Travel Planning: Getting The Most Out of Google Flights

Planning travel can be fun, and over the years it has changed (remember calling each airline to ask for pricing when you wanted to book a flight?) However, now we almost have too many ways to do it!! So I am going to tell you one main tool I use and how to get the most out of using it. Obviously flights and accommodation are usually the highest cost items, so in this post I will talk about what I use to find cheap flights, and that is Google Flights. 

Google flights is part of the Google Travel suite, and you can also use it to find hotels and vacation rentals. However, I will just talk about flights for now. Before I start, one of the best ways to get good prices on flights is to use points! However, I will be talking about that on my Money Monday post next week so stay tuned! Let's assume you don't have any points. Here are a few ways to maximize your experience and minimize your cost for flights. 

First, if you have any flexibility around your destination, you can put in your home airport and put "Europe" or "Anywhere" in the destination field and then you can pick depending on price. I use this a lot, as you can easily get from one place to another using regional transport or trains once you are there (which I will discuss more below). 

Next, it may make sense to put in multiple airports in either the to or from field. To do this you just click the plus and add any airports you want to check. In my case, I could go from SFO, but it may make more sense to fly from LA (LAX) for some destinations. If it is a significant difference, you can get a cheap flight on Southwest or whatever the local carrier is and possibly save money without sacrificing time. If you have a lot of time, you can even use further locations and you may even be able to have a couple of fun days in a new place! You can also check "San Francisco area" instead of San Francisco and it will automatically search from San Jose, Oakland, SFO etc. 

Doing this for a trip to Berlin, it was $400 less to go from LA, and a Southwest flight from Oakland to LA is only about $200. If you don't have the time or the patience for this, I understand! However, if you do, it could work out well. Also if you live in a small town or city, it may make more sense to choose some larger cities and then get to the airport on a separate flight or drive. 

I recently looked into flying from SFO to South America. From SFO to Buenos Aires it was about $500-$900 one way on Avianca, but if you go from Miami, it is $300, and you can get a flight from SFO-MIA for $90 on Frontier or $84 on Jet Blue (including one carry on). That is a savings of ~ $110 - $510 each way depending on which one you choose! Sure, it may take more time, but you could go a couple of days early and experience Miami too. 

Speaking of carry on, when I search for flights, I always put a few things into the filters. First, put your luggage in; this will edit the price for airlines like Frontier, where if you do not put this in, the flight looks cheap, and then you add your options (choose seat, luggage, etc.) and it is not as great of a deal. Just beware, as this will add the cost of baggage for some, like Frontier or United, but not for others, like EasyJet. 

I also sometimes deselect some of the connecting airports. If you have ever transited through Chicago O'Hare or Washington Dulles you will know what I am talking about, as some airports are a pain to go through, especially for international flights. 

Speaking of that, for all flights, but specifically for international ones, a couple of other things I watch for are layover time and connecting airport. If you have to go through customs, I would suggest a minimum layover time of an hour and a half, just in case. I once had a 50 minutes in Frankfurt and even though I only carry a backpack (no rolling luggage) I was sprinting and sweating to get to my flight on time. I don't know why they do this, but I would check that closely! 

For connecting airport, here is the rub. Let's say you are flying from Berlin to San Francisco. If you transit in Frankfurt, you will have to go through the European exit customs in Frankfurt, so you will need extra time there. If you fly from Berlin to JFK and then to San Francisco, you will go through the European exit customs in Berlin, and the US entry customs at JFK. This can pose a problem as well, as you may have to retrieve your luggage and put it back through security at this point, so you will need extra time. This is yet another reason to only travel with carry on. Personally I would rather transit in Europe and skip a US layover, and go through customs when I get to SFO, so I plan my flights accordingly. Or even better, I buy a non-stop flight. Sometimes the extra cost is completely worth the decreased hassle factor. 

Speaking of non-stop flights, just as with the departure city, sometimes it makes more sense to get a non-stop flight to whatever major city is cheaper, for example, SFO to Frankfurt, which can be cheaper and saves issues with transiting and customs, and then taking a regional flight or a train or a bus to wherever you want to go. At the time of this writing, round trip flights in January from FRA to either Marseille, Krakow, Barcelona or Seville cost around $200. 

Last, but not least, if you have flexible dates, you can look at the price or date graph, and you can toggle the "track prices" button to get emails when the price changes. 

Actually, THIS is last, but I never book through Google Flights or Expedia or Orbitz; I always go to the specific website for the airline. I also don't book one leg with one carrier and another leg with another, as I have done this in the past, and when one flight is delayed or canceled, it can be a rescheduling nightmare. The good thing about Google Flights though is that you can click through their site to book the flight on the carrier website once you have decided which flight you want. 

I think that is everything! Let me know if you have any questions or want more information. If you are new here and you want to see where I've traveled so far, check out my Around The World page! 

Also, tell me: What website or method do you use to find good deals on flights?

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: Easy Ways to Save or Make Money

You know I like a good bargain just like the rest of you, and I am frugal to a fault in some people's eyes. However, I don't think that I give up quality in many cases, and I do prioritize quality in others. For example, I don't need to pay an extra $50 for a hotel with free breakfast when I would rather hit the streets and buy breakfast along the way or have a snack of peanut butter and a bagel in my room. Or, I don't need to eat three meals out when traveling, when I can just as easily eat a bagel and peanut butter in my room and then splurge on lunch. I guess the key is that you have to be willing to eat a bagel and peanut butter! Here are a few other ways to save without sacrificing happiness. 

Be aware. This is the number one thing in my opinion. This kind of goes along with culling your subscriptions, which I talk about below, but I think that you should take a look at what you are spending each month or quarter or year and then change what needs to be changed. Even if you think that nothing needs to be changed, I think it is important to know what you are spending your money on instead of just letting it all go out the door without thinking. This is easy enough as a lot of our banks will let us add external accounts so we can track our spending, but I use Fidelity's Full View. This is free for customers, and if you are not already a customer, you can open a cash management account, which is what I did. 

