Posts dedicated to travel, from exploring our backyard to overseas adventures.
This was our first visit to Bryce Canyon National Park. And nothing sums up the day better than both boys proclaiming that “this was the best hike” they’ve ever been on. Continue reading
Happy Wednesday! I’m so amped up this morning because I just worked a ton of hours over the past few days and now I get to look forward to a music festival this weekend! On Friday, I am headed to Shakori Hills. It’s a grassroots music, dance, and yoga festival held in the woods here in North Carolina. It’s a car camping festival in the sense that you get to drive relatively close to the campground, but you eventually have to park and hike all your gear into the forest and find your own campsite. Nothing is designated for you. How cool, right?
Our Live Seasoned theme this month is travel so while I was sitting here typing out a list for myself and my friends, I realized this could be helpful for other summer festy goers. Here is my ultimate car camping festival packing list. I feel this list is a fair mix of basic and over the top. For instance, cooking. It’s really not necessary to go all out, but there something about cooking at camp that makes my heart happy, so I take a lot in that department. If there is anything you deem essential that’s not on this list, let me know!
If you’re traveling or teaching abroad, chances are you’ve missed a holiday at home. Sometimes holidays pass without you noticing, but other times you miss the cookies, the family time, and the traditions that make each holiday complete. You might start to feel like you’re missing out on something at home. I’ve been there. I have eaten at Sizzler in Thailand (somewhere I’ve never dined at in the States!) on Thanksgiving, had pad thai for Christmas dinner, and had to search within my camping backpack for a ‘costume’ on Halloween in the backcountry of California. It’s different, it’s fun, okay, it’s kinda fun. You still miss home, family, and tradition, but hopefully these five tips will have you missing all that a little less. Over the years, I’ve come to realize as much as I don’t really care about holidays, they are still meaningful and it’s always good to treat that day a bit differently when it comes around.
Plan an Epic Adventure – This is definitely my favorite way to spend a holiday away from home. Plan something so awesome and amazing that you will remember that day as the best holiday for years to come. Climb a volcano, zipline through the jungles of Thailand, or try SCUBA diving for the first time, whatever you do, do it big. On future holidays you’ll be able to look back at your expedition with a smile as you tell your friends and family about it. Sharing your stories on the anniversary of the day will allow you to realize that while you may have missed one holiday at home, there will be many more to celebrate with family and friends
Has winter arrived at your place yet? Here in North Carolina, we had our first major snow and probably the biggest snow of the season. It was a heavy, wet snow, and we have lots of clean up to do this coming week. Besides clearing downed trees, this early (for us) snow reminded me to prepare for winter with a little winter car maintenance. Is this a part of your yearly routine? Kind of like spring cleaning?
Growing up in Pennsylvania, there was always this shift some time at the end of October where you add a blanket, jug of water, ice scraper, and a few other necessities to your trunk. You never knew when a snowstorm or black ice would show up in our middle-of-nowhere mountainous region. Over the years, I’ve formulated a little winter car maintenance routine. I usually mark this on my calendar and give myself a week or two to check off all ten items on the list.
Now’s the time to scrub away last season’s buildup from your vehicle’s exterior. It’s good to then apply a quality car wax to protect against the impending barrage of snow and road salt.
Hopefully, you’re changing your oil regularly. We have a sister who didn’t realize you needed oil changes on new cars, hah! Besides regular oil changes, before winter is a good time to switch from conventional to synthetic. Synthetic oil flows freer at lower temperatures and doesn’t require any time to warm up, which is crucial and immediate protection for your engine’s moving parts. If your car isn’t suited for full-synthetic, ask your mechanic if you can switch to a blend. Definitely, check the recommendations for your specific make and model.
Summer heat tends to take a toll on batteries, you probably won’t notice the weakness until the first really cold morning, when your battery fails to start. Prepare your battery for winter by having it tested and if need be charged. If it needs to be replaced, put it on the to-do list.
Another thing to note, if you live in an especially cold climate and you rarely use your vehicle, you may want to keep your battery attached to a maintainer. Basically, your battery is working harder in cold weather and will gradually lose power over time if it isn’t in use.
Of course, it’s important to see, but it’s also really important to be seen, especially in the winter when it’s dark early and there is salt covering every damn surface. First, make sure all your lights are working. If your lights are dim, replace the bulbs, clean your lenses, and position them properly, it makes a world of difference.
Replacing your windshield wiper blades is one of life’s simple pleasures. Truly. Go buy yourself the best set money can buy, it won’t be more than $30 and you’ll thank me when you’re stuck in the middle of a Pennsylvania snowstorm after you accidentally made a wrong turn that added 45 minutes to the drive. True Story. After you replace the blades, fill the windshield washer tank with a deicing fluid. It’ll help you out on those cold mornings.
Traction, traction, traction. Look at your tires and if your treads don’t have sufficient depth, you’ll obviously need a new set. It’s best to check this out sooner than later in case you need to save up a pretty penny to pay for them. Depending on where you live, snow tires are not a bad investment. We are talking about your life (and whatever precious cargo you’re carrying!) here. Also, keep your tires properly inflated. Poorly inflated tires wear faster and reduce your traction and handling. They also don’t help your fuel economy. It’s really easy to check your pressure at those air pumps at gas stations. If you don’t know how to ask literally any friendly looking person at the gas station and they’ll help you.
