2Up and Overloaded – Adventure Motorcycle Travel

Our Origin Story | From Chicago to 8+ Years on the Road

• Tim and Marisa Notier • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Welcome to the very first episode of the 2Up and Overloaded Podcast.

In this episode, Tim and Marisa share the full origin story behind their life of long term motorcycle travel. From meeting as teenagers in Chicago, to reconnecting years later after a decade apart, to eventually quitting their jobs and riding around the world together.

This episode dives into how two very different passions came together. Marisa's love of international travel and Tim's growing obsession with motorcycles.

The result became a life that has now spanned 8+ years on the road, multiple continents, and dozens of countries.

You will hear the story of their first real motorcycle adventure, the trip that changed everything, and the moment that turned a dream into a commitment.

Want to connect with 2up And Overloaded as well other riders?

 • Ask questions
 • Share your own travel stories
 • Suggest future podcast topics
 • Interact directly with Tim and Marisa

Coming Up in Future Episodes

 • Border crossings and travel mishaps
 • Motorcycle gear and packing strategies
 • Finances for long term travel
 • Breakdowns, borders, and bribes
 • The realities of maintaining a relationship on the road

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Tim & Marisa
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Welcome to the Ride

Tim

Hey everyone, nice to have you here. We are Tim and Marisa Notier. Welcome to the very first podcast episode that we've ever made. So this is, I got a little bit of nervous jitters, but this is Marisa and I talking right into your head.

What This Podcast Is All About

Marisa

Everything you've always wanted.

Tim

This is true. So, this podcast is to hopefully try to inspire you to get out there for you know weekend trips, weeks, months, if you will, or the grand apex of years on the road and things we've learned while we have been on the road, some of the troubles we've had, the joys, the successes, the failures, good bikes, bad bikes.

Marisa

Yeah, it's all about travel, adventure, motorcycles, culture, all the things that you've been wanting to know from us who have been on the road for many a year in many a country by two wheels.

Tim

This is true. But this episode, particularly, those of you who have watched us on YouTube possibly, joined our Patreon page, read our blogs, uh, our origin story. We've never really discussed in full detail. I did write a book called Maiden Voyage that covers it in depth, but this is not an audio reading of that, but we'll kind of just go over, you know, how we met and how the heck we got to be eight years on the road.

Marisa

Yeah, eight plus years. And it's been many continents. I mean, we've been all over the Americas where we're from, but from all the way north to all the way south that you can go. We've been through Africa, half of Africa.

Tim

Half-rica, I like to call it.

Marisa

And now we've been in Southeast Asia for years.

Tim

This is true. Since August 21st of 2017. That's right. Until this very day in your ears. So why are we doing a podcast there, Marisa?

Marisa

Well, we already make YouTube travel videos, which are basically like our daily vlogs as we're on the road. It's all in chronological order and it's a day-by-day story, but we have so many other stories that aren't on YouTube, and not just stories, but advice to give. And so we thought that this podcast would allow a deeper dive into all of that information.

Tim

Absolutely. We have too many stories for just uh some Instagram captions and how many ever characters Facebook allows you to put in to type a little bit. And this podcast is kind of gonna be the best of the best of all of our travels so far. Whereas YouTube is kind of chronological, but here we get to skip to hey man, remember Peru and how amazing that was? Remember when our bike broke down in Bolivia? You know, remember when the very first we got into Tijuana and we both kind of asked ourselves, yeah, we're gonna actually follow through with this?

Marisa

Yeah, I was nervous that we were gonna turn back at that moment.

Tim

Yeah, and this is a little bit more interactive. You know, we want to get our Patreon community to give us maybe what they want to hear from us, you know, the struggles we've had, the successes, favorite countries, you know, try to uh be hand in hand with those of you who are interested in the feedback and the suggestions. It'd be really cool to kind of do a call and response.

The Reality of Life on the Road

Marisa

That's right. I mean, we're gonna go over all the things as far as like border crossings and travel mishaps, um, our relationship on the road and how we sustain that and the reality of long-term travel. I mean, it is not everything that you see on social media, and we want to really get into the nitty-gritty of that.

Tim

Absolutely. So it would just be really cool if, you know, maybe we can inspire some of you to, hey, I think I could do that too. If Tim can follow a little blue line on Google Maps for eight years continuously, maybe I too, that being you, can uh find yourself in the middle of some foreign country trying to use Google Translate to order chicken. So let's uh let's dive into it. Yeah, let's do it. Key the theme song. Hey everyone, nice to have you here. We are Tim and Marisa Notier. I write in the front and I'm in the rear.

