Road Trip with Me: Solar Eclipse Part 2

Where has Camille been? Did you think she disappeared? Au contraire good listener. She is back and ready to continue the saga of her journey to the sun.

In episode 97, we join Camille, and her husband Bryce, as they travel the 2nd leg of their road trip to the event of a lifetime – the solar eclipse.

In episode 96, we left them in Holbrook, AZ. Now, they are on their way to the vastness that is known as Texas where the adventure continues. There are technical glitches, rough roads, unhappy cats, short order cooking – what? Keep listening, you’re gonna love this one!

You're listening to the remote work retirement show. I'm your host, Camille Attell. And this is the only show that helps semi-retirees figure out their remote work options.

I believe the remote work is the new retirement plan and that many retirees have both the ability and desire to work how they want so they can live how they want. Let's dig into today's episode....
 

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  Welcome to The Remote Work Retirement Show, the only show that is dedicated to remote work for semi-retirees, people leaving the workforce, and people working in retirement to help them have the peace of mind that they can live how they want without the fear of running out of money.
 
 

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Transcript

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In episode 97, we pick up with part two. Of road trip with me to the solar eclipse. You're listening to the remote work retirement show. I'm your host, Camille Attell. And this is the only show that helps semi retirees figure out the remote work options. I believe the remote work is the new retirement plan and that many retirees have both the ability and desire to work, how they want so they can live how they want. Let's dig into today's episode.... Well, welcome back to part two. If you are just picking up this series and you haven't heard part one of road trip with me to the solar eclipse. I would encourage you to go back and start with episode 96. So that you can follow along with this very adventurous journey. Or just stay here and pick it up wherever you pick it up. I can almost barely remember where I left off from the last episode, because. It has been at least two or more weeks since I've actually recorded the podcast. And so I will explain why that is and what's been going on. It's, uh, hopefully not only interesting, but maybe somewhat educational, but here's where I think we left off. I think I was in Holbrook, Arizona. And at the time that I recorded the podcast, I had some pretty good internet. And what I thought would happen is because I had that good internet. I was going to get a lot of work done. And then later that day I had a coaching circle. Inside of remote work school. Now, if you're not familiar with remote work school or the coaching circles, this is my online coaching and a course program where people have the opportunity to do both a self study on their own. As well as get support from myself as well as other coaches. And our community manager. So we had one of those scheduled that day. And funny enough, the new coach, his name is mark, who I'm in the process of training. It is an absolute miracle that he was available that day because my internet stopped working. Uh, that same day and I wasn't able to do the coaching circle the way I normally would. Now, most of the time, 95 plus percent of the time, I have absolutely no trouble with internet. And even when I'm on the road, I know how to find really good internet. You know, When it's not available, or if it's spotty, I have a few different things that I do. I'll talk about that in the episode. But thank goodness mark was there because he was able to just pick right up. And when I got bumped off the internet, at least seven times. He was able to just slot right in and the. There was really no impact to our customers. And I'm really, really grateful for that. Because if mark had not been there. It would have been a disaster and it would have impacted our customers. So if mark is listening, shout out to him. So before I go on in the story and tell you about the remainder of the road trip to get to Texas. I want to pause and I do want to talk about internet on the road for just a moment. So this is perhaps the point in the story where we go from somewhat interesting to educational. If you're someone who. Dreams of working from the road. You want to do remote work? You want to travel and work. But you're not sure how to get good internet or you're worried about it, which I think by now, most people have figured this out because you know, in the last three or four years, people were really forced into remote work and a lot of people went on the road. But there are still some folks out there who feel a little confused or overwhelmed by this. I will tell you that the way that I carry internet with me or how I had been carrying internet with me. Back in my early nomadic days doesn't really work anymore. And so this is really important. Now when I was on the road, back in 20 16, 17, 18, all the way up to 2020. And even 2021, because we were traveling part-time. We were able to get away with using. Um, what's called a hotspot. We have this, this very old Verizon hotspot that we bought a million years ago, it feels like. And so we've kept that device and that plan, because it's so good. I think we get unlimited data for maybe like$60 a month. I know. It's not available anymore. Um, but that's why we've held onto it. And we've decided we're not going to let go of that thing, even though there's times we don't need it. It's just a nice insurance, right? And then we have this other thing. I can't remember what it's called. It's like a little kind of rectangular, flat. Kind of booster looking thing and we can plug it into that device. And then that strengthens the signal. And we've been able to get away with using internet like that for years, almost everywhere in the country. I would say 90% of the places that we've traveled and we've traveled a lot of places. We've been able to get adequate internet sometimes faster than others. But always we've been able to work well. That is just not the case anymore. We found that almost everywhere we went was terrible. And, and another thing I'll say is that the RV parks. That advertise, having free wifi. There's still just as bad as they always were. That definitely has not improved. So I never depend on Parkway. Wi-Fi. In less your going to an RV park where