Your Qs answered

I know some of you were to chicken to ask but yes we shower daily (with hot water to boot!), no we don’t re-wear undies (ew!!) and no I have not gone paperless.

And finally, here are your questions answered!

Anthony Amento: How much food do you have and how often are you restocking?
Hani built us a pretty nice size pantry so I have continued my pack-rat style and have a large supply of canned staples (beans, tomatoes..), pastas, rice and cereal. We have 2 fridges now: the drop down one that Hani initially installed and we’ve since bought a smaller one. The main one holds all our food while the smaller one is our beverage/ beer fridge. When we grocery shop, I make sure to buy 4 days worth of fridge food, mainly because I don’t want to have raw meat sitting in it for longer than that. We have been grocery shopping about every week to week and a half. Although I cook 99% of the time, there are those occasions when we eat at a friend’s house or go out. And because I’m a hoarder, we always have 2 24packs of water and 4 gallon jugs (jugs are for the dogs).

Whitney Anderson: So far, what has surprised you most about Skyhorse? Do you think you will extend your timeline or shorten it? Which of the girls is enjoying the trip most? Do you miss us at all?
I’m surprised most at how nice strangers are. Seriously! People see Skyhorse and just tell us their life stories or invite us into their homes. Although we still are trying to stick to our year travel plan, we are open to modifications but we are only 3 months into our trip so anything can happen. Shae AND Olivia have been having the time of their lives! Shae has been walking off leash when we’ve been in remote places and Olivia has been running around like a beast, rolling in grass and playing with dogs we meet along the way. And OF COURSE we miss you all! Where are you meeting us for a vacation? 🙂

Tammy Miller: is there anything that you now realize that you should have packed but didn’t?
Maybe clothes that I actually like instead of clothes that I knew would be practical for travel. There are times I wish I had a nicer shirt on so I wouldn’t feel like a slob walking around a real city instead of the holey slightly stained one I’m wearing. Hani says we should have installed a heater before leaving but we since bought a alcohol heater that works pretty well.

Kimberly Sloan: How much have you spent on gas so far??
3 months in, we’ve spent just under $3,000 in fuel. In Canada, diesel is $5 a gallon, its insane. But this is easily our major expense. We’ve been on the go more than we plan to on the back end of this trip but that is just to make sure we have a solid month in Alaska before cold sets in. Ugh, thanks for reminding me.

Alyson Seligman: how many stares a day do you get on average? which city has surprised you the most? how can you control your urge to shop during all of these amazing end-of-season sales?! haha. What do you miss about living in your home?
Like a million stares from people and animals alike! People’s reactions to us range from gaping open mouths to screams to peace signs. It’s hilarious! Silverton and Telluride Colorado have surprised us the most because both were awesome cities nestled between amazing mountain ranges. The views even from the most obscure places in those towns were breathtaking. I control my urge to shop by 1-recognizing that those awesome heels I’m lusting over are completely impractical 2-we have no income and 3-there’s no place to put new things. It’s hard, especially when I was walking through a friend’s jewelry store recently but I just have to turn away. Skyhorse is our home. All the aspects that make a home are with us all the time but I miss the consistency of home/work/play and how I could pick up the phone at any time and call whoever I want. Now, our life is 95% fly by the seat of our pants. I’m such a planner, it was a hard adjustment but I think I’m slowly getting it. And being constantly moving and remote at night means we don’t get cell signal all the time. Forget checking Facebook, sometimes it’s nice to send a random text to say hi but the moment passes you by when you don’t have service. Thanks Sprint.

Debbie Rosenbaum: What is the biggest inconvenience? What delights you daily? Are you homesick? How do you unwind from traveling? Does peeing while moving still freak you out?
Finding things we need at that moment, like finding water to fill up the tanks, finding a (safe) place to park for the night are a challenge. I wouldn’t say it’s an inconvenience, but more of an adjustment to living on the road. And those same things delight me. When we pass by some camping site that charges $30 just for parking there, not knowing what lies ahead and we find a MUCH nicer spot for free, I’m over the moon! I don’t think I’m homesick and then I hear of great news in Key West or spend time with an old friend, my heart does feel heavy but that’s with anywhere you are. You can’t always be with your friends during their joys but you can be with them in spirit. I unwind by walking the dogs or taking a (hot as hell) shower or cooking. Those things make me feel grounded when I feel turned around and unsettled from a day of travel. YES!!! Haha.

Lori Schmidt: How many hours do you typically drive in a day?
It depends because we stop and start a lot. Like if we see falls or a gorgeous lake, we’ll get out and walk around a bit. And Hani needs to stop at every Ace Hardware to buy a “in case” part. But we usually drive a few hours or about 150-250 miles a day.

Susan Wilson: High / low of each place and of skyhourse travel in general? Oh, and does Hani’s laugh echo in the canyons?
I’m glad we went back to Colorado because the cities we hit were awesome. We loved Golden, Boulder, Denver, and surprisingly Fort Collins. We got to see friends we wouldn’t have otherwise seen and hit some great breweries. The lows would be that we are still learning the truck. So when Hani asks me if a sound is new or been there, we have to test everything. Or when the water pump sporadically comes on when we aren’t using the water, we have to follow the lines to track the problem. And Hani’s laugh echoes everywhere 🙂

Teri Wear: How bad does it smell when you have to pump that baby out??? Or when your treatment system fails???
We have a composting toilet so thankfully no black water and we don’t have to play with our poop when we empty it. The toilet separates liquids and solids so we have to dump the liquid bucket every 2 days (it holds 2 gallons). The solids are dumped into a garbage bag every month and since its composted matter, it’s all peat moss, not poop and tp.

