Music Festivals, Community Building, and Retired Vanlife with Lisa & Jamie of A Van DeGroot

EPISODE SUMMARY:

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go we meet Jamie & Lisa of A Van DeGroot vanlife YouTube fame. We discuss music festivals, taste-testing craft beers, & retired vanlife. They share the importance that community plays in their life in their home on wheels & their weirdest sleeping spot.

Travelling through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun & quirky show from Travel with TMc that delves into all things travel & adventures from the road, in the air, & in between here and there. Subscribe for weekly updates!

JOIN THE TRAVEL with TMc COMMUNITY:

Instagram
Blog
Facebook Group
Help TwTMc Grow OR Get a Pod Shout Out!
YouTube
Listen to the TTLAPOG Spotify Playlist
Points & Miles Course

CHECK OUT JAMIE & LISA of A VAN DE GROOT:

Instagram - @a.van.degroot
YouTube - Gertie a.van.degroot

MORE RESOURCES & LINK FROM TODAY’S EPISODE:

Jamie & Lisa's Song Choices
Our Mid Vanlife
Rust (band)
Vanlife Community Canada
Kage & Ellie
StuntPegg
iOverlander
All Trails
Harvest Hosts

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Intro to Lisa & Jamie of A Van de Groot & Vanlife Community Canada
08:33 First Trips & Childhood Experiences: Immigrating to Canada, Summers in Spain, Cottage Fishing, Camping
11:39 Starting Vanlife in Retirement
17:54 How to Choose Where to Travel: Spontaneous Road Trips & Music Events
21:25 Travel Traditions: Fridges, Coastlines, Music Festivals, & Sports Events
27:47 Tips for Vanlife Phone & Data Plans
31:33 Biggest Surprise while on the Road
36:57 Couples Living in a Tiny Space: How to Keep the Peace
38:42 Scary Travel Experiences: The Dreaded Van Knock
42:03 Language & Travel: Mandarin, French, & Profanity
45:01 Impact of Tech on Travel Style: Feeling Connected with Social Media & Touching Base with Their Kids While Away
50:20 Starting a YouTube Channel
55:49 Personal Impacts of Travel: The Joy of Creating Community
01:01:46 Vanlife Community Canada
01:03:16 Weirdest Sleeping Spot: Dead Neighbours, Utility Sandwiches, Above the Clouds
01:06:17 Necessary Travel Items
01:08:19 Spotify Travel Playlist: Lisa & Jamie's Choice
01:10:49 Speed Round: Bougie Van Breaks, Full-Size Kitchens, & FOMO
01:24:43 Unt

Transcript

Tara (Travel With TMc) (00:07)
Hello, welcome to Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go. I'm your host Tara and the founder of the blog Travel with TMc which is where this adventure all began. Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun and quirky show that delves into all things travel and adventures from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. And in fact, I'm recording this intro to you from my Airbnb in Antigua, Guatemala.

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen so that you get notifications for each new episode. And don't forget to leave a 5-star review and comment on who you'd like to hear in future episodes. This season, we cover all sorts of travel topics. It's my hope that you'll find one or many that make you go, hey, that's me, I travel that way. Or that you listen to an episode that inspires you to travel in a new way.

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, we meet Jamie and Lisa of A Van De Groot YouTube fame. We discuss travelling for music festivals, their love of craft beer, and full-time van life as a retired couple. They share the importance that community plays in their life in their home on wheels, as well as their weirdest sleeping spot. This couple have a very special place in my heart, as they're the ones who welcomed me into the van life community during my very first weekend away with the van. I know you're gonna love meeting them in this episode, so let's dive in.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (01:43)
Lisa Jamie, how are you? I'm so tickled to have you guys on the podcast. It's awesome to have you here and to get to share your story with everybody who's listening.

LISA FORRET (01:44)
TARA!

Nice. you hear that? I'm a little sorry about the noise,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (01:56)
I did. Yeah.

That's okay. It'll be a little background ambience. So for any. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for anybody who's listening, Lisa and Jamie are good friends of mine through the van life community. They are actually the first van lifers that I met after purchasing my camper van three summers ago. And the story is kind

LISA FORRET (02:03)
Okay.

Sounds like a

Tara (Travel With TMc) (02:24)
funny because I showed up to a meetup that Lisa and Jamie helped organize. I believe it was you guys. And as I pulled in, this is literally my first weekend with the van, as I pull into the campground, I immediately get stuck in the mud and I'm so embarrassed. And Jamie, along with a bunch of others come over and as happens in the van life community, everybody's there to help out. But I am

LISA FORRET (02:41)
That's right.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (02:50)
beet red. So embarrassed that this is going on. Anyhow.

LISA FORRET (02:53)
You had just

picked your van up, hadn't you?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (02:56)
Literally like a few days before that, yeah. But anyhow, they got me out of there and I got to meet you guys and everybody else and now here we are three summers later. Yeah, so why don't you, yeah, why don't you tell everybody who you are, what you're up to in the van and actually where you're calling from today as well, because that's pretty interesting too.

LISA FORRET (02:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Perfect resume.

Okay,

so Lisa, Jamie, and we have been full -time in our van, Gertie, since October 2020, travelling around North America. It's been very easy to be on the road because we have no grandkids yet, so it's not tugging at our heartstrings to be back home in Ontario.

So currently we are in Newfoundland and we are having a blast out here. Like it's just drop dead. I think we're in paradise right now. We're in paradise, Newfoundland, which is a suburb of St. John's. Yes. And so.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (04:09)
Very

LISA FORRET (04:11)
You'll keep probably hearing cars in the background, but there's a one of their biggest classic car shows Not too far away from where we are now. So We've walked around a bit and all with all these cars, you know, Jamie's like I want that one I want that one pick my two favourite cars. So we're gonna have to go back. Yeah, so we are retired

Tara (Travel With TMc) (04:30)
and just hitch it to the back of the van.

LISA FORRET (04:32)
Yeah, that's right. Gonna have to get a trailer now. Yeah, so we are in our retirement part of our journey and just like embracing what's out there. Stop, park up, take in the views, meet so many amazing people from across the world actually and just like...

The smiles, you can't keep the smiles off her face, you know, it's been great. We've met some interesting people in Newfoundland too. Yes,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (05:04)
can't wait to hear those stories. And you guys met up with other van friends of ours yesterday for Lisa's birthday, right? Yeah, happy birthday.

LISA FORRET (05:10)
That's right. So we've left them at the car show they're wandering right now. So that's Shauna and Tozser.

and they happened to be coming to Newfoundland as well around the same time and we they've been doing their thing we've been doing our thing we had some old neighbors out in Pasadena Newfoundland retiring back here so we went and spent some time with them and then we've done some of the coasts and we finally made it into St. John's yesterday. They came in through Labrador

Tara (Travel With TMc) (05:40)
Amazing.

LISA FORRET (05:44)
Yeah, they came through Labrador so they met up. Had some birthday celebrations, did a beer festival last night and we're okay. Nobody was sick. We had to send proof of life to the kids. Addison kept sending me texts. Are you eating? Did you drink water? I know. You know those things sometimes you say.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (05:55)
I cl

love how the rules reverse at some point, Yeah.

LISA FORRET (06:12)
told our kids never to do that, but what are we doing? We're doing exactly that.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (06:17)
Do as I say, not as I do, right? Too funny. Yeah.

LISA FORRET (06:19)
That's right. I'm been stagging out to our van in the parking lot. Yes.

So they allowed us to sleep in the parking lot last night.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (06:28)
Yeah,

I can't wait to share all of your van life stories with people. I want to touch on a little, especially since we talked about this right before we got into the recording. You guys are big music fans. We've got a beach road weekend t -shirt going on, which I went to that festival with Jamie and Lisa last summer. And then Lisa's wearing the oceans calling festival hat, which was a festival I had to miss out on. But you guys got to go. That was a big part of you starting van life, wasn't it? Like before the pandemic struck, that was,

LISA FORRET (06:57)
Yes!

Tara (Travel With TMc) (07:00)
I've got my own curse going on out here now.

LISA FORRET (07:01)
Yeah, that was always

kind of the main, the reason that kept me thinking, okay, we can do this. We, when we retire, we'll get a tiny home on wheels, Jamie wanted, but then, you know, we got the van, I'm so happy we did. And we said we would go and visit and take in as many music festivals as we can, because we absolutely love music. And then COVID hit.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (07:30)
you

LISA FORRET (07:30)
And that was the end of that dream. But it

wasn't until last year when all the festivals started again and the beach row one was our first one in Gertie Festival we went to and then we went to the Ocean's Calling in Maryland. What was it? Ocean City. my god. So happy.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (07:48)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was a good

year. Yeah. And like, I thought Beach Road Weekend was so fantastic. It was completely different than what I expected. But you guys said that Ocean's Calling was like above and beyond that even.

