Road Trips, Digital Nomad Vanlife, and Learning Spanish with Katie and Dan in a Van

EPISODE SUMMARY:

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go we meet Katie and Dan from Katie and Dan in a Van. They discuss their love of road trips and excitement for visiting national parks and off-the-beaten path countries. From vanlife safety tips to revealing what life is like as digital nomads in the YouTube and tech industries, this duo demonstrates their range and breadth of nomadic knowledge. Katie and Dan also provide thoughtful insights into the impact of travel on local communities and how to be a superb travel partner. Stay tuned for the most fantastic gift idea for travellers at the end of the episode!

Travelling through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun and quirky show from Travel with TMc that delves into all things travel and adventures from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. Subscribe for weekly updates!

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CHECK OUT KATIE & DAN IN A VAN:

Instagram - @katieanddaninavan
Instagram - @katiesteckly/
Website - https://katiesteckly.com/

MORE RESOURCES & LINK FROM TODAY’S EPISODE:

Katie & Dan's Song Choice - Life is a Highway
iTalki (Language Learning platform)
Uniglass/Ziebart
iOverlander (vanlife app)
Park4Night (vanlife app)

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to Katie & Dan in a Van
1:57 Pandemic Effects on Travel: The Start of Vanlife
3:32 First Trips & Childhood Experiences
7:43 How to Choose Where to Travel: Work, Budget, Off-the-Beaten Path, National Park Goals
11:53 Travel Traditions
14:07 Language & Travel: French, German, Spanish
20:36 Impact of Tech on Travel Style: Paper Maps, Starlink, & Remote Work
24:43 Documenting Travel Memories: Film Photos & YouTube
26:16 Travelling Without Technology
29:08 Personal & External Impacts of Travel: Confidence, Comfort Zones, Cultural Norms
37:57 Career Impacts from Travel: Stumbling into YouTube & Switching to Remote Work
41:14 How Are You Different when Travelling than at Home?
42:35 Where is Home? Living vs. Travelling Abroad
43:51 Safety Tips for Vanlife & Travel
48:15 How to Deal with Post-Trip Blues
49:33 Spotify Travel Playlist: Katie & Dan's Choice
51:07 Speed Round: Home FOMO, Hangry Travellers, Best Travel Apps & Gifts
59:02 Until Next Time & @KatieandDaninaVan

Transcript

Tara (Travel With TMc) (00:06)
Hello. Welcome to Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go. I'm your host Tara and the founder of the blog Travel with TMc which is where this adventure all started. Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, is a fun and quirky show that delves into everything travel and adventure, whether it's from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen so that you don't miss notifications for new episodes. This season, we cover a variety of travel topics. It's my hope that you'll find one or many that make you say, Hey! That's me! I travel that way! Or that they inspire you to try something new. 

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, we meet Katie and Dan from Katie and Dan in a Van. They discuss their love of road trips and excitement for visiting national parks and off-the-beaten-path countries. From van life safety tips to revealing what life is like as digital nomads in both the YouTube and tech industries, this duo demonstrates their range and breadth of nomadic knowledge. Katie and Dan also provide thoughtful insights into the impact of travel on local communities and how to be a superb travel partner. Stay tuned for the most fantastic gift idea for travellers at the end of the episode. Okay, let's dive in!

Tara (Travel with TMc) (01:35)
I'm so pumped to have you on the show as one of the first guests. So good to have you here. So for those of you who maybe don't follow either of us on socials, Katie and I actually crossed paths pre-pandemic. I think it was at a Ladies Who Launch event in KW, is that right?

Katie & Dan in a Van (01:41)
Thanks so much for having us. It's great to be here.

Yeah,

yeah, it was a networking event. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (01:59)
Yeah. And then it wasn't until like years later that we actually met in person. Yeah. Like properly met, I suppose I should say, but I had reached out on Instagram. We met and then you guys actually helped me with like looking for my van and then part of the build process. So we've, we've had a few different interactions over the years. That way we went, yeah, van camping together for my first time. That was awesome. And then Spanish lessons as well.

Katie & Dan in a Van (02:03)
Yeah.

We go way back.

Yes!

Tara (Travel with TMc) (02:26)
So yeah, we've got lots of crisscross there. I'm so happy to have you guys on the show. You're both really lovely, generous, friendly people. And so I'm happy to be able to share your story with everybody who's listening.

Katie & Dan in a Van (02:40)
Oh yeah, well thank you for having us. We're really excited to talk about travel, living in the van, working from the van. So yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (02:47)
Yeah, speaking of, tell us a bit about yourselves, who you are, what you do, what kind of travel you enjoy, and where you're calling in from today.

Katie & Dan in a Van (02:57)
Yeah, so we are currently in Yuma, Arizona. We just spent some time in Baja, California, Mexico, which was amazing. But we are now starting our journey back to Kitchener, Ontario, which is where we live. Yeah, and we've been travelling in our self-converted camper van, which we converted during the pandemic. And thank you.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (03:21)
And it's beautiful. If anybody hasn't seen

it, you have to check out their YouTube Instagram.

Katie & Dan in a Van (03:24)
Yeah, thank you. You get a little taste of it

in our background here. But yeah, I don't know what would you say is our preferred kind of travel? I mean, we've been road tripping for a long time before we had this van. We used to borrow my parents mini van and we travelled all around Canada in that. So we've been road tripping for a long time and then yeah and camping of course. I never really did a lot of camping growing up. That was a big thing that Katie's family did. So

Tara (Travel with TMc) (03:43)
I love that.

Katie & Dan in a Van (03:54)
It was when I met Katie that I kind of got introduced to that. Um, and yeah, having a van is kind of a camper van is the perfect combination of the two. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (04:04)
Yeah,

yeah, I feel like there's always one person in the relationship who like gets the other one to cross over to the van life side.

Katie & Dan in a Van (04:11)
Yeah, I was so excited about van life for a really long time. Like I was big into watching van life YouTubers. And so for like many years I would like say to Dan like, oh, we should get a van one day. And you know, at first I think he was a little hesitant like, oh, are you sure? Like that seems like a big commitment, especially because I was very excited about doing our own conversion. And neither of us had a lot of DIY experience. But then I don't know, just with...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (04:19)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (04:39)
being in lockdown, not having a lot of other like travel opportunities and wanting to do more local road trips and camping and stuff. I think we both kind of felt inspired to take the lead. It was just the right time. Like it was just a good opportunity. And it yeah, it just kind of all worked out perfectly.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (04:53)
Yeah!

as life does. That's awesome. I want to go back in time a little bit. I'm curious to know, you kind of mentioned road trips and camping growing up there. I'd love to know either the first trip you guys took as individuals or with your families or together. Like, where did the travel bug come from for each of you?

