How Does This Thing Work?

You may have wondered exactly how our travel life works, so I thought I’d share a bit about our schedule and process.

Because I’m working remotely and Alaska is 4 hours earlier than my East coast office, I often get up between 4-6 am so I can still participate in scrum calls and meetings via the web or phone.  I try to put in 3-4 hours while Patrick unhooks and packs up on the days we are traveling.

I’ll break for breakfast, which usually coincides with the office lunch hour and we’ll have eggs and toast or a bagel, or more often croissants that Patrick seems to have an unerring instinct for ferreting out in the most unlikely places. (I’m shocked and amazed at how many French bakeries there are in the most far-flung places…and when he can’t find one he’ll make do with a grocery store croissant.) With two burners, toaster, coffee-maker and microwave, we can pretty much make anything we would have at home.

We’re towing a Mini Cooper to buzz around in and it has to be hooked up to Le Bus when we travel and unhooked when we arrive.  We have now achieved Indy Pit Crew proficiency as we tackle this together; he plugs in the electrical cables, I connect the tow hooks, we attach the brake buddy inside the car, and then I stand behind the car while he cycles through Le Bus’s blinkers and brake lights and I very professionally raise my right and left hands to signal they’re working on the car.

We’ve had more than one bystander say, “Wow…you guys have really got that down pat!”  Our current best time is about 4 minutes, but we feel confident we can shave it down even more with continued practice. 

Then it’s back to work for a couple of hours as Patrick drives; the passenger seat swivels around and I can put my laptop and files on the table.  

I'm not usually dressed this fancy - this was after a dinner out.

• The good part: I’m pretty comfy as we roll along with my feet propped up on the chair.
• The bad part: Bumpy roads make it very difficult to maneuver a mouse and capture screenshots!!
• The worst part: Patrick pokes me about every 20 minutes to say, “Look!  A buffalo!” or “Look! A moose!”

We try to stick to what is known as the “330 Rule” – which means don’t drive more than 330 miles a day, or stop driving by 3:30 pm.  We hook/unhook in reverse and in about 15 minutes we’re settled for the night or a couple of days, depending on our location and I put in a few more hours during the afternoon or before bed.

As we prepared for the trip, Patrick kept emphasizing that our space would be limited and I wouldn’t need to bring very much.  Aren’t men adorable?   

I nodded my head sweetly and then proceeded to exercise my ninja packing skills to bring along 12 pair of shoes/boots, a summer, winter, AND work wardrobe for times I have to fly to client sites, and full jewelry/earrings to complement any occasion. 

Patrick is quite proud of his ability to get by with 2 pair of jeans and about 8 t-shirts, thus his storage compartment looks like this:

My storage compartment looks like this... enough said, right?

While driving, Patrick has implemented all sorts of clever hacks to keep things stable, from using simple binder clips to keep the paper towels from unspooling, 

To his clever solution for TP storage.

We’ve gone to some beautiful places while exploring and I take a thousand pictures, but you’d be amazed at what we’ve seen from the road while driving along.

CRAZY THINGS

We’ve seen some crazy things like this WAL-MIKE store in Trapper Creek, Alaska whose proprietor clearly had a sense of humor (be sure to read the handwritten signs):

WILD THINGS

We’ve seen some wild things like moose, buffalo, deer and goats (bear in mind I have minimal wildlife recognition skills so these could all be misnamed, but they are definitely wild...and awesome!)

Mama Moose and Baby. I think.

Moose

Bison

Mule Deer with Serious Bad Hair Day

Goats. Or maybe Sheep.

FUNNY THINGS

We’ve seen lots of funny things like this clever advertising brochure for a museum:

I almost....almost paid the 6 bucks...

 And this aftermarket modification:

I think my dad had a red truck just like this. Minus the antlers.

BEGINNING AND END OF THINGS

We’ve seen the beginning and the end of the Alaska highway

MAGICAL THINGS

We've seen the North Pole

And we've seen the Arctic Circle

INSPIRING THINGS/PEOPLE

We’ve seen people with indomitable drive and determination like Lloyd from England. We were driving toward the Arctic Circle - IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE – and we see a guy pushing a bike.  We thought perhaps he was broken down, but when we stopped and asked if he was ok, he said he was just taking a break from biking...biking from California to the Arctic Circle. We chatted a bit and left him with some grapes, cheese and water to fortify him. He left us with amazement and awe at his ambitious goal.

Lloyd and Tanya chatting on the road to the Arctic Circle

 And we've seen people working to keep their culture alive: 

Tr'ondek Hwech'in Ceremonial Dancers

 BEAUTIFUL THINGS

And of course, we’ve seen unspeakable beauty, from the turquoise glacier lakes in Banff, CN 

 To the wildflowers growing on the arctic tundra 

To the untouched Alaskan landscape

So if you want to know how this all works?  It works pretty darn well.  We highly recommend it. Follow your feet, folks.