LISA FORRET (08:02)
it was

it was a different level. Yeah, it was it was much bigger. So more spread out, more spread out, more people. And and you were right by the ocean, too, which which was really nice. I mean, what more can you ask for? I know you're sitting on the beach, the sand, the water's there and you're watching John Mayer. Yeah. it was pretty good. Yes. yes, that was good. Seeing

Tara (Travel With TMc) (08:25)
Tell us more, Lisa. That's

so funny. nice. Well, I wanna dial it back. I wanna go back a little bit because I love to know where people's travel itch comes from. And you talk about now you're in the retired stage of your life, but do you guys have many memories travelling as children? Was that something that you did as a family or where did this come from?

LISA FORRET (08:54)
well, I know that when...

When I was growing up in England until I was 17 and came to Canada in 1978, we used to go to Spain and Portugal twice a year because it was cheap back then. could could fly to Spain in the, you know, in the late 70s for like 25 pounds. It was ridiculous. So we used to go on holiday all the time and it was normal. So and we used to go camping a lot. We used to go to Wales, Lake District.

little bed and breakfasts. yeah, I used to go with my friends on our bikes and we'd ride and we'd have this little tent and we'd pop up, you know, in some farmer's field and just stay there the night and get woken up in the morning by a guy with his sheep. So, yes, yeah, definitely, Yeah, and I like,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (09:37)
this. this is the pre harvest toast era.

LISA FORRET (09:47)
came to Canada with my mom, my brother and sister when I was nine years old. single mom raising us. It wasn't a lot of money for travelling, you know, but like her family and stuff would rent cottages. So we would go. So, you know, I did fishing with my uncle and that. fish? I can fish. just don't like didn't know you could fish. I just like other people to the worm on and take the fish off. the fish off? Yes. And I'm okay.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (10:14)
you

LISA FORRET (10:14)
And cut the fish. Yeah. And so

we didn't do a ton of travelling when I was younger. When Jamie and I started dating, we got married, then we started to travel. actually, we camped a fair bit when we were dating. Yeah, we did. We used to go to Sandbanks.

Presqueale, Kill Bear, few nice Ontario campgrounds. so then we got married and our honeymoon was in Florida, you for two weeks. And it was like a hundred degrees. it was horrible. I know. Don't go to Florida in July. Yeah. I guess back then we didn't listen to people. So and then, you know, we started doing more.

over Caribbean trips like everybody else. When we should have been saving money and buying a house. And what did we do? We kept travelling. That's what we did. Eventually we settled down. It took us, what, eight, nine years to realize we probably should be looking at a house. But those are the things that were expected of us. Not to put travel in front of it.

Times are changing now. And then, you know, we had our kids and we travelled a little bit with our kids, took them camping. And then this whole new thing about van life started, right? But it started more with the tiny home on wheels, which is what Jamie had originally wanted.

I'm guilty, it was all me. Yeah, he kept watching all these shows and YouTube and say, honey, look at this one, this one. I'm like, I'm not pulling any home on wheels, you know, and our kids were still home and young. Anyway, then eventually kids grew up, they left the house and then we saw the whole van life thing start. And then that was the beginning of it. Just, okay, I can do that. I want everything.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (12:14)
Yeah.

LISA FORRET (12:17)
in one. don't want to be pulling, you know, that was just for us. You know, people do how they want to do it. But I had just wanted everything. Yeah, I don't think I could pull a home on wheels. I don't think that's as popular as it was back then. Now they seem to be more stationary. Now people are going to more of the caravans that they're fixing up and doing the van. Any type of van, overland vehicle, that seems to be what they're doing now.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (12:48)
Yeah.

LISA FORRET (12:48)
And I

can't believe how many people are here in Newfoundland travelling in their vans and with lot of Europeans are here. Yeah, and the overlanding looking vehicles. We've seen people on bicycles and they've got their tents and you know, they just go and set up for the night. See, I was thinking about these people on the bikes that had come up from Port of Basque and are coming over to St. John's.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (12:54)
With campers?

LISA FORRET (13:16)
They can't get the ferry, the Argentia ferry, because it's broken and then when they fix it, it breaks again. So people have to come all the way back down again. Yeah, that's eight hours of driving. That's a bit of a setback right now here in Newfoundland with the ferries. Ferries are a big problem right now. But people are making it. Woo! Somebody's got a hot wheel!

Tara (Travel With TMc) (13:33)
Interesting.

LISA FORRET (13:44)
How about that one?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (13:44)
That's what I want.

Yeah.

LISA FORRET (13:47)
So when we bought our van it was an empty shell and it took us 18 months to have it up fitted. We did as much as we could. Jamie sat with the gentleman that did the electronics for us and then we met another gentleman getting into cabinet design and so here we are. We said we wanted to build it out once and not do it again because we're getting old.

I was a mailman for 30 years, so I was happy to sit with someone and learn the electrical so then at least I could understand how everything worked in the van. And then when it comes to cabinetry, yeah, we helped with the design and we helped put it together and install it. So, you know, it's nice to be part of the build as well. so we got that nice...

Tara (Travel With TMc) (14:37)
Yeah, it feels like your home

then, like it's truly yours, right? When you have that input and that participation in it. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, you appreciate it differently. Yeah. Well, you guys have gone like all over with your van. You've been to Mexico, you've been through Canada and the States, like fill people in on where you've been in the last few years.

LISA FORRET (14:42)
Yes, exactly. It means a lot more, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, so

Yeah, so we've done North America twice, gone across twice. Coast to coast. First time in Newfoundland now. We've done a lot of this like Florida, Arizona, California, and not this winter, but the winter previous we had the opportunity to go down to Baja, Mexico. We were down there for about seven weeks and we had never ever travelled to Mexico before. And so we were a little hesitant. You you read the news and

You're hearing people losing kidneys and things like that. is that? okay.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (15:36)
Lisa's doing quotes for anyone who's listening. with their ears, with their fingers.

LISA FORRET (15:41)
So

we connected with another couple on social media. They were going down to Baja all the time and then I saw they were going to go another time. So thanks to social media I just sent them a message and I said, hey, Rich and Robin, what are the chances you carry two Canadians? Two sheepish Canadians. And they were like, sure, let's do this. Yeah, so we hadn't even met them in person until I think we met them January 29th.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (15:55)
Yes.

Yeah.

LISA FORRET (16:08)
that year in the desert in California. January 30th we crossed over the border with them. But previous to that, we're still friends, Previous to that we did like a FaceTime call and so they wanted to know like what are our expectations when we get to Baja.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (16:15)
And you're friends today, right?

LISA FORRET (16:28)
How fast do you like to drive? How many hours a day do you like to drive? Yada yada. And you know, food and things like that. And we just said, you know, we're just thankful you carry us there and we just want to follow you. Like we have absolutely no expectations. And it worked out so well. But she was, she's a planner, organizer. She had a spreadsheet with everything on where to fill up, which town we're stopping here. We're going to fill up water. The next town, this is where we do

the next town, that's where you gotta take money out, because there's no bank in this town, this is where you're get gas. yeah, she was very good. Yeah. Yes, so, yes, they do have a YouTube channel as well, and it's Rich and Robin, I can, I'll send you their link, their Click the link below. Yeah, it's our midlife. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (17:07)
amazing! Do they have an Instagram handle for anybody who wants to learn about how to travel Baja?

show notes yeah

LISA FORRET (17:27)
I think there are, I

Tara (Travel With TMc) (17:27)
yeah

LISA FORRET (17:28)
get it wrong, it's our midlife van or our @ourmidlifevan but I'll send it to you. Something like that. Yeah. But otherwise, otherwise we wouldn't have, we wouldn't have gone to Mexico. There's no way. I wasn't going to Mexico. Yeah, he was hesitant. But now we, like we're considering going next year and there's a few people that want to go. And so maybe we'll be caravanning people down. We'll see. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (17:33)
Okay, cool. And would you... Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's

super cool. How do you guys tend to choose the destinations or the journey I should say because I feel like with van life there's no real end destination you're always like

LISA FORRET (18:03)
We're always... Yeah,

we're all over the place. Yeah. I mean, this trip wasn't really planned. was very last minute, I feel. We knew we were going to head east. Yeah. And we knew we wanted to get to Newfoundland, but then I had a family wedding. So I'm like, we going to miss Newfoundland the third summer in the row?

you know, I chat to my sister -in -law and I'm like, I might not get to Newfoundland this year because of this wedding. She goes, Lisa, it's their second marriage. It's my cousin's second marriage. I hope they're not watching this.

goes go you're at the first wedding that's okay just do your trip because who knows next year maybe you don't want to be doing travelling in a van you don't know what could get in the way so just go so got off the phone with her and I'm right away phone and booked our ferry to Newfoundland so yeah and the only reason we're coming back when we are is because we have a concert to go to on August 15th yeah so

Tara (Travel With TMc) (18:59)
Great.