Katie & Dan in a Van (05:23)
Man, I think for me, so growing up, like Dan mentioned, my family did a lot of camping. And so all of my family vacations or like trips as a kid were around Ontario, which was great. Like I enjoy camping. I got to see a lot of like beautiful nature that way. But I think by the time I got to be a teenager, I really felt this travel bug out of like, oh, like I haven't seen a lot of the world. I wanna get out there. And I've always been like interested in.

history and geography. So I would just like look at like Google Maps and like see all the like different places I could go and like dream of like, oh if I went to like this part of Europe, look at all the different countries I could get to if I was there. And I was like just very intrigued by it. So I think for me the desire to travel came out of curiosity to like learn more about the world and this feeling of like there's so much out there and I like haven't seen it yet. So that kind of like got me inspired to start travelling once I was a bit older and could you know.

afford to take on my own trips, but they ended a little bit more travelling as a kid. Yeah. Like I would say, I feel like I inherited the travel bug from my grandparents on both sides. Yeah. My Oma, my dad's mom was, uh, worked for the airlines, worked for Air Canada. And yeah, yeah. I know, I know she used to have really good benefits. So she, so

Tara (Travel with TMc) (06:33)
I love that.

What? I don't think I knew this. Ah, adopt me.

Katie & Dan in a Van (06:51)
my grandparents would travel and like, and when she was still working before she retired, there was, you know, we would do family trips and it was a really awesome perk to have. And then on my other side, on my mom's side, my, my Opa on that side, well, both my grandparents on that side were big RVers and they did, they had a big Winnebago for a lot of years and then they downsized to a smaller road track.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (07:03)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (07:20)
they drove so they were van lifers all through Canada and the US yeah they paved the way yeah and so we love like looking at old photos of them at like the Grand Canyon and like all these national parks that we like go to now yes um it's crazy to think about yeah my Oma and Opa in like the 80s and 90s yeah going to all these national parks they have photos of you know of big sites at national parks and there's way fewer people back then

Tara (Travel with TMc) (07:21)
Cambridge. Yeah, they were the OG van lifers. I love it.

Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (07:50)
than there are today when we go there.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (07:52)
That's so cool. That must really shape the conversations that you guys can bring from your experiences back to your family then as well and how you guys interact around and about travel as a family.

Katie & Dan in a Van (08:05)
Yeah, yeah, I think everybody's got their own stories. And for me, what's been like really special to see is like, I feel like I've gotten to have more travel experiences almost on the same timeline that my parents have. So as a kid, like I was saying, we would do a lot of local travel because it wasn't necessarily like accessible to us as a family to be like flying all over the place. But now that like, I'm older, my parents, you know, obviously older too, like

they do a lot more travelling than they used to as well. So now I've also been able to see my parents like go on a safari in Kenya or like come and visit us in Spain and you know, all of those things. So I feel like in both of our families, there's a lot of like excitement about travel. And like part of why we started the YouTube channel and the Instagram Katie and Dan in a Van was to share it with our family. So that they could see a little summary of what we were doing and

Tara (Travel with TMc) (08:40)
Right.

Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (08:59)
Yeah, and like they've been really supportive. Yeah. I don't know. They think we're a little crazy for driving to Mexico and stuff like that. Yeah. But they're, yeah. They like to follow along. They're interested. They're our number one fans, I would say. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (09:12)
I love it. That's so cool. And going forward, and I guess in the present time for you guys with travel, how do you choose where to travel to? I know part of it in the past has been work directed a little bit, but you guys, you've got that beautiful wall behind you with the postcards. I don't know if that, if you want to talk about that and how that ties in as well.

Katie & Dan in a Van (09:25)
Okay.

Yeah. So I feel like there's all kinds of different like initial motivations for different trips that we've been on. So you mentioned work when we went to Spain and Portugal last year, that was motivated by, I had been asked to go and film a course with this company called Domestika, about like how to start a YouTube channel and their offices are in Madrid. So that's kind of what brought us to Spain. And anytime we have an opportunity for a trip, we think, how can we extend this and see more? Because it feels like if you

you know, you're going out of your way to fly somewhere, let's make it worthwhile, right? Like see as much as we can see while we're there. So that invitation to film a course in Spain turned into a two month trip, taking trains around Spain and Portugal, which we really, really enjoyed. And yeah, in terms of other like motivations for travel, we really love visiting national parks. Yeah, yeah. I guess it was on our first van trip into the US when we really kind of caught the national park.

bug and that's the postcards that we collect on the side of our van. We're doing it the authentic way and buying a postcard when we're in the national park from the shop there. I don't know, it's not, we haven't really stated a goal to see every national park. There are some in the U.S. that are extremely hard to get to. But whenever possible we try and plan a route that includes stopping in at one we haven't been to yet.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (10:45)
That's awesome.

Okay.

Yeah, and you guys also like kind of off the beaten track travel a bit too because you've spent some time in Eastern Europe and some other places that not everybody goes to on their first, second, or third trip. Like, do you want to share a little bit about that?

Katie & Dan in a Van (11:13)
Yeah,

I think it came partially like when we were students, we were travelling on the cheap and that meant that we were limited in some ways with where we could go and some, not all, but some of the really, really popular travel destinations like Paris or whatever tend to be kind of expensive. So I think that's maybe where it started that we thought we would try and go to some lesser

Tara (Travel with TMc) (11:33)
Mm-hmm.

Katie & Dan in a Van (11:43)
because it was cost savings. Yeah, more cost effective. But I think as time has gone on, like we've really realized, like I truly believe every place has something interesting about it. Like even if it's not, you know, showing up on your Instagram feed all the time. So I think we try to take opportunities to check out places that like you wouldn't often think of going to. And also I think we often tell ourselves like, you know, like some of these standard like places that kind of everybody goes to like

Tara (Travel with TMc) (11:45)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (12:12)
we will have a chance to do that. Like when, you know, we wouldn't be intimidated to go to Paris, for example, in our 60s or 70s. Like we could, you know, do that at some point, but maybe now when we're feeling more like young and adventurous, like, yeah, let's do a road trip through like Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania and like see some of these more like off the beaten path places. But I think even as we go to those places that feel intimidating, you kind of realize like, they're maybe not as like.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (12:19)
Right.

Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (12:40)
scary as people think. That's definitely what I've come to think driving through Mexico in particular. Like a lot of fuss was made about driving through Baja and then you realize, you know, like people live in all of these places. It's not like they're, you know, inherently like scary or something like that. So yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (12:57)
Right, right.

And for anybody who hasn't seen their YouTube channel, Katie and Dan in a Van, these guys are also huge history buffs and I learned so much every time I watch. I love what you guys put out. So if anybody likes history as well as the van life or the international travel, you have to watch their episodes. They're fantastic. Ha ha ha.

Katie & Dan in a Van (13:05)
Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah, we love learning about the history of the places. Yeah, I do think the Roman Empire is our Roman Empire

Tara (Travel with TMc) (13:24)
I'm sorry.

And do you guys have any travel traditions that you've either created together or you've brought in from previous travels that you've done and incorporated into something that you do as a couple?

