We are back!

You may be asking yourself where have we been and what have we been up to the last 2 years that we have been MIA with our blog and podcast. In short – starting our own business to actually make enough money to support our love of travel! In March 2019, we quit our corporate jobs and headed out to start adventuring full time on the road. We became debt free prior to leaving and had all of our non-essential worldly possessions in storage, sold the house, and hit the road in our SUV. We spent March – November of that year traveling on the 6 months savings we had saved up.

 We enjoyed seeing a good part of the US, but we learned pretty darn quickly:

1. Having a home base is ideal for our style of traveling.
2. Being on the road with just a tent and an SUV is not ideal for our family.
3. Coming from corporate jobs – seasonal work wasn’t a good fit.
 
*For more information check out our podcast about those topics*
 
We found that traveling full-time is expensive if you want to actually do stuff other than hike (or do other free activities). Also, with 2 dogs in tow, we were limited on where we could go if it was really hot (and there was no electricity as we like to boondock) or where animals weren’t allowed. We loved the places we went and the amazing sights we were seeing but we were constantly thinking, “This isn’t sustainable financially.” What are we going to do for money in the long run? We had heard so much from people on social media and other podcasts about how to earn money from a blog/podcast/vlog and how they could live off of that income. We did not have that luck, but to be fair, we weren’t creating a TON of content. Honestly, I don’t know how those people do it. Good for them, for sure, but we found we would rather just travel and create content for fun rather than worrying about bringing money in from it.

In the late summer of 2019, after much research (and bailing on horrible seasonal jobs), we opted to take an online course to obtain our independent insurance adjuster licenses. After a few weeks of studying and both of us passing the exam, finger printing, background checks and the whole shebang, we were ready to start working. Since it was the end of the storm season, we were not really sure how long we would have to wait until work started coming in. Due to the unknown and our savings dwindling, we opted to go to Crookston, MN and Jake would work the sugar beet harvest in October. What should have been a quick 2-3 weeks to earn some decent cash, we ended up staying for about 6 weeks due to crazy weather. All the flooding worked in our favor, in the long run, as I was able to get some insurance claim inspection experience under my belt while Jake was working the harvest. That time allowed us to make enough money to get us through until spring when the hail season started in the Mid-West. We essentially had 6 months of trying to live very frugally and seeing what other short-term seasonal work we could get in order to make it through until April. Where we live, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, there were crazy storms during the season of 2020 so we had a great year financially and were able to save up for our off-season with plans to ski and be-bop around, living off of the money we set aside.

Our Fall started off awesome with a trip to WI, Upper Peninsula of MI, MN and back home to SD. While driving home in October we found out we were expecting our first baby, Maverick David Karras, who arrived in May of 2021! Being pregnant during a global pandemic put a wrench in our travel plans. So, instead of traveling as anticipated, we stayed home to play it safe. Being home didn’t provide a lot of excitement for blog posts or podcast episodes, but now that our son is here we are back in the swing of our “unnamed adventures” way of life. We are looking forward to sharing our journey with you and what we learn along the way. So please feel free to follow along by subscribing to our below social media channels, as each one has different content shared on it. From campground reviews on YouTube to interviewing other travelers on our podcast, we try to be honest with what this unconventional life is really like.

YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
Podcast 
Newsletter

​Thank you for following along our journey and cheers to a fantastic 2021 thus far!
 
Blog post written by Amy Karras
Unnamed Adventures
​