Marisa

We travel the world and we pack too much gear. Oh well, the fun we've had. So give us a like and hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride.

The Desire to Explore

Tim

Hopefully, everyone here can relate to the desire to explore the world, eating deep-fried weird bugs in Thailand.

Marisa

Yeah, I don't know if everyone can relate to that.

Tim

I personally don't, but uh Marisa has eaten deep-fried. I think you avoided the scorpions.

Marisa

But you know, I'm just saying that not everyone may have the desire for that. But certainly everyone's got a desire for some sort of exploration, I would say.

Tim

Absolutely. So, how did we go from our nine to five job to sometimes not even knowing what day of the week it is? And sometimes, this is a little bit of honesty, not only do I not know what month it is, but there's a good like four-month buffer when I don't know what year it is. I sign documents and I'm like, uh-oh, and I gotta break out my calendar to be like, oh my god, what year is it? And if you're in Thailand, they're like 400 years ahead.

Marisa

Oh, they are. Yeah, it's the year, actually, I think it's several thousand.

Tim

Yeah. So it gets quite confusing. I don't know if this dispels your desire, but knowing what time it is and what year it is gets really foggy.

Marisa

I think that's what lots of people out there want.

Tim

This is true. It is, it is, it's I think it's ignorantly blissful.

Marisa

It is.

Tim

Before we found ourselves in that classic standing up, you know, bent knees absorbing bumps, that classic adventure pose that is really, to be honest, quite unnecessary most of the time. But it looks cool. It does. Uh but how did we go from TPS reports to on the road? It was a lot of saving, planning, inspiration of others. I mean, Sam Manicom and Ted Simon, we would go to like expos. Got super excited about this potential about heading out on the road. Um, but at one point we didn't even had a bike, or at least we had a Yamaha Raider, which is not necessarily an adventure travel motorcycle bike.

How We Met

Marisa

Yeah, and let's take it way, way back to a point where we didn't even have each other. But that that is going way back because we've almost always had each other. We actually met in high school or even my eighth grade year, so technically before high school.

Tim

I was 24.

Marisa

No, you're two years older than me. Two years older than me. So yeah, you were in high school, and uh yeah, we hit it off and we even dated in high school.

Tim

We went to prom together.

Marisa

You went to my prom, which was super awesome. Um, but then eventually I graduated from school and decided to go to college, basically on the other side of the country. We're from Chicago, and I picked a school in Maine, and that was really far. And we thought, oh, we'll try to stay together, but we both kind of knew that that probably wasn't a reality.

Tim

Sad times to be me.

Marisa

Sad times to be me, too.

Tim

But I stayed at home and I bought a house and I got a job, and I was participating in all of the typical American things that build towards that dream of having a 75-inch TV and PlayStation X entered there, you know, watching football. And you know, I bought a car so I can go to work, so I can pay for the car that I bought to go to work. And I was uh I was a good what do they call 'em. Good uh I contributed to commerce.

Marisa

A consumer? You're a good consumer. A good American.

Tim

I was such a good consumer. I consumed.

Marisa

That's right. I consumed as well. But I did a lot of travels. It pretty much started when I was in college, and I continued my travels even after college. It was a good 10 years that we were away from each other. I would come home every once in a while, and sometimes we'd reconnect through friends. But most of the time I was out and about exploring the world, and um I did backpacking in Australia. I would do a lot of farming and cleaning out goat stalls in Ireland and things like that. I stayed in monasteries in China and befriended spider monkeys in Guatemala. I mean, I I loved traveling. I was all over the place. But eventually I made it back to Chicago in my mid-twenties.

Tim

Yeah. Marisa, this is well before podcasts were a thing. But she was she was like the local bard at the the bar telling us tales of faraway lands and spider monkeys. And we're like, what? She wrote on camels and saw the the pyramids, and you know. Uh so it was always really interesting listening to her stories even way back when.

Marisa

Yeah, and more sad times to come. One year I came back and I was married.

Tim

Boo, moment of silence.

Marisa

I ruined the moment.

Tim

But that was that was unacceptable. I had stayed faithful. No, it was I had not dated.

Marisa

That is not true. But you did not marry. But um my marriage did not last, and as it kind of fell apart, uh Tim and I Yeah, I wiggled back in. But yes, we rekindled things.

Tim

I was the rebound guy.

Marisa

You were first though.

Tim

This is true. I'm a double dribble, I guess. I don't know. But I like to say she traveled the entire world to try to find someone better than me, and she thought she did, and it it turns out she didn't, and so if they love you, they'll come back.

