HOW DO YOU NOT KILL EACH OTHER? Q&A about our relationships while traveling

Foreign.

So now then in Myrtle beach, staying in an RV with Heath and Alyssa for a full week. And like this is another couple that's pretty much like living life in a very similar way to us of like traveling full time together and working full time together. So we thought it would be a fun opportunity to do a Q and A about like relationships on the road and working with your spouse. So we each post it on our Facebook pages and we ask for you to send in your questions about relationships and working together on the road.

24 7.

Constantly interesting. You guys. Okay.

Oh me start. Okay.

You're not gonna ask that one question first, right?

So Michelina.

Says if dog years to human years is 7 to 1, what, 247 RV marriage or around the world marriage compared to a regular 9 to 5 marriage.

I've actually thought about this before, like how much more time we spend together than the normal couple. I think it'd be fun to do like an actual calculation. Yeah.

So like if you have a 9 to 5 job, you probably spend 30 minutes in the morning before breakfast. I don't know.

Nobody's conscious before breakfast.

Okay, so you're not counting that as that quality?

I'm definitely not.

So like after you get home from work.

So say you get home at like 5:30.

Yeah, 5:30, like four hours a day. That's all you get with your.

Yeah.

Let's give it how much on the weekends?

5:30 to 10:30. Let's give it five weekends. We'll assume 12 hours.

12.

12 week.

49 hours a week. That's crazy.

Yeah.

So how much do we have? 12 hours a day?

Yeah.

Okay, so 12 times seven.

So together as like a full time couple living Together, we spend 4,368 hours a year together.

I feel like this will parlay probably nicely into like whatever the next question is, which is probably going to be something like how do you keep from.

Like we do not kill each other. So how many for a normal marriage?

So then 49 times normal marriage.

Like we're not normal.

25, 48. So like we're almost double.

Almost double.

So I would guess two to one.

So we've been married for like six RV years. Three human years.

Yes. It's almost our eighth travel marriage.

Hillary asked, what type of discussions do you have when deciding where to go next?

I do all of it. Well, she basically like, no, I do all of it.

She gets on Pinterest and Google Maps and like basically plots our route.

And I look at pretty pictures on Pinterest and I, like, choose based on that. I want to go there, there, and there. And then I put them all on Google Maps and I say, here's our route. And he says, cool.

I think Nate normally chooses our route. And my first question is, what's the weather? Is it warm? And if it is, then I really don't.

Weather's, like, the most important factor.

It really is.

We haven't announced where we're going next yet because nothing's for sure. But, like, I'll give you a perfect example of how things come to be. I was sitting on my computer board the other day, and Kara was in another city with friends. And I text her and I was like, how'd you feel about riding a train from Portugal to China, like, all the way across Europe and Asia? And her first response was, what class? I told her we probably didn't have enough money to afford first. And then she was like, okay, pretty much. And then it's like, crazy ideas like that that ultimately, like, lead to where we end up going.

Carla asks, living and working and working in close quarters has many benefits. But how do you handle disagreements?

I would say, like, over 90% of our disagreements come from working together because we just started vlogging and, you know, we do. We handle all of our clients together. So that's where, like, most of our dispute comes. But as far as, like, how we.

Handle them, gloves off, duke it out.

I don't know.

How would you say it's interesting when you're with your spouse 24 7, because it's like, you kind of have to get over it because you're not going anywhere.

You have to get over it. Like, you can't just, like, walk away because you'd be like, in a foreign country by yourself all of a sudden.

Exactly. Like, I feel like before we were traveling, we'd probably give it, like, a day where I'd be kind of quiet. I get quiet when we fight, and then the next day I'm over it. And we never really had to work it out. But now there's no, like, ignoring him because you're always.

I think we had. There was a fight, like, in our first year, and we're in this 29 foot RV and Alyssa, like, runs to the back, and we don't even have, like, an actual door, right? It's like our bathroom door that opens and, like, kind of closes in the little thing, and she, like, slams it and, like, pops back open.