Estee Maya: how sick are you of your wardrobe? which dog is enjoying the trip more? why do you always put me on speakerphone when you call? what is your favorite state so far? will you move to san francisco?
I hate my clothes and I’m stealing yours when I get to SF so go shopping now! I think both Shae and Olivia are enjoying themselves. They haven’t had any weird reactions or changes in behavior from the altitude or travel in general. Ah, the speaker phone, our favorite tool. Know how annoying it is to sit next to someone and you’re only hearing half the conversation? Imagine how even more annoying it is to hear someone ask over and over “what’s she saying”. Yeah, that’s why we use speaker phone. Plus, I hate repeating Hani’s dumb comments to whoever I’m on the phone with. I’d rather you hear them from his mouth. Haha! Colorado is our favorite because its so green and outdoorsy and the people were beyond welcoming. And great beer! California is just too expensive.

Lindsay Schenker: What’s your favorite on the road soundtrack? What has been the most beautiful site so far? What do you miss about the daily grind, if anything? Do you do your laundry at seedy laundromats? Is that as fun as it sounds?
When we aren’t listening to the radio, our iPod is on random and Hani is usually skipping every song because its mainly my music, which he hates. We have been listening to the one CD we did accidentally bring, the soundtrack for Into The Wild. Love some Eddie V. And we are also kinda obsessed with the book and movie, which we brought as well. If I answered a month ago, I would have said the most beautiful site was the natural arches at Arches National Park. And then we saw the Tetons. And then the Canadian Rocky Mountains. And then today we saw a mother black bear with her 3 cubs on the side of the road. Everyday brings some new beauty and GORGEOUS sites that don’t necessarily surpass the others, but just add to the experience. I do miss my pain in the ass clients sometimes (don’t tell them that) and when I see that a former client got re-arrested (yes I still read the local KW paper), I wish I was there to help them. Hani thinks I’m crazy. I probably am. Laundry is an interesting beast to tackle. We do it every week and a half and usually at laundromats if we aren’t around friend where we can wash for free. Laundromats are kind of amazing because you can accomplish an entire days worth of cleaning in 2 hours. You wash 3 loads all at once: 45 minute wash, 1 hour dry and 15 fold. I monitor the clothes while reading and Hani is usually hiding out in Skyhorse doing something. The people there are super strange and I’m always afraid to leave while the clothes are in the washer or dryer (read: Helena Bonham Carter’s character in Fight Club).

Paige Cofnas: what do you wish you could cook on skyhorse that you can’t? have you accepted an offer from TLC or bravo for a reality show?
I wish I could cook shrimp on Skyhorse but I’m afraid to because 1-I don’t want the fridge to smell of them and 2-I don’t want the entire truck to smell like them while I cook. Oh and stuffed shells. I’m not about to start making a dinner that will take a while to prep AND cook when we are stopping for the night at 9pm. Not happening. Do you have any connections to TLC or Bravo because that would be awesome! As would a sponsorship from Columbia, any brewery or vineyard or Gap Body. I’m surprised by how many people have seen the RVCrazy shows and many think they have seen us on tv.

Jeffrey Mansfield: What’s Skyhorse friendly cuisine look like? Also, this is probably an evolving question but how has the trip changed your perceptions of who you are as individuals, as a family, and what you want out of life? What is more important and less important to you? What is the meaning of life? Are you reading any good books and how are they coming into relationship with the trip? Are you feeling more connected to the American traveling adventure novels we all read in high school and college – On the Road, Huckleberry Finn, Grapes of Wrath, Call of the Wild, Moby Dick….?
I brought some of my favorite cookbooks but have been just cooking my go-tos: hamburgers on Engish muffins with the most amazing bacon jam and farm-fresh cheeses, chicken thighs and veggies, steak and beans, spaghetti and meatballs and lots of salads. I’ve learned to love my cast iron skillet and its used practically every night. This trip has shown us that the world is full of surprises, whether it be in natural beauty or kind souls. We are experiencing things as a unit instead of alone and that makes everything we see that much more enjoyable, because we are doing it together. (Cue collective awwww). Stuff is less important to us. Whatever we have with us is what we need, not the boxes of crap we left in Miami. That’s certainly not missed (but mom, don’t get rid of it). Listening to each other has become even more important because we are in such a small space and are constantly working together (or trying to). Hani is reading Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck and Walking Home by Lynn Schooler. Both are about trying to get clarity on their lives through connecting with people and nature. And that’s what this trip is about. Spending time with people and nature and connecting to them and learning about ourselves. I just finished When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It’s about unconditional love and commitment, even in trying times. Its served as a constant reminder to practice patience and not lose my cool. We are more connected to the typical American-dream novels because we have given up our jobs and “regular” lives to explore and experience what’s out there.

Demetrios Efstratiou: Do you have any plans to bring Skyhorse to Egypt in response to the recent coup there?
Yes, wanna come?