Marisa

Yeah, and that was very true. Um, so I had this love of travel, but Tim, you had developed a very different love during those years away from each other.

Tim

You want me to name her?

Marisa

No.

Tim

My cats?

Marisa

Uh no.

Motorcycles Enter the Story

Tim

I love motorcycles. I bought a Yamaha Raider and I would cruise around. I looked, I bought the leather jacket kind of looking. Uh if anybody knows me, I'm not a leather jacket type of dude, so I bought it because I thought I had to, and then I realized that I was trying to look too much like John Travolta or James Dean.

Marisa

And, you looked good in the leather jacket.

Tim

Thank you. It was expensive, and I think I wore it like four times. But uh yeah, I bought I I had my house, I had my car, I had my motorcycle, and then I invited Marissa to live with me. So I had I had my sweet thing as well. So we were trying to decide what to do with our lives. I mean, Marissa had this big, wide open world that she had traveled and loved, and I think she was kind of scared that I was going to just try to build my own little empire in Chicagoland.

Marisa

Yeah, I mean, I knew that you were very settled and that my gallivanting previous life abroad was probably not gonna happen, and it was a sacrifice that I was very willing to make to be with you. I had this international life that I was giving up, basically.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

But at the same time, you hadn't been a big traveler, but I also was not into your motorcycle.

Tim

Yeah. And I think most of us here listening would probably want to take that leap of like I didn't I wasn't in love with my nine to five. I was excited that I had a house, and I'd get like excited to pay my bills and take my garbage out and like all these like adult things, you know, in my early 20s. I'm like, look at me. You know, I mean I had dropped out of high school while Marissa was off exploring the world. So, you know, my mother was very proud of her son that had dropped out. I I'm sure she had lost faith years ago. But uh here I was uh, you know, being a good consumer. My next tackle was trying to get Marissa on the back of the bike uh that I had bought in my James Dean jacket. I think that might have persuaded things a little bit more, but it did. She was not a real big fan.

First Rides

Marisa

No, I refused for quite a while. I was not a fan of motorcycles. I thought they were needlessly dangerous. And um, although I had loved riding horses when I was younger, I couldn't understand the allure of a motorcycle. It just seemed very scary to me. Um but Tim's leather jacket was very enticing.

Tim

One of those four times I wore it, she she said yeah. But we we'd take off to go camping because we both enjoyed camping. That's right. Uh, and where we're from, you know, there's uh Devil's Rock in Wisconsin. There's a couple lakes around, you know, so we we'd go camping and enjoy that thoroughly. And we progressively tried to push ourselves, you know, a little bit further and further away from home. I mean, Marissa was a teacher, and I had my nine to five Monday through Friday. And so like three-day, four-day weekends were pretty much the extent of, you know, how far east or west can we drive in two days so we can make it back in the remaining two.

Marisa

Yeah, it was kind of like the beginnings of combining our two separate loves, um, combining Tim's love of the motorcycle with my love of traveling and camping, nature, getting out of the city of Chicago, because I loved to just explore new places, and this motorcycle became a means for us to do that. And I realized that it was fun. It was thrilling to be on the back. Once I started to build that trust with Tim, I wasn't as scared as I was at the very beginning. And we would have these fun weekend trips of going camping and going to different states that I hadn't really explored before. Yes, I'd been to many countries, but I didn't know much about the U.S.

Tim

She never went to Des Moines. That was that was all me. No travel agents involved.

Marisa

That's right. We went to Des Moines, Iowa. Uh, we went to Indiana. I mean, when you're in Chicago, your options are a little bit limited. We went to Wisconsin.

Tim

Like the biggest hill in Chicago is at White Sox Park, the pitcher's mound, you know. So not a whole lot of terrain to go to. But we did, once we started pushing further and further, uh, you know, some of these fire roads that lead to more remote campgrounds and down by lakes and you know, off the beaten path down by rivers or through forests and stuff. The the Raider is it was a 1900 Yamaha Raider. Awesome bike, totally epic.

Marisa

Yeah, it looks like a cruiser. Yeah, it does. But to me, not knowing anything about motorcycles, it looked like a Harley type of bike.

Tim

Yeah, hence why I had to buy the leather jacket.

Marisa

Yeah, exactly.

Tim

But it won't even turn on without but we did realize that it wasn't necessarily the most capable for going down some of these crazy roads and stuff. And you know, we did watch Long Way Up, Down, and Around, and that was hugely inspirational. You know, and some people give them crap because they had support vehicles and cameramen and this, that, and the other thing. But just uh, no one needs to stick up for Ian McGregor. He's doing just fine. But uh, like he didn't have to do any of that.