I slammed it, like, three times, and it just kept, like, bouncing back. And I was just like, that's it.

Like, in hindsight, it's hilarious, but it's like.

Yeah.

You have nowhere that you fights over. No. So it's like, you just are up to each other to figure it out.

Yeah. It forces you to work through things. Yeah.

I think it's been really good for our marriage because I was not good at fighting.

Just very passive.

Yeah, I can fight now.

Okay, so this one's pretty broad, but what has been the hardest part of being on the road for so long?

Not having, like, enough. Like, not having enough good friends. Yeah. Well, I'd say, like, we still have friends, but not seeing them a lot. And, like, I'm a social person. Like, I get filled up by going to, you know, like, hanging out with you guys. This week's been awesome, and, like, meeting people on the road and just random places is cool, but I'd say that's been, like, the hardest part for me personally.

We're all in our 20s, and there's not a whole lot of other people in their 20s that are traveling full time. So you kind of have to find people in other age groups, especially RVing, because they're all significantly older. Like, you have to find common ground other than your age.

Yeah. Being away from friends and family.

Yeah.

But then it also leads to cool, like, stuff like this. Like, y' all lived in Texas, and we lived in Tennessee, and we would have never been friends, and now we're hanging out in Myrtle Beach. So there's pros to it, right? Okay, that was a question.

Jody. This is too funny. She said, I thought I envied you two, but I never actually thought what it'd be like to be 247 together in a shared space. How do you take a healthy time apart?

That's a great question.

I wake up, like, two hours earlier than Alyssa every day, and I'm fine with that. Yeah. So it's like, I kind of have my time in the mornings, and sometimes if I don't get all of that time, I get a little bit cranky, probably. So it's like, hey, I'm trying to, like, finish whatever I'm doing. So we do that. Sometimes I'll just get out of the RV and go for walks.

Well, we're, like, constantly stuck together, but, like, I definitely get up earlier than Kara does, and I have some time to myself in the morning. And then she edits with, like, both headphones in, so, like, we might physically be right next to each other. Time.

Yeah, we don't communicate during that time.

She's in her own world editing, and I'm in my own world doing whatever I do. Community and friends are extremely important in life. How do you guys grow individually or separately without having community like that at home?

Well, we have our Facebook group, which.

Is like, sort of a good place to connect.

What do you mean sort of?

I just mean it's online.

It's not.

Well, yeah, I feel like whenever you're traveling all the time, like, having an online community is like as good as it's gonna get. Unless you just want to constantly connect with strangers. Like having all these other full time RVers that I can like, complain about an RV, a problem. Like, I know there's people that would go. I can go to, and they would understand.

Yeah, this might sound kind of silly, but, like, the YouTube community is a new thing for us. Like, we didn't have a YouTube channel before we started traveling. And I feel like I know the people that comment on our videos. Like, we have a lot of regulars that, like, I know where they live, I know what they do for a living. Like, I expect them to comment, and I enjoy talking to those people.

So there's a. There's been a motorcycle rally going on here in Myrtle beach. And today's Sunday, so, like, everybody's going home after the weekend. But like, this weekend was. There were like hundreds or thousands of motorcycles.

The name of the event was Suck Bang Blow.

This is a very classy crowd. They had some live music at the campground last night. I really wish. Did somebody record it on their phone?

I did.

I was afraid so. You did. Maybe we'll enter or we'll insert one of the quit. It was like.

It's like PG 13, though.

And maybe. Maybe more than.

I don't know if you can see, but you probably don't want to. Yeah, just a little sneaky.

There were too many men without shirts on on the dance floor.

And women.

It was more or less what was happening to the men without.

Anyway, it was an experience.

Back to the community.

Back to the community.

So I definitely think for us, like, we're missing out on a lot of community that's going on at home. But knowing that this isn't forever helps me not dwell on that too much. I know we're missing out on a lot, but we're also getting this new community of people that I Facebook message.

With all the time.

And it just kind of makes all the work we do in our videos worth it when people are like, I plan my entire vacation because of your YouTube channel. And that makes me feel really good.

