offhand. Let's see the magic box. I don't I don't know. That's lame. Anyway, if you think of something, let me know. I'm gonna play this clip I got from Ari, who's out there traveling the world. And here's what she had to say.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:27
Hi, Jason. I'm Ari, I go by Ari's travelsphere. And I just recently started listening to your podcasts on a daily basis. I have so little traveled on and off for about the past four years. I like usually go to Europe stay there for about a couple of months going around. And I've always kind of felt off or like I was, you know, I was traveling at first from a broken heart. And I feel fully recovered now. And I recently just started traveling again, like literally about a month ago. And I just I right now I'm in Amsterdam. And I've been just trying to figure out my routine. And I've personally made listening to your podcasts in the morning, my daily habit. And it honestly helps me so much because I do very much feel like I don't meet that many people that understand me or think like me, and I love waking up and listening to other people who feel and think the same way as me. And like just listening to this podcast, like coming up with habits. I do want to make it my habit to listen to your podcasts in the morning, just to start my day, just so that I feel like I'm not alone so that I know that there are other people out there that feel like me.

Jason Moore 1:18:56
Thank you, Ari. And of course I appreciate if you're gonna make my podcast, my little podcast, the one of the things that kickstart your day. Obviously that's truly an honor. But regardless, just starting your day, that idea of starting your day with something that kind of puts you in the right mindset, I think is a great thing sometimes for me, that's a podcast sometimes. For me, it's like a TED talk or something else. I don't always do it you have inspired me to kind of consider making that part of my daily morning routine again just to kind of start with something that reminds me that I'm not alone or share some new perspectives that I hadn't thought about or just gets me in a positive mindset so I really appreciate that this show is that for you and I played this shout out specifically I wanted to share this one from Laurie because the big thing for her was just tapping in and knowing that she's out there solo traveling but she is around and a part of a broader community like set of like minded people here as a as a listener of the podcast. And I'm sure out there in her travels too. And that is huge. And that was one of the big things that came up in this interview right with Ulisses turning point when they had their broken refrigerator and all that stuff, and they decided to take the trip to Nashville, and just get around other people. And, and that led to so much for them in their lives. And they still have best friends from from that and all that. And it's just that simple act of making the intention to get around some like minded folks who will support you, and who give you a certain feeling that, hey, this, you know, you can kind of know intuitively right, like, hey, these people, I feel good being around this vibe, this energy these people, you want to be around more that you want to have as much of that in your life as possible. And I think that's a especially valuable if you're out there solo traveling in terms of on the travel side, and you need to connect you want to plug in now there are so many ways to plug into communities around the world, through social media, and you know, the digital nomad community, even if you're not working for yourself, there's all these co working spaces and just ways to plug in expats and things like that. But there's also ways to plug in to the local communities there. And you can do that in your own unique way. And that's where I think your style of travel and your, your energy, your space in a community is so unique. And you never know how that is going to lead you to be included in certain things just because of your presence and the way you walk through the world, the unique things that you have to offer as an individual. That's where the magic happens, right? You may get invited to somebody's home for dinner, or you may just meet some locals that, that take you to a party or just have a nice conversation with you out on the street, whatever. And those things happen from just being open. And bringing your unique energy to a place in a moment in that moment. And that's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. So perhaps after hearing this show, you were also reminded as I was how important it is to get around other people and get around the people that make you feel good. It's that simple.

All right, before I let you go a couple things there's going to be a quote but I have to share with you the first RV like vehicle I looked this up I first I was trying to find the largest RV ever created. And I found this double decker RV and some crazy custom vehicles that people made but I couldn't really pin down one that was the biggest in the world. And it really depended on how you define an RV. Now this first RV like vehicle I'm saying that because it wasn't an RV, but it was a vehicle with a bed. And I will share the source because I let's face it. I didn't spend hours researching this, but I found something and this seemed pretty legit to me. And I really can't think of anything older and you'll understand why in a moment. This was on insider.com and in the 1910s there was a modified Model T Ford Roadster they're saying it was the first RV like vehicle in history because it had a quote unquote telescope apartment which had a bed built onto the back of what was a regular car and this exact vehicle there's a picture of it so I can put the link in the show notes is now on display at the RV and motor vehicle Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. I didn't know there was an RV and motorhome or motor vehicle Hall of Fame. So many different museums out there to see. Who knew anyway, I thought that was really cool because even that early, you're talking about a Model T a Model T weren't those the first cards anyway. Somebody thought to put a bet on it. They're like hey, what if I just put a bet on this and and I can travel and just sleep in my car this is like the original van life 1910s There you go. I thought that was cool. Anyway, let me leave you with the quotes now. And I was inspired to look up some broken heart quotes from Ras message our community shout out she said she had started traveling when she was mending a broken heart and she got over and I thought maybe there are people out there either with a broken heart right now or and that could be for anything could be because of a relationship or something else. And I thought let me look up some quotes here and see what people have to say around this. So I found a couple nice one here. One is from Karen Salomon sown who said Never let a bad person change your inner goodness. I love that. And one more from Jean De La Fontaine, who said sadness flies away on the wings of time. And maybe for some of us, we could say it also flies away in the wings of an airplane travel. Anyway, that's all I got for you today. So thanks for listening. Smile, take a chance today. Have a great day. See you next time.

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