Marisa

You know, no, I respect them for it. I mean, especially for being so famous and so rich. Yeah, they had a camera crew with them. Really, at the time, that was one of the only ways to do a proper production of filming of your journey. And so, yeah, I give them credit for really going out there and facing the elements and facing the reality of and difficulties of motorcycle travel.

Tim

Charlie Borman's a little bit of a loose cannon, though. Always doing wheelies across everything. I think he's broken everything. Yeah. And it's like, I wonder why. But Newan McGregor, no broken bones.

Marisa

Uh no, I think he broke his leg in the first season. Long way round. It's been a while, but I do remember that.

Choosing the Right Bike

Tim

But it inspired us, and it also inspired me to buy a BMW 1200 GSA. But that was like $25,000. Yeah. I didn't have that. Nowadays they're probably like $30,000.

Marisa

I just want to be clear, you did not buy the BMW.

Tim

I didn't. I did the responsible thing and I bought a $15,000 motorcycle, a KTM 1190 adventure.

Marisa

There you go. Very mature of you.

Tim

Mature.

Marisa

I mean, it really came down to because at the time, those were like the adventure bikes. Now the market has expanded so much. But back in 2014, it was limited to, you know, even Charlie Borman and Ewan McGregor, they were debating between those same two bikes. And um, that was the adventure motorcycle market. And we basically chose the KTM over the BMW because of finances, and it was just that much cheaper.

Tim

And it was a good decision. I really love our that thing has taken us to so many places. And I mean, I I bought this bike before I could really do any off-road. I had no idea how to traverse through gravel or mud or sand, and a little bit of a spoiler alert, I still barely know how to do any of that. I know how to get into sand and be like, oh crap, I shouldn't be here and turn it around and get back out. But uh, yeah, that that bike had potential capabilities that I could utilize as my skill level grew. Uh, but it it was the S, it wasn't the R, so it didn't have a 21-inch front tire, but it had, you know, it felt like 20 feet more clearance than the Yamaha Raider. But we packed that thing to the gills with our same setup as we had on the Raider, and yeah, we we knew right off the bat that that was uh a good purchase.

Marisa

Absolutely. We wanted to extend our adventures, and we started dreaming of mountains.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

That's something that you don't have in the Midwest at all. And on a motorcycle, as many of you know, going through twisty roads and mountains with gorgeous mountain scenery, I mean, does it get better than that?

Maiden Voyage

Tim

Yeah. And, you know, after watching long way up, down, around, and through, we were like, well, let's do a little, you know, I mean, every the it's like I said, Instagram, all these movies, it all looks more romantic and beautiful, and like, well, they went from one beautiful spot to the next with no craziness in between, you know, or very few. But we wanted to see, hey, before we, you know, take off, quit our jobs, let's let's do a little trip around the Rockies to make sure that we actually enjoy this. Or if it was like, hey, you as a teacher, you get summers off, and I can take, you know, three weeks off a year, maybe that will be the the full extent of we want to do. Because eight years on the road, one year on the road is sometimes it can is overwhelming and too much, and some people take off and say, you know what, this this isn't quite for me.

Marisa

Exactly. It was like the idea was there, but we were just not in a place to say to ourselves, oh yes, we're going to quit our careers and lose that entire safety net, everything that we've built and known, um, and just do something crazy like going around the world on a motorcycle. You had never been to another country besides.

Tim

I've been to Canada.

Marisa

Yeah. I mean, when how old were you?

Tim

16, 17.

Marisa

Yeah, did you need a passport?

Tim

I mean, how many questions are you gonna ask me where the answers gonna be like, oh yeah, at that time Canada was part of the United States. No, Canada is it might have been two hours away, but it was. It was Midland, Ontario. Okay, it was the most bland part of Canada there could ever be.

Marisa

But okay, technically, yes, you went to another country, but besides that, you were not, you know, much of an international traveler.

Tim

You did not have your golden passport.

Marisa

No, you did not have a golden, you didn't have any passport. And um, yeah, so the idea, it floated in our heads, but more like a very wispy cloud.

Tim

Yeah, sometimes dreams are better than reality, you know. We just wanted to test that, you know, to see because I did have a good job. I was making good money, yeah. Uh, which was part of the reason why this even at the time seemed like a potential option, because we were like, hey, we can save up for like four years, and that should have enough uh money to keep us on the road for three years, which was our original plan. But before we dove into the deep end, we took this trip. Around the Rockies.