I love that. That is good advice.

Which one?

LISA FORRET (19:18)
Blink 182. Yeah, so we're doing that with our two boys and their significant others. the six of us are gonna go and take that all in. Yeah, so it can work.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (19:20)
that's gonna be so awesome. Amazing.

Amazing. my gosh. And for

people listening, one of your sons is in a band, right?

LISA FORRET (19:35)
Yes,

he's a drummer and that's why I kind of wanted to see Blink 182 with him because when he started drumming at the age 10, this was his idol. Travis Barker. And every time I see Travis drum, I see my son, our son, our son drumming because he has similar styles like how Travis drums. Very loud.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (19:46)
And.

Yeah.

LISA FORRET (19:59)
fast you know. Our son Dylan always says I can only play the drums one way loud and hard yeah and I said but that's two. Yeah so he's in a heavy metal hardcore band and they're actually going to the UK end of September for a week to do a tour over there. Guess who's going to go?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (20:01)
Yeah.

Yeah. And

yeah, did you guys end up booking your flights?

LISA FORRET (20:27)
We still have to book our flights. We're going. We're going. We're definitely going because they're playing London, Bristol, Brighton. So Brighton is where Jamie caused a lot of trouble growing up as a teenager. I think there's posters up looking for me there. Do you know this guy? Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (20:49)
And

what's the name of Dylan's band so that we can share that as well?

LISA FORRET (20:52)
Yes, so it's

called Rust. Rust. R -U -S -T. Yes. Close your ears. Very heavy. But yeah, so we're looking forward to sharing that with him. That'll be fun. We'll try to convince his twin brother to come. Yeah. So, but he hasn't made a decision yet. Mm -hmm.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (20:57)
Arini. Awesome. Yeah, definitely.

Fantastic. Yeah, that'll be a super special trip.

Knowing your family you guys will all be there. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a momager. like that. I'm wondering if you guys have any travel traditions like Jamie, I know you love your beer and Lisa you also are in on that too for and for anybody who hasn't seen Jamie and Lisa's build will link you to their YouTube channel and to their Instagram but like

LISA FORRET (21:15)
I'm gonna make sure we are mama talk. Mama Jerk.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (21:39)
special feature in the back of their van that I haven't seen in any other vans yet.

Would you say, so explain what the feature is and then would you say that that's part of any of your travel traditions? I feel like yes.

LISA FORRET (21:51)
I would think so, yeah. It was an issue before that went in. No, it's not an, I always tell people it's not a problem, it's a hobby. it was an issue because it was taking up too much space in the fridge. I have a designated beer fridge that is installed on a slide -out drawer that's underneath our bed.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:00)
Okay, so wait, what is it? We need to tell the people what it is.

LISA FORRET (22:16)
So I can access it. I've tried to reach down behind the bed to open the fridge and I can't quite do it. My arms aren't long enough. he gets to it through the back doors. So basically my fridge was taken to Andy and he had to build the whole draw system around my fridge. It had to fit right at the end. So yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:37)
I love it. Yeah. And so each place you go, you guys are always finding really cool breweries and Lisa, like cider and beer, right? And yeah. So like, how did that all start?

LISA FORRET (22:44)
Yes. yes.

I'm gonna blame the boys for that. Well yeah, I we can blame the boys for that as well because there are so many good breweries in the Niagara and Toronto area that you just learn.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (22:51)
Yeah!

LISA FORRET (23:06)
You know, there's so much more beer out there and so many different styles of beer. And over the years, we've grown accustomed to the hazy IPAs. with, you know, the fruity undertones and... It looks like orange juice. So, yeah. So the whole craft beer scene was introduced to us by our boys. And at the time, I never drank beer.

No, she didn't. I never had to second guess when I took a beer out of the fridge. I would because if she wasn't with me, I think, but what if Lisa wants some of this? So I put it back and I pick another one. I ended up not drinking anything because I had to wait. I used to drink wine. That was my I still drink wine. But then the boys say, Mom, try this. Try this. I'm like, that's not beer. OK, I'll try it. And then he would buy his stash to put away.

And then I'd see him drinking a beer. I'm like, which one's that? from wherever I said, I want to try that one too. So that's the whole thing. He's no, can't. This is not. I can't wait for Lisa to be around. So I've switched board. Yeah. To beer now than wine. But we do like cider too. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (24:21)
Yeah, top two favorites.

LISA FORRET (24:23)
top two favorites number one Messorem in Montreal and number two probably Third Moon in Milton yeah so ones in Montreal ones in Milton Ontario and number three is Bellwoods in Toronto those would be my top three yeah definitely

Tara (Travel With TMc) (24:34)
Okay.

Nice, nice.

Very cool. Any other travel traditions that you guys have or have had in the past?

LISA FORRET (24:51)
When we're travelling, we always try to hug the coast. We try to stay off the highways and get as close to the water, taking the scenes, stopping in little towns, and that's where you're meeting so many different people, you know? Because they see you coming through and they're like, huh.

They're not from here. We have no problem taking the long route anywhere because that's where I find you get the best scenery, the best little towns you go through and you're not on the highway and you can stop anywhere. Yeah, you're right. And that's how you meet people. you know, times have changed for us now because we're retired.

Because previously when you're still working, you only got two weeks of holidays or three weeks, you're pretty much on schedule with going. But this time now, it's just like we get up some mornings, you don't even know what direction we're going. And we'll just pick something in the morning or the night before. Or just stay put sometimes. But like we'll look out for music festivals and stuff going on. It's like even this after here, we're going to Bannerman Park because their folk festival is

this weekend. So and Bannerman Park is also there was also a Bannerman Brewery. Who would have thought that? What a coincidence. Yeah so that's where we're gonna head later with Shauna and Tozser taking some music and then we'll probably end up at another brewery tomorrow afternoon because oh yeah the the football's on tomorrow the Euro 2024 finals on tomorrow. Can I just

Tara (Travel With TMc) (26:06)
lovely.

How convenient!

Aww, nice.

I heard

you don't like football though, Jamie, so...

LISA FORRET (26:38)
I love

football. It's really soccer he's talking about people. No it's football because you kick it with your foot. So tomorrow's a big day, huge day. England and Spain. Are you sure? Absolutely positive. We had a joke two days ago, Sean and Tozser were saying, who's England playing? And he's going, they're playing Uruguay. No I didn't, I said the Netherlands. Well they're playing the Netherlands and they're

Tara (Travel With TMc) (26:51)
Who's playing?

LISA FORRET (27:05)
In the final, they just played Netherlands. No, they're playing Netherlands. That's Jamie. They're playing Spain. He goes, I don't know, they're playing somebody. There was a couple of beers involved before that. It's a little bit of a brain lapse.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (27:10)
Yeah

That should be fun. Yeah, nice.

LISA FORRET (27:22)
So that's another, I'm going to say that's another thing. No matter where we are, he's got to find his soccer, football, or we like watching the hockey as well. So we've got enough data now that it doesn't matter if we put a hockey game on or a football game on. We don't worry about finding a spot we can tap into. So we use it up.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (27:40)
Right.

speaking of, who do you guys have for a provider then?

LISA FORRET (27:51)
Tell

us. have tell us. yeah, it's not cheap, but it's gotten cheaper. it seems like in the last six months, my phone plan just keeps going down and down and down price wise.

and they keep adding more more data. So don't know what's going on. Yeah. So we probably have how many? We have 500 gigs between us. And we're paying. And we pay. hundred and eighty six dollars. No, one hundred and seventy four dollars. One hundred and seventy four dollars. Yeah. Five hundred gigs. Yeah, I just added another 50 gigs to each of our plans for the same price that I was paying a week ago.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (28:22)
You said 500 gigs?

feel like I need to go back and look at my plan now, because I've noticed the same trend, but my gosh.

LISA FORRET (28:35)
With every

Yeah.

I mean when we first hit the road in October 2020 we were paying over $300 a month. Yeah we had $311 and I think it was only 150 gigs we were getting.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (28:51)
That was split between the two of you, right? Like over two plans. Yeah.

LISA FORRET (28:53)
between the two of us. So

it's shown, like, I think things are starting to, you know, maybe even out a bit. Because Canada does have the worst cell plan in the world. Cost -wise.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:03)
by far.

Yeah, it's about time we're catching up with everyone else.

LISA FORRET (29:10)
Yeah, so every, I'm gonna say every three, two, three months he looks at our plan and he says, he sees if there's anything, better deal. And then he'll change it. And there you go. So you should every so often check your plans.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:20)
smart.

Yeah, usually I do like Boxing Day because there's usually good deals and stuff then to change your plan, but after our call I'm gonna go check again.