Open a high interest savings account. The reason I opened a cash management account at Fidelity is twofold. First, they reimburse all ATM fees, so when you are traveling abroad or are going to be in small towns where you may not find your regular bank, you can withdraw money with ease. I rarely withdraw cash, but when I do, it is nice to just be able to get out a little bit and not worry about the $9+ fees that my brick and mortar bank sometimes charges me each time. I was often getting out more (too much) cash because I did not want to go back again for another withdrawal.  

The second reason I did this is also due to their high interest rate. You can either leave your funds in cash, which will get you about 2.44% as of the time of this writing, or you can buy a money market fund, which is currently yielding about 4.50%. If you have money sitting in a checking or regular savings account, I highly suggest you move some of it to a higher yielding account. If you don't like Fidelity, there are also high yield savings accounts online like Marcus or Citizens which also will give you a better rate (FYI: currently my main brick and mortar bank checking account has 0% and my savings has about 0.03%, vs. the high yield accounts, which are around 4.0% - 4.5%.) It literally takes two minutes to open and maybe one or two days to transfer the funds over to a new account. 

Change your phone plan. People, we are past the era where we need to be paying $75 or $80 per month for a cell phone plan. There are so many plans out there now that are cheaper, and they are not worse quality! I personally have Google Fi (this is not a sponsored post, but if you click this link, you can get $60 off) and I have had it for years now and I do not miss my expensive AT&T plan! I was paying $80 per month, and now I pay about $80 for myself and two other people. Before I added the family members, my bill was about $30/month. Google Fi also triangulates between T-Mobile and US Cellular, so it will pick up the one that has the best service and use that. Also, it works internationally with little to no extra charge. When we traveled to Mexico, a friend of mine who had Verizon paid $10 a day to have international roaming, therefore adding about $100 to his bill that month. I paid NOTHING. 

I don't know all about the other plans, but I think Mint Mobile has a deal for $15 a month with unlimited data. Also, the All The Hacks podcast did a more thorough review of all of them if you want to learn more. However, the bottom line is that you pay per GB if you don't use a lot of data, or you can get unlimited data if you need it. Most of us are at home or work most of the day, where we have WiFi, and when that is the case, you do not use any data. I use less than 1GB of data every month. 

After reading this post by CCR, I am adding an addition to this in that if you are traveling internationally, even if you have the expensive Verizon plan, you do not need to pay the $10 per day international fee. Most newer phones now support e-SIM cards, which means that all you need to do is download an app (I use Airalo and if you use my referral code KYRIA0085, you will get $3 off your first purchase). From home you can load up some GB of data and then as soon as you step off the plane, your data will work. Easy-peasy. If you have an older phone, you can also get a real SIM card at most airports or city centers. You can then download things like maps, podcasts and audiobooks so that they can be used offline, use any streaming while in WiFi land and you will barely use any data on the road.

Speaking of referral codes. Before buying most things or signing up for anything, I check Reddit to see if there is anyone offering a voucher or a referral code for it. (I also use cash back apps, which I will discuss in a future MM post). A lot of the time, you will get a discount and probably the person referring you will get something too. Sometimes it can be as high as $60 off, like my Google Fi code, or sometimes it is a % off, or a discount on your first purchase, like Airalo. And I am sure you yourself have referral codes for things you use; you can post them on this site and if someone clicks on it, you may get a bonus too. I have received statement credits on my Google Fi account of $600 (the max allowed) by doing this! You can find my referral codes on my travel tips and hacks page if you are interested in getting a discount or giving me some extra points for something you were going to get anyway. :)

Cull your subscriptions, or alternate them. I know that it is easy to just set it and forget it, but do we really need to have four or five different streaming subscriptions at the same time? What if you make a list of which shows you like on each platform and then alternate one every two or three months? This does require a little organization, but it is worth it. Also, see above; maybe your library app has the show you like! Also, often the channel itself will show the show for free; for example, ABC has the option to watch past seasons of Grey's Anatomy right on the ABC website for free. And who doesn't love Grey's Anatomy? 

Additionally, things like Amazon subscriptions can pile up (hello TP and cat food, I am looking at you!) and so it is worth reviewing them every quarter to see if you really need more of the items on your list. I make a point to review my credit card purchases every month to see if there is anything out of whack, but if you don't have time for that, I think at least once a quarter is a good idea. Even if it is something like a credit card fee on a card that you meant to cancel, you can call them and often get it removed retroactively. And...if even once a quarter is too much, there are apps like Rocket Money or Pocket Guard that will do the work for you, and will even suggest or negotiate better deals for things like your cable or phone bill. (disclaimer: I have not tried either of these apps myself) 

During NoBloPoMo, this will be a once a week feature, so stay tuned for next time, when I talk about credit card hacking! Also, if there is something you want to learn about, or any questions you have, let me know! 

Do you keep track of your spending? If so, what tips do you have? What phone plan do you have, how much data (non WiFi) do you use each month, and how much do you pay per month? Do you have a high yield savings account? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

This Is The Story of My Life

One of the 36 questions that Elisabeth, Belle and I answered when I was visiting was to tell your life story in four minutes in as much detail as possible. I thought that there was no way I would need four minutes, but lo and behold, I guess my life is long enough (and full enough) that I actually did not even come close to being finished! For me, the issue was not that I did not have enough to fill four minutes, it was that I was shy of speaking out loud about myself for that long. 