Katie & Dan in a Van (13:39)
Well, I think definitely buying our postcards. That's one of our like most well-kept traditions. Yeah, I don't know what other traditions. I would say, like we, I think we generally have a mindset about trying to do some things that are off the beaten path or trying to really experience the places we go to in at least slightly like a local. Of course, you know, we're not moving there. We'll never have a truly local experience, but you know.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (14:05)
Great.

Katie & Dan in a Van (14:06)
People talk about slow travel and that resonates with me a little bit. Like it's not about checking a country off a list and it's more about trying to experience the culture, trying to learn something while you're there. That's yeah, I would say that's kind of our approach a little bit. Yeah. You know what? That makes me think one, we've never really framed this as a tradition, but it's something that we do whenever we travel to a new country, like

Tara (Travel with TMc) (14:19)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (14:32)
when we go back to the Airbnb to relax or whatever, we watch like educational YouTube videos about the history of that country. Like that sounds so dorky. Or sometimes before we even go. Or before we go. Yeah, definitely before we go. Well, like trying to learn the history. Like look up like the history of, you know, Montenegro and like try to learn about, you know, what the politics of the place are. Like what, you know, how it was founded, how the borders were established, the language, the, you know, food, whatever. Um, just so that we can like

Tara (Travel with TMc) (14:44)
Yeah!

Katie & Dan in a Van (15:02)
leave feeling like we've learned something more about that place. And obviously you can do that stuff without travelling there, but I think if you are going to go somewhere you want to know a little bit more about it. You almost can take more of it in if you understand like the context of the place you're in. Like I think travelling around Canada and the U.S. it's been learning the Indigenous histories of each area that we visit. Yeah. I'm trying to understand some of that. Yeah, I think it's, I think you almost

Tara (Travel with TMc) (15:05)
Yeah.

Definitely.

Katie & Dan in a Van (15:31)
owe it to the place you're visiting to try and learn at least a little bit about it.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (15:35)
Yeah, oh that's so well said guys, I absolutely love that. The next questions I have for you are some of my favourites because you guys know, but for those of you listening that don't know, before I got the travel bug my first love was actually words and it still is in many ways, but I feel like you guys will appreciate these questions because both of you speak other languages and I'd love to know

which ones you speak and how you came to know them. And then Katie, I'd love to hear a little bit about how you prep for Mexico, because I know that that's been a part of your, yeah, all of that kind of stuff. Yeah. Podemos hablar en español.

Katie & Dan in a Van (16:13)
Yes, yes. Maybe I can

try to speak Spanish for you. I speak Spanish a little and I've been learning Spanish for a year before going to Mexico. I don't know if that's quite right, but I started learning Spanish a year in advance of this van life trip to Mexico.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (16:32)
Yay!

Katie & Dan in a Van (16:39)
People say like you can travel through Baja just speaking English and I do think that's true. You could do it with even more basic Spanish that I have. Just like memorizing 10 phrases or something like that could get you pretty far. But I've always like had like I've had a goal of learning another language for a really long time. I've always really admired people who are bilingual. It just seems like a superpower to me. So I was like, okay, this time like I have a motivation, like I have a reason.

to really try and I have a clear practical application to use this in. So that really made me more dedicated to it. So yeah, I learned Spanish so that we could travel through Mexico in our van a little bit easier and it's been very fun.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (17:08)
Great.

I'm

so impressed by you because I have to like from the teacher in we is like oh my god this girl does her homework. Your discipline is so much better than mine. I give you kudos. I think it's super cool.

Katie & Dan in a Van (17:35)
I cry.

Yeah, it's definitely been like my kind of primary hobby outside of work for the past year. Like, I haven't necessarily been as dedicated to it at every single moment. It ebbs and flows, but for a lot of the past year, like I'd spent somewhere between like 30 minutes to an hour each day studying, you know, watching Spanish Netflix or like a lot of YouTube in Spanish, listening to Spanish podcasts and

taking like different classes online. So I did like group classes on Lingoda for a while. And then more recently I've been doing just conversation practice on this platform called iTalki, which is just like, you know, one-on-one speaking with a native speaker, which has helped a lot. And I even got to do some in-person Spanish classes in Mexico, which was fun.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (18:29)
That's awesome. I can't wait to hear more about that when you guys get home. And then, Dan, you also speak another language, two other languages?

Katie & Dan in a Van (18:37)
Well, I don't know about that. That's maybe a stretch. That's generous. I learned French in school. I did French immersion. So I feel like that gave me, yeah, a pretty strong basis. I feel like, yeah, you almost take that for granted because I started with immersion in grade one. So yeah, when you're young, it comes pretty naturally. I don't know. It's kind of a different process than what Katie went through.

And I do feel like I should try to keep my French active. I haven't been very good about that. I think it would come.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (19:14)
Okay, but I

have to say though, when like we did the Spanish lessons with the three of us, like the French was coming out the Spanish, like you guys killed it. I don't know. You both need to give yourselves credit, I think. You do well.

Katie & Dan in a Van (19:24)
Aww.

Oh, gracias. You know what? I do think every language you learn makes it a little bit easier to learn the next. Even just having a little bit of French helps you learn Spanish or whatever. Yeah. And I really feel like, at least in adulthood, especially you mentioned the dedication and discipline required, I think language learning is kind of a skill of its own. And once you know how to do that, the routines you can put in place, even the methods for

Tara (Travel with TMc) (19:30)
De nada.

It is 100%!

Katie & Dan in a Van (19:58)
you know, being able to study on your own, you can apply that in like different scenarios. And like for me, having a bit of, you know, elementary school and high school French, that helped, you know, give me a framework for learning Spanish. And now that I've done this, I'm kind of like, should I try to learn another language? But a part of me is like, oh, but my Spanish, I really wanna, I don't wanna like let it degrade, you know, because I'm trying to learn something else. That's my like concern now, but yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (20:20)
Right.

Yeah,

well the great thing for both of you guys is that Waterloo Region is the fourth biggest area for immigration in Canada after Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. So there's people from everywhere in our region for you to be able to practice with. You'll both of you, you'll keep it going. I know you will.

Katie & Dan in a Van (20:34)
Mm. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Just watch me walking into like La Tienda Latina. I'm going to be ready to chat them up when we get back. At least I need to find somebody who will talk to me in Spanish now that I won't have the everyday practice.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (20:49)
Hahaha!

I love it. I love it. And from like any of the languages that you guys know Do you have any favourite words or phrases or is there something that is just stuck in your head is like really bizarre even?

Katie & Dan in a Van (21:10)
I feel like I don't have anything flashy or fun to share because my Spanish is so practical. I'm like, okay, what do I use most often? Tiene una manguera. Because we try to film with water for our van. You need a hose, manguera is hose. Yeah, I'm like, that's not very exciting. I don't know. So we took German 101 together in university. Yeah, we did. And I have a little bit more German than Katie does because I had some...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (21:21)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (21:38)
little bit of previous experience. But it's funny what sticks with you. We did, well we were in different groups, but was it your group or mine that did a group? A surprise party is all one word überaschungspartie in German. That's a fun word. It's a fun word and it's funny like anytime we see something German and überaschungs come up. Yeah we always remember it. It just sticks with you.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (21:41)
Great.

