Van Trip Recap with Vic & Max! Our Itinerary, Trip Highlights & Biggest Takeaways

The following podcast is a deer media production. Welcome to RealPod. It's your host, Victoria Garrick Brown, and this is the podcast where we hold nothing back. Oh, so we're getting deep, huh? I've really cried for 12 days straight. Why do I want to be perfect? There's nothing in my life that is perfect. Every week, I'll bring you honest, unfiltered, and eye-opening conversations to help uncover the real in all of us. I crave the type of content that you're talking about. I actually felt insecure. Oh, my God, am I going to cry? Let me just unload everything. New episodes every Wednesday leave those filters at the door, because it's time to get real. All right, we are going to recap our band trip. Max is on the pod. I just said no pressure, but our future kids will listen to this when they hear about our iconic road trip. It's been a few weeks since the trip. Let's just check in. I definitely miss it. I will be like, I wish I was in the van about you. I don't miss it, but not in a negative way. And I feel like we've had this little back and forth a couple of times. It was great. Two and a half weeks is a long time. It was awesome. I'm so glad we did it. I got everything I wanted to out of the trip, but no, I don't necessarily miss having to sleep at an angle and hunched over a cooking and having to empty the toilet container and all that. But no, it was. And driving me. With that being said, it was a great trip. I know. And driving me everywhere. We did have kind of different experiences. Like taking you away. Oh, we have to tell them that story. I'm going to make a note of that. We're going to tell you guys the story about Death Valley, kind of the lack of our experience in Death Valley to be more accurate later in the episode. Classic VGB. It was so classic. We'll get there. You did a lot of cooking. I did a lot of cooking too. Yeah. And you did the driving and you had to sleep at an angle and you had to empty our pee because I just didn't want to do that. You took a lot for the team. And so I had more of a passenger princess experience. That being said, bring the campers out there. We were very much. Glamping. It was a sweet setup. For sure. We were not having to pitch a tent every single night and. No. You know, doing our business and the woods kind of thing. And we had a stove like, you know, we were. To go there. We never. Toad in the van. We never number two in the van. We only peed. I'm still a little uncertain. Vic might have. You know, I've done it a couple times. I'm not. Who knows. We did have an issue early on in the trip of Vic not knowing how to properly flush the toilet. And it was literally three feet away from our bed where it was like, uh, you had to fill the pot with water and then dispose of it. That took us about 40 hours to figure it out. No, we were wrong about that. You basically imagine you're peeing, but the thing where the water flushes down has a cap on it. It's like an airplane. When you press the thing, it drops into like a bucket, but it's not going anywhere. And I didn't realize that we had a flush thing. So like, yes, my pee was sitting on the top of the thing for a little bit. It was just pee. And I'm very hydrated. So it's clear. And I never shined the van. I swear to God. We'll see. We'll see. Who knows? He is just saying that because you got your listening. I never shined the van. Anyways. A little ban shitter. No. You. Anyways, I want to start with. A little ban. How do we find the van? Rent the van. So we rented the van on outdoorsy. And if you want to know why we went on this trip, you can go listen to my other sole episode about why we did the trip. That's already recorded. We're going to tell you about the trip now. So rent the van on outdoorsy, which is the whole new world. I mean, I just didn't really know the market of renting vans and camper vans and RVs. It's a whole new world. Yeah. I had no idea. And it's what a post pandemic taking Airbnb traction to road trips probably. And then you start to realize that there are people who are really good. You know, they're like the five star hosts and all of their vans are like really good ones. And so I ended up learning more. And also I had I didn't book this out that far in advance. I just didn't think it would be that deep. It's that deep. The best vans are rented out like months and months and months in advance for people's trips. So we actually ended up moving our trip because once I found the van that we ended up taking and I really wanted to take it. It actually wasn't even my number one pick from the like, renter we wanted to rent from. Like once I saw this person's van, I was like, Oh, I want to take one of theirs. And that was the only one available for our month. So then we moved our trip back a full week just to do that van, which worked. Yeah. I remember you sending me a picture of the first van. What did the first van have? The first van did not have shower or toilet. And I just, that scared me. You're like, I'm going to want to shit in the van. So I need to bathroom in the van. I never shit in the van. That is the intro for the pod. There you go. You're welcome. So anyways, we ended up taking a different van and we moved our trip. And as far as when we took just in case anyone wants to rent it, it's hard for me to understand how to say like the exact way to find our van renters, but their names were Corey and Alexandra, it says hosted by Corey, Alexandra. And we rented the Dutch, new, blue light, dash indoor shower, comma, heating and AC, sleeps to 22 feet. That's the van that we took. And I think if you look up those keywords, you're going to find it. And then if you cross rough into my pictures, if you're a little FBI agent like I am, anyways, I would recommend them. It was amazing. We did have some problems with the van, but nothing like supermature. I would definitely recommend it. I think I would go back in that van again, just for the memes, but I maybe want to do it a little bit of a different van. Would you want more out of the van? There are also things like as the trip went on, we figured out like how to rotate the driver's side seat to then have like a full dinner date situation. We put the fan on