Duh. Antifreeze helps the liquid in your engines cooling system from freezing, so it’s important. You can use an antifreeze tester or ask your mechanic (or do it during your oil change) to measure the antifreeze’s strength. This test basically tells you the lowest ambient temperature to which the engine is protected from freezing. Also, check your coolant reservoir level and top it off.
The radiator cap, man. Little part, big role! Your radiator cap keeps the antifreeze in your vehicle, however, a leaking radiator cap can cause the engine to overheat and the antifreeze to leak. Big surprise, you want neither of those things to happen. Simply take a good, close look around the radiator cap for signs of leaking fluid. If your radiator cap is a few years old and you want to be proactive, replace the cap with a new one. Radiator caps are like $5, don’t be a cheapskate.
Another critically important component of your heating and cooling system is the thermostat. If it’s not functioning properly, you could find yourself without heat. Check it out (or ask them to check it when you get your oil changed) and replace it with a new one if necessary.
Or just have the whole system replaced like me! Just kidding, that sucked. Cooler temperatures cause performance issues related to the fuel system. Adding a fuel injector cleaner helps to restore lost power, eliminates rough idling and hard starts. Any water present could be a problem if the temperature drops low enough. A good way to avoid fuel-line and system freeze up is to use HEET fuel-injector cleaner because it’s designed to remove water from your fuel system.
Diesel fuel lines tend to “gel” up in the winter time. Use a product like Diesel 911 to easily avoid this common problem. Also, watch your diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) levels. On many passenger and commercial diesel vehicles, a dedicated tank contains DEF which is automatically metered and sprayed into the emissions system. Woohoo. Many vehicles have built in warnings and alerts to prevent DEF levels from being exhausted. They’ll also perform at significantly restricted levels, or not at all, so it will be quite apparent.
That’s it! Honestly not too tough to ensure you get home safely. Beyond these easy checks and general winter maintenance, it’s always good to have some emergency supplies in your car. I’m the furthest from a prepper, but even I have the following in my car at all times:
Creating a travel budget is easier than you think. There are a couple ways to go about it, either you go in with no expectation and determine what you need to have the dream vacation you desire or you have a pre-determined budget that you’d like to confine yourself to. Both of these scenarios still require a decent amount of planning and research if you intend to be successful. First, we will cover how to create a budget, second we will discuss strategies for sticking to the budget, we’ll cover what happens if you think your budget is too tight, and lastly I’ll share a few travel budget examples.
Once the calendar turned to September, we leapt into fall with all of our hearts. Granted the days have still been warm, but we’ve found that if you climb high enough into the mountains, then the evenings are cool, the leaves are changing colors, and the mornings are perfectly crisp.
Here are a few snapshots from our recent weekend camping trips. If you feel inspired to hop in the car this weekend, at the very bottom of the post, I link to a few posts to hep you get started, including some of our favorite/essential gear.
Travel vaccinations. What’s the deal? Do you need them? Should you get them? Are they expensive? I get these questions pretty often. The short answer for all is, it depends.
You should always be up on your routine vaccinations. There is no debate about that. As for travel vaccinations, it really depends on where you’re going, how long you’re staying, and what you’ll be doing. Never let the decision come down to cost. Why? If you end up getting whatever you could have prevented, it’s going to cost a hellofva lot more. AND some of these vaccines are good for life. One shot, one cost, peace of mind. Continue reading
We’re big on travel. This you know. Last week we shared some traveling tips for the solo female and today we’re talking couples.Remeber these two who went on a 21 day first dates across Europe with no luggage?! My guy and I had a ten day first date ourselves. Suffice to say it went pretty swell. Traveling with your boo is so much fun!
Unless you’re hangry. Or tired. Or broke. Or sunburned. Or hungover. Or totally sober and well rested and fed. Somehow even then traveling can be rough. We’ve compiled a few tips for those trips for two. Want to know why this photo is upsidedown?* See bottom of the post.
Before you head out on your next epic adventure just remember that teensy nugget. Travel is tough. Yes, it’s super fun, but that’s mostly because of the challenges that are presented and overcome during the trip. Think back to your most memorable adventures and you’ll remember the trying moments and then the triumphant ones, so this is me saying be easy on your partner! They’re just trying to survive and thrive like you. Now let’s set ourselves up for loving them even when it’s hard to remember how. Here are five tips for traveling with a partner.
Talk through what you want your days to look and feel like before you take the trip. Expectations have a way of messing up everything, in pretty much any situation in life. Think about it? Whenever you’re upset it is because reality didn’t meet expectation. The best way to combat that is to a) not have expectations or b) at least set a similar standard with each other. That way you will both be equally pissed off or ecstatic when reality does its thang aka whatever the fuck it pleases. For instance, is your expectation to climb the entire Himalayan mountain range? Or to go for one hike a day and enjoy lots of cups of tea? Very different, equally admirable, just make sure yours match up or compliment each Continue reading
If all goes well, we’re heading out on our last big adventure of the summer. We thought this was a good time to share some postcards from this summer’s trip to Saxis and Chincoteague. If you’d like to learn more about this awesome area of the Eastern Shore that we love dearly, check out this round-up off our previous Saxis posts.
Does the world need more tips for traveling on a plane with kids?
Maybe not, but considering that every parent stresses over this portion of their vacation, I think it’s always worth it to have a few more tricks up your sleeve.
Here’s our situation : we have two kiddos, a 3.5 yo and a 1.5 yo. We go on at least two big flights a year, sometimes more. This summer, between June and September, the boys took 4 round-trip flights. That’s 8 times that we had to prepare these kiddos to take it easy and enjoy the ride.
