Baja Mexico, Dolomites of Italy and Van and Boat Life with Kristin Hanes of the Wayward Home

Embark on a journey less ordinary with the indomitable Kristin Hanes, our guide from the Wayward Home podcast and website, as she shares her transformation from a conventional lifestyle to one of boundless exploration. Kristin's leap from radio journalism to steering the helm of her online presence unveils the allure of van and boat life, from the Baja Peninsula to the European van trails, she narrates a life where every day is a new horizon.

Sail through the practicalities of nomadic existence with Kristin as she narrates the intricacies of boatyard camaraderie and the unexpected splendors found in the everyday. The tapestry of her tales extends from the Sea of Cortez to the grandeur of the Dolomites, where mountain huts serve gourmet delights. This episode doesn't just recount travel adventures; it probes the delicate balance of sustaining a traveling lifestyle with real-world demands, exploring how Kristin turned her blog into a flourishing business amidst the tumultuous seas of digital algorithms and the challenges of zoning laws for unique dwellings like shipping container homes.

Wrap up your listen with an assortment of stories that celebrate the communal spirit of van and boat life, from sharing trail snacks across the globe to the vibrant customs that unite nomads during festive occasions. Kristin's narrative continues to inspire as she gives us a peek into her future plans, including sailing to the South Pacific and mountain biking expeditions. Her journey underscores the freedom found in simplicity and the community created amongst those who wander, inviting you to consider the road less traveled and the connections made along the way.

You can find Kristin Hanes here:
Website:
https://www.thewaywardhome.com/
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/@TheWaywardHome/
Podcast:
http://www.pod.link/1588760553/
Instagram:
http://www instagram.com/thewaywardhome
Kristin's Book - Van Life Italia
https://sales.thewaywardhome.com/van-life-italia/

Map of the Dolomites in Italy

Transcript

Carol: 0:15

Hi, welcome to our podcast. We're Next Travel with Kristin and Carol. I am Kristin and I am Carol.

Kristen: 0:22

And we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. In each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. Today, we have Kristin Hainz here from the Wayward Home podcast and website, so thank you for joining us. We're excited to hear about your nomadic lifestyle and van-living and boat life. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kristin: 0:49

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Carol: 0:50

So Wayward Home. What's the name? I mean, it seems like obvious, but what made you pick that name?

Kristin: 0:57

Yeah, it was actually really hard to figure out the name. It was back in 2017 and I just learned that blogs could make money online and I was trying to figure out a way to fund a nomadic lifestyle and I started to think I should do this blog about people living alternatively, because it seemed like these articles did really well in the mainstream media and I was like I'm going to do a website all about people living alternative lifestyles and I was trying to just come up with a name that embodied all these different lifestyles not just van life, not just boat living, but tiny homes, rving, anything people could think of that was more minimal and alternative, and I'm like the Wayward Home encapsulates that, because it could cover all those different topics and it kind of describes a home that's not a traditional house, it's Wayward and people aren't used to it. It's surprising, and so finally I came up with that, but I remember just writing down name upon name and a legal pad, just trying to figure out a good name.

Kristin: 1:51

It's so hard.

Carol: 1:53

So have you been doing this since 2017, meaning not only the podcast, but also living this lifestyle?

Kristin: 2:00

You know, the lifestyle actually started in 2015 and I had met a guy named Tom I'm still with him and he had this wild idea in the San Francisco Bay Area that we should move out of our apartment, which I was living with him as a roommate, not as a romantic partner. At the time, we were in this compound of adults in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco oh, so many, yeah and he was like we should.

Kristin: 2:24

I'm in the Bay Area. Oh, you're in the Bay Area too. Yeah, we were living in Mill Valley. We were paying expensive rents and he had this crazy idea like let's go camping on Mount Tam in a tent or let's sleep in my Toyota Prius, just so we could not pay so much money on rent, and like save up money and pay off debt. And he wanted to buy a sailboat with cash and we both had full-time jobs and I thought he was totally crazy. I ended up living like that with him in the tent in the Prius for four months.

Carol: 2:54

It wasn't something you were anticipating.

Kristin: 2:56

You did it, but it's funny and it's good that we got along so well. Right off the back, I think I'd known him only six months at the time and we had just kind of started dating and hanging out and hiking together and I'm like, wow, I'm really going to move into a car with this guys. So I really liked him and we got along really well and I thought he was fun and adventurous, and without him I don't think I would have done it. But since I had him and someone to do this with, it became more of a fun game for us and so we joined a gym and that's where we'd go shower and get ready for work. And then he had a storage unit, a shipping container, and he had like a musical instrument set up in there and so he'd play the electric guitar and I was playing this drum set and we were playing music every night and so we entertained ourselves. So we made it into something fun instead of something that was like a terrible hardship, and so I'm thankful for that.

Carol: 3:48

Wow, that's a story. So you started 2015,. 2017 is when you started the blog or, I'm sorry, the podcast.

Kristin: 3:58

The blog actually.

Carol: 3:59

yeah, Okay, so it was a blog, and then when did you do so? You started the blog in 2017 and then when did you do your podcast?

Kristin: 4:08

That was only like a year or two ago. That was more of a new thing that I added on. So the blog was 2017 as a way for me to make money, because actually got laid off from my job in 2016 and I moved on to his sailboat, which he had purchased with the money saved from living in the car, and so I was living this very frugal lifestyle in the boat, and the boat barely worked, 50 years old. It didn't have like a kitchen that worked. It didn't even have a stove and an oven, so I was like cooking on it using a Jetboil backpack stove and it was pretty rugged living, and that's when I started the website. Luckily, my living expenses were very low because we're living on this boat in San Rafael, california, and I was able to like not worry about paying a large rent payment, and so then I could focus on building an online business.

Carol: 4:56

So that's how it all began Wow, so online business. What did you build? What was your online business, or what is your online business?

Kristin: 5:06

Yeah, I blog the wayward home and that's how I make money. That allows me to travel full time, and that blog gets traffic from various sources like Google and Pinterest and Facebook, and that's monetized with things like ad revenue or affiliate revenue or sponsorships, brand deals or digital products. And so I had to learn this whole new life, like this whole new type of work. I'd been a radio journalist for 15 years and that's all I knew how to do, and so it's hard to get a job after you've gotten laid off from a newsroom. It's like what do I do now? That's going to be fun and fulfilling, like that, and so the blog and the website turned into that passion project, but it took a lot of training.

Kristen: 5:46

So you were a journalist, you were a writer, right? Yeah, that kind of made sense, okay, cool.

Kristin: 5:50

Yeah, and I liked interviewing people and telling stories and reaching people and so it kind of made sense to move into that kind of format of having a website.

Kristen: 5:59

And so I apologize, I have not listened to your podcast yet. Do you interview people with this lifestyle also? Or, marla, just talk about your story.

Kristin: 6:06

It's more interviewing style. Oh, okay, nice.