Marisa

Yes, and you call that Maiden Voyage.

Tim

Our Maiden Voyage, very fitting. I even wrote a book called Maiden Voyage.

Marisa

That's right. Your first book is the prequel to the adventure of a lifetime. You called it back then, before we even took an adventure of the lifetime.

Tim

Oh, I knew it. But at the time, we only had a limited amount of time to get to South Dakota and do our little loop that we wanted and get back. So I figured we'd save some time if we just put the bike on a trailer and we were able to, you know, get there in two days instead of four. And that would give us two days on either end to get back. But like the the bike dilemmas started with me trying to put this 500-pound motorcycle up maybe a foot and a half ramp at like a two-degree incline. That was one of the scariest moments of my life at that point. I had just bought this brand new machine, hadn't dropped it, and now I had to get on the back of this ramp so I can ferry this motorcycle a quarter of the way across the country.

Marisa

Honestly, it was funny, but also scary because this was our baby. We had never dropped this motorcycle. We had never put a scratch on it. It was so new, and this whole idea that we were gonna take it out west was a bit terrifying. And then putting it up on the trailer, I thought, oh no, he's gonna drop it, and it's gonna get smashed and smashed.

Tim

Oh my god.

Marisa

Into smithereens, basically, before our adventure had ever even started.

Tim

Some people may have seen me almost dropping my bike off a cliff in Lesotho or KTM 1190. That was pretty sketchy and scary. Uh in a close call, and we now make wiser decisions. Um that's one of my more popular little clips on Facebook where people like to say I don't know how to ride and I shouldn't be out there exploring the world.

Marisa

That was terrifying.

Rookie Mistakes

Tim

That was terrifying. But what was terrifying was me trying to get this motorcycle up that ramp.

Marisa

It was a super narrow ramp.

Tim

This is true.

Marisa

The hiccups, I'm sorry.

Tim

So professional. Podcast episode one. Marisa's drunk.

Marisa

Let me see if I can uh scare this out of myself.

Tim

Well, I'll tell a little tale. Strapping down an object with its own suspension can be tricky.

Marisa

Yeah.

Tim

If you don't tighten it down too much, because I didn't know if I would like compress and then that would be bad. And you know, not even having it be able to have any freedom or movement might jam or clog or seize something. But the the truth of it all, a little spoiler alert, and some people probably already know this because this isn't the most uh advanced knowledge in the world, but as we go through these these episodes, you might realize that hey, I again I can probably do this because Tim knows so very little about anything. But the the truth of the matter is you just want to crank those straps all the way down because yeah, if that suspension buckles in and then pops back out, that amount of you know force can break the straps.

Marisa

Yeah.

Tim

And then your bike, you know, which was nice and evenly taught on both sides, now is leaning to the left, and you know, and guess how we learned this? Yeah, we broke like five straps.

Marisa

We broke so many straps we had to go to all of these gas stations looking for ratchet straps.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

We were like, how do people do this? How do people go past 10 miles from their home without breaking straps?

Tim

But we learned. We learned through through trial and error, and error and error. Uh but we finally got to South Dakota, and then the next step was well, we wanted to ditch the car in the trailer, and I had to get the motorcycle off of this ramp. Now I'm going backwards, folks.

Marisa

Oh my gosh.

Tim

I'm a foot and a half above the earth going backwards.

Marisa

But it, I mean, it was wider than the tire, but not that wide of a ramp. And very long. How long would you say that ramp was?

Tim

It was six foot.

Marisa

Yeah.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

So, I mean, that's quite the distance.

Tim

I know. This is why I married this woman, is because everybody out there is like, oh, a foot and a half and six feet. Oh my god. And Brissa's like, seriously. It was so Tim was a superhero. Tim was such a man's man.

Marisa

I was so impressed.

Tim

She was impressed. Well, I'm wheeling this thing off, and we decided I'd be on the left of it, and she'd be on the right of it. I think I was on the right because then I could have the handbrake. Uh but yeah, my fear was that I would drop the motorcycle and crush the two things I love most in my life.

Marisa

Oh.

Tim

My pride and my motorcycle.

Marisa

Of course. Yes.

Tim

But we got it on solid ground, folks.

Marisa

Oh my gosh. I mean, at that point in time, I was so impressed with us because coming all the way out to South Dakota, kind of where the hills start and the planes end from Chicago with a motorcycle that we had for the first time ever strapped onto a trailer. I mean, this was a huge accomplishment for us. I felt it. I felt like, wow, we had done something. We had we basically gone to the moon.