above us. Yeah, put the fan on above us, but not for too long or else your power is going to run out the next morning. You're going to have to wait for the sun to get up and recharge it for a few hours like little things like that. I guess I would choose that van again. I would choose that van again. No, I really enjoyed it. I don't remember. So that's how we found our van. As far as planning the trip, we did not plan the trip literally two days before that even one day, not even one day before the two and a half weeks. We had blocked off to live in this van. Max was like, we got to like have some direction of where we're going. I was really anti wanting to have a plan because that was the whole point of the trip. I wanted the schedule to be whenever and the destination to be wherever, but Max started looking into it and was like, okay, I'm just going to head towards Santa Barbara and I shit you not every single day. We figured out the night before or the day we were doing it. So when we hopped in the van to leave our apartment to drive on to the trip, I pulled up on my phone RV parking spots in Santa Barbara and then like rented it that day stayed in it same day. So it was all on a whim. We did us had no plan and I think you can, if you're a capable person, you're going to be fine doing it that way. We ended up having an amazing trip with no plan. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, I'd say the night before, which is hilarious because most people are like months before, but I worked with Jackie BT for like 90 minutes and put together like a high level itinerary. Basically saying we want to travel up and down, say to California, open to get popping in a Nevada or organ if it makes sense. We went to Hoover Dam, so that in Death Valley, so that was the extent of Nevada, but never went into Oregon. But then we did have a tentative like here's the flow that makes sense because I knew we had to go know where are we going night one as we like getting the rhythm of things. And then just, you know, whether we stay in an area two nights or three nights, we can be flexible there. But, you know, I knew in my head that it was like Santa Barbara, then realistically big sir, because we had talked about it. And then some of the campsites, they take reservations up to three days out and they do get filled up, which like we learned that process as we went. But when hindsight, I think it would have made sense to lock in some of those reservations to have like a general plan, but it worked out. Yeah, now if we were doing it again, I would make some reservations because we have the campgrounds that we loved and so I'd want to stay there again. But we we figured it out as we went, there were campgrounds we wanted to stay at that we couldn't and we just found the next one. That was also like the intent of the trip, like some people want to be like, you're crazy, how'd you not, how'd you not plan it? We wanted to get in the van and just figure it out as we go. And that was part of the beauty of the trip. Yeah, I agree. I liked that aspect of it. I liked the not knowing. And that was really special because even when you're on vacation, where you're supposed to relax and have no plan, everyone has a plan. Totally. You're like, we're all going to go to the pool and then we'll have lunch by the pool at 12. We'll come meet you after you guys work out. And then oh, at three, let's go back and get ready because we have a dinner at five. Like you're always talking about the next thing. 100% 100% that was the biggest, my biggest takeaway of, you know, people was asking, oh, it was a van trip. So fun. Like how is the van trip? Van trip was great to me when we go on vacations. They're usually like, all right, beach, relax, pool side, hang out, but to your point, we're still having some sort of schedule or it's adventure, you know, hiking, sightseeing, all that. The van trip because you're literally in a van in nature. I truly slowed down and stopped and I read three books for the first time, maybe like ever in my life in the matter of two weeks versus like when you go to the beach or pool side vacation, I always tell myself, tell myself, I don't break up a book, we're going to finish it realistically. I get like 40 minutes of reading in and then you move, I want to hop in the pool. Hey, want to put the football, hey, want to grab a drink and then you're not really, it's fun. It's awesome. But you're not really truly relaxing. And that was really the difference of this trip. I felt like we were really immersed in nature and it was the most connected to nature. I feel like I've been in a long time just with how we were living and the areas we were in and the people we were around, you know, we spent our first night in Santa Barbara. I'll post a night in area on the real pun Instagram. So if you want to know exactly the order of events. I'll put that there when this episode comes out. But it was after that, we had it to Big Sur. And that was so special just driving up Highway one. And I found campgrounds because I would go on TikTok and look up like Big Sur RV camping and shout out to Courtney and Nate. If you follow her Instagram, she's at Court and Nate and she lives in a van 24/7. And I messaged her and she sent me her map on her website of the places that they stay. And every single place we stayed that was recommended by Court, we loved. And that was the big thing that we learned on the trip is we did not spend the majority of our nights in RV trailer parks. We spent the majority of our nights parked in campgrounds. And the campgrounds were great because they were like in nature. There were people camping there. There were bonfires. There were picnic tables. It felt more of the vibe we wanted. Whereas the trailer parks, you literally it's a parking lot, which also costs a hundred dollars to park. Most of them, which is insane. I'm thinking like, I mean, it's crazy. You pay a hundred dollars to park. Actually, I think the highest we might have paid was $80 to park on two different nights when we were in just like filler towns and we had no other option. For the most part, the campgrounds were like $30. $25 to $35 to park overnight. And so we did that. This episode of RealPod is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp wants us all to take a moment to celebrate women and all that we carry at work in relationships in our families and in the many roles we just hold in everyday life. March includes International Women's Day and so taking a moment to celebrate the strength of the women around us and their progress is so important. And BetterHelp is here to support women. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US. And with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over six million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five stars for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. I love therapy so much. It has been game-changing for me. I have been going for the past. Oh my gosh, I feel like four years now, five years now on and off since 2016. So I am a huge advocate for therapy. 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It's easy and delicious and a protein-packed way to power your day. There's so many incredible flavors. I like to keep mine in the fridge 'cause I always like my protein drinks cold. They have so many delicious flavors. I love the chocolate and the coffee flavor. And the coffee flavor even has caffeine. So if you want your yummy coffee latte that's gonna give you that boost. It's also giving you 20 to 30 grams of protein which is incredible. There's also flavors like strawberry, cinnamon roll, peaches and cream, caramel or cookie dough. So they have a flavor for every vibe. I also love the caramel one. And of course the classic chocolate. But there's so many amazing flavors like strawberry, vanilla, et cetera. So find your favorite flavor at premierprotein.com. That's premier, P-R-E-M-I-E-R protein.com or at Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers. It's so yummy, Max and I love premier protein. We've got like honestly 40 bottles of premier protein in our fridge and pantry downstairs. So you can find your favorite flavor at premierprotein.com. That's P-R-E-M-I-E-R protein, premierprotein.com or at Amazon, Walmart or any other major retailers. And keep your eyes out for the cafe latte flavor. That is my favorite. I guess we can start with Big Sur. Which was amazing, right? Wasn't it so magical? Big Sur was awesome. So we had two laps through Big Sur. One on the way up and then I guess on the way down. Two different campsites. Whether it was tough on the first one, but it was awesome. The second Big Sur campground was all time, the park ranger on what day three was like, and he's obviously biased. This is the number one campsite in America, which I believe it. I would believe too. And it was awesome and that was the first site that we stayed three full nights, two nights, three full days. We stayed three. And that was my favorite. I only told us to your dad the other day because he's gearing up for a camping trip. I don't know if he told you that with his colleagues, buddies. Anyway, side note, side quest for George. But I said, my biggest takeaway there is my favorite stops were the ones that we spent three days at because you truly settle in, relax, enjoy it, can go on hikes. And that was awesome. Yeah, that was the Kirk Creek campground. It's off of the cliff in the site of Big Sur. It was magical. We had our own little grass patch. You're on a cliff. You only can hear the ocean. There's little bunnies hopping around. You're laying in your bed. The view is the ocean. It was magical. And then there's so many beautiful hikes. And when Max said we hit Big Sur twice, the reason is because the highway one was closed. So we thought what we wanted to do was pass McWay Falls and some of these more scenic, popular places. But the highway was closed because there was a little bit of an avalanche. So we had to take a detour. And this was one of the things that I was trying to embrace the whole trip. And I really think I've taken with ever since is everything's working out for me. Like what's meant to be will be. And so I think a past version of me would have been like, what highway one is closed? This ruins the whole trip because now we got to go like three hours east. We've got to go around. We got to come up. Like, you know what I mean? It would have been so inconvenient because we can't just drive six miles through this closure. But when we take that detour, we go through the beautiful mountain of Big Sur. We never would have been through. We pull over. We have this magical lunch on like this huge hill, meadow. If you guys saw that video when I said, I forget what I posted with it. But we just walked out into this big hill and we just had lunch there in our chairs. We read. And then we were driving and, you know, I had advice from a friend who said, when you see something you like park and get out often, you know, and I was like, I really want to do that. You know, there's no point to be like, well, we have to be here by a certain time. Like that defeats the purpose of the trip. So we were driving through these mountains. And I saw this like river over the side. And I was like, Oh, my God, that river is so beautiful. Like, let me get out and look at this river. And then I got back in the car and we're driving. And I see that there's a path. There's like a legit hiking trail into the wilderness. And I was like, Max, can we please go in? You kind of didn't want to. You were a little sick of me at this moment. Where are you? Little bit. If I ran them. It felt like we were literally like pulling over the side of the road for random hiking trail. And I was like, let's get up to the place that like we know is going to be sick. But it worked out. I was wrong. It was really magical. We called it the enchanted forest. That's just our name for it when I posted it online. And it was just gorgeous. I really think that's one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever been on. Like we just kept going in and in and in. To the point where it was a little scary. Like to the point where when we got so far in, we were like, we don't know what animal. It was not a mainstream hiking trail. Hence why I was skeptical of it. But there was a little sign that had a name of the trail. You know, it wasn't so random that we just saw like steps. But it was amazing. And I think for me, I was like, wow, if if highway one wasn't