Carol: 6:08

Yeah. So people who are doing what you're doing, living kind of in either like a tiny home or remote or what's the most unique one you've interviewed or seen- yeah, you know they kind of do what I do, so I guess I don't find them very unique.

Kristin: 6:26

You know living in vans and sailboats and RVs, but there hasn't been anything that I've thought was too crazy. But I guess if you're not living it and you're looking in, it might seem pretty wild. But I think my judgment is clouded because I've been living like this for so long, it's my normal and so I don't know, oh, that's funny. Yeah, I don't know which one would be. Oh, okay, so I have a friend.

Kristen: 6:48

It's so funny. The last name is Shell. I don't know if you know any Shells in that area. They lived in San Rafael and she would. They had an RV and when she would go on vacation with her children. Sometimes she goes oh, we're gonna go down to Mexico like for a month because she wasn't working and then she made her husband live in the RVs and then they could rent out their house and so she would actually like make money by leaving, so she goes. Yeah, I made like $5,000 last month. They're renting out our house, made my husband live in the RV and I got to go to Mexico for free.

Kristen: 7:22

That's hilarious Alternatives living right. So what's?

Carol: 7:26

been your favorite place to go to or live and where you've kind of decided that you were gonna stay or do something a little longer.

Kristin: 7:35

Yeah, so we split time right now between a camper van and a sailboat. So in the summer months we're in the camper van in the United States, we go north where the weather is cooler I think of us as migratory animals and then in the winter we come down to Mexico and get on our sailboat and go in the Sea of Cortez, which is along the Baja Peninsula, and I have to say that's probably like one of my very favorite places to go. It's very remote. You think you're really far away from the United States and just bustling civilization because there is nothing in the sea like. Baja is very sparsely populated and with the sailboat we're often out on these remote islands which have no people and you just feel like you're in another planet.

Kristin: 8:15

It's really funny because I did a podcast episode, actually on video, from one of these anchorages I was in and the person was like where are the people? Because he lives in California and he's like why am I seeing no homes? Cause almost all of the Baja Peninsula is very rugged with mountains and there's no homes. So I love that. There's a lot of marine life, a lot of nature, and you feel really remote and I think that's really cool. That's something you can only do really on a sailboat, where the van we have gone to remote areas but you're always seeing someone else driving by or you're gonna see someone because you're off of a road. But in Oregon we love going to Oregon in the van. That's where I'm from and we do that in the summers, and so those are probably my favorite places.

Kristen: 8:57

So the Sea of Cortez. I've seen it, I searched it and it brings me to the Gulf of California, in the like on the eastern side of the Baja. Is that where it is, or is? It like the top of it or is it? The whole Gulf is also just called the Sea of Cortez.

Kristin: 9:11

Yeah, it's, the whole Gulf of California has both names, and so we've actually left San Francisco in 2020 and we sailed the boat down the outside of the Baja Peninsula and then up the Sea of Cortez all the way up to where we currently are right now in Puerto Penaresco, or Rocky Point, which is at the very top and it's just south of Phoenix, and so that's where the boat yard is and that's where we prepare our boat for the upcoming sailing season.

Carol: 9:35

Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness, wait, arizona doesn't touch South of Phoenix. Yeah, Arizona doesn't touch water at all.

Kristin: 9:44

No, but if you drive one hour south of Arizona, you're here at the water, and so this is a popular destination for Arizonans looking to have their own little beach community, and so where I am right now it just fills with Arizona people, like on the weekends and on the holidays, so it's kind of an extension of Arizona, I would call it.

Kristen: 10:02

Oh my God, yeah, I think I actually. Well, I went somewhere. I was staying I thought I was staying with a friend in New Mexico or Arizona and we drove down to Mexico and to some water. It probably was one of those places. Oh my gosh, it's so awesome. So that's yeah. And we also just did a podcast recently on La Paz. Have you been there?

Kristin: 10:22

Yeah, we spent three weeks there last cruising season, which was last spring. We were there for three weeks and that was a lovely town, so I liked it there a lot.

Carol: 10:30

Yeah, my sister has, well, a couple of houses in Totos Santos, which I think is somewhat down there too. It is, I just was. Yeah, at Christmas time we were talking about it and it's gotten very, very popular, I guess, totos Santos.

Carol: 10:43

Yeah, trendy and popular Trendy yeah, that's what she said I was like really, cause they built two houses like 20 years ago or something like that and it was just desolate and the water is pretty warm, and is it, I'm sure, pretty warm? I'm sure there's not surf down there, but it's like flat right, cause of going.

Kristin: 11:05

It's funny well, the Sea of Cortez. What's funny is like this time of year, in January, it's actually quite cold. Whenever I go in the sea, I have to wear a wetsuit. This time of year. The water is probably only 68 or 65.

Kristin: 11:19

So, similar to the Bay area, actually a little bit warmer than the Bay only. But when you get to May, it's the last year, May June I was just swimming with a swimsuit, no wetsuit, and the water was probably 80. And so the water really changes with the seasons, but it's really special when it gets a warm enough to go without a wetsuit. Yeah, absolutely.

Kristen: 11:39

And where were you all during that hurricane that came up through the Baja? Were you in that area or were you like far north somewhere else?

Kristin: 11:47

No. So we bring our boat all the way up here to Porto Paniasco because it's out of the hurricane zone and there's a boat yard here and they actually haul the boat out of the water and they store it on the concrete. So the boat right now is not in the water, it's sitting on concrete, kind of on stilts that prop it up. And so we leave the boat here during the summer and that's when we jump in the camper van and go up to like California and Oregon, because it's too hot here in the summer. It's horrible. It has really high humidity, the temperatures are unbearable. And so we get out of here this summer and that's also hurricane season and so we don't wanna be in the water. We choose not to be in the water during hurricane season, where some boaters do stay, but we just don't want to go through that it's only. We leave and put the boat somewhere safe.

Carol: 12:30

So does he work also and remotely, or what does he do?

Kristin: 12:35

Yeah, so he's an electrical contractor and sometimes he will just pick up jobs. So we were, I think, last winter. We were in San Francisco and he was working for a couple months, but typically the income from my blog site is enough, so he doesn't have to do tons of work, which would tie us to a certain area, and so we both feel very lucky that I was able to grow it to substantial enough that he doesn't have to worry about like going and working all the time. So his main job is building out the van and building out and maintaining the boat. So that's pretty cool Good trade.

Kristen: 13:10

Yeah, cause if you had to like spend money on that, I'm sure it'd be like oh, another $600. Oh, my goodness.

Carol: 13:17

How wonderful. So what's the future Like? So I mean, you guys have been traveling. What Like? This is our ninth year.