And this, I guess, would be the number one thing that I should tell you if you are just getting to know me: I am shy. Not to confuse the two, but I am also an introvert. As I mentioned in this post, I am a social introvert. I do like being around people that I am comfortable with, but I do need to recharge alone, even when the company is fabulous. However, getting back to the shy part, I still am hesitant to talk about myself, I hate being the center of attention, and I get tongue-tied when I am put on the spot. Writing it out is way easier and much more comfortable. You can read it and judge me and I will never know, and I don't have to look at anyone's expressions or worry about what they are thinking about me. 

So let me tell you my story. Let's start at the very beginning, which is a very good place to start (name that tune!). My parents met in a small California mountain town, the birds and the bees happened, and I was accidentally conceived (PS the rhythm method DOES NOT WORK). They had only been together for mere months when this happened. Not only that, but they were just babies themselves; my Dad was 20 and my Mom was 22. My Dad went on a finding-himself road trip to Canada and my Mom probably sat at home and fretted that he would never return. Spoiler alert: he did return and eight months later, at his parent's house, my Dad decided to try to deliver me at home. Typing this out, I wonder what my Mom was thinking; was she really going to let a 20 year old kid do a home delivery with no experience!? For her first baby!? That sounds very 70s to me. However, I was stubborn from day one, or day one minus one, and after hours of nothing happening, they went to the hospital and I was delivered happy and round-headed via C-section, on Mother's Day! 

Mumsy, several years later

When I was growing up, my parents owned their own business in the small California mountain town. It was a summer resort nestled in the mountains next to a river that had cabins, RV spaces, camping, fishing, inner-tubing, rafting, kayaking, a gas station, a general store, a restaurant and a bar. This meant that (a) most of the money we made went back into the business, (b) my parents were on call 24/7, (c) any vacations we had were usually during the winter. And since (a) my parents are frugal and (b) most of the money went back into the business, these were very budget vacations. For example, we had a super old RV that broke down all the time and we would drive it to Yosemite, Death Valley, Big Sur or The Grand Canyon. We would park in a Walmart parking lot or on the side of the road and sleep, and we would wake up early so that we could see the sunrise (I hated this, but of course am now a big fan of sunrises. Go figure). We would play cards and eat sandwiches in the back. My little brother would be a pest and I would ignore him by reading a lot. Actually this was the only way to ignore everyone in those days!

A typical day at the beach: lots of beer and playing with Broski

I suppose this started my love of travel. This also started my love of figuring out how to get the best bang for your buck and also created a resiliency in me for budget friendly travel, sometimes known as roughing it. I also worked for my parents from as early as I can remember. I started by rolling quarters or crushing cans or pumping gas and I made $0.25 per hour. You can read more about that here. I saved these quarters and when I was 11, I used to go stay with my aunt and uncle in the Bay Area and we would go school clothes shopping and I would buy myself school clothes with my hard earned cash. However, for the most part, I saved that money for later. Also despite, or maybe due to, working in a customer service oriented industry, one of my favorite things to do was to be alone and read. I would hole up in my room reading, even sometimes when my brother and cousins were all out playing. However, I would never pass up a trip to the beach and we went nearly every day in the summer. 

I consider myself lucky because growing up, my every day life was most people's vacations. One of the other 36 questions was what you would wish was different about your being raised, and my answer to this was hard, as most things that I didn't like at the time I realize now have shaped me to who I am now, and I am happy with that. Thanks Mom and Dad! You guys were a pain in the ass when I was younger, but I understand now! 

Lucky we had winters free!

In the interest of time, let's fast forward a bit to college, where I worked at Nordstrom to pay for college, but still made it a priority to save for both retirement and for travel! My first trip abroad (excluding Canada) was to France, and I did everything wrong. Since then, I have been back to France several times and have traveled to almost 60 countries, oftentimes by myself. In the 25 years to follow that trip, I have taken a sabbatical or quit my job six times to move or travel abroad (I talked more about this a little in this post). Luckily, for about ten years, I worked a contract job and could kind of come and go as I pleased, which really made it easier to travel without having to be afraid of starting completely from scratch when I got back. Additionally, the contract job was around the US, so I would live and work in a place for several months at a time. Doing this gave me the opportunity to live in Florida for eight months, Louisiana for about six years on and off, Missouri for a few months and Iowa for about eight months. I liked getting to know these places not just as a tourist, but as a resident of sorts. You can find more about where I have been on my Around The World page. 

The social introvert strikes again: making friends at the cricket in Adelaide, Australia. 

During this time, I became a runner, and have completed many road and trail races, from 5k to 100 miles. I also spent a lot of time backpacking, and one of my favorite things each year was the annual summer backpacking trip, often in the Sierra Nevadas, but also in places like Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Peru and Europe. One of the places I want to go back to is Mt. Everest base camp, as my trip got cut short (but that is a story for another day). 

Donner Lake, Marin Headlands, Dolomites,
Wind River Range, Tetons, Redwood Park (Oakland)

I recently realized that there are many mountains to climb (and cities to see, and people to meet and sunrises to see) and not enough time, so at the beginning of this year, I quit my ten year long Bay Area job in finance, sold or got rid of all of my things including my house, and set off by bicycle to see more of the US and Canada, which is what I am doing now. After I finish this trip, I plan to start traveling the world again, most likely as a slow traveler, where I will stay in one place for about a month a a time. 

Marshall Beach, Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands

And now you are all caught up! Tune in tomorrow when I will be talking about some ways to save or make money with very little effort! Now it's your turn!! 

Do you have any questions for me or do you want to know more about any one topic? What is one word you would use to describe yourself? Tell me three things about yourself that I may not know! 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Giving NaBloPoMo a Go

Despite having this blog since 2006, I have never participated in what used to be a hugely popular thing called NaBloPoMo. It stands for National Blog Posting Month and it happens every November and was (is) a way for people to test their writing boundaries, get their creative juices flowing, get used to writing and posting every day and to meet others in the same boat. Over the years, people stopped blogging and so it kind of went dormant, except that San, who I have been following since way back in the day, decided to keep it alive by hosting it on her own. You can find the list of participants here. 