closed, then we would have never found this trail. And so that's why it was closed because I was meant to hike this trail and have this memory and have this experience. And so for the rest of the trip, you know, if we pulled up to a campground and they were full and they couldn't take us, I was like, it's okay. Like that one's not meant for us. And that actually led us to this campground. We loved the most. That's what I was going to say that the detour led us to. And I get the names mixed up. But the second spot at Big Sur. It was the first one. The first one was Plastic Creek. Plastic Creek. Good memory. Without the detour, we would have never slung back around a Kirk Creek campground, which was one of my favorite three day chunks. Oh, my gosh. That's so true. I didn't even think about that because when we swung down. And on the way swinging down, started to catch you off. But there we stopped off. We tried to stop off at two other campsites before we got there. Both were closed. Sun's starting to set. We're like, oh crap. They pull over the side of the road. We had Starlink in our van. Like hooked up to Starlink. We like to get served. What was the next campground and then Kirk Creek ended up being money? I know. And it's like, wow. If we didn't get into the other two campgrounds, we'd have never discovered this one. And so that was a huge thing I learned on the trip that I loved and was really special about it. As far as sleeping in the van, you talked about this. You were a little bit mingle. I enjoyed sleeping in the van. We had some of our best nights sleep. My or ring was tracking like 10 to 11 hour nights. It's crazy when we went to bed earlier, which I guess when I started the trip, I was thinking, oh, well, like stay up late. I don't know. Just like campfire vibes went to bed earlier. Probably because less natural light, especially where we live, round Los Angeles, all that. No city lights, no TV, no nothing like it was pitch dark at 7 p.m. And then you're just sitting around the campfire talking and then you're just tired. And we went to bed at like 8.39. Yeah, it was clutch. You had to get that or ring or ring, right? Yeah. Also in between both big Sir trips. real pod fan stopped us at dinner and was like, I thought I was going to see you guys here in Manacito. That was one time we went into town for that. That was in Monterey. Sorry. That was iconic. We were walking into this place for dinner and she goes, I knew you guys would be here. Yeah. And I was like, not even not even high, not even like, what's up? It was like, I knew you guys would be here. I respected. It was very conversation. I know. Hey, we were heading north. And so it was fun to meet her. And she told us that we need to try that pizza and that beer. You loved that beer. Beer was awesome. The Monterey beer. My tie IPA based out of there and then the coffee shop. That was literally, I know there's coffee fiends out there. I'm not. I'm a Starbucks guy with that coffee shop in Monterey. What is a big dog coffee? Oh, it was like bicycle or something. It was like, literally sign up front, not like a Michael Scott office. It was almost pizza. It was like an official like Yelp top 40 coffee shop in Carmel States. And it was big time. Yeah, Carmel. Yeah, it was amazing. I think it was like bicycle boys or something. If you look up Carmel's most famous coffee and you look for a bicycle in the name, it's that one. It was incredible. Yeah, Max got a new coffee in every spot, which was kind of fun for him. That was a cool part. It's like the van was our living area and our means of transport. So it's like, we woke up in the morning and we're like, we should go grab a coffee and you can't walk to coffee. You got to drive 15 minutes. We'd just like pack your things up, get the folding chairs, put them in the bag, bring it. It was crazy to be like, wow, I have everything I need with me in this place at all times. One of the very first nights you guys when Max and I were parked at a campground, and we're just still adjusting to van life. AKA, if you don't have it in the van, you're not getting it. Like if you decide you're craving ice cream, and there's no ice cream in your freezer, like you're just not going to eat it. And we like to post me and we like to Uber Eats. So literally the first one of the first nights we're laying in the van and we get like a sweet craving and we're like, should we post me something to the van? We have savage would have to be like back of the gray van. I like pop up in the door, like stick my arm out. Like thank you sir. That would be the most privileged. We didn't do it. We did not do that. We started dying laughing though, because could you imagine if you did post me to a van and like a car brought it to a car and they're looking at you like you fucking idiots. Why don't you just drive your car to get the thing? So we were laughing at how absurd it would be, but we didn't do it. As far as food though, we would stop at Trader Joe's throughout every three, four days when we were making like big journeys from one location to another and we would stock up and we would get, we would usually get like a pre-made chicken, a grilled chicken that then we heated up over the stove top. We had quinoa brown rice packets. We loved that we microwaved. We would get fresh bell peppers and carrots and hummus so that we had fresh veggies. Hot dogs and burgers couple nights. The biggest thing is your fridge is tiny. So we had a problem, stored enough, like three days of food worth, three out of the fourth day, you're in trouble. It was cool though, thinking about things like that and going to the store and really being mindful of like, you know, the next three days and what we'd want and yeah, making the burger that she's burgers with you was super fun and the hot dogs, great memories and yeah, that was just super fun. And I love just being alone with you. We didn't come into contact with anyone we knew like for the obviously the whole time on the trip. I had limit, we had limited phone calls with people. We had a few with friends and fam on like maybe a long drive, but I really felt like I was like checked out of social media, other people's lives like in a way that we don't experience here and it was, I almost feel like people