Tim

Yeah. We were cruising around the Black Hills, which is very, I want to say it's a lunar landscape, but it was otherworldly to this kid from Chicago.

Marisa

Oh, yes, and the Badlands. I mean, it is a very strange lunar landscape.

Tim

Is the Black Hills the Badlands? Why'd I say Black Hills?

Marisa

No, there's Black Hills and there's Badlands, but I think they're very close together.

Tim

I'm learning here.

Marisa

Or just forgetting.

Tim

Yeah. I mean, that was 2015, maybe?

Marisa

Yeah, I think so.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

No, before. 2014.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

Yeah.

Kindness of Strangers

Tim

But yeah, that was that was an epic first spin of the wheels. That w we felt like things were right and it was absolutely incredible. Uh but yeah, we had to then ditch the the car and the trailer, and we didn't have a real good plan. But a lovely woman that was a receptionist at the hotel we were at, I asked her if we can just leave the car in the parking lot for a week, and she said, eh, it seems a little sketchy. Why don't you just park it in my house? And I was like, Hey! I know this is the first hospitality of a complete stranger that was helping us along, one of you know, thousands. Eight billion at this point.

Marisa

Yes, or eight billion. I mean, I this was the introduction to what was going to be years upon years upon years of people being so kind out of nowhere and just helping us along. I mean, we couldn't do any of our travels without the generosity of people that we've come across.

Tim

Absolutely. So we successfully got the car in the trailer parked, and we were solely dependent on our motorcycle.

Marisa

Yeah.

Tim

And we started riding back to the hotel, and of course, it just starts to to downpour as our welcoming party. Uh, but that was one of the very first lessons learned is that our our gear was horrible. Our gear sucks. So here we are in three quarter face helmets. Yeah. You know, so the rain is just going on the chin, sucking in into beneath the jacket. Uh, or we had rain gear that rain gear even crappy rain gear is really expensive.

Marisa

Yeah, uh, and this was gas station rain gear. And um we I mean, that's just what we had.

Tim

Yeah.

Marisa

And it was not very waterproof.

Tim

It was not waterproof at all.

Marisa

And it was very hot and sticky, mostly like a garbage bag.

Tim

Absolutely. But we did continue on triumphantly, and we wound our way through Needles, which is incredible. We saw Mount Rushmore, which is stunning. We went to Estes National Park, you know, all these epic places.

Marisa

And I was beginning to realize because of all this rain and cold weather that we were facing, when you're on a motorcycle, that cold wind, even as a person who's behind someone on a motorcycle, it really gets to you. And I'm someone who gets cold very easily. And as we said, our gear was woefully inadequate. And I was getting cold and wet, and it was very hard for me to keep a chipper mood.

Tim

And Marisa is the CEO of Chipper Mood. If Marisa's not in a chipper mood, you cannot rely on me to make up the difference. And yeah, like Marissa said, she hates being cold and she hates being wet. And if the she's cold and wet, it's like feeding a magwai after midnight. She turns into a little gremlin.

Marisa

You know, but yeah, I and I was disappointed in myself that I was getting so upset. But I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy this incredible scenery as much as I should have because I was so cold and wet at all times. I mean, my face felt frozen by the time we got to Yellowstone National Park, which was a big highlight of our trip. I had been looking forward to this. I'd never been there before. I'd never been to any of these national parks that we were planning to go to, and this was like so exciting for me. But it was cold in Yellowstone.

Tim

And speaking of cold, Marisa was uh cold hearted.

Marisa

Yes.

Tim

Yeah. Yeah. We had a talk that night about our future. Um In our freezing tent. In our freezing tent. And things got a little, you know, got a little emotional between her and I, which was super sad for me. I you know, I kinda asked her if you know she'd ever want to get married one day. And she said it kind of depended on if I wanted children and some other factors and some real hard-hitting, you know, life realities.

Marisa

Yeah.

The Proposal

Tim

But then uh the next day we went to Yellowstone and unknown to Marisa, she had been sitting on a surprise for the length of our little maiden voyage up until that point. And we took a little hike to Artist Point in Yellowstone, and a little bit past it, and I saw a French woman walking by, and I asked her if she can take a picture of me. And Marisa went and stood in pose, and then I told the French lady to press record and to keep recording, and so she did, and then I sat by Marisa, and then I got down on one knee, and I asked her to marry me, and she said no. No, no.