I decided to do it this year because I have SO MANY half finished drafts and my plan is to finally finish them, clear my outbox and move on with my life. I also will follow some rules, which I will outline below. 

I will not be commenting on all of the participants posts every day. This is probably the main reason that I have never done this project before. I am a maximizer and also not one to do a job half assed, so I feel like if I am going to do something, I have to do it 100%. I am telling myself, and you right now, that I my 100% will be commenting on maybe 8-12 posts per day, and this includes my regular list of people, even those who are not playing along. I will not leave them behind. I will follow along with the NBPM folks, and will probably read but not comment on a lot of them each day. 

I will still be responding to people's comments. I find this is the most important part of blogging to me, that I am accountable. However, if in the melee I miss one or two, please forgive me in advance. 

My schedule will be thus. I am telling you this because feel free to skip the ones that don't appeal to you; I will not be offended!! And for all of those people who get this in their inbox, I apologize for sending you so much stuff!! Feel free to delete them all and come back in December. I will not take offense! 

Monday: Money

Tuesday: Travel
Wednesday: What I Learned

Thursday - Sunday: TBD / free form

Making the above list just gave me a sense of Deja vu, because back in the day, we used to do Workout Wednesday, What I Ate Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday etc. So many themes!! 

How I will stay organized. I have created a list of posts that I will be writing for sure, as well as a list of ideas for the days where I am feeling flat. I also will write 90% of the posts a few days in advance and schedule them for a few days afterward, so that I am never trying to write frantically the night before. 

I also created a Feedly group where I copied or added all of the participants so I can keep things segregated. This way I can make sure I don't neglect my regular reads because of the hustle and bustle of the NBPM posts. 

Also, to fill in any blanks, I will periodically be answering Ask Me Anything questions, so please go to my form and fill out some questions or leave your questions in the comments below! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will be telling my origin story for those of you who are new here! 

Have you ever participated in NaBloPoMo? Are you participating this year? What is the number one reason that you blog? If you don't blog, what is the number one reason that you read blogs and/or comment on blogs??

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

The Cool Bloggers Walking Club

Elisabeth asked everyone to join her on an October challenge: to walk at least 10 minutes every day in October. Obviously, I am on board with that, and surprisingly, it is sometimes hard to get any walking in when I am on the bike all day. I often do walk to the grocery store, and usually that is at least a half a mile each way, so I do get some steps in, but my average per day is a lot lower than it was when I was at home, that is for sure! My goal was to get 10,000 steps on a non biking day, and do at least 10 minutes on a biking day. 

So as not to bore you with a bunch of photos of me walking to the grocery store, I tried to get out to a few more places, and thought I would post a few of my favorites here. Huge thanks to Elisabeth for not only keeping us accountable, but for hosting me in October, and showing me a lot of her favorite walking places, some of which you will see below! 

October 1st - October 9th: Laval and Montreal, Quebec

1. The Croissant (Crescent), where I walked the dog that I was sitting
2. Streets of Montreal; as always, I loved wandering
3. Nature Center Laval
4. Rachel Street, Montreal; great bike lanes and fun murals
5. Old town, Montreal
6. L'eau! I used to "collect" photos of water/storm drains;
there are some really fun old ones in San Francisco and New Orleans.

October 10th - October 13th: Quebec, including Quebec City

1. Church - Champlain
2. Rue St. Louis - Quebec City
3. Rue St. Louis - Quebec City
4. Jacques-Cartier Beach Park - Quebec City
5. St. Lawrence River
6. The Umbrella Street - Quebec City

October 14th - October 23rd: Nova Scotia

1. Peggy's Cove
2. Grand-Pré
3. Cape Split
4. Reservoir
5. Annapolis Valley Trail
6. Walking the kids to school

October 24th: Vancouver

No photos but I did walk about two miles to get groceries and pho with a friend! 

October 25th - October 26th: Bellingham, WA

1. Whatcom Museum
2. Sacred Heart, Fairhaven
3. Puget Sound
4. South Bay Trail
5. Fairhaven Village
6. Bellingham sign (the small print says: Olde City of Subdued Excitement)

October 27th - October 31st: Burlington, WA

1. Fairhaven St.
2. Walking around town
3. Fairhaven St.
4. Welcome!
5. Train Wreck Bar and Grill
6. Welcome sign

I know you are wondering if I achieved my goal of 10,000 steps (about five miles) or 10 minutes every day (about a half mile). I was on the bike 11 days out of 31, which would mean I would need to get about 105 miles, or an average of about 3.4 miles per day in October to reach my goal. 

Well, I did achieve it! Some days, it was surprisingly easy, like in Montreal or Bellingham, where I sometimes walked 8-10 miles (of course, on these days my destination was often food related, so I may be a net positive when it comes to calories) or when I had a buddy like Elisabeth to keep me moving. However, some days it was surprisingly hard, like on travel days, rainy days, or on long cycling days when I just wanted to rest!

Here are the stats: 

Total walking/hiking activities: 46
Total distance: 112.69 miles
Total elevation gain: 9,703 feet
Average per day (31): 3.63 miles / 313 feet of gain

I call that a win! 

Did you participate in the walking challenge? Either way, what was the most interesting place you walked in October?

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

The Social Introvert

As I have traveled across the US and Canada this year, I have seen a lot of beautiful places, challenged myself physically, have seen some parts of North America that I have been to before, and many others that were new to me. This has all been great, and I have loved every minute of it (unless it was raining!) but what I will probably look back to the most is the time I have spent with people. These people are sometimes strangers, men I talk to at Tim Horton's, or women who stop me in the middle of the road to ask me where I am headed or if I need water. They are sometimes people I have met before and am visiting again. They are sometimes people who I didn't know would be important in my life, such as some of my fellow racers at the Tour Divide. 