Kristin: 13:24

Well, since 2020, we lived in the Bay Area until 2020. I guess this is our fourth year of full-time travel, but in the Bay Area we did live on the boat, but we weren't constantly traveling, we were working more. He had a job and so we were more stationary. But yeah, since 2020, we've been doing this thing with the boat in the winter and the van in the summer, and it sure is fun. We did go to Europe for five weeks this fall so I could do camper van rentals and write about it for my site. So that was really fun, and so we're throwing in some other types of travel in the mix as well, so always keeping it interesting.

Carol: 13:59

So what did you learn in those five weeks? Where did you go to?

Kristin: 14:03

We went to Milan, Italy, and drove a camper van up into the Italian Alps or the Dolomites.

Kristin: 14:09

And it was a fantastic experience and I wanted to compare van life in the United States to van life in Europe and just what it was like there and what a rental would be like there, and I was really happy to have done that. I thought it was a great experience and just everyone is so friendly and it's easy to park and it's cheap, which is shocking to people. It's very affordable and so it was just a fantastic experience.

Carol: 14:33

I do this hit workout and a cycling one on YouTube that's through the Dolomites. And then there was something else. One of my friends went to the Dolomites and backpacked there, and I am so intrigued by the Dolomites and how I mean the day. Well, when I do my little hit workout, it's this most beautiful blue sky. It's just gorgeous in the town and because you're biking all the way up to the top and I was curious, your experience of the Dolomites oh, it was exceptional.

Kristin: 15:01

I loved it so much. It was really way less touristy than we also went to Switzerland on this trip, which ended up being very touristy. I actually just wanted to leave Switzerland. It was expensive After being, I think the Dolomites ruined me because there was nobody there. It was cheap, it was probably. The lift tickets are half the price of Switzerland. The towns are really cute and well-maintained and really affordable. You can get like a $4 amazing glass of wine and if you have a nice dinner out it's like $10 a person. And all these free places to camp and all these incredible hikes and just the difference between these beautiful jagged peaks of rock and snow and then bright green grass all around Like gold or carol.

Kristen: 15:46

Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh. So I want to talk more about because I see it's not too far to Slovenian Croatia. So those areas which I haven't been and we still are looking for people to dive deep into, those for us are known for being less expensive and really beautiful. But the Dolomites the fact that it's part of Italy, but it's still affordable what about safety? So a person that hasn't done van life and is like, ok, I want to go spend a month, that that sounds really cool. Is it pretty easy to just rent a van and figure it out? I mean, we're campers so I think I could handle it. I'd be worried about where to stay. Is it safe? Are we going to get towed? You know, like, how is your blog the one that gives us all this advice? Or like, how would we know about a specific place?

Kristin: 16:33

Yeah, I actually just wrote an e-book about it. It's all about, like, how to rent, like how to find the right company to rent from, where to go, how to drive in Italy, how to get phone signals. I tried to cover all the bases with that. Just finished writing that. This month I'll have to share it with you, but I do think it's easy enough, especially if you read a little bit about. The thing that confused us the most were the toll roads and how to deal with toll roads, but camping was. I'll have to tell you about some of the camp grounds we found where they do camping so differently. There they have like luxury campgrounds, and so you'll have Describe what a luxury campground looks like.

Carol: 17:11

What is that yeah?

Kristin: 17:12

it has buildings on site that have like, fine dining restaurants and like, yes, you don't have to bring or make your food.

Carol: 17:20

You just go and then you just go to the restaurant.

Kristin: 17:23

Yeah, you can do that. And then some of them we went to had incredible indoor pool and hot tub facilities and sauna facilities.

Carol: 17:31

Yeah, oh my gosh.

Kristin: 17:32

I know you had to pay extra for that. Of course, we would camp in the cheapest area of the camp ground, which was like $20 a night, and so we'd pay additional fees to use these pools and saunas. And it was definitely worth it, because we would go on these really hard hikes and then we'd come back and pay the fees and go in these saunas and then we'd have a dinner out, which was lovely, and it's just such a different experience than what you have in the US in terms of campgrounds.

Kristen: 17:56

And camping is expensive, like if you get a private campground. Sometimes it's like $80 a night because my son played baseball, and so one time we're like, oh, why don't we just camp? You know, it's like a two-hour drive rather than stay in a hotel, let's just camp. And it was almost the same price for a campground as a hotel. I'm like, well, we might as well just do the hotel. We get free breakfast, like campgrounds, get no food and it's more protected and shower. Like, wow, you are selling me on this. Oh my gosh.

Kristin: 18:22

Oh, and you don't have to bring a camper. All these places have little rooms you can also rent. So they're a combination of campgrounds where you can have a camper, or you can rent like a room or a cabin. And you know what really got me and I didn't try this. But if you do rent an RV site or a campsite, you can tack on a luxury bathroom. So if you want to pay an extra fee, you can rent your very own bathroom with, like a bathtub and a shower, your own toilet. You don't have to use the public facilities, which are actually amazing. So it's not a problem.

Kristen: 18:51

Oh so how much extra roughly, Because it's $20 if you have your van but like so, is it another $20 or is it like $50?

Kristin: 18:58

extra. You know, I don't remember because I did not book one and I think they all ranged in price and I think you had to stay in a more premium campsite to access that as well. So that would bump up the cost. But I just thought it was funny that that was offered. Having your own like bathtub. I was like that sounds cool yeah.

Carol: 19:16

Oh, absolutely so this is in the Dolomites. Yeah, what was?

Kristin: 19:20

the campground called. There was many. I wonder if it's called Camping Vidal. That might have been one of them. But then there was one on the way eastern side of the Dolomites that was closer to Venice, like a two hour drive from Venice, and I'm still on my bucket list now?

Kristen: 19:35

Yeah, oh my gosh. So much so. The Dolomites is like the Sierra Nevada's of the Rocky Mountains. It's a great. It's gorgeous there are certain towns that you went to that you're like well, you got to go to this town.

Carol: 19:46

If you're going to go, like go up the mountain, Little towns you just start as I'm biking, as I'm biking.

Kristen: 19:53

Because it's like I've been there already.

Kristin: 19:54

I'm like I'm like, I'm like, no, that's right, that's right. You just drive through these passes. There's windy roads and mountain passes and they come down into valleys and there's towns and that's all throughout the whole region, and so all the towns are cute and well maintained. It feels like you're more in Germany, which is really interesting, because they actually identify more with Austrian culture and German culture than Italian culture. So the first language there is more of a German speaking language.

Carol: 20:21

And so it looks like Australia, or like you know that they're very cute.

Kristin: 20:25

The buildings are called the South Tyrolians and the North Tyrolians are in Austria. So it's all part of that same culture, but it was all divided after, I think, world War I. They gave it to Italy as part of the deal after that war, so they never thought of themselves as Italian. But now they're in Italy.

Kristen: 20:45

So what's the? So people speak German, but do a lot of most people speak English as well, or how did you deal with the language?

Kristin: 20:52

People speak English, for sure, but they, I think, is German first, and then they also speak English and Italian, so they're multilingual.

Carol: 21:00

And what's the food? What did? And it sounds like it was pretty reasonable as well, and cost.