that's something they specialize in. And so I do want to give a shout out to the park that I'm at right now. It's called gather. It is in, uh, Texas. Belmont Texas to be exact. And their whole business model is catering to the digital nomad. And the travelers at work from the road. It's such a fantastic park. It has so many cool amenities. It's got a beautiful pool. It's got an amazing, uh, Jim actually, which has unusual. It has a really the best part about it is it has this massive coworking. Room that has fantastic internet. And it also has wifi that you could use from your RV as well. They've got fire pits and outdoor areas. The owners are really nice. The spots are really big. It's just a really nice part. So a park like this. Does have reliable internet. But most parks do not. So you can't rely on the RV parks. And I'll say one other thing. Starlink and I'm pretty sure you've heard of it, especially again, if you're someone who's interested in traveling and working from the road. Everybody. I know. Who works from the road. And even who doesn't work from the road is using Starlink. And it's not like, I didn't know this. I've known this for years. It's just that I didn't want to buy it. Because I wasn't traveling full time. I thought I could get away with using the devices we got away with using for five years, basically. And, uh, it didn't seem like Starlink was going to be the best investment for me at the time, but I am really, really wrong. I mean, it, it comes down to if I want to continue working from the road. And have true reliable internet. Anywhere. And I'm talking in very remote places. Uh, where I could go off grid, I could go into the forest. I could go into the desert and know that I could work. Then I'm likely going to need to get Starlink. And so that's. This is the big lesson of the day in this episode is I wish I could tell you that there were, you know, other solutions and approaches and there are. You know, there are other folks out there who have their specific setups and their own routers and backups to backups and all of that, but that's never been me. And so I can't. Explain to you, what the alternative to Starlink is at somehow better. Uh, and I would say equally affordable, although it's not affordable. Starlink is expensive, in my opinion. But you get what you pay for. So there you go. That's what I have to say about that. Uh, which brings me to, this is why I haven't recorded an episode in so long on this road trip. Every time I went to go record the episode. The internet was a problem. Or we had a travel day. It's very hard to work on travel days for me. I do it, but it's not going to record a podcast while I'm driving down the road. That's going to be distracting for you. And it's hard for me to focus. I also have big visions. I'm someone who I can never have. Like a simple vision. I was thinking, Ooh. The podcast I want to record would be one where I interviewed Bryce. My husband. And I get him to talk. Talk in the podcast about what drive days were like for him, how he planned the route, what the eclipse was like for him and all that. I think that would be super interesting. But, you know, my husband, he's not so excited about recording a podcast with me either because it's a lot of work. So I delayed and I delayed and I thought, you know what? This is not getting any easier. I'm not as well. Just jump on. And, and record this episode while I have good internet and I'm not driving. So here you go. Here we are. So now I'll tell you a bit more about the journey. After we left Holbrook Arizona, and, and really the rest of this episode is going to be. Up to the point of the solar eclipse. So stay tuned. If you want to hear about that now, maybe you saw it yourself. Perhaps you traveled to a place where you were in the path of totality and you have your experience of the eclipse. And so I don't know, maybe yours is similar to mine or perhaps it's very different. We decided to choose Paris, Texas as the place to view. The eclipse, because not only was it in the path of totality, which means total darkness. But we were meeting up with the escapees and Escapers, which is an RV community that we've belonged to for many, many years. And this was our opportunity to get back to that community. We haven't done anything. Together with them in a really long time. It's really since 2021. Uh, actually I take that back. Bryce. And I did go to what's called the Escapers bash in lake Havasu in January of 2022. And then I went alone to the Escapers bash in January of 2024, but I had to leave early. But together Bryce and I really haven't seen a lot of these people in a really long time. So we decided, yes, let's drive. You know, practically, well, it is across the country because I mean, Texas is its own country. Let's get real. Once you reach Texas. You still have a lot of miles to go. So it just felt like we were crossing the whole country. It really did. So after Holbrook, Arizona, which I believe might've been our second day on the road. We still had four more days. To get to our destination. And I got to tell ya, it was for. Long grueling, exhausting days, both physically and in some ways, mentally. And if you don't know my story. In 2016, I left really everything behind. My husband Bryce and I jumped into a class, a motor home, and we started traveling the country. We had never RV before that. And we did 44 states, 44,000 miles in roughly four years. I think because we lived that way, we just got used to all the travel. We also learned as we went along in that journey to just slow down and not travel so much. And we had at one point gone from California to Texas in six consecutive days. But for some reason, This time, it felt. Much harder. And here's why I think that is. We are a little bit older. Our bodies are a little different now. I won't get into that, but I would say we've both Bryce and I lost maybe a bit of strength. Maybe a little bit of vigor. I don't know. But here's what I think the real reason is. We now have a travel trailer instead of our nice class a that felt like. I know this is naive, but it just felt like we were so big going down the road that almost nothing could get us. Right. Like cars get out of our way. People don't jump out in front of you in a crosswalk. I mean the big rigs don't care that's for sure. But you just feel safe and solid and secure in a class, a motor home. Well, a travel trailer feels completely different. And we have a car that is probably a little bit underpowered. I talked about this in episode 96. It is technically supposed