Marisa

I did say no a bunch of times, and the reason why is because I was saying, no way, I was so happy, I was so overjoyed, and by no I meant yes, but it is kind of funny when you watch the video, it's just a bunch of no's in a row. But I can imagine that you were terrified because even just moments before, I was pretty miserable. I mean, I was at a low point. I felt like I hadn't, you know, been warm or bathed or brushed my teeth in forever. It was pretty disgusting to be like so cold in the tent and camping for so many nights in a row. And it affected my mood, sadly. And we had had that argument the night before. We hadn't really made up in a very good way.

Tim

That's the best time to propose. Here's your first tip. Ask her to marry you when she's pissed off at you. Because if she still says yes, that's a good thing. I had an audience of one, this French woman who probably understood what was going on. But if it was if it was a no, she'd just given me my hand, my phone back and and walked away, and there would only be one person that knew of my failures. But Marisa did. She revised her answer and clarified and said yes.

Marisa

You had a lovely poem for me, and I'd gotten down on the ground, was just crying with you because you were also kneeling.

Tim

I was not crying, just to clarify.

Marisa

I was on the ground with you. And um, so even though I had said no a bunch of times, I I didn't even realize that I was like, no, you know, it was like screaming no.

Tim

It was echoing throughout the canyon.

Marisa

In my head, I was just like, no way, this is so crazy, no way, no way. But after we stood back up, you said to me, So do you mean yes? I was like, yes. But I it just didn't occur to me that I had said no a bunch of times, but I'm glad you didn't take it as a no.

Tim

This is true. And I'm I've been forever thankful for that day. And here's a proposal for everybody out there.

Ride Thailand With Us

Marisa

Ooh.

Tim

I propose an adventure with Marisa and I through Thailand.

Marisa

Ah.

Tim

Because this podcast has kind of been about our woes and unpreparedness and me not knowing exactly what to do, but things have changed slightly. And now we lead tours in Thailand through this incredible part of the world, literally on the opposite side of the world from Chicago, Illinois, and we go through Chiang Mai, we do the May Hong Song Loop, through Twisty Roads, we see long neck villages, we see elephants, and it's just an incredible ride. And Marisa is the brains behind it, and I'm just uh she calls me the luggage up front.

Marisa

And no, no, you're so much more than that. But this tour is amazing. Um, not only do we do these incredible roads in the north that are world-renowned for being so beautiful and twisty. I mean, they're just perfect pavement. But then we all go to the south of Thailand, where they have some of the best beaches in the world, and we stay on an island. So it is the best of both worlds.

Tim

It is. We get the twisty roads and the culture and the nature and the north, which everybody loves, and then the beautiful beaches down south, and the snorkeling, and going to see those huge limestone cliffs while kayaking. It's gonna be epic. So you you can say no a couple times too. But I hope I hope you come around because it is an amazing experience with wonderful people, wonderful, like-minded adventurers, all led by me and Marissa.

Marisa

That's right. So if you're interested in writing with us in the incredible kingdom of Thailand, you can check that out on our website at 2upandoverloaded.com. It's the number 2 up and overloaded.com. And there you can get all the itinerary and beautiful pictures and maps and everything you'd ever want.

Committing to the Dream

Tim

Absolutely. And it'll also be in the show notes below. Alright, so Marisa and I had successfully completed our loop around the Rockies. We are now engaged at this point, and we have our mindset that we actually want to do this full time. I I don't think that the three months at a time every summer is gonna cut it for us. So, how do we get on the road and be our own Charlie and Ewan McGregor? And I call I'm Ewan McGregor, you're Charlie Barman.

Marisa

Ah, that's fine. I'm the crazy one.

Tim

But we figured we would just save up. At that point, I had a couple cars. I still had the Yamaha Raider motorcycle, so we sold that bad boy, and we started paying down our debt, and instead of buying, you know, the PlayStation 3 at that time or whatever it was back then, you know, we just became a little bit more fiscally responsible. Uh, and my consumer award went I I didn't get it those years because I stopped buying all the latest gadgets.

Marisa

That's right. I mean, we knew we had this goal in mind, and that's such a beautiful thing. Like I always say about motorcycle travel is that you have these three different seasons of it. The first season or the first event is the planning of it and getting really, really excited for your trip. And the second one is actually experiencing it, and then the third one is reliving it through your pictures or memories. And each one is special in its own way, and we were at this point in the initial planning phase, and it's a beautiful thing. It has its challenges, it has its difficulties. We knew we had a lot that we needed to learn before we head off on the road. Mostly we needed a better setup because I had been so cold and miserable during some of those parts of our maiden voyage that I knew that if I could be warm and if I could be dry, and if we could have better camping gear and motorcycle gear, and just to make sure that I was not my mood was not being altered by my physical situation, then yeah, that was a hurdle that we knew that we needed to get over.