Kristin: 21:05

So reasonable. And it was funny because we at one time we hiked up to this tourist destination of these beautiful rock formation and there's refugios or, I think, refuges like way up high or what do they call mountain huts, and you can order food at these high locations with these panoramic views of the mountains. And I think we got like this phenomenal lunch and each of our meals had to be like no more than $15. And it was the best food I've had and it was Italian food but with a touch of that area, that Tyrol area, so they use some different ingredients. And one of the other mountain huts was actually completely Tyrolean food, like nothing I've ever seen, like these meatballs that weren't made out of meat, they were made out of different plants and flowers and stuff, and this gorgeous soup was like purple flowers floating in it and it was really beautiful food and top notch food at affordable price point, and so I definitely want to go back.

Kristen: 21:59

So Tyrol? How do you spell Tyrolean or Tyrol?

Kristin: 22:03

T-Y-R-O-L-E-A-N.

Kristen: 22:06

Oh my, gosh, wow, that's so. Where else did you ban life in Europe? But then the don't reminds me.

Kristin: 22:15

Yeah, we also did a camper van rental down from Milan to Chinquaterra area and so we hiked the whole Chinquaterra coastline and we parked the van in a nearby town. A lot of the towns and cities in Europe which is different than here offer these parking lots you can camp in that are right by the downtowns and they're usually like they look like a parking lot. They're nothing fancy, but they're only like 20 bucks a night and you can park there and you have access to a bathroom and then you can just walk or ride a bus into the town, and so they're really friendly toward vans and RVers, unlike in the US. I feel like if you're in a major town, you have to park really far away and it's hard to get anywhere.

Kristen: 22:51

Yeah, behind the hospital or something. Yeah, it's always something.

Kristin: 22:54

Yeah, and then we did a camper van rental from Geneva, switzerland, to Stuttgart, germany. And so we drove through the Swiss Alps on a one-way camper van rental.

Kristen: 23:03

Okay, how much does it cost to rent a camper van roughly Usually I would expect to pay like 100 bucks a night.

Kristin: 23:10

Okay, All right.

Kristen: 23:11

So that's still like between that and then the parking lot or the campsite.

Kristin: 23:15

It's still less than a hotel.

Kristen: 23:18

Oh yeah, how does the whole insurance and driver's license work over in Europe?

Kristin: 23:23

In Italy you need an international driver's license, but in the rest of Europe I don't think you need one, but we brought one and we got that at AAA and it was really easy to get. So, and then you can choose various insurance levels from your rental company. They will offer you how much coverage you want, and that'll be either free if you want minimal coverage, or an upgrade if you want more coverage.

Kristen: 23:43

And do you find that, like right now in the US when I rent a car? I usually just decline it because my credit card covers that and my insurance covers that. Does US insurance cover?

Kristin: 23:56

cross borders ever. No, I did not look into that at all, I just took their cheapest plan.

Kristen: 24:01

Oh, okay, okay, good, all right, that's a good question, though Crazy stories of van breaking down or anything weird. But no, you're renting, so they're probably in tip top shape.

Kristin: 24:10

Yeah, they're good quality vans and they're all small and cute and comfortable and I really enjoyed renting the van over there. They had a diesel heater, so on the chilly nights we could have the van really warm and toasty, and so it was a really fun experience. I would definitely want to go do it again.

Kristen: 24:28

That's cool, this is so amazing, yeah, so how?

Carol: 24:32

much percent is the time. So it's at 50-50 where you're on the boat or on NNRV.

Kristin: 24:38

Yeah, probably that's the goal. Sometimes we end up doing more boat work than you know. That keeps us here, like for now, we've been in the boatyard for two months and maybe we would have been on the boat sailing around. But there's a lot of work to do on the boat and that's fine because I can sit here and work and have more of a routine where when you travel full time, you're always traveling and on the move. So sometimes I like sitting at the boatyard and not moving, because I get a routine.

Kristin: 25:02

And that sounds weird. A lot of people are like why do you want to live in a boatyard? But what's funny is there's tons of community here. There's all these other people living on boats and they have vans, and so the people here are really what make the situation wonderful. And the owners of the boatyard are really nice. They're friends of mine, and so it's like actually an okay place to be, which is really odd. We're right by the beach. I can go walk on the beach every day if I want. So I mean, and the boatyards are not glamorous. They're loud, they're dirty, they're full of machinery and old, derelict boats, but this one seems to be okay.

Carol: 25:37

And then, what are the people that you're with or your friends? Are they in similar situations? Do they? Are they Mexican, or is there people all?

Kristin: 25:49

over. Yeah, the people here at the boatyard, I'd say, are mostly Americans, canadians and Europeans and they live on their boats. They have sailboats and they come here, they bring their sailboat here to do maintenance, because most of the boats here are older boats and it's very hard to find someone to work on a sailboat because all the systems are so different boat to boat and there's just nobody to work on them, and or it costs a huge amount of money, and so people come here to be frugal and work on their own boats. So what you have is all these sailboats parked around and people are working on them on their own, and so that's the community. It's kind of a communal situation that happens and you're able to meet friends, and there's people of all ages. There's actually some people here in their 20s, which I find incredible, with their own sailboats, fixing up their boats, sailing around all the way up to their 70s, and so you have a really wide range of people that are living this lifestyle. So it's really fun.

Carol: 26:42

Wow, that's amazing. So not to go back to the Dolomites, but going. So how long were you there for in Dolomites? And then, what other places did you go? Was it? Did you say two months, or how long were you there? I'm just curious what that trip, what a you know trip, looks like for you.

Kristin: 26:57

Yeah, so we did five weeks total and we went to the Dolomites for 11 days. And so, and then after that, we spent time in Milan, just without a van, but hanging out in that city which I loved, that city which was shocking, because I usually don't like big cities at all, I'm more of a nature person. But we went there. And then we did, we, we tried to get on a train to Genoa, genoa, italy, but we got on a train instead to Geneva, switzerland. It was a total mistake, like an accident.

Kristin: 27:27

Oh, that's so serious, okay, oh yeah, there's only one letter different when you spell it in Italian Genova or Geneva. And so we totally got on the wrong train and we're wondering why it was going north when we wanted to go south. And we couldn't figure it out for about 45 minutes. And at that point the conductor was walking through the train checking tickets and I was like, oh my gosh, we have the wrong ticket. It's way more expensive to go to Switzerland. And so I got on my phone and I had to purchase a ticket. Like she was two rows away when I purchased the right ticket, she wasn't very happy with us, but she let us stay on the train.

Kristen: 28:00

Oh goodness, just kick you out the side roll, I know.