weren't even like throwing us in group chats and things because they knew like Vic and Max are doing this trip and it was nice, like honestly the silence of it all and I felt like I could hear and get connected more to like my inner voice and you know, there were times we were driving and Max would put his headphones in and listen to a podcast and I would listen to some music or I would just kind of sit and like look at the window and just kind of think about life. I even think now reflecting on it, I could totally imagine people saying two and a half weeks literally what did you do all day and it's like hard to explain like, I don't know. I mean, just reading, listening to audiobooks, I went down like, we're down to like a high YouTube videos like I was not like sitting in front of the camera all day. Max has fun like learning things and like getting educated, which I'm like great. I'm attracted. My man's educate yourself, but we're here. We're trying. We're trying. But no, it was great. That to me was like the biggest takeaway of the van trip and if you're someone, you know, thinking about like, oh, if I only have so many vacation days, why would I take or should I take a van trip or should I take a normal vacation? Should I do X? Should I do Y? To me, the biggest benefit with the van trip was the first time in a long time, if maybe ever in my adult life, they truly stepped away from the normal cadence of life. Yeah, which was special and it just reminds you like, I mean, I get existential and like nostalgic often and I feel like I'll be inside of a CVS and I'll be in the aisle or like inside of a Michael's not just be like, wow, like inside of this Michael's like time does not exist for me. You know what I mean? And I felt like on that trip, I was connected to that just and you were really craving the nature aspect for like years. Like this trip was in my mind like three years in the making because I can remember years back. You plan to see like, oh, be so fun to go to Montana and we got to Idaho. So then that's relatively recent and that has a nature element to that, but that's a big thing for you. I enjoy it. Obviously, but I feel like you really really do. I think I'm an earth sign. I'm pretty sure I'm an earth sign. I just really feel that piece like by lakes in the forest, by the ocean. It's probably because we live in LA. So it's crazy. So then the contrast makes you appreciate it and crave it even more. Yeah, I think so. And just slowing down to then have the reminder of like, I'm all the things that I'm working on and that I'm doing back home, like feeling more connected to it almost because I realized like life is so big and there are so many ways you could be sending your time and like if I'm choosing to spend it this way, that's meaningful for me. You know, I felt like I was journaling more on the trip and I had my journal with me and at first I was like forcing myself to journal every day and recap the trip kind of like a diary. And then after like three days, I just like wasn't doing it because I don't know, it felt like more like a chore. But then there was during the three days into the Kirkkey campground on those days, we didn't drive the van. So we woke up and we're like, we're going to spend the next 48 hours just like here, like reading, coloring, going on hikes, relaxing. And that's it because and we're just going to eat the food that obviously we have on the van. So I remember during one of those days, I was like, let me just drop my journal and like, just see what comes. And I remember I wrote at the top of the journal, what do I want my life to look like. And the reason I wrote that question was because a mentor of mine, shout out Jeff Saad, who's been on the pod many times and you guys know I love, he told me that we had lunch a few months ago and he said, write it on a piece of paper, what do I want my life to look like and answer the question and ask yourself, if your life looks that way. And so I was scared to do this journaling prompt because it's overwhelming to think, what if I can't answer this question? And that's like really scary. So I put it off and I put it off. And then for some reason on this day, there's nothing else to do. And I sit down and I go, what I want my life to look like. And I just started with what I know, you know, I start writing this personal stuff. So I might not, well, I don't think I want to share it at this moment. But I would just write like, I know I want this to happen in my life. I know I want this to look this way. I start with the ones. I know I want these relationships with these people to feel this way. I know I want to be love and kindness. Like when I show up for people, I know I want to be unbothered. You know, I wrote down all those. And then before I knew it, six pages. And then I feel like I had this breakthrough in some of the moments where I just started like crying. Like it just came out to me like the way I want to show up better in certain relationships. So I want to forgive people for certain things. Or I want to let go of other aspects. And it just felt really good. And I felt really connected. And before I knew it, I had a template of what I wanted my life to look like. And then I could come home with that blueprint and be like, how do I build this? How do I make this? How do I make this really my reality? And I feel really grateful. The last thing I wrote in the journaling was an how fucking lucky am I that all of this is in my control and possible. Seriously. I remember that was the first afternoon we like truly spent a part like I was in my book or audio book or whatever. And you were on the other side of the little campsite. And you walked up from the hill, like just beaming. Like you were so stoked on whatever. And I didn't even know what was going on. You're like, I just journaled six pages at that. I was only going to be one. I just kept going and you were so hyped. I know. This episode of RealPod is brought to you by Quince. I love Quince so much. I have cashmere sweaters from Quince. I have my clogged shoes from Quince. I have sunglasses. I just got a gorgeous leather belt. 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But if you don't, you'll get a free return. So now available in Canada as well. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.com/reelpod. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E. com/reelpod for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/reelpod. (upbeat music) - Speaking of spending that day kind of a part, what were your thoughts about how much time we spent together? - Yeah, but we're with each other pretty much the whole time. - That was a good bounce. A lot of our drives, especially on the back half of the trip, I would put in my little air pods and listen to an audio book on my own and then Vic would hear to listen to music, make calls or do her own thing. Like I was really trying to crank through some book. So like that was good. It wasn't like we were just literally talking the entire time. - We did talk. We had many hours. - No, zero talking. - We had many hours we did talk while driving, but at some point we're clocking like, I mean these. - We're like six, seven hours of driving, sometimes like multiple days in a row. - Right, and Max is driving and I know that that takes a lot of presence and a lot of focus. And so for him, if listening to a podcast is helpful, I wanted you to have that because you were driving and that took more effort. I did offer to drive at one point. - Yeah, we cut that out real quick. - I convinced Max to let me drive us out of a like a Costco area 'cause I was like the highway's just gonna be straight for an hour. - Our favorite VGB, one she drives probably five miles under the speed limit, which is low key, the dangerous when you're driving slow, minimal awareness for the old pothole holes, which when you're in a van every single pothole is you feel it. And then it's a big van, 22 feet wide as well. If you're not sticking within the white lines, it gets a little dicey on the freeway. - Dick in the white line, we were high up too. It was scary to drive. - Oh, and also the left mirror was broken. We inherited that from the previous renters. So a little sketch on that front too. So I was like, all right, this is just more, this makes me more anxious. Give me back the way. Less relaxed in the passenger seat. So then we pulled over and we switched again. We went to the Redwood Forest, which was stunning. I highly recommend for anyone, I think it's bucket list. I totally understand that if you have four vacation days, that's not gonna be your choice of trip. If you're ever nearby for some reason and it becomes a two hour popover, something you can go see during the day, I highly recommend the Redwood National Forest. It's at the very top of California. The trees were massive. It was unbelievable, honestly. It's so much different than the other spots in California too. I feel like, you know, he went big sir and Malibu and Monterey and Carmel, all different, but all have some level of a beachy aesthetic. Redwood Forest, hence the name, not beachy aesthetic. Awesome. But then you also have to tell the story of when we arrived. - I was just gonna ask you that. - Because early on in the spot, you're like, no, it doesn't matter when you arrive. Just like taking stride, Redwood Forest, gotta get there before the sunset. We quickly learned that I guess a lot of veteran campers have like a 2-2-2 rule or a 3-3-3 rule. It was never drive. - Never drive, three to three rule. Never drive more than 300 miles in a day. Never arrived past 3 p.m. And spend three nights. - And spend three nights. - Or three days or something. That fits me the rule. And Max and I were showing up late. A lot of places because of our like, wins a cold, do whatever we want. Thing, we pull over for a lunch. We didn't know where we were going. We checked different campsites. So we would arrive often times right at sunset, if not after. And when you're out in these remote places, it's very dark. There are no street lights. There are no city lights. Like you just have your headlights. And that can be scary. And so when we pulled into the Redwood Forest, I mean, we pull up to this campground. That was legit. And I'm sure it's beautiful. And I don't think anything about it would have been scary. But it felt very scary because we were the only people there. Every single spot you could camp in was empty. We're in the middle of a wide open field. There's just no people around. There's one tiny trailer with a light on. And you know, that's like the host of the campground. But they're not like coming out to greet us or anything. And I don't know. We just felt scared. And then we're pulling around our spot. - We're pulling rock out. We pulled to the campsite, Vic vetted it two hours before. Like she said, all right, this is the winning campsite. We pull up. This was the very first campsite that we went to that had no one there. And we're in the Redwood Forest, which is the most remote place that we've been to. And so we circle around. We're kind of like, all right, what's the best campsite to take? 'Cause there's kind of levels to it. You want to be closer to the, you want to be more removed from the campost? Do you want to be more on the field? - I wanted to park right next to the campost. I was like, take this spot right next to them. - And I was like, that's just kind of weird. - Max, that is like peeing next to a guy in the bathroom stall. - Yeah, it's like if you have five urinals and you take the urinal right next to the guy, it's like, all right, you're the weird one. And you know, should I be concerned about you? - I wanted to do it for safety. I wanted to be near the other human. - We ultimately agreed on a more removed campsite that was in the field. You can see the campost, but not right next to him. And I swear, as we turn the corner, it's like a big loop on this campsite. I kid you not, 15 elk, wild elk, sitting on our campsite. - Daring at us. - Just like staring at us. - Yeah, I was like, oh, baby. - And my initial reaction was, I know elk are not dangerous like a bear. What I didn't fully process at the time, if there are elk present, that means a black bear is not just by simple, - I didn't know that. - Like, you know, hierarchy, food chain situation. There's 15 elk on our campsite. - They're literally standing where we would park. So I'm like, we're gonna slowly pull in and like make them move. And then it's pitch black outside. There's no