Mr. Coffee; he kept me going during the race!
(this photo is about 30 miles from the finish)

However, the bulk of people I have met up with have been people I have met on the internet! This would have seemed weird to me twenty years ago, and I have never done internet dating, but now it just seems normal to be sleeping in the bed of a person who you have never before seen face to face! This is the beauty of the interwebs. 

The first internet people I met along the way were Warm Showers hosts. Warm Showers is a network of cyclists and hosts, where you can either stay at someone's house on your route, or you can host cyclists at your house. This is all free, and usually the hosts are cyclists, but I have stayed with people who are just nice people willing to help out and host and feed stinky tired people! So far, I have stayed with Warm Showers hosts in Washington, Alberta, Michigan and Ontario and they were all wonderful. 

My next host was a couple on Vancouver Island who found me through my blog because of my post on hiking in Slovenia. At first we ended up being pen pals, where I answered some questions they had about Slovenia and we swapped hiking stories and travel stories. They told me that if I was ever in their area I should stop by, and I did, and it was great! 

I also met up with several blog friends; you can read posts from Lisa (who I have met before, but was happy to meet up with again!), NGS, Kae and Birchie on their sites. All of them were great; everyone was exactly like I thought they would be, and I had an excellent time finally putting a 3D person to the 2D photos and written words. 

My theme: same shirt, different day!

Last, but not least, I finally made it across the country and ended up in beautiful Nova Scotia, where I met Elisabeth! Although we had never met in person before, it felt like we were fast friends already and we TWO INTROVERTS had no issues whatsoever keeping the conversation going. I had once asked her what the itinerary would be if I came to visit for three days and she provided a great list, and we definitely knocked many of these things off the list! We had perfect weather and there were no big crowds at the popular places, which was just how I like it! However, there was too much to do and not enough time, so I guess I will have to go back someday soon. 

Here are the highlights of the last week with Elisabeth! 

*Meeting her family! Everyone was so sweet and fun and so charismatic! I went to church with them on Sunday, got to walk the kids to school, and we had a blast playing games (I even threw the football around with Indy!) 

Walking the kids to school

*Peggy's Cove. I was going to ride there with Bob, but the road is small and windy and there is no shoulder! Luckily we moved the schedule around and ended up going all together, including the kids, which is probably more fun anyway, as I would have likely just done a quick drive through if I was on the bike. It was as beautiful as the photos show and we had fun jumping around on the rocks together. 

*Cape Split. This feels like the end of the earth, although you can see parts of Nova Scotia across the way. It was so windy I thought that I was going to fall of the edge! We had a great hike (I think it was almost 9 miles), a nice picnic and had a nice heart to heart along the way. 

My mouth is open because it is so windy!

*Medford/Blomidon. The cliffs and rocks were so red! The tides in these areas are crazy. Influenced by the Bay of Fundy, they can go down over 50 feet vertically and 3 miles horizontally. I think that the area we were walking on would have had roughly 25 of 30 feet of water on it when the tides were up, and the mud flats went for miles. We also saw two bald eagles! 

It's like being on Mars.

*Home cooked meals. I have been eating way too much cheese and crackers, oatmeal and processed meats. It was so nice to sit down at the table with the family and to eat real food! Plus there is just something special about something that someone else made, no matter what it is. Being at Elisabeth's house was like being with family; the house awakens little by little and eventually culminates with the walk to school, which was my favorite part of the day. 

*36 questions. Elisabeth is reading Super Communicators, which I already listened to on audiobook. The bonus is that she is reading the real book, and in the appendix there is a list of 36 questions that you can ask a person in order to get closer to each other faster. We went down this list and answered them and some of them are pretty personal, but it is fun to get these insights into another person! I liked it so much that I asked my family one of them in our weekly video call and may ask another next time. You can find them here under section 5. If you feel comfortable, feel free to answer one of them in the comments!! 

*Good weather. Like I said, the weather could not have been better. It was in the high 60s/low 70s during the day, the sun was shining and the fall colors were very pretty. We did wear a jacket from time to time, but mostly in the mornings or due to there being a bit of wind. However, it was really very nice and I even wore a tank top on our hike at Cape Split. In October! In Canada! 

I also got to meet John and Joy, had a handmade welcome sign waiting for me when I arrived, had lunch at Cumin, one of Elisabeth's favorite places, met the neighbors and much, much more. There were so many more highlights, but I am not going to steal all of Elisabeth's thunder!  You can go over to her site, where she will regale you with all of the details in a three part post this week, which I am sure will be much more detailed than mine! 

The only lowlight was that we did not have more time! I am sure Elisabeth was ready to get back to normal life, but I could have stayed longer! However, garbage and guests start to go bad after three days I had to get moving and Elisabeth had stuff to do! 

Have you ever met up with someone from the internet? Or stayed at the home of someone that you did not know in real life? 

TGIM

The Halloween decorations are up and the weather is cool! I had my first below freezing day last week and had to get my puffy out for the first time in a while. 

The high of the last week was: A beautiful train ride through Quebec, and the fall colors; they are popping! Also getting to meet Elisabeth, but I'll tell that story later ☺️

The low of the last week was: I had a moment where I realized that I am glad that I'm going to be done cycling soon. I am kind of tired of making daily plans and want to settle in for a bit somewhere. 

Something I marked off my to-do list was: I booked accommodations for my first few months in Europe!! I will share location details later, but that was a big weight off my chest, plus it's exciting to plan it finally! 

The book I am reading is: On audiobook, I am reading By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. It's about a woman trying to break into the male dominated screen play writing world and it's good so far! 