Nice.

That's cool. I love it, I love it. Awesome. Another topic I'm really curious to hear people's perspectives and opinions on, and I think this will especially be interesting with the two of you, is travel and technology. So like how has technology changed the way you travel? I know we have a small age difference between the three of us. Like when I started travelling, Instagram wasn't really a thing.

Katie & Dan in a Van (22:08)
fun to say.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (22:38)
I don't know, in the corners of the internet, like they weren't, you know what I mean? YouTube wasn't around, but so it didn't, it wasn't a huge part of how or how I travelled or the way I shared things, but how has it been a part of like your travel journey?

Katie & Dan in a Van (22:54)
You know, I feel like we, like going back to like doing road trips with my family and stuff, like I have definitely noticed the change. Like I remember printing maps on MapQuest or my dad would go into CAA and get these things called Triptix, which were kind of like printed out directions for how to get from A to B. They were like custom. Um, and now of course we use Google Maps and

Tara (Travel with TMc) (23:09)
Me!

Katie & Dan in a Van (23:18)
you know, download a map ahead of time. That's a hot tip if you're ever travelling somewhere and may not have internet. You can download an offline map. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like, I think it can be intimidating to embrace something new, embrace some new technology that you haven't tried before and try it out on a trip. You're kind of feeling some stress about the trip, but I don't know. I feel like every time we've tried something new, like,

downloading an offline translator or something like that. It's almost always helpful in some situation. It just makes it smoother. Yeah, I think in so many ways, like a lot of this tech has made travel way more accessible than it once was, like so much easier to find your way places. Like literally just the other day, we were like, wow, Google Maps. Like we're so like grateful for that because like- How would we get anywhere without Google Maps? Especially with like road tripping, it's so helpful.

translators like you said and just finding interesting places on Google Maps and stuff too. Yeah or like for us

Tara (Travel with TMc) (24:20)
Oh yeah, do you guys

do that for filming? Do you like check the map before you and for like topographical things with your drone? Cause you're tossing up a drone these days, are you not?

Katie & Dan in a Van (24:27)
Yeah,

we are. That's a good idea. We've never done that. I feel like we rely a lot on Google reviews for like places we might want to go. Or checking the satellite view on Google Maps to see, you know, is there going to be enough, yeah, a good camping spot is, you know. One thing that we check is, is there going to be a height restriction for getting into certain places? On Google Street View. Yeah, because our van is tall. That's a big problem like in big cities. Yeah. You need to like look

Tara (Travel with TMc) (24:35)
Yeah.

even for camping spots.

Mmm.

Right?

Katie & Dan in a Van (24:57)
not only that, you need like street parking or something that doesn't have a... And not in a parking garage. Not a parking garage. No ceiling, yeah. So that's something we do.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (25:01)
bar. Yeah. Or when they're the

open parking lots but they have the bar to get you in there. That drives me nuts! Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (25:09)
Exactly, I know. So down in Mexico,

a lot of the parking is covered with little canopies just to keep the cars at all cool during the hot summers and stuff. Yeah, so you gotta watch out for that too. So yeah, there's height hazards everywhere. But I actually think one of the biggest tech things that we've embraced that has changed the game for our travel is Starlink, which is actually how we're connecting to you right now. So we have satellite internet. Exactly, exactly.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (25:18)
Ah, cool.

Not sponsored, but they're welcome to. Ha ha ha!

Katie & Dan in a Van (25:39)
Yeah, so we would really not be able to work from our van whatsoever if we didn't have our satellite internet, especially when we were in Mexico because there's not reliable cell service throughout the Baja Peninsula. So that's been a tech thing that's definitely changed the game travel wise for us. And people that we meet that have been doing this for a while, like RVing or doing van life for a while, they really talk about before Starlink and after Starlink and how...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (26:05)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (26:06)
Like the game just completely changed. It opened it up to so many more people, people like us who work from the van and need the internet to do our jobs. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (26:15)
Definitely. I want to circle back to the working remotely, but before we do that, you already mentioned the YouTube channel where you share your travels. Other than YouTube, are there ways that you document your travels? Because I feel like naturally you're both inclined to document and preserve memories and share them. What else do you like to do? If anything else, that is a lot of work. Maybe there's not time for anything else.

Katie & Dan in a Van (26:34)
That's funny. Yeah. Well,

something that we started doing on our more recent trips is taking film photos, which is kind of fun. So I got a, my grandma kind of loaned me, kind of gave it to me, her old film camera. And so that was kind of my...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (26:46)
Oh, nice!

Katie & Dan in a Van (26:57)
I was always curious about experimenting with film photography a little bit because it's fun. You can't review your photo right away after you take it. You want to be really intentional because you're take one. Whereas on my phone, I take like for every one I'm going to actually use. So that's been a fun, like slower, more intentional way of documenting some of our like most special travel memories. And.

Every now and then, especially on this trip, I've been trying to journal a little bit like in Spanish about what we've been doing as like a language learning exercise. So and a recording of a memory too, you know, like, yeah, two birds, one stone. Exactly. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (27:32)
I love it. That's so cool. Do you think you'll try and develop the photos on your own as well? Or do you think you'll?

Katie & Dan in a Van (27:38)
I've got a place in downtown Kitchener Photomaster, where I go and get them developed. And that's like a great like family business there. They're really good. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (27:45)
Oh, I love it. I didn't know about them. So thank you for mentioning

that. Last question about travel and tech. Do you think that you could survive travelling without data, without the internet? Forget like forget if you're not, let's say you're not working while you're travelling. If it was like a pure, yeah, pure trip, pure fun.

Katie & Dan in a Van (28:00)
Uh, with vacation.

Yeah. Like I would say our personalities, we're both organized type A kind of people. And so our tendency is to plan stuff out. And you know, I feel like we are trying to actively push against that and try to be more spontaneous. We're trying so hard to be chill. Yeah, we're trying to be chill. It's, it's hard. I think, I think we could do it, but it's just not our preference. Yeah. And you know, I do think

it's kept us out of some hairy situations. Like we know of people who drive down a road and then there's a clearance bar and they're stuck or whatever, right? Because they didn't look at satellite view beforehand like we did, you know? Or we're checking, you know, how far is it to the next gas station and where are there places to fill with fresh water, right? So it saves us some headache, it saves us some sticky situations. But ultimately we...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (28:57)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (28:59)
I think we would be fine. Maybe we should challenge ourselves to do that. But would we enjoy it? I don't know. I feel like everybody has a different travel personality of how much they want to plan ahead and manage their trip versus just take it as it comes. And yeah, I don't know. Maybe we need to get out of our comfort zone. But we're normally planners. We like to have all of the tools and resources at our disposal to make sure.

we can handle the situation.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (29:30)
Yeah, that's awesome. I love that question because everybody's answer is so different on it.

