All Tales From The Road since the beginning of times:
2021:
What’s New This Month?
(Skip this part and jump to Tales from the Road)
1- We re-edited our Electrical System Design article so it’s easier to understand and more thorough:
We also asked ourselves “If we had to start over, what would we change?”. We ended up with a new wiring diagram that we’re very proud of! What’s wrong we the previous one? Nothing, it passed the test of time and it works exactly as it should! Then why change it? Here’s why:
We realized many people are just replicating it (which we think is great!), so we wanted to make it
- easier to understand (see our new Interactive Diagram AND new tutorial “From Blank Page to Wiring Diagram in 15 Steps”)
- easier to install (more intuitive design and less components to install)
- easier to use (Plug-and-forget, monitoring via Android or iPhone)
- easier to adapt to anyone’s need (many features can be deleted/modified for different needs/budget. See our suggestions.)
Visit our Electrical System Design page to find our new wiring diagram! You will also find a tutorial we made to help you read and understand the wiring diagram 🙂
2- Vanlife Actual Cost
The West Coast is NOT CHEAP, take it for granted. Fuel is about 4.70$ US per gallon and the price of food is hard to digest. That being said, we’ve been pretty stationary so we managed to keep our expenses acceptable, nice.
| APRIL 2018 | MAY 2018 | |
| Auto Insurance | 168$ | 168$ |
| Gas & Fuel | 377$ | 480$ |
| Alcohol & Bars | 179$ | 300$ |
| Groceries | 560$ | 745$ |
| Restaurants | 191$ | 215$ |
| Health Insurance | 252$ | 252$ |
| Activities | 0$ | 95$ |
| Everything Else | 387$ | 325$ |
| Total | 2115$ | 2600$ |
Previous months here: faroutride.com/vanlife-actual-cost
3- 10K followers on Instagram! Thanks for joining us 🙂
- Instagram: instagram.com/faroutride/
- Facebook: facebook.com/faroutride/
4- We’re NOT trying to immigrate to the USA, we swear!
We wish we could give accurate information about what’s the allowable stay length for Canadians or such, but we were given conflicting information by the USA customs… here is what happened:
- On April 3rd, we tried to enter to USA to meetup our good friends in Moab. We were refused entry because we were told the maximum stay for Canadians is 6 months in the last 12 months (every individual stays add up). We were at 5 days short of 6 months, so we were almost max out already. We were told that in order to stay longer, we needed a Tourist VISA.
- We got our VISA (link to form here) from the Vancouver US embassy and made a second attempt a few weeks later.
- The custom agent was super nice and told us getting a VISA was a waste of time and money (320$)… VISA or not, it’s 6 months maximum! This time we were allowed to go in (we just wanted to spend the weekend in Bellingham WA).
- What we know for sure is, entering the US is not an easy task anymore; we now always get send “inside” for questioning. We have to prove that we don’t intend to immigrate and work illegally and, guess what: the “normal” way to prove this is to show that you have a permanent address and a job in Canada… duh! It’s kind of weird; we used to have a “VIP” treatment pretty much everywhere because we were both engineers. Now it’s quite the opposite, we get the Very Weird People treatment!
- Oh well, to be continued…
Tales from the Road
This month, as usual:
For Isabelle, waking up everyday is like a re-birth: it’s painful and it’s a traumatic experience. My role is to make sure it happens slowly and smoothly:
But once she’s awake, she’s unstoppable!
As far as I’m concerned I like to wake up early, but I can enjoy a rest during the day…
On the Sea-to-Sky, getting on top of the trail is always a mission. But you know, LOOK AT THAT VIEW!
Wanting to step up your game? There’s no shortage of opportunities in British Columbia!
As seen on T.V.
Here I’m taking you down “Tower of Power” trail in Pemberton. It’s 27C on this beautiful April’s day, so that calls for proper cool-down method 🙂
Just a short section of “Chainsaw” trail in Victoria, Vancouver Island:
Mountain biking season is going full speed ahead, but it’s “Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada” here; there’s plenty of stuff to do!
Hiking The Chief in Squamish
(you’re not seeing double, that’s Isabelle’s cousin 🙂 )
Epic and risky expedition to go explore the Tantalus range
And sometimes it’s OK to just stand there and enjoy the show…
Bonding with passionate riders that designed their life around riding is, for sure, contributing to the fact that we’re still here after two months…
FOOD. It’s tasty. We like.
Somehow, she sees things in the map I don’t see… or maybe the map talk to her? Huh, actually I don’t want to find out. I prefer to think it’s just magic.
Yesterday, after swiping and scrolling for five minutes on her phone, she instructed me to drive to a specific point along a river. I knew it wouldn’t work, but I went for it anyway. It was the PERFECT swimming hole for an after-ride; water was clear and turquoise and cold, but not too cold… just enough so we could sit in the water and enjoy our beer in there. The map couldn’t possibly know that?! Huh.
Then she started swiping and scrolling again on her map and told me to drive. I didn’t argue (much) this time. I drove and it looked like this small winding road was going nowhere. Indeed, the road led us to nowhere. PERFECT! We got there just in time for the sunset: the view was nice, it was calm, quiet and we spent the night there.
I’m not sure how she does it, but I know for sure she’s the best co-pilot! ❤
We reached the end of the road! We can’t go west anymore… well, unless we move full-time on the EXPLORER 200… but that’s very unlikely…
We made some friends along the way!
It’s hard no to fall in love with Vancouver Island…
TO BE CONTINUED…
All Tales From The Road since the beginning of times:
2021:
OUR CAMERA GEAR
All the photos above were capture using our favorite photo/video gear! Aerial/Underwater/Long Exposure/POV/Gimbal, all of this in a portable package, check it out:
