I discovered Geeky Explorers because of their amazing pictures on instagram. Their profile also mentioned their blog website which intrigued me even more because they sold everything to travel by RV across the country. I immediately knew that I wanted to interview them for the blog. Tricia and Keith graciously agreed to meet me at Coffee Emporium before they started the next leg of their journey. They were fascinating in person too. I always admire people who take the leap of faith to live their dreams.
How long have you been traveling on the road?
We’ve been on the road since 2011, with two city breaks – one in Portland, OR (9 months) and one in Cincinnati, OH (6 months).
What obstacles did you have to overcome while making the decision to travel full time?
One of the biggest obstacle was downsizing. We started with a 3800 square foot home, 3 cars, 2 motorcycles, a sailboat — you get the idea. We had to go from excess to only what we could fit into a 37 foot RV.
Another obstacle was money. When we first hit the road, neither of us had remote employment. We saved up enough to survive 6 months on the road, and when the money started to run out, we started to look for work. For this next leg of travel, we will both be working remote which will change how we explore.
What have been a few of your favorite experiences or cities so far?
Having traveled from the east coast, to the west coast & back again has left us with a lot of ‘favorites’.
Photo credit: Geeky Explorers
Glacier National Park – We spent a month in Glacier and it left quite an impression. The clear water, towering mountains & peacefulness is remarkable & is officially our ‘happy place’.
Sonoron Hotdogs – To keep things inexpensive & to eat local, we often frequent roadside stands or food carts. In Tucson we discovered the Sonoron Hotdog and between the roasted pepper, the bread & the hot itself – it’s worth a road trip to have again.
Photo credit: Geeky Explorers
Lonestar Geyser – After the crowds of people in most Yellowstone attractions, spending hours a couple of miles off the beaten path to see a Geyser erupt with a handful of people was a real treat.
Portland, OR – Although it’s popular and well known, this city has a passion for local food & drink. We lived in the heart of downtown and we had everything we wanted within a few block radius. Hundreds of food carts, entertainment, breweries – the city was so walkable we only took the car out on the occasional weekend we wanted to visit Mt. Hood or Cannon Beach.
How do you approach a city that you are visiting? Research online, locals, etc?
Part research online, part traveler recommendations, part random local suggestion, part dumb luck.
I love research so when we decide to visit an area, I look around to see what there is to do and make a list. How much we see on that list depends on a lot of factors, such as weather, time & other suggestions that come our way.
RVers love to chat & share stories, so we often find ourselves armed with info about a place on our way there. Of course, we also often hear about neat things to do right after we’ve left as well and those suggestions end up on our wandering map.
Bellying up to a local bar has consistently been an excellent source of information. The bartender, local patrons & other visitors are usually happy to share what there is to do.
What are some ways that you cut costs while on the road?
One of the great things about traveling in an RV is you travel with a full kitchen which helps with food cost. We also found that eating lunch out instead of dinner helps, and roadside stands that are dog friendly also make our list.
Happy hour is another way we’ve tried several restaurants when traveling by sampling the menu instead of buying full meals.
Where do you park the rv when you visit bigger cities?
It all depends. When we are traveling in the RV, we mostly camp on the outskirts with a preference towards state parks. When we are in a city mood, we drive in to visit.
In Kansas City & Denver, we stayed in places that were nothing more than parking lots just to be closer to the city since that is what we were traveling to see.
What are some of your favorite travel hacks?
When we first started RVing, we looked at a number of clubs but found that most didn’t fit our style of travel. We are members of Escapees which occasionally gets us a discount. Mostly if you are looking for a deal when traveling in an RV, staying weekly or monthly saves on ground rent.
There are several RVer’s out there that camp for free on federal land but our rig isn’t quite set up to take advantage of that.
What have you enjoyed about Cincinnati?
Photo credit: Geeky Explorers
We specifically stayed in OTR to make the city super accessible to us. We have really enjoyed going to many of the bars & restaurants in the area and have loved how walkable the entire city is. We’ve taken advantage of the amazing arts community Cincinnati has and the performance with Over The Rhine performing with the Cincinnati Ballet is something I still talk about, months later. Although we only caught a few Reds games, we both love that the stadiums are in the city center.
The architecture in the city constantly captures my eye and from our loft we had a view of the City Hall, the Cincinnati Music Hall and Union Terminal – a few buildings I never get tired of looking at!
What do you think locals might overlook?
Lots!
We found that when we travel, we tend to really focus on things to visit & experience since we know our time is short in the area. We’ve talked to some locals that haven’t been inside the Music Hall to experience the May Festival, or haven’t walked the steps to the Immaculata Church, or haven’t taken in the city view from Ransohoff Overlook.
What can easily happen (and it’s happened to us before) is you get used to the city you live in, and think that you will have all the time in the world to explore it.
Photo credit: Geeky Explorers
What cities or experiences are you looking forward to crossing off your list next?
Our ‘jello plans’ have us heading next to the Smokey Mountains and I am excited to visit that national park. We also plan to explore the Atlantic seacoast a bit more. Since we are heading in an area we’ve visited before, it will be a rare treat to revisit cities we adored, like Charleston & Savannah. The wonderful part about this next leg is that we’ll be able to travel indefinitely since we’re both working remotely so we don’t have to plan our time on the road as much.
What have you learned about yourself through this experience/ life change?
1. That we can live happily with very few material things.
2. Living in a small space with a constantly changing environment has made us both better at communicating & much more patient.
3. That it’s ok to embrace the inner nomad that we spent years fighting.
4. It’s ok to try & not get it right the first time
What advice would you give to someone who dreams of traveling full time?
Shift your balance from dreaming to doing. We constantly hear ‘oh I wish I could do that’ and if traveling is something you really want to do – do it. Just know that you have to travel in a way that fits you – it’s okay to not ‘fit the mold’ of budget traveler, or RV traveler, or backpacker, etc. Make yourself happy & go! Also, it’s not an all or nothing event, we’ve traveled in different ways that weren’t our ideal and we’ve worked to get where we think we want to be. Now that we’re here we’ll see if it works for us and continue to change what doesn’t.
I’m looking forward to reading the adventures Geeky Explorers take in the future. Make sure that you also check out their instagram @geekyexplorers