lights. We're gonna turn our light off and we're just gonna know all these animals are standing around us. I don't know, it was just a little scary. But then we had to weigh the pros and cons of getting back on a tiny windy road to go where? To go where we didn't even know, we don't have service. - It was also like a pride thing too, 'cause I knew like, all right, this is where like the LA softy, non-nature guy, like I'm sure there's people listening to this. Like, oh, that's magical. That's amazing. Like, you're very much in it. Literally the voice in the back of my head was like, dude, my brothers are gonna give me so much shit for this. But we ended up driving away. - And I found, I got service as we were driving down the highway like a few bars and I found actually, I think it's called like Emerald City or Emerald Forest, something campground. And we pulled in there. - We did not drive to Seattle, the Emerald City. - No, no, no, no, we drove the campground. It was like another, I don't know, like 20 miles up North. And there were a bunch of people parked there and we just felt better. I just felt better being around people. And I have people say, like, were you scared on this trip, like sleeping in a car and like being out? And I was like, honestly, no. Everyone is like so awesome that we met at these campgrounds. We honestly didn't talk or meet a lot of people. Not that I didn't want to. I actually really wanted to. I wanted to like hear a bunch of life stories. I wanted to meet people. Everyone kind of just did their own thing, honestly. So we didn't have, it's not like we were anti-social. It just like didn't happen. That was probably the one time we felt like we were maybe a little unsafe, just because even if anything went wrong with us and we needed to scream for help, I didn't feel like there were like enough people around it. But I'm glad that we went to the other campground. We had a great night. We had burgers that night and the van was super nice. And then we woke up and we did that magical, another magical hike, which was amazing. And I literally felt like a fairy where with those big trees, we honestly grinded that day. Like we were like, we're going to have, we're going to go on a bunch of hikes. I think we went on like two, and then we were like, we're going to drive out of here. - Can you help Vil? - Yeah, we went to Yantville as our in-between stop before Death Valley. So now to the Death Valley story, I think I was just googling Atlantic talking, like beautiful RV spots in California. And someone said like Death Valley is like a must go. And I of course was like, okay, we're going to go. And I didn't really think it through. And Max and I have talked about this because I think it's one of my like fatal flaws is, I like sometimes for as overthinking as I am. - You still not come up with a word for this. - I know. - We can use your guys as help. - I don't like let things really marry me. Or like I say, let's go to Death Valley. And I don't really sit and think about exactly what that means. Like we will be under the blazing sun. We will have no shade. It will be really dusty. There are no trees. There is no grass. There are no bodies of water. All the things that like I love and wanted to be around on this trip are not there. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea. So we go to we drive to Death Valley. And as we're pulling into the desert, like we're just driving and driving. And once again, the sunsetting because we freaking always arrive too late, I'm sorry to think like I don't like this. I'm like I just don't like it. I like to see green and nature around me. And I start thinking if we had a flat tire, we are like literally if we got a flat tire on one of those roads out there, we're waiting for someone to drive by. We don't even have service to call someone that like we have a flat tire. So we're pulling in the sunsetting and I'm like maybe I'll like it in the morning. Poor Max has just driven seven hours. Like I'm not going to tell him that what I'm thinking, I'm just going to like suck it up because maybe tomorrow we'll like it. - And what she's doing in the car, sorry real quick, is like convincing herself. Oh, this is cool. Oh, look at those mountains. And I was like, yeah, it's for the gold rush, you know, happen to one night. Like she's verbally trying to convince herself. Little I know inside it's, this is not what I want. - It's also called Death Valley and that's like a spooky scary name. So we wake up and we go to the sand dunes, which were really cool. My posted pictures and then we get back in the van and we pull to our campground. We were planning to stay the next like night or two and we make lunch and it is so hot. This was maybe the first one of the first places. Like you're really side by side with other people and there are these. I just felt claustrophobic. I just felt hot and dusty. The first time I was like, oh my god, the only place I can go is inside our van and that feels really close quarters. And if I go outside the van, it's like there's no shade. I'm dusty. I'm hot. I just like felt claustrophobic. So I wait for Max to take like the last bite of his lunch. I'm just like sitting there like watching me. He's like very content. He takes us last bite. And I'm like, so I don't like it here. And I'm like, and he's like, do you want to leave? And I was like, yes, I would like to leave. - Seven minutes later, Vans packed up and we are taking our little princess away. - Which honestly became like an inside joke for the rest of the trip. It was so cute. I was like, wait, you're the sweetest. Like I told you I didn't like it. And then five minutes later, we were driving away. Like he didn't even put up a fight. - I really wasn't surprised. And at that point to me, I was like, I don't want you to be just like miserable here. And we're up against the clock a little bit because it was like two PM at that point. So again, our sunsetting thing got to get on the road quick. - And Max was like, well, we're going to the Hoover Dam. And I was like, that's great. I love the Hoover Dam. I can't wait to see and learn about the Hoover Dam. I just knew I like to really have a say in the next location because I have to up this one. So then we got to go