LISA FORRET (29:29)
Yeah. So that I remember,

I remember when I spoke to somebody at TELUS, they said they always do special promotions, like before everybody goes back to school and university, and then before summer, they sometimes do it. And then randomly, they'll do it at Christmas and the New Year's and Black Friday and things like that. So.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (29:54)
Good

tip. Wow. Like really my mind is blown that you guys have 500 things over there. Do you use Starlink as well? Because I know a lot of people thinking about van life who are maybe working full time and not yet retired. They think about service and whatnot. Do you have it? If so, why? And if not, how come?

LISA FORRET (29:58)
Yes. I know. No.

We've

talked about Starlink, but we're not in a lot of remote, remote places where you literally cannot get any signal. It's happened to us a few times we've been here where we weren't able to get signal, but I don't think us getting Star Choice, StarLink right now would be beneficial for the price, because it's like $170 a month, Canadian.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (30:39)
Yeah, it's

expensive.

LISA FORRET (30:40)
Where is it? Like I say, it's working what we're doing. We're up our 500 gigs. There are moments where I'm like, Jamie, message won't go. Go for a walk. And he's out there holding out the phone trying to find it. So those times are frustrating, but it's not a lot. We don't tend to overland for days or a week somewhere remote.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (31:07)
Right.

LISA FORRET (31:08)
We'll make go for a couple days, then come back into civilization. If we're with other people, I would do it, but we're not as adventurous on our own. Aw. Yeah. Thank you. Aw. When you grow

Tara (Travel With TMc) (31:17)
my gosh, you guys are so adventurous. Don't even get me started. I want to be like you when I'm older.

Yeah. man. Another thing that I was wondering is like, what has been the biggest surprise on your travels, whether it was when you were younger, something that surprised you or with the whole van life thing? Like, had you guys tested?

a van beforehand because that's something else a lot of people are like do I just hop into this and go for it or like yeah

LISA FORRET (31:52)
we did in 2017, we went to Napa Valley for the Bartler Rock Music Festival, a three day event, and we rented an Econoline window van, which just had the pop -up table, you had to fold down the seats to make the bed, and then in the back of the van, when you opened up the hatch, you had a little kitchen there.

like with a sink and a little fridge and you could draw for your cutlery and plates. And we did that

What a 10 days? Yes, we went to the music festival in it and then we drove the highway, Pacific Highway 1 for a bit. Through Napa Valley. And that's when I said, because he was still on the tiny home on wheels thing is I was like when we did the van, I'm like, I could do a van. I think I could do a van. Then we came back to Ontario. was easy. And highly suggest that people do this. So before jumping into a van or jumping into tiny home on wheels, we decided to Airbnb a few things. So we

had Airbnb'd some cabins, off -grid cabins on the lake. Again, there was no service there really, but you were there for three days and it was wonderful. The thing we hesitated on because we realized, you know, tiny home, you got to go up these stairs to get to your bed. And your face is like this to the ceiling, right, in the bed.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (33:24)
Yeah, so

true.

LISA FORRET (33:26)
And as we're getting older, you know, up and down the stairs to go to the washroom and back up. I said, OK, no, I don't want to be doing this as we get older. know, so I'm glad we did try that because, that's that's never going to work. Yeah. We even rented a boat where we slept. It was.

at the end of this couple's dock in Tobermory and they were AirBnb'ing it so we just wanted to try it to the space so we slept in there for like three nights and kayaked right out there right over the

Tara (Travel With TMc) (33:56)
Yeah!

LISA FORRET (34:03)
sunken ships that were there. It was great experience. We're like, we're not boat people. So no, no, we're not gonna do that. I'd live on a narrowboat like on a canal like in Europe. I would do that, no problem. So that was kind

Tara (Travel With TMc) (34:14)
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

LISA FORRET (34:20)
made us realize, okay, we don't want this, we don't want that. Let's just look into the van. And that's when we started. Plus, it's the confinement thing, living in a tiny space. If you don't know it, like we speak to so many people and they tell us, you know, I'd kill my other half if we were in a space this size. I don't know how you guys do it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but some people can do it. Some people, don't like it. But it's more about the

than being confined inside a van. You spend, you know, 85 % of your time outside the van when the weather's good and that's what it's there for.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (35:01)
Yeah, I'm so with you guys. Anybody who makes the same comment to me, I'm like, they have either missed the point or didn't realize that the point is the van is literally your vehicle to allow you to see everything that you want to see. And it's a safe place to sleep at night in a dry, comfortable setting. Other than that, you're out in the world. Yeah, the world is your home, not the van. It's literally everywhere is your home. Yeah.

LISA FORRET (35:11)
Yep.

Yep. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was so

fun. I'll give you a joke from last night at the beer festival. So you have a few drinks and you need to go to the bathroom. And there's a lineup.

in the brewery for the bathroom. Well, next thing you know, I'm getting the car keys, the van keys from Jamie, going out, coming out to Gertie, using my own bathroom and going back in. So the woman that was sitting there, she goes, I didn't even see you leave. said, yeah. I said, my bathroom's just out there. I don't have to line up for it. She goes, you're smart. Yeah. So if there was a line up, I was like, okay, just going to go to my vehicle. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (36:05)
That is a life hack.

man, what better reason to bring your vehicle everywhere? Women's washrooms lines are the worst. I used to, speaking of, I have little story for you. So when I lived in Dublin, obviously would go out to the pubs and whatnot. And after few pints, I would have to go to the washroom and oftentimes I would just scoot into the men's washroom.

LISA FORRET (36:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was.

Okay.

Okay.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (36:33)
because I was like, like, this just has to get done. The women's line is taking forever. Everybody's chatting. I can't handle this right now. But I got kicked out of two pubs because of that. I did, I did. You know though, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Like, give us some more bathrooms. Yeah, yeah.

LISA FORRET (36:38)
Yeah.

Oh Tara! Did you really? Exactly! So there again. That's funny. We

were talking about the 90 square feet of living, you know, and we've been together for a long time. it just, when we got in here,

We had some adjustments to make, you know, and learning to like not let that little thing that used to irritate you about each other. Just let it go. It's like nothing irritates me about you though. Nothing. Please. don't. must be. You must be irritated with me. I won't tell. That's another another podcast. that's a couples therapy podcast.

But it's just, you know, it's made us relax even more. Yeah. I think the important thing is when you're doing this kind of lifestyle is just don't rush it. There's no reason to rush. People have that fear of missing out and they want to try and get everything done. That's when mistakes happen and things never go as planned. know, all your plans get messed up. So we try not to...

Tara (Travel With TMc) (37:43)
Mm, mm.

LISA FORRET (38:07)
plan too far ahead to make commitments because we don't know what's going to happen between those two points we might decide to stay longer in somewhere. And then we don't want to disappoint anybody either so we tell people we'll be there when we get there. And if we see we see if not next time around you know kind of thing.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (38:17)
Right.

Yeah, that's part of the beauty of it I find. You can stay as

long or as little as you want and yeah, you don't have to worry about where you're sleeping that night because you always have your bed. So if something goes awry, you're still okay. Yeah. Speaking of actually, have you guys had any scary experiences on the road?

LISA FORRET (38:38)
Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah, so, yeah.

AHHHH

Tara (Travel With TMc) (38:49)
Or in any of your other travels as well, like has anything kind of spooked you?

LISA FORRET (38:52)
scary experiences.

I'm gonna touch no, we've touched wood. I don't yeah, we've been blessed. We have been knocked on maybe once.

once in... once in BC. Yeah, it did have a sign up, but we have been parking there many times over the winter. And then I think it was like the month of May. So spring started, started to get busy in this area and we parked up. And then at midnight, he came and knocked on the door. was like a...

Tara (Travel With TMc) (39:25)
police

or

LISA FORRET (39:26)
it was it was actually like a security company that the little town had hired. Yeah. And and he was so apologetic. Yeah. He said, feel really bad. I'm so sorry. on.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (39:39)
Speaking of,

as we've got the sirens going.

LISA FORRET (39:45)
edit here and here. Yeah, so he just asked us kindly, made a suggestion for us to go and then we packed up and left.

But so that was the one time we got a knock. The other time was we were home in Ontario and the Go Transit places allow you to park for number of nights overnight. guess actually you could consider that as being a little scary because it was like one o 'clock in the morning. We saw somebody tugging on the passenger door and Lisa jumps out of bed, sits up and I'm like, honey, somebody's at the door.

It's okay, it's okay. So here me, I'm like, what do you want in this manly voice? And I'm looking at her going, what are you doing? What is that supposed to be? Yes, exactly. But it was some guy, was a strung out. He was on something and yeah. So we opened up and he says, I didn't know anybody be in there. Got any cigarettes?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (40:38)
She was in mama bear mode.