The best thing I spent money on was: Accommodations for Europe!! I also spent a shit ton of money on my plumbing (sewer lateral) in Oakland, which was not fun, but it is the last missing piece of things to do there and now it's done! So that did feel good even though it hurt my pocketbook. 

Plans for this week include: Bob and I are taking a plane ride. It's his first time and he will be in a box so he is pretty nervous!! I am perfectly fine though. 

My favorite photo from the last week is: jumping at Peggy's Cove! 

Butt and Gut Update: All good in the hood! Although I've lowered my I've cream consumption significantly, which is sad, but I can't eat as much of it when I'm not riding as much! 

What are you reading? What was the high/low of your week last week? What have you crossed off of your to-do list lately? 

Where Do You Keep That?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends!

P.S. I made this using AI. I know! I am addicted.

After seeing a lot of people (see some examples here for Stephany, Engie and Elisabeth) post about where they keep things in their house, I thought it would be fun to do this too! However, as you know, I sold my house and got rid of all of my things, and so most of the things on the list I no longer own or keep anywhere! However, here is the original* list, which before I sold my house, I could sum up into four main places: Did not own, kitchen junk drawer, bathroom drawer and garage. (*from Engie)

Kleenex | Medicine | Band-Aids | Heating pad | Nail polish | Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Scissors | Tweezers | Slow cooker/air fryer | Dirty towels | Tape measure | Gifts bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper | Library books | Bookmarks | Pens | Suitcases | Water bottles | Dog leash | Jewelry

Did not own: Kleenex | Heating pad | Nail polish | Library books | Bookmarks | Dog leash 

In kitchen junk drawer: Scissors | Tape measure | Pens

In bathroom drawer: Medicine | Band-Aids | Tweezers | Jewelry

In tote in garage/in garage: Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Gifts bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper | Suitcases 

The only things that could not be summed up was the slow cooker/air fryer, which was an InstantPot and was in the cupboard above the fridge, dirty towels which kind of seems like a strange category because....the laundry basket...and water bottles, which were in the cupboard with the cups/glasses. 

However, since Engie asked me about to provide a bikepacking packing list and I haven't done it yet, I thought it would be fun to go over where my CURRENT stuff lives and what it is! Here is Bob with all of his bags. 

                                             

The bags are as follows: (1) Handlebar bag, (2) Fork bag x 2, (3) Top tube bag one, (4) Top tube bag two, (5) Feed bags x 2, (6) Frame bag, (7) Rear bag, (8) Hydration vest not shown, (9) Fanny pack not shown, and (10) my body not shown. 

(1) The handlebar bag contains my tent and a pair of flip flops. I also strap my rain jacket to the daisy chain on the front of this bag for easy access. You may have seen in some photos that I also strap extra food on here from time to time. 

Fritos for later

(2) The fork bags are for food; the left one has my cook kit, coffee fixings and any dinner/breakfast foods and the right one has snack foods. 

Cook kit: stove, gas, pot, lighter.
Not shown: spork and Swiss army knife

(3) Top tube bag one has things I need right away and may use several times per day, like bug spray and sunscreen. 

(4) Top tube bag two has the snacks for the day, portioned out so that ideally I do not need to get into either fork bag during the day. 

(5) Feed bag number one has a one liter water bottle; feed bag number two usually has my phone in it so I can access it easily. Or if I put my phone in my fanny pack, I often will put fast action snacks like gummy bears, Twizzler nibs or grapes in feed bag number two. 

Cherries? Yes please!

(6) The frame bag has bike repair items (multi-tool, brake pads, lube, spare nuts/screws for my rack, zip ties, rag, tube repair kit), my tent poles, my bike lock and my water filter. I also sometimes keep extra water in here in a one liter foldable bottle. 

(7) The rear bag has all sleeping items including air mat, sleep sack and sleeping bag. It also has most of my electronics, an emergency/first aid kit, toiletries and any clothes I am not currently wearing (usually a puffy, spare bottom/top, underwear, but during summer, also includes a beanie, and waterproof gloves and booties, which live in my handlebar bag when it's cold out). I also have a spare/emergency credit card and an extra bike tube in this bag. 

Toiletries: no tweezers or scissors here!

All packed up!

(8) The hydration vest I wear, and it has things I may need frequent access to like Advil, toilet paper, a charger for my phone, my passport, a pen, post cards/stamps, emergency cash, gloves, buff, arm sleeves, and wind breaker. I also have a 2L water bladder for when I am in very dry places, but I have not had to use it very often. 

(9) The fanny pack stays on me at all times and has my wallet, headphones, floss stick (yes, I reuse it), Chapstick and two emergency tampons (since the rest are deep inside my big bag). I used to also keep earplugs in here, but to be honest, I have not needed them (knock on wood!) lately, so I took them out.

My wallet here only has two credit cards, an ATM card and my ID. I have an extra credit card, my Costco card (priorities people!) and my Global Entry card stored in a separate place, and I keep my passport on me inside my hydration vest.  

(10) On the top I usually wear a sports bra, a short sleeved merino wool shirt with a sunscreen hoodie if it is cooler, with options for the windbreaker from my vest if needed, or my rain jacket if it is especially cold or wet. On the bottom, I alternate between cycling shorts (chamois) and Adidas capris. If it is very cold or wet, I wear rain pants over those, and I wear socks and regular trail running shoes (not cycling shoes). A pair of cycling gloves and a helmet tops off my ensemble. 

Same shi(r)t, different day!! 

So, there is where everything in my current life lives! I guess from the original list, the only things I still have are: Medicine | Band-Aids | Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Pens | Suitcases (do my bike bags count?) | Water bottles. 

Do you keep your dirty towels somewhere besides the laundry basket? Feel free to pick a few other things off the list and tell me where you keep them! Does anything I carry (or don't carry) surprise you? 

