Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Travel (page 26 of 28)

Monthly Expenses – September 2018

October 5, 2018 / / 24 Comments

Expenses - image

Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂 Since July 2018, Mark and I have lived and traveled full-time in our camper van Zesty, which has affected our expenditure, compared to our previous house and pet sitting lifestyle.

This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for the two of us. Under groceries we incorporate all the food, produce and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and Mark's vitamins and supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor's visits. Health insurance and costs are related to my health care as a permanent resident in the US. Mark is still eligible for free health care in the state of Massachusetts as of today. If a non-emergency were to happen outside of that state, it will be expensive! For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast. I still pay a small quarterly fee in Belgium for health care (required to retain citizenship), which I mention in my year report.

People with an eye for detail and a photographic memory might notice that the new laundry category from last month disappeared in this overview. That's because of the wonderful friends we visited in September, who lent us their efficient washing machines and dryers.  A blog about those fun encounters will be for the future, just like my photo galleries and stories about the destinations we visited over the last month and a bit.

As usual, we didn't spend any money on campgrounds. Since we were offline during our Canada voyage, we used the app iOverlander to find free places to park Zesty for the night. Unlike www.freecampsites.net, this resource can be accessed without the internet. We rarely buy clothes (we wear everything until it literally falls apart, so I have clothes that have been a part of my small repertoire for over 15 years, seriously), but both of Mark's jeans have unruly holes, so we needed to order new pants.

We lucked out with the weather on our 1.5-hour ferry ride from Vancouver (mainland Canada) to Nanaimo (Vancouver Island)
Returning ferry
It was still very chilly!

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IWSG Writing Update October 2018 – Hurrah for Rain!

October 1, 2018 / / 34 Comments

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month, as a writing prompt for IWSG members. Answering it is optional. For October, the question is: “How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?”

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Dolorah @ Book Lover,Christopher D. Votey,Tanya Miranda, and Chemist Ken. Feel free to swing by their sites and see what they’re up to.

My answer to the question (How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?)

This month’s question is a personal one. As long as I remember, I’ve written a diary, every day, for almost 30 years. I wouldn’t know whether this helped me through certain episodes, because of its daily occurrence, but I do know that the urge of writing has always been there, especially during major life events. What certainly has helped me through the years, are emails to my best friend Rosie. So, it might not have been with books or articles, blogs or diary entries, but communicating via the written word certainly is one of the best remedies for me during emotional times.

From the moment we arrived in Canada, it started raining. 🙂
Rainy walk in the city center
Queen Elizabeth Park

My (slow) book progress

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

September 26, 2018 / / 46 Comments

Not yet

The draw of Yellowstone – so close now – was strong and yet, hesitation arose, because we knew it would be busy, tourist-wise and sightsee-wise, after an already active period in Grand Teton National Park. There is a spot of “no-man’s land” between the two parks. It’s called John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway and we found a beautiful free campsite there. The reported mosquitoes in the reviews of this place were absent, the surroundings peaceful, and our site even had a picnic table, vault toilet, fire ring and multiple trees to hang a clothesline for laundry. We stayed two nights.

Zesty at his free campsite
Cloud reflection at sunset
“Our” river at dusk
Doing laundry in the icy river
A day to catch up on chores

Why Yellowstone?

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the US and is one of the most popular.  If there are two US parks people in Belgium have heard about, it’s this one and the Grand Canyon. I don’t know any visitor who hasn’t raved about the place. Images of geysers, colorful pools, bison, and bears urged me to put this destination on my “list for the future” over a decade ago, when the park didn’t make it on my RV itinerary on the way to Alaska.

In front of one of the beautiful pools

First impressions

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Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, USA

September 19, 2018 / / 56 Comments

By the time Mark and I hit the road in Zesty, the end of July, summer had progressed a lot and I felt in a rush to reach our main destinations. Yet, we also needed to wind down, relax and forget about our stress and issues from before making this lifestyle switch. My blogging break helped a little bit, but our days were filled to the brim, either with driving, sightseeing, translation jobs, or catching up with internet chores (research, emails, …) Soon, I realized that I needed to let go of this internal pressure to get everywhere as soon as possible. That attitude allowed for spontaneous events and encounters to happen. If it would get too cold or rainy without reaching our sightseeing “goals” this summer, so be it!

Taggart Lake – photo from Mark’s phone to wish our twin nieces a happy 5th birthday

Upon arrival in the Grand Tetons area, Wyoming, Mark and I were in search of a free campsite, something that had been easy to come by the first weeks of our adventure. While driving in and over deep grooves and potholes on the dirt road, needing to back down a steep, bumpy hill and turning around a couple of times bottoming out, Zesty got pretty beaten up the first day. We swore to never do this again, as we settled in a dusty, shady spot for two nights. The last one in miles that was unoccupied.

On the way to the Tetons
Almost at the Tetons
First sunset (over the smoky Tetons) from our first campsite

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The Best Laid Plans – Start of Our RV Adventure

September 11, 2018 / / 61 Comments

Well, my blogging break has finished. It was a nice change to abandon mine and other people’s websites for the last month, and focus on internet-unrelated pursuits, the things I’d like to call “real life”. ????

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

It took weeks to wind down, if I ever got there. Mark and I still had and have business-related obligations, being without internet at our fingertips felt weirdly unfamiliar and, whenever I planned a day off from sightseeing to relax for a day, a translation project would pop up. When it comes to making some money or making no money at all, that choice is a relatively easy one. Unless, of course, there was no internet to even see the assignment.

While I screamed off the roofs before that I would use our limited data towards planning our itinerary and camper-related chores, I had no idea that big parts of Colorado and Wyoming don’t have T-Mobile cell coverage. No worries here about running out of our monthly 5Gb data allowance. We managed to check emails at McDonalds, visitor centers and libraries.

Bright flags to cross the road more safely
Pagosa Springs is popular for tubing and hot springs
Hot spring in town
The hot water felt good on this rainy summer day

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Monthly Expenses – August 2018

September 8, 2018 / / 18 Comments

Expenses - image

Every month, I post a report of our expenses to show that it is possible to live a comfortable, exciting and adventurous life without breaking the bank. The less money you spend, the less you need to make. 🙂 That being said, Mark and I seem to manage one big expense a month for some reason, whether it is camper, plane, travel or computer-related.

This report includes ALL of our expenses, in US$, for the two of us. Under groceries we incorporate all the food, produce and non-alcoholic drinks predominantly bought in supermarkets. Toiletries belong in that category as well. Dining out means eating at a restaurant/event or purchasing take-out food. The health category covers non-prescription medicines and Mark's vitamins and supplements; medical contains prescription drugs and doctor's visits. Health insurance and costs are related to my health care as a permanent resident in the US. Mark is still eligible for free health care in the state of Massachusetts as of today. If a non-emergency were to happen outside of that state, it will be expensive! For check-ups, we both return to the East Coast. I still pay a small quarterly fee in Belgium for health care (required to retain citizenship), which I mention in my year report.

August was different from all previous months, because it was the first full month we've lived in our camper van Zesty.  We have been on the road full-time since the end of July and are slowly adjusting to a lifestyle switch from house and pet sitting to van living.

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IWSG Writing Update September 2018 – Beta Reader Feedback

September 5, 2018 / / 59 Comments

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month, as a writing prompt for IWSG members. Answering it is optional. For September, the question is: “What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?”

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are  Toi Thomas,T. Powell Coltrin, M.J. Fifield, and Tara Tyler. Feel free to swing by their sites and see what they’re up to.

My answer to the question (What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?)

While I realize you can never plan too far ahead when it comes to the writing path, thinking about publishing my memoir while I haven’t touched the manuscript in months feels a bit presumptuous.  That being said, I have read about the pros and cons about traditional publishing and self-publishing. Author Jane Friedman has a ton of valuable articles about this topic on her website, with this blog post being all-encompassing.

In general, the indie way seems to offer most benefits in regards to publishing quickly, being able to print on demand (which is also cost-effective), and more freedom with the title, content and cover art. Yet, there is that one big (mis)belief about a higher success and accomplishment rate when an author manages to snatch a (renowned) publishing house. Going the traditional route, however, means creating a non-fiction book proposal, which is an entire project in itself. While the verdict is still out, I ought to start with rewriting parts of my memoir!