LISA FORRET (40:54)
Yeah, so I he was looking for, because we saw him with an empty wallet going through it and then he throws it so he must have gotten into somebody else's vehicle. So.

We looked at each other and like, okay, let's leave. Yeah, we moved and we actually haven't been back to that Go Transit parking lot since that happened. Yeah. So. So it just left a bad taste because we probably stayed there 20 times, maybe more. And then that one night was that. So I think that's twice. Yeah, we've had some in almost four years, which I think is pretty good. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (41:25)
Yeah.

that's excellent. I've had twice in less time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you guys are. You got some luck going on there. Yeah.

LISA FORRET (41:36)
Yes. Yes,

definitely. Well, tend to, plus when we get somewhere, we tend to just park and sit for maybe 10 minutes and just watch everything that goes on around and just assess the situation. And then we then then we look at each other and go, yeah, I think we're good. We'll stay here tonight. We'll put our window covers up. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (41:57)
Yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so true. goodness. Okay, I have a few other questions for you guys about some topics that aren't necessarily related to van life, but they're all like travel adjacent. I'm curious to know, do either of you speak other languages?

LISA FORRET (42:16)
Okay.

Jamie says... I always tell people I'm bilingual. I'm English in profanity. No, I never.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (42:27)
nice.

LISA FORRET (42:33)
I have Chinese background in me. My mom was the youngest of nine and by the time it came to her I guess they were too tired to teach her. But her older siblings had spoken like Mandarin.

it was something that was never passed on. French I took in school so I know some words and but again that's one of those things I should really have continued French as we've been travelling right so yeah but yeah no unfortunately no yes

Tara (Travel With TMc) (43:07)
Yeah, yeah!

So what do you guys do when you're in situations, out on the East Coast and different like area, well, East Coast, you've got the French influence. Obviously Mexico, you've got the Spanish, although there are lots of people who speak or can understand English. how do you approach the language barrier when you're in these places? What's your go -to? Is it, yeah.

LISA FORRET (43:20)
Yeah.

Google Translate.

It's been our friend. It's helped us in a few spots. I am surprised. I am pretty impressed with how many French people do speak English as well. And I don't think I can say the same about us learning their language. I know the first time we went to Québec and travelled through...

Tara (Travel With TMc) (43:49)
100 % yeah, I agree.

LISA FORRET (43:56)
like north of Québec City down through like that part of Northern Ontario, sorry, Northern Québec. And even in these little towns, like the young generation that would just break into English, no problem with you. Thanks to social media. Yeah, and I think it has a lot to do with that. Because we pulled into McDonald's lineup and he's like, English? I don't know how to order in French. goes, that's okay, I speak English.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (44:15)
Interesting.

LISA FORRET (44:25)
And so he was so surprised. Yeah. I found them very, very good that way. Yeah. Yeah. So, so really, I mean, yeah, we've learned a few things, but before we went to Baja, I did, I had like a little checklist of certain words and baños and you know, whatever, to get us through. Camero, Cameroon when you go to order tacos, you got to Cameroon.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (44:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, very neat.

Which for the people

is?

LISA FORRET (44:53)
Make sure too he knows how to order his beer. Dos cervezas por favor.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:00)
There

you go. Nice. That kind of ties into the next thing I was curious about too is tech. Because both of you travelled pre -internet and obviously over the course of your lifetime tech has influenced travel in a lot of different ways. Like how has it changed the way you travel? Because you also enjoy camping which is an activity that a lot of people tend to disconnect from the world and tech and all those things from.

LISA FORRET (45:22)
Right.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:24)
Yeah, how is tech influenced and changed to travels?

LISA FORRET (45:26)
I absolutely love social media. I'm very much, I like to feel connected to people and so I use it a lot. You know, I'm on Instagram. A real lot. I feel sometimes she misses things. We'll be driving and I'll go, my God, look

okay, you're busy. Okay. I just keep driving. I don't say anything else. But I just and I love that it keeps us connected to you and the community. It allows us to be connected with our kids. So FaceTiming with them because back in the days when we would go away, let's say travelling, our parents had no way to really connect with us to make sure we're okay. See you in two weeks. Okay. Make good choices. That's

Tara (Travel With TMc) (45:53)
Aww.

Great.

Yeah,

LISA FORRET (46:18)
Yeah. So

Tara (Travel With TMc) (46:18)
yeah. Being parents now yourselves, how would you feel if your boys were to do that? Like, I'll see you in two weeks. Would you be like, okay, no problem? Or would you be like, my God, my babies, I need to hear from them?

LISA FORRET (46:29)
still have to hear like Addison had gone away for seven weeks to Europe on backpacking by himself and so you know we kind of knew his journey and he would text us and to check in and you know tell us he's arrived or whatever and then one time he was I think he was in Germany and he FaceTimed me.

And he said, my friend, said, here, use my phone. FaceTime your parents, because I have unlimited data. So he did, and we chatted, and it was great to see him and hear more about his journey. Then we hung up. And I bawled my eyes. I started bawling my eyes out. So I called him at work, and he goes, what's the matter? I said, I just wanted to hug him. I just wanted to reach in the phone and hug him.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (47:19)
Aww.

LISA FORRET (47:21)
He's okay. No crying. A couple days later, he gets a FaceTime from Addison and the next thing you know, he hangs up the phone. I was blubbering like a fool. He goes, I understand what you're saying now. I don't think it matters how old they are. You still get all like blubbery. Yeah. So, and the other funny thing with tech.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (47:22)
Aww.

LISA FORRET (47:49)
So you know we all have our iPhones or whatever phone we have. You know you can share your location with one another. So we have ours turned on with our one son Dylan. So he can see where we are and I can see where he is. Our other son has yet to accept the request. What did he say? What?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (48:09)
Getting called out online

here.

LISA FORRET (48:11)
Why would I do that? He said, you don't need to know where I am. I'm okay with that. And Dylan, on the other hand, he loves it. He says, I love the fact that you, you, you keep an eye on me and know where I am. He says, I'm okay with that. Yeah. Yeah. So even with that, we had, when we were in this little town in Nova Scotia,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (48:25)
Aww, that's sweet!

LISA FORRET (48:33)
We got a rap on the door and Jamie opened it and it was the harbor master and he was coming down to check we were okay because somebody had told him there's this van from Ontario and to check it. So he came down to check on us and he said you know come with us come with me I'll take you for a drive. So Jamie I'm on the back bed just relax. goes

Well, go, we're gonna go for a drive. It's pitch dark, 9:30 at night. And his name's Floyd. How can you not trust a guy called Floyd? So he says, Floyd wants to take us for a drive around the town to show us. I said, Jamie, we don't even know who this guy is. He goes, oh, we'll be fine. It's Nova Scotia, we'll be fine. So I'm sitting there, I pick up the phone, I'm like, location is on. If anything's to happen, they'll know where we are, of thing. But I'm

We're doing exactly what we told our kids not to do. Getting into a vehicle with a stranger in the dark. But it all worked. Yes. Yes. we've had another one too. But we won't tell that one. we're good? Yeah. Not yet. Yeah, so it all worked out. And that's what we love with technology. One plus, every night we stop, I will send the location to the boys where we are. I send them a screenshot of the picture.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (49:28)
Yeah, right in the car. I'm sensing a theme here so far. Okay.

Yeah.

LISA FORRET (49:54)
the address so they know exactly where we are every night.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (49:57)
Yeah, I

love that. That's so good. It's like women with dating. We do the same thing. If I'm not alive, if you don't hear from me at 10 o 'clock, call the searches. Yeah.

LISA FORRET (50:03)
Yeah, that's right.

Yes, that's right.

know. Sometimes they'll send us a text. If we don't have servers and we warn them, then they'll send proof of life and then you got to send them a picture.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (50:21)
That's so funny. Along the tech vein, you guys are also YouTubers, so I'd love to share a little or I'd love you to share a little bit about what it's like being YouTubers and did that start because you loved using YouTube to prepare for your own travels or like how did your YouTube journey begin and how's it going?

LISA FORRET (50:41)
Wow.

Well, before you start, it's exhausting for me doing YouTube, having to be on the camera all the time. Do know how many times we've had to redo things and I'll get a smile and not take it another, take it again, take it in. We've to redo it. But you've gotten 100 % better than when we first started. Yes, I had very little patience at the beginning. Now I'm like, yeah, whatever, just hit it. I got it. But no, I had no intentions of doing

Tara (Travel With TMc) (51:08)
YAY

LISA FORRET (51:11)
when we got into the van to go on our, when we became full time. And I just wanted, like I would do videos and stuff just for memories, right? So back in COVID times, we were hiking.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (51:22)
Mm -hmm.