Katie & Dan in a Van (29:36)
Yeah, maybe if we like made ourselves triptychs beforehand and like planned out everything and wrote on paper, this is a place where you can fill with fresh water. They have a hose. This is a place where you can drive and there's no overhead clearance. Then we can go without technology if we planned it ahead.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (29:41)
Ha ha!

Yeah,

I think about stuff like that. Like my parents took us to Europe when I was 14. We did six and a half weeks for context. They have four children. So it was one heck of a trip. But this was back in 2022, or 2022, 2002. And so yeah, the internet was around at that point. But I remember my mom having a back...

Katie & Dan in a Van (29:59)
That's crazy.

I could, yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (30:14)
full of paper bookings because it wasn't all, she would have emailed places directly. We stayed in a convent that was, I don't even know how they had internet. I don't know how that got hooked up, you know what I mean? And she had the travel guide books with us. And yes, it's definitely more efficient to have the tech, but it's also a lot less weight to carry around too. It's crazy the differences with it.

Katie & Dan in a Van (30:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's so cool.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (30:40)
Yeah. How has travel impacted your life? I know a lot of us talked about how travel impacts us on a personal level. I'm curious to know how that's been for you guys and then I have a kind of follow up to that as well.

Katie & Dan in a Van (30:53)
Hmm. I think for me, one of the biggest impacts personally of travelling has been feeling like more

confident or sure of myself. Like there's a lot of times when you're like going to new places that you're gonna come across difficult situation or challenges like language barriers or navigating a new transit system or you know Even like, you know booking your own hotel for the first time all these things are big milestones that you kind of go through as like a young adult when you start travelling on your own And I think doing all of that stuff has made me feel really like oh, yeah

I can do this. I can take care of myself in a foreign country. I can navigate the London underground, or I can communicate with locals in a small town in Mexico. All those things are very much, it feels like there should be a pop-up on the screen of my life, achievement unlocked. It just makes you feel very satisfied, and it just kinda adds to that feeling of, oh yeah, I can do this. It really, I think, increases your

Tara (Travel with TMc) (31:51)
Hahaha, yeah I love it!

Katie & Dan in a Van (32:03)
confidence to basically do things that are outside of your comfort zone but then like achieve them.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (32:09)
So yeah, what about you, Dan?

Katie & Dan in a Van (32:10)
Yeah,

well, I think travelling can open you up to just people who like different cultures and different social norms and you I don't know when you first travel in those first days in a new country you're observing everything that's different than how you do it back home and I think there's a natural inclination to think different bad or whatever and to not really understand it to not get it.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (32:36)
Right.

Katie & Dan in a Van (32:38)
But then once you're spending more time in that country, trying to learn more about the history, trying to learn more about the people, trying to maybe even meet some local people, then you can understand a little bit more that just because something's different, just because culturally or the social norms are different, doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. And you can kind of come to understand it a little bit more. And then to some extent even makes you start thinking more about...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (33:03)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (33:06)
your own culture that you come from and give you more perspective around like, oh, maybe actually the way we do it is weird. Yeah. Like just the ability to like question your own society or the things that you grew up with that seemed so normal that you never ever thought about. You can start to think about that and unpack it a little more. Yeah. And ultimately, I think it just like gives you like empathy for more people in more situations and not that you.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (33:14)
Yeah, that perspective piece.

Katie & Dan in a Van (33:36)
by any means need to travel to achieve that. But I think in a really tangible way, it makes you realize, yeah, I don't know, especially in places that are often demonized by our media in Canada and the US that seem so scary, kind of like I was saying before, you go to these places and you're like, oh, there's just normal people living here. It's not so strange or different. So yeah, it's a big perspective shift for that way.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (33:56)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (34:01)
I just, I think it's important to underscore, like, you don't have to travel to be an informed person or anything like that, you know? And I know that being able to travel is a privilege that not everyone has, not everyone can afford. Their passport doesn't let them get to different places or whatever. So yeah, I don't think that there's anything like, travel is awesome and I'm really glad we're able to do it, but there's nothing like... Magical about it? Yeah, there's nothing magical or it's not something that...

This inherently makes you a better person to have travelled more. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (34:33)
Thank you.

So true. I think if anything sometimes it can reveal like the flaws that we have in ourselves and the ways that we can Become better maybe like you talk about things that we reflect on back home that we might not consider Because there are norm, but also there are things about like ourselves. I don't know about you guys definitely has been the case for me But Katie the point that you made about a place, you know how the media portrays some places you guys were just in Mexico I was just in Colombia last week and the like first question everybody

Katie & Dan in a Van (34:42)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (35:04)
Everybody has asked me is, is it safe to go there? And I'm like, I feel less safe in Texas than I do anywhere in the world. And I like, I'm serious when I say that, you know, everybody in Colombia was so friendly, so helpful. I didn't feel unsafe once. Texas is another story. But yeah, it's yeah, when you get the firsthand experience, it definitely helps.

Katie & Dan in a Van (35:12)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (35:30)
Do you guys have any surprises that you've experienced about a place? Maybe there was something that you anticipated or expected and it was completely different. Or about yourself, maybe how you reacted in a situation or something that you ended up enjoying that you didn't plan to or anticipate?

Katie & Dan in a Van (35:48)
Hmm, that's a good question. Travel surprises, I don't know. Maybe like we're such type A planners that we haven't come across that many because we look into things so in depth before we go there. So anything come to mind for you? I don't think so.

Not that we've fully anticipated just every experience we've had, but I don't know. I feel like every trip we go on, there's always things that are different than what you expected. I don't know. It's often the little things that you hadn't ever thought about that surprise you the most.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (36:14)
Yeah. Okay.

I know for me, like as I've gotten older, I've considered more about not only the benefits or the experiences that I get from travel, but also the impact that I leave on other places, whether it's while I'm there or after I leave as well. Is that something that you guys think about or has come to mind in your travels?

Katie & Dan in a Van (36:47)
the impact of like us as well as other travellers on the places that we go to. Yeah. I think we've been thinking about that more on this last trip to Mexico because like it is such, Baja is a very popular place for van lifers in particular to go. And so I think...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (36:52)
Yeah, yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (37:06)
we've been considering more the implications of like almost van lifers as a community and what the impact of that is on Baja and like what we can do to I don't know try to maybe like improve the perception of van lifers or help like I don't know just make it like a positive contribution to the community so one way that I think like we were in a very small part like able to do that we

And something that this Van Life Meetup was very focused on was contributions to local organizations. So, for example, they did a fundraiser for the local ambulances as part of this Van Life Meetup. There also was a drag show, which was a fundraiser for the local LGBTQ plus organization. So I really appreciated that, the organizers of that event, knowing that, okay, these are all basically like...

you know, foreigners that are coming and like using this space, you know, that is obviously like belongs to these locals. Like what can we do to try to like give back? yeah, I appreciated the focus on that. And they also, you know, really encourage everybody like leave every place that you go more beautiful than it was when you got there. Pick up garbage that you come across. Um, obviously don't leave any behind. Like those kind of like leave no trace practices are really important.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (38:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Katie & Dan in a Van (38:31)
Yeah, so I think that's something that we've been considering more. We're always, yeah, we're really aware of this and always trying to find new ways to have more of a positive impact on the places we visit. And it's something that, yeah, we're really keenly aware. I mean, I think we think a lot about the carbon that we burn just to get down to Mexico and, you know, try and...

the impact that travellers have on local economies and how that can be positive and negative. What can we do to try to make it more positive? That you might be pricing out locals by staying at Airbnbs or gentrifying a city. Yep. Yeah, exactly. Or just the ability to go to local businesses and try to, the money that you are spending there, which is supposedly the big positive impact we can make.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (39:02)
Right.