Kristin: 28:04

Yeah, so that's why we went to Switzerland and did the van. There's one funny thing is Road Surfer, the van rental company I use. They have in the fall they want you to help move vans for them to different locations, and so it's called the Road Surfer Rally. And for $99, you get a van for seven days and so, lucky for us, they had one available in Geneva, Switzerland. They wanted brought to Stuttgart, Germany. So for $99, we got a road trip through Switzerland and we dropped it off in Stuttgart. So that was pretty cool. Oh, my goodness. So I recommend. I think that's a fun way to get a really affordable camper van trip in Europe. Wow.

Carol: 28:41

Yeah, so a Surfer is what it's called. Yeah, road Surfer. Oh my gosh.

Kristen: 28:47

Yeah, that's crazy, yeah, so a lot of times that we're thinking about like traveling, you know it's like a finite trip or like working and stuff, that's that. That's just kind of a trip I'd want to do without having to work, just because with the Road Surfer's that'd be so fun. It's like we don't know where we're going to go. We might just whatever, like as long as we have, you know, access to bank and cash and food, that's all we need. Yeah, so adventurous, oh my gosh, totally.

Kristin: 29:13

Wow, super fun.

Carol: 29:14

Were there any highlights while you were driving, or like towns that you enjoyed, or the people and what you experienced, or the food, anything you'd note?

Kristin: 29:24

Yeah, it was mostly in Italy, Like in Switzerland, we really didn't eat out at all because everything was too expensive. I just I get bothered when things cost too much, especially after being in somewhere like Italy when it was very affordable. I'm like no, I don't want to pay $30 for a burger, and it was insane, I think. In one restaurant we went and got a side order of fries once and it was $13. So we just purchased food.

Kristin: 29:45

Switzerland has a very cheap grocery store called the Coop and so we would purchase all the food from there and just stock up the van and we just didn't eat out. So we did most of the eating out in Italy where it was very affordable and the food was fantastic. In the Cinque Matera area it was fantastic. They have the best like facacha bread. That's where facacha was invented, LaGuerrean coast, and so we ate facacha like once or twice per day for like a week and it would fuel our hikes in the Cinque Matera and in those mountains and it felt healthy. Weirdly compared Like I didn't think it had as many additives. I feel like in the US there's a lot of food that has additives and is processed, but over there this is just the facacha, and it has vegetables on it, and it just all feels clean and healthy, even though you're eating bread like all day. Every day, oh wow.

Carol: 30:36

That sounds incredible. And then what so? What do you have on the horizon as some upcoming trips for this year?

Kristin: 30:42

Yeah, this year we plan on taking the boat out. Probably within the next few weeks We'll take it out and we'll stay in the sea until probably early June, and then we probably will do our same trek up to Oregon to see my family, and then we'd love to check out places like Colorado and Utah. We just got mountain bikes, so we want to start doing way more mountain biking and eventually take the sailboat to the South Pacific. That has to happen sometime in the spring. I don't think it'll happen this year, but maybe the following year. That's a 30-day sail. It's kind of daunting and so that's something that's on our horizon, but it's kind of a big deal. Oh, biggest sailboat, it's 41 feet 41 feet yeah again, that's about with measurement 41 feet.

Kristen: 31:24

So do you have like a bedroom underneath and is there a kitchen to them?

Kristin: 31:29

It's kind of like if you imagine what a class A or a B inside would look like. It has a full kitchen and oven, like a table where you can sit across from each other, three different beds you can sleep in and a full bathroom and storage areas. So it's a pretty hearty interior.

Kristen: 31:46

Okay, so did you say you're going to take the boat all the way to Portland?

Kristin: 31:51

or Oregon. No, we'll just keep it in the Sea of Cortez, haul it out again and drive to Oregon. Okay, so when?

Kristen: 31:56

you're in the boat, can you work with the Starlink and get your internet and everything? Yeah, I can. It's amazing. So then do you just like, what do you do? Like how do you not feel claustrophobic? Do you like just go swimming a couple times a day? Or like, how do you do that?

Kristin: 32:11

We do a lot of water sports, so we have full windsurfing gear on the boat, we have paddle boards on the boat, we have snorkeling gear and we go to shore as often. You know, if you're anchored somewhere beautiful, we'll go to shore quite often and walk around on the beach or hike around on the islands. And so, because I am a person that needs an extraordinary amount of exercise, I get very antsy. I love to exercise, and so I do need to get off the boat on a regular basis, and I go crazy if I can't get off the boat.

Kristin: 32:41

So we do get off quite a bit, thank goodness, oh my gosh.

Kristen: 32:46

So what is it going to take to prepare to go to the South Pacific, so you think in like Hawaii or Fiji, or yeah, like more like the French Polynesia.

Kristin: 32:53

So yeah, typically the route is you go to French Polynesia and then you go down to New Zealand eventually to get out of the hurricane area. So you go through all these islands and end up in New Zealand maybe. So a lot of our friends are going this year, so they're leaving in March and April. So we're like slightly tempted, like oh, we could go with our friends, but it is so far and it's an arduate, long journey and it puts you so far away from family and friends. Like here it's easy you just parked the boat and you drive there, you know across the border and you're back in the US. But there it's way harder to get home oh my goodness.

Carol: 33:30

How long would you be at sea before you would hit land again?

Kristin: 33:33

30 days, or maybe 21 to 30 days, so it's a really long Not on my bucket list.

Carol: 33:39

No, well, and also I could imagine, you know it's one thing if it's calm and you're just going, but you have weather, incremental weather and and you have to probably start working.

Kristen: 33:50

Then right, there's a lot of work in a sailboat, right?

Kristin: 33:53

Oh, you mean when it's sailing.

Kristen: 33:54

Yeah.

Kristin: 33:55

You know, not really, because if you go to the South Pacific, for example, you're in the trade winds and the wind comes from the same direction day after day, after day. So the goal is you just set your sail up and it just keeps working and you don't have to do much, you don't have to adjust it and it just goes with these trade winds. And so that's the goal and that's why you go at a certain time of year and on a certain route, because you have to hit these certain wind patterns and so you can set it. Sailing is really only work when you're constantly changing directions and changing the wind and attacking and turning the boat. But if you set it to go and it just goes and has the same wind pressure from the same angle, you don't have to do anything and what about on the way back?

Carol: 34:33

Is it the same kind?

Kristin: 34:34

of thing. Yeah, you have to go a certain route on the way back to get and you can't come really directly back the same way. I know some people have done it, but it's more of a brutal sail. So you either have to go to Hawaii and to Alaska and back down, or around the world, so there's not a lot of sailing routes and patterns. You have to pick and choose and just take the chairlift bath. Yeah, totally.

Carol: 35:01

And also with the winds, does it just die in the middle of the ocean and you just have no wind? And I'm assuming then you'd have an engine and bring it on and go until the wind picked up again and it would turn off. I don't know if it's an automatic off sort of thing.

Kristin: 35:16

Yeah, you know it has. There's a place in the Pacific Ocean called the Doldrums which is known to not have a lot of wind, and so some people do motor through it or some people wait. Luckily, on that route there are a lot of trade winds, and so you can usually expect wind at that time of year going in that direction, Wow. But sometimes it does die and you have to motor, which is not fun.

