Well hello there.
It’s been a good many months since we’ve posted about our upcoming trip, and we’ve had several more followers since then. So first of all, we just want to say thank you! We’re excited to have you follow along!
If you don’t yet know, my sister Claire and I (Leah) will be road tripping around the United States and parts of Canada for five and a half months starting this July. For the majority of the trip we’ll be working on organic farms with the organization WWOOF. Traveling this way will allow us to save money on food and accommodation, and learn about many things we’re interested in (i.e. organic agriculture, animal care, and running a business). You can read more about the trip basics here, and a little more about us here.
Here’s a bit about what we’ve been up to, what you can look forward to hearing about, and how you can help us in the planning process!
What we’ve been working on
Purchased a car!
Boom. This one surprised us. Although we were obviously planning on buying a car at some point before the trip, we assumed it would be around spring time when we had saved up a bit of money. But four drivers with jobs and commitments sharing two cars was getting difficult. We also found a deal too good to pass up, so here we are!
Our Mazda Tribute is about 13 years old and has around 116,000 miles on her. We were hoping for less than 100,000 miles, but we bought it from the owner of the local transmission repair shop who was originally fixing it up for himself. He had reconstructed the transmission and had several mechanics do lots of quality repairs. It’s still an older car, but it’s given us some peace knowing it’s been completely fixed up as far as the mechanics know, and it’s got four wheel drive to get us through the snow. With all the snow we’ve had here in Minnesota this winter, she’s been getting lots of use and proven herself worthy of future mountain roads and rough conditions!
The size provides enough space to hold our gear for the road and farming, and the opportunity to pull out the back seats and create a nice-ish area for sleeping if we ever need/want to :).
*Our car purchase was made possible through a generous loan from our parents. Shout-out to all the supportive parents out there.
Created a Rough Itinerary
Because the trip will be about 24 weeks (from July 1st to December 15th), we decided to stay for a few days at several farms, a week each at 11 farms, and two weeks at two farms. This set-up would give us a good overview and allow us to experience different locations, crops, environments, and people while still providing time to see family and friends around the country, explore some places on our own and recharge before visiting the next farm.
This is a very generalized route for our trip using Roadtrippers.com.
Made a Financial Plan
Claire is still in school, so we’re mostly relying on the money I’m making now to keep us on the road. My only real expenses at the moment are student loans, a monthly car payment to my parents, car insurance, a gym membership, and a minimal amount for entertainment. Anything else goes to the trip savings.
I have several mini sources of income, but I spend most of my time working customer service part time. The pay isn’t crazy great, but without a rent payment or too much money for food, it can go a lot further. Working only part time has also given me time to work on preparations for the trip, explore alternative sources of income, and some flexibility to travel, which is really all I want in life.
The goal is to save enough money to be able to pay my monthly student loan payment, car payment, and car insurance through January. That way, we won’t have to worry about it on the trip. We expect those costs to be around $5,168. We also want to save about $3000 for the trip. Once we hit those goals, I can quit and focus on creating content and preparing! WOO. Light at the end of the tunnel.
Look for: Details about the trip finances. Total expected costs, our various sources of income, current savings and all other moola-related items.
What we will be working on
Learning
Reading books and learning about organic agriculture, permaculture, climate change, cars (how to take care of ours and fix common issues), and great spots in the US to check out.
Gaining strength and endurance
Farming can be physically demanding, and we want to be able to keep up and excel at what we’re doing. We also want to hike and bike and do all sorts of fun stuff. Strength and endurance help and are just good goals in general.
Acquiring equipment
We’re looking to possibly buy a solar panel for the car in order to have enough energy to boil some water, or charge a laptop or camera. We’re also looking for the best products to help us reduce our waste on the road, since traveling can potentially be rather hazardous to the earth.
Researching and contacting farms
We need to complete the list we’re making of types of farms we want to stay at, crops we want to learn to grow, animals we want to care for, and other skills we want to learn. Then we can choose farms based on that criteria and begin to contact them!
How you can be involved:
- Did you have any comments or questions while reading through this? Please let us know! We know there’s a lot we’re not thinking of and your input is very much appreciated.
- Got any book recommendations related to one of the topics above? We’d love to read up and educate ourselves. Drop a line.
- Do you have a favorite spot in the United States? Besides farming, our itinerary is pretty open and we want your suggestions!
- Look forward to the Squashbuckler YouTube Channel launching in June! Leading up to the trip, we’ll be sharing videos on the preparation process, how we plan to eat on the road, the equipment we’ll be bringing, and other quality content related to sustainable travel and healthy living.
If you’re still reading, thank you for your interest in our trip! If you’ve ever done something similar, or want to, we’d love to hear more about it.
Follow us on your favorite social media platform: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, or don’t. That’s cool too.
Talk to you soon!