Yeah.

I think about this so much. Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (39:24)
How can we spend it with people that will actually keep it in the community? And, you know, yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (39:27)
Right, yeah, definitely. The last question I have about travel impact is how has travel impacted your career or vice versa? Because you guys as digital nomads, not all the time because I know that your base is in Waterloo region, but there's gotta be a correlation there between decisions that you've made in life to be able to incorporate travel in. So what's that been like for you guys?

Katie & Dan in a Van (39:51)
I feel like I really stumbled into the whole like digital nomad thing in a way, though for many years, it's been like a goal of mine to have like a location independent job even back in like, I don't know, 2016, 2017. I was thinking about that as a university student, you know, like I really wanted to have a fully online career so that I could travel. Cause I've just always been like excited about the idea of travel. And I, after I graduated university, I started out my career as a freelance videographer.

So that was all in like in-person local jobs. But then of course the pandemic happened and I had to shift my services to be completely online and remote, which obviously at the time was a challenge, but only in retrospect, I know that it was kind of this blessing in disguise, which obviously we all wish the pandemic just didn't happen. It was terrible. But like that particular aspect of it ended up opening up this potential for me to have this fully online career, which now allows me to travel.

while I'm working, which if I would have stayed in my kind of path as like a videographer, that's very much like you have to be in person to film stuff. So, you know, now doing what I do as a content creator and with my fully remote social media marketing agency, I'm, you know, now that things have opened up, I'm able to travel. So yeah, it kind of, it didn't like necessarily happen by design. But now I'm just in this fortunate place where my career.

allows me to travel, which I really appreciate.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (41:19)
Right. And Dan, you've got some flexibility as well, yeah?

Katie & Dan in a Van (41:22)
Exactly.

And again, it was related to the pandemic. Like when the pandemic hit, that's when my work became a lot more flexible about where we could work from. I work at a tech company. So I think it was, it felt sort of like a natural decision to, we wanted to travel, especially because we had been travelling when we could before the pandemic. And you know, we wanted to travel more. The pandemic obviously made us want to travel even more because we were stuck at home for a long time.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (41:47)
Ehh, haha!

Katie & Dan in a Van (41:49)
Yeah. And so like, I really feel like we kind of fell pretty naturally into van life. Yeah. Our story is that there was somebody locally who was starting to convert a van and then needed to sell it. I don't know the exact circumstances if he lost his job during the pandemic or whatever, but was kind of looking to cash out of that side project. And so we bought that this van, which he would... Yeah, Vanjie yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (42:15)
Vanjie!

Katie & Dan in a Van (42:18)
We're not, we're of 2020. And it was just partially converted. There was a lot of work that we needed to do. Yeah. There was at least a little bit of a start. So it just felt like the right opportunity at the right time. Katie was super keen on it, and I was convinced. Yeah. But now we've got to a place where Dan is at least as enthusiastic, or maybe even more enthusiastic, of van life than I am. So. That's probably true, yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (42:43)
Yeah, I believe

it. Is there anything that you guys do when you're travelling that you don't do while you're at home? Like, Katie, you and I have had conversations about this when we've been working together where I've like made observations about how it feels like more strangers talk to each other when I'm in different countries and specifically Ireland, but just in general. But.

I also sometimes am less inclined to myself to talk to strangers in my hometown, even though it's something that I would do abroad, no question. Like, do you guys have anything different that happens when you're away?

Katie & Dan in a Van (43:15)
I think

we tend to be more physically active when we travel. I feel like that's a big thing we've observed is at home, it's so easy to get in the routine of flopping down on the couch, which it's always good to do that sometimes too, but I think when we're in places that are so beautiful and there's so much nature to see or the ocean to swim in or hikes to go on, then we definitely make it a bigger part of our

routine, like getting out and doing like active stuff like that. It's definitely possible to get stuck in a routine, stuck in a rut when we're home. Yeah. And one of the things I like about van life is that you're always in a new location that is interesting and is new. So that calls you to go out and explore and to do something with your evening. Yeah. Yeah, we are pretty active just in general. Our days are pretty full when we're doing van life.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (43:48)
Great.

Yeah,

yeah and speaking of this notion of home, because you have a bricks and mortar home and you have Vanjie and you've had quote unquote homes in the places that you stayed in for extended periods, like what does home mean to you? What is what makes a place home? Do you feel like you have multiple homes perhaps or yeah?

Katie & Dan in a Van (44:26)
Hmm.

I think for me, home is like always where our family is. So like in southern Ontario, basically. I definitely feel like Vanjie is a home in a sense. And when we left the van for the month of December, and then came back in January, and it kind of felt like a homecoming in a way, it's like, oh, this feels familiar. Like, this is our space, we have stuff here. But for me, like going home will always mean like going back to like the people that we know.

Yeah, we're pretty close with our families and back in KW, like most of our friends and family are within an hour or less of where we live. we're fortunate to have that. I'm not sure everybody does, but there's always that pulls us back home. And in some ways when we travel, we feel like, oh, we're missing out on. We get like home FOMO. Yeah. We do. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (45:17)
FOMO up at home? Yeah, I so know. Oh,

that's funny.

whether it's van or otherwise, I know I get asked this question all the time. Are there any safety tips that you guys would share with listeners? Maybe they're a first-time traveller, maybe they're a first-time van lifer, maybe they're thinking about doing either of these things like what are maybe one or two things that you do to help you feel safe and secure on the road.

Katie & Dan in a Van (45:43)
Well, we can run you through our DIY van security system if you want. Can we? I don't know. Yeah, okay. We'll include, we'll talk about the stuff that like, if we describe it, won't increase our chances of getting robbed. Okay, so one thing that we would recommend any, so we won't tell you where we hide our valuables, but what we will tell you is for anybody who's like, trying to park their van securely,

Tara (Travel with TMc) (45:47)
Love it. Do it. I can't give away all the secrets.

Okay.

Katie & Dan in a Van (46:11)
The biggest thing that you can do, I think, is to cover all your windows. So whenever we park somewhere that we're like, you know, because the big thing about van life is you feel vulnerable because your whole house is in a vehicle and vehicles are notoriously like easy to rob. So you wanna try to make sure that your stuff's not gonna get stolen. So one thing you can do is cover up all the windows so people can't see in, right? So they can't like tell that you have stuff in there. That's a big precaution. Another thing that we did before embarking on this trip is

Tara (Travel with TMc) (46:25)
Right.