Kristen: 35:36

And would you? Would you be just you too, or would you need a few more, just in case?

Carol: 35:40

I was just thinking the same thing An extra hand yeah.

Kristen: 35:43

Volunteering, but yeah.

Kristin: 35:45

Some people choose to do that and bring an extra hand, because you do have to have a watch schedule where somebody is always awake, and so some people do choose to bring another person or some people leave, all at the same time. Like you get a whole bunch of sailboats like a sailboat rally. Yeah, yeah.

Kristen: 36:00

That's a good idea.

Kristin: 36:02

Yeah, so they do that out of Porta Vallarta and, like all these boats leave at the same time and you're not like sailing right next to other people, but you're probably within radio contact distance. Because what happened last spring is one of the boats was sunk by a whale and it had a whole bunch of people on it, like five people. They're, all you know, young people like in their thirties and stuff and they got in their life raft and they were able to hail other boats that were nearby and these other boats communicated using their star links and they were able to rescue those people.

Kristen: 36:33

Oh, my goodness, I was so nervous, I was so nervous. The story oh my goodness, oh, wow, yeah.

Carol: 36:39

Yeah, I was down in the middle. I would want other. I would do boat rallies and just yeah for sure.

Kristen: 36:45

Do you have like, like? Well, I guess you just have the internet to check the weather and see if something's rolling in, right?

Kristin: 36:51

Yes, yeah, we constantly check the weather. We have both satellite. Not we have the Starlink, but we also have an iridium satellite connection which can check the weather even if the Starlink went out or didn't work. So we have backup redundant weather checking systems because the weather is so important and we go at that time of year because it's not hurricane season. So you might get some squalls but you won't get a hurricane that time of year. I know one sailing couple. They've been sailing like 15 years and they've never hit inclement weather. Because you're timing it, you go the right time of year.

Kristin: 37:23

And you follow that yeah, follow them.

Carol: 37:27

Exactly. Oh, my goodness, that's alongside. Yeah, that's great. Wow, that's incredible.

Kristen: 37:35

How long do you think you can sustain this? Then you know we're like, oh, there's no way I'm going back to any traditional life. But it's like, yeah, no, probably about five years. You're starting to see that. You know we want to go to doctor appointment or start a family. Or do you see, like an N, that enough will be enough.

Kristin: 37:52

You know, I don't know yet. What's funny is we have these sailing friends here at the boatyard and they're probably I think they're in their 70s and they just decided to sell their boat and buy a house in Arizona. They literally just left a week ago. They've been living this lifestyle for many, many, many years and it took that long for them to want to stop oh wow.

Kristin: 38:10

So honestly, who knows? You know I could see us purchasing a property that had a little home on it. Sometimes I think about this like a home I could rent out as an Airbnb and if I ever crave like just stability for a while, maybe I could go live in the home for a couple months and then I'd go back out and travel. But to have that as another little backup would be a situation I could see doing sometime in the next five years is just having that little house. So that could happen at some point too.

Carol: 38:39

Absolutely. I actually just did that. I did I bought a forplex, and so then I'll have a spot, and I met this gal in 2002 and she had done the same, and then she just travels around the world and makes money that way. So, god, that's awesome. Yeah, exactly.

Kristin: 38:55

And then it gives because what we used to do, which is interesting in the Bay Area Tom worked for a wealthy family that owned a mansion in San Francisco, and when they went out of town he would do projects around this mansion and we would live there, and so every year we would probably live in this mansion for one to two months a year, and so that provided an interesting change to the van and the boat, and so it's nice to have those amenities sometimes. So that's why sometimes I think about maybe purchasing a house where I could have the amenities, but just for sometimes, and then I'd want to leave and go travel again.

Kristen: 39:27

Wow, what a great opportunity.

Carol: 39:29

That's awesome, just curious from a work perspective, and what you're doing with your blog and how just curious, how is it that you fund it? I guess I'd love to actually hear this, because my daughter, she, has a blog that she's been really focused on and she's creating all this content and she's 19. What did that look like? And how do you make revenue and then continue? What does a work week look like for you?

Kristin: 39:57

Yeah, so right now I'm working a lot because I'm here, I'm stable, I have a lot of time. So I'm working probably a normal work week right now, like 35 hours a week or something, but when we're traveling sometimes I work five hours a week, so it really depends on the time of year. It's ebbs and flows quite a bit, and I scaled the business so much that I have like writers, so I have like five people that like write for me and I have assistants, and so when I do take breaks, the site can keep running in the background. That's my whole goal is to have something that's more of a passive, hands-off situation. But there was a huge like Google algorithm change a few months ago where that impacted my rankings and so that impacted my traffic a lot, and so I saw a huge drop in income, and so that's also why I'm working really hard right now to build that back up again.

Kristin: 40:50

But it's all part of business and life and that's okay. Luckily, my cost of living is very cheap and I have a lot of savings, and so I'm able to just keep pushing through it and thinking of new ways to monetize. But yeah, it takes a lot of time and effort to get a blog to a point where it makes money, you have to have a substantial amount of traffic and then you can start running the advertisements on the site, and I have a management company that places all the ads and they take a small revenue share, but I do nothing. I just put a piece of code on my site and they fill it with the ads and we revenue share that, and so that was the main source of income, were the ads on the site.

Carol: 41:27

What's it called? I'm just curious for my daughter really too.

Kristin: 41:30

Yeah, it's called Mediavine. She has the network, oh she does so I heard her say that, yeah, and she's doing really well, because it's really hard to get on Mediavine. You have to be working really hard and get to a certain traffic threshold. So if she has Mediavine, she's doing really good. Oh, that's great.

Carol: 41:44

Yeah, she just it's her first year and so it's called Delighted by RO. Her name's Reese Olivia. It's all like snacks and healthy foods and all this kind of thing. And so, yeah, she was talking with someone and I thought was the name she said was Mediavine, so oh, good to know, and she took a class and a course and then it's interesting, the backend of the self-spread sheets and she has everything lined out for a year and then she's up doing more now ads or not ads, blog posts per month and yeah, she's a communications major.

Kristen: 42:17

So yeah, so Kristen Haynes there's. We see this on Instagram all the time. Oh, me and you too Make money on your blog and stuff like. But like, how long did it take before it started monetizing? And then how long did it take before it started monetizing enough so it actually was your full-time source of income?

Kristin: 42:35

Yeah, probably I was able to monetize it within like six months, but it still was only yeah, it was only like 500 bucks a month or five to 700 a month, so that's not really enough, but I would say after like two years it was like my full-time income and better than any job I've ever had in my life, and so I was like this is great.

Kristen: 42:54

And how did you learn to do that? Did you watch YouTube videos and get advice from different people or Classes?

Kristin: 43:01

I took course after course, like tons of them, and the most important one was learning search engine optimization or SEO, which gets your posts on Google. So that was the best course that I took and thing that I learned, but I'm still learning to this day.