You're gonna get a lot of Facebook messages.

Message me. I love it.

That one's funny. But only applies to RVers.

No, go for it.

Do you guys almost get a divorce on moving days or is it just us or travel days?

Oh, we thrive on travel days. We love travel days. But it is a little different.

We started doing something that was helpful. It's called the RV Olympics. And, like, I would go.

We made it out, obviously.

Like, I would go to the outside of the rv, so I'd take care of, like, dump hoses, like, water and everything else that she would take care of, all the inside stuff. And we time ourselves to see how fast we do it, which is, like, gamifying. It, like, helped with the fact that.

We wanted to sometimes do it, like, four minutes.

It was.

Yeah, it was pretty quick. And so that kind of helped because it was like, okay, now we're not mad at each other. We're trying to break our record.

That's great.

I wonder if I could do that. With Kara packing to leave an Airbnb.

The only way I could zip my bag is if everything is in the perfect spot. And sometimes that takes time.

I understand that.

I will say, like, travel days are a lot of fun after we get out of, like, the Airbnb. Because, like, it's the same like, with hotel or an Airbnb. Like, you have to be out by a certain time. And Kara always underestimates how much time it's gonna take her to, like, wake up, get ready, pack things up and leave. And so I'm like, the maids are waiting outside of the hotel room. We gotta get out of here.

That's happened too many times.

Alright, this is our last one. What is one thing you've learned about each other since traveling full time? What is one thing that annoys you about the other? Okay, so it's the last two. So before Karen and I started traveling full time, we dated for six years and we had been married for two, so we'd already been together for eight years. So I don't necessarily feel like there.

Was much more to learn.

Yeah, I feel like you've learned how to work together from, like, a video perspective because y' all talking about how different it's been since vlogging and how that's a totally different, you know, episode. Change marriage.

Yeah, Working together has definitely changed our marriage. I call Nate boss a lot. He really doesn't like it, but Nate's the business guy. Like, I didn't go to college for business, and so Nate makes all these decisions that I don't know is a good or a bad one. So I just say, yes, boss.

There definitely is.

That. There definitely is, like, some fine line between, like, being a husband and not, like, being a boss, but just, like, working together. And make sure, like, we get videos put out and, like, we get Sunday summaries sent out and that I would say we've learned more from working together for the past year and a half than we have, like, traveling together for the past year and a half.

I mean, for better or worse, we were married for a year before we started. I mean, I'm sorry. We were together for a year before we started traveling, before we got married, before we got married and started traveling. So that was, like. We didn't have that whole base of things. So I feel like I've learned so much because I think the big one has just been communication. Like, figuring out how to communicate things in a way that doesn't make me sound like a jerk. Especially, like, working together.

Yeah. Like, when you watch my video and you're like, that shot is terrible.

Yeah.

So trying to be more positive. I feel like I've learned that getting.

Married and starting to travel on the same day, four days later. Four days later. Fun fact. Their honeymoon started four days after their wedding, and they've been 247 together ever since then. I had that marriage time. Like, get used to marriage, then get used to travel, and y' all just.

Which I think's a smarter way to do it.

No, y' all went big. I love it.

They literally jumped in an RV for their honeymoon and went to all 50 states.

And I feel like that was a great decision because then we didn't have to worry about, like, getting settled into, like, apartment life or house life or home life or whatever. And, like, the whole nine to five thing, like, we could make this big leap together.

It's definitely crash course.

It's either gonna work or it's not.

You know, that's a good tense.

Yeah, it works.

None of us said the annoying thing.

The annoying thing. Oh, maybe we shouldn't do this. We all have to spend a day together.

It's gonna get real.

A whole separate video.

Let's do it.

It'll be good.

I fart when I eat ice cream. There it is.

No, that's not the most annoying thing about you. I was gonna say the most annoying thing about you is that you take your work too seriously. When I. Like, our work is, like, travel. Like, travel's supposed to be fun. And I feel like, you can't take it too seriously or you're gonna take the fun out of it.