Katie & Dan in a Van (46:38)
We got all of our windows coded in anti-Smash coating. So that's a big thing down in like LA and San Francisco. It's not as common. It's kind of hard to find someone in Kitchener to do it, but But that just means if somebody, oh, sorry.  Uh, it's called Uniglass. Uniglass like Ziebart Uniglass or something like that.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (46:43)
Right, you were telling me about this.

Yeah.

Who, who is there a business that you can mention in Kitchener that did it? If it's like a company that can.

Katie & Dan in a Van (47:03)
Yeah, we had to specifically, they had to specifically order in the anti-smash stuff for us. Right. Um, but they, they did a good job of it and you know, we haven't fingers crossed, we won't have to find out if it works, but so haven't had any run-ins, but what it's supposed to do is like, you can look up videos online and it takes forever to actually break through. So the idea is that somebody would give up before they actually could smash through your windows.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (47:03)
Okay, cool.

Okay.

does that work for your windshield as well? I just got a ding in my windshield the other day and I was like, come on, but would that work for that area?

Katie & Dan in a Van (47:34)
So

yeah, we don't have the windshield. No, windshields are already smash proof. They're not chip proof, but there's glass on the outside side of your windshield, and it's actually a plasticky coating on the inside side, so that if you get in an accident, the window won't just fall into shards in front of you. It actually kind of holds itself in place. All the broken glass just holds itself exactly where it is.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (47:39)
No, they are not! Yeah.

Okay.

Right.

Katie & Dan in a Van (48:02)
So you will need a new windshield, of course. And same with the anti-smash glass. If somebody throws a rock at your window, it will definitely shatter, but it won't allow them to get into your vehicle because the window, all the- The plastic part keeps it in place. All the glass just stays exactly where it is. Yeah. So those are two big things. And then the final thing is that we have this kind of DIY setup where we chain our doors together when we leave the van so that-

Tara (Travel with TMc) (48:14)
Got it.

Cool. Okay, good stuff.

Katie & Dan in a Van (48:31)
Even like if you were able to like kind of pick the lock or whatever of the vehicle, you physically can't open the doors from the outside with the exception of one of our doors, which we won't reveal. Great. I think in general, even for non van life situations, I think that just being aware of your valuables and I think the most like common thing is just being pick pocketed or something valuable just swiped when you're not looking. So

Tara (Travel with TMc) (48:43)
Nice. I'm right here.

Mmm.

Katie & Dan in a Van (49:01)
Just being aware of that, trying to, you know, maybe not wear a backpack when you're in a crowded area, things like that. Or have the person who's walking in front be the one with the backpack. That's what we do a lot. Yeah, I guess, I think people worry about violent crime and getting shot or getting mugged and that can happen. Like I'm not saying that you should not worry about that. I mean, I think just contextualize that those incidents are quite rare and more likely somebody's just trying to steal your cash and run. In your phone, yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (49:11)
Right. Yeah.

Right,

and I feel like in those situations they probably need it more than you do, so it's like, it's okay, take it. I can get a new phone. Yeah, yeah, can I take you out to dinner? Like, let's help each other out here. Yeah, yeah. How do you guys deal with post-trip blues? Because I know that...

Katie & Dan in a Van (49:35)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'd rather be like, let me e-transfer you and keep my phone. Yeah, exactly.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (49:52)
Like while you're away there can be FOMO about home, but then when you're home, like are you guys the couple that you've got the next trip planned to get you through the post-trip blues or?

Katie & Dan in a Van (50:02)
Yeah, I mean, we, like we said, we're type A, we generally plan stuff way in advance. I mean, we always have the next trip. Often we're planning at least a year in advance. And we might even have multiple trips that are kind of in the hopper for all we might do this, we might do that. So yeah, I think there's always an aspect of that I like I think we do feel the post trip blues but

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:05)
Hey!

Katie & Dan in a Van (50:24)
I don't know, often it's just channeling that into excitement for whatever the next trip is going to be. Yeah. And I feel like for me, normally, like when I get home from a trip, like I'm just so happy to be home and see my friends and family again, that I don't like feel sad. And you know, like I'm just like excited to be with everybody again. Eventually, I start getting more, I don't know, like just antsy to do something else. That's maybe my version of post-trip blues. Like I...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:29)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (50:51)
I'm so excited to be home and I'm really happy seeing everybody. And then eventually I get this idea of like, well, I wonder what it's like in Guatemala. Maybe I should figure it out. So that's maybe my version of it.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:59)
Ha!

Love it, that's awesome. As a bonus for the listeners of the podcast, with all of my guests' help, I'm going to curate a travel playlist to share with them, and I'd love to know what's one song that either sums up your travel style or a song that reminds you of one of your trips. I don't know if you guys have ever had this, but I feel like certain trips I've taken have like a theme song that either it happened in like this moment that's just stuck in my head or it played so much during that trip where I'm like, right,

that song takes me back to that. So is there anything that comes to mind?

Katie & Dan in a Van (51:36)
Yeah. Definitely.

Okay, what's yours? There's a specific song for this trip? For van life in general. Okay, yeah, I know it. Yeah. Ready? Three, two, one. Life is a Highway.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (51:50)
Oh my God, yes!

Katie & Dan in a Van (51:52)
Literally that song, it becomes on like, oh my gosh, I'm going to like go hard. I love it so much. And like we listened to it a lot on our very first van road trip in 2022. And I think for me, like it's nostalgic. Like my dad was a long haul truck driver when I was growing up. He's still the truck driver now, but anyway, that's like one of his favourite songs. So it was very like nostalgic and kind of like reminded me of my family. So we would listen to that song a lot on our very, that was like our first big trip away from home.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (52:11)
Yeah. Oh.

Katie & Dan in a Van (52:20)
And we like, I would like literally listen to that song and just like cry. Like I, it's so silly because it's Life is a Highway, but like, yeah, it's our van life. It's the Rascal Flatts version, right? That's what I like the Rascal Flatts version. I know it may be controversial. Definitely my, my dad likes the original better, but anyway.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (52:31)
Oh, okay. No.

I love it, I love it. All right, we're into the last part of the podcast. It's the speed round. So in as few words as possible, each of you get a chance to answer the question so you guys can each have a turn with it. But where's your next trip to?

Katie & Dan in a Van (52:44)
Oh, okay.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (52:55)
Are you allowed to say? Can you reveal?

Katie & Dan in a Van (52:56)
Where's our next question?

I don't know. This is a very interesting one for us, because the answer is we don't know. But we're going to go on one. Maybe we'll keep that a secret. You'll have to subscribe and stay tuned.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (53:09)
Everybody's got to subscribe to Katie and Dan in a Van now. Okay, what about your favourite mode of transportation when travelling?