By The Numbers: June - September

The last time I wrote one of these posts was in June for updates through May! My, how time flies. Part of the reason I did not keep up with this was that I was on the Tour Divide. This is twofold; firstly, I was trying to go fast(er), and so did not want the extra weight, so I sent my laptop home. Have you ever tried doing a budget review on your phone? I have, and it is no fun, so I decided to wait. Secondly, even if I had had my computer, I would not have posted due to not really having the time or the energy at the end of the day or week. You will see though as we go through a few things, that these period (June 14 - July 21) caused a lot of the numbers to change! All of the below numbers are as of Sept 30, 2024. 

El Malpais National Monument, NM

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 191

Total Days Ridden: 143

Total Miles Ridden: 8,089

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 56.57 (vs 48.91 as of June 1)

Average Miles Per Day ridden during the Tour Divide: 72.7

Max miles per day: 101

Accommodation To Date: 

AirBnB: 10

Established Camp: 34

Friend: 31

Housesitting: 5

Motel: 62

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Total Days: 191

Total average cost per day: $40

Verdict: June and July were rough months for accommodation budget-wise, because they included a stay in Canmore with friends and then the Tour Divide, where you kind of have to take what you can get. However, I also did wild camp a lot, as you can see from the fact that it is the 2nd most used option. Luckily in September, much of my accomodation has been with friends or housesitting, as there were not as many affordable options in the Midwest and Ontario. 

Budget Average June - Sept: 

You ask, I provide! In May, you all thought it was silly that I put cycling costs under Entertainment. So, I have edited my categories, so that cycling and running costs are under Shopping. I have also added a Utilities category, which includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, Garmin charges, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN). 

Accommodation: $1,041 (↓ from May, highest month August --> $1,412)

Dining Out: $348  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $518)

Groceries: $329  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $400)

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium)

Misc.: $122  (↑ from May - includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts)

Shopping: $287 (↑ from May, highest month July --> $669)

Transportation: $267 (↑ from May, highest month Sept --> $652)

Utilities: $226 (new category)

Average Total Spent: $2,854 ( (↑ 21% from May numbers)

Verdict: Many of these costs, as you can see from the highest month (July) were incurred during the Tour Divide, where I ate more, ate out more, shopped at higher cost food stores, fixed the bike a lot (hence the $669 shopping amount in July), and stayed in whatever room was near the course. This was not really a budget portion of my trip (total spending in July was $3,637). However, if you take out July, my average spending goes down by about 36%. Although I may not have months like this very often, I like to keep it in, as it gives me a good idea of the ebbs and flows of spending that will happen when traveling. For example, although my lodging in September was half the amount of August, in September I paid for a flight that I will not take until December, so my monthly total was not a lot lower. I look forward to doing a recap at the end of the year where the spending flattens out a bit, as month by month is a little harder to see the actual costs. 

Fun side note, in finance we call this smoothing, and it is often a lot easier to look back on several months or years worth of data rather than look at it day by day or week by week. For example if you look at your investment account every day, you could easily get anxious for four days out of every five, but if you look at the last ten years, you will probably note a general upward trajectory. 

Overall Spending To Date: 

Currently, for the six months of full time bike travel, my average spending per month is $2,564. The breakdown per month is: 

April: $1,881 (75% California/Oregon/Washington USA, 25% BC, Canada)

May: $1,845 (100% BC, Canada)
June: $2,410 (50% MT/ID/WY, USA, 50% BC/Alberta, Canada)

July: $3,637 (100% CO/NM/IL/WI, USA) <-- Highest

August: $2,862 (67% MN/WI/MI, USA, 33% ON, Canada)

September: $2,749 (35% OR/NY, USA, 65% ON/QC, Canada)

Verdict: The west has cheaper accomodation and more available wild camping (ie free) options due to there being a lot more national forest, BLM and Crown land. Also, most likely even the motels in the west were a lot cheaper in April than they were in July. I am also getting more tired or more lazy as time goes by, and am not as diligent about always camping or getting food from the grocery store as I was in the beginning.  

To end this number heavy post, here are a few non-cycling related stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: The mint chip at The Clark Store outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. It was cash only, but a double scoop only cost me $5 and the kids serving it were top notch! 

Double scoop of mint!

Favorite New Town: Marquette, MI. The entire UP was nice, but the town of Marquette checks a lot of boxes. It is right on Lake Superior, it has a sweet bakery (Huron Mountain), is laid back, has good coffee, is walkable, has old buildings, has a Saturday farmers market, and has excellent bike paths! Win, win! 

Marquette Bay

Favorite New Water Related Venue: Although all of the Great Lakes were beautiful, I have a special spot in my heart for Lake Huron. I put my feet into all five of them, but was able to swim a few times in Lake Huron, and it was fabulous. Actually my first week or so in Ontario was all along Lake Huron and other waterways and every morning I got to see the sun rise over the water and it was very special. 

Lake Huron at Blind River

Favorite Food Item: I am back in the land of pate, of which I am a big fan. When I was in France, it was not uncommon for me to sometimes eat bread and pate a few times a day. Currently, I am not doing that, but it is nice to have the option! Bring me the liver! 

Foie!

Favorite Book: I know I have mentioned this before, but I really enjoyed The Indifferent Stars Above. Another one that was thought provoking was The Anxious Generation, which I've also already mentioned. My largest category for star ratings is four stars, so there are a ton more I could add, but you can look at them on my Goodreads page here instead! 

Okay it's your turn!! Do you like pate? What is your favorite water related venue that you have been to? What was your favorite book last month and why? 

Books, The Library and Notes on Life

Guess what? I am off the bike! Because of this, I have a little more time to hang out, and therefore you get a bonus post this week! Today I am going to talk about a book I recently read, more reasons to love the library, and a tool I have been using to help me think and get things done more efficiently! 