see the Hoover Dam for you. What was your biggest takeaway from the trip? You've told me that this was a big kind of monumental switch between like childhood to adulthood. - Yeah, I came up with this take away. For me, I feel like there's like three phases to people's lives, at least in my opinion. It's the phase from basically your entire childhood until you have your first kid. And then the next phase is first kid to then when you become empty nesters. And then the third phase of life is when you're empty nesters until you die. And I view this trip for me and I kind of came in with this intention. And I feel like it was walking out of it of in my life's story, a figurative life story. This will be the last few pages of part one, chapter one, whatever you wanna call it. And I think a big part of this van trip was like just reflecting on that. What I like about where my life sat, things I'm proud I did, things that I wanna just tend into the second stage, whether that's relationships, whether that's work, whether that's certain intentions, whether it's internal ways of approaching life. The van trip was a good catalyst to make that happen because we did have so much time to think and reflect that it's cool heading into this next chapter. - Yeah, I like how you talk about it. - Which that's not any sort of announcement, but you guys get where it's heading. - Yeah, and I like how you talk about it in the phases. It's true, like I feel that way now. Like I'm getting older, I'm not a kid anymore. I had a huge cry about this last week just feeling like, oh my God, I still feel like a kid in my heart. Like I still lay in my bed with my stuffed animal and I get it scared and the world feels so big and I feel like I don't know all the answers and like I still need my mom and like all those things, but that I'm like, oh my God, I'm like gonna be 29 and I'm gonna be 30. I get emotional like thinking about that and how I have memories from when I was 14 years old and I have memories from when I was 18 years old and that same girl is me now. It's like when I experience the world, I'm experiencing it through the lens of every version of me I've ever been. And it's really profound and it's really special and then it's also sad and it's also scary but it's also life and aging is a huge privilege and it's part of the process but yeah, I feel like I'm really feeling the shedding of those layers with you. - Yeah, yeah, it's well said. It's well said and we're both nostalgic in that way a little bit of reflection on the past and like you said, it's a privilege to age, it's a privilege to have things that you miss and like, ah man, I wish it was that way because that means those times were so great back then but yeah, I feel like for both of us in our own ways reflecting on that was a huge, it wasn't just, hey, we're going on the van trip to experience nature. For me, a huge intention was to take stock in life. - Yeah, it was bucket list trip for sure. We won't be able to do anything like that again because reality is we want to have kids. - We had a window in life where we don't have kids, we're in a place work-wise like, we couldn't have done this trip two years ago. I wasn't in a place work-wise to be able to take the time off that we did. - And I don't think, hopefully, knock on wood, we will be in a place to take this trip in two years because I don't want to do that with a little human running around. - Yeah. - And so it was a window of opportunity in life to take it. We did it and it was special because I don't think we'll do it again until we're retired just like the other folks in the RV park of Yonville. - Well, honestly, I do hope that we can do something like this with our kids in the future because I want them to be outdoorsy and I want to go camping with them. So I think that we might not do a van trip but we might do like three nights doing a campground in Big Sur, I can see us doing that. But yeah, I mean, it's never going to be just you and me in a van without the responsibility of kids or the unique privilege at this point in life that we could do at time-wise, financially. And so I'm really glad that we did. And I think if anyone out there has a bug to do anything like this, life is long but life is short and it depends how you're looking at it. And I think it felt like something we really wanted to do. And I feel like it reset me in a lot of great ways and I have a lot of little takeaway is that I'm carrying with me into the now. That what's meant to be will be, I think, my attraction to silence and spending more time in nature and less on my phone and allowing the space 'cause I think in the space you hear yourself and things can come up. So yeah, did you say this is the biggest way it changed my life? No, because I think I have 50 small ways that it's changing my life that are little ripples now and will create big waves in the future. - Love them. - I'm so grateful that I have a life partner that I loved living in a van with and would do again. And I still wanna spend time with you and hang out with you now. - We weren't sick of each other. - Honestly, crazy. We're gonna be coming up on 10 together. - Crazy. - But that was really, it was really fun. And I hope you guys enjoyed this recap and I'll post the itinerary on the real pet Instagram. Thanks for listening and thanks for coming on the show. - Thanks for having me. - Yay. - Thank you so much for listening to this episode of RealPod. If this hit home or helped you in some way, send it to a friend, a teammate, Rumi, share the love, share the realness. New episodes of RealPod come out every single Wednesday. So make sure you are subscribed to this podcast so you never miss an episode. To leave a rating or a review of the show, head to iTunes and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you. Not to mention you can stay connected with RealPod throughout the week, seeing behind the scenes info and sneak previews of upcoming guests by following the @RealPod account on Instagram. All information about today's show and guests will be linked in the description of this episode. Thanks again for listening. I love you guys so so much. Let's go dominate the day and as always, keep it real. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.