Kristen: 43:16

It's just, it's so much oh yeah, but all the algorithms constantly changing and yeah then.

Carol: 43:21

Well, not how you were journalist for 15 years, right, journalist Anyways, and it wasn't like you were just Joe Schmoe, but you had a lot of experience with that as well, which is great. Yeah, how fun. That's really neat to probably see that, but it's really interesting. You can create any way to make money and live the ideal lifestyle, and I think that message in itself I'd love to get out, because it's hard to think, because usually you grow up, your parents are working, you just see that life and you do like the corporate life. You just work 40 plus hours and that's it. You bring home your bills, you try to do your laundry and make dinner at night and get the kids to bed. Wait a minute, I know you do other things too.

Kristen: 44:10

So I have a question. So I'm looking at. So your website, thewaywordhomecom, is amazing. Okay, so I see the 15 perfect shipping container homes you can live in, Is there? Only, I don't know, in your research maybe to go this deep, are there only certain parts of towns and zoning restrictions where people can have containers on their property? It's just. I mean, some look so cool with a rooftop deck.

Kristin: 44:34

It's amazing. Yeah, zoning is really hard to stay on top of and it's always changing. Yeah, I don't write about zoning that much just because it changes so much. But, yes, a lot of towns, but more and more towns, are allowing people to put ADUs in their backyards, which is nice. Before it wasn't even allowed to have a tiny home. And then some neighborhoods, especially HOA neighborhoods, you cannot have a tiny house. They have to be a certain square footage. And certain parts of town they have to be a certain square footage, which I always think is kind of funny, as probably because they want the tax revenue. Yeah, certain parts of the country, for sure, you can buy property and put tiny homes and container homes, but you have to really look at the zoning or go talk to the local government office in charge of zoning.

Kristen: 45:14

Sure, yeah, and then you can just generally the potential and how beautiful these homes can be.

Carol: 45:22

How many you can put. Is there where you can put multiple? I bet.

Kristin: 45:26

I'm sure there's some places you can do that.

Kristen: 45:29

I'm not sure where, but I'm sure there is yeah one of our neighbors had a tiny home they're like acre lots and then they just plopped a tiny home on there and I don't know if that was legal or not, but they did it and then it disappeared because she drove away and moved somewhere else. A tiny home because there was like the main home there as well. All right, so we are coming up with our hour here. I don't know if our rapid fire questions are super relevant, but, kristen Ravel, do you have any other questions? Or maybe you're just about the Dolomites in that region, because that is so cool.

Carol: 46:03

I don't know if there is anything else that you would note. What was your favorite trail or place to hike in the Dolomites that you would recommend?

Kristin: 46:13

Well, we did an interesting trail and I wish I could remember. I wonder what the exact all the names are kind of escaping me because I did it a few months ago and they're also similar. But there's chair lifts up to some of these popular hikes and rock formations you can go to, but instead of doing the chair lifts we actually would hike from the bottom all the way up like 3000 feet, and so those were some of my favorite hikes and you know, unfortunately I don't remember the exact names of them. But any hike you see pretty much in the Dolomites you want to do, you can either take a lift or you can hike it, and so I always recommend people, if they want more of a workout, to try to figure out how to actually do the entire hike up and down.

Carol: 46:51

Yeah, Do they have any? I always think of like trail mix or little snacks and stuff. Is there any unique snacks that people eat on the trail that's different there than it would be here?

Kristin: 47:01

Probably like the Focaccia Okay.

Carol: 47:05

So that that was at the Dolomites. I thought that was the Cinque Terre it was.

Kristin: 47:09

But you can find it anywhere, like the Cinque Terre had the all the little shops with it, but most of the grocery stores in Italy, anywhere you are, we'll have it, and you buy it in these little bags, or at least it's like pizza. You know bread products and so we would hike with that a lot of the time. Or we'd cook, cook our own food and bring it up in little containers and but yeah, I don't think they had like the trail mix and the protein bars as much. Those were a little harder to find so we had to. We had to get creative or make like some hard boiled eggs and bring some fruit. But hiking with those bread products was good, that was very motivating, and sometimes at the top you can go to a hut and have a good hearty lunch and then hike back down. So that was another special thing that you don't really find in the state so much as those mountain huts. At least places I've been, I haven't found those.

Kristen: 47:53

Yeah, colorado has done for sure people go like they do cross country ski to these huts. I have never done that, and then, of course, you can do that in the summer as well. So let me know when you come to Colorado. A little chat. So okay, so in the Dolomites, what was like your favorite dish? We're going to have a meal.

Kristin: 48:12

Yeah, probably what I had at gosh. It was at one of these mountain huts on the Alpe de Suisse and it was a beautiful hut and it's probably those like I want to say meatball, but they didn't really have meat, they were just these little like one was made out of cheese, one was made out of vegetables and they were these beautiful little balls and I just love them so much. They were artistic and tasty and I'd never seen that in my life.

Kristen: 48:41

I was just thinking like slothal right, but made out of different things.

Kristin: 48:45

Yeah, like sloth like almost like a dumpling, and I wish I remembered what it was called. I think I probably have a screenshot of the menu somewhere in my phone, but it was just okay. Really phenomenal.

Kristen: 48:56

Mm-hmm, all right, and then how did you deal with the money? Or when you're on van life, I guess it depends on where you're at. So in the Dolomites, europe, they're on the Euro. Did you find that you used the credit card mostly, or cash? Did you exchange it at local banks? What was the best way to handle the money in Italy?

Kristin: 49:14

Yeah, it was definitely mostly credit cards. I really liked it in all of Europe it was so easy to use a credit card. Here in Mexico it's harder to use a credit card. You need cash way more often, but some of the places in Europe you just hold it up to the reader, you're done. It's just so easy. And of course, we would go to the bank and it would draw some cash sometimes just to have it on hand. But we barely used cash and so I thought that was really nice, because I prefer not to deal with cash.

Kristen: 49:40

And then back to the Baja. For with money, do they just like American dollars ideally, or do you have to transition?

Kristin: 49:48

I transition to pesos because when you go to these small towns they typically want pesos. I do bring quite a bit of cash down from the States and I just change it to pesos as I need it and so I don't tend to like to use. I can use an ATM if I want to withdraw cash, but the percentages can get kind of high for withdrawing a lot of cash. So I try to bring it down from the US. Okay, got it.

Kristen: 50:11

And then just in all the places you live. Any favorite holiday or time of your tradition is maybe for the van and boat life people. Do you guys like go certain places around the world to celebrate?

Kristin: 50:24

Yeah, it's funny.