Katie & Dan in a Van (53:12)
I'm sorry.

trains slash public transit. I was gonna say trains.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (53:22)
Nice. And I feel like I know the answer to this one, but planned trips or spontaneous trips? Yeah. Underpacker or overpacker?

Katie & Dan in a Van (53:26)
planned.

Oh, I think we might be overpackers Packers. you're like, we try not to be. We try not to be. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (53:39)
It's tough though with the van because with the van, like I was the what if packer growing up. I drove my dad absolutely nuts with how much stuff I would bring in the van on our road trips. And then in like 2019, I packed with a carry-on for the first time for five weeks in Europe. Game changer, I've packed with a carry-on ever since then. But with the van, I'm like, oh, I'll take the kitchen sink because I can, like.

Katie & Dan in a Van (53:53)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. But eventually the van does get full and we are definitely at that stage now. There is a limit.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (54:06)
True.

All right, most overrated destination.

Katie & Dan in a Van (54:17)
Have we ever been somewhere we thought was overrated? I don't know. I think we've really liked. OK, maybe the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon. It's really, really cool. But in some people's explanations of it, it's just a completely life-changing experience. I wouldn't say it was that for us. There's plenty of cool canyons. The Grand Canyon is one of them. Yeah, there's lots of other national parks that I think were more impressive to me.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (54:27)
Interesting.

Cool. What about the most underrated destination?

Katie & Dan in a Van (54:49)
You know what? Maybe I'm just gonna throw this one out here. Slovenia. Oh yeah, we like Slovenia. I really was blown away by Slovenia when we were there in October of 2022. It was a beautiful time of year to be there too. Yeah, it was gorgeous and you don't hear a lot about it.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:09)
Nice. What home comfort do you miss the most when you're away?

Katie & Dan in a Van (55:12)
Hmm. In the van, maybe a shower with unlimited water. I thought you were going to say home cooking, your mom's cooking. Yeah, like probably the people. That's probably the true answer. Yeah. People just being around our friends. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:28)
Nice. What's the best travel advice you've received?

Katie & Dan in a Van (55:33)
we've received.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:35)
Or maybe that you've heard from somewhere else but it wasn't directed directly at you.

Katie & Dan in a Van (55:40)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:44)
TBD, tune in to Katie and Dan in a van.

Katie & Dan in a Van (55:45)
Yeah,

clearly we need to come up with more advice. Yeah, I think we've learned a lot from the van lifers that have gone before us.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:49)
I'm sorry.

the best piece of advice that you would give them?

Katie & Dan in a Van (56:00)
I think I would give somebody the advice to just do it. Whatever it is, the trip you wanna do, there's a million reasons not to go, and I think you need to look for the reasons to go and start tackling those problems one at a time. Figuring out how to get the time off work or how to do it in a way that's affordable to you. Or to, you know.

mitigate your negative impacts on the community while you're there. Like there's always gonna be, it's easy to stay home, it's easy to stay in your routine and it's hard to break that routine. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (56:34)
Yeah.

Just go. Window seat or aisle seat? Ahahaha!

Katie & Dan in a Van (56:42)
window. I'm stuck

with the aisle because Katie's gets the window. He needs credit because he always sacrifices and sits in the middle so that I can have the aisle seat. Yeah, yeah, often I get the middle seat. But on trains he gets the window seat.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (56:56)
Nice, I like that trade-off. Describe each of yourselves as a traveller in three words.

Katie & Dan in a Van (57:06)
Curious. I like that. Excited.

Sometimes hangry. That's honest. That is really honest. I think I'm curious is a good one. I don't know but planned I think has to be on the list too for me. Prepared.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (57:32)
Yeah.

Katie & Dan in a Van (57:37)
What else?

Thoughtful. Oh, that's nice. Yeah

Tara (Travel with TMc) (57:45)
Yeah. And what's a characteristic that makes a good travel partner given that you guys travel together quite a bit.

Katie & Dan in a Van (57:52)
I think probably, I was gonna say somebody who's flexible, but I actually think the real truth is somebody who is happy to be the same level of prepared that you are. Because I think part of why we mesh so well is that we both want to be prepared. We both want to, we're both a little type A, so we both feel comfortable with that level of preparedness. I think it would make me feel more difficult.

if one of us was like super spontaneous and never wanting to plan and the other one of us was like super planned. You know what I mean? Like I think because we have the same like priorities and the same like approach, it works well. But I would say somebody who takes an interest in what you find interesting, like trying to understand what the other person really loves and engaging in that with them and for them to do the same to you.

really enhances the experience.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (58:54)
Nice. And last two for the speed round and for our chat today. What would you say is the best gift for a traveller? And this could be a service or a product or an experience even I guess as well.

Katie & Dan in a Van (59:09)
I'll say like the gift again of taking an interest in whatever trip they've just been on or whatever their dream is Being a supportive friend. I think is the number one gift saying that you can Yeah, like watering their plants or helping them plan the trip whatever it is. Yeah I think that's yeah the number one thing that you can offer to a travelling friend. I think so or along with that

Tara (Travel with TMc) (59:16)
Hmm.

Oh, I think you just hit the

nail on the head.

Katie & Dan in a Van (59:36)
Yeah, and this is above and beyond, but on a similar vein, to me, the biggest gift is coming to meet us somewhere that we travel to. Going on a trip with us. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (59:47)
Oh my gosh, you guys, both of those are gold answers. I love it. That's such a good way. Okay, and then the last question is, what's one travel app that you couldn't live without on your travels or website?

Katie & Dan in a Van (1:00:00)
Ooh, I know what it is for us.

It's iOverlander. Oh yeah, for van life. We could not do the van life that we do without iOverlander. It's this crowdsourced app where people pin places that they've slept, gotten showers, mechanics, we've gotten gas. It's completely free, well, by donation. Yeah, and yeah, we use it to find everywhere that we're gonna park. It's available as a website or as an app for your choosing, yeah. Yeah. And I know

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:00:05)
Oh.

Yep. Water.

I second this having used it myself. Definitely.

Katie & Dan in a Van (1:00:28)
iOverlander is big in North America. I know there's other apps for other places. Like Park4night. In Europe, yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:00:33)
Great,

yeah. Thank you both so much for coming on the show. This is such a fun chat to have with you today. I really appreciate you taking the time. Aww I hope you guys have a safe drive home from Mexico. Um, and I can't wait to connect with you when you're back in Ontario. I'm really looking forward to that. But can you just before we leave let people know where they can find you online? And if there's anything else that you want to add before we say goodbye?

Katie & Dan in a Van (1:00:41)
Yeah, thanks for having us. This was great. It's been an honor.

Hahaha.

You can follow along on our adventures on YouTube. That's the best place to find us. You can just search Katie and Dan in a Van and our channel will come up. You can find us on Instagram as well. And yeah, we just love to share our videos with you there.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:01:19)
So, thank you guys, safe drive home. We'll talk soon. Bye.

Katie & Dan in a Van (1:01:23)
Talk soon. Bye.