LISA FORRET (51:29)
can't remember exactly where. think it was Boyne. Boyne Provincial Park. We meet this gentleman who was running, running. was like doing these time -lapse. They kept running by us. And he was vlogging while he was running. So, see, so anyway, we eventually get to the top and he's up there and he's talking away and doing his thing. So we're kind of like sitting back. So he's like, come on up. goes, I'm fine. It's, know, whatever. So then we start chatting to him. Next thing you know, he's all he

van life wants to know all about it, wish he could do it but his wife you know she's got some health issues and what so the next thing you know he meets us back at our van and we're chatting away he's probably a little younger than us but he says listen Jamie you need to start a YouTube channel. It's all his fault. Yes and I'm like no no. Thanks Dave. Dave yeah so a couple days before we were to leave he wants to meet up with us.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (52:16)
Aww. Who is this man? Can he be named?

LISA FORRET (52:27)
He says, wanna talk to you. So we meet up with him. And he drove all the way from Orangeville to Newmarket, pouring with rain, sitting in the lowest parking lot, and he jumps in our van and he goes, okay, this is what you're gonna do. You're gonna be YouTubers. You to share your journey. like, what? He says, just start off with a GoPro. That's all you gotta do. And just, you know, talk and this and that. And you can use iMovies and you don't have to get into the big stuff, you know?

I'm like, Dave, really? goes, I'll mentor you. Don't worry. He goes, you got this. We say goodbye. And the next thing you know, we go to Best Buy across the road and we buy a GoPro. And I started learning how to use it. And that was how it began. Yeah. So that's it. Yes. Yeah. So Dave, we still keep in touch. He keeps checking in on us. He'll be like, Lisa.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (53:11)
Jamie's shaking his head for anyone listening.

didn't know this story.

LISA FORRET (53:26)
You haven't done a video in a while. I know, Dave. I just need to take a break. Yeah, but but but sometimes life does get in the way and well, sometimes it's hard. It is hard. I give kudos to people who do it all the time. don't have the time and commitment to do YouTube. I did real.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (53:41)
Seriously. And you guys and

I know people who do it full time for their job. Like that is, it's next level.

LISA FORRET (53:47)
It's a lot of commitment,

it's a lot of hours. mean, there were times when you'd be up till two or three in the morning to hit that deadline on a Sunday morning. because again, no proper signal. That's when we needed the Starlink Mall was back then.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (54:00)
Right.

LISA FORRET (54:07)
Anyway, I haven't posted in a while and I have so much footage I still need to put together. It will come eventually. It's pretty bad when her iPhone is telling her that her storage is full. Yes. And I think in the cloud, we have 1 .7 gig of the, no, yeah, 1 .7 of the 2 gig that's in the cloud. It's almost full.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (54:34)
Whoa!

LISA FORRET (54:34)
So, yeah. And I keep increasing it. Yes. But I like the videos and the shorts and that because I think it's good. It's a good diary of all of our travels and I think and the kids love it because they say that it's like we're travelling with you. We love what you share with us. And then I think it's good because when they have kids,

Tara (Travel With TMc) (54:38)
Yeah, that's how they get you.

LISA FORRET (55:04)
and we have grandkids, we'll be able to show them what their crazy grandparents did and look at all the travelling we did. And I think that's gonna mean more to us when that actually happens, when we'll be able to show them all the places we've stopped and all the travels we've done and all the silly videos we've made and the people we've met.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (55:25)
Yeah, it is a really cool way to document your travels and to have that for family and friends and for yourselves later on. Yeah, what is the name of your YouTube channel so we can tell people?

LISA FORRET (55:35)
It's Gertie A. Van de Groot. That's it. yeah. Did you have to go A. Van de Groot? Well even if they just type A. Van de Groot it'll come up. But yeah. That's

Tara (Travel With TMc) (55:40)
And I'll link that as well.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah. All right, so both of you are really good, and I think, Lisa, this is a huge skill of yours in particular, but in creating and crafting community and welcoming people in and connecting people, and you've already talked about how...

important that is to you to be connected to others, but really I think you guys are like the glue for a lot of us in the community, or at least the spark for a lot of us. I know for me that's the case. Yeah, no, I'm so appreciative of it and like of all the opportunities to connect and create friendships and memories that you guys have introduced. so I guess where I'm going with this is like,

LISA FORRET (56:09)
Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (56:31)
For me, that's been a huge impact in my van life travel experience. And I'm curious to know what you appreciate from your travel experiences in terms of the impacts that you've personally had. But I know that you're also both very conscious of how you impact the communities that you visit or spend some extended time in. Where does that come from and how do you think about

LISA FORRET (56:36)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, I will tell you. got 30 seconds. As I've gotten older and you sit back and you kind of look at your life, my mom was a very, very social person and still had friendships from when she was 12 years old.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (57:19)
wow.

LISA FORRET (57:20)
And she grew up in Guyana, right? And then we came to Canada and there is a huge community of Guyanese people wherever you go. And they always seem to find each other. And my mother had these group of friends every month they would get together, go to somebody's house for lunch or they'd go out to the theatre or they'd go dancing, things like that, you know? And I always valued that.

the way they lived, know, that it was important to them, that friendship was important to them. My mother never forgot a person's birthday. She would always call them, you know, and everything. She was there. She'd be the one, like if my aunts needed to go out, she would be there in the car with her car, pick them up, and then she'd come home and I'd have to listen, your auntie said this, your auntie said that. I'm like, well then why do you spend time with them? But that's just how it is.

And in itself, my background, my West Indian background, Guyanese background, were so much about community and family and getting together and stuff. So I think that's carried on in me. And so when I meet people, I like to make community in that because I don't want somebody to feel alone. meeting single women travelling and by us having

van meetups and things like that. It allows others to meet single women or single men travelling. And then when you leave, what I'd hope is you've made a connection with somebody. So as you travel along your ways, you can reach out to them and say, where are you? I'm nearby. Let's see. Let's have a coffee or something together. know, so it's carrying my home and keeping that foundation going is how I look at

And I just, we love meeting people and hearing their stories. Because everybody has a story. And sometimes it's a good story, sometimes it's not so good. Some people are doing van life, van living, because that's the choice. Sometimes they're doing out of necessity.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (59:20)
Yeah, so

Yep.

LISA FORRET (59:33)
you know it's interesting to find out what happened and why you're in this situation. And then just to me, I always say smile goes a long way and just making that connection and making them feel good too about themselves.

think when I think back, I think that's where it from is my upbringing, the foundation my mother gave me. And I think some people find it hard to do that. You'll see them in a parking lot and they won't even make eye contact. But the minute we do it, they're like, I guess it's okay to go and talk to them. I don't think they want to be on their own, but they're shy, they're afraid to make the first move. Yeah, and that's what I say to people.

You have to want to put yourself out there. Like people aren't going to always come to you, right? So and just saying hello, you know, maybe you'll strike up a conversation with that person. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:00:34)
Definitely.

LISA FORRET (1:00:35)
I think that's

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:00:35)
It goes such a long

LISA FORRET (1:00:36)
how we've kept a lot of friendships is by just people that we've met and then you end up meeting up with them a few months later, maybe a year later. And that's the nice thing. So you've always got a lot of people to visit on your travels now, which I think is nice because a lot of people don't realize that you can do that, make some connections on your travels.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:00:50)
Yeah. So true.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

LISA FORRET (1:01:00)
But even like

we had a couple ask us, said, are you guys ever alone? Because every time we always see you with different people. No, we have our moments alone. I'm honest. I love being with people, but I also love my own little bit of space.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:01:17)
Yeah.

LISA FORRET (1:01:18)
We may not be with people 24 -7 or all week will be maybe a couple days and then we'll go off on our own for a couple days and then maybe meet back again, you know? And I think as a van life and nomadic community we understand that. We understand if somebody wants to go off on their own.

We don't take it as a, I guess they don't want to be with me anymore kind of thing. just... Well, that happened in Baja because at one time, I think there was four... Was it four vans? Yes.

There was four vans at one point. We were travelling through Baja and then we went down to three and then back to two and then back to three and back up to four again because some people had a couple of things that they needed to do. But then we knew in a few days, we'll just meet up again.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:02:01)
Yeah, yeah, it's so true. And for anybody who is already doing Vanlife or wanting to start into it, the broader community that Lisa and Jamie coordinate and have fostered is called Vanlife Community Canada. And you can find that there's a Facebook group where they set up the meetups. They just had one on the East Coast. There have been a bunch in Ontario in the past. So it's a phenomenal resource.

LISA FORRET (1:02:22)
Yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:02:26)
And I have to say, of all the people that I've met in the community so far through these meetups, everyone is genuinely so lovely and helpful and yeah, like it's such a wonderful community to be a part of. So if you're on your own or not sure about this, join. it's, yeah.

LISA FORRET (1:02:45)
Yes, definitely. Because it is all

like minded people and you've all got the same issues. So you can feel comfortable sitting around talking about your toilet.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:02:54)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah!