to be able to pull the travel trailer. But we're getting real close to our max weight. And so when we hit weather and we hit weather every day, if you have crossed west Texas, you know what I need the wind. The gusts. Our intense, we had, you know, wind. Rain. Hail. Every type of weather, you can imagine. Now in, in, when we were crossing through Arizona, I mentioned. Um, we had gone through it. I mentioned in the episode 96, we had gone through a bonafide snowstorm twice. So we didn't hit that on any of the other days, but every type of weather we did hit felt just as difficult. Also, those are some of long stretches where there's nothing out there. And it's just. I don't know, it's just, the road feels long. Some of the pavement on the road is not even, so you feel all of that and you just feel that travel trailer kind of jerking back and forth, back and forth. It just it's a lot. We also travel with two cats and our poor cats and just hate it. The hate drive days. They didn't love the class, a motor home, but at least they could like lay around and find nice hiding places. And now we have them in the car and I do let them out of their, their cat carriers so they can find their places in the car. They like, but boy, they just don't like it at all. So, you know, nobody likes the road trips. I'm not loving it. My husband's not loving it. The cats don't love it. So. I don't know what we'll do with this travel trailer. When we get home. I don't think I'm ever going to come this far in it again. I just think it's too much. Maybe we'll use it for more local events. I don't know. Uh, maybe I'll rent it out. That's an option. Maybe I'll sell it. I don't know. We'll see what happens. So anyway, if you're someone who's thinking about shopping for an RV or motor home, I would say based on my experience, which is limited, because all I've had is a class a, that was thought at 34 feet. The one with the big, you know, the big windshield. And a small 21, well, small ish, 21 foot travel trailer. From those two experiences alone. I will say that. Um, A travel trailer just feels a lot harder. So there you go. There's my 2 cents on that. Okay. Now we did make it to Paris, Texas. Uh, Yahoo. And it was so exciting to see our friends. It was so awesome to be a part of the community. And feel like we were back with our people. I really miss our people. It was validation that I don't think that living in a house in one place is for me. And I also don't think living in a house in one place and having that place be California is for me anymore, born and raised there. I live there almost my whole life. And I think it's time to go. So Bryce and I, while we're on this journey are checking out places in Texas, because we are thinking about. Moving to Texas. I don't know. We're very open at this point, which is exciting. So we make it to Paris. And, uh, what's kind of funny is on the first night they had two food trucks. To food trucks for about 350 people. I think there was like 200 rigs there to 250 rigs maybe, but like 350 people. Now a lot of people will cook or have their own food in their RV or go to dinner, but they did have food trucks on site. For the people who just thought that would be easier. Well, one of the food trucks, I was one of the first people in line. Because I know, I know what lines are like at food trucks at a big event. Right? So I'm bee lining for the line. I'm probably maybe the seventh person in line. And I see one person working the food truck. And there were like 30 people in line. And the only thing that person could do was take orders. He hadn't even started cooking. And I'm like, oh no, this is going to be a disaster. This poor guy. So get up to the window. I put in my order and I say to him, Hey, um, Do you need some help? Because it looks like you're the only one. And I think you're going to get overwhelmed real quickly. And of course his pride, you know, he's like, no, no, no, I'm going to be fine. I've called my cousin, my cousin's on the way. So I said to him, well, okay. How about this? Why don't I come in and help you until your cousin gets here and then, you know, you won't need me anymore. Right? Tried to really just make it seem helpful. And like, he wasn't desperate. So he, he looked at me and he was hesitating and he said, okay, okay, come on in. So I'm not kidding you. I jumped into that food truck. I have never worked in a food truck before. I have worked in restaurants. So how hard can it be? Right. I love fast paced environments. And I love helping out. And it was hard. Cause I had to learn his, uh, point of sale system very quickly, which was on his phone. Uh, I had to learn how to take the orders. I had to learn how to give out the beepers that buzz people. It was insane. It was so crazy and so fun at the same time. That I don't know. It made me want to open a food truck. I swear, but if I open a food truck, It's not going to be one where I actually cook any food. It would be something like where I have shrimp cocktail or Or something cold or something that's like snacks because the grill was, was crazy. It was hot. There are too many things on it. And the guy got so backed up. People were waiting for food for like an hour. I mean, it was, it was a mess, but I had fun and I got to talk to so many people. Who came to the window? Couple people did double takes. They came up to me and they were like, Camille, what are you doing in the food truck? You know, so it was really cool and really fun. And, um, that's really how my event started. Now, I'm looking at the time on this podcast, I've gone over my, I usually target like 20, 22 ish minutes on the podcast. And I haven't even talked about the eclipse yet. Which by the time you're listening to this we're was weeks ago almost. So I hate to postpone it, but I think I'm going to, because I do want to share with you the experience of the eclipse. And I want to tell you more about the event itself. So why don't you join me for the third installment in this series where we'll dig much more into that, and then I'll pick up with. Uh, what happened after the event on the rest of the road trip? So I hope you found this interesting. Maybe a little bit educational and thank you so much for listening. Join me next time. If you're looking to get back into the workforce, change jobs, work remotely, or learn artificial intelligence, check out my free remote work training so you can get ahead of the trends and stay ahead of the pack. Click the link in the show notes, or go to www.camilahealth.com and press the free training button.