My book progress and why there has been none…

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Blogging Break & On the Road

August 5, 2018 / / 53 Comments

Hello everyone,

For the first time in eleven years of blogging (eight years on my sailing blog It’s Irie and almost three years on Roaming About), I am taking a break from all things blogging, until September 5th, 2018, when another IWSG writing update is due.

The first half of 2018 was tough, hectic and tiring for Mark and me, what with a string of bad luck, business intricacies, house sitting, camper projects, health provider problems, writing my memoir, translation work, travels by trains, cars, and planes, and relatively draining visits to both of our families. When we returned to our camper, rats had chewed up some parts under the hood of our vehicle. We are pretty exhausted, to say the least.

As of July 26th, we have moved into our camper van Zesty for the foreseeable future. We plan to intersperse camping with house sitting when we see fit. The rest of this summer is devoted to visiting national forests in Colorado, national parks like Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier NP, and an extended stay on Vancouver Island, if we don’t run out of warm weather by then. I’m looking forward to gaze at rushing rivers, smell pine trees, marvel at sunsets, and watch chipmunks chase each other. We plan to hike, sight see, photograph, and fully explore our upcoming destinations.

For the next month, our limited data and internet time will go to researching free campsites and attractive places. I might post a few photos on Facebook, but my focus will be on our travels, reading, meeting friends, and hopefully some memoir progress.

See you in September and have a lovely rest of the summer,

Liesbet xox

Sunset over Antero Reservoir, Colorado last week

PS: Our current location will be updated in the right column, as always.

Two-week RV Trip, Part 2 – Indian Pueblos and Culture

June 21, 2018 / / 57 Comments

After less than one week on the road in Zesty, Mark and I returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in case an urgent health matter had us drive back to the East Coast in our van. Juan, the “window guy” at Extreme Twist, added an extra layer of silicone to the inside of our windshield, in the hopes it would finally be fixed. We couldn’t water test it until later. Mark’s health scare proved less urgent than we thought, but it kept weighing on us the rest of our time in the van. Today, I’m happy to report that it was false alarm.

Instead of retracing our steps yet again, back to Arizona, Zesty took us north, to Chaco Canyon. The idea was to spend the afternoon in Chaco Culture National Historical Park and see some of the most spectacular ruins of the Chaco Indians. But, by the time we reached the area after a 4-hour drive, and conquered the 14-mile long washboard gravel road to get to the park (which took another 2 hours instead of ½ hour because we are heavy and extremely careful), it was too late and hot in the day to stick to plan. We decided to camp for the night at the only (pay) campground in the park and split the excursion over two days.

Bonito Pueblo

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Two-week RV Trip, Part 1 – Rocks and Petrified Wood

June 13, 2018 / / 69 Comments

After Mark and I finished our two-month house sit in Santa Fe, the end of May, we had no other assignments lined up. Partly because the 2.5-week gap before our train journey east was tight to find a “perfect” house sit; partly because we wanted to give full-time RV living a chance. We planned to make a loop from Santa Fe west into Arizona, north to the Four Corners region, east through Southern Colorado, and then back south into New Mexico. Memorial Day weekend would offer us a little break away from the computer, and since our business partner was on holiday for ten days early June, Mark’s job would be more relaxed then as well.  During those once-a-year periods, he only deals with customers over email, and postpones phone calls until “vacation time” is over.

The southern part of Petrified Forest National Park

Our trip was off to a rocky start, since our windshield was still leaking. We’d come back earlier, after two weeks, and deal with it then. First stop: El Malpais National Monument, where we’d briefly stopped for a free night of camping after picking Zesty up in Arkansas, almost a year ago.

El Malpais National Monument

Already on day one, our bikes came in handy. We explored the eastern part of the park at our own pace, and photographed rocky outcrops, peddled through Indian Reservations, and discovered a natural arch.

Zesty and the bikes in the Joe Skeen campground of El Malpais
The black patches are lava rock
Sandstone Bluffs
La Ventana natural arch

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