LISA FORRET (1:02:57)
Whereas most people you meet, you wouldn't want to bring that up at any point.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:03:01)
Yeah,

it's so true. That is in like the beginning conversations for a lot of people.

LISA FORRET (1:03:07)
gosh. It's always the number one

question when they come in a van and they go, so where's your toilet? How does that work?

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:03:15)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaking of odd conversations, where's the weirdest place that you guys have slept?

LISA FORRET (1:03:27)
Hmm. The weirdest place. Let me see.

Yeah, not the weirdest place. We snuck into the back of a hotel parking lot in Saskatchewan and parked between a couple of utility trucks in a snowstorm. That one was a little...

There was the side of the mountain with Eric when we went to see the northern lights and there was no cell signal up there and the road went from asphalt to frozen solid ice so we couldn't go up and the road just zigzagged all the way up the mountain. I think we were almost 5 ,000 feet up just to see northern lights and as the sun was going down you could see the clouds and we were above the clouds up there. Eric's heater didn't work.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:04:07)
my.

LISA FORRET (1:04:16)
But we spent, we stayed the night there. stayed the night at the side of the road because we figured, well, nobody's coming up here tonight. Yeah. That was, that was, that was, was, yeah, yeah, that was iffy. Yeah. If the kids had known what we did that night, my goodness. That was the other story. Yes. Yeah. We, we never told them about like, scramming on our hands and knees up the side of this mountain hill. To try and see the Northern Lights. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:04:24)
Yeah, how is getting down?

LISA FORRET (1:04:46)
And it was, we're standing there, okay. And so we got up there and all of a sudden the fog started coming in. And we're like, there's no way we're gonna we're like, where's our van? We decided to sit it out for an hour to see if it was clear. And I'm like, it is so quiet up here. And we have no signal. What if some kind of fox or something comes out?

nobody would know what happened to us. And then now it's trying to find a way down. How we got up there, we couldn't find the same path down. Thank goodness Eric had screenshot or he put on the location where his van was. And so we kind of were tracking our way down, but we were actually on our hands and knees at one point trying to go up and down. And finally we could see the reflection on

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:05:23)
gosh.

LISA FORRET (1:05:40)
the Reflectix, Eric's van were like, there it is. We made it back. Yeah, that was pretty scary. But other than that, we tend to be very cautious where we park, you know, like we don't, yeah. We've parked under bridges. We once parked near cemeteries sometimes and I'm just not about that. Yeah, I don't like that. They're dead. People are dying to get in there. They're not getting out.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:05:54)
Yeah, why?

That is morbid.

Okay, changing tracks. What are, and I feel like this is a bit of a cheat of a question to ask somebody who lives and travels in their van, because there are probably many more things to answer this, but what are two or three items that you always travel with? And maybe this is for your international travels too, when you're gonna be heading overseas for your son's concerts and stuff. I can't think of my English words at the moment, but what are two or three items that you always travel with?

LISA FORRET (1:06:19)
Yes, yes.

Yeah.

My aeropress for my coffee. Coffee's a big thing. Coffee's a big thing. I still hand grind my beans every morning and everybody makes fun of me. What else? Definitely my GoPro will come with me wherever I go, you know, to document.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:06:51)
true.

LISA FORRET (1:07:10)
There's not a lot. I'm trying to think. The must -haves? Yeah. Cards. Cards. We play a lot of cards. Yes. Every night we try and play a game of cards before we go to bed. And then every night, she beats me. Every night. Most nights. Most nights, yeah. We play golf and pay me. Pay me. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:07:15)
That's good. That's two things.

True, very true.

I love that.

Rich rich card game

Okay, nice.

LISA FORRET (1:07:37)
Those are our two go

-to games because they're very easy to play because I'm not a big cribbage person or rummy. I like simple card games. Yeah, that's okay. We play those more complex ones when we're with other Yes. There's not a lot that I would say I necessarily have to have with me.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:07:48)
Nice. No, that's perfect! That's a

LISA FORRET (1:08:00)
Because living this lifestyle you tend to be more minimalistic, right? So you learn to live without, you know, My aeropress that's all I care about. I gotta have my coffee.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:08:07)
Definitely.

without things.

All right, well as a bonus for the listeners and with my guest's help, I'm also curating a travel playlist to share and so I'm curious to know what's, and you can answer this individually or as a couple, what's either one song that sums up your travel style or a song that reminds you of one of your trips.

LISA FORRET (1:08:27)
Okay.

Jeez.

For me it would be anything, Arctic Monkeys. They're a band from the UK and I just love the Arctic Monkeys. I've grown up with them over the last 10 years or more and how their music has changed. It sort of reminds me of how our life has changed being in the van.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:08:52)
Yeah.

LISA FORRET (1:09:08)
So how they've grown with their musical, like with the songs now, they've changed their whole sound. What would my favourite song be?

I can't check my playlist. It's on the phone that's videoing this, I'll send you one, definitely. I will have one, for sure. mean, just coming to me, one of my favourite songs every time it comes on the radio, Brown Eyed Girl, you know.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:09:24)
Okay, send me one then. Okay.

that's a good one.

LISA FORRET (1:09:39)
I love

that song. the other one that actually just touched me recently was Sailing. by Rod Stewart. But music's always on in the van too. Always. I couldn't live without music. That's there go. You couldn't live without the music. I go crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:09:44)
Nice. Okay, perfect. All right.

Classic. Okay, literally writing this down as we speak.

LISA FORRET (1:10:05)
it gets her a little upset in the morning because first thing, we're driving radio on and she says, I just want some quiet. To start the morning. I want the music on, I want to get going, and she just wants silence. And then when she's editing a video or something or trying to put a post up, radio's got to go off. I'm concentrating, she goes. And I have to sit there in silence.

Yes, there you go. Exactly. Well, that's I see. think you should. think Andre said you should wear earphones when you're doing that. Yes, yes. And then it would be easier for me.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:10:35)
At least we have earphones, right?

Alrighty, we're gonna end today with a speed round. So either one word or one sentence. Nice and fast, No. Alrighty, where was your last trip? Which, like, trip is a weird word to use for somebody in van life, but where was your last adventure?

LISA FORRET (1:10:57)
$25 each question? Is that what it is?

Justin Bench. It was yesterday going up to Signal Hill in the fog and it was like a horror movie. Okay. Holy cow. And Shauna and Tozser kept saying don't worry you'll see it on a sunny day.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:11:24)
where is your next trip?

LISA FORRET (1:11:27)
Next trip from here we're going down to St. Vincent to see the whales. Yes. Apparently they're feeding down there. Yes, on the Capelins. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:11:38)
Wow, very cool. bougie or budget?

LISA FORRET (1:11:42)
Mmm.

That's a tough one. Bougie. Bougie. You mean like spa and... I need

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:11:48)
you

Yeah.

LISA FORRET (1:11:52)
sometimes it's nice to get an Airbnb. We did that in Lunenburg for a couple of nights. And it's nice sometimes to get out of the van because it can be tiring sometimes. So it's nice to get out and stay in an Airbnb somewhere, a little motel. Shh, this is quick one sentence. okay, but she can edit it. She can cut it, right? Sorry.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:12:14)
You're making more work for me, Jamie! No, I'm

joking. No, you're fine. Do you prefer fast or slow travel?

LISA FORRET (1:12:22)
Slow.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:12:24)
planned or spontaneous trips.

LISA FORRET (1:12:26)
spontaneous.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:12:28)
Guided tours or choose your own adventure?

LISA FORRET (1:12:32)
Own adventure.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:12:34)
Underpackers or overpackers? says he's under for listeners and Lisa is the over.

LISA FORRET (1:12:36)
Under, over.

He is, he

is. I'm like, I think you need more underwear. That's why they have two sides.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:12:49)
God.

Moving on. What's the most overrated destination?

LISA FORRET (1:12:57)
The touristy spots definitely are. Overwritten. I can't say. Lake Louise. For him it was. For me it was. I found it very underwhelming and very touristy and yeah I think it kind of spoiled the whole trip there.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:13:14)
Okay, what about the most?

LISA FORRET (1:13:26)
Yeah, because we weren't allowed to go into certain areas because we weren't registered guests.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:13:26)
Good to know.

Right, and they've changed all their rules out there too, I think. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What about the most underrated destination?

LISA FORRET (1:13:33)
Yes, they have. They're strict

I'm gonna say Newfoundland in itself. People need to come out here and see it. The coastline is ridiculous. At some point, it looks like you're driving through British Columbia, but on a much smaller scale because the trees out here don't grow very tall. They're called Tuckamore and that's a name for trees that are stunted. And that's why all the trees are here because of the weather.