Tim

Yeah, and we'll go over in further detail in a couple more episodes about like the Overland Expos we went to, that pretty much I just walked around to everybody and was like, Were you cold last night? And whoever said no. I was like, What do you have? You know, and uh I took an off-road course through Dart, that's Dragoo Adventure Riding Techniques, and that was really beneficial to get us out of some situations we'd find ourselves in years later. Uh and I always say you don't have to be a professional motorcycle mechanic to go around the world, but it is good to have some tools, if you will, uh, mentally and physically to help you get out of some basic situations. But yeah, we spent those four years saving up, uh paying off cars, paying off debt, and getting a little bit more prepared as far as riding abilities and the gear that we had.

Marisa

Yeah, and another thing that we did that was, I think, uh paramount and really, really important to us actually leaving on this trip of our dreams was we uh set a departure date. It was a very special date for us.

Tim

Yeah. It was the lunar eclipse. Nope. I messed it up.

Marisa

The solar eclipse.

Tim

Yeah, it was August 21st of 2017. Uh the reason why we picked a date is because I was making some pretty good money, and I figured if we saved up for those four years, that would get us three years on the road. But like pretty much every year I saved up would be like another two years on the road, and you can just get into this trap of, you know, well, what we if we work a decade, then maybe we can spend 20 years on the road.

Marisa

Yeah.

Tim

And you might just not ever leave. So it was very important that we picked a date. Marisa and I are huge fans of the stars, and that just seems kind of like a uh very good omen, a good a good date that would launch us off and and hopefully on a very successful three-year around the world trip that we we failed to meet that timeline.

Marisa

Yeah, that was the original plan.

Tim

So August 21st, we put on our little solar glasses, our little 3D glasses, stared at that beauty.

Marisa

Yeah, it was it was the totality.

Tim

It was the totality.

Marisa

Yeah, with the ring of fire all around it. I mean, it was a very, very cool event.

Tim

Yeah, and then we packed everything on our KTM 1190, and we took off not really knowing what the heck we were going to do, but we had quit our jobs and we had sold all of our stuff, and so we were just hoping that we had made the right decision.

Join the Community

Marisa

That's right. So eight years later, actually, more than that, eight and a half years after that, we have been to dozens of countries. We've met thousands of people, certainly. We have endless stories. So I really want to thank you so much for tuning in to our very first podcast.

Tim

Yes, it's true. You made it through our blunders, and you know, I I just hope that we get to kind of know each other a little bit more. It'd be really great if uh we can interact on Patreon. There's a message, a community chat there that uh you can you can write to us on. That's where we have our blogs and videos and our list of previous podcasts. So that's kind of just a community hub that we're trying to build there. It's a little bit easier than trying to dig through Facebook and Instagram messages. Uh but that's right. We invite everybody to join our family.

Marisa

And I think a lot of people think that. Patreon is only for paid members, but this community is also free. So you can just show up on our Patreon page and talk to us there.

Tim

This is true. I like to call them pillions. Free ride on the back.

Marisa

That's right. And there's nothing wrong with being a pillion.

Tim

Absolutely. We're glad to have you along for the ride. And yeah, we're excited for future episodes to kind of go over the hard parts of travel. You know, some of my internal struggles, some of me growing as a writer, a husband, as a traveler, and uh reality of life on the road.

Marisa

Yeah. And we want to talk about finances, gear, uh the three B's, as I call it. Breakdowns, borders, and bribes. We're going to have it all coming up.

Tim

We would love to hear from you. Not only for you to say hi, but we want to hear some of your stories, some of your questions. Uh, it'd be really cool if, you know, maybe possibly we can read some of the comments on our next episode. Yeah. If you guys have directions you kind of want to point and shape this podcast. Of, you know, we have a thousand stories, but if ten of them are kind of the most important on your guys' mind, we we want to make sure that we cover those. Uh, so it'd be great to hear from you. Again, there will be links in the show notes below to our Patreon community, and we really hope to hear from you. We're so glad to have everybody along for the ride. We're so grateful that you listened to our first podcast of thousands.

Marisa

Thousands more to come.

Tim

Thousands more to come. So this is Tim.

Marisa

And this is Marisa.

Tim

And we are 2up and overloaded. Stay safe, everybody. Bye. Peace.