Books, but Specifically One Book: After reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind, a few years back while on a hike, I could not help but regale my hiking buddy Bugsy with blurbs from the book. It was very thought provoking and I had to get the thoughts out of my mind tout suite. I probably drove him crazy. However, now I can't wait until our next hike, because I just finished The Anxious Generation, and I have some things to say about it! There were a lot of things in it that resonated with me, or caused me to ponder how our future generations (mostly Gen Z and beyond) are going to be, and if that is necessarily going to be a bad thing or not. 

It also made me nod my head on some of the points about our current generations (boomers, Gen X, millennials). For example, he talked about our lack of ability to really truly multitask efficiently, and how we don't really listen to our friends/companions/colleagues when our phone notifications are going off, or we are distracted by our phones. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am in the middle of a conversation with someone and they keep glancing at their phone. I am sure that whoever is texting (or more likely, whatever spam email is coming into their inbox) is VERY important, but maybe we need to work on focusing more on what is in front of us rather than what is in a distant cloud of possible better things. 

This could really get me going on a rant, and/or make a lot of people angry at me, as I am a firm believer of no phones at the dinner table (or at meals out at restaurants etc.), no out loud conversations on  your phone unless you are having a call with grandma as a group in a private place, and definitely no out loud conversations in public places. Also, this goes hand in hand, but no out loud music/podcasts/news/YouTube in public places. How have we let our phones take over our lives, and were we always rude, or have they exacerbated our rudeness?? Let's discuss! Or better yet, read The Anxious Generation and let me know what you think. (PS if you do any of these things, I am sorry, but please enlighten me on why I should change my mind about how I feel about them, or why you do them). 

The Library, and Even More Reasons to Love It: As you all know, I love the library. While traveling, I can still get audio and e-books, and I have gone into the library in places like Wonewok, WI to ask where I can get lodging or in Lucknow, Ontario to use the internet and bathroom. Thanks librarians! But! Did you know that you can also borrow tools from some libraries? Yup. In Oakland, you can borrow house tools, like skill saws and screw guns (drills) and nail guns etc. You can also borrow yard tools, and you can also borrow bike repair tools. Some libraries have an area where you can fix your bike too, so if you are riding around, you can stop and work on your bike along the way. 

But wait, there is more! The other day my brother was talking about digitizing some photos and he was considering buying a photo scanner (his printer/scanner is a flattop scanner, which is a bit of a pain when you have hundreds of photos.) I told him to check the library and he did, and not only do they have top of the line photo scanning equipment, but they also have VHS digitizing equipment, so he is going to also digitize a couple of old home movies. I am sure they probably have CD and DVD digitizing equipment, so now we all have no excuse not to declutter! 

Library Extension: If you don't already have this, it is a game changer; it is an extension where you can add your library or libraries and also Hoopla and Kanopy. When you are looking up a book on Amazon or Goodreads or whatever, a sidebar will pop up, telling you where that book is available at your libraries! For example, when I went to get a screenshot of The Anxious Generation, here is what popped up! 

So Many Things to Talk About: As you may know, Engie recently did a little miniseries about books and it was so fun to not only read her posts, but to read through the comments and the back and forth about what people read, where they read and how they read! 

Ask AI: Speaking of the above...I know, you are wondering what AI has to do with it. However, I have found that if there is a really long article that I am struggling to get through, I will ask AI to summarize it. You can even do this with a blog post. For fun, I used one of Engie's book posts including comments and asked AI to summarize it for me. Here is an excerpt from the answer. It was given to me in bullet form, but I have condensed it into a paragraph. 

Do you read multiple books at a time? It turns out many of us are multi-taskers when it comes to reading! NGS regularly reads three books at once—one physical, one Kindle, and an audiobook. Birchwood Pie and Kyria are also fans of combining audiobooks with traditional reading. Jenny and Ernie are more of the “one book at a time” crowd, finding it easier to immerse themselves in just one story. Life of a Doctor’s Wife juggles multiple books, with physical copies, audiobooks, and even reading aloud to her kid. Others, like Ian & Pat and Lindsay, balance multiple genres by keeping one fiction and one non-fiction book on the go simultaneously.

I also used this on a page from the Social Security Administration to summarize something that was just not sticking and it was great. Actually, this may be helpful to some of you so I will explain what I did. Basically I took the entire SSA page and asked AI to summarize it (you have to copy and paste it into the chat box), then once I read through that, which was a six or seven paragraph bulleted summary, I asked it to sum it up in one paragraph and here is what I got: 

Understanding Social Security retirement benefits is crucial for effective retirement planning. To qualify, you need 40 credits, typically earned over 10 years of work. Your benefits are based on your Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) over your highest 35 years of income, which determines your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) — the monthly benefit at your Normal Retirement Age (NRA). You can start collecting benefits as early as age 62, though payments will be reduced, or delay until age 70 for higher benefits. Tools can help simulate different filing scenarios to optimize your decision.

So it can be a useful tool and is not just used to write poems about hats, although since I mentioned that, and today seems to be shout-out-to-Engie day, I thought I would ask it to do one for her, and here is what it came up with. 

Ode to Hats for Engie

Oh, hats, the word that makes her glow,

In every song and book you show.

A simple brim, a crown, a cap—

Engie’s heart skips with each "hat" snap.

Obsessed, she finds you everywhere,

In stories, lyrics, and the air.

A fleeting mention, quick as that—

Her joy ignites at the word "hat."

And though Dr. BB's hat’s absurd,

It’s still a "hat," her favorite word!

For in her world, no hat is wrong—

Her love for them is lifelong strong.

And with that, I will bid you all adieu! What book have you read lately that has sparked a fire in your mind? Have you ever borrowed tools from the library or used their equipment for a job you had? What do you use AI for?