Kristin: 50:25

So here in the boat yard we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and what's funny at the boat yard, and what's funny is the people here just so well, they were wonderful that I didn't mind having to do that. We had actually some parties and some potlucks, and for Christmas day I ordered a whole bunch of tamales like a hundred tamales and so we all just shared tamales, we had a fire pit, we had a potluck with cookies and a fire. You know, it was just so fun, and so we just celebrate holidays wherever we are. We don't really try to be anywhere specific for them. But in Mexico, I know, 20 years ago I was here for Dia de los Muertos and that was one of my favorite experiences ever, and so I do want to try to get maybe to Oaxaca or somewhere for Dia de los Muertos at some point, because I love that holiday, so the day of the dead, yeah, oh, ok, yeah, yep, never been, never been.

Kristen: 51:12

What do they do? That's so special, that it's so fun.

Kristin: 51:15

Yeah, they set up all these like flower altar decorations.

Kristin: 51:20

I was in a town called Queretaro and I experienced it and it was just mag I think it's called a magnolia or marigold All these gold flower leaves just in this massive altar in the town center and they have like parades where and people put the face paint on. And I was lucky enough I was doing a homestay with a family, so I actually went to a home and I saw how they celebrated within a home and I thought it was a beautiful celebration of life of family members who had passed, and they set up these altars in their homes with the food the person liked with. Maybe they play their music, they put their photos, they set out a drink, and so it's really a beautiful. Yeah, it's not like Halloween at all, no, no, it actually celebrates the dead people in your family who have passed, and so it's actually a really beautiful thing, like I think I want to do that someday for my grandpa. He set out his favorite drink and his favorite meal and you talk about the person and it's really cool.

Kristen: 52:15

Oh wow, thank you for opening my eyes. I mean, I've heard about it forever. I didn't realize the significance of it. Oh my goodness, yeah.

Carol: 52:23

So is it in a movie? Is it in Kanto or something? It's a Disney movie. Yes, yes, yes.

Kristin: 52:28

It's.

Carol: 52:28

Day of the Dead and I definitely learned a lot about the.

Kristen: 52:32

I should watch that. Okay, it's really cute. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. It's hilarious, okay. And then we always ask where's the closest place to surf, or where?

Kristin: 52:41

you tend?

Kristen: 52:41

to be.

Kristin: 52:43

We will. Tom loves surfing.

Kristen: 52:45

Oh, he does Okay.

Kristin: 52:46

Yes, I'm just learning how to surf. There's a place in Southern California right now like Dana Point. Okay, got it. The whole Sea of Cortez does not have surfing. It's too flat.

Kristen: 52:57

But you do the windsurfing right.

Kristin: 52:59

Yes, windsurfing, but the Outer Baja Peninsula has surfing but it's harder to reach in the boat. You need more of a van on land.

Carol: 53:06

Okay.

Kristin: 53:07

So but down in Porta Vallarta, sailors do go down there and surf, but that's really far, that's like a thousand miles, and so we don't have a lot of surfing near us, sadly.

Kristen: 53:15

Okay, and in this home stay that you mentioned, how did you do that? Was that one of these couch surfing or house sitters, like, how did you do that? Oh, the one with Tom's job? No, the one that, not the. Oh, the one you said when you were celebrating the day of the dead.

Kristin: 53:31

Oh, I was an exchange student, so I was in college.

Kristen: 53:35

Oh, okay, so you've been having that travel bug for a while. Huh yeah.

Kristin: 53:38

Yeah, I guess so.

Carol: 53:41

Did your family travel growing up, or did you travel?

Kristin: 53:44

No, we did like local camping trips and national parks and stuff, but we'd never did international travel, yeah. So it was more of close to home type traveling, yeah.

Kristen: 53:55

Well, congratulations on your success. I'm so happy that you're able to like make money off the blog and I know it is a lot of work and I think that's the one thing that people kind of get fed this dream. Oh yeah, you can start a blog. It's like it's not like you just type something up, Like you have to know what you're doing and educate yourself and take classes and manage people. That's just probably not super easy sometimes and deadlines, Wow. But yeah, I think it's great for people that really love to work and you can work probably 70 hours a week and then you don't work some weeks.

Kristin: 54:27

Exactly, and I love working on it. It's like one of my favorite things to do.

Carol: 54:31

So that's not bad. I actually would love to ask this question for my daughter, because she does spend an enormous amount on it and I know she's doing college and she's going to be going away next year. And you said you had writers that I'm assuming are helping you write your articles, or do you write them and then they? How do you? How does that work?

Kristin: 54:51

No, they write them. I assign them topics and they write the whole thing, and so that's how most of the website is run. I don't really write that much on it. And so they, they, they write, I choose the topics and then I assign it to them.

Carol: 55:03

Okay, but when did you come to a point where you needed a writer?

Kristin: 55:09

I think it was. I did that in 2019. So that was two years after I started the site. I started hiring the writers because I was and you just noticed- the flow?

Carol: 55:17

Was it because you were just too busy and you needed?

Kristin: 55:19

Yeah, and another reason was cause we were going to sail the boat down the Baja Peninsula and I wasn't going to have internet.

Kristin: 55:24

It was before Starlink and I was like I need to figure out a way to get the keep the site moving when I'm not able to tend to it, and so, and then I knew to scale it and to get a ton of articles up, I would need people to help. And when did you find your first writer? I think on a blogging writer website, maybe probloggercom, okay, and then the other ones have been through some personal connections and, yeah, a variety of sources.

Kristen: 55:48

Oh, so let's say how people can reach you and all that. You have your website. You have your podcast. What's the podcast called the Wayward Home?

Kristin: 55:55

Everything's pretty much the Wayward Home. But I do have a specialized van Facebook page called the Van Life Collective and that's where I post like tons of van articles that people are interested in that segment of the lifestyle.

Kristen: 56:06

but everything else is the Wayward Home Easy to find Okay, great, okay, instagram and Pinterest also Got it. Pinterest, yeah, everything. Twitter.

Kristin: 56:19

Everything Well. Twitter is Kristen Haynes, but I don't post much on there.

Kristen: 56:23

Okay, and then. So YouTube, do you have like, like, what do you do on YouTube? Is that much, or?

Kristin: 56:29

No, I have posted some podcast episodes over there, but I haven't been doing YouTube that much. It's not my preferred platform, but I do have a presence over there.

Kristen: 56:37

Yeah, I mean, that's perfect.

Kristin: 56:39

Yeah, that's a lot to keep up with.

Kristen: 56:41

Yeah, totally TikTok too, you do TikTok, oh my goodness, vaguely Okay. So it's really Instagram is probably your best. Yeah, and the website Fantastic, okay, great.

Kristin: 56:54

Well, very cool, well, so nice to meet both of you. It was really fun conversation, so thanks for joining me.

Carol: 56:58

Yeah, See, okay, so nice to meet you as well. Thank you for sharing. And yeah, the Dalmites what a treat for me, because I'm really excited about going there and learning about it from you. So thank you, okay.

Kristen: 57:09

Say hi, bye, okay, bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app and, if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at where next podcast. Thanks again. Bye for now. Please respond to them, thanks.