There's definitely a good balance. Since Nate, you probably don't have an answer.

I thought of three.

Oh, no.

Okay, then you go first.

I'm just kidding.

I'm really trying.

It's like, I've been making a list.

When you get hungry, you, like, hit this point to where, like, of irrationality.

Hangry.

She gets very, very hangry. And, like, no matter where we are, whatever restaurant it is, like, whether it's like, the most terrible and most expensive restaurant in the world, like, that's where we have to go eat because she has to eat.

You shouldn't let me get to that point. You should know that by now. You live and learn.

Bring snacks and keep them fed.

Yeah, but I also get to a point when I'm like, so hungry, I don't even want a snack because it's, like, not good enough. Yeah, I'm like, if I'm this hungry, I'm gonna eat something good and worth it. I don't care what it is.

But, like, not like cookout.

Yes.

It's that. And you're just like, sense of time, of, like, needing to get out of the place. Yeah. Like, we gotta go to the airport early in the morning. You're like, ah, I just need, like, 20 minutes to shower, pack, do my makeup, dry my hair, and we'll be out. No problem. It takes you two hours.

But then you shouldn't book our flights revive in the morning because you know I can't do that. Can I say yours?

Sure.

I hate it when I say something on the camera. And Nate makes me redo it 500 times because he didn't think he was holding the camera still enough. Like, that's not my fault.

Gonna be a good shot if I. I'll take the credit for it being.

My fault, but I don't like to redo things because then it's not authentic.

Sometimes I make your coffee and I bring it to your bed.

And no, he's most annoyed of the fact that I'm very critical of him.

But you can't pick. He's annoying. You have to pick his annoyance.

You're overbearing.

I think you what's annoying about me.

That you can't be wrong a lot. That's kind of true. And you probably would admit that, like, you have a trouble being wrong.

I feel like we should talk about something we like about our spouse now. Yeah.

You're really cute, though.

Yeah.

You're Cute.

I love you. I like that Nate brings me coffee every morning, except for he's taking that job this week.

I've been handing it to Nate, so.

Technically, by default, he has. I've been taking credit for the delicious latte.

Yeah, that's actually, like, every time I'm, like, finished with latte, he's like. Like, she's like, make sure to, like.

Get up and make the hay.

That's so funny. I love that both of our husbands bring us coffee.

I know.

It's the perfect.

I think that's my favorite.

I think my favorite thing about you, my favorite thing about Kara is just, like, her happiness all the time. Except when she's hangry or just waking up in the morning.

Nobody's perfect.

Yeah.

I would say for me to you is your sense of humor. I think we have. I think we have, like, a very similar. Similar sense of humor.

And we're funny.

Make me laugh a lot.

All right, I feel like we should wrap this up.

This got super corny and then, like, super deep really fast. It was all just supposed to be about, like, Q and A travel questions.

With your spouse, but now we're just, like, confessing love to each other.

Love each other.

Bottom line, before we. Before we close it down, I want to tell everybody that you have, like, what, like, your main focus is your website. So they have an awesome blog. I was about to say blog. That's what I say every day. They have an awesome blog about living and working in an RV.

Yeah.

So if, like, you're interested in RV life at all, definitely go check out ethanolissa.com will link it below. He has a podcast on RVing. They've recently started a YouTube channel where they're making vlogs and other videos that also have to do with.

With RV life.

They're pretty much like the rv.

We were super creative on the name Keith and Alyssa. Just like Karen.

Nate should have planned an ending for this thing.

Should we go to the beach?

Go to the beach.

Beach time.

Thanks for taking the time to do that, guys.

Yeah, that was really fun.

I think it'll be fun. I think it'll turn out well.

And we're still recording.

Yeah, I like the frame on that a lot, actually.

Oh, let me make sure this is still recording. That'd be a bummer.

That's a great idea.

I'll still record. You can.

But he does refuse to admit that he's lactose intolerant. And I'm like, you clearly get sick every single time you eat dairy. Why do we have to keep having this conversation.

Delicious.