But the views and the pace of life here compared to And the music. Yeah, the music's ridiculous. Everybody, even the guide at the historical site we went to, he picked up the guitar and started singing for us. I mean, where does that happen? he goes, this is just my hobby, but I'll play the guitar for you. He goes, yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:14:12)
so interesting.

and the music, I'm sure too.

I love it. Newfoundland art.

So cute.

What about domestic or international travel?

LISA FORRET (1:14:44)
We've done a lot of domestic, I guess we could say, because we haven't flown. But there are some locations we definitely would like to get to via plane.

Maybe after we're done doing van living, we'll start embracing more of that international travel. I'd like to go back to Croatia. Yeah, Croatia. We had the opportunity to visit on a cruise. Yeah, that was one of my favourite places. Definitely Croatia. Yeah. Yeah. And I'd like to go to Costa Rica because we still haven't been there yet. Yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:15:13)
Nice one.

LISA FORRET (1:15:17)
I wanted to move there one time too. I said, when we retired, we're gonna move to Costa Rica. She thought I was crazy. You're still crazy. I'd still go there.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:15:17)
What?

What's one home comfort of like stationary home living that you miss most from...

LISA FORRET (1:15:34)
TV,

TV, I need my big screen TV.

And

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:15:41)
feel like you could

just get the projector for on the van, no?

LISA FORRET (1:15:45)
No, it's not the same. He just wants to be on a lot of couch and watch a big screen TV. I do miss I still love baking and stuff, you know, and so I do miss having a kitchen. A full kitchen is a big thing, too. Yeah. Like when we stayed at our friends recently, we house sat for them. And I just love the kitchen. Yes. Because you've got so much more room for activities.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:16:08)
Yeah, it's true. What's the best piece of travel advice you've received?

LISA FORRET (1:16:15)
tend to don't overbook yourself. Keep your expectations low, right? Because I think when you have it that way, it's that wow factor, it's even better.

The fear of missing out, don't worry about that, because next time you come around, go see it then, if you don't see it this time. Don't be afraid to go off the beaten track either. Ask the locals of where to go, because they know the secret little gems everywhere. And those are the places that surprise me the most, I know that. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:16:48)
Yeah. What's

the worst piece of travel advice you've received?

LISA FORRET (1:16:53)
The worst piece. The worst piece. A lot of people, the fear factor of, you know, make sure you have this much gas and water. And we've never had an issue with that. Even coming here, people said, you're not going to be able to get gas. You're not going to be able to fill up water. Well, I've had an extra jug of water for.

two and a half weeks and I haven't touched it. And gas, you can get gas everywhere.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:17:21)
to

Perfect. Driver seat or passenger seat?

LISA FORRET (1:17:30)
Passenger, backseat driver. Backseat driver right here. I admit it. She's the best backseat driver I know.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:17:40)
Okay, we'll move on from this one. Are you guys? Are you guys, do you like getting souvenirs? And if so, what's your go -to?

LISA FORRET (1:17:41)
Yes. That's why I like it when she's sleeping.

go to right now because we're in the van is the stickers. We like to stickers from everywhere. So we've been, we don't have a ton of them up here. We kind of hide them on the side of the drawers. You know, we open it up, we can see them. Yeah. We like to get the stickers from breweries, coffee shops, then provinces and little towns we go to. We do love our stickers. Yeah. And a few magnets too.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:18:08)
nice.

Yeah, I thought you might say coffee

as well.

LISA FORRET (1:18:23)
yeah, we've got lots of coffee.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:18:26)
Yeah, they're always sharing their coffee on their Instagram or their drinks and whatnot. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm to give you guys the choice on this one. Either describe yourself as a traveller in three words or a nomad, I suppose in this case, or you can describe each other.

LISA FORRET (1:18:28)
Yeah.

You mean describe me and I'll describe you? As a truck describe you as a traveller.

I'll start. You start. Organized. She's very organized. Yeah, which is good because I need the help as a co -pilot. Even though she's a terrible backseat driver, I do appreciate the help. So it's invaluable. And I will describe Jamie as he's very methodical and patient.

and just very, he's very observant too.

Right? So he sees things as we're driving and he'll point it out if I'm looking, kind of thing, and inquisitive too. So that really helps with our travels because we'll see something and he'll say, look this up. What is that? You know, so we don't just drive past and so we'll look at them and I'll discuss it. that was the first whatever plant plantation of whatever. know, I think I might have pushed it a bit too far a little while ago when she said, why do you keep asking such redundant questions?

And I said to her, well, because I'm interested in to quote Ted Lasso, be curious. And that's me because I know I ask a lot of questions and it's because I always think about, well, well, how is that built? Why is it built like that? But I don't understand. Why is it there? I ask a lot of questions. I like to know stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But why? But why? Yeah, that's me. That's me.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:20:19)
Yeah, that's a great way to be like that kid that's like, why, why, why? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LISA FORRET (1:20:28)
Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:20:30)
What about your favourite content creator, whether it's a YouTuber, blogger, podcaster, and I know that you know several personally. So if you want to give out one each maybe, or how do you feel like dividing

LISA FORRET (1:20:44)
No, you better go first. Well, I'm gonna point out this other couple that you know who need to get moving on their YouTube videos Just recently they had a real big blast on YouTube. They're now What do you call it they're making money now a little bit monetized, yeah Kage and Ellie You need yeah like

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:21:05)
monetized.

congrats to them! That's great!

LISA FORRET (1:21:12)
They have a video there. He does a tour of their travel vehicle and their trailer that they're pulling and I think it's probably almost at 300 ,000 views right now but it went from like 1 ,400 views and he messaged me he goes I don't know how this happened and it's just been climbing and they're now at like almost 5 ,000 followers but they need a push because

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:21:35)
that's so exciting!

LISA FORRET (1:21:39)
His videography, the way they put it together is A1. People have made comments on it like, the quality of your videos, we are so surprised you don't have more followers. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. But they went from here, like this overnight, and they don't understand what happened. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:22:00)
love it.

LISA FORRET (1:22:00)
Just

somebody picked it up. Yeah, but they're good. Kage and Ellie I'm gonna promote. So my favourite YouTuber is a girl in the UK and she's called Stunt Pegg. And basically she's crazy about football and she goes around all the football grounds in the UK and Ireland and she goes to Europe and she goes to these little clubs, the big clubs. She gets tours of their facilities.

and she goes to all the tournaments because now that she's gotten much bigger, she gets let in. And she gives you lots of history about the worst football ground in England, the most underrated football ground, and the oldest football ground. And I just love learning all the histories about all these football stadiums all over the world. So I really enjoy watching her. She's my favourite. So if any man like first go there, they can look and then go visit. Yeah.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:22:48)
That's super cool!

Yeah, excellent! Okay, last one for this. What would be the best gift either for a traveller or for a van

LISA FORRET (1:23:02)
gift

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:23:04)
I lied, second last one. have one more after that.

LISA FORRET (1:23:05)
No. that's good. I would

say like gas cards. Yes. going to say like a coffee brand because we won't go to those coffee brand places, but definitely gas cards and yeah, just and a tin of beans, tin of Heinz beans.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:23:11)
great.

Yeah.

We're gonna share a picture now, you know. Jamie has a tattoo on his calf of a of beans. Yeah. All right, last question, I promise. What's the best travel

LISA FORRET (1:23:27)
Yes, I know.

Yeah.

travel app.

I mean, we tend to use iOverlander almost daily. So that's sort of our guide. So I'm going to say that one. It's definitely the go -to one.

And you like to use the trails? And All Trails too. I like to use All Trails to document our hikes that we take and then it saves them for you and it's nice to look back on them.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:24:08)
Yeah, definitely. anybody who doesn't know what iOverlander is or what you use it for, that's to help find safe overnight camping spots. And that's for throughout North America. Excellent, excellent app. I agree with you guys on that big time.

LISA FORRET (1:24:16)
Yes.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:24:26)
No, I'm with you on Harvest Hosts as well. That's going to be my favourite way to find places to stay. All right. Well, thank you both so much for coming on the podcast. It was so nice to catch up and to hear some stories I didn't know about from both of you. And I can't wait. Yeah, I believe that. I can't wait to see where you take Gertie next. And just as we leave things.

LISA FORRET (1:24:34)
Yeah.

There you go. we got lots of stories.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:24:53)
Where can people find you online and is there anything else that you'd like to

LISA FORRET (1:24:57)
your department. Yeah, Instagram, @AVanDeGroot, YouTube, Gertie AVanDeGroot, and for the community definitely get on to Vanlife Community Canada on Facebook and Instagram.

Tara (Travel With TMc) (1:25:13)
Amazing. Awesome. So good to see your beautiful faces. Thank you. Enjoy Newfoundland. Bye.

LISA FORRET (1:25:17)
Thank you Tara. Bye. See ya.